tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63423727100071414542024-03-16T18:52:45.497+00:00Barnaby Benson on copywritingThis blog has now moved. More thought pieces, articles and comment on copywriting at https://www.barnabybenson.co.uk/blog.Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-755666272775100722019-05-09T15:52:00.001+01:002019-05-09T15:52:50.462+01:00Five brands nailing it on social media<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Social media is a great way to reach consumers and build a brand - but it's an art that some have mastered better than others. Here, we're taking a look at five social media pages that go above and beyond - and what they're doing to stand out.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. Greggs - Twitter</b><br /><br /><img height="362" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ObALjlFpM8G2cllxqN6ZpcKXxxRXxQWTXiKA0bN6Gu21mLnoiSKAbvnztojeeKZvY306e3Pb12JsQ3Kv2_Y4P_taRmtgmF-o0Wn0nF1njoTTkMhpQjlZy4xUUWEekn1aE4dmdPgR" width="400" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What they’re doing right:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Greggs is great at brand building. They’ve got a humorous tone of voice for their Twitter feed that reels in retweets and replies. They also demonstrate a clear grasp of meme culture - essentially a form of communication for millennials and Gen Z that, when properly understood and used, works wonders for brand loyalty. Memes allow young people who frequent social media to relate to the page and therefore the brand. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />It’s also revealing to look at what Greggs interact with. On top of environmental trends such as #GBSpringClean and promoting Fairtrade coffee, Greggs also use their page to publicise their vegan sausage roll regularly, without coming across as holier-than-thou. By posting about these topics they show their willingness to be conscientious as a brand, which is a major driving factor in consumers when making purchase decisions. <br /><br />Regular content targeted at calendar events such as Valentine’s day and Christmas only serve to further keep them relevant throughout the year.<br /><br />Check the page out <a href="https://twitter.com/GreggsOfficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Lego - Instagram</b><br /><br /><img height="257" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/g7q6rF6qMl5oFQufxY-eLjYPxrF4-sxbDE5s8LRk_YZgutZTtWbwY51ecn7l1DiQRdzU4IhwO-KvFNjMuB5nCmjqsd3JlOCGDBnm41Vywxf8MVbx_DPtCZiOVoCAF2xx-Zisb28i" width="400" /><br /><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What they’re doing right:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At Lego, sharing is caring. Their Instagram page posts Lego-based content from other Lego creators. This is a clever technique, as it makes use of the followers of these independent creators too by pulling in their likes, comments and shares. Their page is an eclectic mix of Lego characters in beautiful settings, highly skilled Lego builds (check out their full scale <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvo9zDpggXf/">McLaren Senna</a>) and, of course, their latest products. There isn’t a sales element to the page. The products are presented in a way that is exciting and fresh with a link in their bio, but it’s about raising awareness more than anything else.<br /><br />They drive traffic using targeted, relevant content aimed at highly covered calendar events throughout the year such as St Patrick’s Day and April fools - which means when people search these hashtags, they’re encountering Lego’s posts. And let’s face it - there’s something downright nostalgic about spending time on their Instagram page.<br /><br />Check the page out <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lego/?hl=en">here</a>.<br /><br /><br /><b>3. MailChimp - Facebook</b><br /><br /><img height="382" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/IMFePucEQDTiP7M34Oq3h1YXlrBHZqWu12qVmAuEBdlfV-_Fk8sFrqU66eXfg5nSTpZLEPUMUVN5tez-334sAfuTB8wDilotqJzWh2OYxfg_lBf2B0Y7wqGyjq5tNtzh_OHndYaT" width="400" /><br /><br /><b>What they’re doing right:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">MailChimp are gifted storytellers. Facebook these days is a place to tell stories and share photos - it’s used less and less for much else. It’s fitting then that MailChimp use it for exactly that - storytelling. By sharing insightful videos that focus on client journeys and how MailChimp helped them get there, they manage to market themselves in a way that makes them seem more interested in their clients than themselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They also establish a position of thought leadership, regularly sharing content such as blogs on tips and tricks among other links. By offering insight, they offer their page visitors a reason to stay, while pushing their perception towards the role of thought leader. <br /><br />Check the page out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mailchimp/">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>4. Deloitte - LinkedIn</b><br /><br /><img height="384" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/M0iNhfaeYtRgd44QUBLjRj8DXZX_63aH5-PtXqFr-k6GI8iHWbRnSmQih6k5ziQon4ek59gCRzT3SNaMdf8NkW42YxPaQLdOe61e-lhIEghw3ObaDGGacw0J40Ao5fQMESKyOwYh" width="400" /><br /><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>What they’re doing right:</b><br /><br />Deloitte’s LinkedIn is a fantastic example of industry leadership in action. A stream of tightly scheduled thought pieces, interviews and reports that firmly establish them as a knowledgeable market leader. They make great use of hashtags, internal and external linking and data sets to make their page a dream for SEO and Google ranking. It’s probably why they made LinkedIn’s own <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-company-pages/2018/announcing-linkedins-top-10-company-pages-of-2018">top 10</a> pages in 2018. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">LinkedIn posts need to be formal, authoritative and to the point. They’re the professional face of your business’s online personality. Deloitte have nailed this tone and continue to educate and inform their page visitors with relevant and insightful content.<br /><br />Check the page out <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/deloitte/">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5. KFC - Twitter</b><br /><br /><img height="400" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XkQs1_cnRXVBzOqpoRO6N6GUMqkGFcmRdf-ucRnf41Sn4tbABCCYDUdIOvcMjKDMkLXuS_2ON5hlRiLO_fH_08cNdnmjBQSHLuzux_2s775gSU85aeQLPlb2YXikydV3W596WC-C" width="395" /><br /><br /><b>What they’re doing right:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">KFC are marketing wizards. From their famous ‘<a href="https://www.adweek.com/creativity/kfc-responds-to-u-k-chicken-shortage-scandal-with-a-timely-fck-were-sorry/">FCK</a>’ apology in 2018 to a livestream of a Colonel Sanders <a href="https://www.prexamples.com/2018/07/why-kfcs-marketing-stunts-are-so-fcking-good/">cat climber</a>, they’re exceptionally savvy with their wit and how they interact with their audience. Their Twitter page jumps on trends that go beyond the realm of social media - in the above example, they teamed up with prominent gaming streamers to promote their brand alongside the fastest growing sport in the world - ESports. They regularly interact with celebrities and channels such as Chrissy Teigen and Tiny Kitchen to bring unique brand experiences to their audience. <br /><br />Arguably the best aspect of their Twitter presence is how far they take their brand within it. KFC famously use 11 herbs and spices on their chicken. So, they only follow 11 people on Twitter - the five former spice girls and six guys named Herb. It’s small, but the media <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kfc-twitter-following-11-people_n_59e9d435e4b0f9d35bc9e7ee">picked up on it</a> and Twitter loved it. They also mix product promotion with the ridiculous, such as the <a href="https://twitter.com/kfc/status/1103368289009324033">Kentucky Fried Hot tub</a>. It’s almost hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.<br /><br />They create loads of original content focused on building the brand as a chatty and cheeky friend - with a view to capturing that all important brand loyalty through subtle channels such as replies and retweets (RTs).<br /><br />Check their page out <a href="https://twitter.com/kfc?lang=en-gb">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Good brands seize a position</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These pages are all quite different. Tonally, you have Greggs (cheeky), Lego (wholesome), MailChimp (forthcoming) Deloitte (knowing/assertive) and KFC (enthusiastic/bit bonkers). Content wise, there's also a range, covering thought leadership, storytelling, aspirational imagery, memes, live events and collaborations. <br /><br />But there is a common denominator here - just like in the offline world, each of these brands has identified a distinctive positioning territory they can own. By playing with the combination of tone and content, they've managed to create stand-out pages that are distinctively theirs. That's how you brand on social media.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-83656573505308500072019-04-10T14:31:00.000+01:002019-04-10T14:41:26.015+01:00B2C vs B2B writing: Think Fast vs. Think Slow<div dir="ltr">
<em><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Iron Maiden and Taylor Swift. Kanye West and Queen. B2B and B2C. When it comes to audiences, they’re world’s apart. But how should you communicate to B2B and B2C audiences most effectively?</span></span></em><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you’re in the comms industry, you’re either dealing with B2B or B2C. Some lucky people like us deal with both. But one alphabetical shift to the right translates to two completely different buyer mindsets. So here we’re going to define why they need to be spoken to differently, and the principles of writing for each.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But first, let's get into those mindsets.</span></span><br />
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<strong id="docs-internal-guid-e8d385c2-7fff-e43e-d81e-c20932fe363a"><img data-cke-saved-src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/xBpvKeXhh1OeagWtJZVOfS1KJFPObtUt8esw8khB83p8zkJ2Fm2sH00NxleBQsshxtE0dpJOzvBgd1wVB1SnKxue3XMjKPPXssnURJppen9BVKYlYRbn9leEgwr0rua2FcPvauMf" height="324" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/xBpvKeXhh1OeagWtJZVOfS1KJFPObtUt8esw8khB83p8zkJ2Fm2sH00NxleBQsshxtE0dpJOzvBgd1wVB1SnKxue3XMjKPPXssnURJppen9BVKYlYRbn9leEgwr0rua2FcPvauMf" width="400" /></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Happiness - a Coca-Cola subsidiary!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>B2C - Emotion trumps practicality</strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We buy products that help us to look or feel a certain way. My dad once bought a jacket he saw in a Bond movie to make himself feel cool. Somehow, I’ve always doubted he was overly concerned with the material or whether it was waterproof.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That’s because B2C consumers are emotionally-driven in their shopping habits. We’re so often judged on the things we wear, the cars we drive and the places we eat that our purchases become an extension of our personality. As such, they need to be saying the right things.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let’s take Coca-Cola as an example. For years, Coke’s marketing department has been associating their product not with any specific product benefits, but with an emotion: happiness. The implication in the above ad being that you don’t really belong at festivals this summer without a bottle of Coca-Cola. A rather chuffed young Cameron Diaz lookalike clutching her bottle of joy makes the emotional association.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The reason most B2C companies aim to align themselves with an emotion is psychological. So many B2C goods require what psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls ‘Think Fast’ decisions before a purchase. They’re low-cost, inconsequential acts that we don’t need to think through. So we’ll buy on some pre-set criteria such as, “Are we aware of the brand?” and, “Do we like the brand’s associations?” such as that Cameron Diaz lookalike and her smile. Much of the drive behind the purchase of a specific brand is in our subconscious.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So writing for B2C needs to feed these ‘Think Fast’ ‘decisions’, and make the consumer feel. </span></span><br />
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<strong id="docs-internal-guid-bd2ea115-7fff-73d4-16f2-e02a5772788b"><img data-cke-saved-src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/TPnv3zsEVa1lm8PI6Urj3a0QWeV_wPPuj0p7VV-FFBcBKp1YLS-Hkk0WPRJAe40GZcqMtG7ZunhrEIXXEvl7VQvvnCXSbNBf96-H_hxns59JjwWTThl3gB7noLQ6BfdV06tlSqn7" height="428" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/TPnv3zsEVa1lm8PI6Urj3a0QWeV_wPPuj0p7VV-FFBcBKp1YLS-Hkk0WPRJAe40GZcqMtG7ZunhrEIXXEvl7VQvvnCXSbNBf96-H_hxns59JjwWTThl3gB7noLQ6BfdV06tlSqn7" width="319" /></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Pile on evidence. Dig out your truth.</i></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">B2B - the calculating decision maker</span></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Business purchases carry a great deal more responsibility. A business buyer often has to ‘Think Slow’, calibrating every consideration in a complex cost/benefit analysis. It could take days to make a decision and involve several people. Procurement teams won’t buy a product that makes them feel happy. It’s not on their checklist. They might shortlist an option because they recall an ad. And the ad might influence how they rate the option, if it presented a well argued case.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take a look at the above accenture ad. The focus is on information rather than emotion. The ad pulls us in with an impressive headline statistic - 300% growth for Caterpillar. Once it has our attention, it aims to convey as much information as possible within its limited space. A bold claim, “High performance. Delivered”, is followed by evidence for that claim, as well as a brief overview of how they achieved their success. Evidence and information are important, as ‘Think Slow’ mentality drives the decision-making process here. B2B consumers are looking for a different type of validation - the reassurance of proven success. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Businesses usually have a go-to provider for certain services that they will use time and again to save them the trouble of switching. This leads to inertia, which is why ‘Claim, Evidence, Inform’ is so necessary in B2B writing. Businesses aren’t going to switch providers based on an emotional connection. Switching is too much hassle. They need to be persuaded, with an argument supported by evidence, that the alternative is better, cheaper, more convenient - or whatever - before they’ll switch.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>What tone to use - and when</strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tonal difference between writing for B2B or B2C is smaller than this messaging divide. But there is a difference.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Legendary direct marketing expert Drayton Bird has some excellent insights on tone when considering B2B and B2C writing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘Write to businesses as if you were speaking face-to-face in a meeting room. Personable, yet still professional. Write to consumers as if you were in a leisure setting together - at a restaurant, or in somebody’s home. Friendly and approachable.’</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘Charm them both. Take the time to study your audience. Once you understand their motivations, then you can approach them in a sympathetic manner.’</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If they’re thinking fast, you can tickle their fancy with emotionally appealing language that sounds like they sound when they’re experiencing the product. If they’re thinking slow, then the ad needs sound more reasoned. </span></span></div>
Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-32220525426991123302019-03-06T16:52:00.000+00:002019-03-06T16:54:29.295+00:00The experts speak: five writing tips from the latest edition of 'The Copy Book'<br />
