No one wants to do business with a computer, or have a relationship with a robot. It’s creepy. That’s why it’s important to keep your web copy, content, case studies and email communications personal. That’s not an easy task as companies become more digital and virtual. Nevertheless, making your writing personal is my number one […]
Award shows are about more than winning.
Awards shows play a crucial role in inspiring us to open our minds to new possibilities, they fuel the competitive spirit to perform to a higher standard and they teach us how it’s done. The “textbook” of my first copywriting class was a One Show awards annual—the book that displays all of the winning […]
How to boost the persona-appeal of your high-value web pages.
(Part 2 of my 3-part guide to writing genuinely customer-focused website copy.) Are you talking to yourself? I feel like I should interrupt, but I don’t want to be rude. It’s an easy trap to fall into when it comes to the copy on your website. We spend so much time defining a mission and […]
So how does your buyer persona feel about your website?
Part 1 of my guide for ensuring your website content is genuinely customer-focused. There’s an anecdote in How to Win Friends and Influence People, where author, Dale Carnegie recounts the story of meeting someone at a party who talked nonstop about themselves. Carnegie hardly said a word, but after the party the person recounted to […]
Add peanut butter to your website’s career page copy.
One of the best things about freelancing at this one company was the copious snack collection offered free to all workers. Granola bars, fruit, juice, chips, artisan coffee—and yes, fresh peanut butter right from the machine. So when it fell upon me to write a career page that portrayed the company’s outstanding opportunities as […]
WANTED: Non-weird, Non-hermity Copywriter
I remember my first official freelance assignment like a dream that never was. I was working from my kitchen table. Framing my computer screen was a pretty view of the apartment cluster’s courtyard. The smell of coffee mixed nicely with the scent of salt air from the beach a block away. I remember sighing […]
Non-binary copywriting: ready for the shift?
A recent article, Beyond ‘he’ and ‘she’: the rise of non-binary pronouns, on BBC.com, touched on a topic that’s been on my mind for years now: The use of feminine and masculine pronouns in business writing—you know: he, she, him and her. I’m convinced we English-speakers need a gender-neutral—or what some call a non-binary—pronoun of […]
Whether you call it “discovery” or “research” – consider it an essential part of the copywriting process.
A few months ago I attended the AdAge B2B conference in NYC. One of the attendees, a marketing director at a small or midsized company, asked a question that befuddled the panel of agency luminaries. She asked why every agency she came in contact with insisted on going through a lengthy discovery process of uncovering […]
Give your website’s About Us page a big guy look.
Make a great big impression with an About Us page that tells a story. When you’re 5’7” or so, it sometimes helps to know a few tricks for making yourself seem more imposing than your height allows you. Years ago, my friend Scott came up with a simple solution for when he was driving in […]