Commercial Writing and Creative Collaboration

Make your business an experience to remember

Some businesses are memorable, and some are not. If your business is not memorable, it won't be long and you'll have too few customers to keep the doors open. If your business is memorable, it better be memorable for a good reason, and not a bad reason, or again, you'll end up with too few customers to keep the doors open. Bad memories are rampant in today's business world. We almost expect to be treated poorly--it's so commonplace.

That's why being treated so well is so memorable--in a good way! Interestingly both Tom Peters and Seth Godin mentioned similar topics today.

The most pleasant person to deal with that I've come across in a long time is May. May is a technician at my veterinarian's office, here in Jacksonville, Florida. She is just a delight. Everytime I walk in the front door she belts out "Hello, Mr. Lemons, how's Abby?", and she juts out her hand to deliver a firm handshake. Today, I called to make an appointment for my Boston Terrier (haven't spoken to May in 5-weeks), and she greets me on the phone just like she does when I'm in the clinic. I almost expect to see her hand reaching through the telephone. I'm sure my name pops up on her caller ID, but who cares? She makes the effort, everytime, to greet me like I'm an old friend. Last week my mother (who has a different last name than me) called May using my telephone. My mother opens with, "Hello, this is Mrs. Fanelli". May says, "Hello Mrs. Fanelli, how's Tasha? We haven't seen "kitty" in a long time!" How does May do this? Does she mentally connect my mother with me? Does she digitally link my dog with my mother's cat? Who cares? Like I said, she makes an effort, everytime, and that's a memorable experience that we talk about often.

The office where May works is about 15-miles from my home. There are at least four other vets closer, but I always drive to the one where May works. Her dedication to her job, her professionalism in the office, and her cheerful, smiling face and willingness to assist, make it worth the trip. May has given her boss a memorable business, with a story attached--a story I've often shared with others. No matter how big or how small your business, having an experience like May delivers can only make you stand out brilliantly.

Seth Godin brings back the list

Seth Godin recently re-published a great list of "What Every Good Marketer Knows". Most of these knowledge nuggets have been true for years, but it's useful to be reminded of them over and over again. While the entire list is a treasure trove, I do have my favorites.

• Good marketers tell a story.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.

Read the entire list, and share it with your marketing people--that's everybody in the company BTW.

Do marketers pay enough attention to copy?

When layout and design on the computer became a popular way of doing things (way back in the last century), copywriting very nearly became the forgotten creative. This was an exciting new technology for graphic design.  “Designers” multiplied exponentially by virtue of desk-top-publishing systems. Throw away the X-ACTO Knife and rubber cement! Forget about RC paper and Rubylith!

Now, anyone can design with keyboard strokes,
and your work is perfectly rendered on the 64-color screen!

Anyone with a computer could instantly become a designer, and the techno-frenzy began. The only thing that mattered, it seemed, was how good that advertisement or brochure looked. Marketers weren’t so concerned with how well it worked.

Copywriting got dissed big time

Designers” were called in to create ads while copywriters were often an after-thought. I can’t tell you how many times marketing managers would say to me: “Just give us some verbiage for this page, no one reads this stuff anyway.” Designers (well, desk-top-publishers), were marketing’s techno-gods of the age. Yes, some pictures may be worth a thousand words, but try to sell a product, or generate a lead, or engage the intellect with graphics alone.

Marketers have been slowly relearning the truth -- that good writing is an important component of good marketing -- but the 21st century has its own legion of techno-gods. Their marketing genius is preoccupied with abstract terminology like “client centered dynamics”, or “CRM”, or all the various shadings of “branding theology”. Few marketing professionals ever talk about the value of good copy, or persuasive storytelling. Look in your mix of industry publications. So-called marketing articles will spell out the finer points of e-mail design, search engine optimization, using legacy data wisely, and the latest in “business intelligence software”; but very few of them ever talk about the importance of good marketing writing. I see troubled times for those who think that technology is still the answer to everything.

I happen to have a branding theory myself. But mine's a little simpler. I think branding has a lot to do with storytelling, and storytelling has a lot to do with writing. You can use all the technology in the world, speak all the buzzwords you can muster, but the bottom line is a good company has a story to tell -- a message to deliver -- and it nearly always takes a good writer to make a message that matters.