<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em>This may be a book about advertising copy, but there’s no shortage of great copywriting tips contained within its pages. We’ve pulled out our favourite five.</em><br /><br /><strong>1. Make an emotional connection</strong><br /><br />Your job is to forge an emotional connection that motivates people to engage with a brand. John Bevins, founder of John Bevins Pty. Limited, advises us to find your brand’s truth, then connect it in your own way to an essential human truth. Ask yourself; is it honest? Reliable? Amusing? Trustworthy? These are some of the main emotional hooks when it comes to copy.<br /><br />Brand advertising should explain you, to you. Writing shouldn’t sound like it’s about your product: it should sound like it’s about the reader’s life. So use your own life experiences to animate your copy. Lead with an insight into an everyday human issue your consumer might face.<br /><br />To pull this off, your tone needs to sound like the audience’s in real life. And to be distinctive, you need an attitude.<br /><br />Charles Saatchi once said that you must find the right tone and stick with it. Own that attitude, and people will start associating your brand with certain emotions.</span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>2. Grab your audience’s attention immediately</strong><br /><br />Don’t spend time clearing your throat. Sometimes the opening line of your body copy can be even more important than the headline – the best stories don’t hook you with their title, but with their introduction. Ensure you start as you mean to go on, and the consumer will stay for the ride.</span><br /><br /><br /><strong id="docs-internal-guid-624e70a8-7fff-1792-4974-a6579d11c4c2"><img data-cke-saved-src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/u9oczGpw1AJglh-rzMEFIPu1ErcCCrBTnctVC0C1E2VaGE7jD3xBb0S4ZolWh_ZtWbtV4kQcXU_gqwU-MUM4qdoSsclBD8hZPXX2qvdWsUMxswnjSzXl_ZC1MK7FF1plWEQG5ALo" height="491" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/u9oczGpw1AJglh-rzMEFIPu1ErcCCrBTnctVC0C1E2VaGE7jD3xBb0S4ZolWh_ZtWbtV4kQcXU_gqwU-MUM4qdoSsclBD8hZPXX2qvdWsUMxswnjSzXl_ZC1MK7FF1plWEQG5ALo" width="356" /></strong><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Attention, interest, desire, action</i><br /><br /><strong>3. Be relentless - ‘good’ ideas come to the dedicated</strong><br /><br />Generate <em>lots</em> of ideas. That means research. More research. Edits. More edits.<br /><br />Achieve good ideas through the sheer act of doing. Dig relentlessly for nuggets in the most unlikely of places until you’re blue in the face. Once you start writing, you’ll be fine. It’s the bit before that kills you.<br /><br />Be prepared to rewrite. The late David Abbott, copywriting legend and co-founder of AMV BBDO, would rework a headline 50 or 60 times before he was happy with it. Each one he'd read it out in a mid-Atlantic voice to check it flowed. Try writing a headline for all the words in the thesaurus relating to the product. Collect inspiration constantly. And then, for goodness sake, <em>get soemone to proofraed your work.</em><br /><br /><strong>4. Keep it simple</strong><br /><br />A headline that needs a subheader needs more work. The Copy Book’s Jim Durfee and Malcolm Gluck champion the phrase “kill your darlings”. It means getting rid of the things you love most - perhaps too many puns, or rhyming. Keep it simple and straight talking. Nobody liked lectures at school, so leave them there and don’t draw out your copy. After all, there’s no room for <a data-cke-saved-href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2019/01/whats-latest-edition-of-copy-book-tells.html" href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2019/01/whats-latest-edition-of-copy-book-tells.html" target="_blank">wasting time anymore</a>.<br /><br />Copy is being squashed into a corner, and crafting long copy has become less of a requirement. Write short sentences; use shorter words, and fewer adjectives. Today, the beauty of copy is in the simplicity. Mike Boles tells us “don’t be afraid to use no words”.</span><br /><br /><strong id="docs-internal-guid-e418a64f-7fff-4c30-4238-4532d25a032f"><img data-cke-saved-src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/HNF6WUyIggZw_LvCPRJ0wBkMnWpoFRXkwbYcq9PlQg7BK9-t4F8LnlU5UHlYa1kjvB6FSJ58rw7a2MLaAdIIljs4gIdmhIkYk3XoddoDe3Ron4W8pIPfWdWkNIQ633-HfbwsqF9O" height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/HNF6WUyIggZw_LvCPRJ0wBkMnWpoFRXkwbYcq9PlQg7BK9-t4F8LnlU5UHlYa1kjvB6FSJ58rw7a2MLaAdIIljs4gIdmhIkYk3XoddoDe3Ron4W8pIPfWdWkNIQ633-HfbwsqF9O" width="366" /></strong><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em>Ad copy hasn’t got long to make an impression these days</em><br /><br /><strong>5. Create a suitable work environment</strong><br /><br />Most writers like a quiet spot. If you work in an agency, this can be tricky. Sean Doyle recommends getting into work early. ‘Psychologically, physically, literally, you’ve got a head start on others.’ There’s no noise. Agencies seem like a different planet when they’re empty.<br /><br />And don’t feel you have to stay put in an office or at home. Environments change over time, but changing your own environment is instantaneous. Dan Germain of Innocent recommends taking a train or a plane somewhere. Not being anywhere helps him to write. Get outside and stare at the sky. Remember how little you matter, and perhaps it’ll take the strain from your writing.</span></span>Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-69936106419070535542019-01-24T15:49:00.000+00:002019-01-25T16:04:56.768+00:00What’s the latest edition of The Copy Book tell us about changes in copywriting?<i>The D&AD’s bestselling Copy Book’s out in a new edition. We dived in to find out how copywriting has changed since the original publication in 1995. Here’s what we found…</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Copy Book is D&AD’s highest ever selling book. It features 32 of the best ad copywriters in the world talking about their craft and showcasing their greatest work. Many writers consider 1995’s edition to be their Bible. So much so that some of the original copies used to sell for over £150 on Ebay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A lot’s happened since 1995. The internet, social media, fragmentation of traditional media audiences… to name a few. So we wanted to find out what the new edition reveals about what’s changed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Advertising’s less dominant</span></strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The new edition of The Copy Book welcomes just five newcomers to its pages. Of the five newcomers, there are two who are not from advertising. Dan Germain, a founder of Innocent, and direct response writer Steve Harrison. So copywriting experts are coming from new fields outside of advertising.</span></span></div>
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<i>Talk about below the line.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It says a lot about the state of advertising as a medium that the majority of showcased work in The Copy Book is over 10 years old. The medium simply doesn’t dominate in the digital era. Brand campaigns are playing second fiddle to measurable, tactical digital campaigns. Sales, Click-Through Rates and conversions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everything’s an ad nowadays</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That focus on the pack is new - or new-ish. In 1982, American actor Paul Newman decided to chat quirkily away on the side of his salad dressing packaging with lines like, “Fine Foods Since February”. I can remember being delighted by ‘Partswagon’ on a VW company truck. But playful copy remained rare until Innocent came along. Now everyone’s trying to do it, usually with disappointing results (does anyone really like </span></span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D28011f2a687239815971e1e8f%26id%3D3f8c9567b8%26e%3D90aaf709cd&source=gmail&ust=1548518282464000&usg=AFQjCNFhZqQHOlJhp-UIhwp4Cb8uBGRuCA" href="https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=28011f2a687239815971e1e8f&id=3f8c9567b8&e=90aaf709cd" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">Virgin’s relentless chirpiness</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s a testament to the work of branding agencies that every brand touchpoint is now not only designed - it’s also written in the brand’s tone of voice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Tone of voice is more important than messaging</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Innocent didn’t have any advertising budget at the outset, but had to have packaging.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“We didn’t know how to design the packaging and we didn’t know how to do marketing. But we had a go anyway.” - Dan Germain, Founder and Brand Director of innocent</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">They made the pack copy as much of a brand statement ('</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D28011f2a687239815971e1e8f%26id%3D0eafc7b670%26e%3D90aaf709cd&source=gmail&ust=1548518282464000&usg=AFQjCNH7YarQIf9f-QhaXpfhSw9wsDTBNg" href="https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=28011f2a687239815971e1e8f&id=0eafc7b670&e=90aaf709cd" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">packvertising</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">') as its design with their now famous chatty, quirky, tone of voice. That started a movement for distinctive tone of voice copy and its use as a brand communicator across multiple touchpoints that we see all around us today.</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D28011f2a687239815971e1e8f%26id%3Dcb75109ae4%26e%3D90aaf709cd&source=gmail&ust=1548518282464000&usg=AFQjCNGRzwrxD-Z2V1jBRzTRaPfcRDIumg" href="https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=28011f2a687239815971e1e8f&id=cb75109ae4&e=90aaf709cd" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">Chatty copy</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> is now so common that some consumers are rather sick of it, labelling it ‘</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D28011f2a687239815971e1e8f%26id%3Dfc6d2335e8%26e%3D90aaf709cd&source=gmail&ust=1548518282464000&usg=AFQjCNEiUXLprgI1fbvNj-Z6V5TZSbDEwA" href="https://barnabybenson.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=28011f2a687239815971e1e8f&id=fc6d2335e8&e=90aaf709cd" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">wackaging</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, "helvetica neue", helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Long copy is back</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Long copy hasn’t gone away, it’s just moved house. Rare in ads even in 1995, it is now almost extinct in advertising. But according to Nick Asbury, packaging, websites, brand narratives, tone of voice guides and copy-led identity schemes are the new places to find the art of long copy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One might think that innocent have a completely fresh new outlook on brand writing, but it’s really following classic advertising principles. Ad agencies used to talk about gaining permission to enter the consumer’s living room by providing entertainment before the sell. Now brands earn the consumer’s time. If you’re holding their pack - it’s your time. The brand should reward you for that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The fundamentals of copywriting haven’t (changed)”, says Paul Fishlock of BMF. “At their best, they tap into hard-wired drivers of human behaviour, which evolve over thousands of years, not ten minutes.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In our next blog</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s a lot of great tips on brand writing in The Copy Book, so we’ll be sharing the best of them in our next post.</span></span><br />
<br />Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-28255631499763137942018-10-17T14:28:00.004+01:002018-10-19T10:17:45.716+01:00Our five secrets of writing great copy<i>Ernest Hemingway revealed his personal writing secrets in a 1954 interview. He wrote just after sunrise when the air was ‘cool’, he typed his novels standing up, and he always stopped writing when he felt that he still had ‘juice’ ( the urge to carry on writing). But what if you’re writing sales emails rather than novels? </i><br />
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Copywriting is a different creative process to writing fiction, so Hemingway’s tips will not necessarily result in great copy. In this post, we’ve revealed the five essentials that have helped us over the years.<br />
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<b>Understand the way people think </b><br />
Dale Carnegie told us, ‘When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion’. <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/05/how-to-move-audiences-from-to-b.html">Humans do not base decisions entirely on reason.</a> Study after study has shown that happiness, fear, excitement etc. hold a huge influence over the decision-making process.<br />
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But how does that help copywriters? It means selling the emotional benefits of a product. Alton Towers doesn’t advertise the height of a new roller coaster, it advertises the ‘thrill’ of riding it. Now, that doesn’t mean you can reject reason all together After you’ve grabbed the reader's attention, they’ll still need evidence. So, use emotion to prompt action and use logic to support your original claim.<br />
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<b>Remove yourself from the equation </b><br />
In his book <i>Copywriting</i>, Mark Shaw admits that it’s not the purest form of creative expression as there is ‘no room for your personality’. Copywriting is a commercial activity: you write for different clients, and various brands, and it's their identity and story that must be communicated through language.<br />
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<b>Tone connects</b><br />
This identity is commonly referred to as tone of voice. It’s a combination of style, grammar, vocabulary and attitudes which contribute to a brand’s identity.<br />
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Apparently, 80% of meaning in telephone conversations comes from the <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/09/why-tone-of-voice-should-be-about-brand.html">tone of voice</a> - not the meaning of what is said. With writing, you also don’t see the writer’s face. But what you say, and the way you say it, does stimulate the emotions. So you have to examine the effect of every single word in a message. Semantic differences between two similar words can have a profound effect on meaning.<br />
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Nike have one of the best and longest serving slogans in the world today. But imagine if it was changed from ‘Just Do It’ to ‘Do It Now’. Literally understood, they mean similar things. But the tones are drastically different: while the first encourages the reader to get up and conquer the world, the second sounds like a parent having their patience tested.<br />
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<b>Love the brief </b><br />
Copywriting involves tight deadlines and sharp turnarounds. So it’s easy to rush into the writing without doing the groundwork first. But how can you work at a quicker pace and get it right first time? An ex-Army captain I once worked with said that, no matter how much pressure they were under, they were taught in training to spend at least 10 percent of the time available on planning. It’s the same with copy. No matter how rushed the job, you need to take time to think through the <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/02/seven-things-every-creative-brief.html">brief</a>. Make sure everything’s considered: be clear on the key messages, the tone, the context, the goal and the audience. This guides your writing, meaning fewer revisions and redrafts.<br />
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<b>Empathise with your audience </b><br />
Sir Michael Caine recently said that, if he’s to successfully play a character, he needs to imagine someone he’s known who shared their traits or predicament. It’s a good tip for writers. You need to have a clear profile of your audience in mind. What do they like to do on a Friday night? What’s their dream? What’s their greatest fear? Once you have a feel for this, you will make better choices about what messages to present and in what tone.<br />
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So what are the five secrets to writing great copy? A balance between emotion and reason, the removal of your ego, an understanding of how to convey tone, a commitment to the brief and an ability to empathise with your audience.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-90685366835933805092018-09-26T14:30:00.000+01:002018-09-26T16:13:17.851+01:00Swearing: when it can work for brands <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Sometimes it’s okay to swear (sorry mum). Step on a plug? That’s fine. Burn the Sunday roast? Fair enough. Missed the last train home and now your phone has died? Go on, let it all out. But what about when you’re working for a major brand? Well, you would be surprised.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Messages don’t always resonate with an audience in the way you intended. Unfortunately, it happens. But if you genuinely cause offense, it’s a complete disaster. This leads us on to the topic of swearing in copywriting and advertising - is it ever okay? Well, there’s a time and a place for everything. Here’s when a bit of bad language can work for brands… </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Save your money! Research has proven that swearing actually reduces pain </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Appeal to emotion
</b>Lane Greene, the language expert at The Economist, tells us that swearing activates a different part of the brain than normal speech does. It’s associated with the area that processes basic emotions rather than language itself. Considering this, let’s have a look at an advert for the online travel agent Booking.com:</span></span><br />
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<i>‘This holiday has been a year in the planning. And here you are standing, nay staring down your dreams … The rest of your holiday hinges on the moment you walk through that door.</i></span></span><br />
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The door opens, you hold your breath and then you realise. You got it right. You got it booking right. Because it doesn’t get any better than this. It doesn’t get any booking better than this.’</i></span></span><br />
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The implied swearing works so well as it expresses an emotional benefit to their service: the sense of relief. It abides by one of the copywriting commandments of ‘benefits before features’ and it also reinforces the brand name through repetition. </span></span><br />
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Create an identity
</b>Having a distinct market position is an essential ingredient to success, and having a distinct tone of voice is one way to do this. We worked on an advertising campaign for the Imperial College Business School (ICBS) and were tasked with making them stand out against some major competitors. <b>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You may have seen our work on your commute</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We came up with an infinitely adaptable headline, ‘What the future does...?’ Imperial could add whatever they were researching to complete the question. E.g. 'What the future does nano technology have to do with saving the planet?' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tone was confident, the messaging was bold, and it presented ICBS as a forward thinker who were shaping the future of business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Be authentic</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">KFC hit the headlines earlier in the year due to their ‘chicken crisis’: a dispute with a supplier meant that the fast food outlet was forced to close dozens of stores across the country. And it doesn’t take a genius to realise a chicken shop that doesn’t have any chicken will quickly lose favour with customers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the aftermath, KFC’s PR department took out full-page ads which saw their famous acronym reshuffled to spell ‘FCK’. We swear when we’re frustrated and unable to contain our emotions, so when a brand swears it humanises them. It’s a genuine admission of fault and it gains the reader’s sympathy rather than their ire.
