I wrote down each colour hash on a post-it note and had it above my desk. Every time I was writing or designing, I manually wrote out the colour hash. My copying skills are all right – but the potential for a single digit error was high – particularly when I was in a rush.
And so I decided that a change was needed. Electronic copying rather than visual copy-typing was needed.
But again, having a document I had to find and open and copy and paste was a bore. You get the idea. Time consuming eh?
My big insight
I realised that my emailing programme was the place where I used these colour hashes most frequently.
And so I edited the newsletter template to include a segment where each and every colour and its associated hash is listed.
Creative Agency Secrets logo hex colours
The time saving design outcome
Now whenever I need to get the colour shade I want, I can copy it from the template block into the area where it’s needed. Remove the hash text and bingo!
The only thing to remember is to remove the block from the final email design before sending.
Selling consultancy is hard. And selling a professional service is doubly hard.
Niche selling is the best way to be – create a tight brief of detailed information what you do and for whom. Stay focused and don’t deviate.
All easy to say and hard to do.
When a contact asked me “What are your superpowers?”
I’d like to get an idea of your superpowers, your ok powers, and what you don’t do as well. This will help me work out who best to refer you too, and whether you could be a supplier to me too.
I was challenged to write a decent answer.
From a Slack channel introduction automation.
Rebecca’s Superpowers
Clearly a lovely Americanism – but hey, who doesn’t want to believe that wearing a cape will “enable the user to fly”?
Business to business marketing – does what it says on the tin. From strategy to tactics. For your Board, for your internal team, for your agency suppliers and subcontractors.
Subsidiary superpowers
Supporting the big one….
Marketing strategy – what is the big picture of what you need to achieve and the (likely) tactics which will get you there?
Customer relationship management – the strategy to build long term relationships with people who buy from your business.
Building a team who understands what is needed and collaborates effectively to get work done.
Briefing – ensuring instructions are clear and understood, delivered within brief and on budget.
Copywriting – explaining complex things in suitable language for the audience.
Teaching marketing – helping others understand the big picture and where each detail fits into the overall plan. PLUS how to do marketing.
Knowing about new tools, techniques and services. I scan the outside world and am frequently an early user / adopter of new things e.g. Blogging since 2006; Twitter since 2007, Podcasting since 2013.
OK Powers
These are competencies.
Website management – using different CMS interfaces
Search Engine Optimisation – the words that get you found and the software that ensures your site is indexed regularly.
Customer journey mapping – how do customers find you, where and when and how to engage with them.
Sales – finding the right prospects, engaging with them and starting the sales conversation.
Pitching – when you need to present the best face of your business for a very important deal or contract.
I am a Facebook for Business group administrator and I’m delighted that they just added back an old feature.
When FB introduced the new interface for Group Admins about 9 months ago, the “Invited by….” feature was missing.
I sent my feedback that this is really useful and I wanted it…. Today it reappeared.
Why is this helpful? We have screening questions for the group and if you don’t answer them, we don’t let you in. BUT if introduced by an existing group member, that allows the applicant to bypass this step and still get accepted. Without knowing if they’d been invited or not, I couldn’t work out who to refuse or accept.
Now I wish they’d allow me to filter group applicants by “have they been invited”.
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Invited-by.png108358Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2020-07-27 09:00:392020-07-24 16:56:03FB Group tips - invite a friend
I write a lot. Words, words, words. Each project is designed to fit into a particular desired outcome within a marketing strategy and tactical framework. I say that so you understand context.
Context in writing is both important and valuable – but more about that later.
My actual pen and notes for B2B copywriting
How I write marketing copy
Getting a message across using printed words (as opposed to audio, images or video) is a giant challenge. Knowing how long humans have been writing, you’d think that everything that could have been written has been. And yet…. we know that’s not true. The imagination and skill of mankind to innovate is immense.
My writing is usually business to business copywriting for marketing purposes. That’s my area of expertise. And so the steps I take begin with the outcome. What do I want to happen as a result of a prospect or client reading what I’ve written?
End goal is to click through to website
End goal is to understand how to write B2B copy
End goal is to reply with a question
These examples are all valid outcomes and each requires very different copy treatments.
The first version is always factual
What are the true, inalienable facts that support the end goal? I list these in a brain dump document. Frequently these are the result of conversations with the client, the internal team and existing customers.
