Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category

Here’s a link to a helpful piece from Susan Friedman, CSP, @tradeshowcoach describing what’s key to know in assessing your competition even if it seems pretty comfortably yours now.

One of her recommendations includes the use of Alexa [found at www.alexa.com], which she describes as “An easy way to determine the biggest movers and shakers is to head over to Alexa and enter in your keywords. Alexa enables you to see an in-depth view of what your competitors are up to, based on the rating of popularity that they are enjoying through individual site visits. They also offer the ability to view analytic data about specific sites, including the countries from which sites’ main traffic sources come from and number of other sites linking in. It’s an extremely powerful tool that you don’t need to pay for!”

Read more by following the link: http://bit.ly/a1UU6M

It’s always interesting to get the day’s word (sometimes it’s a phrase) of the day from the extremely diverse Urban Dictionary. Today’s seems particularly apropos for a holiday as many of us may find ourselves working on a day that is supposed to be a day off from labors and appreciation of the labors of others. For those of us in the communications realm, I actually recommend you check out any words or phrases you may have any question about on the www.urbandictionary.com site as you may be surprised at some of the street/urban meanings for things you thought were pretty innocuous!

Here’s the definition for today:

<snip>

September 6: workweek creep

1) Constant connectivity via your smartphone and computer blurs the boundaries between your work life and your personal life.

2) Constant connectivity at work via e-mail & chat, results in so many interruptions that you cannot get blocks of time to do any thinking, resulting in you catching up on your work at home on nights and weekends.

<end snip>

Here’s a link to an interesting content grid/graphic from Eloqua.com: http://bit.ly/czcccS

It illustrates both centralized and decentralized communications and categorizes them by whether they create/contribute to awareness or consideration while also identifying type, channel, two-way channel, or data rich.  As with all communications about your product or service, it’s critical to be clear about not only your objective but the means and language you use to convey it so that you’re differentiating yourself and using language and messaging that is appropriate for your prospective clients. And, as always, remember it’s not just about the words–it’s also spelling them right and punctuating them correctly, too, so you don’t disable your message regardless of the channel!

Eloqua’s Grand Guide premise is simple: Don’t try to boil the ocean. Instead, help marketers overcome one challenge at a time.

Here’s a piece from The Week featuring six gadgets designed to save us from ourselves, including free software that will scan your e-mail for content that might be considered impolite. It’s often suggested that we should draft our e-mails with no names filled into the “To” line until you’ve written it, reread it/proofread it, and then are sure it’s really what you want to communicate to avoid inadvertently sending something written in the heat of the moment that might be something to regret later. I’ve had clients hire me to create and document e-mail standards for use within their organizations, and adding the recipients’ names at the end is just one of my recommendations, as well. Sometimes it can just help preclude your sending something that is still in draft mode while on other occasions you may just wish to draft it, save and close it, and revisit it with a bit of a time cushion to revisit what you’ve written and how you wrote it to help minimize misunderstanding or other fallout. (Remember, as always, if you are doing a varied distribution, it is more appropriate to address the e-mail to just Undisclosed Recipients [NO hyphen after Undisclosed and Recipients should be plural, by the way--it's often used incorrectly] and have that set up in your address book to go to you and then use the BCC [blind carbon copy--a legacy from typewriting days] feature to click recipients’ names for privacy purposes unless each recipient needs to know who else received it for business purposes.)

Bad Decision Blocker is another product mentioned in the article, and it’s designed to prevent someone from calling a boss or other significant person when fatigued or a bit tipsy. Some of these may be amusing, but the overall look into the melding of technology and emotion-laden communication is somewhat intriguing–perhaps a tad like being your own Big Brother?

Here’s an interesting piece from AdvertisingAge: http://bit.ly/9GdgTA

“A World of Inspirational Problem-Solving, Savvy Brands and Smart Marketing. Sure, the Global Economy Is Challenging Right Now, but These Companies Have Found Ways to Make Their Brand Messages Work Harder to Reach Consumers”