Wylie's Writing Tips

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Make ’em sick, make ’em well

Lead with the problem, follow up with the solution

Have you seen the piece about the orphan baby kangaroo and wombat who become BFFs? They also have a baby wallaby friend. Because of course they do.

Tap the anxiety advantage
Tap the anxiety advantage Show your audience members how bad life can get without your product, service or idea. Image by Irmun

They reviewed some 7,000 articles that appeared in The New York Times to determine what distinguished pieces that made the most-mailed list.

They found that anger is 34% more likely to go viral. That’s equivalent to spending an additional 2.9 hours as the lead story on The New York Times site. And that’s nearly four times the average number of hours articles spend in that position.

That makes anger the No. 1 technique for getting your target audience to read your blog posts and pass them on.

Tap the anger advantage.

So how can you use that?

Use a marketing technique called “Make ’em sick, make ’em well.” That is, lead with the problem that’s making your target audience angry, follow up with your solution to their problem.

As ad man David Ogilvy counseled, “When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the flames.”

Communicators are often too eager to rush in with the product, service or idea. After all, that’s what we’re selling. But first, show your audience members how bad life can get without your product, service or idea.

Here’s how it works, from a financial services campaign:

Make ’em sick

If you’re an individual trustee managing trust assets on your own — even if you’re working with a professional investment adviser — you are personally responsible to the trust for the performance of its assets.

Make ’em well

To protect yourself against a lawsuit and possible damages for poor performance, turn to ABC’s XYZ service.

Lead with the problem.

Remember: Fire first, fire extinguisher second.

How can you move people to act?

Your readers are bombarded with the data equivalent of 174 newspapers — ads included — every day, according to a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Catch Your Readers, a persuasive-writing workshop, starting May 16In this environment, how do you grab readers’ attention and move them to act?

Learn how to think like a reader and use the bait your readers like at Catch Your Readers — our persuasive-writing workshop starting May 16.

You’ll learn to master a scientific, proven-in-the-lab system for getting people to pay attention to, understand, remember and act on your messages.

And you’ll take your message from “meh” to masterpiece with feedback from Ann Wylie and your colleagues.

Save upto $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Catch Your Readers, a persuasive-writing workshop, starting May 16