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps that’s the most powerful gain of swearing: it makes a brand sound human and less corporate, breaking down a barrier between them and the consumer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, all of these examples hint at swearing without actually using the swear words. Real swearing in copy would associate the brand with loss of control, being uncouth and probably contravenes <a href="https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/offence-language.html">Advertising Association guidelines</a>. Some of their judgments against brands are worth a read - partly for guidance but also to marvel at how far the naughty boys of branding have pushed it.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-87191570822635117592018-08-28T11:55:00.000+01:002018-08-28T15:04:44.462+01:00Five techniques that guarantee great content marketing<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Content marketing is a long-term play - you want to build relationships and shape brand perception whilst appealing to the search engine’s taste for quality content. So, what are the do’s and don’ts? </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gone are the days of simply packing copy with key search terms. You’ve now got to provide authoritative content to be rewarded by the search engines. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Laura Johnston wore these shorts for 135 days straight. We don’t recommend the same for socks.</span></td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Encourage participation </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company selling sustainable products, run a blog called The Cleanest Line where they publish content on climbing, surfing, eco-living, conservation and more. One of their recent blog posts details the travels of a hiker who encourages readers not to buy a pair of new shorts. Instead urging them to ‘repair and reuse’ and learn the ‘value of fewer’ possessions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although it doesn’t encourage a sale, it does something more valuable - it builds a bond between the brand and its readership by sharing common values and interests. In content marketing, ‘participate’ should not be a synonym for ‘buy something’. Instead, communications should encourage people to get on board with your brand’s ethos. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Know your audience </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Creating a relationship with your target audience does not mean stating your values and waiting to see who agrees. You must understand the tastes and preferences of your target audience and share their enthusiasms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A great example is Land Rover’s One Life blog. Who’s their typical customer? Perhaps, a family that loves an adventure but lives in North London. So they post blogs on ‘nights in the wilderness’, ‘microadventures’ and ‘exploring the city at night’: all perfectly suited to young families living in cities. Land Rover know who buys their cars and they tailor content to mirror their lifestyles and attitudes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Avoid the temptation to promote</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Influence and Co. conducted a study where they interviewed editors about the issues they faced when receiving content: 79% stated that the biggest problem was proposals that were ‘too promotional’. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that is not to say there’s anything wrong with advertising a brand, but don’t try and make a sale under the guise of informative content, as people will question your brand’s trustworthiness. As a rule of thumb, if your products are going to appear make sure they’re in the background rather than the foreground. The customer experience should be the hero.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Provide insight </b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everyday, a vast amount of content is published. Somehow, google’s algorithm identifies the best, most useful items and ranks them highly. So you have to strive to be an authority in your field. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One way to do this is to provide insights. Saying the same thing as everyone else will not get you noticed, nor will it galvanise and extend your current readership. Research your field and give readers something that your competitors aren’t offering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5. High concept content marketing </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Content marketing typically means articles, newsletters, blogs etc. But increasingly, you’re seeing major brands create concept-driven content marketing campaigns. They look and feel like advertising campaigns, except they’re designed to stimulate an audience’s interest in a subject rather than a product. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take Nike’s ‘Breaking2’ campaign - a push to use technology and innovation to break the two-hour barrier for a marathon. Nike products appear in the background but the primary content is not the shoes - it is what’s happening to push the barriers of possibility, an expression of Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ attitude. Whether you’re breaking a marathon record, or going on your first run in years, it’s a subject their customers can embrace, follow and participate in. There’s a story to it: you want to see what will happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To summarise, content marketing is a way to talk with, rather than talk at, your audience. Remember that content marketing is at the first step in the purchase process: attracting new customers. So avoid blatant promotion, understand your audience’s values and enthusiasm, provide some real knowledge, and don’t be afraid of big ideas. </span><br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-83413307993417299972018-06-12T13:00:00.000+01:002018-06-12T13:03:21.328+01:00What could GDPR emails possibly teach you about persuasive writing?<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Whether
it’s the World Cup, final of Wimbledon, or the humble sales email, competition
brings out the best in people (unless you play football for England). <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Changes to EU data protection law, better known as GDPR, prompted a
deluge of emails. Inboxes were awash with rather desperate requests for your
consent, gentle reminders to opt-in, and needy pleas to ‘stay in touch’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But not every brand did the obvious. In this post, we take a look at the
some of the ones that stood out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1. Urgency
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Robert Cialdini, in his book <i>Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion</i>,
cites the importance of the ‘scarcity principle’: ‘the idea of potential loss
plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more
motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining
something of equal value’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Economist’s email immediately stresses scarcity by opening with the
superlative ‘last’. It does not plead, nor does it directly address the reader,
instead it encourages action by plainly and definitively stating, ‘you will
have no other chance to potentially receive something valuable from The
Economist’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2. Putting
‘you’ before ‘we’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This is copywriting 101. Using 2nd person pronouns (you/your) rather
than 1st person (I/we) grants writing persuasive power. Its efficacy was
revealed by a study published in the <i>Journal of Consumer Research</i>, which showed
that ‘self-relevant’ messages are more effective at encouraging a desired
action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">John Lewis utilised this technique, with their GDPR subject line reading:
‘Today is your very last chance’. In reality it meant: ‘Today is our very last
chance’. But a small change in pronouns has a significant semantic effect,
placing the reader at the centre of the message. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3. Humour <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">GDPR emails got monotonous very quickly (even the two successful
attempts just cited are only a few words apart). With every brand essentially
wanting to do the same thing, they had to work hard to get noticed. A great
example of using humour to differentiate was found in an email from Percolate
(an electronic music promoter). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who doesn't love regulated data protection?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The subject line popped out of the inbox as it shouted, ‘WHAT COULD THIS
EMAIL POSSIBLY BE ABOUT?’ Before the email opened up to a picture of a vibrant
party scene with the caption, ‘HANDS UP WHO LOVES GDPR’. The email was funny,
self-aware, and above all different. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4.
Emotional benefits <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One of the copywriting commandments is ‘benefits before features’. A
mistake often found in the GDPR emails was a failure to communicate a clear
benefit of staying in touch. Whilst a benefit was clearly absent from many,
others were simply too vague. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Resident Advisor (an online music magazine and community platform)
nailed their subject line, which read, ‘Life is better with music. Keep
discovering it’. The email prioritises the benefit (improving your quality of
life) over the feature (Resident Advisor provides tickets, information and
reviews for music lovers). By communicating a clear emotive reward, it compels
the reader to opt-in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">5. Call to
action <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The focus so far has largely fallen on the opening to emails, but let’s
have a look at the close – the call to action. Wiser, a recruitment agency,
created an intelligent call to action that worked for two reasons: 1. It looked
different 2. It utilised intelligent phrasing.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JsdOdzRu6y4/WxemZm3yz1I/AAAAAAAAAEA/DyBilUcQ41k59MmnwApevJpJrhcrtgzXwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/GDPR%2BWiser.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="568" height="162" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JsdOdzRu6y4/WxemZm3yz1I/AAAAAAAAAEA/DyBilUcQ41k59MmnwApevJpJrhcrtgzXwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/GDPR%2BWiser.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2015, the Oxford Dictionary's 'Word of the Year' was the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji </span>😂</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Emojis are becoming increasingly popular in everyday brand
communications. The ‘heart face’ emoji signifies, particularly to a younger
audience, ‘you will love this!’ It also rephrases the ‘unsubscribe’ option to
instead say, you can ‘tailor’ your preferences. This discourages the reader to
unsubscribe as tailoring takes time. So, why not go with the simple option and
click the heart face emoji?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">6. Guilt<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Labour Party went for an orthodox approach to GDPR. Readers were
told that if they did not consent they would ‘ruin Jeremy’s birthday’. It may
seem risky, as many people might enjoy the idea of ruining a politician’s
birthday, but using guilt to encourage action is a proven technique. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Researchers from the Universities of Mississippi State and Western
Ontario have shown that ‘reactive guilt’, the response to having violated one’s
standards of acceptable behaviour, has a clearly observable effect on human
decision making. Surely, politician or not, no one would ruin an old geezer’s
birthday? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So, what have these GDPR emails taught us about writing persuasive emails? Well, in short: get emotional. Express urgency, 'you' not 'we', humour, loaded call-to-action buttons, guilt... they're all using emotion to get the reader involved and responding. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-80551334154719292472018-05-10T14:30:00.000+01:002018-05-10T14:30:25.253+01:00Copy that guarantees great meetings <br />
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, insists on unconventional six-page
memos for all meetings. In this blog post, we provide you with essential tips
for summarising the key issues in a way that is considered, stimulating and
easy to read</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Amazon’s owner and founder has many idiosyncratic business practices. Be
it his ‘two-pizza rule’ for meeting sizes (never have a meeting where two
pizzas couldn't feed the entire group), or his refusal to use an alarm clock.
He recently hit the headlines for his insights into Amazon’s philosophy on
memos.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Bezos revealed meetings begin with 30-minutes of silence where attendees
read through a ‘narratively structured’ memo which he believes should take ‘a
week or more’ to prepare. Bezos, however, struggled to articulate what exactly a
‘great’ memo is: ‘It would be extremely hard to write down the detailed
requirements that make up a great memo’.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Sounds like a copywriting challenge. So here goes...</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykDjU-7hyXU/WvMG0B1wU-I/AAAAAAAAACQ/tIzdpZKbDe4V2hqm-zjg8vxH7BT_c38NQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Pizza.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="660" height="189" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykDjU-7hyXU/WvMG0B1wU-I/AAAAAAAAACQ/tIzdpZKbDe4V2hqm-zjg8vxH7BT_c38NQCEwYBhgL/s320/Pizza.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He didn't say what size pizza...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. Core Message<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">When writing a memo, ask yourself: can I summarise it in a sentence? For
any communication to be easy to assimilate, there needs to be an overarching
idea – usually an argument it makes and then proves. No matter how many points
are covered there must be this unifying thread.</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Meetings have become an object of ire in the modern workplace. Reid
Hastie, Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Chicago, asserts
that this is due to a lack of ‘clear objectives or an agenda’. To remedy this, make sure your memo clearly communicates the current position and states
tangible goals.</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2. Planning is all<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Once you’ve established your core message, you can’t just jump in to
the prose. It’s time to plan the structure. Thomas Hood declared in <i>Copyright
and Copywrong</i> (1837), ‘the easiest reading is damned hard writing’. He reasons
the experience of a reader is always dependent on the skill of, or the effort
put in by, the writer. And he’s right.</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A writer needs to spend time reviewing the content of a memo so it will
anticipate any questions a reader may have. Then spend more time structuring it
to achieve the most logical order. Only when they’re happy with the flow of
information and the build-up of ideas should they begin to write.</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This sense of the right info in the right order is what people mean by a
‘good narrative’ – it gives the information the grip of a good story. Once the memo has this, people will be more likely to read and understand its contents. And that will help the
meeting produce better outcomes.</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QeO0tZR1meQ/WvMH9xqPB-I/AAAAAAAAACY/sWNOchXXfQ8KgwA17xQ29eH7v2EDt1r1QCEwYBhgL/s1600/Memento.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="1020" height="133" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QeO0tZR1meQ/WvMH9xqPB-I/AAAAAAAAACY/sWNOchXXfQ8KgwA17xQ29eH7v2EDt1r1QCEwYBhgL/s320/Memento.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Keep it simple. You're writing a memo not <i>Memento.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3. Topic Sentences</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Another tool to keep the reader on track is the topic sentence. This is
used at the beginning of a paragraph/section and communicates the controlling
thought (e.g. ‘A shorter lunch break and earlier finish will increase
productivity’). Readers don’t need to work out what you mean as you’ve told
them. You still have to make a case by presenting relevant detail and
supporting evidence, but the original point is made loud and clear.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4. Linking phrases</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">With a ‘narratively structured’ memo, one key point may be explained
over several paragraphs. The more time spent reading means an increased chance the reader loses your train of thought. Use linking phrases to coax the reader along and hold their attention. For example, if you utilise the phrase 'There are many reasons why this is true', you can feel yourself being pulled along by the prose. This is because linking phrases grant your writing forward momentum by telling the reader 'there's more to come'. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">5. Proofreading </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">All of this clarity takes time, which brings us to Jeff Bezos’s last
point: ‘a great memo should probably take a week or more’ to write. It’s hard
to structure an argument then craft clear copy. When you think you’ve done it,
you should take a break – ideally overnight – and come back to the piece
with <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/11/5-easy-ways-to-become-better-writer.html"><span style="color: blue;">fresh eyes</span></a>. Or better yet, ask someone else to
take a look.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">To summarise, a great memo needs: a clear central message, a logical flow, topic sentences and linking phrases - and enough time to do it all. Good luck!</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-82994036262630433642018-04-18T09:53:00.001+01:002022-05-10T09:07:56.106+01:00Spring clean your copy <i style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The sun’s shining, flowers are blooming, leaves are appearing.... it’s
time to spring clean your copywriting – out with the old and in with the new!</span></i><br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">1.</span></b><b style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b><b style="font-size: x-large;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Cliché</span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Martin Amis published a collection of essays under the title, 'The War Against Cliché'. Author and language-grump George Orwell called cliché a ‘dying
metaphor’, only used ‘because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases
for themselves’. Cliché reveals a lack of original thought and makes any
communication sound tired, derivative and slap-dash. It’s an insidious force in
all marketing, branding and copywriting.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">In </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2012/01/take-break-from-hackneyed-travel-copy.html"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt;">travel
copy</span></a></span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, the cobbled lanes of the old town are seldom anything but ‘charming’.