Then I supplement this with some desk research. Reading ‘around the subject’ can come from many sources – newsletters, online magazines, blogs, books. Interestingly, I rarely search social media for this information. My choice – it may suit your needs. The amazing Knowledge Hunter, Geoff McDowell, taught me so much about this subject.
Adding more copy material
From the wider reading I copy/paste and add in more themes, concepts, nuance, examples, phrases and keywords. I also look out for no-nos. These are things I want to avoid.
Sometimes images, colours, layouts and other visual elements present themselves from this research too. That can be very helpful as my brain often leaps forward towards the end result WAY earlier than it’s supposed to. To avoid distraction, I save and note these ideas back in the research document. By noting them, I have preserved the idea; but I’m not focusing on them at this stage. It means I don’t lose the inspiration – I can revive that thought later just by re-reading my notes.
This all contributes to a second draft. This is when I decide the overall frame for the project and HOW does this translate into the copywriting. This could be storytelling, it could be demonstration, case study, questioning, educating. There is a lot more information added, there are more concepts and overall I just write freely incorporating the research information and framing arguments, emotions and logic into one long piece of writing.
This is the place where context comes to the fore. How will the message be delivered, what will the recipient be doing or not doing? Where in the customer journey will they be? What is the outcome or next step goal in this campaign?
Editing and refining copy
This is the part I love.
Precise and concise are watchwords which I hope any client applies to a testimonial about my business copywriting.
Taking what I wrote and simplifying, cutting, removing extraneous information and honing it down into a tight, precise and well-organised message is a repetitive task and it gives me so much pleasure. Sometimes I use a technique of adding in sub-headings (as in this blog) because it helps me to organise and find the big messages in the very long copy.
Often I leave the first opening paragraph until last because it’s so hard. Sometimes I switch the first and last paragraphs – try it!
Headlines and calls to action are a separate challenge and I may do a couple of different versions or give options and let the client choose. This is because they are mostly better-informed about their product or service than I am. Teamwork helps work out what will resonate and achieve the goal.
And then I sleep on it
Yes this is really the final step before showing it to the client, adding it to a mock-up or an EDM. This is important and is one reason why planning at the first step needs to include deadlines and allowances for sleep time.
7 things I’ve appreciated after sleeping on my work
My brain is fresher in the morning
I process ideas while resting
Better re-writes are (nearly always) possible
I can check that I haven’t missed anything out [done this MANY times – but rescued the situation before the client read it]
Reflect on alternative approaches which I earlier discarded
Opportunity to print it onto paper and read out loud
Check grammar, punctuation, capitalisations and links all working and correctly placed
And that’s it. The whole creative writing process for B2B copy.
About the picture illustrating this article.
That’s really my pen and my notebook, photographed this morning as I got a tiny bit of inspiration for a client as a result of doing some research for a different client. It’s odd the way my brain works. And I have learned to respect my brain process and to always seize the moment and make the notes when they jump into my mind. I don’t have to use them – but I’m sure I will lose them if they aren’t captured.
I do not have the neatest handwriting, yet using blue-black ink in an old-fashioned fountain pen gives me both pleasure and the chance to read my words again without guessing what I meant to write. Someday I’ll photograph some of my notes which turn out to be illegible even to me. Generally when I rush to write, legibility suffers.
The unknown part of writing inspiration
The pen also lives in a leather case. My ritual of opening the case flap and flicking back the long cover, unsheathing the pen and unscrewing its lid before writing still gives me a frisson. I never know exactly what will come out of the inky nib onto that pristine sheet of paper, onto the next empty line, or inserted between the paragraphs of print.
And the pen – a birthday gift chosen with care while on holiday. I got the nib re-surfaced by this amazing pen expert who recommended not using ink cartridges. He also explained a lot about the issues of ink/paper and my unique hand/pressure and what a converter is, not a bladder. There is a distinction between them.
So now you know my B2B writing process. What will you do with this knowledge?
I got a question about what the four elements that comprise a “professional email”. I don’t know why the questioner thought that there were four parts. My best practice has three parts:
Tell them what you’re going to tell them
Tell them
Remind them what you already said
Easy!
