The Golden Door’s programme has been running for 15 or so years and appeals to many, who return year on year.  I wondered why?  Are people really so lacking in self control that they need to pay to be retaught the same mantra annually?  Probably yes.  Our busy lives get in the way of our great intentions.  It’s an annual ground hog day.

I sat in on some of the classes.  I learnt some interesting theories about thoughts and relationships and also watched some quite unusual behaviour.  Some of the language was cringeworthy to a conservative Brit like me.  At times some of the theory felt like a cop out – especially the notion of IGNORE (yes in capitals on the white board) and ‘Let it Go’ which surely cannot always adequately address a situation?  I loved seeing the change in guests – they’d arrive off a plane wearing their shoulders hunched up around their ears, needing answers to a sea of questions and behaving with great suspicion.  By day three they were relaxed, open, ‘sharing’.  Come hometime, they were friends with smiles all round.

So I returned to do my third week’s volunteering in May 2013.  As I cleared the breakfast dishes on my first day I was told ‘a rumour’ by the kitchen staff, that the volunteer program was to be discontinued.  In a month’s time.  End of an era.  For days I was disappointed.  Felt let down.  But today I hear it’s just the start of a new adventure – I can continue my volunteering at their sister property Elysia in the Hunter Valley.  Now, isn’t Pokolbin wine growing territory?!?  Hurray.

I greatly enjoyed my week thanks to the great guests and a bit of determination and development.  It made me dig out the article I wrote about it last year, to see if it still rang true.  I’m pleased to report that the essence of my writing still resonated.

To reassure you, I’m none of these women in the below picture.

That same slightly worried looking lady was the owner, Kerrie Meehan, who three years on, is both a friend and client.

Here’s my interview with Kerrie…for Onya magazine

owner of Fairly Cambodian

If you've got a product or a service – tell people about it.  Don't hide your light under a bushel and wonder why no-one is buying it.  People need to read about it, see it, hear it being talked about.

So how do you do that? The answer is simple.

Write about it.

On your website, in a blog entry, on facebook, tweet it, send out a press release, link to it in an article, get editorial coverage, or advertorial, or better still – get other people to write about it, rave about it, 'like' it and link to it.

If it still doesn't sound simple – get Just Words in and we'll write about you. Simply and beautifully. In fact when you email your enquiry, mention this blog and get an hour's free writing.*

*The hour's free writing applies to new jobs undertaken with an agreed minimum of 4 hours writing. 

I just read a lovely post from Henneke Duistermaat.  In it she asks - Can a book from 1932 teach us copywriting tricks?

Basic human desires are still the same.  Freedom from pain.  Enjoyment of life.  Protection of loved ones.

So here's a lesson from the classic Tested Advertising Methods by legendary John Caples (the fifth edition): 

The most frequent reason for unsuccessful advertising is advertisers who are so full of their own accomplishments (the world's best seed!) that they forget to tell us why we should buy (the world's best lawn!).

That was true 80 years ago, and it's still true today: 

Always talk about your reader's benefits.  Always focus on solutions to your reader's problems.  Because your reader isn't interested in your products.  Your reader is interested in himself.

Wise words.  Now…back to what you were meant to be doing before you got side tracked by this blog!!

In business writing, on our websites and in our marketing communication, we need to make the main point first, then back it up with supporting evidence.  Yet in our social lives, we do the opposite.  In a book or film, you build up to the ending, you don't give it away on the first page and underline it!   Similarly with a joke, you build up to the punchline and deliver it, with panache, at the end.

Given how time poor we all are – if our websites or flyers start off with a few descriptive paragraphs about our products, setting the scene, creating an atmosphere – our readers will move on within seconds, having not found the information they want.  We do it ourselves, all the time, we delete emails that don't immediately grab our attention, that don't offer us something we need.  If this heading hadn't told you what this blog was about, you might not have carried on reading.  

Headings and bolded words are your opportunity to sum up the paragraph you are about to write.  These will often be the only words on that page your reader reads.  Make them clear, engaging and helpful.

Keep this in mind next time you're writing – or, to be on the safe side, write it – and give it to Just Words to finesse.  