In recruitment copy, how many job ads promise a ‘dynamic, fast-paced
environment’?</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">If it comes to mind straight away, it’s probably a cliché. Strip
hackneyed phrases from your writing, dive a little deeper and your writing will
improve instantly.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<h3>
<b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">2. Placing the rational over the
emotional </span></b></h3>
<div>
<b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">If you’re trying to sell something – and most copywriting is, to a
greater or lesser extent – one of the biggest mistakes you can make is just
appealing to reason. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/05/how-to-move-audiences-from-to-b.html"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt;">People
make decisions based on hot emotion, not cold facts</span></a></span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Petrol-heads don’t buy a <span style="background: white;">277 mph</span> top-speed,
they buy the feeling of exhilaration. Those looking to fight wrinkles don’t buy
the latest advance in dermatological science, they buy the promise of youth. By
all means bring out the facts to back up the claim, but whatever you do, start
with emotion.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
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<h3>
<b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;">3. Benefits not
features</span></b></h3>
<div>
<b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This one is closely linked to the reason/emotion principle, but with a
subtle difference. One of the biggest howlers a copywriter can make is to try
to sell the features of a product. People don’t really care if your product has
11 different settings: what’s actually in it for them? Will it save time, money,
hassle, embarrassment? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">For those at the back of the class:<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> see <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/06/the-ten-commandments-of-copywriting.html#more">number nine</a> of our 'ten commandments for copywriting'!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;"><b>4. </b></span><b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;">The word ‘engaged’</span></b></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">We are also prohibiting ‘engage’, ‘engaging’ – or the worst offender,
‘engagement’, or at least cut down on using it. It’s a useful general term, yet infuriatingly pervasive and
rather worn out. So you want to ‘engage’ your audience? What does that actually
mean: change their mind, get them to visit a website, call your sales team,
read a blog?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">South East Museums released an informative guide to help museums 'engage
young people in art'. What they really mean is that young people find galleries
boring and they want to change that. </span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Why not advertise an interactive area of a gallery with the copy: 'Tired
of looking with your eyes? Start looking with your hands'. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;">5</span><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;">. <b>From / to</b></span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">All writers are guilty of using this one from time to time, but it’s an
exhausted technique that makes any piece of copy sound a bit uninspired.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">From the corridors of power to the people on
the street, society is changing fast</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">From Hamlet to Harry Potter, British
Literature punches above its weight worldwide</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">From key tie-ins with
worldwide commercial partners to the new ideas spearheading our social
media strategy, 2016/17 saw us enjoy strong growth across the board</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Yawn. Journalists might just get away with it, but for brands who need
to stand out in a crowded market - you won’t achieve that with
this. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<h3>
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b>6. Don't go on too long</b></span></h3>
<div>
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Let's stop there for now. Five more in our next blog.</span></div>
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<br />Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-72961927428957358442018-01-11T15:45:00.000+00:002018-04-17T15:31:13.371+01:002017 marketing trends and what's in store for 2018<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>2017 was a bewildering, rollercoaster year. But putting aside scandal, cryptocurrency, political chaos and a certain royal engagement, what did last year mean for marketers, brand agencies, copywriters and creatives? </i></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Here's a run-down of the most important trends we spotted this year - and why we think they'll continue shaping the industry in 2018.</i></span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. The social media honeymoon is over</span></h3>
<div>
We all knew social media was awful for our attention spans and the plague of productivity, but 2017 saw storms gather as our understanding of the pitfalls of social media matured further.</div>
<br />
Two Apple shareholders (holding about $2 billion in stock between them) called on the tech giant’s board of directors to investigate iPhone addiction amongst children and make it easier for parents to control screen time. Less screen time means fewer opportunities for brands, advertisers and marketers to reach their audiences.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
After the scandal surrounding ‘fake news’ rocked Facebook during the 2016 US presidential election, the world’s most popular social media site had another difficult year as accusations of political manipulation refused to fade.<br />
<br />
Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that “Facebook has a lot of work to do [in 2018] whether it's protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent.” <br />
<br />
That'll be easier said than done. Congress is divided over whether to impose regulations that would define Facebook as a television network or telecoms company, rather than the neutral ‘platform’ it purports to be. <br />
<br />
At the same time, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will introduce tougher fines for data breaches and give users more control over how their data is used.<br />
<br />
The problem for copywriters, brand agencies, advertisers, marketers and the brands we serve is that social media is probably the most important channel for communicating with audiences.<br />
<div>
<br />
So <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/11/five-brands-getting-social-media-right.html">writing for social media</a> now has to be more relevant and more judicious than ever, especially since scepticism of the content published via Facebook, Twitter and other platforms looks set to continue to grow in 2018.<br />
<div>
<br />
<div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Print-based marketing is stronger than ever</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Research published by the Direct Marketing Association showed that response rates for direct mail are up to 37 times higher than email response rates. They are also at their highest since records began, rising 14% since 2004 while email response rates have fallen by 57%.<br />
<br />
Why? Put simply, print shows you've made an effort. Especially with high-ticket items or premium brands, it pays to think outside the tweet or text. Takes this direct mailer we wrote for P&O Cruises, to drive repeat business. No-one books a cruise without serious consideration. So, we needed to position the brand and its product as valuable and value for money, which is why a serious, weighty piece of 'proper' marketing was needed. The medium is the message.<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e5531229-e5b5-32e5-8e90-536d6ba1b5f6"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="439" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/CHnLFQv6ot-VVBWxvN85hFi08tYobBs49MMBIzkZ1jqod4EsvQ7X0yGtXpHilpJku-rOQtjA4ONFqqyCg2aAIJ84HSvPkMJcyuqS6ZG-rrP-b9dmoU1AErWZ3A5D9Xo7VYWy0qqc" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="376" /></span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
And it's not just consumers who sit up and pay attention to print. We were tasked with reminding senior managers at a major bank to take risk more seriously. So we wrote a 10,000-word contemporary parable in book form. It worked because people treat a 'real' book differently - reverently even - compared with, say, an email attachment.<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e5531229-e5b8-2631-34a8-8d1002a4955f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="534" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/QZVTnFkV5z7RUwW0Lx72GABZZTPOwskRKbFY0rrc9T7pkFaeE-2LnCIv8MG3IYHWaEM9Z9DjZmn6k3fn_P2aVhliEKr66F2Y1sGEMQe19bYjT8osiJUwClj2400Ae2HCxn78AL4x" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="344" /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
Eye-opening research by NDP BookScan shows printed book sales have risen each year for five straight years (rising 10.8% since 2013), while sales of ebooks were down 5.4% between Jan-Aug 2017 compared with 2016. The printed word is back and looks set to become even more important in 2018.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. No train, no gain</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Just as marketeers and readers are returning to traditional, tangible media, those looking to brush up on their writing, marketing and business skills are increasingly turning from online resources to face-to-face training.<br />
<br />
We taught a Guardian Masterclass on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2015/sep/22/writing-persuasive-copy-a-one-day-course-barnaby-benson-copywriting-course1">persuasive writing</a> every couple of months in 2017 and launched a new class on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2017/jul/13/kickstart-marketing-how-to-create-launch-brand-business-course">SME marketing and branding</a>. Demand is high and more classes are planned for 2018. Clients asked us for more bespoke training this year than ever.<br />
<br />
Now more staff are expected to do more writing, whether it's customer service emails or internal comms, professional copywriters are required to educate, not just create. New <a href="https://barnabybenson.co.uk/trainingclients.html">training clients</a> this year ranged from architectural practices, office outfitters and telecoms giants to international business schools and a major bank. It helps having a qualified teacher on our team, as 2018 looks set to be another busy year for training.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. New (old) social networks are taking over</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
It's not just how marketers and brand agencies work that is changing: networking and new business activity is evolving, too.<br />
<br />
Back in the day, you'd head off to a convention or trade fair if you wanted to schmoose prospects and see what competitors were up to. More recently, you'd pepper LinkedIn with connection requests and status updates.<br />
<br />
These days, you're as likely to make a viable new contact at a 'content event' in a private members' club or an upscale hotel. We recently gave a talk on how to win pitches at Soho House. A club targeting professionals in the creative industry, Soho House offers members events, high-profile speakers, product launches, educational seminars - and, of course. a hip bar to relax in.<br />
<br />
For upscale hotels, 'content' and 'programming' are also growing in importance. Guests can now catch a Q&A, ruminate on art or rub shoulders and hope to connect with high-flyers from the worlds of art, fashion, design and the media. <br />
<br />
More and more professionals across all sectors are turning to these spaces to build their networks. Rather than replacing the trade fair, they complement formal business events by blending learning, socialising and networking in a more relaxed environment. <br />
<br />
In giving like-minded people a space to connect over shared interests ('likes', we might say), these clubs and hotels function a bit like social media - but in the real world. <br />
<br />
In the busy creative and marketing industries, these clubs mark the cross-over between free time and work time: a place where unwinding with a drink after a long day might just end up with your next lead.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Brexit is forcing us all to think global</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
You might have noticed an uptick in international client business during 2017. We certainly did, as agencies in the US, India and the far east took advantage of the weak pound and sought our services.<br />
<br />
For British firms and creatives, 2018 may well just be the year when working globally becomes the new normal.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. Full service agencies are back</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Well, sort of. For a while now we've seen brand agencies doing ads, ad agencies doing brand consultancy, design studios offering strategy and PR firms having a go at everything. In other words, we're seeing a slow return to the old full service agency model.<br />
<br />
In October 2017, NASDAQ-listed digital, business and technology giant Cognizant acquired Zone, one of the UK's leading full service agencies. And Publicis formed a new, dedicated full service agency for its P&G account, signalling a growing marketing appetite for agencies who can do it all.<br />
<br />
We've certainly noticed the change. Before Christmas we were brought in to provide ad concepts for a big high-street restaurant chain for a brand consultancy. Not so long ago, we helped create the concept for an advertising campaign for <a href="https://www.opx.co.uk/case-studies/imperial-college-business-school-2/">Imperial College Business School</a> for their communications agency, OPX.<br />
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We've always worked across the branding/advertising, online/offline, public/private, B2B/B2C divides, across most sectors - and offered a full range: <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjiwpWD783YAhVsBsAKHbsDDLYQFggnMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbarnabybenson.co.uk%2Fwriting-training.html&usg=AOvVaw0dPmWEakdK19XpGwPw9nm4">training,</a> <a href="https://barnabybenson.co.uk/tone-of-voice-project-samples.html">tone of voice guidelines</a>, <a href="https://barnabybenson.co.uk/annual-reports.html">annual reports</a>, <a href="http://barnabybenson.co.uk/speechwriting-and-hosts-scripts.html">speeches</a>, <a href="https://barnabybenson.co.uk/video-and-animation-script-samples.html">scripts</a> and <a href="https://barnabybenson.co.uk/strapline-project-samples.html">straplines</a>. In 2018, marketing, branding and creative agencies need to be ready for anything.<br />
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Barnaby Bensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05302614589679172318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-60419734798427120722017-11-09T10:55:00.000+00:002018-01-15T12:44:36.902+00:00Five brands getting social media right - and why<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Communicating on social media is about relaxing the <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2014/11/eight-tone-of-voice-myths-debunked.html">brand’s tone</a> for the informal mood of the medium. Marketing on social media is about creating ideas that are simply irresistible to the audience. Here are five that work a treat.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. Twitter: BTCare</b></span></div>
Twitter and customer service are a match made in heaven and BT are getting both right. Not only does Twitter allow brands to handle customer problems much more quickly than over the phone, it gives big brands the chance to show a bit of personality. <br />
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Take these two tweets. In the first, BT maintains a friendly tone of voice without being too cutesy, letting the satisfied customer know they are there should any more problems arise. That conversational tone can really help diffuse customer anger and humanise a brand.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/gasthebadger">@gasthebadger</a> Ahh Fantastic! If you need any help in future you know where we are :) ^LauraS</div>
— BTCare (@BTCare) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTCare/status/826420047887396868">January 31, 2017</a></blockquote>
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In this next tweet, BT really goes the extra mile, checking back in - unprompted - with a customer who was having difficulties the previous day. Here they maintain a personable, yet professional tone. After all, the last thing you want when experiencing technical difficulties is twee optimism.
