Last Tuesday, I attended a networking event in Leeds with an inspiring presentation by Will King, entrepreneur of successful company King of Shaves.

Will’s key message was about making the most of opportunities, which got me thinking. What are the opportunites currently presenting themselves? My thoughts went on like this;

King…

Queen…

… The Queen’s Jubilee

This unique event (it really is unique – generally I consider the word painfully over-used) is the perfect example of an occasion which can be utilised to create a buzz around your company. Joining in with any national event which captures the mood and imagination of the country can create ‘feel good’ about your company.

Event Ideas

There’s a plethora of ideas for your Jubilee event. Some which spring to mind are;

• Inviting 60 guests to an event (which could last just 60 minutes!)
• Choose a year in the Queen’s reign as a focus for a themed party. This could be the year something significant happened to your company
• Have a party with a Company Queen for the day (like a prom queen)
• Celebrate the Commonwealth by choosing a country to plan the event around
• A competitive interdepartmental quiz or team building can be structure around red, white and blue teams.

If you need anyone to help you promote your event, write press releases, work with designers to create flyers, call me. As well as writing copy, connecting you with the right people to plan and execute the detail, can make it all the more successful.

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For copy to excite your customers about your event, talk to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

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This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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I’ve been asked by one of my readers to write a post about use of language when writing copy. We’re often hearing on the news that children do not know how to write properly any more, but riddle their school work with ‘text speak’.  Although  knowing where-and-when is an issue,  research surprisingly shows that texting helps with spelling.

In general, writing is less formal than it used to be historically, but there are still some “do’s and don’ts.”  Here are a few pointers to guide you when writing for different media.

Brochures, Mailings, Websites and Newsletters

For marketing materials which are possibly the first point of contact, the tone should be more precise with the greatest attention to grammar and spelling.

This may be your prospects first meeting with your company. Think about how you would speak to someone you’ve just been introduced to in the flesh. Over familiarity at this stage could damage any future relationship. The written word should reflect this.

Establish the reader’s need for your product or service, use statements of features and show that you empathise and understand the customer.

Blogs

Sending out frequent updates in the form of a blog is more about building the relationship between you and the reader. As well as keeping people up to date with news items and changes, this part of communication is used to extend your personality into the connection. So it’s ok for blogs to

• include opinions ( although beware of turning people off with extreme attitudes)
• be morechatty and familiar in tone
• condense words which you may not do in other places, such as “you’re” instead of “you are” or “don’t” instead of  “do not”

Always remember to explain jargon, whatever the form of media.

Social Media

Twitter is different from Linkedin and then again from Facebook. Not all Linkedin users are familiar with Twitter, so I have recently servered the automatic link set up previously which posted my Tweets on Linkedin.

For Twitter, with a character limit of 140, text speak is acceptable. With no such count on Facebook, it isn’t necessary, but short punchy posts with line spacing between sentences looks more attractive to the reader.

What About The Swearing?

Personally, I think whatever the media for communication, swear words are never acceptable. As a child, I was told swearing showed a lack of vocabulary.

What’s your opinion? Do you think Pluckfastic and FCUK are ok to make this a fundamental part of their branding?

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For versatile copy which your customers want to read and respond to, talk to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

Follow my Tweets at MichelleTripleM

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This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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Tip #6. Choose Appropriate Social Media
As stated initially, social media is part of a wider picture. Reviewing the part each plays in the integrated activities of a business may reveal that some areas are not relevant. Taking Linkedin as an example; it’s the place where professionals connect. Consider carefully whether to build relationships with them for personal products there too. Are users in the right frame of mind to buy perfume or flowers during working hours?

For example, during the Facebook seminar, I noticed that every example shown was of a B2C company, reflecting my opinion that Facebook business pages are not suited to all B2B operations, especially smaller ones. I raised this as a question during the open Q&A session run by Rob Wilmot who confirmed that he agreed with this theory.

• Developing a Social Media strategy cannot be overlooked by any company. However, the choices you make must be a response to the needs of the business, the desires of the customers and the time available, as opposed to blindly jumping on the social media bandwagon.

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Get blog posts and articles written for you to Tweet, post on Facebook, Linkedin and other content for the web by talking to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

Find out how to maximise social media opportunities with Social Media Classes.

Follow my Tweets at MichelleTripleM

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This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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All marketing activity must be evaluated and this applies equally to social media. With Google now recognising social media links, this also form part of the SEO strategy.

As social media becomes a greater focus for driving business forward, the importance of developing an appropriate social media strategy is becoming ever more relevant. For those who were not there, or didn’t attend the same sessions as I did, here’s a round robin summary.

