Not a Time to relax

Summer … it brings thoughts of hammocks, Bar-B-Q’s, getting together with friends, and outside adventures.  If you are a business owner, it can also take on a feeling of ease; distributors are updating with new products, people are on vacation putting meetings and progress on hold, and yourself, feeling a bit of the lazy days with excuses to ‘do it tomorrow’ and enjoy a bit of downtime.

With the slowing of outside contenders, however, a bit of anxiety can emerge along with the idleness.  Perhaps it is a good time to review your marketing tactics and update your website with a fresh look and current copy.

A newsletter sent to your established customers will give you a sense of connection. Initializing one in the summer will also put you on a more social and personal level. 

If you haven’t ventured into social media yet, this might be a good time to discuss the advantages and find out exactly what all the ‘talk’ is about.  Is your business selling to younger generations, the famous millennials?  It is a must you establish a presence in social media; 25% of all online users connect through their mobile devices only.  Not having this presence will eventually, hand all your business to your competitors.

And because these mobile devices are the way of the future, make sure your website functions with accurate speed and information display on the smaller screens.  As everyone moves to more convenient and reliable sources for their information, if yours isn’t loading properly, they will move on to someone’s site which does! 

Summertime does bring a certain amount of sublime ease to our lives. Give your business a bit of a check-up while you have a few extra minutes on your hands and update the necessities.  Come September when everyone hits the ground running again, you’ll be thankful you are already ahead of the game with your business plan and image.

Never Sell Yourself Short

“By dedicating ourselves to quality, we hope to set our business apart from the status quo.  But at what price?  Can we stay true to our personal self-worth and still get customers? “

Haven’t we all been down this path, rating your self-worth in the marketplace?  We want the customer, we want to offer a fair price market price to that customer.  But we also don’t want to low-ball our rates in order to get the customer. Especially when it comes to our own self-worth,  there is always someone bidding a lower rate.  So, what is your time worth?

 Never sell yourself short – Many industries are wrestling with this push and pull dilemma, as we are all faced with making a profit and doing good by our customers. As a writer, I’ve experienced this more times than I would care to admit. You need the work, the pay won’t even cover the electricity it will cost to turn on your computer, but …

The Art of the Written word

Writing is an art form.  As you read through amazing works from authors such as A.S. Byatt (Possession), Richard Russo (Empire Falls), or Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji), it is apparent how important storytelling has been in man’s evolution and community.  How easy is it for us to picture a group of people, huddled around a fire, exchanging tales, both true and fictional?  Pretty easy!

Now, let me ask you this, when I said ‘people, huddled around a fire, exchanging tales’, did you picture cowboys sitting on rocks in the desert telling tales of Billy the Kid?  Or perhaps you pictured cavemen and women, jostling little ones with wide-eyed anticipation, telling of the huge saber-toothed tiger they saw that morning?  Or just maybe, did you picture yourself with a bunch of your friends, babysitting marshmallows during the latest version of an urban legend? 

Each one of us have been participants of storytelling in one way or another, and use it to fall back on when we read, listen, and watch others tell stories of their own.  We paint pictures in our minds of the words spoken.  Everyone’s picture is unique and different.  Our history, experiences, dreams, and desires (or fears!) play part in painting those pictures, and thus, the story comes to life.  The more vivid the words, the more vivid the mind movie.

Which brings me to the most powerful concept in copy writing today, though obviously it’s been a part of our lives since dawn – tell a story.  We see it in everything we do, simply because, it is an effective, enjoyable, and, when it’s done right, compelling way of delivering a message to any audience.  Grab the readers attention with a compelling story, and you’re on your way to writing a great piece of copy.

I’ll leave you with this thought as you move through your upcoming week … if you want to make a point to anyone, be it your neighbor to be wary of his dog barking or your boss to the overload of work you’ve been dealt, think of a story to tell it by.  Compare and conclude.  The message will be solidified in your listeners mind, and perhaps, they just may follow through with a call-to-action!

Good luck, and have a great week!

Capri

PS for more on telling a story and it’s importance when defining an idea, please click on the link below.

Tell A Story …

“Grab the readers attention with a compelling story, and you’re on your way to writing a great piece of copy.”