Writing For The New Medium
June 17, 2008
Someone once said that the invention of the Internet was the most innovative thing that has happened to the professional writer since the creation of moveable type. There’s no doubt that after a shaky start a decade ago, web content is here to stay as a juggernaut that twists and turns as it evolves through the exorbitant professional writer rates that were charged and the cheap overseas copy that was found in the end to actually turn business away. Like any other transformation, the writer... Read more »
Top Tips To Inject Personality Into Your Copywriting
June 9, 2008
There has been a major shift in how people buy things and relate to companies in the past 3 years and this trend is brilliant for small business. The trend is away from “buying a brand” to “buying the person behind the brand”. We have been disillusioned by big business so now we are looking to know the faces behind the names of the brand. We want to know their personalities, what makes them tick and can we trust them to do what they say they will. Some indicators of this trend... Read more »
Top 10 Tips To Write Powerful Guarantees
June 9, 2008
Let’s assume you have a brilliant product or service, and you want to make it an absolute no brainer for people to buy it. What can you do? One of the best things you can do is to take away all the risk for the purchaser and give a guarantee. People these days are worried about being ripped off and want some reassurance that you will not do that to them. By offering a guarantee you reassure them of your good intentions and in doing so, you will reduce their resistance to buying your goods or... Read more »
Video - The Next Wave Of Small Business Marketing
June 8, 2008
One of the strongest trends for small business is the need to build connections with your clients -giving them an insight into who you are and what you do. You need to do that through words, stories or parables and testimonials. Written words can only go so far. The trend I am seeing coming from the US in marketing is the addition of video to things like websites, promotional DVDs and blogs. Think of the explosion of You Tube. More people watch You Tube across the world each day than people watch... Read more »
Appointment Letters - Tips To Get Your Foot In The Door
June 8, 2008
When working with businesses on letters they send to potential clients trying to get an appointment with them, we often see the same mistakes being made over and over when we look at their existing letters. To help you not make the same mistakes, here are our top 10 tips for effective appointment letters. 1. Be realistic in the response you are looking for. People are not sitting by the post-box waiting for your letter. For most people you have to prove to them first why they should read (and not... Read more »
Appointment Letters - Tips To Get Your Foot In The Door
June 8, 2008
When working with businesses on letters they send to potential clients trying to get an appointment with them, we often see the same mistakes being made over and over when we look at their existing letters. To help you not make the same mistakes, here are our top 10 tips for effective appointment letters. 1. Be realistic in the response you are looking for. People are not sitting by the post-box waiting for your letter. For most people you have to prove to them first why they should read (and not... Read more »
5 Top Ways To Get More Prospects To Take Notice Of Your Advertising
June 8, 2008
The number one secret to the 7 secrets of advertising success is to get more prospects to take notice of your advertising. After all, if they don’t even notice you, that’s a done deal and you’ve totally wasted your money. There’s a whole bunch of ideas you could use, and here’s 5 top ways to get you started. 1. Captivating Headlines Advertising guru, David Ogilvy says that four out of five people only read headlines - nothing more! Think about that. If you don’t... Read more »
3 Effective Strategies To Get More Prospects To Read Your Ad Till The End
June 8, 2008
The second step to the 7 secrets of advertising is to get more prospects to read your ad till the end. After all, if we don’t get to fully inform our reader how can we expect them to make a buying decision. And fully informed means, reading your ad right to the very end. Here are 3 effective strategies to help you achieve this. 1. Break up your copy Remember your prospect is looking for a reason to turn the page or click off to another site so it’s not just what you say but how you present... Read more »
5 Tips To Get More Prospects To Trust What You Say
June 8, 2008
The third step to the 7 secrets of advertising is to get more prospects to trust what you say. Take it for granted that no-one believes you. Now, that sounds rather blunt, doesn’t it? But people don’t know you so why would they believe what you say? Now you will also have heard that people buy from people they know, like and trust so here are 5 simple tips to build trust that you can put to use right away. 1. Use Photos You could start with your photo in your ad or on your website and... Read more »
Smoothing Over The Rough Spots With A Style Guide
June 7, 2008
A style guide is a document that helps writers and editors by answering the questions they will meet when editing. They vary greatly in length and cover a variety of different subject matter from how to attribute different types of information in academic works to how to properly write out a military commander’s rank in a newspaper article. One of the big reasons that style guides are so important is that they lend a certain uniformity to the look and feel for a certain kind of text. For example,... Read more »
