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The next exciting installment in my look at the Six Elements of Drama takes us deep into the meaning of it all: Theme.

Theme is the “why” of your story — the statement you’re trying to make, or the question you’re trying to ask, about life, the universe and everything. It’s what your story has to do with the everyday life and experience of audience. The message, the moral, the point.

That’s why marketing exists — to convey a message. Your marketing must go beyond lists of features and benefits and communicate what that all these goodies add up to for the customer. It must go beyond a company’s profile, track record or mission statement to deliver a corporate philosophy in a few compelling words. Your marketing must deliver the bottom line: “Here’s the why of our business.”

You see themes presented all the time in marketing and advertising. The most common theme delivery method is a headline, tagline, or other such slogan that says it all in a single bold statement. “Like a Good Neighbor…” or “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking…” aren’t just clever sayings. They are distillations of their representative business’s entire sales pitch, boiled down into the most powerful message possible. A great slogan is easy to remember, packs an emotional punch, and tickles a specific desire in the reader (convenience, security, joy, wealth, et cetera).

So when you’re constructing your own marketing campaign, pay attention to whether you have a memorable slogan to cap it off with. That slogan is the theme that runs through your business. It’s the “because” to your customer’s “why,” and until you can state it clearly, succinctly and powerfully, you’ll be leaving money on the table.

Evan Carmichael has posted an excellent article by Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI, about contact spheres.

A contact sphere is a group of industries or professions that share common or overlapping target markets and who work well together to serve those markets. As a copywriter, for instance, I naturally work with web developers, marketing consultants, graphic designers, and other key players in the advertising/marketing/PR realm. It’s easy for us to pass referrals to each other because we all have a role to play in a client’s overall marketing campaign.

That’s the most obvious contact sphere for my business, but if I use my imagination a little I quickly come up with other spheres of common interest, such as:

Business-to-business. I write for corporate and entrepreneurial clients, so new companies and companies in transition (expanding or changing their product line) are a natural referral for me. These companies need marketing writing, of course — but what else might they need? Office equipment, telecom systems, a new or better shipping resource, a banker, a new piece of real estate? As their writer, I’m now in a position to refer them to all of these professionals, and vice versa.

“Trusted Advisors.” I consult with my clients and advise them on what kind of writing will be most effective for their needs. They don’t shop around for a new writer from project to project because they’ve grown to trust and depend on me. Such clients often prefer to keep a tightly-knit cluster of “go-to” experts close at hand, both in business and in their private lives. An attorney, a chiropractor, a CPA, a loan officer — these professionals develop a trust-based relationship with their clients, so a referral from them can be counted on as good advice. And by helping my clients find such trusted advisors, I’m offering a huge added value as a contact and building my own bond of trust with the client.

Those are just a couple of examples of spheres that pay off for me. What about you? What contact spheres can you construct for yourself that will create tremendous new referral opportunities for your business? Grab a pen, draw some circles and think about it!

For many years now I’ve enjoyed listening to old broadcasts of “The Goon Show.” This 1950s BBC radio program starring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Spike Milligan specialized in a unique brand of surrealistic humor, as if Lewis Carroll had written for the British music hall. The show influenced Monty Python’s Flying Circus and countless other comedy groups. Scriptwriter Milligan’s Goonish humor often devolved into pure nonsense words and phrases such as “spon” (generally used as a noun for some disease or other unwholesome object), “twinge,” and the all-purpose exclamations “Ying tong iddle I po!” and “Needle noddle noo!”

Nonsense words can work brilliantly when used for laughs by gifted radio comedians. In marketing copy, unfortunately, nonsense is usually just nonsense.

What do I mean by nonsense? I’m talking about those “filler” words we use when we can’t think of something more precise or meaningful to say — that comforting babble we fall back to hide the fact that we haven’t given our marketing sufficient thought.

Examples?

!. “Any,” accompanied by its big brothers “anyone” and “anything.” This word is so open-ended that it probably shouldn’t count as a word at all. I’ve heard business owners offer to solve “any kind of (insert service here) problem” for “anyone who needs any help.” What kind of specific image does “anything” evoke in my mind? I get no clear picture of what he does or who his target market is with “any.” And yet businesses still insist on using this non-word as a badge of honor: “Look how widely our services range!” Yeah, right — so widely that I have no clue what they are or aren’t.

2. “Every.” See “any.”

