All Copywriters Now

The Language of Advertising

 

I did this slot on BBC1's prime time evening magazine The One Show last week, talking about the language of advertising to polymath Gyles Brandreth.

Nothing too profound: but fun!

Clients who invest in themselves

I have a client who are a dental laboratory. That means they make the crowns and bridges that dentists fit.

A few months ago they asked me if I'd write their entry submission to the first ever staging of an annual professional awards for the dental lab industry, run by the publisher of the most important dentistry publications.

They said they wanted to try really hard. To take it very seriously, and to get together a really great entry consisting of a big print presentation, made up as a bound book, along with a significant amount of video clips of their staff talking to camera, their MD talking to camera, and their key dentist customers paying tribute to the quality of their work.

So we did it. They invested a serious amount of money, and an equally serious amount of the time of their key management, to make sure I had everything I needed to give them back a knockout entry.

I like to think I did. They thought I did. And on Friday night they were kind enough to invite me along to watch as they collected the Highly Commended second place in one category, along with the Winner title in the prized Best Dental Laboratory class (for a lab with several technicians).

It would have been very easy for them to get together an ordinary entry. Even easier for them to save their money and not bother. Only they didn't, and now all their staff know they work for the UK's best lab, all their existing customers know their work is being supplied by the UK's best lab, and all their new business targets know that they could have work from the UK's best lab.

So how much is that worth? 

 

So... how does social media work for business again?

Hootsuite's great. (Though my social media colleague tells me she thinks it's not as great as I think it is... and she knows more than I do.) They made this to help people who don't understand to see how social works for business. Enjoy.

Hootsuite explains how social media works for your business

Why The Fold Is A Myth

Always good to see nonsense myth debunked. The writer's conclusion is simply common sense though borne out here by some statistics: people respond to a call to action when you've given them a compelling reason to do so.

Why The Fold Is A Myth - And Where To Actually Put Your Calls To Action blog.kissmetrics.com/why-the-fold-i… 

Dumb Ways to Die

  

How many ways would there have been to do this message that would have made it unwatchable or, if you watched it, unmemorable. Great work, Aussie people.

Brown's Job - In case you've never read it

It's about 30 years since my then boss first showed me this flawless piece of copywriting. It's now 92 years old, written for the BBD&O ad agency in New york as a house ad, by a man named F R Feland, who was what we would now call the agency's CFO!

Thought you might enjoy it.

Lindsey Redding (1960 - 2012) - Rest In Peace

My friend, former co-art student, first art director, ex flatmate and  chap who was kind enough to invite me to be Best Man at his wedding, Lindsey Redding, died today. He had lived in New Zealand with his wife Jo and daughter Becca for many years, and he passed away at the Mercy Hospice in Auckland.

Lindsey was a remarkable talent. A designer, photographer, motion graphics director, typographer and art director of enviable natural elegance, quality and impact. However, I doubt anyone was prepared for the work he was to produce from the day his cancer was diagnosed in August 2011, until a few weeks ago.

If you visit lindsredding.com you can read the funny, brave and transparent blog Lindsey wrote for a year, sharing his fate with readers who knew him and readers who did not.

For you, however, as you are most likely creative in the same way that Lindsey was and many of us try to be, I have picked out this astonishing post, A Short Lesson In Perspective. 

Please spare the time to read the insight of a clever man who knew time was running out.

Infographics. They never lie... do they?

Facing up to Facebook buttons

If you've still not got around to installing a Facebook button on your website, think for a second before you simply ask your developer to "give me a Facebook button". Because it's a bit more complicated than it seems, and if you do that I will lay you a pound to a penny that you don't get what you thought you would.

So let's assume that your business already has a Facebook 'Page', and that you want to "add a Facebook button' button to your own website.

• You could install a simple Facebook link button that does nothing more than take people who click it to your Facebook page. It's fine, but you get absolutely no added social media value.

• You could install a Facebook 'Like' button that makes the person clicking 'Like' your Facebook Page, with the add on benefit of your news then being visible to their friends.

• You could install a facebook 'Send' button (usually paired with a 'Like' button), that let's the person clicking 'send' your facebook page details to one of their own Facebook friends specifically.

• You could install a Facebook 'Like' button (and/or a 'Send' button) that makes the person clicking 'Like' your website homepage (rather than your Facebook Page). If you do this, of course, you don't get as much social media value as if you have them 'Like' your Facebook Page.

• You could install a Facebook 'Like' button that makes the person clicking 'Like' a particular item of content on your site, rather than generically 'Liking' the site. So, for example, they could 'Like' a particular recipe, or blog post.

There are probably more options, too, but I can't picture them right now! Feel free to add them in a comment if you can.

The DL rollfold leaflet. Why you gotta love it.

 

Sure. We all love the flexibility and almost-free marketing value of social media and even of good old email.

But a simple DL gatefold mini-brochure is still a genius-level tool in virtually any business. (You know. It's the kind of item you get if you fold a sheet of A4 into thirds, and use each of the 6 panels - fronts and backs - to tell your story.) Some kind of headline or intro on the front: summary and contact details on the back and all the rest on the 4 remaining panes.

Quick to sort out, low cost to produce, small enough to keep a few in a portfolio or briefcase, compact enough to go in DL envelopes with invoices or statements, able to team up with a simple letter to create a low cost DM pack, capable of sitting on stands at shows or being left in a stack on reception.

All from one item. Want one?

Some simple maths

A guy called me this morning about his new etail site. He sent me to look at the site of the competitor whose model he hopes to emulate. The competitor had about 150 pages of content, each on a different subject matter related to the site's area of interest, and each containg three distinct subsections.

"We want pages like these, but for about 500 subjects", the guy gushed.

"Ok", I said. "Let's say they take 2 hours each." (This felt reasonable and, probably, conservative.)

"So 500 is 1000 hours work. And let's say I charged the time to you at £60 an hour.... that'll be £60,000. Do you have that budget available?"

Long pause.

"No."

I didn't wait to find out what he'd imagined buying 500 pages of custom written content for. Life is too short :)

The medium is not the message

There's certainly no shortage any more of direct, low-cost channels for getting your business's story in front of potential customers. 

You still need to make certain you make the most of them though, by focusing hard on what you use them to tell people, and then just as hard on how you use them to deliver the message.

Getting it right gets you that happiest of results... customers :)