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Promote Your Business
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Promote Your
Business
How to write effective marketing material
for your small business
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Mary Morel
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First published in 2003
Copyright В© Mary Morel 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a
maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its educational purposes provided that the educational institution
(or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax:
(61 2) 9906 2218
Email: info@allenandunwin.com
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Morel, Mary, 1950– .
Promote your business: how to write effective marketing
material for your small business.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86508 931 1.
1. Marketing. 2. Sales promotion. 3. Business writing.
I. Title.
658.8
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Set in 11/15 pt Stempel Garamond by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
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Contents
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
How to write a business and marketing plan
Branding and creating visual impact
Writing guidelines
How to write brochures and flyers
How to write a press release
How to write direct mail
How to write an advertisement
How to write your website
How to write newsletters and ezines
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
References
Index
vii
ix
1
28
51
75
105
130
160
185
210
238
240
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Preface
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
T
he idea for this book struck me when I went looking for a
�how to write’ book that covered several marketing techniques in one book. I found marketing and PR books and writing
books on specific topics, such as press releases and websites, but
not one book that covered the whole lot.
I’m a communications consultant and trainer and, after
recently relocating from another country, found for the first time
in my career that I needed to actively market myself as a sole
trader. Although I often write promotional material for clients,
I found writing for myself much harder.
I’d operated as a sole trader for 13 years and had built up my
business slowly, on a solid network of contacts, which I had
begun to take for granted. When business was quiet, which it
inevitably is at times when you work on your own, I’d panic,
read a book or two on marketing, ring a few people and then
the phone would start ringing. That was the extent of my
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marketing efforts and fortunately my business continued to grow
each year.
However, when I moved, I no longer had those contacts and
networks, and so had to develop a marketing strategy to actively
promote my own business using the same techniques I had previously implemented for my clients.
There’s more information about my business at <www.
themfactor.com> and I’d be delighted if you subscribed to my
free e-newsletter, Factorial, full of practical writing tips.
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Introduction
Introduction
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T
he difference between a successful and unsuccessful business is often not the quality of their product or service, but
their ability to promote themselves. You can have the best product
or service in the world, with great systems and procedures, and
friendly, helpful staff. But if you don’t have clients or customers,
you don’t have a business.
All businesses go through good times and bad. Word of
mouth is always the best type of promotion, but not many businesses can afford to rely on it entirely if they want to grow their
business or survive the bad times, such as a downturn in the
economy or the loss of a major client or customer.
While a one-off marketing campaign may have an impact, it
is unlikely to have long-term results. You need to be constantly
in the marketplace to establish and maintain your profile and
credibility and to build relationships with your prospects. Think
about your own purchasing decisions. You often hear about a
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company from several sources before you feel you know and
trust them enough to do business with them.
How you decide to promote your business will depend on
what you want to achieve, your budget and what is most appropriate for your audience. What works for one company may not
work for another, and sometimes issues like timing make a difference. Often you may need to use several complementary
marketing tools at once. For example, you may have a monthly
e-newsletter, which you complement with a regular, but intermittent, schedule of press releases, advertisements and direct
mail. Gut feeling also plays a part. If a promotion doesn’t �feel
right’ and you find you’re pushing hard every step of the way,
then it’s probably the wrong marketing tool for you.
I have tried most of the promotional material covered in this
book personally for my own business. I’ve had some �wins’, such
as my brochure, e-newsletter and direct mail, and discovered
there are some things, like letterbox drops and flyers, that I won’t
do again.
Some professional services seem to have an ingrained belief
that marketing is somehow unprofessional and only suitable for
products, not services. This isn’t true—the trick is finding
marketing methods that suit the style of your business and are
appropriate for your prospects.
Many people (me included) don’t enjoy promoting themselves very much, but it does get easier with practise, and as you
are an expert in your field, you need to capitalise on your knowledge. Be prepared to promote yourself as well as your business.
One of the difficulties for many small businesses, especially
sole traders, is time. When you’re busy you’re totally caught up
in your work, and when you’ve finished a major project you
face a vacuum as you haven’t kept in touch with your existing
clients and prospects. With a marketing plan in place, you’re
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more likely to market your business consistently—even when
you’re busy.
Business case studies
Throughout the book, I use three different kinds of businesses—
a landscape gardening company, a furniture maker and a
restaurant—to illustrate the various approaches to marketing that
a retail and service business, a manufacturer or a business in the
hospitality industry might adopt.
Delite Landscape Design
Delite Landscape Design combines boutique gardening shops with
domestic and commercial landscape design and gardening services.
The shops carry popular ranges of plants, such as camellias and
roses, and some gardening accessories, such as hoses and fertilisers.
Delite Landscape Design also provides domestic and commercial landscape design. Its design work ranges from small
backyards to large, new property developments. It provides
gardening and maintenance services for both commercial and
residential properties.
Founded 25 years ago by qualified landscape designer John
Pettit, Delite Landscape Design has branches in three cities. Each
city employs at least one full-time landscape designer and retail
and gardening staff. Some of the gardeners are full-time staff and
others are employed on a casual basis over spring and summer.
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Emerald Furniture
Emerald Furniture produces high-quality, simple yet elegant
furniture manufactured from environmentally friendly materials
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for home and corporate use. Each piece is hand crafted and
customers can order from the workshop or through the product
catalogue, which is available online or in some furniture shops.
Susan Eves, who has 15 years’ experience in the furniture
industry, opened Emerald Furniture in 2003. She is currently
working out of a workshop garage and employs one part-time
furniture maker.
Blue Gum Restaurant
Blue Gum Restaurant is located close to the heart of the city and caters
for both families and the business community. It serves modern
cuisine and is fully licensed and BYO. Its prices are mid-range.
Blue Gum Restaurant was established 10 years ago by a
husband-and-wife team, Tania James and Bill Johnson. Tania
works in the restaurant full-time, managing the dining room and
staff. Bill has a full-time job as an accountant and works at the
restaurant on weekends and evenings if they’re short staffed.
He also does the accounts. Their teenage children work parttime in the restaurant.
Blue Gum is a lifestyle as well as a business choice as Tania
and Bill enjoy being in the hospitality industry.
Chapter summary
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Chapter 1
How to write a business and marketing plan
A marketing plan gives you a promotional strategy to achieve
your business goals and objectives. Without a marketing plan,
you risk marketing reactively when your business goes quiet.
With a marketing plan, your marketing efforts will be more
consistent and thus more successful.
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Your marketing plan includes: mission and vision statements,
goals and objectives, market and competitor analyses, a SWOT
analysis, your position in the marketplace, budgeting and an
action plan.
Chapter 2
Branding and creating visual impact
Branding reflects your company personality and comprises your
name, company colours, logo, slogans and tag lines, and your
business card and stationery.
This chapter provides some tips on managing your brand and
outlines some design and layout guidelines to help you present
your marketing material attractively, so people want to read your
content.
Chapter 3
Writing guidelines
Many of the marketing tools in this book, such as advertisements
and websites, have their own unique writing conventions, but
there are some overarching writing principles that apply to all
good writing.
Before you start writing, you need to be clear about your
audience and what you want to achieve. However, whether
you’re writing a press release or a website, all good writing is
basically concise, clear and simple. Rewriting, editing and
proofing are also important to provide a professional finish to
your work.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Chapter 4
How to write brochures and flyers
The word �brochure’ is used to include capability brochures,
product brochures, flyers and folders of company information.
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This chapter looks at the different types of brochures and
provides some writing tips to make your copy succinct, interesting and convincing. These techniques include thinking about
benefits rather than features, writing directly to your audience
with �you’ language, and using testimonials, reviews and case
studies to sing your praises.
Chapter 5
How to write a press release
Press releases are great publicity as they reach a wide audience,
but you must have a story to tell and it must be newsworthy.
This chapter looks at where to place your press release and how
to write a press release that will capture the media’s attention.
The writing tips include choosing an angle that will show your
information to its greatest advantage, using your first paragraph
to either set the scene or convey the key information (5W and
H), and using a spokesperson to add credibility.
Chapter 6
How to write direct mail
This chapter looks at some of the conventions of writing direct
mail and emails. Direct mail includes letterbox drops, targeted
letters and dimensional mailers. The most successful direct mail
includes a letter, which usually has an offer and a call to action.
Email marketing is effective as it’s cheap, instant and reaches
a wide audience, but �opt-in’ requirements mean you must have
your prospects’ permission to market to them. Emails are easy
to delete, so your emails must be short and relevant.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Chapter 7
How to write an advertisement
There are various types of advertisements you may wish to
consider for your business, including classified advertisements
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and display advertisements. With advertisements you only have
a few seconds to grab attention, so your writing must be succinct
and memorable. This chapter looks at the ingredients of effective advertisements, including headlines, body copy, visuals and
layout.
Chapter 8
How to write your website
Websites are a basic requirement for most businesses these days,
but too many people transfer their print material online without
adapting it for the Internet. Online writing requires different
writing skills, such as �chunking’ information and creating
�stand-alone’ pages.
This chapter includes techniques to help you create a relevant, easy-to-read website that will make your business stand
out from your competitors.
Chapter 9 How to write newsletters and ezines
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Newsletters and e-newsletters are an effective way to stay in
front of your customers and clients in a low-key way. This chapter
discusses the pros and cons of newsletters and e-newsletters,
looks at the similarities and differences, and then focuses on how
you can write an e-newsletter that provides your prospects with
information they look forward to reading, and at the same time
promotes and builds your business.
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1
How to write a business and marketing plan
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A
business plan includes a description of your business, your
place in the marketplace and what you want to achieve.
A marketing plan outlines strategies to promote your business
to help you realise your business goals.
Many people choose to write separate business and marketing
plans. As the emphasis in this book is on marketing, this chapter
uses a marketing plan which includes some elements of a business plan, such as mission and vision statements.
To be of most value, your business and marketing plans need
to be living documents, regularly reviewed and modified. There
are various ways of keeping your plans alive. For example, some
businesses have monthly and/or weekly action plans which they
review regularly to evaluate their progress. I do this in my business and one of the benefits is that when I evaluate my achievements at the end of the month I’m often pleasantly surprised to
find that I’ve accomplished more than I realised.
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I keep my goals in front of me all the time by putting a
sheet on the back of my office door. On this sheet I have a summary of my monthly targets, such as number of new clients,
number of appointments and prospects I’m nudging along.
One colleague uses a whiteboard for her marketing prospects
and has a numbering system from one to five. Number fives
are hot prospects and number ones are slight possibilities. She
changes the numbers beside the prospects to reflect their
current status.
Businesses with several staff will use a more formal approach,
and may choose to hold monthly or quarterly meetings to review
progress and set milestones for the next month or quarter. If you
have staff, you can use your plans as a motivational tool. Keeping
staff involved with your vision and goals helps them feel as
though they are part of your dream—more than just employees
working for a wage.
Description of your business
Including a description of your business at the start of your
marketing plan puts the plan into context for yourself and other
people who may read it. Having a description of your business
in a nutshell will also help you answer that perennial question
�What do you do?’ succinctly. You won’t have to resort to
�Ummm, well’ or launch into a long, boring explanation.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Description of the business
Delite Landscape Design combines boutique gardening shops with domestic
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and commercial landscape design and gardening services. The shops carry
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popular ranges of plants, such as camellias and roses, and some gardening
accessories, such as hoses and fertilisers.
Delite Landscape Design also provides domestic and commercial landscape design. Its design work ranges from small backyards to large, new
property developments. It provides gardening and maintenance services for
both commercial and residential properties.
Description of the business
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture produces high-quality, simple yet elegant furniture manufactured from environmentally friendly materials for home and corporate
use. Each piece is hand crafted and customers can order from the workshop or through the product catalogue, which is available online or in some
furniture shops.
Blue Gum
Description of the business
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant is located close to the heart of the city and caters for
both families and the business community. It serves modern cuisine and is
fully licensed and BYO. Its prices are mid-range.
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Mission and vision statements
Mission and vision statements provide a big-picture framework
for your business and marketing plans. Mission and vision statements are usually brief—often just a single sentence or, at most,
a paragraph.
Some companies combine mission and vision statements into
a single statement of purpose, which sums up their mission, goals
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and values. Have a look at some companies’ websites or annual
reports and you’ll see that most large companies have some form
of mission or vision statement.
MISSION STATEMENT
A mission statement describes the core purpose of your business, your values and approach. It focuses on what benefits
you’re offering your customers or clients.
VISION STATEMENT
A vision statement is about the future of your business and what
you want to achieve. A vision statement allows you to dream.
Where do you want your business to be in 10 years’ time? What
do you want to achieve professionally from your business? What
do you want to achieve personally from your business? Ideally,
your personal and business visions should align so you’re
focusing all your energies on what you want to achieve personally and professionally.
Having a vision will also help you with the daily running of
your business. For example, if you want to sell your business in
10 years’ time, you will need to keep good records of your
processes and procedures to help make your business ready for
sale when the time comes. Lots of businesses fail to keep good
ongoing records and have to create them retrospectively. It’s
much easier to keep good records of your procedures at the time,
with another end user in mind.
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If you’re having difficulty outlining your vision and mission, ask
yourself some questions:
• Why did you set this business up?
• What do you like about your business?
• What are your core values?
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• What do you offer your clients or customers?
• What makes your business different from your competitors?
• Where do you want your business to be in one year, five years
and 10 years?
We all want to make money—it’s one of the reasons why we’re
in business—but making money ideally flows from your love of
the business, not the other way around. Some of the most successful businesses are run by people who have dreams and are
passionate about what they do.
Mission
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design cares and caters creatively for gardens of all sizes through
every stage of their development—from design through to maintenance.
Vision
Delite Landscape Design aims to be a reputable and profitable landscape
business operating out of three cities.
John Pettit’s personal vision is to sell the branches in seven years’ time
and to remain as a consultant for another three years before retirement.
Mission
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture produces good-quality, environmentally friendly furniture
that looks good, is comfortable and is built to last.
Vision
To produce award-winning furniture that sells nationwide through Emerald
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Furniture’s own outlets and selected furniture shops.
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Susan Eves’s personal vision is to have a balanced lifestyle—work she
enjoys, a reasonable income and more leisure time to travel.
Blue Gum
Mission
RESTAURANT
At Blue Gum Restaurant customers experience the finest foods and wine in a
relaxing yet stylish environment. The service is friendly and helpful without
being obtrusive.
Vision
To continue to provide a quality dining experience for customers, and earn
a comfortable living.
Tania and Bill’s personal vision is to continue working in the restaurant
until they retire. They hope to sell the restaurant as a viable business with a
strong, loyal patronage.
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Goals and objectives
The terms �goals’ and �objectives’ are often used interchangeably, but goals can be defined as what you want to achieve and
objectives as how you will achieve them. For example, your
goal may be to increase sales by 10% to $500 000 per annum.
Your objective is to gain three new clients over the next three
months.
You will need to develop long-term and short-term goals and
objectives to help you realise your vision. Your goals will vary
depending on the life stage of your business: for example, an
established business may want to expand, whereas a start-up
business is looking for clients or customers.
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How to write a business and marketing plan
Whatever the size of your business, whether you’re a sole
trader or a large enterprise, and whatever stage of development
you’re at, set aside time to plan each year. Ideally you will do
this away from the office environment so you’re not distracted
by the phone. If you have staff, ask them to write down their
personal and professional goals for the year ahead and acknowledge these in your plan. Business goals supported by personal
goals are more likely to succeed than business goals that don’t
match personal goals.
When setting your goals for the year ahead, be realistic.
Consider factors such as past performance, the current market
situation and your staff’s workloads and future schedules. Set
goals that create opportunities, yet are open to change.
Be as specific as possible and make your objectives measurable
so you can monitor your progress and identify marketing tactics
that work best for you. Set a timeframe for your plan, as many of
us work best if we have deadlines and outcomes to achieve.
Once you’ve set your goals and objectives, commit yourself
to them for the duration of the plan but at the same time be open
to new opportunities. Each time a new marketing opportunity
arises, ask yourself: �Will this opportunity help us meet our goals?’
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Seven-year goal
Seven-year objectives
• Sell or franchise business
• Maintain excellent records of
processes, procedures and accounts so
the business is ready to sell at any stage
• Increase profitability by 10% each year
• Build a solid base of repeat and new
customers
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Goals for the year ahead
Objectives for the year ahead
• Increase profits by 10%
• Gain repeat business from 70% of
clients
• Gain three new domestic clients in
each city per month for general
work
• Gain one new commercial client in
each city per month for general
work
• Develop a new service—balcony
design and maintenance
• Develop balcony design strategy
• Market balcony design
• Gain 30 domestic clients and
10 commercial clients
• Improve staff motivation
and attitudes
• Design and implement a staff
training and induction program
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EMERALD
furniture
Ten-year goal
Ten-year objectives
• Have own shops in three cities
• Open one shop a year in years 8,
9 and 10 of the business
• Employ managers in each shop
Five-year goals
Five-year objectives
• Sell furniture through selected
furniture shops
• Find five furniture outlets a year
• Win furniture awards
• Enter at least one furniture
competition each year
• Increase profitability by 15% each year
• Increase online sales
• Gain one new corporate client a
month
• Consistent marketing
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One-year goals
One-year objectives
• Employ two more staff
• Employ full-time staff in June and
December
• Move premises
• Identify alternative premises
• Move premises in December
• Explore opportunities to sell
in selected furniture shops
• Identify desirable furniture shops
• Develop presentation material
and proposals for desired
furniture shops
• Market to desired furniture shops
• Cover costs
• Build the demand for furniture
through marketing efforts
• Run furniture-making classes for women
• Organise furniture-making classes
for women
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Ten-year goals
Ten-year objectives
• Continue to provide a quality
dining experience for clients
Maintain quality through:
• Staff training
• Changing the menus to meet
customer tastes
• Maintain and increase profitability
• Ongoing low-key marketing
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• Continue to enjoy running the restaurant
Five-year goals
Five-year objectives
• Continue to provide a quality
• dining experience for clients
Maintain quality through:
• Selecting skilled staff
• Providing ongoing staff training
• Researching customers to identify
areas to improve food and service
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Five-year goals (continued)
Five-year objectives (continued)
• Continue to enjoy running the restaurant
Improve the restaurant by:
• Installing more plants
• Repolishing the floorboards
• Repainting the dining room
• Increase profitability by 4% each year
Earn more by:
• Attracting more clientele
• Offering a more up-market wine list
One-year goals
One-year objectives
• Increase the lunchtime trade during
the week
• Market to the business community
• Continue to improve the restaurant
• Explore different menus
• Provide chef with more training
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Market analysis
YOUR TARGET MARKETS
Find out as much as you can about the markets you want to sell
your products and services to so you understand their needs and
stay abreast of changes happening in their world. Such research
will also help you identify your niche markets and target your
marketing material so you can talk your prospects’ language.
You’ll also have a better idea of what makes your products and
services unique and be in a position to spot opportunities before
your competitors do.
Your product or service is unlikely to have universal appeal,
so you need to identify and understand your niche target market.
Look at your market in terms of demographics (age, gender,
education, geographical location etc.) and psychographics (what
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motivates their purchasing). If you have several possible target
audiences and need to refine your market, take your personal
preferences into consideration. We all work better with groups
we feel comfortable with.
When you first start out in business, the amount of market
research you do will depend on your budget and your prior
knowledge of your target market. You can employ someone to
conduct research for you or you can do it yourself. Research
avenues include user surveys, talking to people, and reading
about companies that fit your target profile in trade magazines
or on the Internet. Government departments collect statistics
which you can purchase and some are available on their
websites.
If you’re an established business, you need to do ongoing
research to keep your finger on the pulse and also to review and
refine your services and products. One way of doing this is to
interview a sample of your current and past clients and customers
to find out what they like about your company and areas you
could improve on. If your business has more than one service or
product, such research will often show that your clients and
customers aren’t aware of the full range of your offerings. There
might be an opportunity to sell more of your services or products to the same customer or to other divisions within their
organisations.
MARKET TRENDS
Stay one step ahead of your competitors by looking at the general market environment and doing trend analyses. For example:
Do you anticipate economic changes that will affect your business? What are the latest trends in your industry? Is there a
business opportunity for you in these trends? Are your
customers or clients undergoing changes that will affect their
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buying decisions? What challenges are they facing? How can
you help them meet these challenges?
Continuing to watch the marketplace will help you identify
opportunities and also allow you to refine your marketing
messages. You will then spend your marketing budget more
wisely as it will be targeted specifically to meet your customers’
or clients’ current needs.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design subscribes to several landscape magazines to keep
abreast of what’s happening in the industry. John Pettit also watches real estate
trends in both the domestic and commercial sectors, and studies demographic
and social trends through monitoring statistics. He attaches this information in
an appendix to his business plan and includes a summary update in the body
of his marketing plan.
Over recent years John Pettit has been observing the growing trend
towards apartment living. He has used this information to support the development of a new product and service—balcony design. Delite Landscape
Design has done some balcony design work, but this year John plans to fully
develop the concept and market it aggressively.
Annual update
The census statistics show that the population is ageing, fewer women are
having children and more women are in the labour force. Most population
growth is occurring in the capital cities, and more people in cities now live
in apartments.
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Overall, the home ownership rate is declining. High-income house-
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How to write a business and marketing plan
holds and single-person households are buying houses, but buying a
house is becoming out of reach for low-income families with dependent
children.
EMERALD
furniture
Having worked in the industry for 15 years, Susan Eves has a strong
interest in furniture and an instinctive feel for what sells. But she doesn’t
rely solely on this knowledge. She keeps abreast of what’s happening
in her field by reading trade magazines, visiting furniture stores,
attending trade shows and conferences, and occasionally surfing the
Internet.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania James and Bill Johnson did extensive research before purchasing Blue
Gum Restaurant, which was an existing, run-down restaurant. Bill looked
closely at the books to work out what income they could realistically expect
to make. He continues to monitor the profitability of the industry and is
pleased that Blue Gum Restaurant performs better than the industry average,
based on profit margin information they have obtained from government
statistics.
Tania conducted and continues to conduct market research on
people’s eating-out habits. For this research, she uses information from
government statistics, and the national restaurant and catering association,
attending conferences, reading cuisine magazines and eating at other
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restaurants.
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All Tania’s research shows that the trend to eat out is continuing. One
research company estimated that the number of meals served by the food
service industry grew by 20% over the last 10 years. Chicken is still the most
popular meat, followed by beef, pork and lamb.
Tania and Bill have found that their patronage has steadily increased over
the years for their evening meals, which are usually booked out in advance
three or four nights a week, but that their lunchtime clientele has changed.
When they first started out, business people would have long lunches and
drink copious amounts of alcohol.They find that business people now spend
less time over lunch and drink little or no alcohol.They also want lighter meals
and faster service.Tania and Bill have adapted their menu and service to meet
this need, but now want to market their lighter lunches to the corporate
world.
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Competitor analysis
As part of your marketing plan, have a look at your competitors. Group your competitors into types and analyse a few in
depth. If you’re having difficulty deciding how much to charge
for a product or service, check out what your competitors
charge. You can get information from various sources, such as
the newspapers, ringing your competitors directly, the Internet,
annual reports and trade journals.
This research needs to be ongoing, as your market will
change. You need to ask yourself: Are new businesses competing
for your customers or clients? Are competing companies altering
their products or services in a way that makes them more threatening to your business?
I think that while you need to know who your competitors are, it doesn’t pay to get too hung up about what other
people are doing. You’re better off putting your energies into
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action than worrying about what they’re doing. There’s
always going to be plenty of competition and there’s always
room for good businesses, especially if you provide good
service.
You may be lucky and offer something truly unique that
sets you apart from your competition, but often, particularly
in the service industry, it comes down to building and maintaining
relationships. If you market consistently and persistently,
establish good relationships with your customers or clients,
and provide quality products or services, your business will
prosper no matter what your competitors are doing.
There’s an urban myth about two butchers who emigrated
to Australia after World War II. Several years later they bumped
into each other. After enquiring about each other’s families,
they asked each other how business was going. The first said:
�I looked around and found an area that didn’t have a butcher
so I set up shop and have prospered. What about you?’ The
other butcher replied: �I found an area that already had two
butchers, so decided this was an area where people shopped
locally for their meat and I could provide them with greater
choice. So I opened my shop there, and I too have prospered.’