Good email message structure
Slightly less flippantly, the structure of a good message is based around short sentences, simple sentence structure, short words and a clear indication about what you want the reader to do next.
If you can achieve all those things, that’s a great start.
More sophisticated messaging can come through with brand tone of voice, longer messaging plans over months / weeks and a mix of brand, educational and product/service messages. [Ask me how to plan your email marketing.]
Drafting and editing email messages
My personal method when creating EDMs is to work through these steps
What is the key message?
What is one thing I want the reader to do?
Then I start writing…. beginning with the LAST paragraph
Add in any context that explains the message (in case they are new to my list)
Remind them of benefits
Ask for the money / action
Add a PS.
Then I sleep on it overnight. Always.
Because most of my messages can be improved and that only happens after time passes. I think my brain matures the message and having a bit of time after having written it means I can move into editing mode. That is a very different brain space and a different skillset.
Now I’m not a visual specialist so I get someone who is good at images to contribute here when I can.
Practice, practice
And then you just need to do it many times to improve your skill.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/green-chameleon-s9CC2SKySJM-unsplash-scaled.jpg17072560Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2020-06-23 14:09:122020-06-23 14:14:01Key parts in a professional email
Making a big investment into solving a marketing problem is a giant challenge. The risks are huge, the investment uncertain and the outcomes are unproven.
One way to overcome these risks is to do rapid prototyping.
Rapid Prototyping needs new adherents
Today I interview Joanne Jacobs, an expert in how to use this technique.
Talking work, hacking solutions and online engagement.
Joanne is an expert in rapid prototyping as a way for solving enterprise problems / challenges. She works for Disruptors Co.
Timestamps
01:00 Learning and showing by discussion 09:00 using Jitsi.org and Crowdcast.io and Remo
11:00 Hacking for rapid prototyping – creating solutions to problems.
16:00 What is a problem worth solving? Preferably something you’ve tried and failed before. It must have a financial impact and have knock-on change benefits
One of my clients did something ill-advised and their account got flagged by MailChimp as spammer.
Goodness that’s a tough call and the restrictions placed on the account are significant.
The good news is that I succeeded in untangling the situation and restoring the account. BUT it would have been better never to have got into that situation in the first place.
And so if you’re tempted to re-use an old mailing list, don’t. Digging out old lists from a few years ago who haven’t been mailed and who haven’t had a history on your account is a big risk. If your email service provider gets a higher than normal bounce or spam reporting rate, it will be noticed. I think ISPs are very vigilant at this time.
If you do want to re-use an old list, I suggest you create a separate audience and after the first mail-out has identified unsubscribes and bounces, then later merge it into your main audience so it doesn’t contaminate your good standing.
Good mailing list hygiene
Something to do today – run through your email list and check off whether you have everything in place to enable personalisation. Correct first name, last name, company name? No capitals? Can you deduce recipients’ names from their email address e.g. fred@xyz.com
Now start planning out your segmentation. Here are three easy segments for you to set up.
Customers
Prospects
Industry groups
Focus on retention
For most direct marketing at these times, I recommend retention rather than acquisition. It’s easier to keep than acquire a new customer.
Three quick campaigns you can run
Repurchases – a suitable date after the last event
Best sellers – your top 20% of sales by product
Referrals and testimonials – ask your customer to do ONE thing for you
Untangle a spam label by Mailchimp
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/spam-tin.jpg376496Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2020-06-10 15:06:462020-06-10 15:06:46Overcoming a spam label by MailChimp
The uncertainty and change facing us is a new challenge. I have been doing short mini videos through the lockdown. They were designed to give fast tips for action.
Now I’m hosting longer form discussions with a locals who are smart thinkers and smart do-ers.
I want to know what the Government is doing for SMEs. And so I booked two interviews. One with a business owner and one with a member of the Small Business Council working with MBIE. What they told me shows how far we have to go and the sort of resources YOU can expect to get in the form of support for your business future.
SMEs and public policy
First up is Vaughan Winiata – we are talking about small medium enterprises in New Zealand.
New Zealand businesses are facing an uncertain future.
What is the SME landscape
What skillsets are needed to advance an SME business?
Bridge-building to Wellington policy makers
What are your Top 3 things you would like Stuart Nash Minister for Small Business to address in the $20 Billion budget set aside for assistance for SMEs
Andy Hamilton is on the Small Business Council
Andy and I talk tips and tricks for business owners facing challenges.
