Your first story must Ring true; unearth an aha. Use a metaphor.
Category Archives: Content marketing
Knowing the framework around which you’re going to build a house, or a website, make construction so much easier. The alternative is to start building, see what happens…and then have to change it all completely. Getting that framework right is the difficult bit. But once you have it, you’re filling in the gaps. For a … Continue reading The five-vital-pieces framework for website copy
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 … Continue reading The huge value of a messaging ‘North Star’
Ever been at a function, say a BBQ, and asked someone what they do…their story business-wise? Some people come back with, “well, we do lots of things.” Immediately you begin to switch off. That person has irretrievably lost their best chance to pique your interest. They’ve frittered their golden opportunity for you to ask “tell me … Continue reading Why you can only tell one story (at a time)
Never, ever, believe anyone who says that creating a tagline or slogan or positioning statement is easy. It can’t be since it is a massive challenge to condense your message to a succinct 2 – 10 words that express your heart and soul and value proposition. Crafting a what, how and why proclamation takes mental … Continue reading PledgeMe starts its story (tagline) perfectly
Mevo, a pay-by-the-hour electric car startup (though pretty well-funded) based in Wellington’s Biz Dojo, has excellent messaging – I can’t fault it. Its message starts with its name – Mevo. This looks both novel and familiar – and is in fact the word move, with the ‘e’ and ‘o’ reversed…hence Mevo. In eight words it … Continue reading ‘Own the journey, not the machine’ – Mevo’s message hits all the right buttons
You might think there would be a degree of angst in blog ghostwriting – creating original social media content in helping business people tell their stories. After all, the egos of many writers are attached to seeing their own names in print. But, in my case anyway, it is the opposite. Blog ghostwriting, on behalf of someone … Continue reading Why blog ghostwriting is an honourable gig
Not maintaining a business website’s blog and news makes it appear as if no one is at home. Put another way, there’s nothing worse than checking out the news or blog part of a site and seeing that the last entry was July 2013. As colleague, Fraser Carson of Flightdec says, people can spend a … Continue reading Without original content, a website looks like no one is at home
The infographic, also known as data visualisation, is one of those a picture is worth a thousand words examples, literally. Their ability to convey information, and ideally knowledge, of the sort that allows you to go “ah ha” that’s interesting, is increasingly important. That’s because images themselves have much more ability to be viral – … Continue reading Why you’re mad not to use infographics…when they fit
Inspired, or rather uninspired by the use of the world ‘solution’ in a brand name or tagline, the thought came around what other words should be given the big miss. Without too much trouble, superior, excellence, committed, unique.There’s two good reasons to steer well clear of such terms. They mean nothing – and, in actual … Continue reading ‘Solution’ is not the solution – even if it sounds like it should be