Toward better boasting
I just received the local power utility’s January e-newsletter. It is a study in how not to do an e-newsletter. The main headline is a flagrantly self-serving and off-putting boast: Your electricity is a good value. Yet the article, which thanks to the headline most people won’t read, presents good information. With just one kilowatt-hour, you can do four loads of laundry, watch 22 hours of TV, or bake two trays of cookies. And one kilo-watt hour costs just under 11 cents. If only the writer had come up with a compelling headline, followed by a skillful, accessible presentation of the above information. Then readers could have concluded for themselves, as I eventually did, that electricity is a good value. Show, don’t tell. That is the better way to boast. —Steve Cuno |