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit did extensive competitive analysis when he first started his business. He now follows his competitors in the three cities Delite Landscape
Design operates in by looking at their ads in the newspapers and magazines, visiting their nurseries from time to time, and listening to what his
customers say. He pays close attention when he is thinking of raising his
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prices.
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Annual competitor update
•
City 1: A new landscape design company has opened in the area and
is marketing exclusively to the domestic market using letterbox drops.
This has not affected Delite to date.
•
City 2: Competition has remained stable. Shop sales grew steadily but
there was a significant drop in sales the month a large nursery nearby
had a camellia promotion.
•
City 3: A local nursery has changed hands over the past year. The
new owner is starting to make changes to the stock and marketing.
John will monitor the impact this has on his business over the
coming year.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves has decided not to do a formal competitor analysis or to worry
about her competitors, but she does keep an eye on what her competitors
are doing to make sure that her designs remain original and to keep up with
changing fashions. She also constantly notes what her competitors are
charging to make sure her prices are competitive.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania and Bill are aware that they face competition from other local cafГ©s
and restaurants as well as takeaway outlets.
When Tania and Bill started their restaurant, they visited all the restaurants and cafГ©s in their local area and ate in several of them. They continue
to dine out regularly, partly because they enjoy eating out and also to watch
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what their competitors are doing.
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SWOT analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
A SWOT analysis identifies your business strengths and weaknesses,
opportunities in the marketplace and threats from external
factors.
A SWOT analysis is useful when you’re starting out to help
you clarify your target market and identify your positioning in
that market. It’s worth updating annually, as you can use it to clarify
your thoughts and use your strengths to take advantage of new
opportunities. If new threats have occurred in your environment,
it can also help you plan how to avoid or minimise their impact.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Current strengths
Current weaknesses
•
•
•
•
• A little complacent
• Higher staff turnover than in
previous years
• Growth last year was a little
less than predicted
Strong profitable presence in three cities
Solid background with years of experience
Award-winning designs
Quality and reliability
Threats
Opportunities
• New player in one city who has
fresh ideas and is marketing aggressively
• Existing competition
• Nursery changing hands in one city
• Move into balcony design
and target apartment dwellers
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EMERALD
furniture
Current strengths
Current weaknesses
• Solid background in furniture design
• Lack of business experience
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Threats
Opportunities
• Other more established
players in the market
• Opportunity to create a niche
market for original, stylish
furniture using environmentally
friendly products
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Current strengths
Current weaknesses
•
•
•
•
•
• The restaurant is totally
dependent on Tania and Bill,
which means it’s difficult for them
to have a holiday and they have a
problem if either of them gets sick
Established reputation
Many repeat clients
Pleasant environment
Provides quality food
Good service
Threats
Opportunities
• Other restaurants, cafés and
takeaway outlets in the area
• Economic downturns—people
choose cheaper eating places
• Cater for the changing lunchtime
market
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Positioning
Through your market analysis and your industry knowledge, you
will have identified your target market and your niche in it. You
now need to work out how to position yourself in that market.
Ask yourself whether your services or products have some unique
features that differentiate you from your competitors. In marketing
jargon, this is called a unique selling proposition (USP). Quality
products and reliable, courteous customer services don’t qualify
as a USP, as they’re too general. Don’t worry if you don’t have a
USP—a lot of small businesses don’t. But if you do, flaunt it.
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Sometimes a USP will not immediately leap out at you, but if
you dig a bit deeper you may realise that your products and
services have some unique features and benefits. For example,
I provide business writing training. There’s a lot of competition
in this field and at first I wasn’t sure how to differentiate my
services. Over time I’ve realised that my training differs from many
of my competitors in several ways. For example, I provide very
flexible formats to suit my clients’ needs, whereas many of my
competitors just offer standard courses. I also intersperse grammar
with the main topics, rather than teaching it in a block, and I offer
individual training to complement group courses. Another major
advantage, which I took completely for granted initially, is that I
am still a practising corporate and marketing writer, so I understand the writing process and appreciate how difficult it can be.
When developing your positioning statements, whether you
have a USP or not, you need to look at your products and
services through your customers’ and clients’ eyes. What are the
benefits for them? What solutions are you offering to meet their
needs or problems? Why will they use your products or services?
In other words, what’s in it for them? (This is sometimes called
WIFM—what’s in it for me?) Also ask yourself what price
they’re prepared to pay.
Another way of looking at positioning is to use the �five-P’
approach: Do you have the right Product or service, at the right
Price, at the right Place (location), at the right Period, with the
right Promotion?
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
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Delite Landscape Design’s USP is that it provides both a retail and landscape
gardening service, so can source plants at a reasonable price for its clients.
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In the domestic market, the staff promote their years of experience and
their ability to care for a garden at all stages, from original design through
to maintenance, including pruning and replanting. In the commercial sector
they focus more on their design capabilities and cite their awards and
previous examples to show their range of work.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves intends to strongly promote the fact that her furniture is made
from environmentally friendly materials.
She will also capitalise on the fact that she’s a woman in a traditionally
male field.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania and Bill believe that their USP is the fact theirs is a family business
and that every aspect of it, from the freshness of the food through to the
table service, reflects their commitment to and enjoyment of the business.
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Marketing
The most successful marketing is consistent and persistent. All
small businesses will know the difficulty involved in keeping up
their marketing efforts when they’re busy, but the problem with
not doing it regularly is that when the work runs dry there’s
always a lag between generating prospects and getting new work.
Even with regular clients, you need to keep in contact so that
they feel wanted and so that you are front-of-mind when the
opportunity for new work arises.
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How to write a business and marketing plan
I think the only way to make marketing persistent is to make
it such an ingrained habit that you do it no matter how busy
you are or how you feel. Alternatively, you can employ someone
to do some or all of your marketing for you. Ideally though,
everyone in your business should have a marketing mentality
and become involved in your marketing efforts.
Most people don’t like selling themselves and their products
or services, but we can all do it if we have the desire and motivation to expand our business. Marketing is not just about
�selling’ your products or services: it’s more a courtship, and a
building of a relationship, so the person you’re marketing to
feels comfortable with you and can see the value of your products or services.
In the marketing section of your plan, you develop strategies
and tactics to help you sell your products or services to your
target market. If you have staff, have a brainstorming session
and list everybody’s ideas. There’s no magic to marketing—it’s
basically commonsense, and most people have an intuitive understanding of what will work with their business. But brainstorming
will often bring up ideas that you didn’t think of yourself. It also
gives staff the opportunity to feel involved with the direction of
the business.
Once you’ve listed all your marketing ideas, you need to
grade them in terms of purpose, pros and cons, time commitment, whose responsibility and costs. This grading exercise will
help you determine priorities and time frames. Often the most
successful marketing uses a variety of techniques rather than
relying solely on one method, but the type of promotion you
use will depend on a number of factors, such as time of year,
your product or service, your budget and your business life cycle.
If you’re a sole trader, you’ll have to rely on your own ideas
or seek help from colleagues or friends. I have heard of one
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person who took her friends out for dinner and in exchange for
paying for the meal asked them to brainstorm her marketing
plan with her.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Marketing goals
Marketing objectives
Marketing tools
• Develop balcony
design product and
service concept
• Market balcony
services
• Establish profitable
balcony services
business within
18 months
• Identify target areas
• Gain 40 new clients
by the end of the year
(30 domestic and 10
commercial)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Product brochure
Letterbox drop
e-newsletter
Advertisements
Update website
Exhibit at trade show
Press release for local
newspapers to launch
the new product
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EMERALD
furniture
Marketing goal
Marketing objectives
Marketing tools
• Establish niche
position in the market
• Gain three new
domestic customers a
month
• Gain one new
corporate client a
month
• Gain one furniture
store outlet by the
end of the year
• Brochure
• Product brochure—
print and online
• Newsletter
• Website
• Direct mail to
corporates
• Press release for trade
journal re business
start-up
• Telemarketing to
furniture stores and
corporates
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Marketing goals
Marketing objectives
Marketing tools
• Reposition lunchtimes
to attract more patrons
• Maintain current levels
of patronage
• Increase the amount of
money people spend
per visit
• Increase lunchtime
patronage by 20%
over the coming year
• Retain regulars
and attract new
customers to replace
those that fall away
• Market the wine list
as an attraction
•
•
•
•
•
•
Advertisements
Website
e-newsletter
Menu
Signage
Survey and
competition—winners
get a free dinner for six
people
Budget
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Although you can do many things cost-effectively, most forms
of promotion do cost money. Many businesses allocate a set
amount per year to marketing. Some businesses decide how
much to spend on marketing based on a percentage of profits.
Other businesses set aside a fixed amount, irrespective of the
profits. And sometimes, if you’re a start-up business or are
having a lean patch, you have to regard marketing as an investment rather than just a cost.
Another way of looking at your budget is to decide what
activities you want to do and who in your office is available to
manage them. Once you’ve decided this, you’ll be in a better position to assign responsibilities for your marketing and apportion
a budget.
Your budget, like your business plan, needs to be constantly
updated and reviewed. At all stages, you need to be aware of
your cash flow and profitability so you can take action if necessary to reduce costs and/or market more aggressively.
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Implementing your marketing plan
You probably won’t see immediate results, and there is often no
way of telling whether your marketing plan is working in the
first couple of months. Patience and persistence are required; the
more effort you put into marketing, the greater your return will
be. Give your marketing at least six months before you can
expect significant growth.
The quality of your written communications will have a
direct impact on your results. A shoddy, unprofessional brochure
will not make a good impression, an amateurish website is worse
than no website, and a direct mail letter that ends up in the bin
is a waste of your marketing efforts.
Most successful marketing uses a variety of approaches, rather
than relying on one method.
Action plan
A quarterly and/or monthly action plan helps you keep your
business and marketing plans forefront of your mind and is also
useful to measure your progress.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Target markets
Marketing tools
Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
• Suburbs x and y • Household
• John Pettit and one • 20 enquiries
letterbox drop
landscape designer
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• General public
Column long
• Attend trade
show with
product
brochure
• All staff
• 10 new
subscriptions to
e-newsletter
• Six quotes
• Three new clients
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EMERALD
furniture
Target markets
Marketing tools
Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
• High-income
earners
• Corporates
• Website
• Susan Eves
• Brochure
• Catalogue
(added press
release and ad
after winning
award)
• 25 requests for
catalogue
• 30 people visit
factory
• Three new
domestic
customers
• One corporate
customer
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Target markets
Marketing tools
Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
• Business
world
• Advertisements • Tania
• E-newsletter
• Update
website
• New menu
• Increase enquiries
by 40%
• Increase
patronage by 20%
• Increase profits
by 4%
• Increase hits to
website by 5%
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Measuring and monitoring your
marketing plan
If you set yourself measurable objectives, you’ll be able to
monitor your progress and use this analysis to refine your
marketing methods and material.
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One way of doing this, particularly if you are a service business, is to analyse your client or customer list over the previous
year. How did you gain each client or customer? If you lost
any clients or customers, why did you lose them? Which clients
or customers are most profitable for your business? Which
clients or customers did you enjoy serving or working with?
Another way of looking at it is purely financial. How much
are you making each month? How does this relate to your
marketing activities?
Also, review your marketing activities. What was successful,
and how can you measure that success? What went wrong? Do
you know why it went wrong? How much did you spend?
For example, if you did a letterbox drop, how many people
responded and how much business did you get as a result? Was
the exercise profitable?
Use this analysis to confirm or modify your business and
marketing plans. Do you need to alter your products or services
to make them more attractive to your target audience, or is it
just your marketing that needs refining?
Marketing is an ongoing process, but it can make your business profitable. A well-thought-out marketing plan will help you
win business. And a simple, concise, well-written marketing plan
will be easy to use as a regular reference.
Summary
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PURPOSE
The purpose of a marketing plan is to help focus your marketing
efforts.
AUDIENCE
You, your staff and possibly your bank or your business mentor.
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CONTENT OF YOUR MARKETING PLAN
• Description of your business
• Mission and vision statements
• Goals and objectives
• Market analysis
• Competitors
• SWOT analysis
• Positioning.
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TIPS ON HOW TO USE YOUR MARKETING PLAN
• Set time aside each year to revise your marketing plan.
• Make it a living document and refer to it regularly.
• Set a realistic budget for marketing.
• Measure and monitor your marketing efforts so you can make
continual improvements.
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Branding and
creating visual
impact
2
Branding and creating visual impact
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Branding
Branding reflects your company’s personality. It’s what people
remember and trust about your business, and what they understand about your products and services and your values. People
want to buy from companies they know and like; companies
they trust will be around for a while. A brand is that promise.
If you’re reading this book, you’re probably not building a
global or even a national empire—nor will you have a squilliondollar advertising budget. But you will have a brand and image,
whether you manage it or not. You build your brand as a result
of the myriad impressions made by every encounter people have
with your business. Your brand includes your logo, your corporate colours and your slogan, but it’s much more than that.
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It’s everything you and your staff say and do—the way you
dress, the way you answer the phone, the quality of your work,
and the relationships you have with your customers and clients.
You can manage your brand by developing an image that
truly reflects your company, using it consistently in all your
marketing communications and living up to its standard. Then
your image will align with your identity, and customers and
clients will have the view of your company you want them to.
Ideally, brands are memorable. Think about successful big
businesses: you know their brand and slogans even if you don’t
use or like their products. For example, most people associate a
large tick with Nike or a big M with McDonald’s. These images
are so well known that we don’t even need the name as well.
The same applies to some slogans: Nike’s slogan �Just do it’ is
almost as memorable as the tick.
When developing a brand, refer to your business and marketing
plans so that your image reflects your vision and values. Think
about your name and branding from your customers’ point of
view as well as your own. What advantages and benefits do you
want them to associate with your business? What do you want
people to think and say about your business?
CHECKLIST
1. What’s your vision?
2. What are your values?
3. What are the key characteristics of your products and services?
4. Who’s your target audience?
5. What’s your USP?
6. What benefits will people associate with your products and
services?
7. What emotional reasons will lead people to buy your
products or services?
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8. What do you want people—including staff, clients or
customers and suppliers—to think when they hear your name?
9. What personality do you want your brand to portray?
10. If your company has several divisions, what’s the common thread
running through your business that everyone will relate to?
11. How will you use the brand to attract and retain customers
and clients?
12. How will you deliver the promise of your brand?
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Name
Your name is part of your brand. Names conjure up thoughts
and feelings, which affect buying decisions. It helps if your name
is easy to remember, so that people can look you up in the phone
book or use your name when referring your business to others.
If you’re a start-up business you’ll need to choose a name.
Before you start, have a look at what other names are used in
your industry to get a feel for what works and to avoid choosing
a name that is already taken.
Once you’ve come up with some options, test them on
friends and colleagues to see what words they associate with
your name. Often, however, names are developed intuitively.
When I set my business up I struggled for ages to find a name.
I asked everyone I knew and even people I’d just met for inspiration. I desperately needed business cards, so a name was
imperative. I was stuck. The best I had managed was �Dynamic
Writers’, but I wasn’t happy with it. Then, the day before I was
going to employ a designer, I opened the phone book under
Dynamic and realised there were �Dynamic Plumbers’, �Dynamic
Hairdressers’, �Dynamic Printers’ . . .
Fortunately, our subconscious aids our rational mind, and
the next morning I woke up with the name—�The M Factor’.
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It has the disadvantage that it doesn’t mention communications
at all, but it has the advantage (in my opinion) of being memorable. Occasionally I get tired of the name, but it’s worked for
years and I’m not going to change it now.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit chose his name, Delite Landscape Design, 25 years ago when
he set up his business. He wanted a name that described what he did but
that was also a bit different. And he wanted a name that started with a letter
close to the beginning of the alphabet so he would stand out when people
looked for landscape designers in the Yellow Pages.
At one stage he got sick of the name, and trialled �DLD’ with some of
his existing customers. The response was a strong negative, so he has chosen
to keep using Delite Landscape Design, sometimes shortened to �Delite’.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves chose �Emerald Furniture’ because she wanted a name that
suggested her furniture was precious and long-lasting. She also likes
emeralds, and always wears an emerald ring she inherited from her
grandmother.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania James and Bill Johnson chose their name as they are originally
both from Tasmania, and the Tasmanian blue gum is their state’s floral
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symbol.
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Company colours
Choose colours for your business that reflect your values and
appeal to your customers. When choosing your colours, think
about the emotional meanings people associate with different
colours as some colours work better than others for particular
audiences. For example, purple and gold are great for fun products, but could be offputting for corporate clients. Blue and green
are much safer for the corporate world. Colours have different
meanings for different cultures, so if you’re targeting a particular ethnic group, check out their colour preferences.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit chose green and reddish-purple as Delite Landscape Design’s
colours. Most people associate green with nature, but he chose the purple
to go with it as it reminded him of the inside of an old-fashioned sliced
runner bean.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves chose emerald green and cream as her company colours.
Emerald green was a logical choice to go with her name and cream provided
a softer contrast than white.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
The juvenile leaves of the blue gum tree are blue-grey and the flowers are
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cream. Tania James and Bill Johnson decided that these colours suited the
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restaurant, being subtle and stylish. They provide extra colour by always
having a large vase of vividly coloured flowers in the foyer and a single flower
or small bunch of flowers on each table.
Logo
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Some logos are just a symbol and others include the name. Your
logo should make a simple statement, rather than necessarily
representing all aspects of your business. The best logos work
on an emotional as well as an intellectual level. Don’t be too
trendy or outrageous, as you want your logo to last for many
years.
Unless you’re talented at design, employ a designer to
develop your logo. When choosing a designer, get a few quotes
to compare prices and look at samples of the designer’s work
to make sure you like their style. Develop a brief for them
about your business and your values so they can design a logo
that reflects your company’s personality. Avoid being too
prescriptive, as you may curb their creative ability and thus
limit your options. Think carefully before using reversed type
(white type on a coloured background): although it may look
good, it’s harder to read than black type and doesn’t photocopy well.
If you are going to use your logo electronically, make sure it
works well in digital form and that it looks OK printed in blackand-white as well as colour. Put your electronic logo on a
template to make it easier for staff to use and to ensure that it is
used the same way consistently.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design
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EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant
Slogans and tag lines
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People use the terms �slogans’ and �tag lines’ interchangeably,
but some marketing experts think there is a difference, saying
that a slogan can change with campaigns whereas a tag line goes
with your logo and remains the same for years.
A tag line or slogan is a translation of your positioning statement into a short, one-line marketing phrase which helps
differentiate your company or product. Effective tag lines are
written from the customer’s or client’s perspective. They are
pithy and positive, and either sum up the core business or reflect
the company’s values.
Most good tag lines are simple and convey a single message.
Think for a moment and see what tag lines and slogans pop
into your mind. There are some that I’ve remembered for
years, such as �Snap, crackle, pop’ (Kelloggs rice bubbles), �It’s
moments like these you need Minties’, and �Grab the moment’
(McDonald’s).
Many, but certainly not all, businesses use tag lines or slogans,
and opinions vary as to whether you need them or not. They
have the advantage of providing additional information about
your business, but are often clichГ©d. Too many businesses pick
words from the following lists and string them together.
Systems
Commitment
Spirit
Confidence
Tomorrow
Achievement
Excellence
Trust
Technology
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Research
Soaring
Mankind
People
Science
Understanding
Helping
Winning
Future
Quality
Today
Innovations
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Luke Sullivan, author of a book on advertising called Hey
Whipple, Squeeze This, suggests that unless you’ve penned �Just
do it’, just don’t.
If you decide to have a tag line or slogan, avoid clichГ©s like
�trust’, �quality’ and �taste’, which are often overused. Another
pitfall to avoid is a slogan that’s so generic it’s meaningless.
Choose either a simple tag line that sums up the key features of
your business (e.g. �Superannuation and investment services’) or
a clever statement that has emotional appeal or is memorable
(e.g. �It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen’, Pantene
shampoo). Once you’ve developed your tag line or slogan, test
it on your friends, colleagues and customers or clients before
using it in your marketing material.
If you have a tag line, incorporate it in all your marketing
material and make sure it is used consistently by all your staff.
You may choose to make it part of your logo, have it stand alone
in the top corner of all your documents, or use it as a postscript
to reinforce the marketing messages.
Some companies also have a motto, which sums up what the
company stands for. For example, AM Corporation (superannuation and investments) uses the phrase �Service with
integrity’ as its motto. This motto indicates the company’s
commitment to providing service that adheres to high ethical
standards. The motto appears on the bottom right-hand corner
of documents whenever the logo is used.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
For gardens that delight
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EMERALD
furniture
Eco-furniture + comfort = ageless class
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Modern cuisine
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Business card and stationery
Your business card makes a first and a lasting impression. It may
be the only piece of your marketing that your prospect keeps.
So make sure your business card reflects your brand. As well as
choosing colours and typeface, you need to decide whether to
have a horizontal or vertical card. The conventional business
card is horizontal, but some businesses choose the vertical size
in order to stand out.
You also need to decide whether to make your card glossy
or matt, and whether you want to have words on the back.
Glossy cards are usually cheaper to produce and the colours look
more vibrant. But for some businesses matt is more appropriate.
Words on the back allow you to write more about your business, but remember that if people file your card in a holder those
words will be lost. Also, people often use the back of business
cards to write on.
People don’t send as many letters as they used to, so if you’re
a small start-up business you may choose to use high-quality
paper with your electronic logo. But if you have stationery
printed, make sure you choose paper that’s consistent with your
image. Consider getting coordinated envelopes as well. If you
think your office address may change in the near future, get your
stationery printed with your logo only. You can always type in
your address and phone number.
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BUSINESS CARDS OF DELITE LANDSCAPE DESIGN, EMERALD
FURNITURE AND BLUE GUM RESTAURANT
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Fo r g a rde n s t h a t d e l i g h t
John Pettit
MANAGING
DIRECTOR
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville SA 1999
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Email: jpettit@delitelandscape.com
Susan Eves
Furniture Designer
EMERALD
furniture
Eco-furniture
+
comfort
2 Crampton Street
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
=
ageless
Browns Bay NSW 1999
Email: susan@emeraldfurniture.com
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Gary
Burgess
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HEAD CHEF
class
Modern cuisine
9 Bannerman Street
Blues Point VIC 1999
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Email:
gburgess@bluegumrestaurant.com
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Managing a brand
Once you’ve developed your brand, maintain it. It’s the
emotional and visual image of your reputation, so is worth
guarding fiercely. Most businesses understand this in theory, but
inconsistency is a common failure even among large corporations. One shoddy brochure or one poorly written letter can do
untold damage to a company’s reputation and brand.
Managing your brand means having a consistent look, tone
and quality throughout all your products and services and
communications. Look at Coca-Cola, Levis and Minties. The
marketing people must be very sick of working with the one
brand, but it works, so they won’t risk tampering with it too
much. Remember when at one stage Coca-Cola tried to change
the shape of the bottle? It wasn’t long before it reverted to the
old style.
How consistent are you? Review your print material and
audit your office procedures to see how consistent your brand
is. Do your business cards, brochures, stationery, invoices and
letters all have the same look and feel? If your staff write letters,
do they all use the same layout and typefaces, and is the tone
consistent? Does your print material have typos in it? If a client
or customer visited or phoned your office, would they be
surprised by what they saw? Or is your office and the way your
staff treat customers and clients in keeping with your brand?
It doesn’t take much effort to maintain high standards in
everything you do, and it does make a difference. If you’re a sole
trader it’s easier to keep your brand in mind as you’ve developed it; but if you’re writing your own marketing material it’s
worth getting a friend to edit it, as it’s difficult to see your own
mistakes. If you’ve been working on material for a while, you
tend to read what you think is there rather than what is.
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If you have staff, consider developing a simple style guide.
This could include specifications for colours and paper stock,
company typefaces, your electronic logo and tag line, and
templates for documents. As well as being used internally, the
style guide could be used by external suppliers, such as graphic
designers.
