Edie Falco, the actress who portrayed Carmelo Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, said that as long as she knew her lines, her only job was to react to James Gandolfini’s character, Tony Soprano. She says that with acting she merely needs to stay out of its way.

And so it is with writing.

Sometimes writers in corporate marketing departments try too hard to get all their desired and mandated messages, buzzwords and taglines into a block of copy, resulting in a forced, internally focused message.

Communicating with your audience should be more akin to Edie interacting with Jim: Engage in a two-way dialogue, and react to what the reader will think, do and feel. While you may never win an Emmy for it, your readers will thank you — by buying your product, becoming loyal to your brand, returning to your web site, or by telling their friends.

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