The landscape of SME business owners and how they are faring in Lockdown
Have you worked in a recession before or not?
Can New Zealand go digital?
Should all firms be direct to consumer DTC?
Which model of capitalism do we want? Stakeholders are more than shareholders – they include customers, suppliers and staff
Small Business Council and working to improve business life for SMEs
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Vaughan-Winiata-on-SMEs.png548792Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2020-05-27 16:43:102020-05-27 16:43:10Looking for marketing answers
Are you trying to understand how your marketing needs to change?
This article sets out the themes which you can use in your own firm to help discern the new rules, the new landscape and the new markets we are now trading in.
The new marketing reality
Nothing is clear. This is obvious.
But that’s hardly helpful for us marketing people who need to keep on creating campaigns, keep on filling funnels and keep on pushing our recovery efforts after lockdown.
Signs are emerging about what consumers are interested in and where they will look favourably on brands.
I am regularly scanning the world looking for examples and inspiration of what can be done and how you can do it for your brand.
What consumers value
Top home-stay business Look After Me surveyed their audiences and found a distinct shift in sentiment.
Instead of favouring flying on holiday, most now prefer car travel; most prefer to book with local companies to “keep money in the NZ economy”, and most now prioritise accommodation “cleanliness” over price, comfort and wifi provision.
Financial and economic news website, Interest.co.nz asked its readers what they value. The answers were clear from the start – every single segment of reader who was surveyed came back with similar views. Two quotes suffice
Your people have a better understanding of fringe issues, more reliably, than any other NZ news outlet. Your reporting on these peripheral matters shows incredible strength. And that makes the world better.
With the woeful quality of NZ journalism it’s my only trusted source of financial news.
Clues about the new priorities can be found from a range of commentators. Some have been “banging this drum” for a while, others are interpreting new data.
I look to global trends as well as industry-specific experts when trying to find a pattern worth following.
Mark Carney, Central Banker, says the “The economy must yield to human values“. By this I interpret that people matter over profit and that the capitalist model of pursuing profit over all other goals is being challenged.
She realised that kindness isn’t weak but strong: a foundation from which to grow a business that has truth, integrity, longevity and commerciality. As we move away from a time of rabid consumerism and ‘peak stuff,’ Mary believes we are entering a new type of economy. One built on kindness and a Triple Bottom Line: people, planet and profit – in that order. And business who organise themselves around this kinder way of behaving, will be the ones that win.
And Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, interprets apparently polarising reactions to the same situation in terms of “moral intuitions and values”. In this way, relaxing lockdown provokes both protests against restriction of liberty from social distancing and protests about growing exposure to harm by going back to work. Both can be understood from underlying moral values.
In the context of Brexit and the lockdown, he found
Remainers placed more emphasis on the value of care and the need to minimise harm, whereas leavers placed more emphasis on the value of personal liberty. When evaluating an action or a policy, remainers would ask “will this cause harm?”, whereas leavers would be inclined to ask “will something restrict our freedom?”.
The moral values of your brand now matter. The alignment and prioritisation of your internal teams across departments will be different now. Your emphasis on the planetary community needs to be interpreted into both the bottom line and operational mores.
This is tough and will definitely evolve as fear of infection subsides and rises with waves of the pandemic. In New Zealand now we are feeling relatively safe – lockdown is in Level 2 and we are back at school and work. Compare our situation to Brazil or New York and value will be very different.
Here are some themes which may emerge – to what extent does your brand and business subscribe to these?
Local resilience > global efficiency
High corporate debt > riskiness of underlying equity
Will the state continue to be engaged within private commerce?
Is resilience > risk now?
How are tail risks managed?
We all understand the fear of unemployment now.
The price of everything = the value of everything, including global heating.
Economic dynamism and efficiency ≠ solidarity, fairness, responsibility and compassion
What is the new Maslow hierarchy?
Values and needs are realigning.
Now that we fully realise the deep inter-dependency of our global community, will this change our prioritisation about health, wellbeing, global supply chains and personal independence (doing what I want) compared to communal dependence (doing what WE need)?
Can we learn to trust experts again?