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Consistency and change
People are generally resistant to change, and totally changing the
look of your brand may provoke consumer or client concern,
especially if you have a strong brand which your customers
know and like. They may wonder about change of ownership,
or view the new look as unnecessary extravagance which they
fear they will pay for in higher prices or fees. Any change you
make should be based on a strategic business decision rather than
a whim.
While you need to take people’s resistance to change into
consideration, change is sometimes essential if you want to
modernise your look or change it to more accurately reflect your
values. Clairol Herbal Essence was a popular shampoo in the
1970s. It repositioned itself in the 1990s by focusing on the pleasurable experience of hair washing, rather than trying to sell the
end benefit of better-looking hair.
But successful change more often occurs through evolution
rather than a complete rebranding. Look at some old episodes
of The Simpsons and you’ll be amazed at how much the characters have changed and developed in both looks and personalities.
Yet the overall brand and personality of the show has remained
basically the same.
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Design and layout
First impressions count, and good design is essential to effective
marketing. You want your material to stand out from that of
your competitors and entice people to read it. Once they’ve
started reading, you want them to continue reading. People are
more likely to read on if your material is both interesting and
easy to read. Good design can help you achieve the latter.
For some of your marketing material, such as your brochure
and website, you may use a professional designer, but there will
always be occasions when you design your own material, such
as direct mail letters, invoices or email brochures. Everything
you do needs to be consistent with your brand and follow good
design principles. If you have staff, train them to use a consistent layout and style.
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Typeface and font
One of your first tasks is to choose a typeface and fonts that suit
the style and personality of your business, are appropriate for
your messages and will appeal to your audience.
The terms �typeface’ and �font’ are often used interchangeably, but they do have distinct meanings. Typeface refers to the
features the letters and numbers share, such as stroke width and
the presence and absence of serifs (the small extension strokes
on letters). Font is the complete set of characters of a typeface
in one particular type size, and includes lower-case letters, capitals, numbers and symbols.
There are four distinct groups of typeface: serif, sans serif,
scripts and display. Most office computers do not come with an
extensive range of typefaces, but unless you are a designer the
range is usually adequate.
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SERIF TYPEFACES
Serif typefaces have small finishing strokes which serve to link
the letters together. In most modern serif typefaces, such as
Times New Roman, these serifs are not actually joined to the
next letter. Serif typefaces are considered easier to read in print
material by most Western cultures, as when we read our minds
are trained to recognise the shape of words rather than reading
letter by letter. They are not so effective online, where sans serif
typefaces work better.
SANS SERIF TYPEFACES
Sans serif typefaces, such as Verdana, Tahoma and Arial, do not,
as their name suggests (sans = without in French), have extensions on the arms and stems of letters. This makes them very
clear but not so easy to read in continuous print. They work well
on screen where people scan more, and are used in most websites.
Because of their clarity, sans serif typefaces also work well
in forms, signs and advertisements. In print material people
often use a serif typeface, such as Times New Roman, for the
body text and a sans serif typeface, such as Arial, for headings.
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SCRIPT AND DISPLAY TYPEFACES
Script typefaces have evolved from handwriting, and so are cursive
and ornate. They are not suitable for lengthy pieces of writing,
but are often used for displays, advertisements or invitations.
Display typefaces are distinctive and are used mostly for
headings and titles.
FONT SIZES
Once you’ve selected your typefaces, choose font sizes for your
body text and create a standard hierarchy of headings.
Small text can be difficult to read, especially for older people,
but if your text is too large it looks patronising. Body text size
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generally ranges between 9 and 14 pt, with most text being
10–12 pt. Your print font size can be smaller than your online
size, as print is easier to read than online material. Smaller font
sizes can be used for additional information such as terms and
conditions, but always make your contact details easy to read.
Lower case and capitals
Lower case is easier to read than capitals because our eyes see
words in lower case as a whole. With capitals this is harder to
do, as each letter has a very distinct shape. While capitals are
harder to read, they are more distinctive so are useful for short
headings and logos. Avoid capitals for emphasis, as many
people regard them as the equivalent of shouting.
Many headings these days are written in lower case, apart
from the initial capital. This is a break from traditional headings,
which used the title format with all key words having an initial
capital. The problem with the traditional style is that many
people have difficulty deciding which words need capitals.
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Bold, italics and underlining
Boldface type and colour are often used for headings. Bold is
also used for emphasis. But if you have too much boldface on a
page, it will be hard to read as your page will no longer appear
balanced. Bold is used more often in online writing than in
printed text to emphasise key words on a page.
Italics are difficult to read in large chunks, both in print
and on the screen, so use them sparingly. They are sometimes
used for subheadings or to separate an introduction from the
rest of the document. There are a number of other conventions governing the uses of italics. For example, they can be
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used for the titles of books, plays and films, scientific and technical terms, names of ships, and words or phrases that are
quoted. In many instances single quotation marks are used
instead.
Underlining is used extensively on the Internet for hyperlinks. Underlining used to be popular for print headings, but
fashions change and it is used much less these days. One of the
disadvantages of underlining is that it cuts through the bottom
part of your letters, making the words harder to read.
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Readability
Good layout gives your material a structure and logical flow as
well as providing visual appeal. When most people look at page
or screen they first scan it for images, headings and captions.
The use of colour, size and position all influence our reading
patterns. Our eyes are attracted to bright colours and large font
size first, then to the more muted colours and smaller font size.
In the Western world we’re taught to read from left to right,
so our eyes naturally do this when we read. This is why most
headings are either flush left or centred, not right-aligned. It’s
also why most captions for photos are to the left or underneath
the picture, not above or to the right.
Once you’ve spent some time on the Internet, you actually
read screens differently from the way you read texts. For a start,
you scan more than you do with printed text, but your eyes
work differently as well: instead of reading from left to right,
your eyes go to the centre first, then left, then right. This is probably because on many websites the centre section contains an
introduction to the site, the navigational links are on the left and
the functional links, such as search, are on the right. Through
scanning, you quickly take in what’s on the site and what links
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interest you. Information at the bottom of the screen often gets
ignored.
In print format, long lines, especially in extended text, can be
difficult to read so many people use columns for material such
as newsletters. This technique is seldom used on screen, where
there is generally only one column and side bars of information.
Most computers have default margins set, which are equal on
both sides but larger at the top than the bottom (our eyes tend to
see the middle of the page higher than it actually is). If you change
your margins, check that your work still looks balanced. Use
indentation for emphasis, for example for quotations and bullet
points.
You can choose whether to make your work ragged or justified. With ragged text, the print is all flush left with a ragged
right-hand side. With justified texts, both sides are even as each
line is set to the same length. Both are easy to read, and most
people are not aware what they’re reading unless they stop and
look. The problem with justified text is that sometimes you end
up with large spaces between words that look unnatural. Also,
there is a greater tendency to hyphenate words to make them fit
and this can be distracting, especially if the words aren’t split at
the end of syllables. In my experience, many designers don’t care
where they hyphenate a word, so if you’re using a designer, watch
out for this.
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Paragraphs
New paragraphs start on the line following the preceding one
with the first word indented (except after a heading), or there
is a line space between the paragraphs and no indentation.
No spacing and indentation is usual for books and magazines,
but corporate and marketing communications more often have
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line spaces and no indentation. In the days of typewriters it
was conventional to have two spaces between sentences, and
many people still favour this style. But it is no longer regarded
as necessary and the modern standard is for one space only.
Don’t put illustrations or tables in the middle of a paragraph
and be careful how you split paragraphs at the end of a page,
especially if the following page is the last. Avoid what are known
as �orphans’ and �widows’. This is jargon for a single opening
line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page (orphan) and the last
line of a paragraph on the following page (widow). Orphans and
widows disrupt the flow of your text. If the paragraph to be split
is four lines or longer, put at least two lines on each page; if
it is a three-line paragraph, move the entire paragraph to the
following page.
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White space
�White space’ is the term used for space without words in it, and
the term is still used even when you have a coloured background.
Sometimes the term �empty space’ is used instead. White space
is particularly useful in print material, as it provides balance,
contrast and variety. White space also breaks text up into more
easily read chunks and gives our eyes a rest.
You can create white space in your documents by the use of
illustrative material, short paragraphs, headings, spaces above
and below headings and lists.
White space is still necessary on websites, but you have to
balance this with the need to fit your copy comfortably on a
page. Too much white space slows the scanning process and
means you have to scroll down more. A simple way of creating
white space in online text is to keep your paragraphs short and
use subheadings.
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Headings
The use of headings and subheadings has increased in recent
years, as people are less tolerant of large quantities of text
without the visual cues that headings provide. Headings tell
readers about the scope and structure of your work and break
your text into manageable pieces. There’s more on how to write
headings in Chapter 7.
TIPS FOR CREATING VISUALLY APPEALING HEADINGS
• Establish a heading hierarchy before beginning a piece of
work and use it consistently.
• Use even spacing between different level headings. If you
want your heading to stand out, use more space above than
below, so the heading is obviously part of the following text.
• Choose dark colours for headings, as these stand out more
than pale colours.
• Use headings at approximately even intervals throughout
your work.
• Use numbers before headings only if they’re necessary for
the meaning, for example with steps to follow in a process
or procedure. Letters such as (a), (b) and (c) are seldom used
in lists in marketing material.
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Headings are often in bold to differentiate them from the
surrounding text. Some headings options are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bold headings (initial capital only)
Bold Headings with Capitals for all Important Words
Indented or centred headings (any style)
Bold italics
BOLD CAPITALS
Bold underlining
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Lists
Lists are a great way of presenting information simply and clearly
and at the same time introducing more white space into your
print document. But don’t overdo the number of bullet points
in each list or the number of times you use a list on the same
page. Too many bullet points in a list looks like your work has
a dose of the measles, and too many lists on a page reduces
contrast and balance.
If you use lists, make sure you use a consistent style. This
may sound obvious, but in my experience of editing work a
common mistake is inconsistent punctuation in lists. There’s
more on lists in Chapter 3.
Proof
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If you still need proof, try reading the following paragraph
(a repeat of previous text) without any formatting or layout.
White space �White space’ is the term used for space without
words in it, and the term is still used even when you have a
coloured background. Sometimes the term �empty space’ is used
instead. White space is particularly useful in print material, as it
provides balance, contrast and variety. White space also breaks
text up into more easily read chunks and gives our eyes a rest.
You can create white space in your documents by the use of
illustrative material, short paragraphs, headings, spaces above
and below headings and lists. White space is not so useful in
websites, where space is more of a premium. Too much white
space on screen documents slows the scanning process and means
you have to scroll down more often. However, you still need
white space, and a simple way of creating it is to keep your
paragraphs short and use subheadings. Headings The use of
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headings and subheadings has increased in recent years, as people
are less tolerant of large quantities of text without the visual cues
that headings provide. Headings tell readers about the scope and
structure of your work and break your text into manageable
pieces. There’s more on how to write headings in Chapter 7. Tips
for creating visually appealing headings Establish a heading
hierarchy before beginning a piece of work and use it
consistently. Use even spacing between different level headings.
If you want your heading to stand out, use more space above
than below, so the heading is obviously part of the following
text. Choose dark colours for headings, as these stand out more
than pale colours. Use headings at approximately even intervals
throughout your work.
DESIGN CHECKLIST
1. Will the design and layout entice people to read the material?
2. Is the design balanced and harmonious, and does it work well
with your words?
3. Is it easy to read or is the design distracting?
4. Is the design in keeping with your brand?
5. Do the layout and headings provide a good structure and flow?
6. Are the headings clear and consistent?
7. Is there enough white space in your print material?
Style guide—an extract
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
This style guide aims to help us consolidate our strong marketing identity.
Please use it when preparing any marketing material or writing to customers
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to ensure that we maintain a consistent, professional image.
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Branding and creating visual impact
Logo and tag line
Wherever possible, the logo and tag line should be reproduced in colour.
The tag line should appear in all documentation at the top right-hand corner.
The logo and tag line are to be printed in PMS 281. Where it is impractical
to print the logo and tag line in colour, the logo can be printed in solid black.
Typeface
The standard size and font for all printed correspondence is 11 pt Times
New Roman for body text and Arial for headings. There is a hierarchy of
headings preset on your computer.
For emails, use 10 pt Arial.
The standard font for all product brochures, flyers and other material
produced externally is Minion.
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville SA 1999
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
For gardens that delight
26 May 2003
Julie Young
8 Barton Place
Meritton, BIT 908
Dear Julie
Landscape quote
Enclosed is our landscape quote for your new home at 8 Barton Place.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to quote. It would be a pleasure to work
with you to create a garden that complements your beautiful new home.
If you have any queries, please call me on (01) 0345 6789.
Kind regards
John Pettit
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M ANAGING D IRECTOR
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Summary
PURPOSE
The purpose of branding is to convey a consistent positive image
to your target market.
AUDIENCE
Your audience is everyone who comes in contact with your
business.
CONTENT
Your branding consists of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
your name
company colours
logo
slogan and tag line (optional)
visual appearance of all your written material
the way you and your staff behave and treat customers and
clients.
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TIPS
• Develop a brand that suits your products/services, will appeal
to your target audience, and reflects your values and personal
preference.
• Guard your brand and maintain it consistently.
• Occasionally you may need to do a complete overhaul, but
more often your brand will develop organically over time.
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Writing
guidelines
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3
Writing guidelines
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N
ow you’ve worked out your marketing strategy and established your brand, it’s time to start writing. But before
you begin, you need to think about why you’re writing—what
you want to say, who you want to say it to, and what you want
to achieve.
Putting time into thinking before you start will help your
first draft flow more smoothly. Once you’ve written your first
draft, you’ve broken the back of it, so take a break, even if it’s
just a walk around the block. You’ll come back fresher and look
at your work with a different perspective.
Then it’s into the rewriting, editing and proofing stages,
which often take longer than you think they should. But as with
the planning stage, it’s worth putting time into making it right.
Too often people treat their first draft as their final, and it shows.
First drafts are usually wordy and poorly structured. On the
other hand, know when to stop: it’s possible to fiddle without
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making any noticeable improvement. I know it’s time to stop
when I start changing words and then changing them back to
what they were originally.
Think before you write
If you’re commissioning work from a supplier, you’ll often write
a brief (or wish you had!) to clarify what you want. Problems
can arise if you don’t have a clear brief because you assume your
supplier has understood your requirements. When you see the
end result you realise that they haven’t at all. (Once when I was
selling a house I employed a gardener to �tidy up’ the front
garden, as it was a bit overgrown. I came home to find that his
idea of tidying up was to prune everything so heavily that the
garden looked naked.)
When you’re writing your own marketing material you’re the
supplier as well as the client, so you need to write yourself a
brief. This may seem unnecessary if you understand your subject
matter and you’ve got a tight deadline, but it will help you clarify
your objectives and reduce the amount of time you spend
rewriting. You’ll end up with a job you’re more satisfied with.
I use the acronym PAKO as a planning tool and a memory
jog. It stands for purpose, audience, key messages, and outcome.
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Purpose
The purpose or objective is why you’re writing your marketing
material. Your purpose will always start with �to’—for example,
�to persuade’, �to convince’, �to promote’, �to inform’, �to entertain’ or �to instruct’. Often you’ll know instinctively what your
purpose is, but thinking about it helps refine your goals.
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If you record your purpose you can also use it to guide your
decisions about the format and style, and can refer to it later
when you monitor and measure your results.
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Audience
Thinking about your audience is the key to writing successful
marketing material. Too many people forget about their audience when they write, and write for themselves. You only need
to read a few websites or brochures to see how widespread
this fault is. We’re all guilty of it at times. We get so engrossed
in what we want to say that we forget our audience is reading
our material from a completely different standpoint. We either
make the mistake of telling them everything we know, which
is total information overload, or assume they’re on our wavelength and talk in jargon or shortcuts. Either way, you will
risk losing your audience’s attention. If you give them too
much information they’ll switch off, and if you talk above their
heads they’ll either feel dumb or decide your material is not
for them.
At the time of writing this book, there were several SAP billboards and large posters at Australian airports. Two that stay in
my mind are �Oracle uses SAP’ and �Nestlé uses SAP’. I can’t
recall the pictures at all—they made no lasting impression.
I know that SAP is software, but I have no idea what advantages
it offers. It means nothing to me that Oracle and NestlГ© use it.
The billboards and posters worked, in that they grabbed my
attention, but they also irritated me. Wondering whether I was
the only ignorant person I knew, I asked my teenage children
and friends if they understood. My limited research drew a
blank. Obviously we were not their target audience, but they
had chosen a highly visible place for their advertisements.
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I too fell into this trap recently, when running a business writing
course. I’ve learnt to assume that not everyone knows the meaning
of writing jargon, like �noun’ and �verb’, and I usually give people
a handout so they don’t have to feel ignorant and ask. But this time
I had some highly literate people in my class, and I pitched my
lessons at them and didn’t hand out my glossary. The course was
one and a half hours a week over six weeks, and it wasn’t until the
end of the final lesson that one person said she would like to have
known the difference between a �noun’ and a �verb’. She’d sat
through six lessons not wanting to make a fool of herself by asking.
(There is a very simple glossary at the end of this chapter.)
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GEOGRAPHICS, DEMOGRAPHICS AND PSYCHOGRAPHICS
When thinking about your audience, first ask yourself what you
know about them. Where do they live or work? How old are
they? What’s their ethnic background, gender, education and
income level? What are their values and beliefs, and lifestyle characteristics? In marketing terms, this is geographics, demographics
and psychographics.
If you’re writing for an audience you don’t know personally,
it sometimes helps to picture an individual who represents that
group and write for that imaginary person.
CUSTOMER OR CLIENT PERSPECTIVE
When you’re marketing to a particular audience, only a small
percentage will be interested in your products or services, so you
need to make your material as focused and interesting as possible
and start with information that will grab your readers’ attention.
This is sometimes called the �wow factor’.
Stand back and put yourself in your clients’ or customers’
shoes. What’s in it for them? That is, what benefits do your products or services offer? Identifying the benefits will often give a
slant and a starting point.
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Also ask yourself what terms and concepts your audience
will understand. If you and your audience know what SAP is,
then use it. If you have multiple audiences, you have a greater
challenge. Some people will be familiar with your terminology
and others won’t. But remember, no-one is ever going to be
offended by terms being described in simple, clear language.
People take offence only if the tone is patronising. If you can’t
cater for all your audiences in one publication, you may have to
produce different versions for your different audiences—for
example, have a general brochure for all audiences and a specialist
product brochure for your technically literate audience. On your
website, you could have general information on one page and
hyperlinks to more technical information or definitions of key
terms.
As well as considering what information people wish to
receive, you need to think about what their attitude is towards
your product or service and your company. If your product or
service is unique, its features will sell it, but if you’re in a competitive marketplace and people are likely to think �Not another!’,
then you have a greater challenge to make your marketing material stand out. Often the best way of being different is being
true to who you are—writing simply and concisely and staying
within your brand and positioning.
When you’re engaged in the writing process, it’s easy to get
engrossed in what you’re writing and lose sight of your audience. So take stock from time to time to make sure you’ve still
got your audience in mind.
AUDIENCE CHECKLIST
1. What do you know about your audience—age, ethnic origin,
lifestyle, location etc.?
2. Do you know many of them personally?
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3. Do you have a single audience or multiple audiences?
4. What are the benefits for your audience?
5. What features of your products or services will interest your
audience?
6. How much do they already know about your products and
services?
7. What terms and concepts will they understand?
8. What do they need to know?
9. What else would they want to know?
10. What’s their attitude towards your products and services and
you and your company?
Key messages
Your key messages are the ideas and information you want to
convey to your reader. You’re best to get across a few selective
messages well rather than try to communicate too much material and run the risk of clouding the issues. Content is not
the same as key messages. Content is all the information you
will include. It’s best to think in terms of key messages rather
than content at the planning stage, so you identify what’s
important. You will then use your content to support your key
messages.
At this stage, don’t worry about the structure of your material. That comes next, at the beginning of the writing stage.
The important thing is to clarify the key messages.
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Outcome
The outcome is what you want to achieve from your communication and relates to your purpose. For example, your purpose
might be to convince your target market to buy your products
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or services, and your desired outcome is that people do buy
your product or service. Or you may be wishing to raise the
profile of your business, and the desired outcome—which is
harder to measure—is that the profile of your business will
improve.
Think about how you can improve the desired outcome. For
example, if you want people to respond, make it easy for them
to do so, by either enclosing a reply-paid envelope or having
your contact details prominently displayed. Or make your
marketing material interactive, by having questionnaires or
competitions with prizes. If you encourage people to reply
you’ll be able to engage in a dialogue and start building a
relationship.
PAKO for brochure
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Purposes
•
To inform current and prospective customers about the range of Delite
Landscape Design’s services
•
To have some information to give to prospective customers about Delite
that they will take away and perhaps keep even if they don’t buy any
products or services immediately
Audience
•
Current and prospective customers
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Key messages
•
Range of products and services—design, planting, maintenance etc.
•
Benefits of services for customers
•
Examples with pictures of previous work for customers
•
About us—emphasising years of experience, awards won, etc.
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•
Pricing
•
How to contact us
Outcomes
•
Current customers will realise what else Delite does and use a wider
range of services
•
Prospective customers will have information to refer to, to help them
make a purchasing decision
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Medium—print or electronic?
You may already have decided before you started planning what
medium you wanted—for example, a brochure, a website or a
direct mail letter. The PAKO exercise will either confirm that
decision or make you realise that another format might be more
appropriate. For example, you might be planning to write a
direct mail letter but decide that an html email would achieve
better results.
There are pros and cons for both print and electronic media,
and the final decision will probably depend on a number of
factors, such as your audience and your budget. For example,
emails are cheap to produce and send, and they’re easy for most
people to access. But for some industries, such as the construction industry, emails may not be the best way to contact people,
as they’re often on site rather than in the office.
Although email is convenient, there is definitely still a place
for the printed word. Many people prefer reading print material
to online copy. Print material is often more visually attractive
than online material and people tend to hold onto print material
(except junk mail), while emails are easy to delete or file in an
obscure place where they’re often lost forever.
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Writing your marketing material
Structure
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Forget everything you learnt at school or university about having
an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. In marketing material this doesn’t work. Instead you have to start with the most
important information first to grab your readers’ attention. Work
out a logical, customer-focused structure before you start
writing, and then put yourself in your audience’s shoes to see
whether it works.
Some different ways of planning your material are:
• Outlining. A basic outline consists of main points and
sub-points.
• Statements with supporting reasons. Write down your key
statement and then jot down supporting reasons starting with
�because’. Also, record arguments that could be used against
your statement.
• Mind mapping. Mapping is useful if you’re working with a
group, as people can bounce ideas off each other. There is
no one way of doing a mind map. Some people use words,
others use symbols, some are intricate and neat while others
are scrawly and messy. But they all have some common
features. They start with the subject in the middle, and all
the main points, which are often written on branches, relate
to that topic. Each point is supported by facts or arguments,
which are sometimes listed below the main point or written
on sub-branches. When you have finished mapping, number
the branches in the order you plan to write about them.
• Flow diagrams. These are useful to show the cause-and-effect
relationship between events.
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• Stream-of-consciousness first draft. This is sometimes a good
way to start if you’re stuck. Just write down everything you
can think of about the topic. Once you’ve got your thoughts
on paper, you can �cut and paste’ to get the right structure.
• 5W and H. Ask yourself the 5W and H questions (who, why,
where, what, when and how). This is a useful checklist,
whatever technique you use.
Once you’ve worked out your structure, give it the audience test
again with your key messages in mind. Have you included all
the information your reader will want? What information can
you safely leave out?
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Getting started
Many writers talk about harnessing their intuition to help them
write. When I first started writing, I wasn’t as aware as I am now
of its role in my writing. Our subconscious does work for all of
us, particularly when we feel comfortable with our writing style.
If you’ve just started writing you may not have found your own
writing voice. There’s nothing wrong with copying other
people’s style (without plagiarising) until you find your own
voice.
Writing is hard work, but it’s also rewarding. Whenever I start
a new project, no matter how big or small, I always think �I can’t
do this, it’s too hard’. I know this demon now and have a name
for it. I call it �creative anxiety’. Having a name for it doesn’t
make the fear any less real, but I now have confidence that I will
get through it and that, yes, �I can do it’.
