Copywriter Collective

What is Voice Search? And Why Will VEO Be As Important As SEO?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:10:00 +0000

What is Voice Search? And Why Will VEO Be As Important As SEO?

By Caroline Gibson on Oct 24, 2018 07:00 am

Let's start with a few voice search and VEO basics first …

What's the difference between SEO and VEO?

VEO (voice engine optimisation) and SEO (search engine optimisation) can both organically boost the position of your website in search engine results. While SEO is based on succinctly typed phrases containing keywords; VEO is voice-based mobile search phrased conversationally to find businesses, services and goods, mostly local.

What is voice search?

When we type a search into Google, we use a few keywords shorthand in asking a question. When we speak a question into a smartphone or to a digital assistant, we're more conversational and ask in a longhand form – this is voice search.

Voice recognition devices must not only decode the human voice and understand linguistic nuances but also provide relevant answers.

So, why is voice search more important than ever?

The way in which we look for information is changing. 'How do you say egg in French?', 'How old is Justin Bieber?', 'What films are on at my local cinema?', 'Where can I find a great freelance copywriter in London?' All these burning questions can be now answered in a wink and in a multitude of languages.

Siri, Google Voice Search (or Search by Voice), Amazon's Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices, Windows Cortana and Baidu are on instant hand to solve your head-scratcher in a nano-second.

And why is voice search important in copywriting?

A mobile voice study by Google in 2014 said that 55% of teens and 41% of adults use voice search more than once a day. By 2020, Google estimates more than half of all our mind-burning questions will be done by voice search. And one of the main reasons for its popularity, is the convenience factor: voice search not only lets you be hands free but also multi-tasking.

Shiny informative content is your chance to have stand out in an ever-boring marketplace – but now you need to consider voice engine optimisation as part of your SEO strategy too.

Normal search is done by most people by tapping in just a few keywords. But voice search is a chattier thing altogether, so you need to identify long tail keywords and what might be used in natural speech – especially as we speak faster than we type.

For instance, you might type:
"beauty copywriter London"

But you might ask:

"Alexa, where can I find a freelance copywriter with beauty experience in London who's experienced in writing about dermal fillers?"

How can you optimise your website for voice search?

Ok, so hopefully you've already read my blog on how to choose SEO keywords to optimise your site organically … ?

Some of those tips also apply to voice search optimisation, but you will need to think a little differently so here's a quickie guide tailored to voice search.

Five tools to help with VEO:

Quora – a great question and answer site that attracts c. 100 million visitors a month. Anyone can ask a question – and anyone can answer, making it an excellent market research tool to identify what's trending in your business sector or product category. And authoritative answers are often grabbed by Google and Bing and displayed in the #1 search position – see the section below on featured snippets.
Google My Business – voice search can recognise 'near me' and identify results based on your actual location – but can only find you if on Google My Business. Most voice searches are for locally-related enquiries so adding your business category, contact details and hours will help customers and clients track you down faster than a sniffer dog.
Answer The Public – plop a word into this and you're be rewarded with a huge variety of potential questions – it's a fantastic way to get ideas for new content and blogs with questions that are perfect to use for VEO, based on key prepositions. For retailers, it also gives insight into people's mindset and current trends at different stages of a buying process.a>
Google's Search Console – this free Google service helps you keep an eye on your site's presence in Google searches with reports to see the queries people use to find you and any signs of voice in their searches.
Frequently asked questions – the simplest tool is to ask around. Talk to your customer service team and ask about typical questions your customers have. Talk to your sales team – they'll know what's running through people's minds when deciding whether or not to hand over their credit card. Talk to your staff on the shop floor – after all, they're dealing with customer questions day in, day out.

Is your site mobile friendly?

As you can imagine, most questions will be asked while on the go so check that your site is optimised for smartphones. Just enter a page URL on Google Search Console and see if it's chummily mobile-friendly and whizzily fast. I tried my home page and passed. Phew!

The role of featured snippets in voice search

Know what a featured snippet is? It's the answer to your question that Google values above all other answers and appears at the top of the Google page. In fact, here is the answer to that very question (and here's the Search Engine Watch article in full: 'What are featured snippets and how do I get them?').

Here's one of mine, as a result of my blog 'What's the difference between a headline, strapline, tagline and slogan?'

Several answers will appear if searching on your computer but only one answer will be presented if using voice search on your mobile – and it's likely to be a featured snippet, so it's all the more important to create relevant and expert-sounding content.

A final say on voice search

Be relevant. Be topical. Be helpful.

As devices become more intelligent, copy needs to be written more intelligently and more creatively too so that your brand can shout out above the competition rather than merely whisper.

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.

Before then, she worked for some of London's leading ad, branding and design agencies. She has experience in every sector – from finance to health to drinks – and has won awards in every discipline.

What Is Tone Of Voice In Copy And Why Does It Matter?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 14:55:00 +0000

What Is Tone Of Voice In Copy And Why Does It Matter?

By Caroline Gibson on Sep 19, 2018 07:00 am

Your tone of voice: why fade away when you can stand out from the crowd?

With reviews and comments being easier to share than ever before, clients and customers have a great deal of choice these days. So how do you make your brand stand up and stand out? Through your logo? Typeface? Name???

All these elements create a valuable first impression and successful companies typically have a consistent design identity. Yet …very few manage to articulate their brand distinctively and consistently through their tone of voice (probably the most well-known examples being innocent and Pret).

That's why creating and using the right tone of voice (aka TOV) to create an outstanding – and accurate – first impression of your brand is so important. And not just in ad copy or web copy either: really clever, really sharp brands showcase their tone of voice across all touchpoints. Just look at how this packaging and signage for Brooklyn Fare sing out.

So, what is tone of voice?

A tone of voice is the way in how you speak and write, what you say and how you sound. What you say is defined by your knowledge and experience; how you sound is defined by your personality.

What's your first impression when you read these statements? If you don't know me, then any of these could be a true reflection of my personality. But which is more likely to make you pick up the phone?

Caroline Gibson is an experienced freelance copywriter based in London. She's worked with a wide variety of clients and won awards.
Or
Meet Caroline Gibson, freelance copywriter. Caroline's worked with zillions of different clients. She's even won awards!!!
Or
Hello, I'm Caroline Gibson. I'm a freelance copywriter and I've been fortunate enough to with just about every type of business (and even picked up a few awards along the way).

What's the difference between tone of voice and copy style?

The tone of voice is how you sound. The copy style is how you bring that sound to life through an engaging narrative, whether in an ad, brochure or on a website.

Why does tone of voice matter?

Like a person, a business has a mixture of characteristics: brand values. These guide the way you behave. And the way you're viewed by others.

They're unique to you. They help define and drive your tone of voice.

And the more consistent you are in the tone of voice and language you use, the more likely it is that customers will understand why you're unique and why they should choose you rather than your competitors.

As an example, I've picked a small American brand with just a handful of branches in Austin, Texas: Maudie's. Just like its ads, Maudie's packs a big punch. The ads look and sound distinctive, telling me the brand is confident, positive – and fun.

How do you create the right tone of voice?

As William Zinsser says so brilliantly, 'Writing is thinking on paper.'

First, you need to understand a brand. Inside and out. Yes, you may feel you already do so but … it pays dividends to get an external perspective, such as through hiring a branding copywriter or tone of voice expert.

I send potential clients a link to my copy briefing template which is a mini-interrogation so that I can understand the challenges they face, the people they want to attract and the competitors they want to beat.

I'm a great believer in providing clients with choice. (After all, you'd expect to see a few different logos or web designs to choose from for your bucks, wouldn't you?) If you believe your brand to be 'dynamic and innovative', then great. But my interpretation of 'dynamic and innovative' could be quite different. So, I like to show a reasonably safe route (maybe something close to what you have already but neater, crisper, clearer), an option that may push you out of your comfort zone, and one that's in-between.

What's the point in saying you're dynamic if you don't sound it?

What about tone of voice guidelines?

My heart sometimes plunges when I see this section in a client's brand guidelines. The challenge with copy style guidelines is that they need to help employees feel confident about writing short pieces of copy, such as emails, but also enlighten external contractors such as freelance copywriters. Which are two quite different audiences.

The best tone of voice guidelines are short and sweet with a few guiding principles and worst vs. best practice examples.

However fancy your shiny new tone may be, good writing matters. Here are two key tips I always include so that your words are as lovely to read as they are to write:

Be human
Write like you speak, as if to a friend. And use the active voice, not the passive, as it's more one-to-one, less formal and just easier on the eye.

Here's an example:

Passive: Your email will be replied to in due course.

Active: I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Be simple
Why use ten words when three will do? Don't [use] a complicated or long word if there's a shorter or simpler one instead. Get straight to the point.

How brave do you want to be with your tone of voice?

I always encourage clients to be bold. And be different. And to really, really turn up the copy volume dial to stand up and stand out. Just like this for Bellroy (proof that product descriptors needn't be dull) …

And this for anatomicals (proof that, when a copywriter and art director – who happen to be brothers – launch a toiletries brand, you know that brand is born to be head and shoulders above the rest) …

Need a tone of voice? Then why settle for vanilla when you can go for gold?

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.

This article was first published by Caroline Gibson

The post What Is Tone Of Voice In Copy And Why Does It Matter? appeared first on .

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6 Degrees of Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 09:01:00 +0000

Advice by copywriters for copywriters

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6 Degrees of Social Media

By Kenneth Shinabery on Sep 05, 2018 07:00 am

In the digital age, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. As we begin to utilize social media we soon find out that there is less than 6 degrees of separation between most people. The more we network using social media the degrees of separation become even smaller and smaller. Ultimately there becomes a thin fine line between you, me and the rest of the world.

Maintaining your social media feed is important if you are working in the creative industry or any other industry for that matter. Also engaging those who follow you also becomes quite important. And this should not even be looked at just on a personal networking level, but also for exposure of brands.

As a creative I utilize Instagram. It has become an easy great place for me to connect with those who like my artwork or read my articles. Sometimes I will discover an artist, then randomly they will like something on one of my feeds (before I have even made contact with them). These random happenstances seem to happen more and more often.

How does this relate to marketing? Well if an average person can engage people and connect with others via social media…then it is very important for a brand to establish themselves as well via social media. However, I think with many brands it requires being clever and creating a unique social media feed. If a brand's feed comes off as too commercial…then many will disregard the feed.

By utilizing social media a brand can introduce their product or services to people who have yet to discover them. Thus, if used correctly the reach of the brand grows exponentially. Now if that brand engages people who engage them or for that matter engages people who do not engage them that reach doubles. Let's say you are managing the feed for Coca-Cola on Instagram. If from time to time you look up hashtags relating to Coke…and then like or comment on pictures that follow the Coca-Cola spirit. Those people who shared those images will become curious and view the companies social media feed. Then if your feed proves to be interesting or even has contests this may spark the interest of the person viewing the company's feed, which in turn may make them decide to follow the Coca-Cola feed.

