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.

Do What I say, Not What I Do

About a week ago, Darren at Blogged Out asked me to write a short article on copywriting for your blog. I was very flattered, so naturally I obliged. One of the things I distinctly remember mentioning was 'post regularly'. Ahem....

Anyway, it's been a busy week, what with writing book proposals and sales letters and running an Adwords campaign, and so on, but I really should have found the time to practise what I preached.

So I've grabbed a few minutes to give you the heads-up on a new resource that will be up and running in a couple of weeks or so. It's designed for owners of small businesses, start-ups and people planning to take the big leap into self-employment, and there will be information, resources and opportunities for bigger business owners, too. You'll find some other posts on encouraging people to consider 'the big leap' in my archives.

Now, I know that many of this blog's readers are business-owners, freelancers or wannabes, so a lot of you will be interested to see what's on offer. Striking out alone for the first time can be lonely and scary, but here's a brief excerpt I've 'borrowed' from the website's description of its contents that might encourage you:

Welcome to our oasis. A place of calm, confidence-building and continuity. A one stop site where you can find out all you need to know about business, ask stupid questions without feeling stupid, and ‘meet’ experts in every area – one to one, question after question, month after business-building month.

We don’t claim to know everything, here at ..., but we do know an awful lot of people who between them have answered every question we’ve ever thrown at them – so we’ve signed many of them up to .... Now they can answer all the questions you want to throw at them, too.

It goes on to list some of the resources and exclusive content and specifically emphasises the encouragement and ideas that will be forthcoming for new business owners - from specialists in every minefield you'll ever encounter! It will also be very good value - probably a fraction of the price you might expect.

The unabashed aim of the site is to become 'the best one stop business resource the UK has ever seen'.

I'll keep you informed about its progress, and bring you sign-up details just as soon as I have them.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

It's the word of the moment, but who knows what it means?

Chatting this morning with the manager of our favourite local restaurant, I was recounting a story I read in Geoff Burch's blog a couple of days earlier. It clearly struck a chord, especially when I mentioned the buzzword of the moment.

He's had plenty of it, too, according to his senior managers, and so have his staff. Or at least his managers have been liberally distributing their version of it, especially in their many written missives...

Personally, I found the best way to get it was by not being managed by anyone. That is, by leaving my job and opting for self-employment.

It strikes me that 'empowerment' is something you can only give by preparing and training someone and then standing back. Leaving them empowered to do what you pay them to do, and with a sense that at least some of the decisions they make are their decisions, freely made.

They'll feel better about themselves and their role, and you'll get better results as a consequence. If your training and preparation is any good, you should be delighted to let your people get on with things, not be paranoid that they might do things a little differently to the way you would do them. Either you trust them (and thus yourself to pick them) or you don't.

That's not quite the way our restaurant manager's management think, apparently. And Geoff Burch found to his bemusement that some of his would-be clients don't think that way, either. When asked by Geoff what they wanted their staff to be empowered to do, one of them answered, 'To do as they're told'...

Not everyone wants to be self-employed, but not many people enjoy being micro-managed, either. It's a waste of training, a waste of time and money and a waste of thousands of people's hard-won skills and talents.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. Visit Cinnamon Edge and sign up for our free newsletter for unique insights and tips on business, marketing and writing for business. You'll find some great offers, too, and the chance to grab the services of some of the most talented business writers around.

Why ask you a favour when we can offer you a bribe?

Or, help yourself to some cash...

One of the very best ways to promote any business is by referrals. Not least because they're usually free and one enthusiastic referrer can send you countless qualified leads.

But why should they? Well, you might have done some great work for them recently, so they can't wait to tell all their friends. Or they might have heard about the great work you did for someone else, so your name just pops up in conversation with a third party who's looking for someone just like you.

Or, you can encourage them with a bit of cash, a few readies, maybe enough to buy themselves a really special treat.

As for us, we're quite happy with the results of methods one and two. But number three sounds like a good idea too: for all concerned, especially when we're offering to pay you twice.

Ten percent of the value of the first two deals we do with anyone you refer to us will be yours just as soon as they pay us. Bearing in mind our invoices range from about a hundred pounds up to many thousands of pounds, that could be quite a useful cash injection for your business or your holiday fund. Two injections, if you think about it.

And don't think about it for too long, just get over to the Cinnamon Edge website, or send someone else our way. Email them and ask them to forward your mail to us (so we don't get done for Spamming) at win@cinnamonedge.com.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. Or ask us to email or post you a referral form if you prefer. Whatever way we arrange it, ten percent of each of their first two orders will be yours as soon as we get paid. Email us yourself at win@cinnamonedge.com for more information.

PPS. Take a look at the many other services we offer at www.cinnamonedge.com

Promoting Your Business Through Press Releases

A press release can be something of a hit-and-miss affair. Finding a story that the press will want to pick up on, then creating something they'll want to print that doesn't seem too much like a sales pitch but still promotes you or your client... All too often, they just don't get published or they simply don't work.