The way I overcome this fear is to prepare myself well by
doing thorough research and using the PAKO exercise. I’m a
deadline person so I usually leave writing a bit too late for my
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own comfort, but I do make my deadlines. Somewhere along
the line my subconscious also starts working with me and
provides the best inspiration. It works best if I can shut off my
internal chatter and listen to it.
Luke Sullivan, in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, refers to this
stage as �staring at your partner’s shoes’. Whenever he and his
partner have done all the groundwork for a new advertisement,
they sit with their feet on their desks chatting about all sorts of
things. To an outsider it would look as if they were wasting time,
but it’s part of the creative process.
My first draft, after I have done the PAKO exercise, is usually
a stream of consciousness, and I try to keep writing without
stopping. Whenever I come back to the piece I start at the beginning again, so I rewrite as I go. My first drafts are always too
waffly and my rewriting often changes them beyond recognition. Writing a stream-of-consciousness first draft helps me keep
my flow, but if I get stuck I stop and jot down headings or use
a mind map.
Other people I’ve talked to about how they get started have
different methods. These include the following:
• Pretend you have one minute to explain the situation to
someone who’s in a hurry or to someone who has asked you
about your work only out of politeness, not real interest.
What are the two or three points you would stress? These
are the main points you need to make.
• Close your eyes and picture the person you’re writing to or
a person who represents your target audience. How would
you approach the subject with that person?
• Are you having trouble with the tone, especially when
giving instructions? Imagine you’re writing for the smartest
person you know, and then you’ll be positive and not
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•
•
•
•
•
condescending. Alternatively, imagine you’re writing for
the dumbest person so you don’t leave out any important
facts.
Write the body of your material first and then return to the
first paragraph last.
Set reasonable and attainable time limits for yourself (e.g.
15–30 minutes), and just write about the subject. Write
continually until the time is up, no matter how good or bad
your writing seems.
Look at past examples of your own or other people’s work—
but don’t get trapped by these examples.
Walk around the block or find a quiet place to sit and think.
Ask yourself what the 5W and H questions are of your
material (what, when, where, why, who and how).
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Style
Your marketing material should be easy to read. Your audience
should be so busy reading for content that they don’t even notice
the words. These are just a vehicle to get your message across—
unless of course, you’re writing a witty or funny advertisement
that plays on words. Then you want your audience to share in
your delight of the words. But mostly you will be writing simply
and clearly, with your audience in mind at all times.
Even when following the principles of good writing, there is
scope for the personality of your business to shine through. Think
about the websites and e-newsletters you receive that stand out.
They’re the ones that are original, that say something different
or have a unique feel. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily way
out or wacky, but they’re not afraid to let their personality and
brand show. You can do the same with your marketing material.
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Tone
Often people are completely unaware of the tone of their writing.
Say it out loud and you’ll realise that your writing does have
tone, and the question you need to ask yourself is: �Is the tone
appropriate for my audience?’
The appropriate tone for marketing material is often neutral,
to let the key messages speak for themselves, but if you’re writing
an advertisement or direct mail, you sometimes want your material to have a livelier, more persuasive tone. That doesn’t mean
going overboard on emotive adjectives. Rather, the art of writing
persuasively is to be objective, use specific examples and substantiate what you say.
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Words
SIMPLE, SHORT WORDS
Part of the richness of our language comes from the range and
diversity of words we have to choose from, but simple is still
best for marketing purposes. Often people use complex words
in writing, thinking these make them sound intelligent and
professional; in reality they often sound pompous, confusing
and bureaucratic.
The building blocks for your marketing material are words.
Short, simple, familiar words are stronger than long, complex
words. We’ve inherited a lot of the simple words in English
from the Anglo-Saxons (500–1100 AD). Although only about
one-sixth of our words come from this source, about half of
the most commonly used words in modern English have Old
English roots. They’re words like �water’, �strong’ and �brave’.
Write the way you speak, but without all the inconsistencies
and colloquialisms of oral speech. If you’re having difficulty
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phrasing something, say it out loud and see how it sounds. If it
sounds wrong, then change it. Your ear will be right.
Some examples of complex words or phrases and their
simpler, more concise alternatives are as follows:
Complex
Simpler
amongst
arising from the fact that
as regards
exceeding
in the foreseeable future
furthermore
despite the fact that
in addition
pertains to
predicated on
necessitate
previous to
requirement
a small proportion of
to a large extent
in view of the fact that
among
because
about
more than
in the future
and
although
also
is about
based on
need
before
need
some
largely
because
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CLICHÉS
We all use clichés at times (�Please don’t hesitate to call me’ etc.).
Sometimes they’re appropriate, but we could often say the same
thing more simply. Look at the following examples of clichГ©s
and possible alternatives.
ClichГ©s
Alternatives
�At your earliest convenience’
�By 22 May’ (Being specific
gives people a deadline and
creates a sense of urgency.)
�Please feel free to call’
�Please call’ or �Call me on . . .’
�Thank you in advance for your
cooperation’
�Thank you for your cooperation’
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ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES
Adjectives and adverbs often slow the pace of your writing and
weaken it. A common mistake of beginning writers is to use too
many adjectives and adverbs. If you’re guilty of that, go through
your work and delete them all, then see which ones you can’t
live without and should reinstate. Many fiction-writing courses
also stress the necessity to be ruthless with your adjectives and
adverbs.
POWERFUL VERBS
Verbs are more powerful than nouns. For example, compare �The
installation of the program will take five days’ with �The
program will take five days to install’. Marketing material uses
verbs extensively. Have a look and see how often simple words
like �try’, �taste’, �switch’ or �buy’ are used in advertisements or
direct mail.
One simple tip to get even more mileage out of verbs is to
add an �s’. For example, when you say �Add zest to your life’,
the readers have to do something to get that zest. If you say your
product �adds zest to your life’, the emphasis has changed and
all the readers have to do is buy the product which will give
them the zest. Same message (buy) but a slightly different twist
that adds even more power to the verb.
Having said that verbs are powerful, there are two exceptions—the verbs �to get’ and �to be’. Many people take exception
to the word get, probably because often it could be replaced
with a more specific verb. For example, He got the book could
be written as He bought the book or He fetched the book.
In some instances, such as �got married’, there really is no suitable alternative.
It’s impossible to imagine writing without the verb �to be’,
but there is a temptation to use parts of it, like There is and It
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is, as fillers which could easily be deleted. Parts of the verb to
be are also often used in passive constructions—for example,
was, were, will be, should have been, have been, had been and
has been.
Active verbs are stronger than passive verbs as they’re more
direct and to the point. Verbs are active when we learn at the
beginning of the sentence who performs the action, for example
�She wrote the letter’. They’re passive when the subject is
acted on, for example �The letter was written by the manager’.
With the active voice we always know who performed the
action, but with the passive voice we don’t always know, for
example �The meeting was cancelled’. We don’t know who
cancelled it.
Although the active voice is more direct and vigorous than
the passive, the passive has a purpose and is properly used for:
• Typical situations, e.g. �Robots are used for repetitive actions’
• When you want to avoid responsibility and the subject isn’t
known, e.g. �The decision was made’
• Emphasis, e.g. �The yellow car was destroyed by the bus’.
This sentence would have a different meaning if it were �The
bus destroyed the yellow car’.
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If you have used a passive verb, you can change it by:
• Changing the word order to put the subject first, e.g. �The
memo was sent by the manager’ becomes �The manager sent
the memo’
• Supplying a subject if you know who or what the subject is,
e.g. �The method was ruled out’ becomes �The supervisor
ruled out the method’
• Replacing a passive verb with an active one, e.g. �The water
is sent into the lake’ becomes �The water flows into the lake’.
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Sentences
Use short sentences. Occasionally long sentences work, but as
a general rule sentences should be not longer than 25 words. The
problem with long, complex sentences is that you can get lost
in the middle and find it difficult to work out what the person
is saying. If your sentence is too long, try deleting unnecessary
words, breaking it into two sentences or putting some of the
information into bullet form.
Although long sentences seldom work, all sentences the same
length would be boring too. Add variety to your writing by
varying the length of your sentences. There’s nothing wrong
with the occasional short sentence, but too many short sentences
make your writing seem jerky. Single-sentence paragraphs sometimes work, especially in press releases, but use them with care
in other types of writing.
As a general rule, use one idea per sentence. Sometimes two
works, but three is overload. If you’re having difficulty with the
word order, put the main idea first and keep the subject and verb
close together. The rest of the sentence should then fall into place.
Remember to keep the internal structure of your sentences
consistent. A common mistake is switching between nouns and
verbs or using different forms of the same verb. For example,
�To investigate the claim and reporting on it may take several
days’ should be �To investigate the claim and report on it may
take several days’.
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Paragraphs
These days most of us are used to receiving information in
chunk-sized bites. The Internet is a prime example, but look at
modern non-fiction books compared with even 10 years ago and
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you’ll find much greater use of headings and subheadings. One
rule of thumb is to have a heading approximately every 250
words.
Short paragraphs help the flow of a text. As a general rule,
keep your paragraphs to between three and six lines. More occasionally works, but if your paragraph becomes too long it’s
daunting. As with sentences, you can shorten your paragraphs
by breaking them into two, deleting unnecessary words or
turning some of the information into bullet points.
Each new topic should have a new paragraph. This signals to
readers that it’s a new thought and makes it easier for them to
follow your writing. Each paragraph usually has one main idea,
known as the topic sentence. In business and marketing writing,
the topic sentence usually comes first and the rest of the paragraph contains supporting information.
Paragraphs need to flow in a logical manner. You can often
achieve this just by having a logical structure, but sometimes you
may also need connecting words like �also’, �although’ and
�finally’. Check that these words are necessary and if you have
a favourite (like �however’) that you tend to overuse, watch out
for it and eliminate it when it doesn’t add value.
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Lists
Lists are often used in marketing material, such as brochures and
websites. They’re useful to get across information quickly and
concisely. As stated in Chapter 2, however, use them judiciously
so as not to overdo them. The main problem that people have
with lists is inconsistency. So whatever style you choose, make
sure you use the same style consistently throughout. Semi-colons
used to be common in lists, but the modern trend is for minimal
punctuation.
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Writing guidelines
As well as using a consistent style, watch out for consistent
internal structure, punctuation and line spacing. For example, if
you have used a line space between the initial statement and the
first bullet point, use this style consistently.
Rewriting, editing and proofing
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Rewriting—delete, delete, delete
Once you’ve finished writing your marketing material, you’re
ready for the next most important process—rewriting, editing
and proofing. This stage is as important as thinking before you
write.
Even experienced writers need to rewrite and hone their
material. Rewriting improves the structure and clarity of your
document and makes an enormous difference to the quality
of the final product. It’s a good idea to have a space between
your first and second drafts. When you approach your work
again, you will see it more clearly. Often you’ll make radical
changes at this stage, rearranging material and rewriting entire
sections.
The key word at this stage is delete. You can often delete as
much as a quarter of your words and get your message across
more powerfully. Be ruthless with your adverbs and adjectives
and get rid of filler words that don’t add much meaning, such
as there is, it is, which and that. Also look out for repetitions at
all levels—repetitions of information and repetitions of words.
It’s easy to get a word on the brain and not even notice that
you’ve used the same word several times in the same paragraph.
Use a thesaurus if you’re stuck, but saying the sentence out loud
will often give you a simple, suitable alternative.
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The things we should leave out are usually the interesting
titbits that appeal to us. In fiction writing this is sometimes called
�murdering your babies’. It’s hard to do, particularly if you think
the words you should delete are clever or witty. If you’re having
difficulty cutting material, ask a colleague or friend for their
opinion. Also, refer again to your purpose. For example, if
you’re trying to persuade a client or customer to buy your products or services, what do they need and want to know to make
a purchasing decision?
Once you’re satisfied with your material, stand back and give
it the customer or client check. If you were in their shoes reading
your material, what would you think of it? Is the information
relevant and appropriate? Is your tone right? etc.
Editing
Editing comes after rewriting, even though you will have done
considerable editing as you rewrote. You’ll now have the overall
structure right so you’re checking the detail to make sure your
facts are accurate, your headings and lists are in a consistent style
and there are no grammatical mistakes.
At this stage, you can still use that magic word delete and
tighten your writing even more.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Proofreading
After you’ve finished, put your work aside once again before
you proofread it. The problem with proofreading material
straight after you’ve read it is that you read what you think is
there rather than what is. For example, one of my common
mistakes is typing form when I mean from, and I often won’t
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Writing guidelines
even see this. Microsoft spell and grammar check is helpful, but
has its limitations. For example, it won’t pick up missing words
or some typos, such as an instead of can.
At the proofing stage, you’re looking for typos and inconsistencies, such as the use of �five’ and �5’ in one document.
These details make a difference, as first impressions count and
a typo on the first page can let down your entire work.
It happens to us all. I have a salutary story on this note. I was
extremely well prepared and had thoroughly proofed my
notes for a course but planned to put the structure of the
course on the whiteboard. When I discovered there was no
whiteboard in the room, I quickly wrote up the course structure on my laptop for the data show. I flashed it up on the
screen, and there was the typo. Not a good start or look for
a training session on writing! I now include the structure in
the notes.
Ideally, ask a colleague to proof your work for you as well.
They’ll approach it with fresh eyes and spot mistakes you’ve
missed. If you can’t find anyone else to proofread it, read it word
by word, line by line. Some people put a ruler under each line
to stop themselves skim-reading.
If you’re having your work professionally designed and
printed, you need to proofread your work at each stage of the
process. Mistakes can creep in during the design and print
process. Don’t expect a designer to treat your words with the
respect you do. Most are more concerned with the visual appearance, and that’s why you employed them. So take responsibility
for the words and check them thoroughly. You don’t want a
brochure with a typo or missing paragraph. Talk to anyone who
has been involved in design and print management and you’ll
hear enough horror stories to appreciate the value of thorough
proofreading.
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PAKO CHECKLIST
The bottom line is:
•
•
•
•
•
Does your communication work?
Does it fulfil its purpose?
Is it appropriate for your audience?
Are your key messages clearly spelt out?
Is the reader likely to respond the way you want them to?
Structure:
•
•
•
•
•
Do you get your main message across at the beginning?
Does your material flow logically?
Is it easy to read?
Do you provide closure?
Do you have a call to action?
Style and language:
• Is your style clear and concise?
• Is your language appropriate for your readers?
• Have you chunked your information into easy-to-read
paragraphs with headings and subheadings?
• Have you used short sentences?
• Have you used simple words and avoided unnecessary
jargon?
• Have you used passive statements?
Repetitions:
• Have you repeated yourself?
• Have you got fixated on a certain word and overused it?
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Layout:
• What does it look like?
• Do you need more headings and subheadings?
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Writing guidelines
• Do you need to put some information into bullet points?
• Do you have too many bullet points?
Punctuation:
• Have you used inconsistent punctuation (e.g. full stops after
some but not all items) in lists?
• Have you used inaccurate punctuation (e.g. semi-colons
where colons should be used)?
Consistency:
• Have you used a consistent style for lists, numbers, dates? For
example, if you have chosen to spell out numbers between one
and nine, make sure you use the same rule throughout the work.
• Are your lists in a consistent style?
Typos and spelling mistakes:
• Are there any typos or spelling mistakes?
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Glossary of grammatical terms
Adjectives describe or modify nouns or pronouns and give us
information about which, whose, what kind and how many.
For example, beautiful dress, wonderful day and black cat.
Simply put, they’re �describing’ words.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, and tell
how, when, where and how much. For example, he came
quickly, I will do it later, he is very kind, the tide is in.
Conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses. For example, and,
however and but.
Determiners include articles, such as a, an and the, pronouns
like some and any, and numerals like one and first.
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Nouns are the names of tangible things, such as cat, book and
report, and of abstract notions, such as ideas, dreams and love.
They’re sometimes called �naming’ words.
Prepositions are used before nouns or pronouns to relate them
to other words (e.g. he is in the car). Common prepositions
are by, for, in, of and to. Some people still maintain that
sentences shouldn’t end with a preposition, but this is not so.
This idea was rubbished by Churchill in his famous sentence:
�This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.’
Pronouns take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns are I, you,
he, she, it, we, you, and they and their corresponding forms,
for example, me, my, us and our. Possessive pronouns are
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours and theirs.
Verbs show actions (e.g. play), processes (e.g. grow) or states of
being (e.g. to be or to have). In simple terms, they’re often
referred to as �doing’ words.
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brochures and
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4
How to write brochures and flyers
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D
espite the increasing use of email and the Internet there is
still a place for brochures, as people like the look and the
feel of print. It’s easy to delete email. You may visit a website once
and never return. But people tend to hold onto brochures, especially if they’re interesting or contain some useful information.
Brochures are a means of introducing your business, describing your products or services, and helping your prospective
customers make the decision to buy your goods or services. The
best brochure talks directly to the readers, anticipating and
answering all their questions. A brochure will not in itself sell
your product, but it may well influence your customers’ decision. Getting it right will help you win business.
In marketing terms, �collateral’ refers to the pamphlets, flyers,
sales folders and other printed items you use to promote your
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business—not security for a loan. In this chapter the word
�brochure’ will be used instead, as it’s a simpler, stronger word.
Before you start writing your brochure, ask yourself some
basic questions. Why do I want a brochure? Who do I want to
read my brochure? How will I distribute my brochure? And,
most importantly: What’s my budget?
Your budget will determine whether or not you can afford a
designer or will design your brochure yourself. It will also
influence your print decision. Will you have your brochure professionally printed, photocopied or laser printed? It is possible
to produce professional-looking, high-quality brochures on a
shoestring budget—you just have to think carefully about your
fonts, layout and paper (more under �Design’).
Types of brochures
Brochures come in many different shapes and sizes. Start
collecting brochures yourself and you’ll see. Look at the words
and design critically, as this will help you work out what you
like and don’t like.
If there are elements in other people’s brochures you like,
keep them in mind for your own. This may seem like copying,
but if you write your brochure using both your head and your
passion about your business, it will be original. All traces of
copying will disappear as you incorporate other people’s ideas
and make them your own.
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Capability brochures
A capability brochure, which includes corporate brochures and
company profiles, gives the reader a general overview of your
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How to write brochures and flyers
company and its products or services. Most large companies have
capability brochures, and customers will often expect you to
have one.
A capability brochure demonstrates that you have credibility
and substance. You’re not just a fly-by-night company that may
disappear tomorrow. If you’re a small business, this is a real
concern for prospective customers, who don’t know you personally. They have good reason to be concerned: more than 60%
of new businesses fail within three years. So a capability
brochure, while not in itself a guarantee of your ability to
survive, is an indication that you’re planning to be around for
the long haul.
A capability brochure is also useful to back up your sales
�spiel’. When you’re talking to someone for the first time,
they probably won’t take in everything you say. It’s a bit like
going to the doctor and trying to remember afterwards what
they said. Only a small proportion sticks. Sometimes it’s
enough, but people often want more information so they can
think about your product or service after the meeting or
discuss it with others. A brochure gives this back-up information.
You can also use a capability brochure to say things about
your business that you might feel reticent saying yourself. For
example, in a capability brochure you can use testimonials, where
other people speak for you, give case studies or examples of your
work, and mention awards that you’ve won. Even if you do have
the confidence to promote yourself, the written word adds
authenticity and authority to your claims. Be careful not to oversell yourself. Your assertions must be true and believable, and
you must be able to deliver.
A capability brochure does have its limitations. As you’re
providing a general overview of your business, you will also
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be writing for a wide audience. Many people reading it won’t
be interested in the detail, so keep your messages simple and
make the brochure visually attractive by using lots of white
space. Avoid technical terms that only some people understand.
Your challenge is to write copy that is general but not too
diluted. A lot of capability brochures can be dismissed as �selfserving PR hype with no substance’. You don’t want your
capability brochure to fall into that category. Your brochure
must be interesting and informative.
Capability brochures that are professionally designed and
printed are written to last for at least a year or two. This places
limitations on the information you can include, particularly if
you’re an expanding business and are likely to offer more products in the future. Also, if you are having your brochure printed,
think of your pages in multiples of four, as this is a standard way
of printing.
It’s probably not sensible to profile staff members in this
brochure. Too often, businesses produce brochures with photos
and profiles of their key people. Six months later one of these
staff members moves on, yet their photo continues to beam out
of the brochure for the next two years.
One piece of information you can’t afford to leave out—
even if you are contemplating moving soon—is all your
contact details. This information is far too vital to provide
only on your business card. If you anticipate a move but don’t
want to put your brochure on hold, cater for this in your
design. For example, if your brochure is a booklet, you could
replace the first and last pages without reprinting the whole
brochure.
Although most capability brochures are the company �showpiece’, if you’re a sole trader or just starting out and your budget
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is limited, you can use a one-page flyer or leaflet as a capability
brochure. Printed on high-quality paper with skilful layout and
easy-to-read fonts, these lower-cost versions still look classy
and serve the same purpose (see extracts from the capability
brochures of Delite Landscape Design, Emerald Furniture and
Blue Gum Restaurant on the following pages).
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design mainly uses its capability brochure when pitching
for new work. Delite’s A4 brochure includes:
1. Cover—name, picture and contact details
2. Inside the cover—testimonials from satisfied customers
3. Overview of services
4. and 5. Services in more detail
6. History of the company and profile of the owner
7. Inside back cover—design awards
8. Back cover—prominent contact details.
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture is a start-up business with a limited budget for promotions.
The owner, Susan Eves, has chosen to use a folder, with separate sheets which
she prints off as required on a laser printer. She uses an emerald-green folder
and high-quality, thick, pale cream paper to create a cost-effective, classy
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
look.
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Delite
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
in your garden
Invest in your wellbeing and your future when you use
Delite Landscape Design to develop the full potential of
your garden. You can enjoy the peace and beauty of a
well-landscaped garden while increasing the value of
your property.
Without a plan, a garden often looks �bitsy’. With a
landscape plan, a garden has harmony. We work with
your existing plants and your ideas and concepts to
create the garden of your dreams.
Our services range from the initial consult to the final result and include:
~
~
~
~
~
~
~
On-site garden advice
Sketch plans and planting guidelines
Courtyard and balcony design
Irrigation design
Plant selection and purchase
Garden construction and planting
Maintenance.
With 25 years’ experience in the business, we have a sound knowledge of
horticulture and design. We love what we do, and pride ourselves on:
~
~
Working within your budget and time frames
Creating low-maintenance, easy-care gardens.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
23 Landscape Lane, Rockville SA 1999
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789 Email: info@delitelandscape.com
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
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Eco-timber
+
eco-techniques
+
style
=
pure class
MERALD
E
furniture
Class that lasts
Emerald Furniture produces high-quality environmentally
friendly home and corporate furniture.
Our furniture is:
•
elegant, yet comfortable
•
classy, yet affordable
•
modern, yet timeless.
More than just a builder of fine furniture, Emerald Furniture is
committed to best practices that respect the environment.
All our furniture is lovingly handcrafted from
sustainable products.
•
We salvage fine woods, such as jarrah
and cedar, from demolished buildings
and source hardwood from certified
plantation forests.
•
We use kangaroo leather for some
furniture, and this we source from agricultural culling programs.
•
Our furniture is assembled using traditional joinery techniques and protected
with a non-toxic, citrus-based oil.
2 Crampton Street
Browns Bay NSW 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789
fax: (01) 0345 6789
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
<www.emeraldfurniture.com>
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Only a few minutes’ walk from the heart of the city, Blue Gum is the perfect place for
that casual breakfast, a business lunch or an evening meal with friends or family.
Sit outside in our quiet, shady courtyard over your coffee or pre-dinner drink, then move
inside to dine in comfort. Located in a superbly restored old banking chambers, the
timber floors and high ceilings are a dramatic contrast with the contemporary dГ©cor.
The mood is warm and friendly, the service smart and professional, and the food
exceptional modern cuisine. Award-winning chef Gary Burgess combines his vast
international experience with exciting, fresh local ingredients to give you a unique dining
experience.
The menu changes seasonally to take advantage of the freshest and highest-quality
ingredients, and wherever possible we use
organic produce. With our Г la carte menu and
blackboard specials, you can always choose
something new or delight in your old
favourites.