GRANTED…if a company does engage the community they should do it in a sincere manner.

Also, the company cannot go and post "ENJOY COCA-COLA" as comment who those who created good images with the hashtags relating to the beverage. You need to create unique little posts that do not sound as if they were copy & pasted or as a commercial. If you engage people via social media with witty or fun or thought remarks then that will make a difference. Simply copy and pasting the same comment every time comes off as horrible.

Example: Every time you write a Tweet to Pantone you will get something like the following: "What color are you feeling like today?". This is the most insincere thing ever. No one wants to read responses from a BOT! I love Pantone, but this is one thing that they should change.

Wrap…

For year's the world has been experiencing a global connectivity that has transformed the world into one community. This community via social media allows one to remove the degrees of separation between other people, users and their community…thus creating new bonds and followers. Whether you are a large company or an artist or a regular person… networking via social media has its benefits if used correctly.

About the author: Kenneth Shinabery

Kenneth is a creative from New York City that is currently living in Europe. He is part of several Adobe programs such as the Adobe Influencer DACH program and Adobe Community Professionals Program as well as Wacom Evangelist. As an internationally published writer and content creator, Kenneth has spoken at conferences across Europe. Topics include: Creativity, Social Media and Community Development. One of his crowning achievements is having produced two full-scale creative conferences for Adobe in Germany.

Visit Kenneth's portfolio at: https://kennshinabery.myportfolio.com/

Or connect with him on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kshinabery

This article was first published by Kenneth Shinabery

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Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 15:53:00 +0000

Advice by copywriters for copywriters

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Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity?

By Caroline Gibson on Aug 29, 2018 07:00 am

How has digital marketing affected branding? Q&A with Chris Bullick, MD of The Pull Agency.

Bill Gates – somewhat belatedly – said 'The Internet changes everything'. In reality, Microsoft was late to the party but Gates nailed it just in time. But has the Internet really changed everything for marketing? The way in which services and products are promoted and sold may be different, but are the fundamentals still the same?

I interviewed Chris Bullick, Managing Director of The Pull Agency (which has just changed its name from Pull Digital). The agency creates brand propositions, websites and campaigns for clients that are challenger brands wanting to 'out-think rather than out-spend the competition'.

CG: So Chris, has – as Gates proclaimed – the Internet really changed everything?

CB: Having started my career on the branding side when at P&G, and therefore having been around pre-Internet, I've always been intrigued by people saying that brand is dead … it's all about Google and Search … anybody can start a dot.com business … long-term brand building no longer applies. The question, for me, is to what extent that's proved to be the case and what's the real impact of the digital revolution on the world of marketing and advertising.

I believe that, for a while, businesses felt that all that was needed for marketing was an army of geeks: I think that approach has been disproved. To my mind, the way digital has played out has proved that everything leads back to brand and that brand is still key.

CG: If a client contacts you for help with digital marketing, would you encourage them to let you evaluate their brand first of all?

CB: A lot of potential clients approach us because they think digital marketing will wave a magic wand or it's a shortcut. My argument will always be that whatever you do will be much better applied if you get your brand into shape first. So we will always try to undertake an audit of a client's brand and break that down into several components to understand what the brand narrative is, what's the awareness like, how good the brand promise and proposition are, etc., etc. There's really no point embarking on a marketing programme if those things aren't in good shape.

CG: With so much focus on attribution and programmatic solutions these days, how do companies look to measure their return on investment? Do they want to rank at the top of Google or measure ROI in other ways?

CB: Marketing has been always been science and art. People think building a brand is a largely creative process, but creative is just a way to address something and solve a problem. You have to prove that what you do positively impacts on the client's bottom line – and that's enabled by digital marketing.

The old joke used to be that 50% of your marketing works and 50% doesn't, and you don't know which is which. But that's changed and digital marketing lets you measure accurately – whether it's attributing sales to an e-commerce client or getting leads. If it's B2B, you can measure back to the source (so, where does that come from?). If it's organic, what keywords are responsible? If social media, which platform? You really can find the answers to those questions nowadays.

The art side is still leveraging your intuition; it's bringing creativity to bear, it's impacting the emotional pull the brand can have on the consumer. But what digital marketing allows you to do is the truly scientific part. Even when working with a client on brand building, you need to agree on a whole set of cold-blooded metrics – it might be sales, it might be ROI, it might be cost-per-acquisition, which comes from sources like Google analytics. The latest buzz phrase is 'big data' – if you collect enough data and use enough processing power, you can find the answers to everything. But I feel that approach is being discredited: again, it suggests that if you have enough processing power you don't need experienced marketers. I'm not sure I buy into that.

There's a soft creative side to brand building based on the fact that human beings are irrational and subject to emotional responses, and there's a scientific side which the digital revolution has fully enabled. If you're managing a brand well, then you've got to have a pretty good grip of both sides.

CG: Has measuring digital marketing caused creative work to suffer? Are advertisers and companies less adventurous?

Yes, I think marketing went through a period – the first stage of the digital revolution if you like – where geekiness and techno-crats moved in and which devalued things like copywriting and creativity. But people are now seeing the power of creativity again as technology falls to the background slightly. Clients are still looking for that emotional pull. Think about, say, the eagerly awaited John Lewis Christmas TV ads. That pull can only come out of creative work: it doesn't come from analytics.

CG: What are the major differences you've noticed about how digital marketing has affected branding?

The really big thing I've seen is how brand search has increased around tenfold in the last ten years compared to generic search. Everything's been turned on its head.

Take Wiggle, the UK's largest online provider of sports kit – especially cycling. Ten years ago the ratio of search for the phrase 'bicycle parts' versus 'Wiggle' was 10:1 in favour of 'bicycle parts'. Today, the ratio of search for Wiggle as a brand is 10:1 versus 'bicycle parts'.

So, ten years ago, if you wanted to build a business on the basis of that type of Google search result, you did everything you could to be in the number one slot for bicycle parts. You'd probably start a business called bicyclepartsonline.com and maybe even deploy so-called 'Black Hat' SEO techniques to reach and hold that number one search slot.

However, people have now found their favourite online brands – and search for generic items has been replaced by search for brands. For consumers now, the brand name 'Wiggle' is synonymous with 'bicycle parts' so they simply type in 'Wiggle'. Although Wiggle has invested in SEO, they've put their real effort and investment behind building the brand. That's why they're number one in their category.

CG: How has that affected Wiggle's marketing spend?

The majority of Wiggle's revenue will now come from brand-related search, and they bid on their own brand term in paid search. Type in 'Wiggle' and the first result you see is a big Google ad from Wiggle. Now it may be that half the consumers searching with Wiggle-related terms are clicking on that. The result next down from that will be the organic search result. It may seem counter-intuitive that you're forced by Google to spend on your own brand, but the reality is that the cost-per-acquisition (getting a sale from someone clicking on the Wiggle ad) is probably 30p or 40p. The cost-effectiveness of this dilutes the cost of bidding on generic search terms, so the overall cost per acquisition or ROI is much lower than that of competitors with weaker or less searched-for brands.

So the latent value of a brand can be indicated better by what used to be the slightly vague term 'brand equity', which was notoriously difficult to measure. Now, all of a sudden, you can measure that – it's a massive turnaround. For Wiggle, it means they can afford to spend an awful lot more on non-brand terms such as 'bicycle parts' because the fantastic ROI they get on a brand-name sponsored search pays for all their other advertising on Google. That's a perfect example of brand value.

CG: Lastly Chris, any predictions for the future of digital marketing?

CB: In the last year alone, I've seen Facebook come forward to challenge Google in a whole load of ways that I didn't necessarily expect. I think that Facebook, because of the way in which it profiles people, is getting stronger by the day. Google may be very good at profiling people's intentions, but it's not so good at understanding them as individuals.

About the author: Caroline Gibson

Caroline has been a freelance copywriter for over 15 years, with clients ranging from international brands to small businesses looking to become big businesses.

This article was first published by Caroline Gibson

The post Has Digital Marketing Killed Off Branding & Creativity? appeared first on .

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Insults, Book Titles and Headlines That (Hilariously) Beggar Belief

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 09:47:00 +0000

Insults, Book Titles and Headlines That (Hilariously) Beggar Belief

By Ellie Hubble on Aug 22, 2018 07:00 am

Words are powerful.

They can carry big and serious ideas, communicated by icons such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malala Yousafzai or Winston Churchill.

But they can also carry a healthy dose of well-considered silliness. Think Amy Schumer, Spike Milligan or Eric Morecambe.

I've been reading a lot about the English language and humour recently:
'English Is Not Easy – A Graphic Guide to the Language' by Luci Gutierrez
'English Humour for Beginners' by George Mikes
'Mangled English' by Gervase Phinn
'i before e (except after c) – old-school ways to remember stuff' by Judy Parkinson
And it's got me thinking about my favourite examples of wordplay…

Epic ways of saying someone is an idiot

Keep some of these handy for your next passive-aggressive or, if need be, just aggressive discussion.

"One sausage short of a mixed grill"
"The hamster's dead but the wheel is still turning"
"One sandwich short of a picnic"
"The lift doesn't go to the top floor"
"One word short of a sentence"

Let me know how these go down at the next family barbecue or around the water cooler at work.

Book titles that actually exist

I can't decide which of these is my favourite, but it's between "nude mice" and "Exhibition Poultry".

"The Romance of Leprosy"
"Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice"
"Erections on Allotments"
"The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry"
"Cooking with Poo"
"Handbook for the Limbless"

Definitely some titles to add to your read-on-the-tube-to-make-Londoners-uncomfortable list.

Real-life published headlines

I'd pay a lot of money to know which of these were deliberate and which were only accidentally amusing.

"Headmistress Unveils Bust"
"Spider Found in Toilet. Woman Relieved"
"Leopard Spotted In Park"
"Man At Death's Door-Doctors Pull Him Through"

Bravo headline writers!

If none of these examples of outstanding wordplay made you laugh then you're probably one word short of a sentence.

Got some weird and wonderful examples of wordplay to share? Let me know in the comments below to brighten my day.

About the author: Ellie Hubble

Ellie is a creative strategist and writer, currently working as a copywriter for an eclectic mix of agencies and brands. When she's not writing or cooking up ideas, she can usually be found exploring the city or escaping from it to the countryside.

You can follow her latest posts at Dazed but Amused and follow her on Twitter @ellie_hubble.