Sharing What I Learnt About Social Media

Of the two seminars on this subject, the first was run by Ivan Heneghan from Facebook and the second by Rob Wilmot, ex CTO of Freeserve.

Here’s the key points of what I picked up in these meetings.

1. New Methods
Whilst the seminars were not overviews on creating a coherent adhesive social media package for your company, rather the importance of developing your brand consistently with these technologies was considered a given.

Traditional marketing is making way for an evolving social marketing approach. Interaction with customers and responding to them requires internal cross departmental involvement. No longer can social media be assigned to one corner of the business left to follow its own route, it must permeate the whole of the organisation.

2. Have an Objective
Posts on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media should have a purpose. In other words, don’t just post for the sake of it.

3. Optimum number of posts.
Extensive research by Facebook has shown that just one post per day has the greatest benefit. Choosing the time of posting depends on each business and the times at which their fans drop in to the page.

For Twitter, three posts per day originated by the Tweeter is enough to maintain the interest of followers (new and existing). This doesn’t include responses to posts by followers which generate a conversation.

4. What to Post
As with all online writing, what you put has to be of interest to the recipient. At Facebook, where there is an ongoing emphasis on research, four types of post have been shown to be most effective. These are

Photos
Polls
Questions
Stories

5. Facebook Timeline is coming to us all.
At the end of March, all business pages will be automatically changed to Timeline.
One top tip is to tag a favourite post on Timeline, which will be saved as the status update for seven days, regardless of other updates.

6. Choose Appropriate Social Media
Not all social media is appropriate for every business.
Find out why not in my next post. Receive post for free by entering your email address in the subscribe box on the top right of this post.

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Get blog posts and articles written for Tweeting, posting on Facebook, Linkedin and other content for the web by talking to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

Find out how to maximise social media opportunities with Social Media Classes.

Follow my Tweets at MichelleTripleM

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This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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You’re busy writing content for the web and your aim is to get as many people following your blog as possible. But ask yourself honestly, do most people know how to connect using the RSS button? That’s the question my SEO guy asked me.

Of course he was right. I’ve never subscribed via RSS and lots of other people don’t know how to use it either. So how many opportunities could you be losing by only having an RSS feed?

Here’s the Easy Way

Simply insert a ’subscribe free by email’ box like the new one on the right of this post. Test out how easy it is for the subscriber to use by putting your email address in it now.

It’s a really small job to add a subscribe box to your blog, newsletter or website and if you need someone to help you out, call me on (0113) 289 2208 to get it sorted.

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This tip comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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Their own areas of expertise, that is. Design and SEO are completely different skill sets. So the answer is ‘no’.

Design even falls into different disciplines, there’s graphic design and technical web design to mention but two areas.

Now, I’m not a designer, although I do have a good feel for what works and there is an important element of making the copy look visually appealling. I certainly know nothing about code but I do know how copywriting impacts on SEO. That’s because I’m a marketer who has specialised in the area of copywriting.

By specialised, I mean studied a Diploma in Copywriting with the Institute of Copywriting to supplement my marketing experience.

Copywriting is a Stand-Alone Skill

So this leads me to my next question: If you want good copy, should you ask the web designer?

Sure, ask the web designer to recommend you a copywriter, just as you would ask if they know a good SEO specialist. But if you ask the designer to fill in the text, don’t be surprised if they say they’ll throw something together for you even though they’re not really expert in that area.

For really good, attention grabbing copy which gets results, ask for a copywriter.

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Get blog posts and articles written for Tweeting, posting on Facebook, Linkedin and other content for the web by talking to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

Follow my Tweets at MichelleTripleM

———————————————————————————————————————————

This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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You’re nearly there.

The design for your new brochure is complete or the site functionality of your new website has just been tested.

Now what?

Now the copywriting.

Why?

Let;s face it, it’s the words which add value.  What’s the point of investing in fabulous photography or SEO which puts your website on the first page of search, when the words let you down?

Put it in a more positive way – what do you consider to be the value of each customer who sends an email or picks up the phone to you? Multiply that by however many prospects you’d like to take action, then you get an idea of what good copy is worth to your business.

Decide Whether to Write it Yourself
- Or Delegate

It happens so often, that the website is left incomplete or the mailing has been set up but isn’t sent, because it needs the right words.
If you know how to write it well yourself, make sure you allocate enough of your time to put your message over effectively.

If not, call a copywriter, like this one based in Leeds, West Yorkshire (who works for anyone in the UK). Either way, don’t miss out on an opportunity to talk to your contacts; get it done!

Read on and I will tell you about a new service which competes with Groupon fairly.

Granted as far as Groupon is concerned, it’s ‘caveat emptor’ – buyer beware – and the retailers should do their sums before dealing with this organisation. But I think it’s fair to say that not everyone is marketing savvy. Believe me, with my copywriting hat on, I see plenty of business owners who have limited marketing experience.