3. “Full-service.” This mind-numbing term makes its insidious appearance time and time again in business descriptions and elevator speeches. I have no idea what it means, and be honest, neither do you. That’s because it has no meaning. “We’re a full-service laundromat.” Really? Does that mean your competitors are — what, 65-percent service? Do their machines only work 4 days out of the week? Do they require you to bring your own water from home? Does “full-service” mean you’ll come to my house and do my ironing for me?

You see? “Full-service” conveys no specifics, gives me no clear mental image of your services or benefits, and implies merely that you’ll do what I paid you for without falling down on the job, which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

Why, then, are these terms so commonplace? We’re used to seeing them, for one thing, so our internal B.S.-meter tends to let them slide. So we end up inadvertently stuffing our marketing copy with filler, then wonder why it isn’t reeling customers in.

The most dangerous kind of incompetence, in my opinion, is the invisible kind — incompetence that goes unnoticed due to its sheer ubiquity. There’s a lot of filler out there, not just in marketing copy but in life. Focusing on the real content makes us more effective at both.

In this installment of my series on applying Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama to modern marketing copy, I’d like to look at the element known as Character.

You know what characters are, of course. They’re the lifeblood of plays, films, novels, and even nonfiction works such as biographies and autobiographies. Anytime you tell a story about people, those people become characters in your story — even when you’re only referring to them in the third person. Sometimes a character who never appears in a drama makes the biggest impact in the story, if that character’s memory or offstage presence hovers over the other characters and influences their behavior.

Typically, though, the main character, or protagonist, is the person we follow and sympathize with as he or she struggles to achieve an objective. The roadblocks to achieving that objective are often personified in another character known as the antagonist, so we can watch the struggle play out in the conflicts between these two characters.

All that stuff is fine for a book or a play, but who are the “characters” in a company website or brochure? Well, you’re certainly one of them. The point of view you choose for your marketing materials defines a persona. A website’s home page might project an impersonal, monolithic persona, or it might give the impression of the business owner speaking directly to a group of friends. What’s best for your particular brand? As a freelancer and sole proprietor, I use a direct first-person address. If your business consists of a team, you’d probably use “we” instead. If you want to seem really huge or formal or corporate, you’d use the third person.

So, is your “character” the protagonist in your marketing pieces?

No!

Your business only exists because you have customers. The marketing you produce must address their hopes, dreams, frustrations, fears, and needs. Your customer is your protagonist because your business isn’t about you, it’s about that person out there who has a need for what you offer. Your character is the helpful friend, the confidante, the trusted advisor to that main character.

Who’s the antagonist? It’s whoever is causing pain for your customer. It’s the competitor’s product that costs too much and doesn’t work. It’s the lost time, extra work, or other frustration caused by not having your product or service. You, then, are the protagonist’s sword — the magical weapon that cuts the enemy down by solving the problem and bringing the final goal into view.

Stay tuned for more Drama of Copywriting!

“But I have nothing to say!”

I’ve heard that exclamation many times, from many business owners, usually in regard to article writing. These folks understand the power of communicating as an expert in their field. They understand the power of getting in front of their target market every month through a monthly newsletter, or every few days via regular blog posts. They’ve accumulated years of priceless experience and industry knowledge to share with their customers, prospective customers, and business associates. And yet when the time comes to put pen to paper or fingers to keys, all they can visualize is a vast wasteland. Suddenly it seems like a really great time to go over the sales figures, or pay the bills, or water the azaleas….

You have plenty to say. You may just need someone to pull it out of your subconscious through simple brainstorming.

Sure, you can brainstorm by yourself. There are lots of fun little books out there offering creativity exercises to get your brain in gear. Even ordinary “brain-teaser” puzzles can relax your mind enough to allow those great thoughts to float to the surface. But brainstorming with another person can produce extraordinary results even more quickly and painlessly — especially when the other person is a marketing professional.

Writers make fantastic brainstorming partners, if I may say so myself, because they’re trained to see story possibilities anywhere and everywhere. Journalists and copywriters also possess interviewing skills, so we know how to ask the questions that lead to new insights and, usually, new articles. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat down with a business owner who was convinced he or she had nothing to bring to that upcoming blog deadline, newsletter issue, or trade journal, only to come away from a brief brainstorming sessions armed with a wealth of new material.

I always include regular interview sessions in my blogging and newsletter packages, and I can practically hear the relief over the phone as my clients see ideas taking shape in front of them as we talk — ideas they’d had all along, hidden by their own shapelessness. I just reminded them of what they already knew and helped them put that valuable knowledge into a recognizable shape for posting or publication.

So, business owners — what about you? Are you ready to take your brain by storm?

