How Reading to Your Kids Can Help You Write Better Content

My wife and I read to our daughters every night at bedtime. We alternate between 5-year-old Caitlin (right) and soon-to-be 2-year-old Cassidy (left).

We alternate because getting Caitlin to wind down takes about 15 minutes. For Cassidy, it could take an hour and include chasing her down the hall.

Caitlin has become a fan of the Fancy Nancy series of books by Jane O’Connor. Nancy, the main character, is a young girl who loves to dance, dress up, and play with dolls. She also has a little sister named Jojo who can be a handful.

My Caitlin can relate.

What I like about Fancy Nancy is how it introduces new words and explains them in a way a 5-year-old can understand. Here are some of my favorite examples.

I’ve already started to follow this approach when Caitlin hears a word she doesn’t understand, like when she asked me what “bald” means.

I said, “A person is bald if they don’t have any hair on their head. Like your Uncle Dave.”

From a marketing content perspective, there are two things you can learn from reading to your kids, especially the Fancy Nancy books.

I always talk about the need for clarity in marketing content. That doesn’t mean you should try to replace 10 words with one word when that one word is likely to go over your audience’s head.

I’ve said many times that if you can take 200 words of content and make your point just as powerfully in 100 words, you should do it.

But not if it makes your content less clear. Sometimes clarity requires more words.

It’s one thing to introduce kids to words in a children’s book. But, as a business owner or marketer, if you’re using language that you have to explain to your audience, it’s time to use simpler language.

You’re not impressing anyone. In fact, some people may find you arrogant or pretentious.

That’s fancy for trying to look smarter than you really are.

My eighth grade English teacher used to refer to small words at “5-cent words” and bigger words as “50-cent words.”

Use 50-cent words if you want to impress your English teacher. Use 5-cent words if you want to use marketing content to build relationships and make money.

Scroll up and look at my list of favorite Fancy Nancy -isms. Which is more expressive and emotional – the big word or the explanation?

For example, what paints a more vivid picture?

“Standing ovation” or “everyone jumps up and claps like crazy?”

Granted, “standing ovation” isn’t a complicated phrase for adults, but for a 5-year-old, it’s nowhere near as clear or expressive as “everyone jumps and claps like crazy.”

Go through your marketing content and circle the big words that may not be easy for your audience to understand.

How can you use different words to create more impact while making the brain work less?

Use short sentences with smaller words. Use metaphors to make your content more relatable and emotional. Use better nouns and verbs and fewer adjectives and adverbs.

Think about how you would make the same point in an actual conversation. Then use the same language in your content.

Read to your kids. Listen to their questions about words they don’t understand. Remember how you answer those questions, and apply the same principles to your marketing content.