The title of this article can be extremely confusing. Ubuntu? The name definitely sounds familiar. The nerd brigade goes brouhaha about that Linux free software.h But wat has it got to do with the humble job of a content writer? A little bit of etymology might break the connection to you.
[pullquote]“stepping into someone else’s shoes” or Ubuntu might be the only thing you need to make your perfect writing excellent.[/pullquote]
Ubuntu is the African word that encourages people to share “humanity to others”. It is indeed the one word substitute for the popular phrase, “stepping into someone else’s shoes.” Ubuntu might be the only thing you need to make your perfect writing excellent. You might have got the right style, added clever headlines, but if you feel that your writing is still not having that magnetic power, chances are that you need a little bit more of ubuntu. An empathetic content writer is easily the best writer.
Putting the reader first
It is easy for a web content writer to get into this trap of the supreme writerly ego where she thinks that the writer is everything. We are sorry to break this to you, but sadly, the writer is not everything. As it turns out, the reader is. Without the reader, there is no writer, no job. This is especially true if you are doing business writing. Before writing anything at all, put you in the reader’s shoes and think. Imagine what the reader will think when they read your words. Do you see a trust building in the reader while reading your writing? If you do not see that trust, how much flawless your language is, the copy you just wrote is worthless.
Understanding the scene
It is extremely important to understand the premises to which your writing goes. Again, what will come to help is your empathetic approach to things. Try to think about the objections the client might have to the writing. Understand the motivations of the client or the reader. Do some background research into a failed competitor. See if the content they wrote was similar to yours. Do you think you have added what was missing in their content?
Know the pain
At the risk of sounding like a religious sermon, we would like to emphasize that it is all about knowing the pain of a fellow human being. Why else would weight loss campaigns write in clear bold letters that with their service you are going to lose 25 kilos in three weeks? They can very well write that the medicine is effective and is the next best thing discovered after Viagra, but that does not address the pain of a person who is 25 kilos overweight. What connects is the emphasis on what you will achieve. In this case, losing 25 kilos, not in three years but in three weeks. It is only natural for that product to sell.
Therefore, if you are not addressing a painful problem the reader is facing, your copy cannot be as persuasive as you want it to be. It doesn’t matter if you wrote that clever catchphrase at a headline.
Wearing the reader’s shoes
Are you still confused about how you will wear the reader’s shoes? We can tell you how in a few easy steps.
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List out all the positive features of your product or service.
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List out all the benefits of the product. Think about what the customer will get if they decide to use this product.
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If you are writing business content for a hair dye, think about a pretty woman who is depressed because she has prematurely developed grey hair.
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Imagine that you are that person who would want this product. List out the things you lack in your life without this product. Jot down all positive feelings and negative feelings that cross our mind.
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Use the words you just jotted down in your content. Be descriptive about the satisfaction your product can offer.
This is how you think with empathy. This is how you write with empathy. Nothing succeeds like empathy when it comes to connecting with a person through words. Once you have figured out this ‘ubuntu’ in content writing, you can spice your writing up with anything else, a catchy headline, a clever use of pun, anything. The verbal prowess you want to employ to an already empathetic copy will just make you taste success with Ubuntu.
