We are all self-interested at heart. Our own fulfillment, in a myriad of ways, is what we seek. From chocolates to tyres, consultants to travel, we desire the best we can get at a price we can afford. ‘You’ and its travelling companion, ‘your’ are among our favourite words. We can’t help it. You and … Continue reading Why ‘you’ and ‘your’ are bloody useful in your Million Dollar Message
Category Archives: art and science
Do you think you could put together 100 consecutive blogs over 20 working weeks? That is, publish a piece reflective of both your own thoughts and those of importance to your business? I’m not sure I could (hell, who am I kidding…I couldn’t). Which is why I’m tipping my hat to Christine Langdon, Co-founder and … Continue reading Could you write 100 blogs in 100 days?
A recent Quartz article compares The Economist magazine’s style book for writing to Bloomberg’s. Across a lot of differences – including one major one on how much you should ‘interfere’ (my term) with or edit a writer’s words – the style books both agree on one thing. That is, that George Orwell’s six timeless rules … Continue reading Orwell’s right…but persuasive messages take more than just good writing
Simplicity thrills, complexity kills. And, somewhat paradoxically, the shorter the message, the more effort it takes to refine it to simple. (That’s why an organisation’s tagline – the two to five word description, promise, ‘story’ after its brand name – can be so tricky to distill). But what must a message contain to be considered … Continue reading Why your message has to be simple – and how to make it so
The problem with many messages, from taglines to web home pages, is they try to say too much. Instead of presenting one clear argument, a proof, of what’s on offer, you get mixed messages. For our relatively straight-forward minds, which are always attempting to sift and categorise information, this is really confusing. Indeed, such is … Continue reading Why your message can only have one central truth
As someone who, for a felted wool ball I tried to commercialise, came up with one name ‘Sheep Balls’, I’m only too well aware of the dangers of a poor brand name. A recent edition of The Economist has Johnson, a book reviewer, giving the once-over of Alexandra Watkins “infectious little book”. Watkins, the founder … Continue reading Getting your brand name right or wrong…it is where fools rush in
This is a blog, business and belief in better messaging. It is predicated on one main premise – we’re all selling something. Therefore, the messages, the stories, we tell about our products and services, matter. Why? In today’s instant and digital world, we have limited time to capture and hold people’s’ attention. We move on, … Continue reading Why your messages that matter, matter