Fully licensed and BYO, Blue Gum has an
extensive wine list. A large selection of our
wine is available by the glass.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
9 Bannerman Street, Blues Point VIC 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789 fax: (01) 0345 6789
<www.bluegumrestaurant.com>
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant gives its brochure to corporate clients and people
interested in its catering services. Its capability brochure is a booklet with
a pouch inside the back cover for individual sheets, such as sample menus.
Its structure is:
1. Cover—photo of the restaurant that extends over front and back cover
2. Inside cover—address, phone number and location map
3. Description of restaurant
4. Information on functions
5. Information on catering
6. History of the restaurant, profile of the owners and a review
7. Pouch for sample menus etc.
8. Back cover—photo that continues from the front page.
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Product brochures
Product brochures describe a specific product, service or
offering. These brochures are usually shorter than the capability
brochure, but go into more depth about a particular aspect of
your business. They are usually less showy and more functionallooking. They get down to business and discuss the details of
your products and services. Sometimes, but not often, they
include pricing.
Product brochures come in many forms, including leaflets,
pamphlets, cards, flyers (covered separately), factsheets and
booklets. They’re sometimes professionally printed, but many
are photocopied or printed on a laser or inkjet printer. At its
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simplest, a product brochure is a word document printed on
quality paper or logo stationery. This may then be folded to fit
into an envelope or inserted into a folder.
Some product brochures are rack cards—one- or two-sided—
that fit into standard brochure stands. They’re useful for current
promotions and pricing. You often see this type of brochure at
trade shows, where people are inundated with information.
A card is easy to read at a glance, and people can throw it into
their showbag without crushing it.
Probably the majority of product brochures are what’s
called DL brochures—an A4 piece of paper folded into three.
Some variations of the DL brochure have extra fold-out leaves.
One of the advantages of a DL brochure is that it fits into a
standard DL envelope, and so is cheaper to post than larger
brochures.
While your capability brochure has a general audience, your
product brochure is more targeted. But be careful what assumptions you make about your readership. For example, you might
write your brochure for technicians or engineers, who want to
know the technical specifications, but it may also be read by
managers who want to know about issues like service support,
ease of use and return on investment. And these managers might
have the purchasing power.
It’s also unwise to assume that all technicians or engineers
will be well versed in every aspect of your technology, especially
if you’re promoting the latest products in your field. When in
doubt, it is better to avoid jargon or to explain your terms.
People who do understand are unlikely to take offence, and
those who don’t will appreciate not being made to feel stupid
or inadequate.
Like a capability brochure, a product brochure has space limitations, so you need to be selective. Your aim is to tell your
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prospective customers what they need to know about your
product or service to help them make the decision to buy it, and
to encourage them to buy it from you, not a competitor.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design has a regular stand at a garden show, and this
year has decided to use a pot-shaped card to promote its courtyard and
balcony design service. The other side of the card is an illustration or photo
of potplants on a balcony or courtyard plus Delite’s phone number.
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture prints product information on thick cream paper. The
photos are high-resolution quality to show the furniture to best advantage.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant has some information about its function room in its
capability brochure. In brief, the room holds up to 40 people and is
available for private functions, such as corporate dinners or birthday
parties. Blue Gum Restaurant inserts a sample menu in the pouch on the
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
back cover of its capability brochure.
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
We’ve gone potty!
Brighten up your courtyard or balcony with
potted plants—ferns, flowers, herbs,
bamboos, palms . . .
Ring us for an obligation-free design quote.
Ph: (01) 0345 6789
OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE :
<www.delitelandscape.com>
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Ph: (01) 0345 6789
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Eco-timber
+
eco-techniques
+
style
=
pure class
EMERALD
furniture
Class that
lasts . . .
Our home furniture is
lovingly handmade out of
environmentally friendly
materials.
We can design one-off
pieces of unique furniture
or you can choose from
our current furniture range.
Allow 6–8 weeks for
delivery.
2 Crampton Street
Browns Bay NSW 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789
fax: (01) 0345 6789
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
<www.emeraldfurniture.com>
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
RESTAURANT
Sample
Sample menu
menu for
for functions
functions
Catering
Catering starts
starts at
at aa very
very reasonable
reasonable $15
$15 per
per person
person for
for cocktail
cocktail food
food and
and $60
$60 per
per
person
a three-course
menu
large
groups.
menu
three
person
for for
a three-course
set set
menu
for for
large
groups.
TheThe
set set
menu
hashas
three
choices
choices
in each
course.
Smaller
groups
choose
from
la carte
menu.
in each
course.
Smaller
groups
cancan
choose
from
ourour
Г laГ carte
menu.
Entrees
Entrees
Spinach
Spinach and
and fetta
fetta cheese
cheese fritters
fritters
Chilli
Chilli fish
fish with
with sweet
sweet lemon
lemon salad
salad
Beef
Beef salad
salad with
with coconut
coconut dressing
dressing
Mains
Mains
Roasted
Roasted jewfish
jewfish fillets
fillets with
with braised
braised fennel
fennel and
and aa lemon
lemon cream
cream sauce
sauce
Prawn
and
chicken
curry
cooked
in
coconut
cream
Prawn and chicken curry cooked in coconut cream
Butterflied
Butterflied leg
leg of
of lamb
lamb with
with roasted
roasted vegetables,
vegetables, served
served with
with yoghurt
yoghurt and
and sesame
sesame
All
Allmains
mainsare
areserved
servedwith
withbaby
babypotatoes
potatoesand
andaaMediterranean
Mediterraneansalad.
salad.
Desserts
Desserts
Coconut
Coconut tart
tart with
with raspberry
raspberry sauce
sauce
CrГЁme
CrГЁme brulГ©e
brulГ©e and
and steeped
steeped apricots
apricots
Chocolate
Chocolate spice
spice syrup
syrup cake
cake served
served with
with home-made
home-made vanilla
vanilla ice
ice cream
cream
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
9 Bannerman Street, Blues Point VIC 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789 fax: (01) 0345 6789 <www.bluegumrestaurant.com>
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How to write brochures and flyers
Flyers
Many businesses use flyers inserted inside other publications,
such as magazines or newsletters produced by professional
bodies for their members. Some professional associations also
send members advertising faxes. You can often choose to have
your flyer sent only to a specific area, and this lowers the cost.
Flyers are useful for promoting events and new products.
They’re usually just an A4 piece of paper with writing on one
or both sides. Some are glossy and professionally printed, but
many are laser printed or photocopied.
In many ways flyers are more like direct mail than capability
or product brochures, as they’re often time-specific and include
an offer to tempt people to buy (see Chapter 6).
Susan Eves inserted a flyer into the newsletter of a local women’s
business network to promote her carpentry classes for women.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Folders of information
One of the most versatile marketing tools is a customised folder,
which houses all your brochures, leaflets, factsheets, flyers and
other printed material, such as price lists, presentations, annual
reports, press releases and letters.
Folders are used by businesses of all sizes. Ideally, your folder
will be in your corporate colours, with your name and logo
clearly displayed on the front cover. The contact details will
probably be on the back. If you’re a small business starting out,
search the stationery shops to find a commercial folder in your
corporate colours. Some of them have a space on the front cover
to insert your business card.
The advantage of a folder is that you can mix and match
your material to suit specific customers or prospects. This is
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EMERALD
furniture
Learn how to
make your own furniture
One-day furniture making class for women
Pay only $195 for this one-day course and save $100
if you book before the end of September.
In this one-day workshop on 30 October, Susan Eves, an experienced and
award-winning furniture maker, will teach you some of the basic skills you
need to make your own furniture.
By the end of the day, everyone will have a stool to take away with them.
The materials are included in the overall cost. If you want to make any other
furniture, Susan will help you with the design and let you choose some
wood, which you can select and buy from her supplies.
Susan is renowned for her stylish and comfortable designs and for her
environmentally sound approach to furniture making. All the wood you use
is either recycled or sourced from sustainable forestry plantations. You’ll
learn traditional furniture-making techniques and use natural finishing
products, not toxic chemicals.
Spaces are limited to 12, so book early to avoid disappointment.
Where
2 Campton Street, Browns Bay. Close to public
transport and parking available on the street.
Tea and coffee provided. Bring your own lunch.
When
30 October.
Time
9 am to 5 pm.
Price
$295—pay only $195 if you book before the
end of September, and save $100.
How to book
Visit <www.emeraldfurniture.com> or ring
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Susan on (01) 0345 6789.
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particularly relevant if your business has several divisions or
products. A folder has an added advantage of keeping all your
marketing material intact in one piece. Individual brochures or
pieces of paper are easily lost or misplaced between other bits
of paper.
While it is handy being able to tailor the contents of a folder,
you need to make sure that the contents all look professional
and are in keeping with your image and brand. It may be
tempting to add a photocopied price list or staff contact sheet,
but if these look scruffy, think again. First impressions matter.
Online brochures
Often, particularly if you’re telemarketing, prospects will want
you to email them information rather than posting it. An online
brochure is never going to look as good as a hard copy, but it is
cheaper and often more convenient.
Think about how you will present your information via email.
You can convert your brochure into a PDF file or Word document.
Alternatively, you could email prospects a link to a specific
page on your website.
Writing your brochure
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
What comes first—words or design?
The words and pictures must work together, but as a general
rule, after you’ve made the broad decision about what sort of
brochure you want—be it a DL brochure, a booklet or a onepage flyer—the words should come first.
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If you’re using a designer, you may at this stage have a
conversation with them about the general look and feel of your
brochure. But don’t let the designer talk you into making your
words fit exactly into a template. While the design is important,
its primary role is to tempt people to read your words. Too
many brochures dazzle by their design at the expense of the
words.
Once you’ve identified the reason you want a brochure, your
target audience and the messages you wish to convey, it’s time
to plan your content and structure. Decide at this stage whether
you want to include photos and/or illustrations.
Once you’ve developed your structure, stand back and look
at it. Your outline may be logical, but is it in the order that
your prospective customers will find interesting? Will they want
to know about everything you’ve included, or do you need to
be more selective? You may decide that information you find
fascinating has to go. Be ruthless. The less clutter, the more
your messages will stand out. Put some of the extra information in other promotional material, such as factsheets or flyers.
The next step is to collect relevant information, including
photos and illustrations. Facts and statistics help make your
message believable and interesting. If you’re a new business, you
may not have much information to draw on apart from your
business plan and what’s in your head. But if you’re an established business, use previous brochures, annual reports,
newsletters, the website, presentations, press releases and so on.
You may well end up with far more information than you
need. It’s worth reading it all, though, as it will help you get a
feel for the main messages you want to convey, and you may
come across some snippets or facts that will liven up your copy.
On the other hand, once you’ve read all the information you
might still find there are gaps in your knowledge. Then you’ll
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have to talk to other people in your company to get the
answers.
CHECKLIST OF BROCHURE INGREDIENTS:
1. General overview of your business
2. History of your company
3. Strategic alliances
4. Benefits and features of your products and services
5. Values and philosophies
6. Customer service and support
7. Client list
8. Case studies
9. Testimonials
10. Awards
11. Contact details
12. Location map.
To help you stay on track, keep an imaginary customer in mind
as you write and rewrite. One of the dangers in writing about
something you know well is that you will either make assumptions that other people share your knowledge or you’ll fall into
the trap of thinking they are as interested in it as you, and thus
want to know everything. They don’t.
You must be selective about what details you choose to
include. Remember the old clichés that less is more and �Keep
it Simple, Stupid’ (KISS). They’re both true.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Promote your uniqueness
Promote your uniqueness. If you have a USP (unique selling
proposition) that clearly distinguishes you from your competitors, then use it. If there are lots of businesses offering similar
services, think about what makes you and your business stand
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out. If you’re still struggling to think of points of differentiation, think about what attracts your customers or clients. Why
did they choose you in the first place, and what keeps them
coming back?
Emerald Furniture promotes the use of environmentally
sound materials and techniques, and sometimes Susan will reluctantly talk about being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
The Delite Landscape people stress their years of experience, their
qualified staff and the awards they’ve won. Blue Gum Restaurant
capitalises on the fact that it’s a family business with an awardwinning chef.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Write about benefits
Sometimes the benefits are obvious, and you’ll have no trouble
writing about them. In some brochures you’ll actually see the
heading �Benefits’, but more often the benefits are embedded in
the copy.
In some cases the benefits seem too obvious to state. For
example, everyone knows that the main benefit of a software typing
program is that they will learn how to type. That’s why they want
to buy one. But your typing program may have some features that
will encourage the buyer to choose yours, so your job as a writer
is to use language to turn those features into benefits.
One way of working out the benefits of your product or
service is to use the marketing acronym FAB, which stands for
features, advantages and benefits. Advantages are an intermediary step between features and benefits. For example, airbags
are installed in many cars these days (feature). They inflate if
the car is involved in a crash and make the car safer (advantage).
This protects the people in the car and ultimately saves lives
(benefit).
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The following example is for a DVD/CD shredder
(<www.buyaleratec.com/dvshredfeata.htm>).
Feature
Advantage
Benefit
Shreds the data side of
DVDs and CDs,
completely destroying
information contained on
them
Securely disposes of
obsolete DVDs and CDs,
preventing any theft or
misuse of valuable,
sensitive data
Security and protection
from data and identity
theft
�You’ instead of �we’ and �I’
Shift your emphasis and view your brochure from your customers’
perspective. What’s in it for them? One of the simplest ways of
changing the whole tone and emphasis of your writing is to
change �we’ and �I’ statements into �you’ statements. For
example, instead of saying that �our product is fully automatic’
(feature), state that �you will save x amount of time by using our
product’ (benefit). Once again, be as specific as possible. If you
know how much time your product will save, say so. Read some
ads: copywriters are good at writing about benefits in �you’
language.
It is surprising how often this simple technique is overlooked.
Just look at a few brochures and you will see they’re all about
what the company can do, not what you as the customer will
gain from their products or services.
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Use testimonials, reviews and case studies to sing your praises
Testimonials are a powerful endorsement for your products
and services. Make sure they are genuine and that you have
the customers’ permission to use their quotes. That may sound
obvious, but if you’re new in business it may be tempting to
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exercise creative licence. If you’re working in the corporate
world, it also helps if your testimonials are from well-known,
respected companies that your prospective customers have
heard of. For residential customers, the words are often more
important than who said them—unless of course it’s a popular
celebrity.
Testimonial
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
I wanted to let you know how pleased we are with all your work—the overall
design is everything we hoped for and we now eat most of our meals outside
so we can enjoy our beautiful garden.
You and your staff were a pleasure to work with. Your staff constructed
the rock retaining walls, planters and pond professionally, with care for the
surroundings and respect for the occupants in the home—a rare trait in
tradespeople.
We will have no hesitation recommending you to all our friends who
admire our garden. Once again, THANK YOU.
Bob and Jane Smith.
Reviews are another form of testimonial. Blue Gum Restaurant
quotes this review in its brochure.
Blue Gum
Review
RESTAURANT
�Everything you expect from a fine restaurant except the price tag and the
pretensions. Set in a spectacular 1920s banking chamber, the high ceilings
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
create a sense of reverence, which is countered by the comfortable, modern
dГ©cor.The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed and you can hear yourself talk.
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The menu varies from simple dishes like spinach and fetta fritters to
more substantial mains, such as organic chicken wrapped in bacon served
with leek and potato tart and cumin pesto sauce. Flavours and textures are
combined to deliver meals that live up to their promise.
The wine list is impressive, with a wide-ranging selection of well-chosen
local wines, supplemented by excellent imported wines. The service is
professional and well paced.
A restaurant for all occasions—and worthy of repeat visits.’
Prestigious cuisine magazine
Case studies can also work. You might provide a detailed
description of a specific job you’ve worked on or give examples
of the sort of work you do. Some businesses include a list of
current and past clients.
Use positive statements
Positive statements are more powerful and persuasive than negative ones. Consider the difference between �save time’ and �work
less’, �feel great’ and �reduce pain’, �saves money’ and �costs less’.
Describe your benefits and features in a positive tone, but
don’t oversell or promise what you can’t deliver. Avoid valueladen words like �best’, �fastest’ or �greatest’. Having said that,
some clichГ©s still work. Most of us are suckers for words like
�free’, �free trial period’, �money-back guarantee’, �save’, �improved’
and �new’.
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Use facts and figures
Remember that most people like facts and figures. If you have
any statistics that support your business, use these to back up
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your claims. But be careful not to use statistics that will date
your products too quickly.
Be as specific as possible. For example, if you sell an IT
product and speed is a selling point, then state how fast your
product goes.
Mention any awards you’ve won—that’s always impressive.
Use short words, sentences, paragraphs and sections
The best way to make your copy direct and easy to read can be
summed up in one word—short.
• Short words. Simple, direct words are stronger and more
forceful than long, complex words. For example, consider the
difference between �stomach’ and �gut’, �remittance’ and �pay’,
�utilise’ and �use’, �ensure’ and �make sure’.
• Short sentences. Sentences should generally be 25 words or
less.
• Short paragraphs. About three to six lines as a general rule,
although one-line paragraphs sometimes work and longer
paragraphs are occasionally okay.
• Short sections with headings. Break your copy into short
subsections, each with its own heading. Short sections are
easy to read and create white space, which is appealing to
the eye.
Use bullet points
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Many brochures use bullet points to convey information clearly
and simply and to create white space. Be careful you don’t
overuse them though. It’s good to have variety, with a mixture
of text in paragraphs and bullet points.
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Write headings that tell your story
Headlines vary in length from single words to complete sentences
or questions. Most headings and subheadings in brochures are
straightforward rather than witty. Their main aim is to let the
reader know at a glance what’s in the following section.
You might decide to insert them at the end of the writing
process, write them first or write them as you go. Whichever
way you do it, you need to check them at the end. Then read
the headlines without reading any of the text to see whether they
tell your story by themselves. Once again, imagine you’re the
prospective customer.
A minority of readers always skip headlines, so repeat the headline information in the body of your text.
There’s more information about headings in Chapter 7.
Liven up your copy with photos, graphs and illustrations
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
It’s possible to have an elegant, beautifully designed brochure
with just text, but photos and illustrations will enrich your
words. If you use photographs, make sure they are good-quality
and high-resolution. If your budget stretches to it, use a professional photographer. Remember to caption your photos: people
do read captions.
If you choose to illustrate your brochure, there is a huge
range of clipart available on the Internet. You may have to pay
for it, but some sites have free illustrations. Or you can hire an
illustrator to do original drawings for you.
If your material lends itself to this, put some of your information in table or graph form. Some people prefer reading information
in graphs and tables. Put a summary in the copy as well, as there
are other readers who skip graphs and charts completely.
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Include an action step
Think about the action you want the audience to take and
make the next step an easy one. For example, if you want the
audience to reply, consider including a reply-paid card. If you
want them to ring you, display your contact details clearly on
every page. Make your contact details, including your website,
easy to see. Think about the size of the font and don’t make
it too small for people with reading glasses. If you want people
to visit you on site, include a location map.
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Design and print
Whether you decide to use a professional designer and printer
or do it yourself, your brochure must be consistent with your
brand and image (see Chapter 2). If you don’t have a corporate
brand, take a step back from your brochure and work out your
corporate logo and colours. Your corporate image and brand
must flow through all aspects of your business.
Before making the decision about whether to pay professionals or do it yourself, ring a designer or printer and get an
estimate of costs. It really is worth having your brochure professionally designed and printed if you can afford it.
A number of factors will influence the cost, including how
many copies you want, whether you want full colour or blackand-white, how many photos and illustrations you want to
include, the quality of the paper and so on. The more copies you
do, the cheaper each brochure is. It’s a good idea to get more
copies than you think you need. Then you can give them away
freely without worrying about the cost of each one. There’s
nothing worse than hoarding your brochures because they’re
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expensive and two years later having a cupboard full of out-ofdate brochures.
All decisions at this stage are crucial to the end result. Even
a seemingly small decision, like the paper you choose, influences
the way people view your business. You have the choice of matt
or glossy paper, textured or plain, white or coloured, and they
all come in different weights. The paper you choose must suit
your image. For instance, a silver flyer with purple illustrations
promoting Christmas caterers is lighthearted and fun. But
customers could be put off a financial services company promoting
a superannuation fund on the same shiny, silver paper. It doesn’t
speak with authority.
If you decide to do the layout yourself, use a software package
such as Microsoft Publisher. Remember to use lots of white space,
including wide margins, and choose fonts that are easy to read.
Use one font only for the body copy. Create a hierarchy of headings and subheadings and either use the same font, but in a
different size, as the body copy or choose a complementary font.
If you communicate with many of your customers by email,
consider producing an electronic version of your brochure in
PDF format. It won’t look as good as the print version, but if it
reaches people who wouldn’t otherwise read your brochure it’s
worth doing.
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Editing—delete, delete, delete
If you’ve written the first draft the way you talk, it will probably be a bit loose and waffly. So on your second draft, attack
your copy ruthlessly with the delete button. Delete all unnecessary words and information. Reading the copy out loud is a good
way to hear what it sounds like and to pick up any typing errors.
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If you’re working closely on your brochure you’ll be surprised
how easy it is to overlook missing words or even misspelt words.
Once you’re satisfied you’ve done the best job you can do
at the time, leave it for a few days. Then reread it through your
customers’ eyes. Does it make sense? Does it work? Would you
buy your products and services on the basis of this brochure?
What main messages do you take from it? Have you oversold
your message? Is the information in the right order?
If it passes your �customer’ test, give it to some colleagues to
critique and proofread. The more people you can find to trial it,
the better. You don’t have to take all their advice, just keep an
open mind. And be grateful for any typos they pick up. It’s much
better to find the mistakes at this stage than once the brochure
is printed. Then you’re stuck with it unless you’re prepared to
pay the price of a reprint.
You haven’t finished when you hand your copy over to the
designer or printer. Mistakes can creep in during the design and
print process, so you will need to proofread the copy thoroughly
again before it goes to print.
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Make your brochure work for you
Use your product brochures to support your marketing.
If you’re telemarketing, follow up the call with your brochure. If you’re sending direct mail, include a product brochure.
If you’re meeting prospective customers face-to-face, either
send them your brochure beforehand or hand it over at the
meeting.
A new brochure is a good excuse to get in touch with existing
customers and prospects. If your business has several products
or services, some of your customers may know only about the
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products or services they use. This is an opportunity to show
them what else you do and to widen the business you do with
them.
If you have built up relationships with industry associations
and the press, send these a courtesy copy too. If you have a
newsletter or e-newsletter, invite your readers to request a copy.
Use them in letterbox drops, put them in brochure stands or
display them at trade shows. Make them an integral part of all
your marketing.
And remember to keep a copy of your brochure in your
briefcase at all times—you never know when you’ll meet someone who could be interested in your products or services. Let
your brochure do the talking for you.
Summary
PURPOSE
• Capability brochures give an overview of your business and
help establish your credibility.
• Product brochures provide more details about specific
products or services.
• Flyers promote specific events or special deals.
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AUDIENCE
Your audience is your existing customers and clients and
prospects. Write with your audience in mind and think about
what they will want to know, not just what you have to offer.
CONTENT
Your key messages in your brochure are how your customers
and clients will benefit from using your products or services.
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You need to establish your credibility and provide reasons for
them to choose your business.
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TIPS
• Use your capability and product brochures to support your
marketing efforts. People often keep brochures to refer to
when they’re making a purchasing decision.
• Give your brochures to existing customers and clients as well
as prospects, as existing customers and clients are often your
best ambassadors.
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How to write a
press release
5
How to write a press release
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A
press release is great publicity, as it reaches a wide audience.
It’s more credible than an advertisement because it’s news.
And it’s free—apart from the time you spend writing it.
The good news is that journalists, producers and editors rely
on press releases for much of the information about new and
unusual products and company trends that appears in newspapers and magazines, and on radio and television. This is
especially true of regional and local media.
The bad news is that editors get deluged with press releases,
so yours must stand out. You must have something newsworthy
to say before they’ll take notice, such as a new product, sponsorship of an event or winning an award. And your story must
be well written, following normal press release conventions.
Your challenge is to write a release that makes journalists want
to know more and decide to tell your story. Sometimes they will
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use your press release unchanged but often they’ll do their own
research, using your story as a basis for their own story.