As I mentioned in an introductory post, I’ll discussing the six elements of drama, as originally defined by Artistotle, in terms of modern marketing writing. So, let’s kick things off with the nuts and bolts of storytelling, the plot. Plot may seem like the most utilitarian of the dramatic elements, but it delivers a lot more than “just the facts, ma’am” — it reveals the forward motion of the story, both in literature and in marketing.

The words “plot” and “story” are sometimes used interchangeably, but plot really refers to the sequence of events IN a story, since “story” also encompasses characterization, theme, and all that other stuff we’ll get to later. When someone asks what happened next, they’re asking about the plot. (I’m going to substitute the word “story” myself from time to time, since talking about “your company’s plot” sounds vaguely criminal, or at least paranoid.) Plotting a story is a similar process to plotting a line on a chart — just draw a line of action through the plot points, and you have an image of your story in action.

If someone at a mixer says, “Tell me about your company,” chances are you’ll launch into a few juicy facts about what field you’re in, what products or services you offer, and maybe some details about a current big sale or marketing push. Those facts certainly help to describe the actions your company is taking, or where the plot currently rests. But the story of your company extends much further.

Your company’s story includes not only its current status and offerings but every step taken along the way. The sequence of actions that brought you to the dance tells a story of growth, evolution, persistence, luck, determination, drive — all the factors that contributed to your current success. In dramatic writing, we refer to these given circumstance, or “backstory,” through exposition. Two characters might recall old times, or discuss the changes in their lives or world, in a way that paints a picture for the audience. Exposition can be awkward to handle convincingly in a story or play, but it’s usually pretty straightforward in copywriting, especially if there’s an “About Us” page or “Our Company’s History” blurb involved. Of course you don’t include everything; see my previous post about cutting to the chase and giving us just the inspiring parts. Once readers see how you got where you are, they have a deeper appreciation for your present position.

So much for where you’ve been and where you are now — what about where you’re going? Usually at the end of a story we’re given indications of what the characters are likely to continue doing after the curtain falls; even if they themselves don’t quite know, the author does. And so do you, when you’re writing your marketing content. Your presentation of the facts may end at the bottom of the page, but the story goes on. Capture your readers’ imaginations with a final call to action, and they’ll be ready to learn more.

And that’s when you’ll hear those magic words: “What happens next?”

Quiz Show is a dramatic retelling of the famous brouhaha over the TV show 21 in the late 1950s, when a Congressional investigation found that the quiz show had been elevating certain contestants by feeding them the correct answers in advance, then asking them to “take a dive” by deliberately giving wrong answers once their popularity had begun to wane.

The film depicts the famous case of 21‘s producers elbowing contestant Herbert Stempel (played by John Turturro) off the show to make room for the more photogenic and charismatic Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes). A disgruntled Stempel spills the beans about his experience, ultimately forcing Van Doren and other contestants to testify that the show is fixed. Future television shows would avoid the quiz format for many years in favor of a softer “game show” approach, and Van Doren’s teaching and TV careers were thoroughly derailed.

In defense of their actions, the producers themselves raise an important and undeniable point — quiz shows are entertainment. They may be displayed as reality, but so, to a lesser degree, are Westerns, soaps, and most other TV dramas and comedies. The fact that we viewers know we’re watching an enhanced depiction of how the world really works is significant, and certainly 21 made no effort to clarify its methods, but the fact remains that real life, by itself, consists largely of boredom. In fact, the first episode of 21 was unscripted. It was also so stupendously dull that the fix was in from that point forward.

Consider today’s “reality shows,” which are so heavily edited as to barely resemble the actual events as they unfolded before the camera. We play along when we watch these shows, suspending just enough disbelief to buy what we’re seeing for the moment but fully aware that footage can be shuffled and participants prompted. Even local and national news programs take frequent flack for putting its own journalistic spin on events. If we watch a story about a two-hour high-speed chase, we’re not going to see two hours of cars driving around — we’re going to see the most exciting few seconds of the story. That’s just how drama works.

It’s the same situation when you’re selling your products or services. You can’t just feed us information; you have to entertain us with the most compelling few points about why we MUST call now or order today. By all means, remain ethical about it, but remember to entertain! Too many businesses lard their marketing with endless laundry lists of specifications, features and benefits, bludgeoning us with completeness in the name of full disclosure. But in marketing, you have to cut to the chase. Make us go “Wow,” and then we’ll want to hear the rest of story. Otherwise, you’ll have a magnificently detailed show that no one wants to watch.