This article was first published by Ellie Hubble

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Five Ways to Get Noticed Online

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 14:06:00 +0000

Advice by copywriters for copywriters

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Five Ways to Get Noticed Online

By Rick Siderfin on Aug 15, 2018 07:00 am

With over 2 million new blog posts being uploaded to the World Wide Web every single day, how on earth are you supposed to get your business noticed online?

Luckily, there are some simple strategies that are within the reach of even the smallest businesses, so don't despair. Here are five ways to get more visitors to (and ultimately more leads and sales from) your website:

One: Spread Your Net

Maximise your output – make sure you have an active online presence on social media. Wherever your target market is active is where you need to be putting out information – whether that be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even Pinterest or Instagram.

Maybe you are afraid of annoying your audience by putting out the same message across multiple platforms. Just remember, it is very unlikely people will be following you on every site so don't let this worry you. Most importantly, if they are connected with you on social media they have chosen to hear from you – so don't let them down!

The more popular websites and social media channels that link back to your website, the more your chances of being found online increase. If the sheer scale and number of social media channels are intimidating for you, focus on being really good on just two or three platforms, rather than trying to be a maestro of all the platforms.

You can always recruit outside help with social media, for a surprisingly low outlay.

Two: Stand Out

(Be Multicoloured, Not Magnolia!)

Make sure your message is unique. Why be mediocre? Using boring business jargon, buzzwords, and dull-as-ditchwater, dry-as-dust language makes you blend into the background like a camera-shy chameleon.

For written content, this can be an especially difficult trick to pull off. We have become used to sounding painfully formal in our written communications, using expressions that would sound pretentious if read out loud.

Just be yourself. Imagine if your prospect was sitting across the table from you. What sort of language would you use? How would you describe their problem? What colourful phrases are you known for? Write as you talk – the end result will be much easier to digest!

Online search engines have completely revolutionised the way customers find solutions to their needs. Obviously, you will need to use keywords to help your customer find you, but do so in a snappy, meaningful and interesting way to catch your customers attention and capture their business. Don't be afraid to be colourful and different.

Three: Showcase Your Solutions

No matter if you are a high street café, window cleaner or an insurance company, you provide solutions. Don't just talk about yourself on your website and publications – talk about the problems and challenges your target market is facing, then tell them how you can help!

One of the best ways to do this is to create advice videos explaining a subject, concept or common problem and how you can help. People love videos and this is one of the easiest ways to optimise your site visits and social media followers. We have all been attracted by a catchy advert or a series of videos showing simple 'life hacks' or tips and tricks to achieve a desired result. This is content marketing at it's finest.

The good news is you no longer need a vast budget to create videos that your customers and prospects will love. Animated videos are an extremely affordable and effective way of getting your message across. No hassle with finding actors, props, or locations, simply let [them] know your message and [they] can quickly create a professional and attractive video on any subject.

You can upload the video to your website to increase visits and shared across messaging sites, YouTube and Vimeo to raise your profile instantly. Interested? Click here to learn more on this subject.

Four: Share The Knowledge, Share The Love!

In addition to your core message, keep your customer coming back by creating genuinely useful and interesting content. You could consider sharing 'Did you know?' facts on social media, post inspiring quotes, blog about events or write about lifestyle tips. You are the brand, you have the knowledge – people will look to you for advice so share what you have!

Charity events are a big draw – everybody loves to know they are helping out somehow. Choose your local or national charities to support and run competitions, blog about fundraising efforts and note on your website who you are supporting. Your customers want to know that you care, not just for them and the customers they bring, but also for the greater good.

Five: Stake Your Claim on Google Maps

This is so basic but so underused – help your customers to find you by making sure you are represented on Google Maps.

Ensure the location for your business is correct, and update it if you move! And remember, the street view footage is often very out of date – there isn't much you can do about this but you can upload photos to your location – images of your logo and services, examples of your work, photos of your offices, display rooms, warehouse, staff – the possibilities are endless!

Don't miss out on this key step you can take to get you noticed online. You can simply go to Google Maps and then to your business address. If your business is not listed, simply click on the building where you are located, and add your business details. Then click "claim this business." Google will then send you a postcard through the post with a special code, which enables you to stake your claim and ensure another high-quality backlink to your website, and the opportunity for more people to see your brand and visit your website or your physical premises.

About the author: Rick Siderfin

Rick Siderfin is a husband, dad of 3, and copywriter who lives and works in Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds. He is the founder of Vortex Content Marketing, a company founded with one simple objective: to help you get noticed online.

This article was originally published by Rick Siderfin

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3 Tips to Increase Your Email Marketing Open & Click Through Rates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 14:30:00 +0000

3 Tips to Increase Your Email Marketing Open & Click Through Rates

By Rick Siderfin on Jul 04, 2018 07:00 am

No one would deny that it's more challenging than ever to get your recipients to even notice your emails – far less open, read, and click on the links you so carefully embedded in them.

Competition for your prospect's attention has never been as keen as today. You're up against a dazzling display of digital distractions. The days of 'spray and pray' email marketing, throwing some content together, hitting 'send' and hoping for the best are over.

The good news is, if you follow the three simple steps that I have set out for you below, your email will stand a far better chance of getting you the results you so badly need. These steps require no special talent. Anyone (yes, anyone – including you) can follow them. What are you waiting for?

ONE: USE A NAMED SENDER

The sender name is the first thing that your recipients will scan. Which would you be more likely to notice; an email from 'Honeywide Stores' or an email from 'James Honeywide'? Yep, it's the latter – especially if you remember meeting James in his health food store a few weeks back.

Or to look at it another way – which would you open first, an email from Tesla – or an email from Elon Musk?

OK, maybe that's an extreme comparison, but you get my point.

I usually recommend that you send your company emails with the company founder or CEO as the named sender, if possible. That will get the highest amount of readership. If you do take this approach, you will need to ensure that he or she is happy with every email that is sent out in their name, and also to match the tone of the email as closely as possible to their own tone of voice – whether that is friendly, professional, zany, serious, or snappy!

Just don't use your company name. Please!

TWO: USE AN ATTENTION-GRABBING SUBJECT LINE

What's the next thing your reader will look at, after the sender name? The subject line, of course!

There are countless resources, and even online tools, that already exist to help you create the perfect subject line. Despite this, many marketers still send out emails with subject lines so devoid of interest that they could probably be used as a form of digital camouflage. Apply this subject line, and watch your email vanish before your eyes!

My advice would be to take a look through your inbox. If yours is like a lot of people's, it will most likely contain hundreds of unread emails. (If you practice inbox zero like I do, you will need to leave your email alone for a day before completing this little exercise.)

Between the unread emails, you will see other emails. For whatever reason, you clicked on these and read their contents. Why?

Was it because of the sender? The subject line? What was it that caught your attention?

The best subject lines provoke curiosity, while also giving a taste of what the reader will find by clicking and opening your email. Please don't destroy your chances of anyone seeing your email by giving it a subject line like "Acme Stores September Newsletter".

Bland, overused phrases such as "Great September Offers Enclosed!" won't light anyone's fire – unless they really, really are in love with whatever it is you sell. You have about 2 seconds, max, to get your audience to notice and decide to find out more from your subject line. Otherwise, it will get ignored or deleted.

Don't copy everyone else. Be original!

Great subject line examples:

Selling secret is hidden in Disney Pixar's Inside Out
This made me spit coffee all over my keyboard
Nutty people who are wrong (but who believe they are right)

THREE: USE THE 'PREVIEW TEXT' FUNCTION

So, you have your sender name and your subject line locked and loaded. Think you're ready to move onto the content at last? Think again! There is one more opportunity for you to make sure that your email will get noticed and opened. It's called the Preview Text window.

An 'email client' is the program or tool your recipients use to read and manage their email. It could be a webmail program, like Gmail, or an app like Microsoft Outlook. Most email clients have a preview function, that allows you to get a sneak preview of the contents of the emails in your inbox before you open them.

Your email marketing platform should allow you to define this preview text. (If it doesn't – time to get a new email marketing platform!) You can, and should, take full advantage of this. There are so many ways you can creatively tease your audience with a taster of what they will find in the email.

What you put into the preview text should ideally be an incomplete sentence, a provocative question, or an outright statement designed to raise the eyebrows. For example:

For the first time since 1695, Royal Mint to recall all money?
Picture this: one day, you wake up to find an enormous…
I have a superpower. I can sit down with anyone, and in less than one hour, I can…
We are naturally curious creatures, and our minds are always looking to complete any loose ends. How do we do that? By opening the email to find out more, of course!

There you go – three straightforward, zero-fluff techniques to ramp up the results from your email marketing. Need a helping hand? You know where to turn!

About the author: Rick Siderfin

This article was originally published by Rick Siderfin

Meet Markus, ein Frankfurter Texter

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noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 16:06:00 +0000

Advice by copywriters for copywriters

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What a Professional Copywriter Knows About Turning Browsers into Buyers That Your English Teacher Would Slap You Silly for Doing

By Kristine Smith on Jun 27, 2018 07:00 am

When writing web copy or web content, you have just eight seconds to rivet your visitors into place. Here's how to put your web visitors on a slippery slope that carries them along to the destination you want them to reach and the decision you want them to make.

It's a sad fact: when you attended school your teachers showed you how to write pleasantly and properly. Very few, if any, taught you how to write powerfully and persuasively.

Most educators don't know how to write powerfully or persuasively themselves—they aren't copywriters, novelists or authors. Although they're technically proficient, they simply aren't (for the most part) artists or hypnotists.

This is why it's important when choosing a copywriter, to find out what they know about their craft. Your relatives and friends who got good grades in English and creative writing won't cut the mustard, either, unless they can tell you what I'm about to tell you. If they can, they've read copywriting books and they just might work out for you.

The following is what you need to know about writing persuasive, powerful copy. In knowing these few facts, you'll be able to choose a copywriter instead of a charlatan. Heck, you might even be able to write your own persuasive, powerful copy. (But read a few copywriting books before you try. You don't want to shoot yourself in the foot. It's costly to recover from a pathetic premiere!)

Every time your Ideal Clients reach the period at the end of every sentence in your copy, they have permission to leave. BUT!
If the next word after a period piques your visitors' curiosity, they'll stay put. If not, it's sayonara, baby.
So, starting a small handful of subsequent sentences with and, but, or, so, unless, did you know, why, because or another intriguing cliffhanger-type word makes it next to impossible for your audience to disappear on you. Their minds will insist on continuing. Why? Because the human brain is insatiably curious; it hates being left in the lurch with unfinished business.
Using alliteration, cadence and rhythm, metaphors, similes and other stay-with-me techniques also help keep your audience enthralled. (Examples: You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent. Double your pleasure, double your fun, with double good double good Doublemint gum. Turning browsers into buyers. Weaving words into wealth. Every Dr. Seuss book in existence.)
Use stories when you can. People love and remember stories a lot longer than they remember facts and figures or features and benefits.
Make sure your copy addresses your target audience's pain, problem or predicament—the one your product or service solves.

