Marketing writing course: The Four Cs

As a business student in 2005 at St Andrews University, I was taught the Four Cs of Marketing.

They’re seared into my brain.

Clarity. Credibility. Consistency. Competitiveness.

Almost two decades on and a business owner, I could add endless Cs to that list.

But today, let me recommend an alternative Four Cs from a communication perspective.

And if you come to a writing course with Pink Elephant, we’ll ask you to apply these for the rest of your life.

Written reports, emails, difficult conversations, even job interviews.

1) Committed

Of course, we need to commit to our work to be successful.

I started a business that crashed and burned as I was only partially committed.

I’ve left jobs as I felt under-committed.

But here I’m talking specifically about language.

Imagine for a minute that you owned a carpet-cleaning business, and your website read:

“We’ll try and clean your carpets”.

Or:

“Hopefully we’ll leave you with cleaner carpets than when you arrived”.

It hardly inspires confidence.

So why do we tell email recipients we’ll “try and get back to them”?

Or describe ourselves in a business pitch as “relatively experienced”?

My first rule of marketing is to persuade your audience that you can solve their problem.

That requires 100% commitment.

So commit to your attitude, your determination, your clear goal and your track record.

2) Clear

This is the one principle of the original four I’ve applied since hearing about its importance in 2005.

I remember the dilemma we were presented with as students.

Four businesses approach a bank manager asking for a loan.

Three of the four presented folders containing dozens of pages on business plans, cash flow projections, and marketing plans.

And the fourth?

They entered with a machine gun and made it all the way into the manager’s office before suggesting the bank hire his private security firm. 

We need to be clear exactly how we solve our customer’s problems.

And specifically, what’s in it for them.

So ask yourself: who am I writing for?

Have I summarised their problem and the clear solution?

On our marketing course, we’ll tell you straight if we believe your message is clear enough.

3) Concise

How long should your marketing writing be?

As long as it takes to make your point.

We know that the average reader in the UK has an attention span of seven seconds.

That’s 26 words.

So read the first 26 words of your latest blog.

Does it motivate the reader to read on?

If the answer’s no, fix it.

And only keep going for as long as you need to make your point.

4) Caring

If our message it centred around a customer with a problem, we must be able to empathise with them.

Charity TV appeals work extremely hard at this.

By showing the person in need, they help us see the problem.

By asking how we’d feel if it were a member of our family, we can feel the problem. 

So if you’re responding to social media posts criticising your brand, be comfortable saying sorry.

Then tell them what went wrong and how you’re going to fix it.

We call this regret, reason, remedy.

The closer you can get to helping your customers feel better, the more likely they’ll want to work with you or buy from you. 

So show vulnerability if you need to and be honest about your mistakes.

We can all improve our marketing writing by applying the Four Cs. 

To get closer to our customer and compel them to work with us.

Without needing a machine gun, obviously.

Andrew McFarlan is Managing Director of Pink Elephant Communications.

Read more about him here.

Marketing writing course blog written by Andrew McFarlan.
Marketing writing course blog edited by Colin Stone.
All photos in Marketing writing course blog by Pink Elephant.

Marketing writing course blog