Archives for techniques
I say potato, you think Vichyssoise. Let’s talk.
In my 10+ years of managing projects, teams and client expectations, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most common threat to the success of relationships and projects is simple lack of communication. Why simple? Because usually the simplest misunderstanding at the outset of an engagement is where it all starts to skid downhill. For example, [...]
Managing During Hard Times: A First-Timer’s Perspective
What’s a new manager to do during their first real big downturn? There’s a lot of conflicting feelings, obligations and advice about how to manage during a recession. I’ve been sorting through it in my own mind, and have developed my own mental checklist. Know Yourself I went through the “dot-bomb” back in 2001, but I was [...]
How to Time Your Holiday Email Marketing
A friend of mine writes and manages the online marketing for a local online retailer, and asked via Facebook about how to time her holiday email marketing to her customers. I’d been tweeting (thomschoenborn on Twitter) about a webinar from Nielsen Online about online holiday shopping, and she shot me a message asking about Black [...]
Being a Little Bit Transparent is Like Being a Little Bit Pregnant
It seems that I can’t have a conversation about blogging without also talking about fear, legal liability, and transparency. Which I find somewhat ironic: as a business, most of our clients have tens, if not hundreds, of employees who are trained to talk to clients. Customer service reps. Sales people. Technical support. They’re trained in [...]
The Danger of the Em Dash
When I write, I use em dashes. A lot. At one point in my career, my creative director returned an article to me in which I’d used an em dash in EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH of a 700-word article. Clearly, I had a problem. Em dashes (or the long dash, like this: — ) are remarkable little devices [...]
Impaling Copy on Your Brand Pyramid
Probably one of the best things clients get from typical brand pyramid exercises is the “who would your brand be?” But how do you use that information for copywriting? One of our interns this summer loved theater, and she simplified it well: Branding means writing in character. I love this copywriting short-hand because our culture’s weird [...]
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Case Study: Portland Beer Blog
Search engine marketing and copywriting make uneasy allies. SEM means writing for a machine, for an equation, for a filter. Copywriting means expressing human desire, passion, creativity for people. Yet when you can combine the basics of search engine marketing with creative copywriting, your clients win. Big time. And I’ll address this at the end. But [...]
The Five Secret Rites of Daily Consumerism
Our Director of Making Money and Being Smart, Chris Tacy, sent around a link to this summary of a BBDO research study about daily rituals and the emotions they reflect. You really ought to read it, then come back here. It’s frickin’ awesome. For one, it’s a reminder that when consumers choose things, they tend to choose [...]
Why Playing World of Warcraft Won’t Make Your PPC Copy Sing
I call Pay Per Click (PPC) writing “Haiku for Dollars.” Mostly becuase I think it’s funny, and people laugh so I assume they agree. But PPC isn’t much of a creative strain — unlike most creative endeavors in which a broad base of life experience helps you connect concepts in bizarre ways, PPC tends to [...]
Rich Content and Simple Menus
Have you ever had this experience. You rent a DVD, maybe one you’ve been waiting for. You are so excited to view the movie and you throw it in the DVD player. After the player adjusts itself, recognizes the disc, you wait through a series of warnings and previews. You fast [...]
The 9-Point Copywriting Checklist
Here’s a checklist you may find useful when judging writing. It’s not really in any particular order, except maybe the first two or three items. And there’s probably a million exceptions to each of these, which I’m sure you’ll helpfully point out in the comments section.The real benefit of using this checklist: you’ll polish not [...]