Press releases have to be newsworthy or you’re wasting your
time. So before you start, ask yourself what you want to achieve
with your press release; ask yourself whether you really do have
a story or whether you’re just after free publicity. What you may
think riveting may not appeal to an editor, so run it past a friend
or colleague first.
Also remember that, even if you have got a good story and
your press release is well written, there’s still no guarantee that
your story will get picked up by the media. There’s an element
of luck involved. Your story might arrive on a quiet day and fill
a space, or land on a busy day and get overlooked. There’s no
way your press release can compete with a national or international disaster dominating the news.
But time your press release right and you can scoop some
good publicity. One method of getting press coverage is to
piggyback on a breaking news story. If you spot such a PR
opportunity, you need to act fast to capitalise on it. If your story
doesn’t have a �use-by’ date, a good time to send it in is over
school holiday periods when many reporters are on leave.
If you plan to make press releases a regular part of your
marketing and PR, I recommend that you read Peter Denton’s
How to write and pitch your Press Release. It’s an excellent book
by a former journalist with many years’ experience in the media.
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Where to place your press release
Research the media before you send out your story and see what
sort of stories they publish. Whatever media you’re sending your
press release to, find out the editors’ deadlines. Some want news
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stories now and others, like magazines, have a longer lead time.
You may want to invest in a media guide, which is available in
most bookshops and newsagencies, if you plan to make press
releases a regular part of your marketing and PR.
If you send your story to more than one source, you may
need to tailor it to suit the different audiences. If you send your
release to one source only, mark it �exclusive’ so that they know
no-one else has the story. Many news agencies will, for a fee,
send your press releases for you. The advantage of this service
is that they have up-to-date contact details.
Major metropolitan papers
Major daily papers are looking for a strong news story, but
specialist sections of the papers may be interested in unusual,
interesting and useful information. The news sections of the
paper turn around stories within 24–48 hours, so your press
release must be topical to attract the editors’ attention. Specialist
sections often have longer lead times, and it pays to send in
stories relating to special events or holidays in advance to secure
a place.
Metropolitan papers will often want to check your story
rather than use it in its entirety, so don’t be surprised if your
story is altered. If you’re lucky it will be expanded and you might
be interviewed. It could turn into a feature article rather than a
press release.
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News agencies
If your story is nationally newsworthy you could send it to a
news agency. Newspapers, television and radio all source stories
from news agencies.
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Local press
Don’t underestimate the power of the local press. Lots of people
skim local papers before throwing them in the recycling bin, and
your story might just catch their eye. Local newspapers will
often use stories unaltered if they trust your credibility.
Trade journals and magazines
Trade journals and magazines have a smaller readership but a
longer life than a daily newspaper. People often keep trade journals or pass them on to colleagues once they’ve read them.
As many are published monthly, you’re not so likely to be overlooked because a major news event is dominating the news. They
also have longer lead times and often decide on stories months
in advance of publication. So send your story in advance, and
make sure it is not too time-limited.
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Radio and television
Radio and television are options if your story has immediacy or
local appeal or is controversial. Local radio stations are always
on the lookout for stories, so are a good avenue for your press
releases with a local slant. Television is a good medium if you’re
promoting an event or product with visual appeal.
If you want TV or radio to come to an event, rather than
write a press release you may choose to send an invitation to a
specific person—for example, the head of news—provide them
with background information and offer to arrange interviews. If
you offer an interview, be prepared. Delegate and prime a
spokesperson. Think about the main messages you want to get
across. In some cases you can ask the show’s producer for a list
of questions in advance.
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I was once interviewed for a business CD about how to write
e-newsletters, and I spent ages beforehand worrying about how
I would answer if they asked me tricky technical questions about
html and email distribution. Then they asked me only simple,
obvious questions. Had I sat and thought about the most important things rather than looking for obstacles I would’ve been
much better prepared and happier with my answers.
So think about the key messages you want to get across and
focus on them. Fit your key points in wherever you can, and
remember you don’t have to answer a question straightaway.
You can take a breath while you gather your thoughts. You won’t
usually have much time in a radio or TV interview, so make sure
your answers are brief and memorable.
The Internet
Don’t overlook the Internet, which is a rapidly evolving medium;
most major news organisations have a presence on the Internet.
Press releases specifically written for the Internet are often
shorter than their print counterparts. Many consist of five short,
one-to-three-sentence paragraphs.
Planning and structure
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Purpose
Assuming you have a newsworthy story, what do you want to
achieve with your press release? Do you want to create awareness of your company or to promote a particular product or
service? Do you want the paper or magazine to publish your
story basically unaltered or are you hoping that they will use it
as the basis for an interview and maybe a feature article?
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How will you capture and follow up on the goodwill your
press release attracts? Will you use your press release in another
format, for example on your website or in your e-newsletter?
Will you follow up later with a paid advertisement? Don’t put
a paid advertisement in the same edition of the paper or magazine, as it will dilute the effect of your press release.
Audience
Who’s your target audience? If you understand your audience
you’ll pitch your story right and find it easier to write an opening
paragraph that will grab their attention. You’ll also provide
supporting information that you know will interest them.
Find out what media your audience reads, listens to or watches
so you’ll send your press release to the most appropriate places.
You can find out by asking some of your target group directly or
seeing what papers and magazines are available at newsagencies.
Look at the magazines and newspapers you’re interested in
to make sure your story is right for that publication. Or listen
to local radio and TV stations if they’re an appropriate medium.
As well as researching your chosen media, find out the
name of the editor so you can personalise your cover letter.
Metropolitan newspapers have different editors for different
sections, so choose which section your press release is most
appropriate for.
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Work out what you want to say
Be clear about your key message and don’t try to tell too much.
There is only room for one key message in a press release, which
is usually short (300–500 words). For example, if you are
launching a new product, concentrate on that and not all the
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other things you do. If you have secondary messages, they must
support the main message.
KEY MESSAGES
• Delite Landscape Design: Launching a new product—
balcony design.
• Emerald Furniture: Won a furniture award.
• Blue Gum Restaurant: Dial-a-dinner.
Writing your press release
Choose an angle
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The angle, sometimes called the �spin’, is the approach you take
to grab your readers’ attention. If you have a strong story, it’s
best to write it straight, sticking to the facts. Sometimes a humaninterest angle works. For example, you can tell your story through
a case study, such as a person who has used your products or
services. This approach can be powerful, but you need to use
real people, not fictitious ones. A controversial angle can also
grab attention, but don’t be too emotive or your story will lose
credibility.
In How to write and pitch your Press Release, Peter Denton
uses the fictitious example of teenage smoking to demonstrate
three different spins:
1. In the straight story he tells the facts—teenage smoking has
increased while tobacco profits are down. The headline
reads: �Teenage smoking still rising despite anti-smoking
success.’
2. With the human-interest angle, he opens with the story of a
father who’s given up smoking, then tells how the teenage
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son still smokes heavily. The headline states: �Thousands quit
but teens still light up.’
3. The third example uses conflict, asserting that the government’s
�war on smoking’ is having little impact on teenage smoking.
The headline this time is: �War on cigarettes hits wrong targets.’
In each example, he quotes the same spokesperson—a doctor
representing an anti-smoking group.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design has decided to write a press release promoting
their new balcony service. They are going to target the local press, and hope
that some papers will pick up the story and write a feature article. They
regularly advertise in the local papers, so they already have an established
relationship with the editors.
Delite Landscape Design has decided to take a human-interest angle
and to profile one of their clients who represents the business they want to
attract.
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture has won a furniture design award, so has decided to send
a press release to both the local papers and a trade magazine.
Susan Eves’s aim is to help establish her brand and credibility and to
attract new business. She has decided to make it a straight news story for
the local paper, as it is topical, and to expand on it for the trade journal, as
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this comes out on a monthly basis and the award will no longer be hot news.
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Get the main message across at the beginning
Press releases follow the inverted pyramid structure—that is,
they tell the most important news first and follow with supporting
material.
Your first one or two paragraphs have a double challenge:
they must tempt the reader to read on and they must also capture
the essence of the story for the casual reader, so that even if they
don’t read on they have the gist of the story.
There’s a practical reason for getting the main information
across first, too. If space is at a premium your story may be cut,
and editors often cut from the bottom up. Sometimes only the
first couple of paragraphs of your story will be published. A brief
story is still better than no story, so make the editor’s job easy.
A way of checking whether you’ve covered all the key information is to give your introduction the 5W and H check—who,
what, when, where, why and how. Take the following example,
which appeared in My Business:
Aussies Fast Online
Survey results released in March by Taylor Nelson Sofres have
revealed that almost a quarter of Australians interviewed have
embraced online banking services—nearly double that of our
British counterparts and well above the 15 per cent of Americans
who use the Internet to manage their finances.
My Business, April/May 2002
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In this story we learn:
Who?—Taylor Nelson Sofres
What?—conducted a survey on online banking
When?—results released in March
Where?—Australia
Column short
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Why?—to find out about Australian online banking
How?—survey.
The 5W and H check on Emerald Furniture’s press release (see
page 127):
Key information
EMERALD
furniture
Who?
Susan Eves, Emerald Furniture
What?
Won a furniture award for eco-furniture design
When?
May 2002
Where?
Not stated
Why?
Simple yet elegant style with eco and ergonomic features
How?
By entering a competition
Or set the scene
Some press releases flout the traditional technique of �telling all’
in the first paragraph and instead set the scene. Take the following two examples.
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Nobody believed him when he said �sell’
It was the most excruciating experience of Jeremy Grantham’s
life. It was bad enough as he says that �the rest of the world
thought he was an idiot’. But the real pain was when he lost the
$US10 billion.
You may have already guessed what it’s about, but you have to
read the next paragraph to be sure:
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He had spent over 20 years building his Boston-based funds
management business from scratch, but in two years his clients,
frustrated and angry, took one-third of the funds he managed
for them and walked out on him.
Peter Hartcher, The Australian Financial Review, 26 July 2002
Another example is:
Gifted choices
Corporate gifts and promotional products are tools to increase
brand awareness. If they are not translating to bottom line sales,
then are they an effective use of your marketing dollar?
My Business, October 2001
As well as promoting a corporate gift business, this article
provided some practical tips on appropriate Christmas gifts.
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Use a spokesperson
Press releases usually contain quotes to add credibility. Quotes
give you the opportunity to say something about your products
or services that you can’t say yourself as it sounds like bragging.
They also allow you to state opinions as well as facts.
Occasionally press releases start with a quote, but more often
the quote is in about the third or fourth paragraph, to provide
supporting information for the opening paragraphs. It’s common
when writing press releases to make up people’s quotes, but you
must check them with the people you’re quoting so that they’re
comfortable with the words you’ve attributed to them.
Journalists often contact the person directly to substantiate
the comments, or interview the person and write their own. This
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is especially true if you’ve sent your press release to several
outlets and they want to differentiate their story. Alternatively
they may delete the quotes, so don’t base your whole story
around them. Make sure your story stands alone without the
quotes.
NAMES AND TITLES
When quoting people, give their titles and who they represent.
You can put their titles either before or after their names: for
example, �Bob Jones, chief executive officer of Tantra’, or �Tantra
chief executive officer Bob Jones’.
Check your target publication’s style. Some papers give the
whole name first, for example �Bob Jones’, and then refer to him
as �Jones’ or �Mr Jones’. Magazines are often more informal, with
some saying �Bob Jones’ the first time and then �Bob’. Unless
you feel strongly about how you want to use names, follow the
conventions of the media you’re targeting.
QUOTATION STYLES
The question of whether to use single or double quotation marks
is a matter of style preference. Have a look at the publication
you’re targeting and see what its style is. Some modern style
guides recommend using single quotation marks and then double
quotation marks for quotes within quotes.
If the quoted speech runs on from one paragraph to the next,
you don’t need to put the quotation marks at the end of the first
paragraph, but you need them at the beginning of the following
one. For example:
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�The report is good news for Australian businesses involved in
exporting and importing.
�It indicates that . . .’
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The word �said’ is commonly used for most quoted speech
instead of �says’ or other synonyms such as �stated’, �noted’ or
�replied’.
Some editors like to have the person introduced before
they’re quoted the first time. Others don’t mind if you launch
straight into a quote and acknowledge the person at the end of
the statement. You can use different styles to quote people. Four
examples are given here.
• The person is not quoted directly:
Mr Brown said downsizing—an element of recent business
behaviour that he found worrying—was designed to please
investors.
• The person’s viewpoint is summarised followed by a supporting
statement:
Mr Smith said the United States was partly responsible for
Indonesia’s problems: �We were playing domestic politics
with Indonesia for a long time and we need to play Indonesian
politics.’
• The person’s exact words are used for statements or opinions:
�We haven’t had rain for several weeks now,’ Mr Jones said.
�This is a very serious situation for farmers and the whole
country.’ (Alternatively, you could say �said Mr Jones’.)
• After the person has been introduced, �he’ and �she’ are often
used for variety:
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�I think we could easily go back to postwar immigration levels,’
he said.
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Write in the third person
In most of your other marketing material, you’re writing directly
to your audience. With a press release you’re not. You’re providing
straight information, so you need to write about yourself in the
third person (i.e. �he’ or �she’). Avoid �you’ and �I/we’ language.
Approach your subject as though you were the news reporter
and emphasise the news aspects and the facts.
Write concisely, simply and directly
The general principles of good business writing apply:
• simple words
• short sentences
• short paragraphs. Paragraphs are always very short in press
releases—often only one line. This is because most newspapers
and magazines use columns, and long paragraphs look too
dense.
Avoid using jargon your readers may not understand, or explain
your jargon in simple terms. If you use acronyms and/or
initialisms, it’s common practice to spell them out in the first
instance with the acronym in brackets: for example, American
Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). This practice does
not seem to apply in many newspapers, where the full name is
used in the first instance without the abbreviation in brackets
and the abbreviation is used from then on. Check out the style
of your target media.
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Use the active voice
Use the active voice in press releases. Your story must be immediate and direct. For example, say �Mr Jones spoke about eye
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diseases’ instead of �The speech delivered by Mr Jones was about
eye diseases’.
Stick to the facts and be specific
Press releases provide information. They’re not the place for
opinions (unless in quotes) or advertising. Keep the tone of your
press release simple and factual. Use facts and statistics if you
have them to back up what you’re saying.
You may think you have no facts or figures, but dig a bit
deeper and you’ll probably find some. For example, which is
stronger: �Peter Jones’s new book provides sound financial advice
for small business’ or �Peter Jones’s new book provides small
business with seven tools for managing their finances’?
Make sure you check all your facts; also check that you’ve
got all the details, like date and time, correct. There is no point
in having a press release for an event and having the wrong date.
You’ll do more harm than good.
What to avoid
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Write your press release in plain, direct, clear language, and avoid:
• Exaggeration and hype words, like �cheapest’, �best’ and �most
unique’
• Words aimed at getting the journalist’s attention, like �STOP
PRESS’, �URGENT’ or �NEWS FLASH’. They’ll have the opposite
effect
• Clichés, like �smelling of roses’ or �greatest invention since
sliced bread’
• Puns and word-plays. People haven’t got time to admire your
cleverness—they just want the information. Leave the puns
to the subeditors.
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Headline and subject line
Write a simple, short headline (under 10 words) that sums up
your story. Keep your headline to the point and convey what’s
important about the news. Don’t try to be too clever or spend
ages agonising over the �right’ words, as subeditors often rewrite
headings. It’s one of their areas of expertise. Remember, in the
first instance the editor or journalist is your audience, and they
want to know what your story is about.
If you are emailing your story, your subject line is just as
important as your headline, as this is the first thing that the editor
or journalist will read. As with your heading, make sure it is
simple, clear and direct.
Every word in a heading or subject line does count, so choose
verbs with clout. For example, �Joan Smith named best designer
of the year’ is stronger than �Joan Smith gets an award’.
You might find it easier to write the heading or subject line
once you’ve written the press release. The modern trend is for
minimal punctuation, so write your headline in lower-case letters
apart from the initial capital.
SUBHEADINGS AND STAND-OUT QUOTES
Often the first line of the introductory paragraph is highlighted
in bold like a stand-out quote, but sometimes there’s a distinct
subheading. For example:
Time after time
Panerai timepieces really are something to Crowe about.
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The Australian Financial Review, Colour Magazine, 26 July 2002
The article goes on to reveal that celebrities like Russell Crowe
are buying Panerai watches.
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Subheadings and stand-out quotes are usually selected by the
subeditor, so leave this to them unless the subheading is integral
to your meaning.
Leave no questions unanswered
Readers should get to the end of your press release and have all
the vital information. You don’t want to leave unanswered questions in their minds.
If you have some unpalatable facts, like a drop in your share
price, that are relevant to the story, don’t try to hide them in the
hope that no-one will notice. Better to be up-front than to be
caught out being evasive.
Edit and proofread
In the first draft put all your information down on paper.
Then tighten it. Pay particular attention to the first couple of
paragraphs, as they’ll determine whether people will read on.
Remove all extraneous words and be ruthless with those
waffly, meandering sentences. Your writing must be direct and
concise.
Then remember to proofread your press release, and ideally
have someone else read it for you.
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Pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. Trite but true, especially
if you have a strong action shot and not just a head-andshoulders portrait. Your photos need to be of reasonable
quality. If you could use the photos for other promotions,
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consider hiring a professional photographer. If you’re using a
digital photograph, make sure you get permission to email
your photo before you clog up the receiver’s inbox. Some
papers might prefer you to send a disk or put your material
on your website and provide them with a hyperlink so they
can access it.
Background information
It’s accepted practice to provide background information with
your press release. For example, you might write about your
company, the person you’ve quoted, or give some more information about the product or issue you’ve addressed in the press
release.
Your background information needs to be concise, clear and
objective. This is not the place for a sales pitch about you and
your company. Mark your background information �Background information’ or �Backgrounder’, to distinguish it from
your press release.
If you’re emailing your press release, this background information could be on your website and you could provide a
hyperlink. This has advantages over attachments, which many
people are wary of opening because of viruses.
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Contact details
A reporter may want to follow up on your story, so provide a
spokesperson who is available and prepared to answer questions.
Make it easy for the journalist or editor to contact you by
including all your relevant contact details, such as your phone
number, email address and website, at the end of your press
release.
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Also include your contact details in your covering note or, if
you’re emailing your story, under your name at the bottom of
the email as well as at the end of the press release.
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Format
The appearance of your press release has an influence on how
it will be received. Traditionally, press releases were written on
A4 pages in double spacing, but I think 1.5-line spacing is
acceptable today. Some organisations use single spacing so they
can fit the whole press release on one page. Leave wide left and
right margins and generous spaces at the top and bottom of the
pages.
Be careful how you split paragraphs at the bottom of the
page. If you have a four-line paragraph with one line on one
page and three on the next, move the one line onto the following page to keep it together or, alternatively, put two lines on
each page.
Remember to number your pages if you have more than one
page. Some people also put key words in the header and �more’
in the footer in case the pages get separated. Another convention is to put the word �ends’ at the finish. With the increasing
use of electronic media I’m not sure that these conventions are
so relevant today, but page numbering still is.
Most newspapers do not use bullet points. Some magazines
do. But if you look on Internet sites, some organisations write
press releases with bullet points to convey as much information
to the media as possible. However, journalists use such press
releases as background information rather than printing them in
their entirety. Check out the style of your target publication.
If it doesn’t use bullet points, steer away from using them in
your press release.
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ANATOMY OF A PRESS RELEASE
1. Title. Press release title and your company name and logo.
2. Release information. �FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE’ or �EMBARGOED UNTIL 6 FEBRUARY 2004’. This is usually in
capitals and bold for emphasis. Embargo your press release
only if it contains sensitive information you don’t want
released before a certain date or if it relates to an event in the
near future. It sometimes makes sense to send a press release
a bit early to give journalists time to do their own research,
but send it too far in advance and you run the risk of your
press release being put to one side and forgotten.
If your press release is exclusive, state that here as well—
To: (e.g. Attention Business Editor).
3. Date. This is important, but is forgotten surprisingly often.
Include this information even if you’re faxing or emailing the
information. The journalist or editor needs to see it at a
glance.
4. Headline. Keep your headline short, active and descriptive.
5. Subheadline. Optional and usually best left to the subeditor.
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6. Introduction (one or two paragraphs). The introduction must
capture attention and provide relevant information about the
product, service or event. Either go immediately into who,
where, what, why, when and how or set the scene for the rest
of the story. If you set the scene in the first paragraph, the
second paragraph needs to get to the guts of the story and
the 5W and H applies again.
7. Subsequent paragraphs. Subsequent paragraphs provide
supporting information. Often quotes are interspersed with
factual information from the third paragraph onwards.
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How to write a press release
8. For further information, contact: Include address, website
address, email address and phone number.
9. Background information. Keep your background information
brief. You can include background information about your
company or biographies of people you’ve quoted.
Distribution
FAX, POST OR EMAIL?
Find out the name and title (e.g. Susan Smith, Business Editor)
of the correct person to send your press release to, and check
how they want to receive it. Many editors these days like press
releases emailed, but some still like them faxed or, if there’s no
time constraint, posted.
If you’re faxing or emailing your press release, you may need
to courier your photo unless it’s on your website. Include
another copy of the press release with the photo.
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Follow-up
Like all aspects of marketing, dealing with the media is about
building relationships. So if it’s appropriate, ring up and ask
whether they want any more information. Or you could even
ring them before you write it to see whether the story interests
them.
But remember, your press release is only one of many, and
if you don’t know the editor or journalist you may get a frosty
reception. Don’t take it personally: they may be busy. Some
journalists prefer being contacted by email; others regard that
as intrusive. Trust your instincts on the best way to contact
journalists personally and whether it’s even advisable.
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Timing
The timing of your press release is important. Check out what time
your target media likes to receive their press releases. As a general
rule, aim to fax or email your press release through by 11 am and
follow up, if appropriate, late morning or early afternoon.
Press release for local papers
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E , 1 J A N UA R Y 2 0 0 0
Balcony design brightens inner-city living
There is a growing trend towards apartment living, but many people still
want gardens.
Delite Landscape Design is launching a new balcony design and maintenance service to cater for apartment dwellers.
�Many stark, hot balconies can be transformed into attractive miniature gardens, creating restful places to sit,’ says John Pettit, Managing
Director of Delite Landscape Design.
�Often people don’t know what plants to choose or how to arrange them
harmoniously. We can create balcony displays to suit all climates and conditions. We choose hardy plants that look good at all times of the year and
require little maintenance.’
Delite Landscape Design can also create instant balcony displays with established plants and flowers for a special event, like a wedding or birthday party.
�If people are selling,’ said John, �we can rent them a balcony display
for the sales period and help them add thousands to the value of their
apartment.’
As well as creating or renting balcony designs, the Delite Landscape
Design experts offer a maintenance service for people who travel a lot or
who don’t want the hassle of looking after their balcony garden. They’ll
look after indoor plants at the same time.
To find out more about Delite Landscape Design’s balcony service,
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contact John Pettit, Ph: (01) 2345 6789 Email: <info@delitelandscape.com>
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Press release for local newspapers
EMERALD
furniture
F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E , 1 J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0
Emerald Furniture honoured in
Eco-Design Excellence Awards
Susan Eves of Emerald Furniture received a Bronze for a diningroom chair
in the Design Innovation: Domestic Furniture category in the Eco-Design
Excellence Awards held in June 2003.
These awards are presented by the Eco-Design Society and cosponsored by Furniture Week.
Two hundred furniture makers were invited to take part in the awards
and the furniture submitted was assessed for functionality, environmental
standards and innovation.
A panel of international experts, including European designer Alexander
Corsini, judged the entries.
In awarding Susan the Bronze, the judges described her chair as �one
of the best and most functional designs this year’.
�It is a very stylish and comfortable chair,’ said Graeme Jones. �We were
particularly impressed by the back-post, which is elegant but provides excellent back support.’
Susan Eves’s use of environmental materials and techniques also
received high praise. The chair was made out of recycled New Zealand Kauri
timber with kangaroo leather for the seat.
�Receiving a Bronze is a great honour,’ said Susan Eves. �I’m delighted
that the judges recognised my commitment to creating innovative products
using sustainable materials.’
