Before you use witty writing in your corporate or marketing content, know your ideal reader intimately. Otherwise, don’t even bother trying.

Witty? Says who?

It all boils down to that, right? Who says it’s witty writing? And who gives them the authority to judge it?

“Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth,” wrote Archimedes. Your content marketing writers might say it this way:

Describe to me the ideal reader, and I will make him laugh.

It is, of course, your ideal readers who deem your writing witty. The more you know about those people, the more you can appeal to their sense of humor. If you don’t understand what makes those ideal readers tick, how can you expect them to read what you’ve written and find it engaging?

Witty content in a business context is a rarity, almost as rare as witty content about religion. But think of IBM’s series of deadpan “Art of the Sale” videos, or just about any nun joke. The essence of their wittiness is The Great Unexpected, and you too can take advantage of that essence.

Consider a few content channels and their appropriateness to witty writing.

Places to try witty writing (maybe)

• Blogs – If you’re reading a blog, you deserve what you get. You expect to derive some eventual value or information, but the channel is so informal that you could land on a real gem of inspiration in a hilarious wrapper. I think this is the best place to start. And, when your blog is new and undiscovered, you can write just about anything you want, secure in the knowledge that nobody will be reading it. Yet.
• Customer success stories – Depending on the customer and the success (and the customer’s lawyers), you might be able to make this work. Your readers would be deep in The Great Unexpected when they came across a closing line like “We liked working with Acme’s line of optical routers, and we have a good relationship with them. Now we just need to figure out what to do with all this extra pizza.”
• Web pages – Here is another place where witty content can thrive. Imagine an organization that describes certain aspects of itself and its history with good-natured self-deprecation: “We’d like to run our business that way, but our Accounting Department won’t let us. Yet.” It would be a breath of fresh air, like hearing a head of state say something funny. Most organizations relegate such content to blogs, though.

Places where witty corporate writing need not apply

• White papers – Face it: even with the evidence as you lay it out, these assets are an attempt to get ideal readers to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions at a certain point in the sales cycle. Wit in a white paper would probably feel like bumps on a smooth road. I would like to read a white paper infused with wit, but I cannot imagine what it would look like.
• Annual reports – Probably not fertile ground for wit. If you publish an annual report, your ideal readers are analysts, investors, chartered accountants and people who will drop your stock like a hot potato at the first sign of The Great Unexpected. Still, if your stock has already tanked this year, what do you have to lose?
• Social media answers (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter and other interactive platforms) – I’m not convinced that anybody who posts questions in these is really interested in the answers, which means that the ask-er is probably not your ideal reader. If you want to turn your wit loose on the answer-ers, however, you might get upvotes.
• Press releases – Don’t even bother. Journalists are always under pressure and they’re looking for easily accessible facts, not wit. If you want to flex your wit on these ideal readers, take them out to lunch sometime.
• Brochures, sales collateral – Again, you’re asking for trouble. By default, these pieces get used when casting a wide net, and it’s too difficult to define the ideal reader.

In short, if you don’t know your ideal readers or can’t get enough information on them, you’re skating on thin ice by trying to use witty writing. But when you do know about them and what will appeal to them, give wit a chance.

As usual, I’m happy to be proved wrong. Send me samples of witty corporate and marketing communications.

photo credit: nukeit1