I’m guessing it’s these people that Groupon often reins in. The deals may be great for the consumer and for Groupon, but for the product or service provider, they are often crippling. I’ve heard of one retailer earning less than 10% of their usual fee by the time Groupon has taken their cut.

Now there’s a new service, which has just been launched in the UK called GBDeals. The web designer involved is based in Leeds but it’s nationwide, not just a service in Yorkshire.

The advantages;

• GBDeals reportedly takes a cut of around 10%, leaving the provider with the majority.
• It’s UK based so the money it does earn is subject to the UK tax system, not the US
• The service should help UK based companies to thrive in a competitive market place.

For this new UK venture to be a success, we need to use it as consumers and as service provider. It’s up to us to make it work.

For some reason, copywriting often gets overlooked until the client realises towards the end of the project that they are not sure how to convey their message in words. Text can be added at any stage of development but do consider thinking about the wording earlier rather than later.

Including copywriting services during the planning stages has a mulitude of advantages such as;

• The project is a complete entity, rather than having the writing fixed in at the end.
• Launching a brochure or website within deadline is more realistic if the copy, design and technical stages are developed simultaneously.
• If local, the copywriter can meet up with the rest of the team. I am based in Leeds and frequently travel all around Yorkshire.
• Keeping to the budget is easier if the copywriter is employed at the start, rather than an additional element later on.

With this in mind, I have started working with a designer/photographer with a view to propose ways forward for complete projects at inception.

Winning Formula for Clients

As I am a freelance copywriter and the designer is also independent, ‘my team’ minimised the overheads and eliminates expensive agency fees.

Working with printers and webdesigners completes the picture. For SEO purposes, working as a team greatly aids inclusion of relevant keywords.

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For versatile copy which your customers want to read and respond to, talk to Michelle at Triple M Copywriting.

Follow my Tweets at MichelleTripleM

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This post comes from Michelle at Triple M Copywriting, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire who provides copywriting for businesses and charities.
Call (0113) 289 2208 if you need engaging copy to lead more customers to you.

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Previously, I wrote about summarising your business in 30 words, giving the example of my Leeds based copywriting services. Then I showed you how to hone it down to just 10. Even for a copywriter, it’s a worthwhile exercise, to make you focus on what you actually do. A strap line is a catchy hook, which memorably describes your business in just three to six words.

Get it right and a small thing like strapline can greatly enhance your business.

See how some well know companies get you to remember who they are and what they do.

Take the Strapline Quiz

Test your knowledge of these well know three word strap lines. It’s probably the easiest quiz you’ll do this year, which emphasises the positive effect of a well chosen strapline.

1. Every little helps
2. I’m lovin’ it
3. We try harder
4. Finger lickin’ good
5. Just do it
6. Vorsprung Durch Technik (How good is that? Most of us don’t even know what it means!)
7. Snap, Crackle, Pop!
8. Sense and Simplicity
9. Always low prices
10. Believe in better

One Step Better

Not another three word strapline, but a thought about how to create an even better strapline; include the company name:

• The Future’s Bright, the future’s Orange
• Maybe she’s born with it, Maybe it’s Maybelline
• Beanz Meanz Heinz
• It’s a Skoda, Honest
• Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet.

Two Steps Better

This company even has the brand name in the strapline twice:

• Cats like Felix, like Felix

7 Tips for Creating a Great Strapline

1. 1. Keep it short. Make it catchy.
      Between three to six words seems most effective. Triple M Copywriting’s strapline is “Making Every Word Count”. You are very welcome to comment on how appropriate you think this is, while noting it is made up of four words.
   2. Think about the audience.
      Your choice of words for a mature target group is different to a bunch of teenagers.
   3. Make it relevant and make it memorable.
      If you can use a play on words, or re-write a well known idiom, the chances of it being recollected are much higher.
   4. Don’t ..
      fall into the trap of using cliches. “New Year, New Car” or “New Part, Same Old Service” or “Committed to Serving You”. They are boring and lazy, so they don’t sell you in a unique light.
   5. Test It
      Remember, you may love it, but your customers and employees may not. Create a list of potential phrases and ask people what they think of them. Be honest with yourself. If it’s not going to work, let go of it.
   6. Check it out
      I recently thought of an amazing play-on-words, three-word-strapline for a client. Then I thought, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. When I tested it to see if it was already being used, sure enough, someone else had come up with it already. Disappointing, but not worth litigation.
   7. If you are still not sure what will work or want an independent list of fresh ideas – Ask a copywriter!

I’m going to end with a couple of questions. Are you happy that your current strapline superbly represents your company? If you’re not, what are you going to do about it?