Product literature should be literature

It’s interesting that we call our marketing content ‘product literature’, or ‘sales literature’.

Most of the time, of course, it ain’t even close to ‘literature’.  Those product sheets and web pages are pretty stiff reading, mostly.  (I know.  I inflicted reams of sales blather on the world before I reformed.)

The hard-boiled view is, “So what? We’re not writing goddam literature.  We’re trying sell something.”

But when you think of it, if we’re trying to get people passionately interested our stuff, literature is precisely what we need.

And by literature, I mean writing that can carry one away, evoke emotions, engage the brain, paint a dazzling picture that just won’t go away.

That’s what it takes to sell things, whether process control systems, injection-molding release agents or ethernet networking.

Plant an idea or vision in the buyer’s head.  Let him see how it works, and imagine himself using this thing.  Get him to see a solution. And feel that it’s right. Maybe even get him to see this issue from a whole different way.

Get him thinking maybe, just maybe, he’ll get this sticky problem off his desk for good, look like a genius while he’s at it.

I don’t mean getting cute or corny, or descending into infomercial-style hype.  I mean talking human to human about neat things this product or technology can do.  Show it, get him to feel it.

And do it so vividly and persuasively that, for the moment, he’s deep into the story, seeing it his mind.

Which is what literature does.