Focus like a laser on YOUR SINGLE, IDEAL CLIENT with your initial offerings, the persona most likely to whip out his or her wallet and buy from you. When you do this, their purchases will help fund additional outreach. Don't be a flashlight simply shedding light; be a laser: etch a permanent, unforgettable memory into your target client's mind and emotions.

About the author: Kristine M. Smith

Kristine M. Smith, professional copywriter and author, loves dancing with words and interacting with people. You can reach her at kris@wordwhisperer.net. Visit her websites at http://hireme.wordwhisperer.net and https://YellowBalloonPublications.com.

This article is adapted from an earlier piece first published by Kristine M. Smith

The post What a Professional Copywriter Knows About Turning Browsers into Buyers That Your English Teacher Would Slap You Silly for Doing appeared first on .

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Staying True to Your Brand Message Globally

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 10:39:00 +0000

Staying True to Your Brand Message Globally

By Waynne Meek on Jun 13, 2018 07:00 am

Most large brands go to a lot of time and effort to get to the right messaging to properly tell their story. This involves a lot of soul-searching, creativity, rewriting, brainstorming and approvals – taking up time from a wide range of people. But when the final approval is given and the brand guys breathe a sigh of relief… then what?

Having a brilliantly clever pay-off and a compelling story needs to cascade throughout the brand. Not everyone is in the loop in the initial work to create it, so they need to be schooled in the new brand. And they need tools and guidelines to help them (see also my articles 'Do you have a Writing Style Guide?' and 'Are your brand texts escaping from you?').

But it's not just different parts of the business briefing communications you need to think about. Most large brands these days (and, increasingly, many smaller ones) make a large percentage of their sales in foreign markets. In fact, although it's easy to think in your 'master' language, the reality is that a much larger number of customers are reading your messaging, and accessing your brand, through a different language.

And that means getting your translations right.

It's tempting to just 'throw' your copy to a translations agency and forget about it. But it's important to brief them properly too. Think about what they have to go on when they do a translation. Do they know, and understand, the background of your product and brand? Are there phrases you always translate in a certain way?

What happens if your brilliantly crafted copy in English (or your core 'source language') doesn't translate at all in their language? Many brands use 'transcreation' to deal with this, especially for their more creative copy. This is a mixture of translation and original writing – it costs more and will require a much more robust brief, but if your top-level copy carries the reputation of the brand, it's surely worth it.

Of course, it's not practical (or cost-effective) to use transcreation for all of your copy. But you do need to think about other languages when you originally brief or write. Avoid idiomatic language, for example, and try to steer clear of cultural references. In fact, for some messages, there could even be a case for creating a separate English master for each country – which means some texts are adjusted to account for cultural differences and even language nuances. This can also give you the opportunity to tailor a text for differences in your business per country, like product specifications.

There's a lot to think about if you want your brand messaging to properly 'translate' to another country. Sometimes just automatically replacing the words with those of your target language aren't nearly enough. And translation can be a tricky thing – if you don't understand the language it's hard to judge the output. But there are ways to do this – with clever copywriting, proper briefing and reuse processes you can cut through the potential Tower of Babel that multiple markets can create.

How do you prepare your carefully crafted master text for translation? I'd love to hear from you!

About the author: Waynne Meek

Waynne is passionate about all things content, especially how copy merges with other elements to make compelling communication. A recognised career of 20 years spanning various media has given him a useful insight into the way copy works across brands. Armed with this experience, he has delivered and managed effective copy solutions, from award-winning internal magazines to compelling brand and product messaging. Find out more about him on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynnemeek/, or on www.brandcopylab.com.

This article was first published by Waynne Meek

The post Staying True to Your Brand Message Globally appeared first on .

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Why you need to think first and write later – especially for business

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 May 2018 14:18:00 +0000

Why you need to think first and write later – especially for business

By Suzan St Maur on May 30, 2018 07:00 am

"If you don't know what you think, you can't write it down," said my longtime colleague and book co-author John Butman some years ago.

Yet how many of us take on a business writing exercise – email, blog post, even web page – without thoroughly thinking through the key issues needed to make that piece of writing work properly … before we write anything down?

Most of us fall victim to it. Even I do, and I've been a professional business writer since Madison Avenue was a dirt track with an Algonquian name.

It's all part of our tendency not to engage brain before putting fingers into gear. Here is one classic symptom, with a suggestion on how to treat it…

"When you've finished your first draft," says another writer colleague of mine, Montréal based Nick Usborne, "remove your first sentence. Nine times out of ten that will improve the piece a lot."

Why? Because you have just started writing, without enough thinking

Nick Usborne's advice is very valid for the same reasons. Most people just start writing, which means in the first sentence they are just warming up towards the point. Not only does removing the first sentence tend to sharpen up the writing, but often removing the entire first paragraph does, too.

And that's hoping by paragraph two you've thought about what to write and are getting on with it.

Much as my colleagues' advice is superb, however, people often don't realise that they don't know what they think. If that sounds a bit bizarre, that's because it is…

Surprisingly, it's not about what you want to say

Yes, really. The vast majority of business writing is intended not merely to express what you want to say, but also – often more importantly – to bring about a desired action on the part of the reader. That means your thinking needs to cover two areas, not one:

1.The information you need to convey – what you want to say
2.What you want the reader to do with/about that information

If the reader is someone who has no choice but to do what you want, then point number 2. isn't difficult. However, the vast majority of stakeholders, and especially customers and prospects, are not obliged to do what you tell them. Now what?

Think and write to get results, not revenge

OK, if you're sending an email to a supplier asking them to replace a faulty toilet, complain about late deliveries or ask their driver not to spit on your nice new flooring, your first temptation will be to read them the Riot Act.

But even when you feel like firing a small thermonuclear device at someone, remember that as my old Canadian Dad used to say, "you'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar."

If you're writing to put things right, you'll soon realise that what you want is a quick and painless resolution of the problem, or else a quick dismissal and move on elsewhere. Shouting abuse may make you feel better but won't get results.

The assertive (not aggressive) approach may not beat pulling the wings off live flies for getting revenge, but it does allow everyone to save face and so win-win. Thinking about what to write and how to write it may not come easy, to begin with, but give yourself some time to calm down and think, before you write.

And think about "what's in it for them?"

Anyone who has read my stuff more than about twice will know I'm always banging on about "stop writing we-wee," the "SO WHAT? Test," and "what's in it for me?" There is a reason for this, and it's because, in any form of writing that has even the merest whiff of marketing about it, your reader does NOT care about you or your issues. They care only about what's in it for them.

Don't forget that there is this whiff of marketing about apparently unrelated writing, like reports, proposals, white papers, blog posts, etc. Much as these genres ostensibly are not about selling, nine times out of ten you are trying to sell readers if not a product or service, at least a concept/notion/idea.

Once again, check out the two golden rules from above …

1.The information you need to convey – what you want to say
2.What you want the reader to do with/about that information

Start thinking from point #2, and write your text backwards

Rather than go on about this particular issue here, please read this tutorial about writing proposals. It takes you step by step through the whole process of starting with what you want to happen, and structuring the proposals so readers are led gently but surely to where you want them to be.

It may sound a bit sneaky, but then so is business.

As for marketing copy and blog writing, you know what to think before you write … don't you?

If not, have a browse through this category for marketing and related writing, and this category for blogging.

And if you really want the "what's in it for me" / "features and benefits" concept in detail, this article – based on a very popular eBook – spells it out usefully.

Do you agree? Please share your thoughts!

What advice can you share with us about thinking before writing?

About the author: Suzan St Maur

This article first appeared on Suzan St Maur's award-winning writing resource website, HowToWriteBetterHTWB … with more than 1,500 articles and tutorials on a vast range of topics from business to fiction, training to comedy, by Suzan and many other writing experts from around the world. An experienced expert in marketing communications, Suzan is now an author coach, book publishing consultant, and best-selling author.

This article was first published by Suzan St Maur

* Need a copywriter in New York City? Meet Mark.*

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How to Create a Company Slogan that Will Get You Noticed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 May 2018 07:44:00 +0000

How to Create a Company Slogan that Will Get You Noticed

By Rick Siderfin on May 23, 2018 07:00 am

I'm not a fan of typical corporate buzzword-infested slogans. It's preferable to have no slogan at all than one which is entirely meaningless.

You know the kind I mean. Sometimes masquerading as a mission statement, or a vision statement, or a company foundation – these are the slogans that fail to ignite any spark of human interest and are utterly irrelevant to potential customers. At best, they would be greeted by an ironic eye roll if you were ever bold enough to say them out loud to your potential customers.

That's not to say slogans are entirely useless. If you can assemble into a short statement what it is that makes your company different from the rest, then a slogan or tagline can be very helpful in your marketing efforts.

Here's a helpful test for your slogan: can it, alone, encapsulate why someone should spend their money with you, in a way that requires no additional explanation?

It should be short – the less words the better – but not so short that it makes no logical sense. Here's some good examples:

Reassuringly Expensive (Stella Artois)
Never Knowingly Undersold (John Lewis)
Shave Time. Shave Money (Dollar Shave Club)
A Diamond is Forever (De Beers)
Above it All (Range Rover)

Built into the best slogans is an implicit promise – "spend your money with us, and receive this in return." Everyone knows that a good slogan alone is no guarantee of success. So, whatever you decide on for your slogan – you'd better be sure you can deliver on that promise. And please, whatever you do, don't just blatantly copy someone else's slogan – no one likes a pale imitation. The very least you can do is ensure you're original!

About the author: Rick Siderfin

This article was originally published by Rick Siderfin

The post How to Create a Company Slogan that Will Get You Noticed appeared first on .

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Bad Date Syndrome

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 May 2018 15:52:00 +0000

Bad Date Syndrome

By Phil Gayter on May 16, 2018 07:00 am

When I do branding seminars I have one slide that leaves the room silent. It's a picture of an over-bearing man with a bored looking woman. A title over the top says: Are you a bad date? I usually invite the audience to raise their hands in concurrence, and a couple of mitts timidly reach for the tile ceiling.

Thank you for admitting this!

I go on to explain the following. A bad date shows up cocky and then proceeds to talk about themselves incessantly, in glowing terms, Me, I, Me, I, Me I.

They continue like this ad infinitum until the poor date looks at their watch and excuses themselves to go to "the powder room," where they quietly slip through a tiny window and escape. Here's the point.