For more information about Emerald Furniture, contact Susan Eves,
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Ph: (01) 0345 6789 Email: susan@emeraldfurniture.com
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Blue Gum
Press release for a food magazine
RESTAURANT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 1 JANUARY 2000
SLOW
FOOD FOR BUSY PEOPLE
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Blue Gum Restaurant, a popular family restaurant in Sydney, is
now offering a dial-a-dinner service.
�Many people like quality food, but lack the time to prepare
it,’ says restaurant owner Tania James. �They come home from
work late and throw together some pasta or buy takeaways.
�Now with a little forethought people can have gourmet or
simple, wholesome, home-cooked food delivered to their
doorstep.’
Blue Gum’s dial-a-dinner service caters for both �at-home
dinners for busy people’ and that special occasion dinner party
to impress the guests.
�For people who want to curl up in front of television with
their family, we offer old favourites, like shepherd’s pie, roast beef,
baked potatoes and apple crumble.
�We offer a wide dinner party choice and currently our most
popular meals are lamb shanks in jelly followed by lemon mousse,
and poached trout with new potatoes and a rocket salad.’
Diners can view the week’s menu in advance on the website
at <www.bluegumrestaurant.com> or pick up a copy from the
restaurant. Blue Gum Restaurant accepts Internet and phone
bookings (free-call 1800 123 456.)
The meals come packaged in vacuum-sealed plastic bags, so
just need reheating and serving. Diners can collect their meals
from the restaurant on their way home from work or have them
delivered at a specific time anywhere within the metropolitan area.
A simple flavoursome meal with two courses for two costs
about $60 (delivery included).
For more information, contact Tania James, Ph (01) 0345
6789. Email: tjames@bluegumrestaurant.com.au
Column short
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Summary
PURPOSE
• What do you want to achieve?
• Is a press release the best way to achieve it?
AUDIENCE
• Who do you want to reach?
• What is the best media to reach your audience?
CONTENT
• What is your key message?
• What is your angle?
• Do you get the main message (5W & H) across in the first
two paragraphs?
• Is your press release clear, simple and direct?
• Have you used a spokesperson?
• Is your layout clean and attractive?
• Have you provided background information?
• Have you provided contact details?
• Have you remembered to include the date?
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TIPS
• Make sure you have a newsworthy story.
• Read, listen to or watch the media you want to use your press
release.
• Make press releases a regular part of your marketing. Even
if they don’t give you an immediate return in terms of
increased sales, they help build your brand in the marketplace.
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How to write
direct mail
Page 130
6
How to write direct mail
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D
irect mail, often called DM, is traditionally all the promotional material we receive through our letterboxes, such
as letters, catalogues, coupons, samples and invitations. Today,
many companies send this information via email instead of snail
mail, and such direct mail is called email marketing.
The pendulum swings back and forth in favour of different
marketing methods. For example, in the early 1990s people were
questioning the cost-effectiveness of print advertising and
spending more on direct mail. Now there is another swing in
favour of email marketing, but as email marketing becomes more
common it will have to be cleverer and work harder to achieve
results. The most successful marketing will always use a range
of techniques rather than relying exclusively on one method.
Before you begin, collect samples of direct mail—both snail
and email. What makes you decide to read them in the first place
and what keeps you reading? How important is the appearance?
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How many direct mailers do you respond to and what makes
the difference? How many do you receive addressed to you by
name? Does this influence you?
Direct mail—snail mail
Direct mail is still effective. You only need to clear out your
letterbox or post office box to realise that direct mail is alive and
well. But you need to be realistic about what results you will
receive with direct mail. Most direct mail has a response rate of
less than 1%, but that 1% may be enough to make your campaign worthwhile. Direct mail is a great choice if you have a
good offer, a list of highly targeted prospects and your timing
is right. If you’re sending out a small number of direct mailers
at a time, following up with a personal phone call will enhance
your direct mail’s effectiveness.
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Purpose
Most businesses use direct mail to encourage people to buy their
products or services. But think laterally. You can use your direct
mail for PR and to build relationships so you attract lifetime
customers or clients, not just make a one-off sale.
Some people think that direct mail is suitable only for products or not-for-profit organisations, not professional services.
But professional services can use direct mail successfully. Rather
than a hard sell, they may take a more �softly, softly’ approach
by sending their prospects information that will interest them,
such as an article on a change in legislation.
You can also use direct mail with existing customers or clients
to encourage them to buy more or new products and to make
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them aware of your other products. Research shows that many
customers or clients aren’t aware of their suppliers’ full range of
services, and there’s often untapped potential to cross-sell.
This section concentrates mainly on the direct mail letter to
cold prospects, but some suggestions for using direct mail with
�warm’ prospects and existing clients or customers are:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
News updates
New community sponsorships
New employees
New program, products or services
Events
Changes happening in the industry
Law change or new legislation
Product launches
Introducing a new webpage
New pricing schedule with some specials
Annual reports
Awards
Confirming your attendance
Your purchase is on the way
Time for your next appointment
Thank you for your time
Thank you for the referral
Thank you for buying our product or service
Promotions
Special deals
Discount coupons
Congratulations on:
—buying a house
—getting a loan
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—completing a course
—passing an exam, etc.
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Types of direct mail
LETTERBOX DROPS
One method of direct mail is the residential letterbox drop. This
is best suited to businesses catering for the domestic market, such
as local takeaway restaurants, gardening businesses and cleaning
services. Many such businesses hand-deliver their notices to
avoid the cost of postage.
A variation of this approach is a letterbox drop to business
mailboxes. If you want to target business boxes in a large number
of post offices, you will need to book in advance, especially
before Christmas. If you want to target just your local post
offices, you can deal direct with the post office. You won’t reach
all the business boxes, as some put a ban on promotional material.
Most businesses that do residential or business letterbox
drops use leaflets, brochures or postcards; only a few put their
direct mail in an envelope and include a covering letter. The
quality of these direct mails varies enormously, from scrappy
bits of paper to large, glossy brochures.
The advantages of both residential and business letterbox drops
is that they’re relatively inexpensive compared with advertising.
The disadvantage is that your communication is impersonal and
not directed to any specific person. You’re relying largely on
people having a need for your product or service or your direct
mail being so different that it stands out from the clutter.
I have used business letterbox drops on two occasions, and
won’t use it again. Each time I received only one query, and
neither led to any work. On the other hand, I have attended one
breakfast seminar as a result of a flyer I received in my letterbox.
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I also tend to keep brochures about local takeaway restaurants
and services, such as gardening. Often these are not flashy or
expensive flyers, but they interest me because they’re local.
TARGETED DIRECT MAIL
Targeted direct mail is probably the most effective method of
direct mail for business-to-business marketing. With targeted
direct mail, you send your direct mail to a specific person in a
company that fits your target market.
Targeted direct mail often includes a reply-paid card, but it is
even more effective if you follow up your direct mail with a phone
call a few days later. A follow-up call gives you a second chance
at marketing if the person hasn’t read your direct mail, and it
increases your chances of people saying �yes’. But you should
develop a thick skin, as the majority of people are still going to
say �no’ and they’re not going to care about your feelings.
If you follow up your direct mail with a phone call, stagger
your mailout so you’re not swamped with follow-up calls, and
don’t send your direct mail at a time when you know you’re
going to be busy and follow-up will be difficult. Sending your
direct mail in batches will also give you an opportunity to test
and refine your messages.
If you follow up with a phone call, you can also use this
opportunity to collect their contact details if they’re not interested now but may be interested some time in the future. Ask
whether they want to receive your newsletter or e-newsletter.
Some targeted direct mail uses another letter as a follow-up
rather than a phone call. For example, if the direct mail promoted
a course, then the follow-up letter could be a reminder closer to
the time. Sometimes the initial letter is a teaser that gives no clues
about the sender. The following letter or letters provide more
clues to get the recipient’s interest, until all is revealed in the final
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letter. This technique can be very effective, but needs to be clever
to work.
DIMENSIONAL MAILER
Dimensional mailer is the marketing term for any direct mail
that’s not flat. Dimensional mailers often come in a box. They
grab attention, because they’re different, but they’re also usually
expensive, even if you send only a small gift like a fridge magnet.
You’ve got to pay extra postage, and put something of value to
the recipient inside the box.
Case study
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The following study of Corporate Marketing Aprimo Inc. was
profiled in a Marketing Sherpa Weekly ezine.
Corporate Marketing Aprimo regularly schedules dimensional mailers every two weeks for most of the year—except
before Christmas, when they could be confused with gifts. These
dimensional mailers are aimed at encouraging companies with
reasonably large IT budgets to buy software.
This case study highlighted the following ingredients for a
successful dimensional mailer:
• Pick the right item to insert in your box. Aprimo chose three
different wooden toy sets: Chinese checkers, a Brio train with
tracks, and a Tinker toy set. Each would look good sitting in
their box on the executive’s desk and each had enough room
for Aprimo’s labels. (The trains were the biggest hit.)
• Send the box to the person who influences the purchasing
decisions. Aprimo uses an in-house research team to gather
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names. They select companies based on industry and then
call each company to find out which executive has the
authority in the right area. This can sometimes take several
calls.
• Offer recipients a webpage to sign in on (even though you
will follow this up with a phone call) to receive an additional
gift (such as extra tracks).
• Follow up with a phone call quickly and relentlessly. Aprimo
makes up to five attempts to reach its prospects within one
to three days after it estimates prospects would have received
the box. The aim of the call is to make an appointment.
• Sales reps answer an email survey after each marketing call,
stating whether they thought the leads were any good.
Results
• Ten per cent appointment rate.
• Every 1000 boxes leads to 100 appointments.
• About 2% of prospects visited the webpage.
PS: If you’re going to send a promotional gift, make sure it
arrives undamaged. I received a pen with a light at the top—
�Light up your life’. The only problem was that it was broken.
It went straight into the bin.
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Audience—the list
If you’re doing a targeted mailout, the quality of your list is as
important as the timing. You may have the best offer, the best
price and the best letter about lawnmowers, but if you send your
letter to people living in high-rise apartments your direct mail
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will fail. It’s worth putting time into researching your list or
you’re wasting your time and money.
You can use lists to post direct mail to people, but you must
respect people’s right to opt out. The most powerful lists are your
own client list and lists made up of past prospects and referrals.
You can also make your own list of prospective clients that fit
your target market from various sources such as the Yellow Pages,
newspapers and trade magazines. Alternatively, you can buy
personalised lists of companies that match your target market.
You can also buy software packages of company names and
phone numbers. The most expensive packages provide detailed
information about companies, including their industry, size, and
names of key contacts (some will always be out of date). Some
packages provide updates as part of the deal. Less expensive is
the Yellow Pages on disk or equivalent software that lists companies according to industry and gives you phone numbers. The
problem with these programs is that they don’t differentiate
companies according to size. If you plan to do a lot of direct
mail or telemarketing, it is probably worth investing in a comprehensive software package.
Whatever method you use to compile your list, it’s a good
idea to computerise your database. You can use Word or Excel,
but a database system (Access or a commercial product) will give
you greater flexibility. With database management software or a
client relationship management package you can also record all
steps of the sales process.
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Timing
Whether you’re doing a large letterbox drop or a targeted
mailing, timing is crucial. The same direct mail sent out at
different times can get completely different responses. Even a
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poorly-worded direct mail can get a better response at the right
time than a well-worded direct mail at a bad time. For example,
just before Christmas isn’t the best time for a direct mail
campaign for professional services, but is a good time for retail
products.
I can testify to the importance of timing. A colleague and
I did a combined direct mail to specific people in companies we’d
researched thoroughly. We had a superbly crafted letter with a
great offer and we followed up with a phone call a few days later.
But our timing was wrong. It was just prior to Christmas.
Another time I sent a direct mail letter with much less preparation and forethought and never got around to following up.
I received three phone calls and two jobs.
Offer and call to action
The direct mail sales letter has a fairly distinctive format. It basically consists of an offer and a call to action—or, put another way,
a bribe to tempt you and ways of making it easy or compelling
for you to take the next step and actually buy. For example, you
may want a new pair of jeans but know there’s no great urgency
as they’re usually available. But if you know you’ll get a second
pair half-price if you buy one pair, you might be tempted (offer
or bribe). You’ll overcome your natural inertia and go shopping
if you know the deal expires at the end of the month (call to
action).
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The letter
Direct mail with a covering letter has a higher rate of success
than other forms of direct mail. Even if you’re sending your
prospects information, such as a reprint of an article or a
brochure, include a covering letter. A letter creates an illusion of
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personal communication and is often seen as providing information, whereas brochures and leaflets on their own are regarded
as advertising. If you’re writing a letter to accompany some
information or brochure, your letter may be brief and to the
point, and your �sell’ will often come with your follow-up letter
or phone call.
Some people write letters addressed to �Dear Sir/Madam’,
�Business Owner’ or �The Manager’, but it’s much more effective to personalise your letter and address the person by name.
Take the time to find out the names of the decision makers to
address your letter to.
Content and visual appearance must work together to create
an immediate impact in a direct mail letter, so make all the ingredients of letter writing work for you.
HEADING
Use your heading to grab attention and inform your readers
what your letter is about. There’s more information about headings in Chapter 7.
The heading often comes after the greeting (�Dear Ellen
Jones’), but in some direct mail it’s before the greeting.
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OPENING SENTENCES
Your opening sentences are your chance to establish rapport,
focus your message and entice your reader to read on. Keep your
tone friendly and informal and get straight to the point. If you’re
having difficulty with the first sentence, move on and come back
to it at the end.
THE OFFER
Have an offer that is impressive and irresistible. This is sometimes known as the bribe. It is the hook to get your prospective
client or customer interested.
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Your offer must overcome prospect inertia and make customers
or clients want to take advantage of your offer now. You may
offer them something free to tempt them, like a free sample, free
trial or free consultation. You may offer them a reduced price
or an irresistible guarantee.
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CALL TO ACTION
A call to action encourages readers to take the next step, to
contact you or buy your product or service. Most direct mailers
put their call to action at the end of their letters. Some place it
at the beginning and repeat it at the end.
A call to action creates a sense of urgency. Often the offer is
time-limited, for example �reply by X date’, and sometimes it’s
limited to the first X (number of) people who respond.
Sometimes the call to action relies on making it easy to
respond, by a prepaid reply coupon, a 1800 number, or even
just your contact details prominently displayed. If you want
people to visit your business, maybe you could include a location map.
FINISH WITH A PS
A PS at the end of a direct mail letter is a common technique (if
you don’t believe me, read your sample letters again). Apparently
it works because people opening a letter first look to the bottom
to see who it’s from and the PS immediately grabs their attention. Another theory is that we remember the first and last things
that we read, so if we’ve read the entire letter the PS will stay in
our minds. Or maybe it’s just the personal touch.
Whatever the reason for its effectiveness, the PS is a common
technique in direct mail. It’s mainly used to reiterate the offer
or emphasise the call to action, but it is sometimes used to make
a bonus offer.
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USE THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD WRITING
Adapt the language and tone of your letter to suit your audience. But whether you’re writing to teenagers or the board of
directors of a large company, the same basic principles of good
writing apply, including:
• Simple words—avoid using jargon that your readers won’t
understand
• Short sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Logical sequence and flow
• Active voice
• Specific rather than general
• Subheadings—look at your sample of direct mail and you’ll
notice that many of them break up the copy with subheadings
• Bullet points to list information
• Bold for emphasis with capitals, italics and underlining
sparingly used.
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WRITE PERSUASIVELY
Many people think that persuasive writing needs superlatives,
like �best’, �greatest’ and �largest’. While some direct mail letters
use such hyperbole, simple writing is more powerful. Writing
persuasively includes the following:
• Be objective and specific, and support what you say with
evidence or facts. If you know what people’s objections are
likely to be, raise these yourself rather than ignoring them,
and deal with them. Use facts, statistics and testimonials to
support your claims.
• Be credible. People will believe you more readily if they know
you’re a well-established business with ethics. You can
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establish your credibility through various means, such as your
personal qualifications and experience, your company reputation, your branding and testimonials, and by writing simply
and clearly.
• Use emotional appeal. We form our opinions on the basis of
facts, intuition and prejudice. You can’t do much about
prejudice, but you can convince people with facts; and if
you’re credible, you’ll appeal to their intuition as well.
IDENTIFY A PROBLEM AND PROVIDE A SOLUTION
Writing persuasively goes back to thinking about your audience
and putting yourself in their shoes. Sometimes you can show
you understand their problems by identifying them and giving
some further information. This is your lead into providing a
possible solution. The aim of this method is to get people
mentally nodding their heads in agreement as they read, and is
effective if you understand your audience well. The downside is
that you may not understand their problems, in which case you’ll
lose them from the start.
Write from the prospects’ perspective and use �you’ language.
Tell your prospects what’s in it for them, instead of talking
about you and your company. The emphasis in your letter is on
your offer, rather than on every aspect of your product or
service.
Write about benefits rather than features, but use your
commonsense and provide information about features to
support the benefits if your clients or customers want information about the specifications. The trick is to put yourself in your
prospective customers’ shoes and think about what they want
to know.
Talking directly to your readers with �you’ rather than �I’ and
�we’ language will help focus on them.
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BE HONEST
Tackle any negative issues or possible objections up-front
rather than ignoring them and hoping your prospects won’t
ask. You may make one sale, but probably won’t make lifetime customers if they feel you’ve deceived them or been
misleading.
USE MAGIC WORDS
While people are resistant to over-the-top, boastful adjectives,
�magic words’ do work in direct mail. We are still enticed by
offers that include the word �free’, for example �free gift’, �free
report’, �free consultation’, �free trial’ or �buy X and get Y free’.
�New’ also attracts people, and phrases like �this week only’
and �limited time only’ work well.
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TIGHT COPY
Every word counts in your direct mail. Keep your language
simple and direct and be as specific as possible. Write your first
draft and then go through and delete all unnecessary words, like
�perhaps’ or �maybe’. Don’t be surprised if you manage to reduce
your copy by as much as 25%. The tighter the better. But check,
once you’re finished, that your copy still flows. You need to
maintain a friendly, conversational tone.
Most direct mail letters are one page long, although longer
letters are fine if the content is informative and interesting and
the writing not verbose. If you can’t fit all the information
comfortably on one page, it’s better to go over the page.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Check every little detail with direct mail and flyers. Imagine
you’re writing to the most intelligent and least intelligent
people you know. Make sure all the details are clear and
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completely unambiguous. It’s easy to make assumptions that
people will understand, but if anything is slightly ambiguous
or unclear, at least one person will be confused. For example,
the first flyer I sent out covered three courses on different
topics. I put down one price, which applied to each course.
Several people thought the price covered all three courses. All
it needed was the word �each’ and I would have prevented
confusion.
APPEARANCE
First appearances matter with direct mail. If you’re using an
envelope rather than just a flyer, then first appearances start
with the envelope. It’s amazing how many companies put
direct mail in an envelope that screams �direct mail’. Look
outside post office boxes in the rubbish bin and you’ll notice
that many such direct mailers are discarded unopened. Avoid
putting your direct mail in such an envelope. Opinion differs
as to whether you should type or hand-address your envelope,
but either way it’s best to address your direct mail to a specific
person.
Once your reader has opened the envelope, appearances still
count. People are more likely to read a letter that looks professional, well laid out and easy to read. Letters are easier to read
if they’ve got lots of white space and aren’t too cluttered-looking.
Have a look at your sample direct mail: it’s surprising how many
companies you’d think would know better spoil the visual
impact of their direct mail by cramming too much on one page.
Too much information on one page is offputting.
Some direct mail letters go overboard with colour, graphics,
large type and fancy typefaces. In most cases, simple is better.
Often a clear, professional-looking letter is more appealing than
gimmicks.
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AIDA
Once you’ve written your letter, give it the AIDA test. This
formula’s been around for a long time, but still works.
• Attention. Does it grab your readers’ attention? You can grab
attention by the visual appearance of your letter, the heading
and the first few lines.
• Interest. Now it’s got your readers’ attention, does it interest
them? What’s in it for them? This is where your offer comes
in, and it needs to be at the beginning of your letter.
• Desire. You’ve got your readers’ attention, they’re interested
in your offer, so now you have to provide further evidence
about why they need your products or services. You could
be saving them time and money, providing a solution to
their problem, or persuading them by giving them useful
information.
• Action. Now you’ve got them hooked, you have to make it
easy for them to take action immediately.
Then ask yourself whether your offer and business sound
credible. Would you want to take advantage of this offer and do
business with this firm?
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Testing and evaluation
One of the advantages of staggering your direct mail is that you
can then monitor and test each batch. Test it for timing, the list,
and the content of the letter, and make changes before you send
the next batch. While such testing will always have to take into
account the inconsistent human factor, you’ll find that you can
learn from your experiences and refine and improve your
targeting and the message.
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Email marketing
Email marketing facts
• Worldwide email is the fastest-growing use of the Internet.
• Email is the number one reason why people turn on their
computers.
• Consumers check their email more times daily than they
watch TV, read the newspaper or listen to the radio.
• Fifty-three per cent of those polled by the Gartner Group said
they checked their email at least six times a day when they were
in the office, while 34% admitted to checking it constantly.
Source: <www.internetstats.com>
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Opt in
Email marketing is the flavour of the month, and many businesses that leapt on the bandwagon early had spectacular results
with email marketing. But some people abused it, and as a result
of the backlash that followed, unsolicited emails (known as
spam) are illegal in many countries and states.
So if you plan to do email marketing, make sure all your
prospects have given you their permission to email them. Everyone on your email list must �opt in’, and you must make it easy
for them to �opt out’ (i.e. unsubscribe to your emails). Also, you
should have a privacy statement to reassure prospects that you
won’t rent or sell your list to anyone.
Err on the side of caution. You can’t run a competition or
survey and assume that the people who entered the competition
or answered your survey gave their permission to receive your
marketing material. Nor is it sufficient to give people the right
to opt out. Opt in means as its name implies—opt in.
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Direct mail
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite has used two direct mail campaigns to promote its balcony design
service. The first concentrated on the design aspect and the second
promoted �rent a garden’, aimed at people selling their apartments.
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville VIC 1999
5 May 2003
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
for gardens that delight
Jo and Beth Clark
5 Top Street
Bulto,
Dear Jo and Beth Clark
Free balcony design with any purchase over $150—
but hurry, offer ends 31 May
Living in a high-rise apartment, you’re close to the city with all its attractions, but don’t
you miss the smell of spring flowers? And wouldn’t a bush be nice to shelter you from the
wind or block out the neighbours?
Why not create a balcony garden? We’ve just launched our new balcony garden service
and have a great selection of pots and plants suitable for all balcony conditions. No matter
how big or small your balcony, or whether it’s hot or windy, we have the pots and plants
for you.
But don’t take our word for it—come in and look for yourself. Bring this letter with you
and spend $150 or more, and we’ll give you a free balcony design that suits your personality
and your budget.
We’re easy to find. We’re behind the post office in Hawk Street. If you want to know
whether we have any particular plants, give us a ring on (01) 0345 6789 or visit our website
at <www.delitelandscape.com>.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Yours sincerely
John Pettit
M ANAGING D IRECTOR
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PS A free pot plant goes to the first 50 people who take advantage of this offer.
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Advantages
There are many advantages to email marketing, and it’s worth
adding to your marketing mix. According to Boldfish, emails
generate the highest response rates and conversion rates of any
direct marketing tool. Compared to average click-through rates
of 0.65% for banner ads and average response rates of 1%–2%
for direct mail, opt-in email’s average response rate is 5%–15%
(<www.boldfish.com>).
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Given that you can send emails only to those who have opted
in, you can’t use email marketing for �cold’ prospects, so
successful email marketing, like most other marketing, is based
on developing an ongoing relationship with your prospects. This
means that your emails must be interesting and relevant or your
prospects will soon delete them.
A 2002 study by Jupiter Communications found that the
most common email marketing goals are to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Deepen the relationship with the customer
Acquire new customers
Cross-sell
Up-sell
Shorten the purchase cycle
Other
(61%)
(46%)
(29%)
(29%)
(18%)
(11%)
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Source: <www.boldfish.com>
COST
One of the main advantages is the low cost. If you take your
time out of the equation, email is a cheap method of communicating regularly with your customers, clients and prospects. You
don’t incur the costs of paper, envelopes and stamps. With many
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mail list servers, you pay per email sent, but it’s cheap (approximately 1–5 cents per email).
