Keeping it simple

A leaflet from the local garden centre invites me to ‘Grow your Own Month’. It’s set me thinking...wouldn’t it indeed be wonderful if I could grow my own month? What could I achieve with all that extra time?

Of course, that’s not what they meant at all and the ambiguity hardly counts as an error (though 'Grow your own' month or Grow-your-own month might have been clearer). However, it did bring home to me once again the importance of having someone take a fresh look at your marketing materials. What’s obvious to you, with your knowledge of your business, may not be so clear from the audience’s perspective.

One client of mine, the MD of a large technology-based company in Yorkshire, always asks me to: ‘write so my mum could understand’. Mrs P. might struggle once we get down to the underlying technical detail, but I’d like to think she’d get the overall message.

It’s a highly laudable aim. Even though the company markets to a technically savvy reseller network, it recognises that its partners are busy people and that they also need to have a clear message to take to the end user.

I’d like to see this approach catch on. Perhaps I should launch a National ‘Write for your Mum’ Month!