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Be a Superstar Reviewer: Four Tips for Getting What You Want from Your Copywriter
Tips for Selecting and Working with Subject Matter Experts
What Causes Marcom Projects to Fail
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Good Web Housekeeping
Most companies’ websites are a lot like closets. Everything’s dumped in them: data sheets, press releases, brochures, webcasts, and podcasts. Sure, a website is a great way to get your message out to your customers and prospects—the problem is that we leave all these assets out there in cyberspace and forget all about them. That’s why it’s critical to do a bit of tidying up every so often.
How to Write a Great Blog Post
The trouble with writing blog posts is you need to unlearn some of the skills for creating polished written communication that have taken you years to hone. A sense of casualness, or a bit of an “I just dashed this off on my way to a meeting” mood, is what readers...
Field Note #3: Put Your Content to the Test
In previous posts, I wrote about aligning your content with field objectives. But while your sales team should be the voice of your customers, they can’t determine why your target audience might respond better to the nuances in one headline over another, or which...
The Truth About Marketing Writing
A veteran marketing writer and editor spills the beans on truth in marketing, truth in advertising, and what makes good copy in the non-profit vs. corporate world.
What Does My Hyphenation Say About Me?
In which The Grammar Queen elucidates her subjects on the proper use of the hyphen. She clears up the subject. Clears-up? The cleared-up subject still a bit foggy? Read on.
How to Write a Great Sales Playbook
Like cars and movie stars, different types of marcom assets fall into and out of fashion. Really long white papers? They’re so Hummer. Customer case studies? A perennial favorite, like Harrison Ford. Sales playbooks? Very hot at the moment. Why? In a tough economy,...
How To Write a Great (Sexy) White Paper
White papers get a bad rap. Dull. Long. Overly-complicated. Anything but sexy. But they’re still one of the highest-impact marcomm assets you can create. Give your customers what they yearn for—variety, visual interest, and bold content—and they’ll fall in love with white papers (and your company) all over again.
Context Between Content: The Importance Of White Space
You may have heard the proverb: “Do not speak unless you can improve the silence.” When it comes to design, silence is the empty—or negative—space in your layout.
Field Note #2: What We Really Want From Marcom
What does the field marketing team really want from great marcomm? Compelling offers that can help hook prospective customers.
How to Write a More Readable Marcom Asset
When we’re aiming for highly readable text, we should use words with fewer syllables and write sentences that don’t ramble. Here’s how to follow the stats to top readability.
How to Conduct a Great Interview
Terry is the consummate interviewer. As marcomm professionals, I think we can all take a page from Terry’s book to help us conduct great interviews.
What’s My Email Saying Behind My Back?
Your Highness:
Many of my business contacts and coworkers know me primarily through e-mail; the impression I make is almost entirely via the written word. What can I do to avoid embarrassing myself in writing? The Grammar Queen points the way.
Field Note #1: The New Sales Funnel
Sometimes I’m alarmed by how much business terminology, particularly in sales and marketing, borrows from the brutal lexicon of warfare: words such as strategy, tactics, campaign, and force (as in sales force) each hearken back to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The field...
It’s All About the Relationship
What makes for a great client-vendor relationship? The same things we value in our friendships and marriages: trust, respect, commitment, open communication.
In Defense of Pie Charts in the Real World
Absolutely! I agree with our earlier post, Ideas Without Words—or Pie Charts. Information is beautiful in charts like Caffeine and Calories. I would use this or a similar treatment each and every time the client says: “Designer, go forth with this here unlimited...
Surfing Words
The ocean captivates, its countenance fickle. Now darkness. Cold, frothy giants pound in unrelenting rhythm, giving no purchase to board or fin. Now light. A twinkling surface throwing back the glow of sun, a glassy caress of warm water—then a clean line easily...
Writing Titles That Hook the Reader
Those first six or seven words on the cover can be the hardest part of writing! To make sure readers keep reading, we need snappy, ultra-compelling titles and sub-headlines that are also relevant, informative, and comply with corporate branding guidelines. Stuck in a rut? Here are some tips for getting out. . .
How to Write a Great Letter to Santa
Crafting a compelling direct appeal letter is all about timing, tone, and attention to detail. Take your basic Letter to Santa. Sure, you could crank it out on mom’s PC to show St. Nick how clever you are (and, therefore, worthy of his attention) by: Ramping your wish...
The Very Best Style Guide Reference Books
If you’ve read the fabulous Grammar Queen’s post on creating a corporate style guide (and if you haven’t read it, do so right now), you know you must make some decisions about how your organization crosses the t’s and dots the i’s. However, you can’t possibly list...
How Do I Create a Corporate Style Guide?
Your Highness: I work in marketing at a midsized technology firm. My boss tells me we need a style guide. Yesterday. And I’m just the person to produce it. While I do some writing as part of my job, and I can put commas where they belong—OK, most of the time—I’m not a...
How to Write a Great Customer Quote
At their best, customer case studies provide compelling proof points that support your message. And at their worst, they read like messaging documents sprinkled with stilted quotes. Yawn. So how can you make sure your customer case studies compel—not repel—readers?...
Is My Writing Too Passive?
Your Highness: This letter is being written because I’ve been told that there is a problem with my writing. Specifically, a problem with the passive voice. But understanding this is difficult. I mean, my job is in marketing. I’m supposed to be good with words. And...
Making Your Case: A Guide to Compelling Customer Case Studies
I recently took a stroll down memory lane—and tripped and fell. The occasion was a look at some of the first customer case studies I ever wrote, way back in 1992. Rereading those pieces, it turned out, was not exactly a pleasant excursion—more like visiting an...
How Do I Use the Subjunctive?
Your Highness: As part of my job in a large corporation, I must communicate in writing with my colleagues and customers. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, holding as I do a degree from a fancy business school and all, but here goes: When it comes to grammar, I’ve...
USA Today
USA Today. McPaper. The newspaper with the cutesy graphics and not much copy. The one you trip over when you leave your hotel room, and the one you take from the flight attendant when they’ve run out of the Times or the Journal. USA Today gets no respect. Agreed,...
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