When someone asks “what do you do?”, they’re (mostly) not simply asking for a job description. We want to know if your ‘what’ has a direct relevance to me when expressed as a why – and whether it is pertinent to myself or others I might know. It may not be that you want their … Continue reading Your story is your sell and your sell is your story
Category Archives: Persuasive message
Is ‘everyone’ your target market? Extremely unlikely is the answer – unless you’ve found a way to sell happiness! Even then there’s likely to be people who are content to be grumpy. So, given that everyone is not your customers, having a clear idea of who they are makes your messaging much more definable. Whether … Continue reading Why you’re a mug to try to appeal to everyone
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 … Continue reading Do your copywriter a favour, only give them one idea to illustrate
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 … Continue reading Do your copywriter a favour, only give them one idea to illustrate
The new, improved (irony intended) Metlink bus service relaunched in Wellington in early July. With it they gave us a new slogan come value proposition. “On our way”. At first blush it is OK. But, if it is their customers, including me quite often, who are the important people – the addition of one simple … Continue reading One letter change’s Metlink’s value proposition
If you’re Nike, with millions of dollars to throw at advertising, you can afford to promote an aspirational slogan. “Just do it” is a psychological reminder to be and stay active, with added sweat. Naturally, Nike hopes you’ll carry out such athletic activities in their kit. Their messaging is an oblique reminder of their brand. … Continue reading Just do it?…most of us can afford aspiration
The start of your website story is directly equivalent to a headline. And while the first words a stranger reads may not be news as such, this is how we should treat them for a visitor. It is the statement that encourages them (or not) to find out more. It is the encapsulating summary of … Continue reading It’s a headline…shouldering lots of heavy lifting
Imagine you read, “XYZ company, delivering creative solutions collaboratively, while empowering intelligent customer synergies”. Do you have a clue what they do? Have any of the words they’ve used to describe themselves provided points of difference compared to competitors? Would this first statement encourage further exploration of a website? The answer is unlikely – unless … Continue reading Why generic words are meaningless
Many of us have struggled with what to call something or someone. In the case of a child’s name it can be a nightmare. After all, we don’t want to lumber our offspring with either too common a handle or something so obscure it invariably results in variations on ‘pardon?’. A business name is similar, … Continue reading Why your business name should start your story
After Michelangelo sculpted his statue of David in Florence in 1504, he was asked how he created such a masterpiece? “It’s simple. I took away everything that wasn’t David,” he replied. Viewing the magnificent more than four metre David, it’s obvious Michelangelo is being slightly disingenuous. But his ‘simple’ idea to remove the unnecessary bits … Continue reading Simple is better…but hard to achieve