Books, billboards, news

 

releases, website content,

 

 

 

magazines and magazine

  

articles, posters and

 

displays, newspaper

 

 

columns, surveys, signs,

 

 postcards, brochures, 

 

commercials, promotional

 emails, direct mail, photo

 

captions, jingles, branding

 

themelines, package labels,

  

training curricula, promo

 

literature and exhibit

 materials, webinars, sales

 

presentations, seminars 

  

lyrics, booklets, speeches,

 

 ebooks, blog posts, scripts

 

  business plans, marketing 

 

 strategies, love letters,  

 

manuals, greeting cards,

 

and matchbook covers

  

Ever write any of these yourself? How’d it come out? Did you get the results you wanted? What happened? Are you a skilled writer? An experienced wordsmith? Probably not. If you’re reading posts on this blog site, it’s because you’re an entrepreneur, a small business or professional practice owner, manager, or principal, a student, or a leader.

If you fit any of those kinds of career descriptions, odds are that you are marketing a product, service, or idea (or some combination) and the daily challenges of keeping your business or organization moving forward leaves little room for you to indulge in fantasy of seeing yourself as a talented writer. And you’re smart enough to know when to get help.

One telling characteristic of successful entrepreneurs, in fact, is that they know how to pull their ideas forward while leaving necessary professional services up to professionals they engage — CPA, attorney, management consultant, and more often than not: creative services, especially writers and designers.

Entrepreneurs, after all, are the catalysts of business and the economy. They are agents of change. They serve as mirrors of society wants and needs. They alone are responsible for new job growth (not corporations, and certainly not government). As a result, entrepreneurs are also the most sensitive of business people, and the quickest to recruit outside expertise when they see the need.

Small business owners are far more in touch with reality than their big business counterparts who are obsessed with analyzing what message content and structure communicates best, and sells.

They recognize that one dot or small sweep of a design line, or one word can make the difference between sale and no sale. (And remember, with online content: WORDS are still King!)

Entrepreneurs respect and appreciate the value of expertise.

 

So the list above is not just a teaser or composite of writing applications. It is a list of real business-related (yes, even love letters!) writing needs that most entrepreneurs are confronted with at one time or another. It is also a list of writing applications that anyone you hire to write for you should have experience with, at least most of them.

I know. I’ve written all of the above many times over. And I can tell you that a marketing writer who hasn’t written a book doesn’t know how to tell a story, and stories sell. A website content writer who hasn’t written radio and TV commercials has no sense of writing concise, punchy stuff that’s short, sweet, and memorable . . . and “short, sweet, and memorable” sells!

Someone who’s never written a billboard hasn’t even a clue about how to write branding lines because the discipline is the same:  Aim for 7 words or less and tell a story in those 7 words or less that has a beginning, middle, and ending . . . and is persuasive. Ah, then comes the opposite: Direct mail. In direct mail, the more you tell, the more you sell — that means, literally, a blanket of billboards.

Writing emphasis must always be “you” focused (not “we”). It must attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire, bring about action, and deliver satisfaction. It MUST ALWAYS answer the question: “What’s in it for ME?” All writing –even an instruction manual– represents an opportunity to make a sale and/or create a favorable impression.

The writing you have now?

Does it work as hard as you do?

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US  931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Beware GEEKSPEAK!

 

GEEKSPEAK. It’s another name for Tech Talk. Too many tech people are talking to too many tech people in too much tech-eeze and the real world of small business owners, professional practice principals, and even top corporate management is passing them by. If you are looking to make sales and grow your business, think twice about GEEKSPEAK overload.

In other words, don’t let website designers write words for your content. They haven’t a clue about effective marketing writing. Don’t let IT people decide on what and how to communicate with clients and customers and prospects. They know not where they come from . . . nor, it often seems, where they’re going when it comes to clarifying issues for non-IT people!