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@yelsgnik_etc Are you still experiencing problems this morning? ^Dale</div>
— BTCare (@BTCare) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTCare/status/832143000117637120">February 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">2. Instagram: Airbnb</b><br />
Instagram works so well for Airbnb because they post stylish pictures of their holiday rentals in a way that looks more like a tastemaking blog than a sales catalogue. Imagine consumers browsing your sales brochure for their own enjoyment? Madness. Then they add suitably conversational captions talking about ‘food comas’ and how we should ‘just roll with it’ – perfect for their social media-savvy millennial <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/05/how-to-move-audiences-from-to-b.html">target audience</a>. <span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
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<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;">
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BPrCV0ej9eg/" style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">After consuming all of the barbecue that Austin has to offer, nothing feels better than a nap. Good news: the afternoon sunlight shines through the windows of this Airbnb Airstream, warming the bed until it’s the perfect place to sleep off a food coma. So snuggle up with the resident pup and dream of dinner. If an Airbnb Door has ever led you to the perfect meal or bed, share it with us using #AirbnbDoor. photo credit: @janekelloggmurray</a></div>
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A post shared by Airbnb (@airbnb) on <time datetime="2017-01-25T03:34:57+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Jan 24, 2017 at 7:34pm PST</time></div>
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That’s almost 30,000 likes. But where Airbnb really gets it right on Instagram is the content mix. They produce travel guides for exciting cities that are perfect for their cosmopolitan audience. And their recent #weaccept campaign, accompanied by stunning close-up photography, communicates their <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/09/why-tone-of-voice-should-be-about-brand.html">brand values</a> of diversity, internationalism and cooperation.<br />
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">3. Facebook: Boohoo.com</b><br />
In 2016, online fashion retailer Boohoo.com topped the list for the most views of a single Facebook Live post, with almost 400,000 users tuning in to the real-time video. At number two was The Body Coach, with just over 20,000 interactions. So how did Boohoo do it so well?<br />
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It’s simple. They made their live video truly interactive, inviting users to answer questions in real-time, giving away prizes (Boohoo products, of course) every minute for correct answers. Users were glued to the video, meaning hundreds of thousands of people stared at a brand name and its products for 60 minutes, non-stop. How else could you achieve that kind of exposure? People don’t stare at the same billboard for an hour, no matter how delayed their train is.<br />
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">4. Snapchat: Oak</b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6ef51efa-a055-7ff5-dca7-f6f1ceacf6a8">From one hour videos to split-second marketing - let's take a look at Snapchat. A<a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/07/why-i-would-rather-be-on-instagram.html"> big chunk of the temporary content platform’s 150 million daily users are teenagers</a>. <br /><br />Flavoured milk brand, Oak saw an opportunity, running a campaign where followers had one second each day to screenshot a coupon for a free drink. It was devilishly tricky, playing into the love of mobile gaming common among Snapchat’s millennial user base, inviting repeat visits and driving user subscriptions as friends competed to bag a freebie. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milking social media for all it's worth</td></tr>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6ef51efa-a055-7ff5-dca7-f6f1ceacf6a8"><br />But if that’s got you thinking it’s just for kids, think again. As teens grow up and late-to-the-party adults download the app, Snapchat’s potential for marketing has skyrocketed. The temporary content platform now reaches 41 percent of all 18 to 34 year-olds in the United States, every day, meaning we’ll see more and more brands turning to the app to reach younger audiences. Audi, McDonald’s and World Wildlife Fund have all enjoyed successful Snapchat campaigns.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">5. WhatsApp: Heineken</b></div>
Still texting? You might be one of the few left. WhatsApp is a messaging platform that lets users form group conversations and share media. It’s perfect for brands: WhatsApp boasts a 70% <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/10/8-tips-to-get-your-emails-opened-and.html">open rate</a> for all messages – and over a billion monthly users. In the UK, marketers can only dream of stats like that, with email open rates for SMEs hovering around the 20% mark.</div>
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<b><br /></b>Beverage giant Heineken invited audiences to WhatsApp (yep, it’s so popular it’s become a verb) a number listed on a beer bottle. Users then had to answer five football trivia questions correctly to be in with a chance to win tickets to the Champions League final. It had the feeling of a pub quiz or a bantering exchange with a friend over a text message, with friends competing to outsmart one another with their trivia knowledge. <br />
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Participants were totally absorbed throughout, opening not just one but five marketing communications from the brand.</div>
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Getting social media branding and marketing right isn’t easy, but the reach - and the rewards - can be huge for brands enough to take on social.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-51409592941412426852017-10-10T11:06:00.000+01:002018-01-15T11:59:42.999+00:00Political brand language<h3>
<i style="font-weight: normal;">Winning the war of words is key to winning votes in British politics. But how do once-benign terms crystallize into divisive political vocabulary? We investigate contemporary political language games and show how they aren't all that different to company branding.</i></h3>
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What does the word ‘progressive’ mean? Chances are, your mind has gone straight to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. They’re always claiming their policies are ‘progressive’. In branding terms, they ‘own’ the word. And what a word to own! No one is against progress. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The term originally referred to taxation that progresses – i.e. the percentage of the tax you pay increases the more you earn. It could have easily been called something unpleasant like ‘loaded taxation’ or ‘ratcheting taxation’ but George Bernard Shaw was advocating the approach in a booklet published in 1889. So he chose an appealing word. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<b>First mover advantage</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Just like brands who use their first mover advantage to seize certain properties for themselves, once you own a word, it’s very hard for a competitor to take it off you or change its meaning. Believe it or not, the Conservatives tried to position themselves as the progressive party <a href="http://conservative-speeches.sayit.mysociety.org/speech/601421"><span style="color: blue;">back in 2009</span></a>. It didn’t work. Similarly, amongst a certain generation of car owners, Volvo is still associated with safety even though Mercedes invented the crumple zone and Ford invented the airbag. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Going negative</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The flip side of taking ownership of an appealing word is going after a term your enemy uses and displacing its neutral linguistic definition with a politically toxic one. David Cameron popularized the term ‘austerity’ in a 2009 speech, and the then Chancellor, George Osbourne, was happy to use it to describe his budget over the course of the parliament. The Left seized on the term, making it the focus of opposition to Conservative economic policy. It worked.<br />
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Now even the Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘Austerity’ as ‘difficult economic conditions’, a far cry from its original, apolitical meaning, ‘severity or sternness, plainness or simplicity’. Even independent journalists on the BBC use it to describe the policy, despite its politically charged connotations. It is now rare to hear Conservative ministers use the word but they waited too long. Its meaning is set and its negative association with the Conservatives is locked.</div>
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<b>Spinning toffs and spending luvvies</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Conservatives may not have been on form recently, but they are past masters at political language. When you take total government expenditure divided by the number of years in office since 1946, the Conservative party have borrowed more than any Labour government for the past 70 years. So why is Labour always perceived as the party of reckless borrowing and relying on the ‘magic money tree’? </div>
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Since the financial crisis, Conservatives have repeatedly insisted they are ‘paying down our debts’ and ‘reducing the deficit’ as Labour got us into ‘this mess’ by ‘bankrupting the country’. Labour has all but given up trying to convince voters they can handle their pocket money: they lost that linguistic skirmish in spectacular fashion. It doesn’t matter how many times they bang on about the consequences of cutting public spending: few people in Britain believe Labour when it comes to sound economic management.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Don’t get spotted </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The tarnishing of ‘austerity’ and the polishing of ‘progressive’ are examples of another law about brand and political language: people shouldn’t notice you at it. If they do, and the critical faculties come into play before a definition is set, you can face a backlash.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Post-crash, Labour’s Gordon Brown became a laughing stock for trying to repackage public spending as ‘investment’. Brown should have realised: the damage was done and trust in Labour’s fiscal management was shattered. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This wasn’t the issue with Theresa May’s mantra ‘strong and stable’. She looked just that in April. Come June the prime minister and the phrase were objects of ridicule. Why? Well, politics is complicated. But many found the repetition of the phrase, in answer to pretty much any question, just drew attention to the manipulation. It was also an overpromise, which is always a bad idea in branding as it undermines trust. When the evidence – capitulation to protests about a tough social care policy – proved the phrase wasn’t true it was abandoned.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>What’s being fought over now?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Fighting fire with fire, Labour successfully created phrases like ‘pasty tax’ and ‘bedroom tax’, both proving damaging to Tory policy. More recently, ‘dementia tax’, a gift to Labour from none other than former Conservative speechwriter Will Heaven writing in <i>The Spectator</i>, was adopted by the Left with glee. Its entrance into public debate was widely believed to have been a turning point in the 2017 general election. It was a hot topic on doorsteps nationwide.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One ongoing battle is the tug-of-war over ‘hard-working families’ (in politics, there are no lazy families). Both the main parties use this term liberally. To the Left, it probably means something like, ‘poorer working people oppressed by the Tories’, whilst to the Right it signifies, ‘people trying to get on in life without the state getting in the way’. What you take it to mean is probably decided by which box you cross on polling day. Neither has won this phrase, nor seems likely to, as each side realises they need to fight for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Word up or go down</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Brands can learn from all of this. At the moment, most tone of voice guidelines are a rather innocuous <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/09/why-tone-of-voice-should-be-about-brand.html"><span style="color: blue;">assemblage of basic tips on writing well</span></a><span style="color: blue; text-decoration-line: none;"> </span><span style="color: blue; text-decoration-line: none;">–</span> an afterthought of the brand review process. (If you don’t believe me, ask how many in-house writers your brand consultancy has and compare that to their designer count.) <a href="http://barnabybenson.co.uk/tone-of-voice-guidelines.html"><span style="color: blue;">Tone of voice guidelines</span></a> should map out the words brands want to appropriate. They should set out the meaning the brand wants to invest in those words. And they should give examples so everyone writing for the brand gets it and starts <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2011/12/first-words-in-new-voice.html"><span style="color: blue;">using the new words</span></a> in the right way, day in day out, so their new meanings and associations become the norm. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The future of the Conservatives’ other election neologisms, ‘magic money tree’ and ‘coalition of chaos’, remain in the balance. They have all but disappeared in the fallout following the general election. That reveals other truths: you can’t invest phrases and words with the meaning you want without time and authority. If either run out, you should stop and wait until your fortunes change.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Great brands understand this. They figure out what meanings they can own, capture them in words, and never stop reiterating them: <i>Vorsprung durch technik, The Ultimate Driving Machine, Never knowingly undersold</i>. That’s what <a href="http://barnabybenson.co.uk/strapline-project-samples.html"><span style="color: blue;">straplines</span></a> are for, but few brands have the focus and foresight to get the line right and stick with it for years. It’s a process that requires enormous ingenuity, discipline and perseverance. But, just like wily politicians, smart brands can see big rewards for making language central to their positioning. </div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-69825679565132064692017-09-15T11:59:00.001+01:002022-05-10T09:09:15.434+01:00Coach, don't commission<h3>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i style="font-weight: normal;">You’ve got communications that need writing. Do you have a go in house or pay a copywriter to write it for you? Sometimes the best solution lies in a bit of both: hiring a writer to coach your staff.</i></span></h3>
<b><br /></b> Remember the Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”?<br />
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Pretty good advice if you want to stop people pestering you for fish, but what’s that got to do with copywriting?<br />
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<b>No train, no gain</b><br />
Well, we recently worked with a large recruiter who wanted to craft the perfect 'first approach' email. That's the one they send out cold to people who don't know them. They were getting a 25% response rate. They wanted to do better.<br />
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Hiring a copywriter to write these wasn't really practical. The six consultants in the team were sending ten or so a day each: there were simply too many. So we taught them to fish.<br />
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We ran a day's training in the dark art of this sort of email writing (there's more to it than meets the eye). A mix of theory and practice ensured the techniques were understood and assimilated. Everyone took away some writing tasks for the next couple of weeks to encourage practice and the formation of new habits.<br />
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The team's response rates doubled - up to 50%.<br />
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That was specific training, for a team, on site. But often coaching can be more general. And it can be one to one and conducted by email and phone. This is ideal when you have an individual struggling with a writing project. Especially if they'll need to do more of that type of writing in the future. We've helped individuals write sales brochures and email campaigns this way.<br />
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Each medium requires particular writing techniques. Emails are different to web pages; a product brochure is different to a flyer. And then there's the communications objective and sector. Each one tends to require a distinctive approach.<br />
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So, we can design a bespoke training module that takes into account the needs of the individual, the medium and the company.<br />
<b><br /></b> <b>So much writing to do; so little time</b><br />
Today's businesses need a lot of copy written. Some of it will be genuinely mission critical, where improvement can dramatically improve profitability.<br />
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If you're in sales, you have to produce bid documents that differentiate your company and communicate how your proposals will be effective. Retailers need product descriptions that entice customers. Agency staff need to bring concepts alive or excite colleagues with compelling briefs. Almost everyone needs a blog or a newsletter. With good training, most people's writing can be made effective.<br />
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If you need to improve the writing of a team or individual, drop us a line. Just don't ask us how to fish.</div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-64952279440758190862017-07-20T16:55:00.002+01:002022-05-10T09:10:16.013+01:00Why I would rather be on Instagram right now<h3>
<i style="font-weight: normal;">Discover the ins and outs of the ever-expanding kingdom of social media through the eyes of someone in the middle of the rush - a teenager</i></h3>
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“We don’t have a choice whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” – Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics<br />
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Teenagers are superior creatures when it comes to social media, so don’t feel embarrassed if you feel a little frazzled. This guide introduces you to the major social media platforms millennials love, and why. At the bottom, there’s a glossary of the most important vocabulary you’ll need to stay afloat when the topic comes up in conversation. Let’s dive in.<br />
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1. Instagram (in-<i><b>stuh</b></i>-gram)<br />
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Now one of the current social media giants, Instagram has rightfully earned its place on our phone screens. With over 500 million active monthly users, including 28% of adult internet users, the image sharing platform has monumental reach. So, what’s the big deal? Instagram is all about popularity: how many followers<span style="color: blue;">[i]</span> you have and how many likes<span style="color: blue;">[ii]</span> you can get. If you haven’t already guessed, we’re obsessed with being the best. More dedication and effort is put into one post than a whole night’s worth of homework, as each upload must maintain your personal image and validate how perfect your life is.<br />
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The ultimate aim of Instagram is personal branding – whether you are popular, a party-hard, a hippy, or an edgy outcast, your Instagram profile<span style="color: blue;">[iii]</span> is your proof. There are a variety of profiles dedicated to hobbies such as travel, food, art, as well as celebrities and famous brands, which are useful ways to survive maths class on Monday morning.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>2. Snapchat (<b><i>snap</i></b>-chat)<br />
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This self-deleting, photo-sharing service has become widely popular because it emphasises a more natural flow of conversation. Unlike Instagram, your amount of friends is not visible and you are not able to like posts, encouraging a more relaxed atmosphere. Because posts are deleted after 24 hours from your story<span style="color: blue;">[iv]</span>, Snapchatters don’t need to perfect every post, with many people casually uploading 2-4 pictures or videos of their everyday life to their story every day. Instagram is your highlights, Snapchat is your life story. 52% of Snapchat’s 150 million active daily users are under the age of 25, and 30% of all (yes, all) US millennial internet users use Snapchat regularly. In other words: it’s big news.</div>
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<div>Snapstreaks are the main cause for Snapchat addiction – a severe and lifelong condition. A fire emoji<span style="color: blue;">[v]</span> appears next to one of your friends’ usernames if you have snapped<span style="color: blue;">[vi]</span> each other within 24 hours for three consecutive days. That’s the beginnings of a Snapstreak. If you continue to snap each other within a 24 hour window then a number will appear next to the fire emoji and will increase for each day you snap each other. Teenagers are crazy about Snapstreaks, regarding them as evidence for their popularity and competing with one another to get high snap scores. Many get up to 100, 200 days and sometimes a whole year! Of course, this demands the use of Snapchat every day, and explains why we are so distraught when our phones are confiscated.<br />
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3. Whatsapp (<b><i>wots</i></b>-ap)<br />
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A free messaging service is something everyone needs in their lives.<br />
