Maybe it wasn’t Luke who rescued Darth Vader from the Dark Side but the guy from the canteen all along One of comedian Eddie Izzard’s most famous routines is set in the canteen of the Death Star, where arch villain Darth Vader meets his nemesis in the shape of a hapless catering flunkie who only [...]
Marketing
Some products and services, don’t have much to offer. The marketing efforts rely on salesmanship and showmanship to grab attention and persuade people to buy. But what if your clients and customers are not so easily fooled? What if they make careful buying decisions? The showmanship may make them wary. The salesmanship will turn them [...]
2006 called – it wants its keywords back Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a hugely complex topic, and one that is subject to constant change. That is because Google is in a constant battle with ‘spammers’, who want their websites to rank highly, while Google wants to return the most relevant results for users. (There [...]
Name one of the three musketeers. I bet you said d’Artagnan. Bear with me on this one…. He’s not one of the three – they are Athos, Porthos and Aramis. D’Artagnan is the fourth member who joins them, the one people remember most, the hero of the story. But hold that thought for a moment, while we back [...]
There are many ways to approach the writing of blog posts and this is only one of them. But if you always cover off these 12 essential steps, you should reach blogging heaven in short order. 1. Have an idea This is the tricky part, I admit. What you really need is a clear and focused [...]
If you’re briefing a copywriter, there is one thing they need to know above all else: who is your audience? Are we talking to existing customers? Or prospects? Or both? Or is this for an internal audience – such as staff or shareholders? If it’s going to new prospects, will they be familiar with the company? [...]
If there’s one question nearly all new clients will ask me it’s the simple, yet fundamental one: how much does it cost to have such-and-such written? You need a ballpark figure at least before you commit to using the services of any professional provider. Many business people who contact me haven’t used a copywriter before, [...]
It has been well documented that people tend to scan text on the internet rather than reading it. Research and statistics back this up, and most of us know it to be true from our own experience. The question is: how do you write scannable web copy? 1. Write powerful headlines Make sure your headlines are: Short Informative – give a summary [...]
Imagine, for a moment, that you’ve just met an incredibly attractive person, someone you’d really like to get to know much, much better. Would you rush up to them, blurt out all your strengths and qualities, give them your entire life history, and invite them back to your place? Or would you try to be more [...]
One of the secrets to great copywriting is storytelling. People are interested in stories. Stories get their attention. And it’s much easier to convince someone through a story than it is by banging them on the head with a raw sales pitch. Which is where case studies come in. Case studies are superb marketing tools [...]