Don’t let your business messages get caught up in branding lines, site content, collateral/promotional material copy or news release text that contains language your grandmother wouldn’t understand. Nothing is so complicated that it can’t be simplified. Nothing is too technical to be communicated in easy-to-understand language.

When I ask you what time it is,

don’t tell me how to make a clock!

 

It simply takes more time and is harder work. But it’s often the difference between an enthusiastic buyer and a puzzled, overwhelmed one. Suffice it to say that all communication — interpersonal, impersonal, and otherwise, takes more time and is more work. Decide on what you want as a result, and if the extra effort is worth it.

Promoting and presenting complicated diagrams and examples only serves to underscore an oblivious, uncaring attitude to the markets you’re trying to reach. What’s the old axiom? Keep it simple, stupid! And don’t make the excuse that the prospects you seek understand tech talk because odds are pretty good that their bosses who need to approve purchase decisions don’t.

Sourcing people ultimately report to financial and/or operations people who hold the purse-strings. If those folks don’t understand a GEEKSPEAK message, they simply shut down their budgets. And why not? Would you buy something for your home or car that you have no sense of value about, can’t relate to, or fail to understand what you’re getting for your money?

Bite the bullet and give your business communications — especially to your customers, clients, and prospects — the extra effort that will make what you have to say clear from the git go. Not sure if what you’re saying comes across? Ask your grandmother.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 

Don’t let your website be 

                                          

a junkyard or a playground!

                                                          

     “It’s Not Good Enough!” is what you may need to say. Don’t “settle” for content (text plus illustrations and photos) that your website guru proposes or offers to prepare for you. That person is not a writer and odds are she or he does not have a sense of commercial art either.

     In fact, don’t settle for anything that goes on or into your website development or upgrading. Your website is your window to the world. It is your first impression. It is YOU! Be demanding about it!

     Why should you not be afraid to say what you want? Because it’s YOUR money, YOUR image, and YOUR business. If your website designer is going to be offended by your refusal to accept what’s been offered or prepared, you need to shop around more. Take your time. Be careful. 

     Don’t let your website (or the creation of one) be a toy, or a playground for some techie who doesn’t understand your business or your message. Don’t let it become a cluttered junkyard. Your site is a serious and critically important marketing tool.

     Many start-up business owners are too timid to say what they think and feel for fear it will cost them too much additional money or because the techie they’ve chosen is a friend or relative who’s helping them get the job done cheaply in order to save money.

     STOP right there! Unless a mediocre representation of your business and a convoluted representation of your message are acceptable to you, website development and re-design services are NOT the place to cut corners or rely on cousins and brothers-in-law.

     Off the top of my head, I can count a hundred websites that I know were created and produced by incompetent designers who had not a single clue about the importance of content and content layout.

     This is especially true in relation to the spacing of words and headlines, selection and use of colors and font styles and sizes of words and headlines, and the impact attached to how words and headlines are broken up and arranged, not to mention the inclusion and maintenance of effective blogs.

     And I’m sure I could also identify another hundred sites produced by “in-house” IT people or employee “volunteers” who are self-proclaimed experts. Oh, and the absolute worst: those who anoint themselves as SEO (search engine optimization) or SEM (search engine management) or (sales) conversion specialists.

     Most of these “specialists” know less than a six year-old about how to best represent your business! If you seek and need a professional image or Internet presence or representation, P-U-L-L  E-A-S-E do yourself justice and shop around for a reliable professional.

     Where to start? There are three reliable professionals shown under Blogroll in the right-hand column on this site’s homepage. How do I know? I’ve worked extensively with all three and all three are excellent. They listen before they create. They send you “drafts” to input before they proceed.

     They each have different styles and different time availabilities and different rate structures. They each make sure you’re satisfied. They don’t charge an arm and a leg. They follow-up, and provide various ranges of support services.

     You will get your money’s worth and end up with a site or revamped site you can be proud of and that works to the extent you commit yourself to making it work!     

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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