The Point Is (when I finally get to it)

One thing all writers must try to do is read a lot. As should all marketers, especially but not exclusively about marketing. (It's amazing what inspiration we can find in other disciplines). So it's hardly surprising that copywriters, much of whose work revolves around marketing copy of one kind or another, read a hell of a lot.

Even so, there are thousands of good books out there, probably millions of ebooks by now, and maybe a billion or more articles, so it's amazing that any two people ever read the same thing.

But canny marketers read each other. For all the books, ebooks and articles that there are on marketing, there are only a limited number of themes and principles to combine, recombine and repackage. Even the Internet is just a medium for transmitting mostly the same messages and reapplying proven ideas to new technology, products and services.

And all of it is aimed at making businesses profitable. In fact, more specifically, it's aimed at finding and retaining customers willing to pay for the goods and services a company offers.

But what's the company there for? To sell what it wants to make or provide, or to provide what its customers are willing to pay for?

It's clearly the latter - but I don't want to make widgets and nor might you. So we need to find our area of expertise (and interest) and then work out what product or service we are able and willing to provide that customers will buy. Then we must establish a competitive advantage if we want to sell enough, by being the best, the fastest, the cheapest (not recommended) or the nicest to deal with.

We can't all be the best at the same thing, so we may need to narrow our niche. We can often be the fastest just by being the nearest, ie local. Cheapest is usually a bad choice, unless we've found a new way of mass-producing at lower cost than everyone else. Surely, though, we can all be nice?

My thing happens to be words. In some spheres I'm the best there is, so I concentrate on those areas. I try to be obliging when urgency is necessary but I won't cut corners and I won't do cheap. But I can be very nice and my wife and partner is even nicer - and that makes business much more pleasurable all round. In fact, it makes business fun.

And the point is, business is supposed to be fun!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. I had intended writing a bit more today about profit and cash flow, but more on that another time.

PPS. To find out where our areas of expertise are, go to www.cinnamonedge.com and see the list of writing and marketing services we offer. Also, keep an eye out for the new venture I told you about recently. I've been working hard on the front page copy, sales letters and a press release, and it will be ready for launch very soon.