How To Communicate More Effectively
Filed under General • 18-01-2009 •
For the last week, my article “How To Communicate More Effectively” has been serialised on the Futurismic website. In case you missed it, there are links below to each instalment:
- 1 – Introduction
- 2 – Attract Attention
- 3 - Create Interest
- 4 – Inspire Desire
- 5 – Build Conviction
- 6 – Generate Action
- 7 – Bringing It All Together
“How To Communicate More Effectively” is aimed at writers, magazine publishers and book publishers in the SF&F field. I’m not claiming to have invented any of these techniques – these are tried and tested methods that have been successfully employed by commercial copywriters for the last sixty years – I’m simply trying to help struggling SF magazines by giving them some “extra ammo” in their appeals for the new readers and subscriptions they need in order to survive.
Tags: copy writing • Copywriting • interactive marketing • lead generation • Publishing • sales letters • Shameless Self Promotion • World Domination • Writing
Hey Gareth, thanks for that, there’s a lot of food for thought there.
I guess you’ll have read “A Technique for Producing Ideas” by James Webb Young.
Also there’s an episode of the West Wing where Toby Zeigler describes something called “the science of listener attention” which strikes me as a sort of spoken version of AIDCA, from the script:
“You want the benefits of free trade? Food is cheaper. Food is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, steel is cheaper, cars are cheaper, phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That’s ’cause I’m a speechwriter and I know how to make a point. It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with “lowers” and “raises” there? It’s called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that’s not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. And that’s it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest! One world, one peace. I’m sure I’ve seen that on a sign somewhere.”