My golden rules for the detail aid

Detail aids are the "bread-and-butter" of pharmaceutical marketing. Despite what many think, the creation of a good detail aid is much more about art than science. The basic information contained within may be scientific, but to translate this into a tool that is focussed, engaging, effective and useful is certainly tricky.


In writing a detail aid you have to know what you are talking about in terms of the science, but you also have to understand effective communication. I have several golden rules of effective communication that I never break (unless I am given no choice and I cannot change said person's mind through some very compelling communication of my own). 


In my first series of blogs I will  discuss these rules and how they apply to the detail aid. So here goes...


1. Be focussed


The  previous owner of Young & Day, current chairman of Brand(x) and general branding pioneer, Mike Young, likes to say: "To win something, you need to sacrifice something.". This generally means that just because you have a lot to say doesn't mean everyone wants to hear your life story, so just tell them what you want them to remember. In terms of a detail aid it means that you should stay focussed on one thing: What does the client want to achieve with this detail aid? and try to accomplish this in the simplest possible way.


You don't have much time to sell an idea in a sales call, so when you get down to implementation, every page should stay focussed on one message only. This message should be immediately apparent and if you can convey it visually, all the better. Now I know that this is a strange thing for a writer to say, but the fact remains, that if you can link information to a visual cue it is more memorable. People also respond better to information conveyed in an uncluttered way, so the page should have as much white space (empty space) as possible.


I generally try to keep to a heading, subhead, visual, bullet point and maybe a closing line (the "so what" of the page, if you will). If you cannot say what you need to in a maximum of 2 bullets underneath the visual, then you are trying to convey more than one idea on that page.


So keep it simple, write as little as possible and think visually...be focussed.