<br />Whatsapp answers that call. Simple, easy to use, it fulfils its purpose – there’s really nothing more one can ask for. We have no money, and the no-pay aspect is what attracts teenagers most. It’s free to send anything, anywhere – even to other countries.<br />
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Whilst many social media platforms have a group-text<span style="color: blue;">[vii]</span> function, everyone always reverts back to Whatsapp whenever get-togethers need organising. While this blog is focused mainly on teenagers’ use of social media, due of its straightforward layout, Whatsapp is one of the only social networking apps that is basic enough for older generations to understand. Congratulations!<br />
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If you’re in the marketing business, you’ll know that email open rates rarely climb above a pitiful 30%. With Whatsapp, it’s a different story: a staggering 70% open rate for all messages, with big brands falling over themselves to get a piece of the action. And with over 1.2 billion monthly users, Whatsapp’s potential is massive.<br />
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<b>4. Dying breeds</b><br />
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Facebook (<b><i>feys</i></b>-book) and Twitter (<b><i>twit</i></b>-er), are no longer the big social media platforms for millennials, even though over the recent years they have been adopted by our parents. So if you haven’t even heard of them, I’m sorry but you are past saving. Being word-based apps in an age where the most successful social media are orientated around sharing images has left them in the dust.</div>
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Because of rapid advances in technology, teenagers pass life in a blur, constantly surrounded by stimulations clamouring for our attention. That’s why there are many others things I would rather and could be doing, than reading about why you like the weather. Sorry Mum.<br />
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And that marks the end of your education, class. Now do you finally understand why us teenagers waste all our phone storage and use up that 4GB of data in the first week of the month?<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">i </span>Follower - a person who follows or subscribes to another's posts on a social media website<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">ii </span>Like - an indication of approval of an uploaded image and/or piece of text, indicated by a heart-shaped icon<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">iii</span> Profile - a personal account that shows all of your photos, videos, followers and settings<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">iv</span> Story - where all your posts appear, they can be viewed unlimited times by your friends until they self-delete<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">v</span> Emojis - small digital icons that are used in telecommunication, often used to portray thoughts or feelings<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">vi</span> Snapped (to snap) - privately send a friend a picture that only they can see and will self-delete after they view it<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">vii </span>Group-text - when you can message multiple people simultaneously</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-16097299587795677562017-07-13T12:15:00.000+01:002018-01-15T12:00:08.219+00:00When to start (word)playing around<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Copywriters can't resist playing around with words. But when is wordplay right for a brand? Here's what works - and what doesn't.</i></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>O what a punderful world</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Us copywriters are paid to be smart with language. It's our job to manipulate words, fusing, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">refining </span>and cross-fertilising meaning to compel, provoke and persuade. Wordplay might (okay, definitely will) elicit groans at the dinner table, but some of the finest writers in the English language have leaned heavily on the humble pun: Shakespeare, Pope and Joyce to name three of the best. Even Alfred Hitchcock reckoned that the pun was the 'highest form of literature'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's not a bad marketing tactic either - if you tread carefully.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Making people smile</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good play on words communicates two pieces of vital information for the price of one and makes audiences smile while it's at it. Take Tesco, one brand that knows a thing or two about two for the price of one, and their recent van sides. They use a clever piece of copy to communicate the convenience of online shopping and the fact that shoppers needn't compromise on quality or freshness. There's an informality in the message that helps humanise a supermarket giant, but the wordplay isn't laboured, so it doesn't become tiresome too quickly. </span><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2014/07/brand-character-its-all-in-detail.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A
Tesco van is a moving billboard, used as much to market their brand as to
deliver your weekly shop.</a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Low hanging fruit - but charmingly effective</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Making people feel intelligent</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flattery will get you everywhere</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From fruit that makes you think to food for thought. <i>The Economist's </i>now legendary ad campaign targeted intellectual decision makers and ambitious professionals. Clever wordplay is used extensively as it's aimed at intelligent, critical thinkers. But no less an authority than Paul Arden (for a long time, Saatchi & Saatchi's creative head) warned all copywriters, "Do not put cleverness in front of the communication". Whilst that's a <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/06/the-ten-commandments-of-copywriting.html">good general rule</a>, <i>The Economist</i> wanted to reach people who were just that: clever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If audiences 'got' the adverts, the magazine was right for them. These ads work so well because the wordplay communicates a range of powerful <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/05/how-to-move-audiences-from-to-b.html">emotional benefits</a>: people who read <i>The Economist</i> are smart, important and witty, just like you. It also promised that the magazine's writing would be witty. It's not wordplay for wordplay's sake.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Making people remember</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The best wordplay communicates as much as possible in as few words as possible - and makes it unforgettable to boot. The Saatchi & Saatchi poster for the Conservative party during the 1979 general election was so powerful, many commentators credited the advertisement for the Tory's landslide election win. In 1999 <i>Campaign</i> dubbed it the 'Best Poster of the Century'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Contained in the phrase 'Labour isn't working' are two distinct, but interconnected meanings that both make the reader think voting Conservative is a good idea: 'the Labour party isn't doing a good job' and 'unemployment is </span>spiralling<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> under Labour'. The fact that both messages are wrapped up in a smart pun - the word '</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">labour'<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">means 'working' - makes the ad superbly memorable.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When to stop (word)playing around</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wordplay isn't always best. Those terrible puns you see adorning the fronts of hair salons the world over might be harmless. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But if you're a big brand, you need to avoid the 'uh' reaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What Saatchi & Saatchi got right, Indian got dead wrong. This campaign from the US State, trying to persuade people to people from neighbouring Illinois falls flat - and not just because the pun itself is contrived. This sort of ad, coming from state government, should be formal, trustworthy and professional. That doesn't mean it can't be smart, like the Saatchi ad - but it should be serious. If a state can't take itself seriously, would you really trust it to provide the infrastructure, services and support you need from government? As <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/02/seven-things-every-creative-brief.html">we've explained elsewhere</a>, it's important to take a long look at yourself before trying to reach out to your audience.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Death, taxes and dodgy puns</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Seat again?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's another dodgy effort. Like Indiana's groan-worthy 'Illinoyed', Seat's wordplay misfires because consumers should have to mispronounce an existing word to get to your newly minted pun. Think back to Tesco's 'Freshly Clicked' - it should be a seamless blending of two different meanings, not a contrived forcing together of sounds in an attempt to get at something new.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pun-enjoyable</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Harsh criticism awaits for puns that flop or are misplaced: they are a joke falling flat. But ones that surprise by being delightfully adept are justly celebrated. Give it a go. You can always go back to a straight line if your writer has a bad day and can't come up with a winner. </span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-23666565614182700862017-06-08T11:25:00.000+01:002017-06-12T11:37:07.852+01:00The ten commandments of copywriting<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Writing copy is an art - but there is method in the madness. Here are ten golden rules all copywriters should follow.</i></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1.<b> <i>"Copy is not written. Copy is assembled"</i> </b>-<b> </b>Eugene Schwartz</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'Copyassembler' would be a rubbish job title, but Schwarz</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is right. A copywriter takes all the materials in a brief - tone of voice, communication objective, product features - and assembles those elements in a way that will make the audience sit up and take notice. And then take action. <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/02/seven-things-every-creative-brief.html">A strong brief makes this process a lot easier.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"A lot of copywriters think they're good judges of their own work. I know I'm not."</i><b> </b>- David Ogilvy</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By way of illustration, here's a joke a graphic design friend likes to trot out now and then.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Q: How many copywriters does it take to change a lightbulb?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A: Copywriter: '*^%$ off! I'm not changing anything'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not all writers are protective. But everyone finds it hard to spot weaknesses, let alone mistakes, in their own work. Hence copywriting agencies, who have someone review the work when it's sent, are more popular with big brands than lone freelancers. <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2013/11/copywriting-why-it-pays-to-go-plural.htmlhttp:/blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2013/11/copywriting-why-it-pays-to-go-plural.html">Find out why</a> it pays to go plural.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If only it was that simple...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"You must be as simple, and as swift, and as penetrating as possible"</i><b> </b>- Bill Bernbach</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even when a copywriter is grappling with a complicated message, the resulting copy should always be as simple as possible. <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2012/05/ten-deadly-copywriting-sins-part-one.html">Anything else is a copywriting sin.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />4. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion."</i> - Dale Carnegie</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A copywriter might look dead behind the eyes, but that's just the caffeine. In fact, they're highly sensitive to the emotional benefits of a brand or product offer, and it's emotion that <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/05/how-to-move-audiences-from-to-b.html#more">moves customers from A to B</a></span>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Begin strongly. Have a theme. Use simple language. Leave a picture in the listener's mind. End dramatically."</i><b> </b>- Winston Churchill</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A great copywriter is a great storyteller, just like Churchill, who not only mastered the art of the withering put-down and the droll one-liner, but also won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It's not essential for a copywriter to be a military strategist. But they should know how to <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2013/06/ten-tips-for-writing-speeches-part-one.html">write a good speech</a> and <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/04/the-three-ingredients-of-storytelling.html">craft a compelling story.</a></span><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/04/the-three-ingredients-of-storytelling.html"> </a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6.<b> <i>"Having too many ideas is not always a good thing."</i></b> - Paul Arden</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Authors of fiction are in a constant war with their editors, but a copywriter needs to exercise creative self-control at all times. In fact, learning to kill your darlings and self-edit is one of the quickest <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/11/5-easy-ways-to-become-better-writer.html">ways to become a better writer</a>. But it's not easy (see above).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room."</i><b> </b>- Jeff Bezos</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writing copy means getting inside the minds of the audience when they encounter a brand: what do they actually think of your company? Find out why taking a long, hard look in the mirror is <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/02/seven-things-every-creative-brief.html">essential for preparing a copy brief</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art."</i> - Bill Bernbach</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All copy tries to get the audience to do something. Good copy succeeds. We've written about the secret to writing persuasively <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2014/09/secrets-of-persuasion-how-to-become.html">here</a> (and pre-suasively <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2017/04/how-to-make-everyone-do-what-you-want.html">here</a>) and we regularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2015/sep/22/writing-persuasive-copy-a-one-day-course-barnaby-benson-copywriting-course1">give a Guardian Masterclass on persuasive writing</a>. So if you're looking to up your influence game, these are the droids you're looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9. <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Don't tell me how good you make it; tell me how good it makes me when I use it."</i> - Leo Burnett</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Writing copy is about identifying some feature of a product, and then <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/02/the-unmatched-power-of-emotional-truths.html#more">extracting an emotional benefit</a>. People don't buy fast cars, they buy exhilaration. Repeat after me: benefits not features.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10.<b> <i>"Do not put cleverness in front of the communication"</i> </b>- Paul Arden.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It takes a quality copywriter to resist the urge to be smart with language. Wordplay and double meaning work sometimes, depending on your audience, but if cleverness obstructs the message, it's got to go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Copywriters know all this. Sometimes we even remember to apply it. Juggling all these rules isn't easy. It's a tough job and someone's got to do it. Give me another coffee will you?</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-80859793829558230042017-05-10T09:32:00.000+01:002017-05-11T09:58:05.967+01:00Anglo-Saxon v Latin: why brands have to choose <h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The English language is a funny old mix of Anglo-Saxon and Latin vocabulary. But it's serious business when it comes to writing copy. Here's why the difference is vital for brand messaging and tone of voice.</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the most striking ways you can alter the tone and meaning of what you write is by varying the use of Anglo-Saxon or Latinate vocabulary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anglo-Saxon words come from the languages spoken by Germanic settlers arriving in England from the fifth century. Latinate words derive from the British Isles' interactions with the Roman Empire and later medieval France. Today, the English language is a mercurial mix of the two.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's important for brands to take note of this because a copywriter's choice of words either way can have a big impact, both for messaging (what you say) and tone of voice (how you say it).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Short, simple, brutal</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what's the difference? In a nutshell, Anglo-Saxon words are short, simple and blunt: 'think', 'pick', 'help', 'eat' and 'drink'. Compare these with their Latinate equivalents: 'imagine', 'select', 'assist', 'consume' and 'imbibe'. Latinates are multisyllabic, cerebral and a bit soft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Saxon in action</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What's that got to do with branding?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take Gillett's long running tagline, 'The Best a Man Can Get'. It's cast-iron, monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon - short, sharp and straight to the point. It doesn't mess around, but that doesn't mean it's not clever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Its monosyllables convey directness and honesty even as it makes such a bold claim. 'Best' and 'get' employ plosive initial letters, achieving a rugged, Teutonic physicality. It sounds manly, which is who it's aimed at.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And in Latinate English? 'The most premium a gentleman can obtain' doesn't quite have the same ring of truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Posh copy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For most copy, <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/11/5-easy-ways-to-become-better-writer.html">simple is often best</a>. But beer brand Stella Artois position themselves as a premium beverage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, how can brands use copy to come across posh? Stella Artois's tagline 'Reassuringly Expensive' is unashamedly Latinate. It even uses a 'five-dollar' world to give it an air of sophistication.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It works because it not only literally says that Stella Artois is expensive, but the choice of multisyllabic Latinate copy embodies the idea of 'premium' and sophistication in language.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Clash of civilisations </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These varying connotations can be powerful differentiators. Take Nike's 'Just Do It' (1988) strapline. 'Just' might come from Latin, but 'Do It' is about as Anglo-Saxon as you can get. The line's imperative, 'Do it', has urgency, but the 'Just' takes the edge off it, making it sound more casual and less bossy. There's an Anglo-Saxon directness and physicality that's perfect for a sports brand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're a competitor, how do you go about responding to that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Adidas learned Latin. 'Impossible is Nothing' (2004) is pure idealism. Take the word 'impossible': as Latin a word as you'll find. It's longer than the whole of Nike's tagline.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's also a completely abstract concept. 'Just Do It' is rooted in the directness of the body but 'Impossible is Nothing' floats philosophically aloft in the realm of poetry. Adidas meets Nike's call to action with an invitation to dream.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ironically, of course, straight-talking Nike pinched their name from the classical goddess of victory, whilst highfalutin' 'Adidas' is a very Germanic bashing together of 'Adolf' and 'Dassler'. Oh well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In any case, when it comes to branding, you need to decide whether you want a dash of Anglo-Saxon bluntness or the more sophisticated abstraction of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Latin - or a bit of both</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-43977785650104126472017-04-11T10:33:00.000+01:002017-06-08T09:36:42.453+01:00How to make everyone do what you want: the science of pre-suasion<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Any piece of brand or marketing communication seeks to persuade audiences to do something. Now a new book promises to reveal the science behind the art.