Many brands are bad dates.

They show up and talk incessantly about We, I, Me, I, We I, Us. You've all seen it.

"We are the number one purveyor of coffins in Lake County! We offer the finest woods and we are proud to offer European-style handles!"

"Eat at Jimmy's. We continue to be awesome and have been awesome since 1946."

We. Us. I. Our.

The missing pronoun is "you." As in your customers.

As a brand, I can tell immediately if you are a good date or not. I look at your website and check to see how long it takes for you to talk about me (the customer), if I have to go to "In the news" or "testimonials" it tends to be a pretty bad start to our first meeting.

A little bragging is OK, so are the facts and points and customer feedback, but if you make it all about your business, you are actually talking to yourself and guaranteeing your customers are squeezing through the bathroom window, possibly without paying, hopefully with their pants on. Brands should aspire to be "good dates," and that means showing up on time, being insightfully engaging and totally "into" the person they are meeting. It doesn't half help if you happen to look like Brad Pitt, but in the DNA sweepstakes of brands, personality usually rules over good looks.

It's simple human nature. If you show some interest in someone–real interest–you miraculously become more interesting back.

Marketing engagement is totally like this. Show that you understand them; make a fuss over them; present them with kick-ass insights; make them laugh or cry; show them you care – it's all pretty simple really. Brands that get it, stop selling and start building relationships, and relationships generally lead to trust which generally … well, you get the picture.

Think of the power this gives you. Done correctly you get "engaged" and go off into the future getting married and having a lifelong relationship together. Maybe even a couple of kids.

So are you a good date?

Oh, look at the time. I must visit the men's room.

About the author: Phil Gayter

Phil worked as a creative director at global giants Leo Burnett and Euro RSCG in Chicago. He currently has a brand and creative consultancy

Brandstorm, and helps clients of all sizes find their voice and correct pant size.

This article was first published by Phil Gayter

CREATIVE PLAY AND REJECTING THE DON DRAPER SCHOOL OF IDEA GENERATION

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 May 2018 14:17:00 +0000

CREATIVE PLAY AND REJECTING THE DON DRAPER SCHOOL OF IDEA GENERATION

By Ellie Hubble on May 09, 2018 07:00 am

What does it mean to be "creative"? To be an "ideas person"? Or to be "artistic"? They're just words aren't they? Devoid of any real meaning.

As a Contenty-copywriter type, I often (to my delight) get pulled into creative meetings or idea generation sessions, as it is assumed I'll be a valuable contributor. And whilst I'd love to think that's all on me, in reality, I think it's because my job role allows me to be "creative". It is expected.

Creativity belongs to us all

Creativity is not a talent, it is an active craft. It's all about being able to shift perspective and solve problems. And it isn't and shouldn't be pigeonholed to one industry or role. Dave gets it:

"Creativity isn't a particular discipline. It's the quality of originality and unexpectedness that you bring to whatever you do." – Dave Trott in Creative Mischief

The importance of playfulness

It's hard to actually define creativity, but in my opinion, it centres around playfulness. A quick check on Google offers "frivolity", "silliness" and even "monkey business" as possible synonyms. But I mean playful in terms of toying with or manipulating something, pulling it apart and patching it back together.

Being playful in the workplace isn't frivolous or silly, but a way of solving problems cleverly or building something that is original, whatever the project.

I did a module a few years back at university on Holocaust Literature which was as brutal as it sounds but fascinating. I did well on the final exam with the positive feedback that I had explored the books in question "playfully".

I learnt that playfulness doesn't have to be silly, but that it's a method of finding new angles and ideas, whatever the subject matter.

The battle for the Great Idea

Playfulness may be a good method of "achieving" creativity, but it doesn't guarantee results. When Mad Men's Creative Director, Don Draper, isn't drinking or engaging in light misogyny, he broods away in his office until the idea miraculously comes to him.

"There is no algorithm that can tell us where it will come from and when it will hit". – Tim Brown in Change by Design

Draper solves the day by having the ever-coveted lightbulb moment. But this is such bullshit. A fully-formed idea by one person is very rare. Also, the notion that there is one great idea is ridiculous.

In reality, idea generation is a lengthy process, involving a mix of different people and many, many, many iterations.

"To have a good idea, you must first have lots of ideas". Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry

Instead of ruthlessly pursuing the Great Idea, like a mighty but pointless hunt for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, we should play our way to the Right Idea.

Who's with me?

About the author: Ellie Hubble

You can follow her latest posts at Dazed but Amused and follow her on Twitter @ellie_hubble.

This article was first published by Ellie Hubble

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How this “Accident” became one of the most famous logos in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 May 2018 17:22:00 +0000

How this "Accident" became one of the most famous logos in the world

By Rick Siderfin on May 02, 2018 07:00 am

Business owners commonly spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fine-tune their logo and brand, so it may come as a surprise to learn how the simple design that is now worth over $26 billion came into being.

Here's the story of how the first Nike running shoes were created, and how the iconic "swoosh" became the official logo of what is now one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Way back when I was growing up, if I went to buy sneakers, I had four choices; Converse low-top, high-top, in either black or white.

That was it.

There was no Adidas.

There was no Puma.

There were no running shoes.

Bill Bowerman was a running coach and the founder of what would become Nike (pronounced ny'-kee, after the Greek goddess of victory) – one of the most known brands in the world.

At the time, though, Bill wasn't concerned with becoming a multi-billion dollar global sports retailer. He just wanted shoes that would help his runners perform better.

One day, his wife was preparing waffles for breakfast, and she poured the batter into the waffle iron.

He said, "Wait a second."

He came home that afternoon after track practice, and he brought this liquid rubber stuff, and he poured it into the waffle iron and it hardened.

He said, "This is going to be the sole of my new running shoe."

The first Nike running shoe was a waffle sole. He was supported by Phil Knight, who was one of his graduate students, and together they started this running shoe manufacturer.

I once met a woman who was the author of one of the first books about the history of Nike. I asked her: "What was their secret in terms of marketing?"

She replied: "You know, these people knew nothing about marketing. They were all track coaches and runners. They knew nothing about marketing, but they thought they did."

The story about the Nike swoosh is they were up against a deadline and they had a half-hour left.

They had to come up with a logo.

They had six designs to go with. Under pressure to make a decision, Phil Knight said "Let's go with the swoosh. I don't love it, but I think it will grow on me." It was almost by chance that this design was selected from the shortlist.

It wasn't due to long, serious research, or focus groups, or market research. The graphic design student who came up with it was paid $25 for her work, and Nike sent the designs to the factory in Mexico to produce their first batch of waffle-sole sports shoes with the now-famous "swoosh" design on the side.

The moral of the story? I guess it's not to obsess over the details of how your brand looks (or, worse still, indulge in multiple "rebrands") but rather on your product and your target market.

That's why Nike become so successful – they were utterly focussed on the wants and needs of their target market. They told stories. They got people who were in the media spotlight to wear their brand. They really did "just do it!" – you could say, they were just practicing what they (still) preach!

About the author: Rick Siderfin

This article was originally published by Rick Siderfin

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Design and copy: dance partners not petulant divas

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 08:14:00 +0000

Design and copy: dance partners not petulant divas

By Waynne Meek on Apr 25, 2018 07:00 am

Imagery and words need always to go hand-in-hand to create truly compelling content. But there are times you see examples of them being created separately and then forced together. Stories are now built up from a multitude of creative assets, including images, videos and infographics. It's an exciting time for content, but it can also be a dangerous one.

How does a content piece work? Do its separate content elements hang together? Many are briefed on different resources, maybe by different people, and often the creative providers are freelancers working alone. Sometimes, there's even the temptation to find/create the perfect imagery and then 'bung some text in' later. That's when copy – the poor old relative – falls down and can be blamed for low engagement.

Design & Message Working Together

It's important to understand how the elements work together. For example, what word count are the designers working to? Do they know how much copy is needed to tell the story? Or, on the other hand, are the copywriters aware of how much they should (or shouldn't) be writing? It's clear in the modern world of multiple calls on our attention that less is more. There's nothing worse than having to cram too much copy into a design. It ends up cramped and ineffective. There's also the danger of different elements vying individually for attention, which can be confusing and could even have a counter-effective result.

Once you have figured out the right balance of copy and imagery, beware translations. The perfect fit in one language could be tricky in another. For example, Finnish tends to be considerably longer in character length than English. So, designers could be forced to either change the design at the last minute or reduce the text size dramatically. You don't want to have to issue your readers in Finland with magnifying glasses, so it's good to bear this in mind!

'Mad Men' style traditional advertising really understood this – some of the old long copy ads are works of art in their own right. Communications have moved on – for the most part, the visuals are more dynamic and the words more sparing. But there's still a lot to be said for maintaining the right balance, so each complements the other in a kind of elegant waltz.

How do you ensure your content marries design and message effectively?

About the author: Waynne Meek

Check out one of our top copywriters in Boston

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What Does the Word Copywriter Mean in 2018?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 14:37:00 +0000

What Does the Word Copywriter Mean in 2018?

Copywriter [noun]: A person who writes copy for the purpose of advertising or marketing.

Today, the role of a copywriter has many nuances that are often left out of its basic definition.

Meanwhile, in less nuanced terms, we've seen the word dropped completely in favor of more (or less) creative terminology, like that of Word Ninja. But since we're not in an action movie, let's stick to the more nuanced meaning of copywriter.

Originally, the word copy came into popular use with the rise of the newspaper industry. There, publishers referred to the text to be printed as the copy and those who wrote it as copywriters and those who edited copy as copyeditors. Sounds easy, right?!

But what does the word itself really mean today?

What is a copywriter?

Many dictionaries tend to stick to similar phrasing when referring to a copywriter. However, a closer look around the Web illustrates how the meaning of copywriter has changed and expanded through the years.

Cambridge Dictionary defines copywriters as "someone who writes the words for advertisements".

It's rather a "meat and potatoes" kind of definition, but thanks to Cambridge's prestige and enduring influence, it's still one in common use.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Merriam-Webster says a copywriter is "a writer of advertising or publicity copy".

This wording gives a little bit more elbow room to what type of writing is included. And, of course, being referred to as a "writer" rather than a "someone" gives an added sense of achievement to any copywriter reading it.

Being all business, BusinessDictionary defines the word as "a professional who composes headings, sub-headings, and body copy of advertisements, brochures, catalogs, direct mail offers, product literature, etc. Some copywriters work independently while others are employed by the advertising agencies".

A very thorough and serious explanation. But perhaps it is lacking some creative oomph for any copywriter hoping to NOT put clients to sleep when describing what we do.

