In an age where the world’s awash with content of multiple kinds, what’s the use of blogging? An obvious-ish answer is because Google doesn’t like seeing static websites. From that point of view, regularly updated material in the form of a blog creates change, reminds the internet’s largest search engine that you’re still alive and … Continue reading Why bother blogging?
Category Archives: Persuasive message
Do the first few words you use to describe your company accurately reflect who you are? Are you able to hold your hand on your heart and honestly say “this is us?” Or do you have a degree of embarrassment that your first message is closer to fiction than reality? Because the simple fact of … Continue reading Lipstick on a pig, versus naming your pet pig
A couple of 13 year olds were in the same room as me, where the television happened to be on. (Of course, normally they’d be head down over an internet device of some kind and wouldn’t be seen dead watching some ‘old’ technology). An ad came on, though I wasn’t looking at the time so … Continue reading And sometimes those sales messages fail to land
Far too often, as if they’ve pulled terms from a cliche-word-generator, an organisation’s first most important message is meaningless. Their 2-10 word opening story – as a value proposition, slogan, tagline – fails. It fizzles instead of flying, is a three cent mess, rather than being a Million Dollar Message. And instead of inspiring more … Continue reading The seven words your value proposition, slogan or tagline should NEVER have
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
The billboard I walk past often first got me interested when The Good Taste Company’s dips, endorsed by chef Michael van de Elzen, used the term “My great tasting dips are good from scratch”. Originally, it was the ‘good from scratch component that took my fancy Good from scratch is very close to, though obviously different to … Continue reading Good Taste cook themselves a million dollar message
Now advertising agencies are good at imagination and creation, at mocking-up and perfecting collateral associated with a brand. But, and at the risk of being hung out to dry, those skills don’t cross-credit for your first, most important story – (or tagline). These two to 10 words are a real challenge to uncover no matter … Continue reading Why ad agencies are terrible at taglines
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
Have a look at the pix of a billboard on Wellington’s Adelaide Road. Now, I walk past this most mornings, and have the comparative luxury of enough time to figure out what it is trying to say. It took me a couple of goes, and a bit of time to do so. But pity the … Continue reading Petrol saving ad, too clever by half