Will our approach to climate change (surely the biggest existential threat to our way of life) be adjusted to reflect these new values and to form a new consensus on priorities compared to risks?
What did your company do during Covid-19?
Writing the history of this period can wait for now.
Yet I am certain that the judgements will fall on brands and the public perception of where they were before and after the emergency passes will be based on “people” outcomes not “profit” outcomes.
I bet Greg Foran wishes he was still at Walmart and hiring thousands of new workers rather than at Air New Zealand and laying them off.
This will have the resonance of “what did you do in the War?” and whether you judge the outcome to be “good” or “bad” will depend to a large part on the consumer’s view of whether you were a hoarder or a generous giver; whether you laid off staff, furloughed or retained staff; whether you hoarded resources or paid over the odds to acquire over others or whether you generously supported others.
Adjust brand positioning
Once you know what values your consumers now have you can start customisation to respond to this new priority.
Rose and Thorne donate bras to essential workers
Some of these will be short-term and related to Covid19 and Lockdown – like Rose and Thorne’s Gift-a-Bra to an essential worker.
How important are these people? Very. How much do we value them? A lot. And how many do we know? Lots.
This is great marketing because it is a classic member-get-member programme aligned to the issue of the day.
Brand repositioning post-Covid19
Look After Me have taken a lead by redesigning holidays into packages that theme around hobbies and interests, that are local and have quality marks for locally owned businesses with high cleanliness scores.
Smart. Easy to understand. Aligned.
There’s a Recession too
And of course the recession is already creating new winners and losers. Take a browse through the Emergency Business Forum questions business owners are asking and their own perceptions of “need” and the consistent themes emerge
growth of online ecommerce or at a minimum a website
how do we reach our customers
fresh marketing ideas
finding distributors and stockists
learning about digital media
how to get customers to switch to online
why word of mouth doesn’t cut it any more
migrating from in person to online
starting a customer database
Part of me groans when reading these; part of me rejoices.
Blending the practical with the strategic is going to be critical in giving quality guidance and up-skilling. Yet the problem lies as much with medium as small businesses. Speedy decision making is easy for the owner-operator and will not be so easy to apply to enterprise.
Hacking brand colours
/0 Comments/in Email, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca CaroeMy logo has a beautiful gradient of colours in the design.
This gives me a huge number of subsidiary colour elements which I can add into customer communications and marketing.
I did an analysis of the key colours and the “colour palette” of associated shades. You can do this by uploading your logo or using a digital colour selector tool.
Creative Agency Secrets colour palette tool
Then I made a ton of work for myself
This was a mistake – certainly.
I wrote down each colour hash on a post-it note and had it above my desk. Every time I was writing or designing, I manually wrote out the colour hash. My copying skills are all right – but the potential for a single digit error was high – particularly when I was in a rush.
And so I decided that a change was needed. Electronic copying rather than visual copy-typing was needed.
But again, having a document I had to find and open and copy and paste was a bore. You get the idea. Time consuming eh?
My big insight
I realised that my emailing programme was the place where I used these colour hashes most frequently.
And so I edited the newsletter template to include a segment where each and every colour and its associated hash is listed.
Creative Agency Secrets logo hex colours
The time saving design outcome
Now whenever I need to get the colour shade I want, I can copy it from the template block into the area where it’s needed. Remove the hash text and bingo!
The only thing to remember is to remove the block from the final email design before sending.
No related posts.
Your marketing superpowers
/0 Comments/in B2B /by Rebecca CaroeSelling consultancy is hard. And selling a professional service is doubly hard.
Niche selling is the best way to be – create a tight brief of detailed information what you do and for whom. Stay focused and don’t deviate.
All easy to say and hard to do.
When a contact asked me “What are your superpowers?”
I was challenged to write a decent answer.
From a Slack channel introduction automation.
Rebecca’s Superpowers
Subsidiary superpowers
Supporting the big one….
OK Powers
No related posts.
FB Group tips – invite a friend
/0 Comments/in B2C, Social Media /by Rebecca CaroeInvited by option for group memberships
I am a Facebook for Business group administrator and I’m delighted that they just added back an old feature.
When FB introduced the new interface for Group Admins about 9 months ago, the “Invited by….” feature was missing.
I sent my feedback that this is really useful and I wanted it…. Today it reappeared.
