Why do people choose to put so many things in quotation marks? I suspect that they believe wrapping a word or phrase in quotes somehow makes it more prominent or important, but it actually has the opposite effect.
WRITE TO MOM, WRITE MORE EFFECTIVELY
Looking for a simple way to write more clearly and effectively? When you begin to write a letter, a memo, or an ad, start writing it to your mother.
Okay, it doesn’t have to be your mother. If you prefer, you could write to your best friend or your Aunt Agatha. The key is that you want to write to someone you know instead to of a faceless customer or peer.
THE TWO TIMELESS SECRETS TO SUCCESS
I’ve learned that there are two timeless, foolproof secrets to success.
JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING’S NEGATIVE DOESN’T MAKE IT BAD
We all know that positive thinking is powerful. In fact, from an early age, we’re taught to put on a happy face no matter what happens. And, when I reference something that could be perceived as negative in copy, many clients are quick to request its replacement by something with a bigger smile.
That’s not always a good idea. Sometimes, what’s negative is far more impactful and communicative. For example, if your competition has been falsely suggesting that your product has a flaw that shortens its service life, hitting the misperception head-on is going to be infinitely more powerful than tiptoeing around it.
MORE PRUFEREADINGS IS ALWAYS GOODER
Thanks to email and the many other technological innovations that are now available, we communicate much more quickly. And, in our eagerness to fire off another message, sometimes we forget to take our time and do the things that were the norm with more archaic technologies such as typewriters.
LOCATION, LOCATION AND SOMETHING ELSE
I haven’t decided whether a choice of business location was an ironic accident or a stroke of marketing genius. While traveling through an Indiana city, I frequently pass a facility for a hospice and can’t help but notice the tenant sharing its building: a life insurance agent.
P.S. I LOVE THEM
Way back when people used to compose something called “letters,” they often ended them with a brief afterthought called a postscript. If you’re too young to remember “duck and cover,” you may not have heard of these quaint messages, but they would begin with the abbreviation “P.S.”
GETTING SOMEWHAT WEALTHY VIA EMAIL
John Stanton recently forwarded an email with an irresistible pitch. According to the sender, “all you need to do is buy the e-book I have written for just $1.50, read through it and follow the instructions and within a week you will have more than tripled your money!” John says he was tempted to buy … Read more
SHOULD REPETITION BE REPEATED?
When writing an ad or a brochure (or even a blog post), repetition generally isn’t very helpful. You have a limited amount of time with your reader, and you need to make every word count. Besides, if you mention something once, you usually don’t need to do it again.
I’ve seen people try to apply that same logic to copy for websites. They’ll ask me delete an item or section on one page, noting that another page carries the same information.
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT – OR THE WORDS
In a recent blog entry, I mentioned an experience in which a client insisted a word that I used really didn’t exist. After writing that, I remembered writing a brochure for an apartment developer, in which I mentioned that the centralized recycling program would “minimize the project’s environmental impact.” “OH, NO!” the client’s manager yelled. “It should … Read more