“Great advertising, in and of itself, becomes a benefit of the product.” – George Lois, Born Jun. 26, 1932. What old George is saying here is that objects (like products, for example) all have a story. They just do. Someone invented those products, for some purpose, to solve some problem, to sell to some person, […]
If They Don’t Buy Into the Story, They Won’t Pay For the Product Read More »
“There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.” – Phyllis Bottome, Born May 31, 1884. There is a sales lesson here. Whatever you sell, you need to think of it as a solution to a problem. What difficulties does it help the lucky buyer to overcome?
Two Ways to Position Any Solution for Easy Sale Read More »
“If your mind is empty, it is ready for anything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki, Born May 18, 1904. One of the big mistakes a lot of new consultants and beginning freelance service providers make is to overplay their hand. The prospect
Expertise Is Knowing What To Leave Out, Instead Of What Is Possible To Add In Read More »
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), Born Apr. 22, 1870. This is a statement that sounds sinister because of how specific it is. If you make it as general as it is in reality, it’s not so evil-seeming. Anything repeated often enough will eventually be believed, not just
Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission… Read More »
“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.” – Scott Turow, Born Apr. 12, 1949. Scott writes fiction, unlike us. But his point holds, because we DO use complexity and ambiguity. The purpose of narrative in copy is to give COMPLEXITY to the problem the prospect is facing. We give it
The Difference Between Fiction and Copy is in Where You Put the Confusion… Read More »
“For each letter received from a creditor, write fifty lines on an extraterrestrial subject and you will be saved.” – Charles Baudelaire, Born Apr. 9, 1821. Practical advice there – shockingly from a POET, no less. Poetry being the most useless kind of writing. But even in Baudelaire’s time, he knew that if you’re going
If You Want to Get Paid to Write, Write Where the Money Is Read More »
“It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content… it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.” – Rene Daumal, Born Mar. 16, 1908. This is especially true for us. Persuaders, I mean. If there
What is “Copy” and How to Write It Gooder. Goodest. Most Gooder. Read More »
“The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.” – Ben Okri, Born Mar. 15, 1959. Clients fuck this up when they write about themselves. And sometimes they get mad when they work with a writer who knows better. I’ve
Stories Sell, But Only if They Start Out With Sucking Read More »
“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.” – Mickey Spillane, Born Mar. 9, 1918. Spillane never wrote “literature” like the kind professors value. Unless
The Profitable Cliffhanger – How to Serialize Your Selling Read More »
“The public doesn’t particularly care for advertisements.” – John C. Malone, Born Mar. 7, 1941. They don’t. It’s true. Unless it’s the Super Bowl, normal people don’t really want to be subjected to ads. For some marketers, they try to solve this problem by having a certain ratio of content to ads. 22 minutes of