Why is this helpful? We have screening questions for the group and if you don’t answer them, we don’t let you in. BUT if introduced by an existing group member, that allows the applicant to bypass this step and still get accepted. Without knowing if they’d been invited or not, I couldn’t work out who to refuse or accept.
Now I wish they’d allow me to filter group applicants by “have they been invited”.
No related posts.
My copywriting process explained
/5 Comments/in B2B, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca CaroeI write copy for a living.
I write a lot. Words, words, words. Each project is designed to fit into a particular desired outcome within a marketing strategy and tactical framework. I say that so you understand context.
Context in writing is both important and valuable – but more about that later.
My actual pen and notes for B2B copywriting
How I write marketing copy
Getting a message across using printed words (as opposed to audio, images or video) is a giant challenge. Knowing how long humans have been writing, you’d think that everything that could have been written has been. And yet…. we know that’s not true. The imagination and skill of mankind to innovate is immense.
My writing is usually business to business copywriting for marketing purposes. That’s my area of expertise. And so the steps I take begin with the outcome. What do I want to happen as a result of a prospect or client reading what I’ve written?
These examples are all valid outcomes and each requires very different copy treatments.
The first version is always factual
What are the true, inalienable facts that support the end goal? I list these in a brain dump document. Frequently these are the result of conversations with the client, the internal team and existing customers.
Then I supplement this with some desk research. Reading ‘around the subject’ can come from many sources – newsletters, online magazines, blogs, books. Interestingly, I rarely search social media for this information. My choice – it may suit your needs. The amazing Knowledge Hunter, Geoff McDowell, taught me so much about this subject.
Adding more copy material
From the wider reading I copy/paste and add in more themes, concepts, nuance, examples, phrases and keywords. I also look out for no-nos. These are things I want to avoid.
Sometimes images, colours, layouts and other visual elements present themselves from this research too. That can be very helpful as my brain often leaps forward towards the end result WAY earlier than it’s supposed to. To avoid distraction, I save and note these ideas back in the research document. By noting them, I have preserved the idea; but I’m not focusing on them at this stage. It means I don’t lose the inspiration – I can revive that thought later just by re-reading my notes.
This all contributes to a second draft. This is when I decide the overall frame for the project and HOW does this translate into the copywriting. This could be storytelling, it could be demonstration, case study, questioning, educating. There is a lot more information added, there are more concepts and overall I just write freely incorporating the research information and framing arguments, emotions and logic into one long piece of writing.
This is the place where context comes to the fore. How will the message be delivered, what will the recipient be doing or not doing? Where in the customer journey will they be? What is the outcome or next step goal in this campaign?
Editing and refining copy
This is the part I love.
Precise and concise are watchwords which I hope any client applies to a testimonial about my business copywriting.
Taking what I wrote and simplifying, cutting, removing extraneous information and honing it down into a tight, precise and well-organised message is a repetitive task and it gives me so much pleasure. Sometimes I use a technique of adding in sub-headings (as in this blog) because it helps me to organise and find the big messages in the very long copy.
Often I leave the first opening paragraph until last because it’s so hard. Sometimes I switch the first and last paragraphs – try it!
Headlines and calls to action are a separate challenge and I may do a couple of different versions or give options and let the client choose. This is because they are mostly better-informed about their product or service than I am. Teamwork helps work out what will resonate and achieve the goal.
And then I sleep on it
Yes this is really the final step before showing it to the client, adding it to a mock-up or an EDM. This is important and is one reason why planning at the first step needs to include deadlines and allowances for sleep time.
7 things I’ve appreciated after sleeping on my work
And that’s it. The whole creative writing process for B2B copy.
About the picture illustrating this article.
That’s really my pen and my notebook, photographed this morning as I got a tiny bit of inspiration for a client as a result of doing some research for a different client. It’s odd the way my brain works. And I have learned to respect my brain process and to always seize the moment and make the notes when they jump into my mind. I don’t have to use them – but I’m sure I will lose them if they aren’t captured.
I do not have the neatest handwriting, yet using blue-black ink in an old-fashioned fountain pen gives me both pleasure and the chance to read my words again without guessing what I meant to write. Someday I’ll photograph some of my notes which turn out to be illegible even to me. Generally when I rush to write, legibility suffers.