</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As copywriters, persuasion is what we do and language is how we do it. As an agency, we've helped top brand agencies and companies influence audiences and regularly teach <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2015/sep/22/writing-persuasive-copy-a-one-day-course-barnaby-benson-copywriting-course1">a Guardian Masterclass</a> on how to write persuasive copy. We reviewed Robert Cialdini's <i>Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion</i> and found it <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2014/09/secrets-of-persuasion-how-to-become.html">a proper page turner</a>. It's safe to say we were intrigued when his new book emerged last year promising 'A revolutionary way to influence and persuade'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Persuasion</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what is persuasion, exactly? William Bernbach was one of the twentieth-century's most successful advertisers, so he knew a thing or two about how to get people to do things. But his much-quoted claim that "advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art," doesn’t ring so true in the twenty-first century.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Does this count as 'guiding preliminary attention strategically'?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rise of behavioural economics (borrowing liberally from social science and psychology) has supplanted classical economic and theoretical explanations of why people buy stuff. In other words, we’re seeing the rise of persuasion as a science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But the problem for brands and marketing is that, for the most part, business people and those in advertising still consider persuasion an intuitive art. This has resulted in a paucity of hard science on the topic. Enter Cialdini, psychologist and bestselling author. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So what’s it all about? Whereas <i>Yes!</i> focused on <u>what</u> to say to audiences, <i>Pre-suasion</i> is all about <u>when</u> to say it. And when is the best time to influence people? Before they even realize they are being influenced, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Prime time<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The big idea in Cialdini’s text is that of the opener or primer. Primers work in two ways. First, they establish the power of the first piece of information or stimulus encountered in a decision-making process. Second, priming involves using one piece information or stimulus to effect how a subsequent piece of information is received, reviewed and acted upon. To take a simple example, recent research in the field has shown that playing a piece of classical music influences people to think the wine they’re drinking is expensive. That’s priming in action. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Attention pays</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In a nutshell, pre-suasion is about manipulating attention. Cialdini sums it up neatly as follows:<br /><br />“The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it’s possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they receive it.”<br /><br />This requires thinking about persuasion not as a single event, but an affective sequence where images, objects and messages are linked to another. Using associative ideas, images and words to prime audiences’ attentions mean that when you come to persuade them, they’re much more likely to do as you desire.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But what associations should brands and communicators be using to pre-suade? Well, Cialdini is fond of a list, and he follows up his six weapons of influence in <i>Yes!</i> with a further six ways to manipulate attention in <i>Pre-suasion</i>. They are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The sexual.</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> Sex sells – no surprise there. But the key thing to remember is that sex only sells when it has a coherent association with the product itself. That means perfume and clothes – but trying to sell your new range of vacuums with sex appeal is going to fall flat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">2.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The threatening. </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">All good copywriters know that the fear, uncertainty and doubt triptych (coined in the unlovely acronym, FUD) can be a powerful communication tool. Cialdini’s insight, based on research he conducted, is that threatening associations and pre-suasions work best for messages that offer people the chance to fit in. This is because threatening associations prime audiences to be more perceptive to being part of a group - the old ‘safety in numbers’ chestnut.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">3.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The different. </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Every brand wants to be different, but Cialdini links the power of difference to human survival. He says that when we encounter something different, it produces an ‘orienting response’ that focuses our attention on the distinctive stimuli. It’s our mind saying, ‘that’s a bit out of the ordinary, let’s take a proper look and see what we’ve got here’. Once you’ve got your audience to take a closer look, then it’s time to persuade.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">4.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The self-relevant. </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">We’re far more sensitive to messages that seem relevant to us. If you’re in any doubt, think back to Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign. They took the most popular names in each country they operated in and printed them on their products. The product remained exactly the same, but the brand gained 25 million Facebook followers as a result. Sales in Australia rocketed to 250 million in a nation of 22 million people. And in the US, Coke enjoyed the first rise in sales in over a decade. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">5.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The unfinished. </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">According to Cialdini’s research, once a task or narrative runs to completion, attention dissipates because the brain has achieved the closure it craves. Because of that need for closure, messages that arrive unfinished are powerful attention-holders. The idea comes from the Zeigarnik effect, a well-established theory in psychology that appears to show that unfinished or interrupted tasks are far more memorable than completed ones. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">6.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The mysterious. </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Leonardo da Vinci’s <i>Mona Lisa</i>: it’s the most famous painting of all time – but why? According to Cialdini, the masterpiece holds attention so powerfully because of the mysteries it contains: who is the woman? Why is she smiling?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But how do these six pre-suasion techniques work in practice? Cialdini offers some compelling scientific examples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">'Of course I'm adventurous!'</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In one study, subjects were exposed to violent language before participating in a task where they had to deliver electric shocks to a fellow subject. Those exposed to violent language beforehand delivered shocks 48 percent more intense than those who hadn’t!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Less unsettling and more useful for brands, is another study which attempted to get customers to try a new soft drink. Half were asked for their email, to sign up to receive a sample, of which 33 percent volunteered. The other half were first asked if they were adventurous: 97 percent said yes. Following that, 75 percent of those who self-identified as adventurous gave their email addresses. That combination of the self-relevant association - number 4 in Cialdini’s list - coupled with a primer that planted the idea of adventurousness in respondents’ minds resulted in a huge spike in email sign ups. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What’s the difference?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Pre-suasion</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is a fascinating read, but I can’t help but feel the content has been covered before, both inside and outside the field of business. Cialdini places enormous emphasis on the importance of difference, as what is distinctive focuses the attention. In 1916, Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure argued that ideas, images and messages only have meaning because of their differential relation to other ideas, images and messages. When Cialdini urges us to ‘leverage the power of difference’ he echoes, however unknowingly, Saussure’s theory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Brands have been building their identities using Saussure’s ideas for a century, probably without knowing it. Think about the importance brands place on ‘differentiation’, being ‘distinctive’ and ‘positioning’ themselves and their messages relative to their competitors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Or to take a precursor from the world of business, Jeff Walker’s much-lauded Product Launch Formula, with its emphasis on ‘pre-prelaunch’ and ‘prelaunch’ stages, anticipated much of Cialdini’s thinking around pre-suasion and the importance of priming. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Pre-suasion</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> a fine book, and well worth reading for anyone in the branding game, especially with its concrete evidence of the effect of priming on audience behaviours. The one thing to take away is that when, where and how you get people’s attention is just as important as what you say when you have it. The examples of pre-suasion given are legion, everything from upping exam performance to selling life insurance to making good on that resolution to go for a morning jog. But Cialdini’s first two efforts, <i>Influence</i> and <i>Yes!</i> remain the essential persuasion bibles. In those texts, Cialdini makes genuinely novel - and useful - contributions to the science of persuasion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-53411418743929548602017-03-14T16:55:00.000+00:002017-04-20T11:16:17.260+01:00How to choose a conference theme that motivates<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: normal;">Every conference needs a theme. Clients want something that conveys the key message simply and memorably. Here are seven tips to help you go about it.</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Make it snappy</b></span></h3>
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A conference theme needs to be catchy, and it needs to work well in spoken
conversation. To test this, just see if it can be used as noun: “Are you going
to the <i>Total Performance</i> conference
in March?” That’s punchy – it rolls off the tongue. “Are you going to the <i>Making sustained progress: building on
success</i> conference in June”? Not so nifty.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Erm, I know we said make it punchy..."</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Answer the brief</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Somewhat surprisingly </span><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015_12_01_archive.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">constraint is great for a brief</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. It demands focus. So make
sure everyone’s clear about they want to communicate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Keep it concrete</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Conference themes are typically abstract: they mention
things like strength and growth and success. They’re about building on this and
striving for that. The trouble with abstract ideas is, they are harder to
imagine, because there is nothing </span><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to</u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> imagine – they’re ideas, not
things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So try to make your theme concrete. One way is to describe a
real situation. Why not imagine the world as it will be when your goal has been
achieved?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"> </a><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/11/5-easy-ways-to-become-better-writer.html">Microsoft’s mission
statement when they were starting out, was </a></span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2016/11/5-easy-ways-to-become-better-writer.html"><i>a PC on every
desk</i></a></span>.
Everyone can get that without having to think too much. It gives a clear focus
to everything, which is what a theme is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Consider a call to
action</b></span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/kitchener.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/kitchener.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If it worked for him...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Often a good route to strong a theme involves rousing the
audience to do something. Straplines often do this: “Just do it” or “Eat Fresh”
(Subway). If a delegate spends eight hours seeing “Let’s drive growth
together”, it might stay with them when they go back to work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Know your audience</b></span> </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If they’re sales professionals, they’re going to want it
snappy and positive. If they’re academics, they might appreciate something longer
and more complicated. (But, then again, shouldn’t we be encouraging them to
keep it brief and accessible?) Find out exactly what kind of bums will be on
the seats, and write for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Think Big</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What’s thinking big? Paul Arden, former creative director at
Saatchi & Saatchi, wrote a book called: <i>It’s
not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be</i> – and he subtitled it<i> The world’s best-selling book by Paul
Arden. <b><o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thinking big means you’re not a ‘Shelf Stacker’, but a
‘Stock Supervisor’; not a ‘Dishwasher’ but a ‘Director of Subaqueous Ceramics’.
Conferences are usually about a company’s future ambitions or next year’s big
plan to drive growth. Make sure the theme bigs it up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Make it memorable –
find an alluring promise</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why do some lines stick around for years and others get
dropped? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Think: <i>Never knowingly undersold</i> (John Lewis have used this
for decades) or <i>The ultimate driving machine</i> (BMW).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not quite as legendary was one <a href="http://barnabybenson.co.uk/strapline-project-samples.html"><span style="color: blue;">we wrote for </span></a><a href="http://barnabybenson.co.uk/strapline-project-samples.html"><span style="color: blue;">Boden</span></a> – <i>Good times, great clothes</i> - which was
used for eight years.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The strapline that replaced this one was <i>Wear life out</i>. It only lasted six months, probably because reminding customers of their mortality doesn't sell.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">What gives these lines staying power? They make an alluring offer. Try and find a compelling benefit and create the theme around that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Getting a conference theme just right isn’t easy but it could make the difference between a hit and a conference feeling a bit flat. It’s worth the effort to get it right.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-85845841217493954032017-02-23T11:39:00.000+00:002017-04-20T11:16:32.832+01:00Seven ways to improve any copy brief<h3 style="line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>You know the feeling. A brief comes in and it just hits the nail on the head. But what exactly makes a brief spot on? Here are seven things to look out for that’ll guarantee your next brief is up to scratch.</i></span></span></h3>
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<b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. Go deep: reveal how your audience ticks</span></b></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting to know your audience...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you don’t get to know your audience inside-out, you might as well be playing a game of marketing pin the tail on the donkey, and that’s a bleak birthday party no-one wants to go to. Tell us what makes your audience tick. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>2. And take a long, hard look in the mirror: be honest</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.garmaonhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/deluded-fat-man-looking-in-mirror.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is your brand really that strong?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You might know exactly what you want customers to think, but</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what are customers thinking right now when they encounter your brand? What are you doing right – and what are you getting wrong?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, says, 'Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room'. To produce a strong creative brief, a brand needs to be honest with itself about its weaknesses, warts and all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>3. Be clear about your objectives</b></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What change are we trying to achieve in the customer? What thought, feeling or action? You will need a deep distaste for waffle, vagueness, platitudes and flim flam – a strong preference to get to the point.’ So says Maurice Saatchi in his 2011 book Brutal Simplicity of Thought – and he’s right. As we’ve mentioned before, <a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/12/want-creativity-introduce-some.html">the tighter and more focused the brief, the better the outcome</a>. And don’t try to do too much.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>4. What's going to change the audience's mind?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is there a big idea? Is the positioning unique, or at least distinctive? We need to know what’s going to excite the audience and make them take some notice. What exactly is it that will move them from what they think/feel/do now to where we want them to be.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>5. Don't forget the benefits</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why does someone buy a Porsche 911 – because it can reach a top speed of 205.1mph? Nope. Someone buys a Porsche to feel the thrill of driving again. And all the layers of associations built up by the brand over the years. So a brief needs to turn ‘features’ into ‘benefits’. Ideally, these should be emotional. Here's why...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Take these adverts produced for the Welsh Tourist Authority, which aim to encourage more tourists to visit from London.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lp_392e2qRE/WI9w5T_fb4I/AAAAAAAAAAc/uHbFoSovS0obibLncc1-lpWH35Ps4NVAACLcB/s1600/tourism-in-wales-two-hours-paperwk42975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lp_392e2qRE/WI9w5T_fb4I/AAAAAAAAAAc/uHbFoSovS0obibLncc1-lpWH35Ps4NVAACLcB/s320/tourism-in-wales-two-hours-paperwk42975.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7m2w_zwwJMs/WI9w6-n7fcI/AAAAAAAAAAg/X5UXvzNq4R0qdawmf-ecbDTVtqWbpGo8gCLcB/s1600/tourism-in-wales-this-morning-small-13793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7m2w_zwwJMs/WI9w6-n7fcI/AAAAAAAAAAg/X5UXvzNq4R0qdawmf-ecbDTVtqWbpGo8gCLcB/s320/tourism-in-wales-this-morning-small-13793.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wales: cheaper than a marriage counsellor.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of pushing the feature - that Wales is two hours from London by train - the ad </span><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/03/the-secret-to-building-trust-in-brands.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">entices the viewer with a benefit</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in this case offering the chance to de-stress or mend a strained relationship with your partner. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we've mentioned, </span><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2015/02/the-unmatched-power-of-emotional-truths.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">emotion is key</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, so it's vital not only to identify a feature ('two hours') but also to turn it into an emotional benefit ('the picture of bliss'). It might even save a few smashed plates. If this way of thinking is built into the brief right from the get-go, you stand a strong chance of coming away with an exciting, engaging message.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">6.</span></b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </b><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">What's the tone?</span></b></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If there are tone of voice guidelines, could we have them? Is there a recent ad campaign that has a certain tone we might want to follow? How does this brand speak in this context when using this medium? Are there examples of what's been done before?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">7. Give great feedback</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">Even with the best of briefs, your writer might not nail it in one. But to improve, we need to know what needs refinement. ‘I don’t like that’ is the feedback equivalent of a chocolate teapot. The more single-minded and direct the feedback is in relation to the brief, the easier it will be for a copywriter to make the revisions needed to make your message shine.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span> <span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not all briefs are made equal, but if a brief nails these seven key points, a copywriter should be able to turn around a dazzling message in no time.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-76578838035661465562016-11-23T12:31:00.000+00:002017-03-20T10:19:14.102+00:005 easy ways to become a better writer<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="font-family: "Arial (W1)", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The secret to good writing? Good editing. No one
gets it right the first time. But if you know what to look out for when editing
your own work, you’ll be able to transform your copy from vague to vivacious.
