What is the core purpose of a Subject Line? [please choose one] 1. To inform the recipient of your email’s content 2. To motivate them to read the email Your Subject Line is the ‘headline’ for your email. So in some ways, informing the reader seems to make sense. After all, it’s there to give Read More
Tag: writing
How authentic do you want to be?
It’d be very easy to think that ‘image’ is all that matters today. How you present yourself on social media. The bold claims you make on behalf of your organisation. So, image is clearly important, and something you should try and control. Even more important is the perceived ‘gap’ between your image and Read More
What makes us different makes us better.
Online, everyone is now ‘competent’. The conventional approach: ‘We are really good at this’ is no longer enough. Competence is just the starting point. The playing fields are now level, and this is the latest challenge for business. Do you persevere and still struggle to sound ‘better’ ? Or will you grasp the opportunity to Read More
“Can you put that in writing?”
This is something we still hear every day, even in this digital age, and especially in business. We clearly still value the ‘tangible’ message, that record of an important conversation or agreement. It allows your contact or customer the time to evaluate and consider their options and preferences before making that all-important decision. So why Read More
Don’t bore your readers by accident
Pay attention to the languge you use for links. Read More
Check and check again for writing mistakes
It’s not easy to spot your own mistakes when you write. Even the professionals get it wrong sometimes. Can you spot the error on the front page of The Observer? I had such faith in the paper that I looked inside to see if something new called a skycraper had been invented. It hadn’t. You Read More
As we always knew, less IS more…
“Facebook posts with less than 250 characters get 60% more engagement.” So ran the headline on a recent LinkedIn post. I’m sure you’ve also seen similar claims. It seems that as the volume of content proliferates, our attention spans shrink and contract. As writers, we need to be very careful about how much stuff Read More
Think it? Write it.
I was talking the other day with a friend. About the democritisation of music. The access to great music-making tools. The ease of distribution. How anyone with a tablet or laptop, thanks to tools like GarageBand, can create and produce great sounds for themselves, their friends, and maybe even the great listening public out there… Read More
Get to the point!
Just back from a trip to Melbourne, Australia. My hometown. While there, I was reminded of the Aussie idiom, their distinctive knack for slang and shortening words. Barbie, not barbecue. Garbos, not refuse collectors. And so on… Also their brevity and directness with the written word. You may have seen the Meat Marketing Board poster Read More
Function or Style. What’s best for slogans?
I’m grappling with a problem. A recurring problem… I’m working with a long-standing client of mine, who runs a growing and ambitious digital consultancy. He wants to refresh the brand to reflect changes in both the market place, and the services that they offer. His preference is to devise a slogan that is descriptive, accurate Read More