The unknown part of writing inspiration
The pen also lives in a leather case. My ritual of opening the case flap and flicking back the long cover, unsheathing the pen and unscrewing its lid before writing still gives me a frisson. I never know exactly what will come out of the inky nib onto that pristine sheet of paper, onto the next empty line, or inserted between the paragraphs of print.
And the pen – a birthday gift chosen with care while on holiday. I got the nib re-surfaced by this amazing pen expert who recommended not using ink cartridges. He also explained a lot about the issues of ink/paper and my unique hand/pressure and what a converter is, not a bladder. There is a distinction between them.
So now you know my B2B writing process. What will you do with this knowledge?
Brief Rebecca on your copywriting project
Join the newsletter
No related posts.
How to prototype marketing solutions
/0 Comments/in Marketing ideas /by Rebecca CaroeMaking a big investment into solving a marketing problem is a giant challenge. The risks are huge, the investment uncertain and the outcomes are unproven.
One way to overcome these risks is to do rapid prototyping.
Rapid Prototyping needs new adherents
Today I interview Joanne Jacobs, an expert in how to use this technique.
Talking work, hacking solutions and online engagement.
Joanne is an expert in rapid prototyping as a way for solving enterprise problems / challenges. She works for Disruptors Co.
Timestamps
01:00 Learning and showing by discussion 09:00 using Jitsi.org and Crowdcast.io and Remo
11:00 Hacking for rapid prototyping – creating solutions to problems.
16:00 What is a problem worth solving? Preferably something you’ve tried and failed before. It must have a financial impact and have knock-on change benefits
17:300 ihackonline.com
20:00 How to set up contests – allow private conversations, collaboration around a screen or whiteboard. Overcome networking challenges.
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Overcoming a spam label by MailChimp
/0 Comments/in Direct Marketing /by Rebecca CaroeOne of my clients did something ill-advised and their account got flagged by MailChimp as spammer.
Goodness that’s a tough call and the restrictions placed on the account are significant.
The good news is that I succeeded in untangling the situation and restoring the account. BUT it would have been better never to have got into that situation in the first place.
And so if you’re tempted to re-use an old mailing list, don’t. Digging out old lists from a few years ago who haven’t been mailed and who haven’t had a history on your account is a big risk. If your email service provider gets a higher than normal bounce or spam reporting rate, it will be noticed. I think ISPs are very vigilant at this time.
If you do want to re-use an old list, I suggest you create a separate audience and after the first mail-out has identified unsubscribes and bounces, then later merge it into your main audience so it doesn’t contaminate your good standing.
Good mailing list hygiene
Something to do today – run through your email list and check off whether you have everything in place to enable personalisation. Correct first name, last name, company name? No capitals? Can you deduce recipients’ names from their email address e.g. fred@xyz.com
Now start planning out your segmentation. Here are three easy segments for you to set up.
Focus on retention
For most direct marketing at these times, I recommend retention rather than acquisition. It’s easier to keep than acquire a new customer.
Three quick campaigns you can run
Untangle a spam label by Mailchimp
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Looking for marketing answers
/0 Comments/in Marketing, Recession /by Rebecca CaroeThe uncertainty and change facing us is a new challenge. I have been doing short mini videos through the lockdown. They were designed to give fast tips for action.
Now I’m hosting longer form discussions with a locals who are smart thinkers and smart do-ers.
I want to know what the Government is doing for SMEs. And so I booked two interviews. One with a business owner and one with a member of the Small Business Council working with MBIE. What they told me shows how far we have to go and the sort of resources YOU can expect to get in the form of support for your business future.
SMEs and public policy
First up is Vaughan Winiata – we are talking about small medium enterprises in New Zealand.
New Zealand businesses are facing an uncertain future.
Andy Hamilton is on the Small Business Council
Andy and I talk tips and tricks for business owners facing challenges.
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Brand repositioning post-Covid19
/0 Comments/in Marketing, Marketing ideas, Recession, Strategy /by Rebecca CaroeAre you trying to understand how your marketing needs to change?
This article sets out the themes which you can use in your own firm to help discern the new rules, the new landscape and the new markets we are now trading in.
The new marketing reality
Nothing is clear. This is obvious.
