Tip #5 ∞ Show Don't Tell ∞

A picture is worth 1000 words.

These words are never more true than today. When you're creating an ad or a mar/com piece, if you don't grab the person in the first split second, you've lost them.

So how do you do that? A compelling picture, an arresting image, a fascinating idea.

If you can paint a picture in your customer's mind of the problem in their life that your company will solve, then you've fought half the battle.

But in order to do that, you need to SHOW them.

"Show don't tell" is a classic phrase that is taught in creative writing classes.

As an example of "Show don't tell," we are taught rather than writing:

The narrator of this story is Ishmael,

a better, more compelling way to state it is:

Call me Ishmael.

See the difference? This classic opening line of Melville's Moby Dick immediately draws the reader in. Melville has shown us that Ismael is the narrator without telling us. As a reader, it instantly draws you in. The reader becomes Ismael in fact. Now the story is about ME.

This gets back to the previous post (Tip #4: It's not about you).

But for an advertiser, how do you show instead of tell?

That's what your ad agency, with all their creative personnel, should be getting big bucks to figure out for you.