Copywriting Archives - Page 9 of 13 - McLellan Marketing Group

Is it Greek to you?

April 3, 2007

Often times, when you receive concepts from an agency, you’ll see a headline and visual. And in the place of the body copy — you’ll see what we refer to as Greek or Lorem Ipsum.

Typically, it will look a little something like:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem Ipsum is basically dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry that has been adopted by agencies as a basic placeholder. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

It has survived not only five centuries, but also evolved into all realms of electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It’s based on the theory that readers will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the source.

However, you can – thanks to the web, have you very own Lorem Ipsum generated.

Just a little fun fact for the day!

Want to author a business book?

March 22, 2007

Knowledge@Wharton is announcing a novel initiative in book publishing.

The project, tentatively called We Are Smarter Than Me is an experiment to see whether a large community of business people can jointly author a book of the same name. Pearson will publish the book later this year.

The book focuses on ways in which companies are learning to leverage social networks and the power of communities to improve their performance by allowing customers or others to take over functions typically performed by experts.

Every contributor will be credited as an author, and will help direct royalties to charity. While several readers have already signed on, they’re looking for more participants.

I’m going to jump on board — how about you?

Are we playing the wrong role in our stories?

March 20, 2007

Think back to the days when you played pretend. Given a choice between safety pinning the towel around your neck or being the damsel/dane in distress about to be rescued, who did you pick?

I don’t know about you, but I was all about being the "Toweled Crusader!" (I never wore the rubber gloves, I must admit!) It was much cooler being the smart, strong, resourceful one. Wasn’t it?

It still is today.

I’ve talked a lot (and will keep doing so) about the power of storytelling. One of the ways that many of us tell our stories is through case studies and testimonials. Most often, because we want to demonstrate our capabilities, we assume the leading role. Client X was struggling with Y, but we swooped in with Insight Z and their sales tripled.

Sound familiar? Basic story construction, right? We have a hero, a problem/villain, a victim and a glorious solution.

Uh oh. If we’re the hero, guess who we’re casting in the role of victim? Yup. Our client.

Remember that the goal of the case study or testimonial is to get prospects to identify with the clients in the story. "Wow, if they can solve that problem, they can probably tackle mine too," is what we want them to think.

While the prospect might identify with the challenge and be heartened by the solution, do they really want to see themselves in the victim role?

If we gave them the same choice we had as kids, would they opt for hero or victim?

What if we twisted our tale in those case studies or testimonials, so that our clients were the heroes? We shift to being the glorious solution. (Not a bad role to play) But we give the credit, spotlight and heroine’s role to the client. They are smart enough to see the problem and devise a solution. And, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after.

Perhaps it’s time to re-write the stories.

* This post was inspired by a chapter in Harry Beckwith’s You, Inc. I am telling you — you’ve got to read it!

Five minute sex tips?

March 17, 2007

One of the "learn more" about my readers exercises I routinely do is to examine the words that people enter into Google or other search engines to navigate to Drew’s Marketing Minute. Most of them are what you’d expect, but some of them just crack me up, so I thought I’d share.

I just have to say…some of them must be so disappointed when they arrive at a branding & marketing blog!

Five minute sex tips (I can hear this guy cursing up a storm — who cares about marketing! I’m down to 4 minutes!)
Kemp‘s maple ice cream
Plumbing (wow…I can hear the water overflowing out of the toilet and he’s now engrossed in some post!)
How to say lipstick on a pig in Italian (Why would you want to??)
Sex for money
Junkett custard
How do you spell posse (wouldn’t dictionary.com have been easier?)
Family guy phone ringtone

My point is two-fold. First — just to share a good laugh with you on the weekend. But second and more seriously — if you aren’t trying to learn more about your readers and what they want to talk about, you are missing a serious opportunity.

For every five minute sex tip entry, I saw plenty of branding, employee loyalty, market plans, authentic voice, copywriting entries. That does my heart good. it means I’m doing my job.

But obviously I am going to have to throw in a sex tip now and then! Who knew?

Play to your strengths

March 5, 2007

I’m not a native Iowan. I’ve been here for about 15 years and its a great place to raise a family, build a business and enjoy a quality of life that is tough to beat.

But as long as I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed that Iowans are constantly apologizing or putting down their own state. They lament that college kids seek the big cities and that there isn’t enough night life for the single set. Both true. And probably not going to change.

For years, Iowa has tried to overcome that perception (again — remember its accurate) with media campaigns and catchy slogans. Surprise — they didn’t work.

Why would you put the spotlight on a weakness and then shout "nuh uh!" and try to disprove it?

That’s why I was thrilled to see Patrick Schaber’s post about Iowa’s newest campaign.

For the first time that I can remember, the state’s push for people to consider bringing their business and/or their family to Iowa is not apologizing — it is celebrating all that makes it such a terrific place to live.

They’re running ads in magazines like Fast Company and built a pretty impressive website.

Also on their site is the creative, like this outdoor board, that they’re running.