But that’s hardly helpful for us marketing people who need to keep on creating campaigns, keep on filling funnels and keep on pushing our recovery efforts after lockdown.
Signs are emerging about what consumers are interested in and where they will look favourably on brands.
I am regularly scanning the world looking for examples and inspiration of what can be done and how you can do it for your brand.
What consumers value
Top home-stay business Look After Me surveyed their audiences and found a distinct shift in sentiment.
Instead of favouring flying on holiday, most now prefer car travel; most prefer to book with local companies to “keep money in the NZ economy”, and most now prioritise accommodation “cleanliness” over price, comfort and wifi provision.
Financial and economic news website, Interest.co.nz asked its readers what they value. The answers were clear from the start – every single segment of reader who was surveyed came back with similar views. Two quotes suffice
ACTION: do a survey now
Understand the new priorities
Clues about the new priorities can be found from a range of commentators. Some have been “banging this drum” for a while, others are interpreting new data.
I look to global trends as well as industry-specific experts when trying to find a pattern worth following.
Mark Carney, Central Banker, says the “The economy must yield to human values“. By this I interpret that people matter over profit and that the capitalist model of pursuing profit over all other goals is being challenged.
Retail specialist Mary Portas calls it the “Kindness Economy”.
And Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, interprets apparently polarising reactions to the same situation in terms of “moral intuitions and values”. In this way, relaxing lockdown provokes both protests against restriction of liberty from social distancing and protests about growing exposure to harm by going back to work. Both can be understood from underlying moral values.
In the context of Brexit and the lockdown, he found
The moral values of your brand now matter. The alignment and prioritisation of your internal teams across departments will be different now. Your emphasis on the planetary community needs to be interpreted into both the bottom line and operational mores.
ACTION: Review your CRM and sales / marketing alignment
What will “value” mean?
This is tough and will definitely evolve as fear of infection subsides and rises with waves of the pandemic. In New Zealand now we are feeling relatively safe – lockdown is in Level 2 and we are back at school and work. Compare our situation to Brazil or New York and value will be very different.
Here are some themes which may emerge – to what extent does your brand and business subscribe to these?
What is the new Maslow hierarchy?
Values and needs are realigning.
Now that we fully realise the deep inter-dependency of our global community, will this change our prioritisation about health, wellbeing, global supply chains and personal independence (doing what I want) compared to communal dependence (doing what WE need)?
Can we learn to trust experts again?
Will our approach to climate change (surely the biggest existential threat to our way of life) be adjusted to reflect these new values and to form a new consensus on priorities compared to risks?
What did your company do during Covid-19?
Writing the history of this period can wait for now.
Yet I am certain that the judgements will fall on brands and the public perception of where they were before and after the emergency passes will be based on “people” outcomes not “profit” outcomes.
I bet Greg Foran wishes he was still at Walmart and hiring thousands of new workers rather than at Air New Zealand and laying them off.
This will have the resonance of “what did you do in the War?” and whether you judge the outcome to be “good” or “bad” will depend to a large part on the consumer’s view of whether you were a hoarder or a generous giver; whether you laid off staff, furloughed or retained staff; whether you hoarded resources or paid over the odds to acquire over others or whether you generously supported others.
Adjust brand positioning
Once you know what values your consumers now have you can start customisation to respond to this new priority.
Rose and Thorne donate bras to essential workers
Some of these will be short-term and related to Covid19 and Lockdown – like Rose and Thorne’s Gift-a-Bra to an essential worker.
How important are these people? Very. How much do we value them? A lot. And how many do we know? Lots.
This is great marketing because it is a classic member-get-member programme aligned to the issue of the day.
Brand repositioning post-Covid19
Look After Me have taken a lead by redesigning holidays into packages that theme around hobbies and interests, that are local and have quality marks for locally owned businesses with high cleanliness scores.
Smart. Easy to understand. Aligned.
There’s a Recession too
And of course the recession is already creating new winners and losers. Take a browse through the Emergency Business Forum questions business owners are asking and their own perceptions of “need” and the consistent themes emerge
Part of me groans when reading these; part of me rejoices.
Blending the practical with the strategic is going to be critical in giving quality guidance and up-skilling. Yet the problem lies as much with medium as small businesses. Speedy decision making is easy for the owner-operator and will not be so easy to apply to enterprise.
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