Check out how this real live copywriter describes himself at Snagajob: "Copywriters are the handsome, good-smelling men and women who create fresh written content for advertising, marketing and descriptive texts. Copywriters can write more creative text, like ad jingles, taglines, and other creative copy, or more research-based copy, like a job description on a website."

Now there's a description that could persuade anyone, especially if your job requires just that. Also, it is, naturally, 100% accurate.

As many copywriters and ALL copy editors like to point out, writing and editing are NOT synonymous with one another.

However, The Balance defines "a 'Copywriter' is one who writes or edits copy or written content for a living, usually ofsales generating or marketing nature."

While most copywriters today write AND edit content, perhaps the use of "or" is likely to rub a few the wrong way. Also, the added quotation marks around the word itself give the sense that the word is a concept rather than a person (or maybe that's just my own self-esteem issues).

Meanwhile, over at Urban Dictionary, an obviously millennial-minded writer sardonically defines copywriter as "someone whose work is to create texts for advertising. Normally in his/her twenties or did you ever meet a 50 year old copywriter?"

Has he or she even seen a copywriter out of a 'Mad Men' type setting?! This can be true of agency copywriters, particularly Junior Copywriters, starting out before moving on to bigger roles or leaving the agency. However, it is definitely not true of the freelancer variety—an entirely different breed that comes in all shapes, sizes and age ranges.

WriterAccess describes how "copywriters may or may not be freelancers, but a copywriter does have to be a master of writing succinctly in order to meet the client's needs".

They pretty much had me at the word "master"…

Are there different types of copywriters?

Leaving these meanings to digest, let's take a closer look at some of the different types (or specialties) of copywriters to get an even clearer picture.

Advertising:

Prospects describes how "as an advertising copywriter, you'll work alongside an art director within the creative department of an advertising, media or full-service agency. You'll work with client briefs to conceive, develop and produce effective advertising campaigns."

Also called the creative copywriter, this is one of the most creatively fulfilling roles one can have as a copywriter and oftentimes goes hand in hand with working for an ad agency.

Naturally, working as a copywriter for an ad agency can have many benefits—including gaining valuable experience with big-name clients. But it can also be very demanding. And those demands might mean a few too many late night deadlines, an unhealthy addiction to caffeine, and a tendency to reply snarkily to simple questions like, "Did you grab lunch yet?"

SEO:

In addition to the understanding and writing skills needed for a copywriter, Neil Patel points out that "an SEO copywriter also understand[s] how Google feels about certain words and phrases, especially long tail phrases."

The downside of this specialty means that everyday conversations with SEO copywriters may include the odd bout of Google-y-ness (tending to Google everything) and requires patience as they go about choosing their words VERY carefully before they speak.

Digital:

Radix Communications says that "digital copywriters are responsible for all the largely-unsung microcopy that gets website visitors and app users to click on the right things and enter the right information".

Think of all the times a website or app has gotten you to click a button…

Funnily enough, you've probably obeyed more Call to Action buttons than obeying your Mom and Dad's requests. So if anyone's more likely to get you to return a phone call or remind you to send grandma a birthday card, the odds are in favor of a digital copywriter—sorry Mom & Dad.

Technical:

As StrayGoat Writing Services points out, a technical copywriter "focuses on sales content" like other copywriters, but "the technical copywriter is more comfortable with technology, especially industrial technology that you don't come across in day-to-day life (unless that's your job). Often they are experts in that technology or have some sort of background with the technology or technology that is similar."

These copywriters are often specifically used for B2B (Business-to-Business) copy, helping other members of the company or businesses in a similar industry understand their specific jargon. Basically, these copywriters let the engineers and other "techy" experts do all the talking, without letting everyone else feel like they are having to listen to engineers do all the talking.

What does a copywriter do?

"So what kind of work do you actually do?"

Even once the word copywriter is more clearly defined, there is still something elusive about what a copywriter actually does.

Of course, the work will vary depending on who they are working for, what their specialties are and so on. So, what does it really mean to work as a copywriter?

According to Mediabistro, "a copywriter creates clear, compelling copy to sell products and/or educate and engage consumers, flexing persuasive writing muscle on websites, blog posts, product descriptions, email blasts, banner advertising, newsletters, white papers, PSAs, social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, and other marketing communication vehicles."

This is a great example of embracing the full modern scope of what a copywriter can do. And, it's good copy. Where else are you going to see the words copywriter and flexing muscle used in the same sentence?!

Chegg goes on to say that, "copywriters create text for businesses. A copywriter is also a large presence in advertising agencies, but also a standard hire in many other companies including non-profits and medical organizations. And although a writer, you are no novelist: Your work as a copywriter is short and pithy. Your goal is to catch attention and be remembered."

Short and pithy, no novelist…I get the point of what is to be done, but it's not exactly getting me excited about being or becoming a copywriter.

HubSpot explains that "copywriters are trying to get people to feel, think, or respond — or, ideally, to Google the slogan or brand to learn more about the campaign."

This gives the overall work a much welcomed artistic nod, moving away from the concept of copywriters as simply selling or persuading. Yet, in the end, it also implies the ideal objective is to Google the end work. That definitely doesn't feel as creatively fulfilling (or ego boosting) as making people "feel, think, or respond".

Check out what FirstSiteGuide has to say: "Besides being skillful at researching, writing, and editing, copywriters need to master some aspects of project management as well, at least when it comes to planning and implementing marketing campaigns."

Remember the days when we were only "someone who writes the words of advertisements"?! What a giant leap we've made! This description also points out an important part of being a modern creative in general—that is, doing a bit of everything (often for the same pay) because someone has to.

WorkflowMax goes further in this direction by saying "the modern copywriter has come a long way since the newspaper days. Now, a copywriter needs to not only create stand-out copy, but he/she needs to understand how that copy should be presented and distributed."

And please don't confuse "understand" with "having the tools and training" to actually implement the presentation and distribution of said copy. Raise your hand if you have ever been asked to do "a little" graphic design, photography, etc. with copywriting or vice versa.

Meanwhile Creativepool describes how "copywriters are responsible for generating the words, slogans and audio scripts that accompany advertising visuals."

This sounds like they are only creating print ads and video commercials. Hey, that would be great, since print and video copy can often be the best paying and most creative gigs around. But it doesn't cover the full range of content work that the average copywriter usually does.

The Guardian sums up the work rather succinctly but eloquently by stating that "to become a copywriter you need to be able to work at speed as well as having a talent for sparkling prose".

Note to self: Start using the word "sparkling" a lot more when talking about what I do.

When asked to describe what he does, copywriter David Lanfair said that "…I generate keen creative solutions that help people, brands, networks, and companies solve their business and marketing challenges, and do it through the medium of writing — crafting the copy for various types of collateral: from a tagline, to a print ad, to a marketing deck, to a TV script, to an annual report, to a billboard, to a webisode series, to branded content, to naming a product or service, to writing the copy for a website, to just about anything that requires words to persuade someone to take action or spend money."

That's a mouthful—but pretty much nails it! Although, it's also fair to say that a screenwriter usually writes TV scripts and webisode series. But I'm sure copywriters and screenwriters can fight that one out amongst themselves.

In short…

All fun aside, in the world of copywriting, all meanings of the word are fair game…And, going back to Word Ninja, that too is actually quite fitting. Words are flying around us, wreaking havoc on how a brand is seen, how we communicate, and it's the copywriter who comes in (and, like ninjas, are often unseen), and whips out some mental martial art moves that result in some killer copy.

So take each definition with a grain of salt and if all else fails, try coming up with your own meaning. After all, if there's anyone suited for the task, it's a copywriter.

What does the word copywriter mean to you? Let us know!

The post What Does the Word Copywriter Mean in 2018? appeared first on .

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The Top 5 Smart Drugs for Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 15:39:00 +0000

The Top 5 Smart Drugs for Writers

By Francis Cassidy on Apr 04, 2018 07:00 am

Have you ever sat down to work on a job only to find yourself one hour later still pondering over where to begin?

Do you have difficulty in understanding why some days you can churn out the work, where 5 hours feels more like 5 minutes, while on other days you simply can't pen a coherent word?

We've all had that feeling. No one escapes it. Not even the best of us.

There is always a reason for these seemingly wild swings in our ability to produce quality work. There can be a myriad of causes, but essentially it boils down to an imbalance in brain chemistry.

Things like a healthy diet, proper sleep, a meditation practice and a low-stress lifestyle are all essential to good cognitive function. There is, however, a lesser-known way to increase brain function and ensure you can call upon that creativity, mental energy, and laser-like focus when you really need it. It is through the use of nootropics, also known as smart drugs.

Many techniques exist and in this article, we run through some common and safe nootropics that you can use to enhance not only your writing but also countless other aspects of your life such as overall mood and your relationships.

The top 5 smart drugs for writers

1. Caffeine

Alertness, wakefulness

Most common in coffee where 2.25 billion cups are enjoyed every day worldwide, caffeine is nature's original smart drug. And contrary to popular belief, it's extremely healthy if consumed from the right source and in the right dose.

The reality is that most people simply use caffeine as a drug to get to work. On top of that, they drink poor quality coffee often laced with sugar. In short, it's a recipe for disaster, a quick boost followed by that inevitable crash. In many cases, coffee ends up becoming a crutch which ends up disrupting sleep cycles and adrenal health. There is, however, a lot more to this substance than we are conditioned to believe.

The caffeine molecule interacts with adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that promotes relaxation and sleep as the day wears on. When caffeine interacts with adenosine receptors, adenosine can no longer have that inhibitory effect and thus wakefulness and alertness are promoted. Dopamine and adrenaline production is increased, thus providing that happy and motivated feeling.

There are countless ways to consume coffee. However, it is best taken black without milk. The casein protein in the milk binds to the polyphenols in the coffee making them unavailable and thus robbing your brain of a potent nutrient.

Choose high-quality coffee, preferably 100% Arabica. Bear in mind that coffee is one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides across the world. An organic source is preferred, and if possible choose one which has been carefully processed to contain a minimal amount of mycotoxins which are alarmingly abundant in cheap coffee. Avoid instant coffee like the plague!

In recent times the craze of bulletproof coffee has taken off. Basically, it involves getting yourself some high-quality beans, brewing a coffee and blending it with grass-fed butter and MCT Oil.

Bulletproof Coffee a high-performance drink that has a massive impact on your energy and cognitive function. It has helped everyone from driven CEOs to professional athletes to busy parents increase their energy so they can do more of what fulfills them

– Dave Asprey – CEO Bulletproof.

The idea was conceived by a man named Dave Asprey who discovered it on a trip to Tibet some years ago. and further details can be found here. Coupled with intermittent fasting, it's well worth a try for the ultimate in mental clarity and a productive writing session.