The print ad series touts some of the perks of Iowa life and spotlights families who’ve made the move. This PDF ( Download haldeman.pdf ) talks about Iowa being the 8th safest state to live in. Not a bad message these days.

Another ad (–>) talks about Iowa’s reasonable housing costs. What makes this campaign so strong is that Iowa finally stopped trying to put lipstick on a pig. Marketing campaigns that make you something that you’re not but really, really wish you could be, do nothing but muddy the waters.

Congrats Iowa for getting it right!

Read what some of my fellow Iowans say about why Iowa.

Mike Sansone
Todd Mundt
Tom Vander Well
Adam Steen
Andy Brudtkuhl
Cory Garrison

What’s your personal tagline?

March 4, 2007

There’s a lot of talk these days about personal branding. Tony Clark at Success from the Nest asks his readers about their personal tagline.

It’s a great question. My answer? Gratitude. Grace. Give. (check out the comments for some insightful thinking.)

But let’s take a broader look at the question. If you own a business, how does your personal mantra/brand/tagline influence your business and its brand?

If you’re a one (wo)man band, that probably works okay. After all, you are your company. But how do you shift to it being bigger than you? Especially if one day, you aspire to sell your company.

So…what is your personal brand/tagline and how does it impact/influence your business?

Put on a different hat

March 2, 2007

You know, sometimes life takes on a little mini-theme. I have posted quite a bit lately about the importance of being able to put on and take off the many "hats" of your potential audiences as you craft a marketing strategy or message.

I was doing my daily jog through some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon Roger von Oech‘s post "Change Viewpoints." Let me entice you to go over and read his post by sharing an excerpt.

"Whereas the first group asked, "What if we bury somebody alive?" the second group asked, "How can we make sure everyone we bury is dead?"

How can you not go see how that plays out?

As marketers — it is absolutely vital that we find ways and challenge ourselves to think differently, from different points of view. The faithful among you will know that I’ve been beating this drum quite a bit lately.

We’ve talked about the emotional truths that can be discovered by really walking around a question or challenge and seeing it from all angles. And we’ve explored how an insider’s view of things is, by its very nature, not a very clear or accurate picture. Donning another person’s "hat" and turning your view finder is a skill that far too few marketers employ.

Check out Roger’s post and if you’d be so kind — share some of your methods for making sure you’ve broadened your view.

A rose by any other name…

February 21, 2007

A conversation with a client about naming a business and a post by Iowa attorney Rush Nigut got me thinking. There are few marketing decisions that can be as personal and subjective as naming a business. There is no ideal “right” answer which only makes it a tougher call.

Here are some Business Naming Basics.

No one is going to, for the most part, do business with you or not do business with you, because of your name, unless its so stupid or so offensive that you shouldn’t be in business anyway.

Yes, it is a very important decision. But it’s not life-ending. Should it be easy to remember and spell? You bet. But that’s more for memory recall than creating preference. Remember, any business name is an empty shell. You are going to attach meaning to it by how you conduct business, how you position and market yourself and how you treat your clients.

Choosing a name because it starts with an A is only a good choice is the name you would have picked anyway starts with an A.

If you are going to market yourself, the Yellow Pages becomes a support vehicle, especially in today’s digital world. You’re better off picking a name you like…and then doing a good, clear yellow page display ad than banking on the A listing. Or worse, being AAA Plumbing or A+ Plumbing.

The name of your business is far more important to you than it is to your customers.

They want to know what you do and how you do it…and really, unless it is offensive, don’t care about your name. So, positioning statements and how you market yourself become very critical and much more important than your name.

Make it simple to say. Make it simple to remember. If at all possible — let it help define who and what you are/do.

Your name is just the beginning. It is more important to pick one and get going on the marketing than it is to search for the perfect name.

A clean slate…and a deadline

February 17, 2007

As I looked out the kitchen window this morning, I was struck by how the wind had drifted over the new snow. How it was a fresh start…pristine. And I wondered what it would look like at the end of the day.

Sometimes, I have that same reaction to a blank piece of paper (or computer screen). It needs to come to life. But what will it be?

You’re on deadline. It could be a postcard for a trade show appearance, a new e-mail blast, a personal note to a friend on an important day, the annual report…it doesn’t matter what…the dilemma is the same.

The blank slate is before you. The deadline is barreling towards you. How do you move from a wind-wisped canvas to your latest masterpiece?

Join me by the fire

February 5, 2007

Have you ever shared a campfire with a friend?

The warmth and the crackling colors mesmerize you as the fragrance of the burning wood mixes with the crispness of the night. You’re aware of the world that cocoons you but it simply serves as the backdrop to the moment.

You sit close together, your voices almost hallowed in their hush. You listen intently, knowing each has something important to be said.

You aren’t in a rush, trying to force your point or plan your response before the other finishes talking. You are savoring the conversation and are content to let it pace itself.

You are reluctant to let it end. You feel connected. You know you matter.

That is what good marketing looks and feels like. No hype. No interference. Just authenticity and intimacy.

Flickr photo by Mr. Sugden

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