Here are five quick tips.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -18pt;">1. Remove ‘that’</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The decision <s>that</s> we are faced with…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It made me realise <s>that</s> my earnings were
sufficient…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Taking into account new information <s>that</s> I
have collected…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If I had a biscuit for every time I removed an unnecessary ‘that’ from a
sentence, I’d be the CEO of McVities. This is a writing tic affecting most people.
But it’s the easiest thing in the world to correct. Keep your eyes peeled
for the T-word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -18pt;">1. Cut unnecessary words and phrases</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Due to the fact that…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Be that as it may…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For the most part…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In a very real sense…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It goes without saying…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Of course…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What I mean to say is…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Inexperienced writers (and everyone, really) often feel the need to
‘elevate’ their writing by using long words and abstract language. But good
writing is plain, clear and simple. Look out for these common phrases, and cut
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -18pt;">3. Use active language</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Passive: A freelancer was used to complete the
project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Active: We used a freelancer to complete the
project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Passive language disconnects the action from the actor, making
statements vague and non-specific. Things just happen: no one is responsible.
That makes writing sound a bit remote. Active language is shorter, more direct
and involves the reader more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -18pt;">4. Stay positive</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Negative: Our food isn’t made off-site, avoiding the risk of stale
sandwiches<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Positive: All our food is made while you wait, meaning it’s fresh every
time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">The subconscious doesn’t distinguish between the negative
and the positive. So if you mention something negative, there’s a risk it will become associated with your brand. So, the next time you find yourself pointing
out a downside, stop. Reframe it as a positive.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -18pt;">5. Be definite, specific and visual – and avoid the abstract</b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When they set out, Microsoft nearly had a mission statement
along the lines of ‘Working towards the global adoption of information
technology’. But they realised this was about as motivating as a damp biscuit,
and found something a little easier to visualise: ‘A computer on every desk and
in every home’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Times; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; padding: 6px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz8MwoCsXAc/WDVlc4zUm8I/AAAAAAAAAVY/DLW1ZmRc3ZUvGCkrm6HiOiruPXa97hTUwCLcB/s1600/BillGates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz8MwoCsXAc/WDVlc4zUm8I/AAAAAAAAAVY/DLW1ZmRc3ZUvGCkrm6HiOiruPXa97hTUwCLcB/s320/BillGates.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: right;">"</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: right;">I meant a </span><i style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: right;">Microsoft</i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-align: right;"> computer on every desk..."</span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Their current mission statement, unveiled in 2013, is ‘To create a
family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower
people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they
value most’. Oh well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For messages with impact, keep it concrete.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;">Go to blog homepage </span>|<span style="color: blue;"> Visit our website </span> |<span style="color: blue;"> Get in touch</span></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When it comes to choosing between proper
grammar and impactful messaging, there can only be one winner. And it ain’t the
semi-colon. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Last week, I received an email from my father. The
subject line – ‘HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?’ – could mean one of two things. Either a
rogue intern had glued down his caps lock, or someone was guilty of breaking
the Holy Rules of Grammar. Turns out it was the latter.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5jI2SVfCozI/WBsZqdo66lI/AAAAAAAAAUs/nVzXPGkBgNwsaZG227nC3iEJq0TOUxXRgCLcB/s1600/CTtkr2CWoAAvhxT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5jI2SVfCozI/WBsZqdo66lI/AAAAAAAAAUs/nVzXPGkBgNwsaZG227nC3iEJq0TOUxXRgCLcB/s400/CTtkr2CWoAAvhxT.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></b></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Grammar
schmammar</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">The events app, <i>YPlan</i>,<i> </i>was the offending company. To my
father, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">the full stop</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"> at the end of their recent billboard ad was no less than a monument to
the death of English grammar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">As a copywriter, my cantankerous father expected me
to be up in arms, pitchfork in hand. But, as I calmly informed him, this advert
doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, I love it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Messaging
over everything<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Whether it’s an elaborate ‘brand experience’, a
tear-jerking Christmas ad or a witty billboard slogan, advertising is all about
the dark art of persuasion. This means form will always be secondary to the
function, which is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">message</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Here, YPlan’s message is clear: their offer speaks
for itself. Now, would this message be communicated more persuasively if grammar
rules were strictly followed and the full stop became a question mark? I don’t
think so. On the contrary, the full stop makes the sentence a statement rather than
a question. It lends the words greater conviction and leaves us with a clear,
direct message, backed up by the form it’s presented in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">No mistakes
were made<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In other words, the grammatical inaccuracy wasn’t<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>an oversight. Had it stopped the
message making sense, it would have failed in its aim. But it didn’t. The
target audience (of which I am a part) understood exactly what the message was.
It performed its function and achieved its aim. In fact, it even left me with a
small smile at the bold concept and execution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Know your
audience<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course, my father’s outrage was not completely
unreasonable. And it also highlights the importance of knowing your audience.
For him – and other aged crones – the grammatical inaccuracy of the form served
as a barrier to the persuasiveness of the message. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Thankfully for YPlan, my technophobic dad couldn’t be
further from their target audience. Other companies need to be more careful
though. For example, for law firms, banks or any outfit dealing in sensitive
information, this kind of inaccuracy could lead to a loss of confidence in the
brand. The customer could rightfully ask: ‘if they can’t master details like
punctuation, what else are they slacking on?’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Don’t be a
grammar nerd</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">We copywriters are sticklers for punctuation. But
some things are more important than a correctly used semi-colon. And messaging
is one of those things. So, next time you’re faced with a grammatical dilemma,
ask yourself the following question: will breaking the rules make my message
more persuasive to my target audience? If the answer is yes, what are you
waiting for? Go for it.</span></div>
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</style>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-61330820607589353972016-10-10T16:55:00.000+01:002017-03-20T10:27:33.771+00:008 tips to getting your emails opened and acted on<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">We train recruiters in how to
write first approach emails to candidates they’ve never met. Bit niche? Well, these tips are pretty useful for any ‘cold’ sales email. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Professional networking site
LinkedIn has made finding good candidates easy. But it’s also made candidates
more discerning. That means you have to work harder than ever to get their
attention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 11.0pt;">According to LinkedIn, the
average InMail response rate is just 25%. Whether you’re a full-time recruiter,
or just looking to improve your response rates, these tips will help you cut
through the noise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">1. Quality not quantity</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A bigger mailing list doesn’t necessarily equal better results. Instead
of taking the ‘spray and pray’ approach, concentrate on a smaller number of
high-quality prospects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stalk them online before you sit down to write your email or InMail. If
you know what time they shower in the morning, you’ve gone too far. But
checking out their LinkedIn and social media profiles and post for any shared
connections or interests is a must. That’s because you need to…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">2. Find a connection</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If your email looks like a copied-and-pasted job spec, it will either:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">A)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-indent: -18pt;">Be ignored</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">B)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; text-indent: -18pt;">Be deleted</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Use the information you discovered earlier – like a shared language,
hobby or employer – to create a personal connection. Weave it into a catchy subject
line. Then follow it up in the first line of the email before getting to your
pitch.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-style: italic;">“Hello </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i>Tony!</i></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> I hear you’re a fellow craft beer enthusiast…”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica";">…has clearly felt the gentle caress of personalisation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Senior designer
needed at fast-growing digital agency”</span></i></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Not so much love in this one. Needs to be more intimate.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5FGtsI_lNw/V_zNda9wYtI/AAAAAAAAATk/7BVETAJ4etoMjo4vqRYnJTtkX4rrdR16gCLcB/s1600/How-do-you-do.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5FGtsI_lNw/V_zNda9wYtI/AAAAAAAAATk/7BVETAJ4etoMjo4vqRYnJTtkX4rrdR16gCLcB/s400/How-do-you-do.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't force it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 14.0pt;">3. </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The perfect subject line<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How do you attract attention and get them to open? Again, use your
research to do one or more of the following:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Put the recipient’s first name in the subject line. This increases open
rates by <a href="https://blog.beamery.com/linkedin-inmail-tips/">26% and
click-through rates by 136%</a></li>
<li>Refer to a shared interest then relate it to the email subject</li>
<li>Mention a shared connection</li>
<li>Be positive about a personal achievement – such as a recent blog post</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">4. Stick to the point</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Choose one major thought and make it your focus – like, “I’d like to
offer you a free trial” or, “Let’s connect on LinkedIn”. Keep it short, and
don’t saturate your email with benefits and features. The average reader spends
</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="mso-comment-date: 20161010T1455; mso-comment-reference: B_2;"></a><a href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/average-email-open-time-is"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 2;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">just 15-20 seconds reading an email</span></span></a><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 2;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, which equates to about </span></span><a href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/average-email-open-time-is"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 2;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">50 words</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">. Check you've given the reader enough to interest them in 50 words.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">5. It’s about them, not you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Often, people’s opening line is something like, “I need a software
developer and your CV suggests you’d be a great fit”. As cold-hearted as it may
seem, the recipient doesn’t care about you or your needs. They want to hear
about what’s in it for them. So let them know. Use more ‘You’s and less ‘I’s
and ‘we’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16pt;">6. Make the ‘ask’ easy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Every sales email should end with a call to action. Just make this as
easy as possible. ‘Any chance you’d be interested in hearing more?’ is relaxed.
‘Are you around for a call sometime in July?’ is open and not too pressured.
Both require less effort than, ‘Please get in touch if you’d like to talk this
through in more detail’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">7. Sound friendly and relaxed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">The looser your style, the less formal it appears, the more likely it is
to be seen as coming from you, an individual. So use phrases you’d say and
avoid sounding like a sales pitch.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 16.0pt;">8. Short and simple<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica";">Use simple language. Emails that use the vocab and sentence structure of
a 7-8 year old are 36% more effective than those at college student level. And emails that are between </span><a href="http://blog.boomerangapp.com/2016/02/7-tips-for-getting-more-responses-to-your-emails-with-data/" style="font-family: helvetica;">50
-125 words have response rates of 50%</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica";"> - twice the average.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i><u><br /></u></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>Sources:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">https://blog.beamery.com/linkedin-inmail-tips/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/average-email-open-time-is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://blog.boomerangapp.com/2016/02/7-tips-for-getting-more-responses-to-your-emails-with-data/</span></div>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342372710007141454.post-73841236184950848232016-09-08T12:26:00.000+01:002017-03-20T10:30:41.569+00:00Why tone of voice should be about the brand - not just writing well<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Tone of voice guidelines should help make a brand unique. But all too often they consist of generic writing advice arranged under me-too values. Here are five common brand values along with the standard advice that’s typically offered up.</span></em></span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Human</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Also known as ‘Warm and friendly’, ‘Approachable’ or ‘Personable’. Guidelines with this brand value encourage you to use accessible, non-corporate language and write like you speak. You’ll achieve this by referring to your organisation as ‘we’ instead of the company name and using contractions like ‘it’s’. To sound friendly, you must address the reader as ‘you’ rather than with the remoter, third-person ‘his’, ‘her’ or ‘they’. All good advice, but <em>every</em> consumer brand and most B2B ones are doing this. It’s hygiene. You won’t differentiate your brand with this one.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mx9gbm-HiRg/V9FI4MCDOUI/AAAAAAAAAR8/-rfb3wYFZV4Pjd1quNqqJ_PqMidRDh6JACLcB/s1600/monkey-phone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Barnaby Benson tone of voice" border="0" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mx9gbm-HiRg/V9FI4MCDOUI/AAAAAAAAAR8/-rfb3wYFZV4Pjd1quNqqJ_PqMidRDh6JACLcB/s320/monkey-phone.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">"Be...more...human..."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Straightforward</b></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Also goes under the names ‘Open’ and ‘Honest’. Advice for sounding ‘Straightforward’ include favouring short words over longer ones, avoiding abstract words, explaining technical terms and making sure you stick to just one idea per sentence. Commendable writing advice – essential, even. But it provides nada for a brand hoping to stand out from the crowd.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Collaborative</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Another popular choice because it implies a connection with the audience. But its practical application to writing and tone of voice is not immediately obvious. Typical tips tend to remind you that you’re writing to a person (see ‘Human’ writing advice). Guidelines may also suggest you see things from the customer’s point of view and talk about what’s important to them. But wait. Doesn’t every brand do this?<br /> </span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Positive</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />The close cousin of ‘Inspiring’ and ‘Purposeful’. Does any brand aspire to be negative (aside from Private Eye, perhaps)? So another thumbs down for differentiation. Rephrasing negative statements into positive ones is sound advice. But, yet again, all good brand writing will do this.<br /> </span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Empowering</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Also known as ‘Dependable’ and ‘Enabling’ or ‘Engaging’. Advice here is often to use clear and simple language – plus active rather than passive sentences. And talk about what’s in it for the audience, i.e. benefits over product features. But brands not doing this already are circling the drain of obsolescence.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">------<br /><br />So, what’s a brand to do? Well, we need to stop confusing advice about how to write with advice about achieving a unique brand voice.<br /><br />I know brands like to use tone of voice guides to try to fix the poor writing skills amongst staff – and validly, as these can certainly undermine the brand. But that’s behaviour change and needs a dedicated programme with an awareness campaign and training. Writing guidelines won’t fix it.<br /><br />TOV guidelines should be for writing <u><a href="http://blog.barnabybenson.co.uk/2011/12/first-words-in-new-voice.html#more">techniques that actually will differentiate the brand</a></u> by capturing its essence.<br /><br />Such techniques are hard to come up with and own, especially if you are a mainstream brand with a diverse audience that prevents you being too idiosyncratic. But we find we can usually do it.<br /><br />It may require excluding certain ways of writing whilst encouraging others. Rather than trying to express all the brands values, you’ll probably need to settle on one distinctive attitude. You won’t be able to write distinctively all the time so you’ll have to set out when it’s appropriate.<br /><br />These are tough branding decisions, just like those you have to make when thinking about the visual identity. But the result is branding gold. You’ll have a distinctive language that evokes the brand’s character and essence.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0