All posts by punchline

Do your copywriter a favour, only give them one idea to illustrate

Marketing, messages that matter, million dollar message, Persuasive message, punchline, , , , , ,
A copywriter should only explain one idea for each story
If your copywriter has an ambiguous brief, they won’t be able to write your story properly. Only have one idea per message Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The worst possible brief for the lucky person who has the task of putting your messages down in words, is ambiguity.

Trying to nail the first story, or 1001st, but not being clear what the one key idea is you’re trying to say is dead-on-arrival stuff for a writer.By being clear what it is you’re wanting to achieve through a message such as:

  • Web copy
  • Blog
  • Social media

You have a much greater chance of someone being able to write something memorable.

Your copywriter(s) should be able to illustrate your single point with examples, mini case studies, a quote or two from satisfied customers, or simply a good yarn.

But this is only possible with a clear brief which attempts to achieve one, and only one objective. For that your copywriter will give you a big thanks.

Now, it may indeed be that you have multiple points to make. If you’re writing a white paper which is expected to be lengthy, that’s fine.

But for shorter form stories, make each of these points a separate story.

Not only will you be doing your copywriter a favour…you’ll be doing yourself one.

Do your copywriter a favour, only give them one idea to illustrate

Marketing, messages that matter, million dollar message, Persuasive message, punchline, , , , , ,
A copywriter should only explain one idea for each story
If your copywriter has an ambiguous brief, they won’t be able to write your story properly. Only have one idea per message Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The worst possible brief for the lucky person who has the task of putting your messages down in words, is ambiguity.

Trying to nail the first story, or 1001st, but not being clear what the one key idea is you’re trying to say is dead-on-arrival stuff for a writer.By being clear what it is you’re wanting to achieve through a message such as:

  • Web copy
  • Blog
  • Social media

You have a much greater chance of someone being able to write something memorable.

Your copywriter(s) should be able to illustrate your single point with examples, mini case studies, a quote or two from satisfied customers, or simply a good yarn.

But this is only possible with a clear brief which attempts to achieve one, and only one objective. For that your copywriter will give you a big thanks.

Now, it may indeed be that you have multiple points to make. If you’re writing a white paper which is expected to be lengthy, that’s fine.

But for shorter form stories, make each of these points a separate story.

Not only will you be doing your copywriter a favour…you’ll be doing yourself one.

Why your video can only tell one story

messages that matter, million dollar message, punchline, ,
An About video can only tell one story
A 90″ ‘About’ video only has about 10 sentences. You can’t tell more than one story with this limitation. Photo by Kushagra Kevat on Unsplash

If a website has an ‘About’ video, 90% of visitors will view it.

But don’t make the mistake of trying to put too much in it.

A script for a 90 second video will be about 10-12 sentences long – with the pictures supporting this written/spoken narrative.

Ten sentences means you only have the opportunity to say one thing about your business.

Sure, you might reinforce and give examples of that one thing – but do not introduce new subjects.

This purpose of a video is to illustrate the key point of your ‘About’.

It might be that your customer service is exceptional, you’re good at finding ingenious engineering answers, or you’re a team of award-winning software programmers.

Of course, you could be all three of these at once.

But, if so, put those separate pieces of information and illustrations of your story in individual videos.

Do not bury good stuff by shoving it in with other good stuff.

If you want people to remember you, tell one story, well illustrated, per video.

One story, with feeling.

Why you should tell the truth when naming your baby

Marketing, Metaphor, million dollar message, one central truth, punchline, slogan, Tagline, value proposition
truth is better for your first story
Tell the truth about your product and service, not fiction Photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash

The truth won’t kill your business, but a non-truth my well push it down that path.

Having a value proposition which doesn’t resonate with who you are, or who people think you are is extremely counterproductive.

You’re not only trying to fool your customers, you’re trying to fool yourself.

As an example, for a few years Microsoft’s slogan was, “Your potential. Our passion”.

As Tui beer so aptly coined, “Yeh, right!”

Microsoft later changed to “Be what’s next”, which gives a much better sense of a giant being on the side of a minnow.

Your first, most important message has to ring true internally and externally.

Exaggerating fools no one.

The huge value of a messaging ‘North Star’

Brand name, Content marketing, messages that matter, punchline, slogan, Tagline, value proposition, , , ,
A Million Dollar Message ‘North Star’ helps keep all stories about your business on track. Photo by Andrew Preble on Unsplash

All businesses are telling their stories all the time.

But it can be a mightily difficult task to retain coherence in all those stories. (Different people tell different stories in different ways).

It is very easy to go off on a tangent as you illustrate your different products and services.

Such tangents are natural good and useful…as long as they align with a business’s core message.

This is one reason to have a powerful and resonating first story – the first thing read on a website.

As well as telling customers your what and why, it also acts as a ‘North Star’ or lodestone for all other messaging.

