Even non-writers must write from time to time. (Probably more often than they’d like.) Perhaps you’ll be asked to draft a memo, write a newsletter article or submit a proposal. Whatever the writing task, you’re likely to be anxious and unprepared — unless you set yourself up for success by making these three daily habits part of your everyday routine.
1. Write something!
Spend a few minutes at the beginning or end of the day writing 3-5 sentences about something that’s interesting to you. Pretend you’re telling a six-year-old about your favorite sport, a hobby or a beautiful garden. Don’t agonize over sentence structure or punctuation (in this instance!); just get a few sentences down that tell your imaginary reader something about your subject. BTW, texting and chatting are not writing. Start a paper or online journal instead.
2. Learn a new word
Build your vocabulary a word at a time. Sign up for the free Word of the Day email from Dictionary.com. Not only will you learn the meaning of new words, you’ll also get examples that show how to use the word in a sentence. Over time, you’ll build a repertoire of appropriate words that will make your own writing more descriptive and clear.
3. Cut Yourself Some Slack
Quiet your inner critic. Learn to enjoy well-crafted sentences from authors and copywriters but don’t compare yourself to them. If you do get a compliment for something you’ve written, like a “Good job!” email from your boss, save it in a file and look at from time to time to remind yourself that your daily habits are paying off.
Along with my colleague, Jennifer Hodroge, I have just completed a three-part podcast called “How to Create Stellar E-newsletters.”
In under an hour, you’ll learn how to develop a strategy that will create and deepen customer relationships. As a bonus, we also developed an accompanying e-newsletter planning guide PDF so you can get started on your e-newsletter campaign right away.
We’re offering the three-part podcast plus the e-newsletter planning guide for only $29. This package is valued at $349 and is yours for just $29.
Email me or visit my web site at:
http://www.janodaniel.com/downloads.html.
I spend a lot of time consulting with clients about creating the right message for their brand, and I do a fair amount of writing those messages.
So, because I’m constantly focused on the audience (and I’m a small business owner) the topic of customer service never fails to get my attention. I’ve blogged here before about blunders and bad customer service, so now it’s time to share an example of great customer service.
I should disclose that, in this instance, the story happens to involve a client of mine, Longaberger; however, it does not involve my client contact nor her department, but rather another branch of the company. Still, it’s indicative of the kind of company I have found them to be, which is people-centric and caring.
I was recently on a call with one of their home consultants doing research for a project. The home consultant was a woman from Oklahoma and had just endured a series of severe storms and tornadoes that claimed the lives of nearly two dozen people.
We were all touched when she shared with us that in the aftermath of the storms she was delighted to receive a phone call from the customer care department inquiring as to the safety and well-being of her and her family.
What a thoughtful gesture and one we need more of not only in business but in our everyday lives.
No CommentsEarlier this week I attended a launch party for my client Signature Worldwide. This amazing site transformation — which was a collaboration between Signature, Northlich and yours truly — is (if I say so myself) too good not to share.
Here’s a “before-and-after” look:
From compelling headlines to clean design to clear navigation to easy-to-understand copy, this just shows it’s worth investing in a strategic site makeover.
No Comments… to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
For the first time ever, I’ll be joining several of my “UU sisters” for the 5K walk this Saturday in honor of our friend, Laura.
Laura, who has an unwavering spirit of kindness, gentleness and self-control built on faith, is still in the midst of her cancer treatment and yet continues to inspire US rather than the other way around. This is our small way of showing our love and support.
No CommentsI’m sorry that I won’t be attending MarketingSherpa’s 2008 Landing Page Optimization Workshop in June (client commitments) but there’s still time for you to register if you can clear your calendar.
MarketingSherpa always does a bang-up job of presenting cutting-edge information and I never walk away from any of their seminars with no less than a half-dozen new ideas and/or findings.
One of the biggest things I expect attendees will hear is to test, test, test their landing pages.
In fact, I’m in the middle of a client engagement in which we’re testing shorter copy over longer copy for a series of landing pages.
Our first test (shorter copy) resulted in 18,600 landing page visits and a 60% click-through rate.
I’ll keep you posted on our second test (longer copy), which I’m predicting will boost the click-through rate.
No CommentsRegular readers of this blog know that I don’t claim to be the only maven around. Take, for example, the fabulous Dianna Huff. She’s widely known and highly regarded and I just love her stuff because, like me, she’s been in the trenches for years promoting the cause: effective communication.
Though we’ve never met, we share similar philosophies and professional experience. So I was so tickled when she featured me in The MarCom Strategist: Readers’ First Car Stories.
Read my story and while you’re on Dianna’s site, read Dianna’s classic marketing mistakes piece.
As a wife, there’s almost nothing worse than having my husband say I look “fine.” Mind you, “fine” is not all that bad by the world’s standards. But, trust me, “fine” is bad by a wife’s standards.
While “fine” doesn’t mean hideous, atrocious or not-fit-for-public-viewing, “fine” is not good.
Not by a long shot.
And so it is with copy. Copy that’s “fine” is probably free of most grammatical errors and one or two or three read-throughs probably gets some of the basic message across — more or less.
But “fine” copy is not good copy.
One of my specialities is taking “fine” copy and reworking it into something that’s more readable, more engaging, more impactful.
I’ve been doing this a lot lately because once a client reads the difference between “fine” copy and “reworked” copy, there’s no going back.
So besides encouraging you to rework “fine” copy into something better, I wanted to give a few hints on how to do it. This is not a formula, by any means, just some of the things that could go into reworking copy to strengthen and streamline the messaging.
~ Read the entire copy passage, step back and summarize it into a single sentence.
~ Rewrite that single sentence into 1-3 sentences, leading with the benefit to your reader.
~ Write only enough words to say what needs to be said.
~ Edit the revised copy word by word, removing redundant and unnecessary words and phrases.
~ Read the copy aloud and continue refining it.
~ Let go of trying to “hang on” to some of the existing copy.
~ Tell a story with the copy.