Still, the kind people at 10yetis have put together a very useful set of guidelines that should improve your chances of success the next time you do a press release.

It's free, and it's right here.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. Of course, you may feel that you need help with actually writing your press release. Contact us at Cinnamon Edge if that's still a problem. But if you have the 10yetis' guide as well, you'll at least have a better idea of how we do it!

www.cinnamonedge.com

The Magical Power of Language

Funny things, words.

Two very different events of the past couple of days prompted that little thought:

Firstly, the release of the 15 'hostages' who had been held in Iran. Secondly, last night's Doctor Who...

I hadn't given so much thought to the good Doctor, but last night's episode was all about the power of words. Using Shakespeare, no less, as the prime example (and his words as a Weapon of Mass Destruction), Doctor Who saved the human race and lost what might have been Shakespeare's greatest play, while simultaneously revealing the identity of the Bard's 'dark lady'. All great fun, and with loads of knowing references and wonderfully incongruous language.

Meanwhile, back in the 'real world', a more subtle, and perhaps sinister, example of the power of words. Did anyone else notice how readily the 15 British captives were described as 'hostages'? They could just as accurately have been called captives, prisoners of war or the wrongfully arrested (or rightfully arrested, depending on exactly where they were captured).

But prisoners of war are combatants, guilty in some eyes of complicity to commit acts of war. Arrested people are often thought to be guilty until proved otherwise. No, these people had to be seen as innocent victims, pawns in Iran's political and diplomatic manoevrings. The word 'hostages' creates immediate associations with Terry Waite, Brian Keenan and all the victims of kidnapping and murder in Iraq and elsewhere.

It's not for me to judge the truth, simply to point out how the choice of one word, when there was a choice of several other words and phrases, was enough to slant and shape opinion in the 'desired' direction.

It's what writers and copywriters do, too. Words have meanings which are often apparently interchangeable but they have connotations and associations which are not. 'Cheap' might be associated with 'nasty', while 'inexpensive' sounds more like value for money. 'Hurry' might make you rush to order, but 'rush' is what we'll do with your delivery. ('Rushing' is far too much like hard work.) A 'pundit' will sell you tips, while a 'guru' will give you guidance, etc, etc.

If you'd like to slant opinion in favour of your product or service, it's essential that you give full attention to the words you use to describe it. Not just to describe it accurately but to imply as many other positive attributes as you can, especially how it will transform the lives, fortunes, comfort, wealth, etc of anyone wise enough to buy it.

Otherwise, hire someone who can do all that for you. Like us for instance. We can't promise you Shakespeare* but we can promise to demonstrate the power of words.

Funny things, words. And wonderfully powerful in the right hands.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results.

PS. For more information on how we can employ the power of words to explode your business, contact Cinnamon Edge here, or phone 01284 753912 during (UK) office hours, or email win@cinnamonedge.com

* But I can write you a Shakespearian sonnet, or any other style of poem you care to name. Click here for details of my poetry writing service, or phone (as above) or email me, roy@wellversed.co.uk now.

Patience is a virtue - Why even Dan Kennedy doesn't have a magic bullet

It's the Easter holidays, and with the best will in the world, it's just not possible to keep up a full work schedule and entertain visiting mothers in law, brothers and sisters in law and daughters and grandchildren.

Still, I did find a quiet-ish few minutes this morning to read Dan Kennedy's latest newsletter, and something struck me.

Not the advice in the body of the newsletter, which was as sound as ever, nor even the sales pitch at the end, which you can always rely on getting from Dan. Not as such, anyway. What struck me was the repetition of that sales message.

Now, I think he changes the wording a little every time, but as I usually don't read that part I can't be sure. I do know it's always there, though.

Dan, like all direct response advertisers, will be a great advocate of testing. Tweaking the copy a little each time to see what works best, if only by a percentage point or two. (You'll have seen how important tiny improvements can be in a previous post of mine.)

But there's another aspect that's probably just as important, and maybe more so: the repetition. Simply, if we keep getting bombarded with the same message, even if we hardly ever read it, our curiosity is likely to get the better of us eventually.

Even Spam, which we studiously ignore and delete a hundred times and more, eventually begins to look tempting. Why not just take a look at this diet aid or that investment company? Well, because it's likely to be fake and harmful to your computer. But why not look at Dan's latest product - even if we've resisted that a hundred times too? It won't be virus-laden or a con. It's probably a great product and good value if we apply it properly.

The point is, I probably still won't read Dan's tweaked and perfected bit of sales copy. If I finally succumb, it will be curiosity not copy that gets me, and I'll just click on the link. Proof, really, that even direct marketing is best thought of as a campaign and not a single strike. A series of sales letters will gather far more buyers than the best, most persuasive single letter which, when all is said and done, probably won't be read by 98 percent of its recipients.

If you're planning a direct mail campaign, prepare to be patient if you want the best possible results, and budget accordingly. It's still the best method of marketing by far, but it's still not a magic bullet.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results