Content development takes time and effort. You need to come up with ideas, shape them into quality articles, and actually write them out. But there’s more to it. You also have to maintain practices that help you ensure quality writing standards. Here are 17 quick content development tips for the stage that comes after your ideas have been captured and…read more →
Web copy tips from Ogilvy On Advertising, one of the ad world’s most famous texts. Roughly six times as many people read the average article as the average advertisement. Four times as many people read captions as read body copy…So, caption every photo if you want the opportunity to communicate and persuade. Headlines get five times the readership of body copy….read more →
I wrote a post earlier this year about how writing like Ernest Hemingway helps you communicate more effectively. Mike Elgan – the technology journalist and tech philosopher – recently wrote about how Hemingway would deal with the complex tools we use for writing. His take is that Hemingway would have liked writing with an iPad. The reason? Simplicity and clarity…read more →
Sean D-Souza has a great article on writing for PowerPoints. And it applies equally well to marketing copywriting.
I just got off a juicy conference call with a client and a partner. An interesting discussion came up. The client was describing a bunch of projects they have lined up. A batch of case studies, a white paper, a data sheet for an upcoming trade show. . the typical round-up of persuasion projects. They riffed for a bit on…read more →
Inbound marketing is the modern, Web-connected alternative – although it integrates off-line advertising, direct mail, billboards, text messages, magazine ads and so forth. It’s really not about offline/online. It’s more about integration, conversion and accountable measurement.
“Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no
one.” – Adlai Stevenson
Business people don’t always directly relate shipping to marketing, but the indirect ties are undeniable. This applies to all kinds of businesses, not just eBay. Let’s start with customer satisfaction: * Customers who love your service come back * Satisfied customers tell two friends.. and so on * Your product becomes more valuable when it’s shipped quickly * Items that…read more →
I’m a fan of Seth Godin’s books. I don’t get paid anything to promote them, but I just end up doing that because I read them and always find a few gems of wisdom within. The marketing/advertising/good-business books are light, airy and fast paced. They’re not chock full of compelling research or detailed justification, but that’s part of the reason…read more →
Don’t you love it when people sprinkle the words “honestly” and “frankly” into their conversation? It sounds like rookie car salesman banter. When written in marketing copy, the effect is even more disturbing. It often shows up in these forms: “in truth,” “truthfully,” “to be completely frank,” and “quite frankly.” It’s supposed to sound conversational, but ends up arousing suspicion….read more →