2. L-Theanine

Relaxation, increased creativity, lowered stress

L-theanine is an amino acid commonly found in green tea. It has recently become a crucial part of any biohacker's stack. It first shot to fame when Buddhist monks claimed that drinking green tea helped them maintain that "mindful alertness" during meditation sessions.

Theanine promotes relaxation by binding to glutamate receptors in the brain. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter and blocking it results in a relaxed feel where anxiety levels are lowered.

So, just how does this help your writing? Several scientific studies have been carried out showing how theanine can promote alpha brain waves. These brain waves allow for increased creativity and reduced stress, both useful traits for a copywriter!

Typically theanine is consumed with caffeine in a 2:1 ratio. So a standard cup of coffee with 100mg of caffeine could be stacked with 200mg of theanine. Doses can be moved up or down until the sweet spot is found. Many people take up to 700-800mg. Everyone is different, so experiment.

L-theanine is a safe supplement and widely available. For those who claim that coffee consumption alone makes them jittery, then theanine may well be the ticket you need to obtain the benefits without having your brain revving uncontrollably in 6th gear.

If you are a creative type L-Theanine is worth your attention. Bloggers, authors and especially adcopy writers should know that…

– Jonathan Roseland – Biohacker and self experimenter

Jonathan Roseland is well known in the biohacking and nootropics world and is a proponent of using L-theanine for writing sessions. Check out his further writings on the advantages of theanine for a more complete picture of this wonderful supplement.

3. L-Tyrosine

Motivation, laser-like focus

Providing a natural boost in motivation and calmness, you'll wonder why something as simple as L-Tyrosine has never crossed your radar before.

An important precursor, L-Tyrosine provides your body with the main building blocks for neurotransmitters such as dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These 3 neurotransmitters are burned off at a rapid rate when we become stressed and anxious. Dopamine, in particular, is of great importance to writers. It's what gives you that motivated feel to continue with a given task with increased focus.

Typical doses of Tyrosine start at 500mg and should be increased in 500mg increments until the sweet spot is found. Some people may require up to 2g or more.

N-Acetyl-Tyrosine is another form of Tyrosine with a slight alteration in the chemical structure which allows it to cross the blood-brain barrier more freely.

Tyrosine has numerous beneficial effects on overall health. For further info, feel free to check out this interesting article on examine.com where they speak of the scientific studies related to this wonder amino acid.

4. Piracetam

Increased verbal and written fluency, increased working memory

The racetams are a family of synthetic nootropics. In total there are eight. However, one, in particular, has been around for 50 years and is extremely well studied, namely piracetam. This nootropic induces a focused mindset, but more interestingly for writers, it aids in fluency in both written and spoken word.

Very often as creatives we have an abstract image, idea or some sensual entity in our minds which at times we fail to verbalise adequately. When you are on piracetam, you will often notice a subtle but distinct change in your ability to verbalise the collection of connected ideas in your mind in both written and verbal form.

Piracetam works on a neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine. Acetylcholine plays an important role in memory formation, attention and logical reasoning. The exact workings of this nootropic are not entirely understood by science. However, it has been studied for 30-40 years in multiple human studies. Evidence suggests that not only is it beneficial, but it is also neuroprotective and helps preserve cognitive function as we age.

Piracetam is generally best stacked with a choline source to ensure sufficient acetylcholine in the brain. A typical piracetam dose may be between 2g – 4g per day. Piracetam is water soluble and can generally be expected to work for 4 hours. Choline supplementation should start at around 170mg of Alpha GPC or CDP Choline and increased until the optimal dose is found.

The smart drugs smart podcast is one of the biggest podcasts on nootropics on the internet. They dedicated a full episode to the racetams for anyone requiring further info on their mechanisms of action or curious as to what some of the more potent racetams might hold in store for you.

5. Nicotine

Creativity, motivation, increased focus

Now this one is controversial. Nicotine is commonly associated with smoking cigarettes which of course we do not recommend. The latest science, however, suggests that nicotine, when not consumed in tobacco form, may actually be quite safe and hold some potent benefits. Stephen King who quit smoking some years ago, afterwards claimed that he really noticed a decrease in his creativity after that point. It's an interesting observation which science has now substantiated.

Nicotine works on the brain by upregulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). This increases the signaling of neurotransmitters and boosts alertness, creativity, and memory. Increased dopamine levels ensure that you have that motivated feel. A potent combination of benefits for any writer.

Nicotine is highly addictive so must be used sparingly and perhaps only brought out when there is a real need for a cognitive boost. Smokers won't get any benefits from taking it, but for those who don't smoke and have not built up a tolerance, the effects are a potent promotion of creativity and focus.

There are several ways to take nicotine. The two easiest ways are to use a patch or a lozenge designed for smoking cessation. Look for the smallest concentrations you can find. After 15-20 minutes you should begin to feel a light buzz, where your brain begins to light up with activity.

Based on my experience with it, and on history, I predict that nicotine (not smoking) will become much more popular for performance and cognitive enhancement

–Dave Asprey – CEO Bulletproof

Dave Asprey from bulletproof has spoken widely about nicotine. In a recent article he speaks of how nicotine may well become the next big smart drug.

Be careful with this one! Use it sparingly! If abused, it can become a problem, but it may well be useful to have on the side for those dire situations when you are up against it.

A few things to bear in mind

A quick note to end on. For those who are skeptical, here are a few things to bear in mind. Nootropics aren't mainstream (yet). Many are skeptical of those that use nootropics. It somehow doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do all that often.

Most people who consume nootropics align themselves with a group of individuals known as biohackers. These people are in general very meticulous regarding their diet and lifestyle. Generally, they are high achievers and tend to use nootropics to enhance their already excellent brain function.

Beware of cognitive biases before rejecting the possible benefits of nootropics. Many of the heavy hitters not mentioned here can provoke unwanted side effects. However many studies suggest that responsible supplementation on top of an already healthy lifestyle can really propel you to the next level in a very safe and sustainable manner.

Eating a subpar diet and living out a lifestyle which is high in stress will do untold damage to your brain function. Bear in mind that many of the practices which are culturally acceptable, that of having a sugary coffee each morning with some toast smothered in margarine, may seem to many like a normal way to nourish ourselves. Yet the excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates and oxidised fats are hugely damaging to the brain. This is often ignored by mainstream media.

As always, do your own research before making any decisions on this form of supplementation. But please do let us know if you found find that any of the nootropics mentioned here have helped you out.

About the author: Francis Cassidy

Coffee lover, writer, vagabond, self-experimenter and recovering Catholic. Francis has travelled around for much of his adult life and made a living working online for much of that. When not working he enjoys dreaming of how cryptocurrency and blockchain tech will transform our collective future.

Catch up with him on thestrayphotographer.com

Take a closer look at our top copywriter in Australia

After-work drinks at the Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:16:00 +0000

One of our copywriters, Miriam Young, enjoying after-work drinks... she's writing for the Olympic organisation, reviewing events.

Ad agency vs. freelancers: When to hire freelance creatives direct?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:44:00 +0000

: Ex-Head of Copy at Lowe, and CD at Leo Burnett London. Now international consultant for hire.

Why hire a whole advertising agency rather than just the key individuals for a project? What extras do you get when you work with an agency? Is it worth the extra cost? Are the cost savings worth the potential problems? How and when should you hire freelancers direct? These are questions a marketing person now needs to consider when a new project looms. Simon Carbery says the answer can depend on your type of company.
Ad agencies or bespoke teams?
If you're a marketing manager and have an assignment, you now have two realistic options: you can decide whether to hire an advertising agency, or you can use key people direct.
It partly depends on your experience, your own expertise, and your company culture. Many would say that if you've always worked with agencies, why rock the boat? Unquestionably, the best communications agencies offer fantastic expertise in one or more media comms skills, and if you’re a mega-brand the sheer hassle of trying to do it all yourself can make the cost of an agency seem worthwhile.
But the key word here is ‘cost’. Not everyone wants to pay for an agency’s overheads as well as an agency’s expertise. Because in an online, globally-connected, communication-savvy, post credit-crunch world, that expertise is now available worldwide in freelance form. In abundance. A new world, in other words, has opened up for brands who want to go direct to the talent.
Ad agency or direct to the talent? Looking at both of these options and helping you weigh up the pros and cons is what this article is about.
Option 1 The advantages of working exclusively with a comms agency
1. Complete service
An ad agency offers a start to finish solution. You go to them with your problem and if they're good they’ll understand your business, provide the right strategy, the right idea, in the right medium, and create the work. Then they place the advertising, send out the viral ad, do whatever else is required, and all you have to do is pay the bill.
2. Less risk, more dependability
You have more security when you work with an agency. Like an accountant or a trusted supplier, they become like another department of your company. You know
They’re there for you. With an appointed agency there’s always someone to answer the phone and be accountable for your work.
3. Continuity
Permanent staff in an agency are what the name suggests: permanent. In theory at least, the team working on your business will be made up of the same people over a period of time. Continuity means they can develop an understanding of you and your business, and a feel for your brand. And you can develop a dialogue with them.
4. Coordination
If it's a large communications campaign with multimedia strands, coordinating all the elements can be challenging. One of the strengths of comms agencies is their ability to get to grips with these complex elements.
Option 2 The advantages of hiring creatives directly
1. Cost
It’s cheaper. That’s the No.1 reason in the current economic client that people hire creatives directly. You can make big savings while still getting equally good results
2. Control
With fewer people in the chain you can see exactly what's happening and have direct input, so the end-result should be closer to what you want.
3. Speed
Thing happen faster. That’s the other benefit of improved communication – things take less time. Fewer people need to free their schedule for a meeting. You can simply call your freelance individual or team, ask when they can deliver, and get it directly.
4. When you know what you want
If you know exactly what you want, whether it's a press release written for a new product or a label designed for a bottle, then it makes sense to hire an individual with specialist expertise without paying his employer’s overheads.
5. You’ll know who you're getting
You get to choose the creatives you want to work with. They're not assigned to you by the agency. You've seen their CVs, their portfolios and their personalities. You know if they're right for your brand. And you can talk directly to them – you’re dealing with the people who are actually doing your project.
6. Experience and expertise
With agencies cutting their budgets due to declining margins, permanent staff are becoming more junior and less experienced. Carefully chosen freelance people can
often provide a level of expertise no longer easy to access through an ad agency.
7. Free with a freelancer
When you hire an agency, often you sign a contract for a year or more. With a freelancer you can stop working together at any time if the results aren’t what you’re
looking for.
8. Concentration
An ad agency has many clients and only so many resources and your project can be ‘de-prioritised’. A freelance individual or team is likely to be focused entirely
on your project.
8. Agencies hire freelancers. Why shouldn’t you?
If you work with ad agencies, you’ve already got freelancers working for you – ad agencies use freelance people all the time. Why pay advertising agency costs and a commission for their freelancers?
9. Fun
It’s more rewarding when you are a partner in the creative process. You work directly with the creative team and can bounce ideas off each other. More productive, more fun.
How can you maintain control when working with freelance people?
I’ve already touched on some potential downsides when it comes to working directly with freelancers directly. But these can be negated when you work with them via a specialist freelance agent. Good agents only work with tried and trusted freelancers and can co-ordinate multiple freelancers to form a team to work on your brand. You might need planners to create a brand strategy, creatives to hatch the concept, designers to make the website ... perhaps local to you or the country you're targeting. Obviously there is a fee for this extra guarantee and service, which is included in the freelancer's rate, but this is significantly lower than agency commission and you only pay for the hours worked.
Smart brands go direct
I work with communications agencies of all types: advertising, design, branding, direct marketing and so on. But working solo or alongside carefully chosen team partners, I also work direct for brands. Because more and more brands are looking for small teams of people at the very top end to fill in for a comms agency. Often they have an in-house brand director who came from an agency background. They know how the business operates and want to run the show themselves. They cherry-pick the top creatives and form a small and elite team to create concepts they know will work for their brand. This is how it works for me. I specialise in top-end creative concepts. We don't work for the brand - we work inside the brand. Between us, my team partners and I,have worked directly for Apple, Nike, Education First, Diesel, Paul Smith, Caterpillar and others.
How to access top freelance consultants through an agent
I'm represented by The Collective, an international agent that provides freelancers to Nike, Apple, Philips, Tommy Hilfiger and many more. As well as the above-the-line campaigns I work on, where they team me up with an art director to form a creative team, they also provide a regular supply of designers and copywriters for below-the-line or direct to consumer marketing, who create printed or online communications materials. Copywriters also provide transcreation (translation by a copywriter into their native language) and it's for jobs like this, where you need a large network of external freelancers - potentially problematic and time-consuming to source - that an agent like The Collective is useful.
In conclusion
Freelancing works for me then and the companies I work for, but for others it's up to them to decide. It depends on the company and how good the agency or freelancer is. My recommendation is to try a small project with each before you commit to a big spend and see which works best... agency, freelancer or agent.
About the author:
Simon Carbery (Personal website / Collective profile) trained at Saatchi's, was Head of Copy at Lowe, and CD on Barclays at Leo Burnett London in 2009. He has won more than 20 major awards, been a D&AD judge on 3 occasions, a Member of the D&AD Executive Committee 2006-09, and had his own column in the advertising press while in Australia. He freelances all over the world as both a creative director and brand planner, and has unusually wide experience in all media, from TV advertising to digital.