I don't remember now how I came across Nett magazine, but it arrives regularly, hard copy, free, in my letterbox and I flick through it (usually while eating something standing up at the kitchen work bench).  I have quite an aversion to techie magazines but this particular mag has articles aimed at small businesses, and I find it easy to understand and the articles very worthwhile.  I now receive an email newsletter from them once a week too and so can you if you subscribe, and I don't think you'll be disappointed – it profiles SMEs, start ups, new apps, software to make updating your website easier and top tips for entrepreneurs.  Check it out and see what you think…Nett.com.au

Another good one I actually take time to read when it arrives in my inbox daily is KISSmetrics.  Their articles are SEO, website content, analytics related and these guys are true leaders in their field, on the ball, savvy, always summing things up well, explaining new trends or techniques and I'm grateful to them for posting genuine free advice that makes my life and that of my clients easier.  You may agree…have a read.

The first rule should be – Never attempt this at home, always pay a professional to do it.  I’m kidding, sorry.

Let’s make it even easier and make a word out of the first letter of each point, we’ll call it ….hmm, I know…

HELEN

Have a call to action – otherwise your writing is for Info Only, and will not result in a sale or cause the phone to ring.

Engage the reader – your target is human, so speak to them through your writing, give them a reason to read on.

Less is more – be succinct, no-one has time for waffle.  Say what you have to say, add a call to action, finish by repeating what you’ve just told them, then stop writing.

Expose a myth – people love to think they are learning something exclusive, without paying for it.

Never publish your work til you’ve proofed it.  Typos and poor punctuation are the Cancer of Writing, and will ultimately lose you sales.

Remember: there’s nothing compelling about a grocer’s apostrophe.  (Although it gets you talked about, in livid fury, by half the population of England, clearly the educated half, for all the wrong reasons.  Check out the Guardian newspaper’s rant)

It’s often the area where people think they can afford to do it themselves, get a mate to do it, cut corners or save some money.  But actually they are just damaging their brand, losing customers and missing out on a chunk of business that might otherwise be coming their way.  For just a small but wise investment.   This article sums it up pretty well…

I’m paid by businesses to write their blogs, but the irony is I seldom write my own.  I sell the importance of blog writing to them, but don’t march to the tune of my own drum.  Have a squiz if you like, at some of my recent blogs for Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges tourism businesses.

So I’m finally here, practising what I preach and marching cheerfully, drum banging away loudly in the background.

Here’s a quick justification as to why I haven’t been blogging.  I’ve been working.  On the following:

My article on Honeymooning in London hit the shelves today in Pacific Magazine’s Bride to Be.  Having primed their editor that I’d like final sign off, I’m happy to report the result is accurate copy with correct photo captions and apostrophes in all the right places.

Pacific Magazine’s ‘Bride to Be’ London Honeymoon article

I’ve also finished a website rewrite for Argyles Yarra Valley, based in Healesville, who had grown from one B&B to a series of tourism and hospitality related businesses, all under the one brand.  I rewrote their website to reflect the expansion and bring the businesses together as one offering.  The stunning photography is the work of Mike Emmett, from Red Fish Blue Fish.

Tarago Olives website is live and just undergoing final tweaks between the web designer and the client.  And I’m now working on Brown & Co, a beautiful exclusive clothing label from Melbourne, where the designer imports European linen (you know, the beautifully soft ‘old favourite’ kind of linen, as opposed to the crisp, scratchy, starchy sort) and creates beautiful feminine timeless peices that looked equally at home dressed up or worn casually.

I’m not just doing websites and blogs either, I’m doing a whole media schedule for Rayners Stone Fruit Farm which is great fun.  I’ve drawn up press releases to schools, blogs, facebook offers, tweets, as well as licked his website into shape; all to spread the word about this wonderful stone fruit orchard, the fruits of which are just coming ripening as they come into picking season now. He has planted over 250 types of fruit, so you can imagine how many you won’t have heard of!!  And his tractor tasting tours are a riot; you meander round the orchards on a tractor with Farmer Len and reach out and pick fresh fruits you’ve never seen before and munch on them, as he tells you all about them, returning an hour later in need of a shower, sticky fingers, and fronts covered in juice!!   The kids love it (as do their parents; it’s every parent’s dream, watching their kids eat fruit grinning from ear to ear, without a major threat being issued).

Right, another day is dawning, time to get up and crack on, first meeting at 9am today on setting strategy for online advertising for a Complementary Health Practitioner.  I learn so much in my job from my clients, I sometimes wonder if I should be paying them. But I’ll keep that thought to myself.