Blog
Archive for March, 2008
March 23, 2008 How I used LinkedIn to get a 41% response rate & 6 new clients
When I started my copywriting business, I didn’t want to make cold calls. The point of becoming a writer and working from home was to completely eliminate all human contact. But seriously, no one likes making cold calls. And direct mail, with its 2% response rate, seems like a waste of money—and paper. Not the [...]
Are you making these mistakes on your LinkedIn profile?
If you’re feeling lost in LinkedIn, you’re not alone. The web application keeps getting better—or more complicated—depending on your perspective. Maybe you’re afraid to make the leap because you’re not sure where to start. Having used LinkedIn to get 6 new clients over the past year, I’m definitely a fan. LinkedIn is one of the [...]
Falling in love with PowerPoint all over again
Wednesday.
10am.
Here you are, sitting through another PowerPoint presentation.
Earnest, the TPS Systems sales guy, is living up to his name.
Title. Bullet point bullet point bullet point.
Title. Bullet point bullet point bullet point.
It occurs to you you’re bored. It occurs to you this is important. You really should listen.
It occurs to you you’re bored.
Suddenly, Earnest’s computer crashes. [...]
How Fidel Castro can make you a better marketer
When Fidel Castro stepped down last night, Cuba lost a president-dictator-baseball-fan.
You and I gained a powerful marketing partner—if only in the form of a lesson.
Good copywriting is a dictatorship—not a democracy. The majority doesn’t rule. Fidel Castro can make us better marketers if we apply his principles to our writing and editing processes.
It sounds counterintuitive. [...]
Letting go of Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week
Letting go — really letting go — of Tim Ferriss is such a relief to me.
How can I describe the weight lifted from my shoulders now that he is gone?
Our relationship began 6 months ago when I read his book, The Four Hour Work Week.
Now, in January, it’s over.
Here’s how it went down.
For the last [...]
Did Mr. Whipple take the tagline with him?
Since last week marked the passing of Mr. Whipple, whose “Don’t Squeeze the Charmin” commercials I was mercifully too young to remember, and whose name inspired the title of one of the best books on ad copywriting books ever, “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This,” perhaps the universe is now ready to revisit the relevance of taglines.
Sure [...]
A secret stress-relief method that beats yoga & builds business
Question: What’s more effective for stress relief?
(a) yoga
(b) writing testimonials for your vendors & partners
Answer:
(b).
Here’s why.
My fellow WIC member Tresa Eyres cohosts a weekly radio show called Love Letters Live that you should check out immediately. Imagine This American Life but with just one theme. The best theme ever: various individuals writing love letters to [...]
Elite copywriter interrogation techniques
In an earlier post, I listed 6 reasons to run away from a copywriter.
Then I realized I was being a Negative Nancy. How about focusing on the positive and giving you some reasons to hire a copywriter?
Behold, 3 recommended questions to help you interrogate a new copywriter with CIA-level precision but Teletubbies-level friendliness. These questions [...]
How to outsource your life
Outsourcing your life to India is actually quite a bit of trouble.
Outsourcing your next copywriting or marketing project is much simpler.
But if it’s your first time, it sure doesn’t feel simple. In fact, you may feel so overwhelmed at the prospect of bringing in an outsider that you do nothing. Or, worse, you attempt to [...]
Bust blocks with repetition
Struggling over an ad? Tapped out on creativity? Got an impossible deadline? Rather than go for a walk–they’re so overrated–help yourself to a heaping dose of repetition.
Repetition is easy.
Repetition is powerful.
Repetition is the lazy copywriter’s secret weapon.
Who you callin’ lazy? Repetition works. You can list benefits the quick-and-dirty way, without anyone realizing you’re simply listing [...]