So sure, you might and should tell your stories in different ways.

However, always, but always make sure these other stories reflect and reinforce your first Million Dollar Message.

Musicians play the notes, maestros play the pauses

messages that matter, Metaphor, million dollar message, one central truth, punchline, slogan, value proposition, , , ,

Adding more words to a message is easy.

It usually adds up to simply being more noise.

The ability to remove unnecessary, extraneous words, which add nothing to a narrative, is the main trick we need in our writing.

What we leave out, the stuff that’s superfluous to the story, is how we demonstrate clarity of offer.

The temptation is always lurking to throw in another verb, to over-season with an additional adjective.

Resist…resist.

For all storytelling, more is less and less is more.

Musicians play the notes, maestros play the pauses.

Why One Central Truth is vital for your key message

Metaphor, million dollar message, one central truth, punchline, slogan, Tagline, value proposition, , ,
One Central Truth is the crux of good storytelling
No matter what the medium, we can only tell a single story at a time. Find your One Central Truth of your message. Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

The goal of any story is to have a reader, view or listener get the point…quickly and easily.

It doesn’t matter whether the story is the reason why we’re late for a meeting or the moral behind an Aesop Fable. Someone is telling someone else what happened.

The core idea of your said or read words needs to be self-evident.

It is no different for our business story – the first item read on a website, the take home message from a speech.

But too often businesses try to cram in two, three, four or more points – to no avail. In these cases we struggle to remember one key idea, let alone many.

Telling one story, well, is the key to having customers remember enough to repeat it.

Unearthing the One Central Truth (OCT) of your business purpose is the secret to creating you first, most important story.

Trying to brainstorm your way to your company’s OCT is a false methodology. All brainstorming does is create a fictitious story.

Only questioning, deep questioning, can reveal the single key idea on which your story can hang.

Look, deeply, at and for your One Central Truth, and your business storytelling will in turn come quickly and easily.

‘Solutions’ is not the solution (even if it feels like it should be)

messages that matter, Metaphor, million dollar message, punchline, slogan, Tagline, value proposition, , , ,
Solutions is a wasted word in a tagline, strapline, value proposition or slogan. Avoid it
The great default word of many people’s first story is ‘solutions’. It is a wasted expression. Avoid it. Photo by Hans M on Unsplash

The great default word – solutions – should never be used in your value proposition, or Million Dollar Message.

(Actually, there is one place is can be, race to the end if you want to know where).

For a start, all businesses provide a solution in one way or another.

So, to use it in your slogan, strapline, tagline or BBQ answer to the question “what do you do”, reveals a stunning lack of imagination.

Your first story needs to tell me what your solution is – not leave me guessing.

Your first story needs to tell me why your solution may be exactly what I need.

‘Solution’ is a surrender term, signalling you’re not too sure of your specialness or purpose.

So, exclude solution from your vocabulary…solutions is not the solution.

P.S. The one possible situation ‘solutions’ can be use is if you’re a chemical company. Then you’d be using it as a noun – and it may be exactly what you do provide!

Why you should “say no quickly”

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Many of us feel obliged to say yes, even if we don’t want to. If you don’t want to, or can’t help, “say no quickly”
Photo by KS KYUNG on Unsplash

Many of us, myself included, are inclined to say yes to requests for help.

Even though we don’t really want to, or have the capacity, to help, we hum and haw, and say maybe or yes.

Being at a recent group meeting where one of the participants found it equally difficult to turn down help requests, I was reminded of a talk I attended a few years ago by the MP and former Auckland City mayor, John Banks.

His speech was mostly a number of lessons John had learned over the years.

They were all pretty useful bites of advice.

The one which most resonated though was “say no quickly”.

If you don’t want to, or can’t practically help someone, don’t beat around the bush.

You don’t have to back “no” up with a reason, a “sorry, can’t” should suffice.

So (and a note/reminder to self) don’t prevaricate or dissemble.

“Say no quickly”.

Why it’s an escalator pitch, not an elevator pitch

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Think an escalator pitch, not an elevator pitch
Your business story needs to be encapsulated to the time it takes to tell to someone passing on an opposite escalator

The idea that you have an elevator trip’s length of time to tell your business story is misleading.

It implies you have 60 seconds or so to explain who you are.

Well…maybe.

If, and it’s a big if, you manage to initially engage your captive colleague’s attention, do you have another 50 seconds to further explain?

Capturing that attention – raising their eyebrows – is therefore key.

Those first few words need to shoulder an immense amount of heavy lifting.

This first statement must inspire an ‘aha’ in the listener’s mind.

Your ‘what and why’ has to provide the momentum to sweep into the rest of your story.

It means the time-frame comparison is not then an elevator journey.

It’s an escalator – with someone going up and someone going down.

It’s a few seconds to express the essence of your business.

It’s the brief opportunity to have someone else say, “tell me more”.