The Collective at Cannes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:11:00 +0000

Our souvenir stickers were all over Cannes this year... courtesy of Adformatie and Creatie magazines

Thoughts on how to brief a copywriter: Why should I care?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Do you find it hard to brief a copywriter? Do you worry that you give them too much information or not enough? It's important to get it right because the better the briefing, the better the copy. Miriam Young, an English copywriter in the Netherlands, offers some advice on how to get the best from your copywriter.

: Miriam is an English copywriter based in the Netherlands

Letting a good freelance copywriter loose on your advertising and marketing materials can be like waving a magic wand over your promotion strategy. Throw your marketing wishes into the air and watch as we transform them into profit-inducing communication. But the quality of what we can produce depends on how well we are briefed to begin with.

Briefing a copywriter incorporates many different aspects. From describing the marketing materials you want to create and defining the people you want to reach through to explaining what the product or service you’re promoting is and what you want your marketing materials to achieve. Oh and let’s not forget.....what it is that sets you apart from your competitors.

Does any of this seem too obvious to be worth going into detail about? Not if you want to get the best out of your copywriter.

Can you make a space alien care?
To brief a copywriter, imagine you are explaining your proposition to a just-landed space alien (that happens to understand Earth languages). No, I’m not suggesting copywriters are a different species. But if we’re to successfully convince others about your message, we first need to ensure it really does make sense. From a true outsider’s point of view. And when you’ve poured your heart out about your wonderful business and its products, we’re going to put ourselves in your customers’ shoes and ask “Why should I care?”

Why should I care about that special feature? Why should I care how long you’ve been in business? Why should I care how many employees you have? Why should I care that you’ve got a new range coming out this year?

You see it’s all very well to spout facts and figures. But if you want to win the hearts, minds and custom of all your potential clients, you need to make a clear connection between everything you want to say and how it makes their lives better. As copywriters, we can communicate this like you would believe. If you can tell us why you’re worth it, we’ll convince the world.

The magic formula
What exactly do you want me to tell you, I hear you cry? Most agencies and some copywriters have a fixed set of questions. I’ve listed a few food-for-thought items at the bottom of this article. This is far from exhaustive and the line of questioning needs to be developed organically to discover the individual qualities of every different business. But it is a good starting point. Try it. Can you give answers that convince a true outsider to understand and buy into your proposition?

Know your FABs
The perfect way to explore the relevance to others of the things you think are important is to put them through the FAB test.
F=Feature = something you want to mention about your product or company
A=Advantage = what advantage this offers
B=Benefit = how this benefits the customer

For example
Feature = Business has been operating for 25 years
Advantage = The business has amassed plenty of experience
Benefit = I feel confident that these people know what they’re doing and can trust them to deliver on their promises.
Feature = this phaser has a safety lock
Advantage = it won’t go off when the user isn’t expecting it to
Benefit = I won’t kill or stun anybody I don’t mean to. Including myself. That would be both inconvenient and embarrassing.

Hopefully you get the picture.

FABs are key to selling your proposition. The more FABs you can share with your copywriter, the better the job they can do for you. No cheating though.....if it’s not logical enough for Spock, it doesn’t count. And yes, human emotions are valid benefits.

Getting the best value
Copywriters have to be paid for their time. Every minute of it that’s devoted to thinking about your project. If your copywriter is working with you to discover your best marketing qualities it’s all money well spent. But if you want to keep your costs to a minimum, make sure you’ve thought your brief through properly. The more completely and concisely you brief your copywriter to begin with, the less time they have to spend on defining and refining your story. So come prepared by asking yourself “Why should I care?”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How well can you describe your products? How well do you know your customers and meet their needs? Could you convince a just-landed space alien to choose you over your competitors?

Know your products
What are you trying to sell?
How are your products different from your competitors’?

Know your customers
Who are your customers?
What customer needs do you meet?
How do you fulfil these needs differently from your competitors?
What keywords or phrases would customers for your products enter into an online search?

Know your image
What are your company values?
How do these enhance the desirability of your products?

Know your promotional strategy
How do you already promote yourself? How do you want that to change?
What materials do you want to create? What purpose will they serve? How will they be distributed?

Know your follow up
What do you want customers to do as a result of reading your new marketing material?

About the author:
Miriam Young (Personal website / Collective portfolio) is available for copywriting, content strategy, editing, Dutch to English translation and other associated marketing related activities. She has many years' of international experience in marketing, sales and PR (and first-rate English language skills) and is a copywriter for both online and offline.

Round-table discussion or charity work

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:43:00 +0000

Dear freelancers, we have narrowed our anniversary celebration ideas down to two... we could do one or both depending on you. What are your thoughts? Would you participate in either?

OPTION A: Round-table discussion
Fraser suggested a round-table event at De Kring in Amsterdam to discuss. 'What do agencies look for from freelancers and freelance agencies, and what are the industry trends in using freelancers?' The initial idea was for it to be one of those discussions that appears in print, in Adformatie and other magazines, but this might be difficult as the magazine is a lot smaller now. We could even expand it to a day with more than one round-table, a freelancing seminar day. If we had enough interest and participants. Are you interested in being on the panels or attending? What would you like to discuss or learn more about?

OPTION B: Charity work
We wrote this article about free freelancing for charities. A 10 year anniversary special idea would be 10 freelancers volunteering 10 hours (or more) free for charity. Could you volunteer your time? We would promote you online and in press releases with your skills and portfolio, so you get publicity as well as good karma.

10 years with the best English copywriters

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:15:00 +0000

The Collective is proud to announce that we have now reached our 10th anniversary. We started out exclusively representing English creatives, but as we grew internationally, so did our nationalities. Now we boast 110 of the best creative freelancers from across Europe… copywriters, art directors, designers, online specialists and transcreators... you can find them all with The Collective.

We’ll be celebrating our anniversary year by focusing each newsletter on one of the 10 different specialties in our portfolio of creatives. This month it’s the turn of English copywriting, the discipline that has been our core business since the beginning.

Native-English copywriters
Here are 10 benefits of using a native-English copywriter through The Collective:
1. Quality is what counts… you can’t afford any mistakes when hiring a freelancer. We have agency-experienced copywriters who you can trust to get your brief right the first time.
2. Specialist writers… from healthcare to financial. Whatever your client’s discipline, we have a specialist with experience of writing for it.
3. Copy or concepts… whether you need a conceptual copywriter for an ad campaign or a long copy writer for a brochure or a website, we have experienced experts in all areas.
4. English copywriters that speak your language… our copywriters are based across Europe and many speak the local language so can do transcreation from that language into English.
5. Go native... copywriters should only do copywriting in their native language. Don’t be tempted to get English copy written by a non-native speaker… the results speak for themselves.
6. Tried and tested… we have been using the same core of copywriters for the last 10 years and they provide a service that can be trusted for quality, creativity and timing.
7. Portfolio vs personality… we only represent nice people. This might sound strange, but you can’t judge how a freelancer is to work with from the portfolio alone. How they are to work with is just as important.
8. Onsite without the flight… We have copywriters in most of the major cities and they can work onsite in your office at short notice, often without the costs of a flight or a hotel
9. Service at speed… we know the deadline for copy is usually yesterday, so we offer a fast service, searching our network to find the copywriter who can deliver the quickest. 10. We do the leg work… for you to call around and find the right copywriter, who’s available now, takes up a lot of your valuable time. Let us take the strain and leave you free to do your job.

When you need an English copywriter, think of The Collective.

2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone!
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration.
It's back to work now here in Holland and there are jobs coming in already.
Let's hope it's a great year for everyone!

The Collective Team.

Christmas Wishes!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:15:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Buon Natale! Vrolijk Kerstfeest! Joyeux Noel! Froehliche Weihnachten! Gledileg Jol! Gajan Kristnaskon! Vesele Vanoce! Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan!.... ah you get the idea.
We hope you have a lovely relaxing time with you family, and failing that, a lot to drink!
See you next year.

The Collective Team.