PERSONAL QUALITY
Emails are not as personal as talking face-to-face or over the phone,
but it’s more personal than mail. It’s also convenient for both sender
and receiver, as you don’t both have to be available at the same
time. People can choose a time that suits them to read your email.
But given that emails are personal, they must have something
of interest for the reader. If you collect information about your
database, you can use it to tailor your communications so that
people feel you’re talking directly to them.
SPEED
Emails are fast. Your email arrives shortly after you send it, and
people can respond instantly.
According to GartnerG2, part of the Gartner group, it takes
4–6 weeks to complete a direct mail campaign versus just 7–10
business days for an email campaign. Responses to direct mail
take an average of 3–6 weeks, while responses to email take an
average of 3 days (<www.gartnerg2.com>).
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Purpose
As with all marketing, you need to be clear about what you want
to achieve with email marketing. It still has a bit of mystique,
but when you stop and think about it we all use email marketing
all the time, whenever we keep in touch with our customers or
prospects via email.
Your e-newsletter, if you have one, is an example of email
marketing. An e-newsletter is a great, low-key way of building
relationships and promoting your products and services.
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You can use email marketing for many of the same purposes
as direct mail. You can also use it to supplement your phone
calls and meetings. Some examples of how people use email
marketing are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
News updates
Surveys
Competitions
Loyalty programs
Reminders
Thank yous
Product releases, promotions and special offers
Congratulations.
Case study
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Helen Bateman, owner of the Helen Bateman Shoe Store in
Edinburgh, doesn’t sell her shoes online because she believes the
fit is so important, but she wanted to build her business and keep
in touch with the tourists from around the world who visited
her shop. So she hired a local marketing firm to create an easyto-use template, based on the idea of sending an electronic
postcard—something with high visual impact that would be
quick and easy to read.
Each postcard has her brand lavender background, plus her
shop logo, address and phone number prominently displayed,
at the very top. At the left she types in a quick, two-or-threeparagraph note in postcard style, and on the right she inserts a
digital snapshot. The postcards are signed �Helen’ and have four
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simple links—write to us, register here, tell your friends, and the
web address. The subject lines are often slightly flirty.
To gather email addresses, store staff slip a card into every
purchase. The card includes a photo of her latest collection, a
map to the store, contact information and a request to join her
list. Staff also recruit customers to the list when chatting to them
in the store or over the phone.
As Helen doesn’t sell from her website, the aim is to drive
people back to the shop or encourage them to ring up. To
improve customer service, she’s set up a customer database that
includes people’s purchase history and shoe size.
When she started sending the emails, Helen had only 180
customers on her database. A year later she had almost 1000
names, and she attributes most growth to word-of-mouth referrals. She estimates that after sending a card, she’ll send out 10–15
pairs of shoes in the next couple of days.
A �Hello sailor’ campaign raised sales of the featured shoes by
700%, 50% of which were phone orders from buyers outside
Edinburgh (<www.marketingsherpa.com/helenbateman/2.html>).
Her emails have also paid unexpected dividends in terms of
building relationships. When her shop won a customer service
award, she received over 200 emails, and some customers brought
in champagne and flowers.
Source: Sherpa Weekly e-newsletter
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite uses emails for a variety of reasons, including confirming orders,
thanking customers, invoicing, and informing customers in advance of
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sales.
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EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves emails people on her database when she introduces a new
product. Now she’s introduced her e-newsletter, she may send out the
product information in that and use emails to communicate personally with
clients.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum staff send people who belong to the restaurant’s club a menu
from the chef every month. They also regularly email people their dial-adinner menu. Occasionally they have special theme evenings, and they email
customers informing them of these events and offering them a discount.
The list
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As your list has to be �opt-in’, you need to think how you are
going to compile it. The simplest way is to be up-front—ask
people for their email addresses and get their permission to email
them. You also need to make it easy for them to opt out.
A good step to ensure that your database is up-to-date is to
send an email to all your customers and clients, reconfirming their
details and getting their permission to email them with promotional material. Seek out information that will help you segment
your database into different groups so you can tailor communications to individuals. For example, if you’re running a promotion
in one city, you might send the initial email to everyone on your
list (you never know, they might be in that city at the time), but
your follow-up emails could go only to people in that city.
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Personalise
For best results many marketing experts recommend personalising every message, at least in the �To’ line and possibly in the
body of the email as well. I’m not sure that e-newsletters need
to be personalised, but marketing emails should be.
Personalisation doesn’t apply only to your form of address.
The more personalised and relevant your messages are, the
greater your success will be. It may help to have a specific
person in mind when you write, rather than writing to �the
audience’.
Frequency
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Once you’ve put the hard work in to compiling your list,
you need to treat it with respect. Unlike with direct marketing, which is often a �one-off’ campaign, you want to develop
an ongoing email relationship with your prospects. Even if
you don’t sell to them immediately, you may in the future.
It’s easy to send people a series of emails. Many mail list
servers promote this as part of their service, stating that you can
write different messages in advance which they will send over
the coming days, weeks and months. When I was researching
mail list providers, I experienced this feature when I expressed
an interest in one server. They sent me a series of about six emails
over a period of two weeks and each email had a little more
information aimed at tempting me to buy.
In theory this sounds great. But before you blast your database with emails, put yourself in the recipients’ shoes and ask
how often you would like to receive emails and how many
follow-ups you would think reasonable. In my opinion it’s
best to send too few than too many, rather than have people
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unsubscribing because they’re fed up with receiving your emails.
On the other hand, you don’t want to communicate so infrequently that your prospects don’t remember who you are. Find
that balance.
Timing
As with snail mail, your timing is important and will affect the
success of your promotion. Some times of the year will be better
than others. Some days of the week and times of the day may
also be better than others. Some experts think you achieve best
results if you send your email between 10 am and 4 pm from
Tuesday to Thursday.
You also need to consider how far apart to space your emails
if you’re sending a series to promote the same product or event.
For example, in a traditional mailout to promote a seminar, you
might send the first notice a couple of months in advance and
then a reminder in a month’s time. With email you can leave it
until closer to the event, and then send people several reminders
over a few weeks.
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Plain text, html or rich text?
Most people these days can receive html emails, but some
servers block them and some people have a preference for
plain text. An article in the MarketingProfs.com e-newsletter
(August, 2002) says an opt-in news survey found that 62%
of consumers preferred the plain text mail ad format globally, compared with the 35% who preferred html. Only 3%
preferred rich media, which requires a higher bandwidth.
Rich text allows you to insert logos, graphs, photos and even
videos in emails.
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In contrast to these findings, US marketers use html 60% of
the time and plain text 34%.
If you want to send html emails (and they do look better),
you will need to have a plain text version as well. There’s more
information on html and plain text in Chapter 9.
Encourage viral marketing
Viral marketing is marketing jargon for �pass it on to a friend’.
Encourage your email database to forward your email on to their
friends and colleagues. Many emails have a note at the bottom
suggesting that people forward them.
Writing emails
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WHO FROM
Many people will make the decision about whether or not to
read your email depending on who it’s from and the subject line.
Statistics show that 30% of emails are deleted when the recipient doesn’t recognise the sender (see The Essential Guide to
Email Marketing, F2 network).
If you’re a small business, you may want to use your own
name. If the person you’re emailing will be more familiar with
your company’s name, then use that. Some emails just have the
email address in the �From’ line.
SUBJECT LINE
Your subject line is probably even more important in your
marketing emails than in your e-newsletter. Email newsletter
publishers are doing well if over 50% of the e-newsletters they
send to opt-in subscribers are opened. Promotional emailers have
a much lower rate.
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With your subject line you want to interest and engage your
readers, but you also need to give them an indication of what
your email is about. Your heading needs to brief—probably no
more than 35 characters, as some email programs don’t display
more than that.
One of the first offences is to be boring: it’s better to be
controversial than boring. But on the other hand, don’t be overly
witty with word plays, as most people haven’t the time to appreciate your humour.
It’s best to be straightforward and descriptive unless you’ve
got a �wow’ headline that really works.
Some people use the same heading every time, but the
problem with that is that it’s too general. People already know
who the email is from; what they want of the subject line is to
find out what it’s about. You can start off with the same key
words but add a different descriptive phrase each time. This also
helps people find your information later if they’ve filed your
emails. If all your subject lines are the same, they’ll have difficulty knowing where to look first.
Avoid using hype words, or people will mistake you for
spam. Also avoid words like �register’, �buy’, �new’, �free’,
�important message’, �$$$’, �shop for’ and �guaranteed’.
SHORT, TO THE POINT AND RELEVANT
Many of the principles of writing snail mail direct mail apply to
emails. The main difference is length. Email writing needs to be
about one-third to one-half the length of a direct mail letter.
With a direct mail letter, a lot of the initial impact is through the
design. While layout is still important, the content counts most.
You must attract your readers’ attention with the first
sentence and let them know what’s in it for them immediately.
Many people also have their inbox set to preview, so it is
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imperative that you get your message across in the first paragraph. It has to be interesting and relevant enough to make them
open the email and read the rest.
With email, as your space is limited, you need to concentrate
on the �hot’ button, not every single benefit. For example, for
some busy executives it might be far more important that your
product saves time than that it saves them a few dollars—unless
the savings are significant.
If you’re promoting a product or event, the same ingredients of a direct mail letter apply: you must have an offer,
provide supporting information to encourage a purchase, and
include a call to action with clear directions on how to respond.
For instance, people may respond by filling in a form or
emailing you.
People often don’t scroll down in emails, so your message
must fit comfortably on the screen. If you want to include more
information, a common technique is to provide a hyperlink to
your website. It’s best to take people directly to the relevant
page, rather than your homepage. You can also make the page
open inside your email so people can easily return to your email
once they’ve viewed the page. The traditional PS device is also
useless, as most people don’t look beneath the signature at the
bottom.
Think twice about using attachments like Word or PDF files.
Some people won’t open files because of the risk of viruses. Also,
PDF files can be painfully slow to download.
WRITE FOR THE WORLD
Viral marketing is great, but the downside is that your audience
then becomes anyone and everyone. So, while your writing must
be appropriate for your specific audience, you must make sure
it is OK for anyone to read. This means keeping jargon to a
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minimum and playing it straight. No smutty humour, sexist
language or in-jokes.
Design
Although content is paramount, design also matters if you plan
to use html. Many people use graphics, but if you do, keep
them simple as many of your audience may still have dial-up
modems and they won’t thank you if your email takes ages to
download.
Consider having a designer develop a template for you or
keep your design simple and remember some fundamental design
principles. For example, choose a typeface that’s easy to read and
create white space by using subheadings, short sentences and
short headings.
Testing
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You can send your emails out in batches to test such elements
as your subject line, frequency and timing, copy elements,
graphics, offers, number and placement of �click here’, and the
links.
It’s tempting to evaluate the success of your email campaign
by the number of people who open and click through to your
links. But the bottom line is the amount of new business you
receive. More relevant measures are:
• How many people become immediate prospects?
• How many people give you explicit permission to send
additional emails?
• How many people buy your products and services?
• What’s the lifetime value of your new customers or clients?
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Summary
PURPOSE
Direct mail and email marketing are useful for establishing and
building relationships and gaining new business.
AUDIENCE
Know your audience so you can tailor your direct mail. People
must opt in to receive emails from you, but you can send snail
mail to strangers. Both direct mail letters and emails work best
if you personalise them by addressing the person by name.
CONTENT
• Your content must be relevant and of interest and benefit to
the reader.
• Make an irresistible offer to hook people’s attention and make
it easy for them to reply.
TIPS
Snail mail:
•
•
•
•
•
Good list
Timing
Test and refine
Follow up
Measure your results.
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Email:
• Collect people’s email addresses and get their permission to
email them
• Email often—but not too often
• Test and refine
• Measure your results.
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advertisement
7
How to write an advertisement
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U
nless you’re writing a straightforward advertisement for
the classifieds section of a newspaper or for a directory,
I would recommend that you employ an agency or an
experienced advertising copywriter to compose your advertisements. Writing successful advertisements is a craft, and
unless you have a particular aptitude and are willing to put
the time into learning how to create them, it’s a skill best left
to the experts.
But even if you take my advice and employ a copywriter, it
will pay to learn how to create an advertisement so you can
control the process, which includes writing an appropriate brief
to communicate with your copywriter, staying within your
budget, and placing your advertisement in the most appropriate
media.
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Types of advertisements
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There are basically two kinds of advertisements: brand-awareness
and response advertisements. The main purpose of a brand
advertisement is to build awareness and interest, whereas a
response advertisement invites customers or clients to take
immediate action—either to buy the product or service or to
request more information. These are sometimes called promotional advertisements, product advertisements or call-to-action
advertisements.
Often response advertisements are accompanied by inducements to respond, such as a free consultation, a free brochure, or
discounts such as �buy one, get one free’. Many make response
easy by having a toll-free number or including a prepaid reply card.
Brand advertising is a luxury most small businesses can’t
afford. But it’s a catch-22 situation: response advertisements
work best if your product or service is already known in the
marketplace, and this can be achieved through brand advertising.
One solution is to create an advertisement that both builds
awareness and presents your offer. Such advertisements are better
run in a series than appearing as one-offs (see below).
DEFINITIONS
Classified advertisements mainly appear in print material, such as
newspapers, magazines and trade journals. Such advertisements
are usually text only, and consist of a headline, body copy and
contact details. (Copy is the term for the words that fill the body
of the advertisement. It is also sometimes referred to as body copy.)
Display print advertisements also appear in magazines, newspapers and trade journals. These use a combination of a headline,
copy and visual elements, such as graphics and white space, to
attract readers’ attention.
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Banner advertisements are narrow strips on websites that
present advertising messages.
Pros and cons of different media
This chapter concentrates on print advertisements, but all types
of advertisements are covered briefly in this section.
Newspapers
Newspapers reach a wide range of people within a geographical
area, and you can place your advertisement in a specific section,
such as the finance or lifestyle pages. You can usually pick what
size advertisement you want and the cost of production is relatively inexpensive compared to other media. You also don’t need
to book too far in advance to place an advertisement.
However, while classified advertisements are within the
budget of most small businesses, large display advertisements
are expensive in daily metropolitan papers. Don’t overlook your
local papers if they reach and are read by your target audience.
The disadvantages of newspapers is that they have a short life
span and you’re competing with lots of other information, the print
quality is limiting, and they are not widely read by young people.
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Magazines, including trade journals
Magazines have a more targeted readership than newspapers and
are generally read more thoroughly. They also have a longer life
span and the print is higher-quality. Many magazines offer a classified ads or directory section at reasonable rates.
The disadvantages are that your production costs may be
higher and, as many magazines and journals are published
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monthly, there is usually a longer lead time so you need to plan
further in advance.
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Directories
Directories have the advantage that people consult them only when
they’re ready to buy or at least are ready to get information to start
the buying process. A directory listing also offers you credibility:
readers will assume you’re established in the marketplace. The costs
are relatively low, and one advertisement will usually last a full year.
There are a number of disadvantages. If you have several
products or services, you’ll need to make separate entries under
different sections. There is a long lead time, and you have to
make a commitment in advance and write an entry that will
remain current for at least a year. Also, competing advertisements are all placed together so it’s easy for your prospects to
comparison shop. This leads many companies to compete on
size to gain attention, which increases the costs.
An entry in the Yellow Pages is a must for many small businesses. If you rely largely on word-of-mouth and low-key
marketing methods for your business, you don’t need a big advertisement but you do need a presence. Research shows that nearly
half (40% in Australia, closer to 49% in the USA) of those using
the Yellow Pages already have the name of the business in mind.
Before you make a purchasing decision, think about what you
want to achieve with your advertisement. Then monitor the results
in terms of how much business you get through your listing.
Perhaps a large display advertisement is appropriate for your business, especially if you want to attract prospective customers and
clients rather than have people looking for your phone number.
Directory salespeople will often try to talk you into having a
large advertisement—another reason why it’s good to know what
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you want to achieve. I recently put a listing in the Yellow Pages
and had great difficulty persuading the salesperson that I didn’t
want to spend thousands of dollars. I have never actually received
any work from the Yellow Pages, but some of my competitors have.
On the basis of my past experience I’m choosing a simple line entry.
One of my competitors who’s received work from a one-line entry
is upgrading to a larger, boxed entry. I’ll compare notes with her
later and maybe reassess my approach next time around. It’s always
good to know how your competitors are getting on!
Emerald Furniture and Blue Gum Restaurant have chosen
entries with just their name, address and phone number. Blue
Gum has three listings—an alphabetical listing, a cuisine guide
listing and a location listing.
Delite Landscape Design has a 5 cm high and 7 cm wide
bordered listing:
•
•
•
•
•
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Design
Maintenance
Construction
Over 20 years’ experience
Office and nursery
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville VIC 1999
<www.delitelandscape.com> ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
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Outdoor advertising
The advantage of outdoor billboard advertising is that the advertisements are often large and in prominent positions so they
attract your attention. If people are driving the same way every
day, they see them over and over again. As they’re aimed at a
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moving audience, the messages must be brief and very memorable. It’s impossible to target your message to a specific audience,
so you need to appeal to a diverse audience. Billboard advertising isn’t cheap, and in some places where there is high traffic
volume you need to book well in advance.
There are other, cheaper types of outdoor advertising. At its
simplest, that could mean a sign outside a house which is having
alterations done. Or you can be creative and think of other examples. Luke Sullivan in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This cites an
advertising campaign in New York for a lingerie shop, which
consisted of stencilled messages on the pavement stating �From here
it looks like you could use some new underwear’. He gives another
example in London, where The Economist ran an advertisement on
bus rooftops which read �Hello to all our readers in high office’.
Delite Landscape Design has a noticeboard which, with the
owners’ permission, it puts at the front of properties it is working
on to catch the attention of people passing by. Over the years
this method of advertising has attracted a significant amount of
local business. It also has its name and logo on the side of
company vehicles.
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Radio
With radio, you have a highly targeted audience. You can choose
the radio station your prospects listen to and choose which
programs you want your advertisement to be attached to. You
don’t usually have to book far in advance.
But that’s no guarantee your prospects will listen to your
advertisement. Listeners can switch stations to avoid advertisements. And, if your advertisement interests them and they
want more information, they can’t rewind to hear it again.
So you need to repeat your advertisement several times for it
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to be effective. Although you must include your phone
number, many people listen to the radio in the car, so won’t
write it down. Make sure your company name is prominent
so they can look you up in the phone book. If you want
people to come to your store or office it’s probably worth
identifying a well-known landmark, such as �just opposite the
post office’.
Most radio advertisements run for 15–60 seconds. Alternatively you could sponsor a section on the radio, such as the
weather or sports news. Or you could promote your products
and services indirectly by offering to speak on a subject you’re
an expert in. For example, Delite Landscape Design has a regular
gardening spot on a local radio station where they provide
gardening tips and answer listeners’ queries.
Many radio stations offer copywriting services, but some tips
for developing your own radio advertisement are:
• Know your objective.
• Put yourself in your listeners’ cars and ask what would make
you buy your product or service?
• Develop a concept to get your main message across.
• Grab your audience’s attention with a strong opening.
• Tell your story in seconds, and make sure you feature your
name and your call to action strongly.
• Write in a conversational style, just as people talk, and
remember to include pauses.
• Keep your writing tight—edit out any unnecessary words.
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Television
Television is expensive, and is mainly used for brand and image
enhancement or special deals. While you have an opportunity
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to target particular audiences according to what programs they
watch, with television advertising you’re competing with other
advertisements and viewers’ ability to switch channels to avoid
your advertisements.
Television advertising is a specialised area. If you decide to
go down this route, you’ll probably need to seek professional
assistance with creating and placing your advertisement.
Internet marketing
Companies advertise on the Internet with banner advertisements that people click onto or with pop-up boxes that appear
when you enter or leave a site. Companies also advertise
through competitions, some advertise in their own e-newsletters and increasingly companies advertise in other people’s
e-newsletters.
If you want to put an advertisement in someone else’s
e-newsletter, have a look at how other people advertise in this
medium and base your advertisement on the elements you think
work the best.
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Benefits of a campaign
There are a number of advantages to running an advertising
campaign rather than placing a single advertisement. You can repeat
the same advertisement several times to reinforce your message
and so encourage your readers to make a purchasing decision.
The most important factor in advertisement recall is the
number of times people are exposed to your advertisement. So if
you have a small budget, limit the size of your advertisement
and even the number of individuals and households your advertisement reaches and concentrate on frequency.
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Barbara Findlay Schenck’s Small Business Marketing for
Dummies maintains that you need to run your advertisement
as many as nine times to reach your prospects even once. This
is because each time your advertisement runs, few people will
notice it. You need to run your advertisement as many as 27
times to reach your prospects three times. Findlay Schenck
outlines some scheduling concepts of advertisement timings:
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• Continual. You place your advertisements regularly on an
ongoing basis.
• Flighting. You start off with a heavy schedule to make an
impact, then go dormant for a while. Then you bring your
advertisements back with a lighter schedule, followed by
another dormant phase. Then you repeat the whole pattern
again.
• Front loading. You run a heavy schedule and then drop back
to continual, low-key advertising. This campaign is useful
for product launches, openings, and to kick-start a market.
• Heavy scheduling. You do continual marketing throughout
the year accompanied by regular blitzes of heavy scheduling.
• Pulsing—on/off scheduling. You place your advertisements,
then you go dormant, you replace your advertisements,
followed by another dormant phase. There are no blitzes with
this type of scheduling.
Not everyone will want to buy your product or service the
first time they read or hear about it. If you can capture their
names and get their permission to email them, you can include
them on your email database and continue marketing to them
after your advertisement campaign is over. Think of ways to
capture this information. For example, you may offer a free
consultation or include a reply-paid coupon.
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Creating an advertisement
You only have a few seconds to grab your audience’s attention.
Your advertisement needs to have a strong offer and encourage
people to take that next step in the buying process now.
A successful advertisement speaks directly to your target
audience and invites them to read it. Once you’ve got their attention, you need to entertain and/or inform them. Advertisements
that provide information get a higher response rate than pure
branding advertisements that convey emotions and mood.
An advertisement is read at a glance, but the preparation
takes time.
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Determine your purpose
As with any marketing campaign, you need first to determine
what you want to achieve with your advertisement. If you set
your expectations before writing and placing your advertisement,
you can also define your measurement standard. But remember
that with advertising, patience is the key. You need to be clear
about what advertising can do for you. Even great advertising
often just paves the way for you to make a sale later. Advertising
is also risky. Not all advertising works. But if you’re well
prepared you can increase the chances that it will work for you.
Choose one goal rather than several, and stick to it throughout your advertising campaign. Are you opening a new
market, creating brand awareness, wanting to attract clients to
a seminar or trying to make a direct sale? What are your
competitors offering, and how and where are they advertising?
If you are launching a new product or service you might first
need to find out whether there is already a demand for your
product or service or whether you need to create one.
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Once you’re clear about your goal, you’re in a position to make
wise media decisions. For example, if you want to develop general
awareness and interest, use media that reaches a broad and general
market. If you want, on the other hand, to target your message to
people you know will already have an interest in or need for your
product or service, you may decide to advertise in a trade journal.
Identify your audience
Ask yourself questions like:
• Who do you want to reach?
• What do they currently know about your company and your
product or service?
• What do you want them to know, think and do?
• What information does the advertisement have to include?
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List everything you know about your audience. Advertisements
are chatty and informal, so imagine you’re addressing one
particular person.
For example, Delite Landscape Design wants to promote its
�Gone Potty’ balcony design service. It’s targeting young, professional singles and couples living in apartments in the city.
So John Pettit has developed a mental image of his target group.
Jane Smith is 32 years old and works as a middle manager for
a large corporation. She earns a big salary and works long hours.
She grew up in a small town and her mother loved gardening.
She now lives in an apartment building with a balcony that
overlooks the city. She likes plants, but travels a lot. She’s tried
putting plants on her balcony, but has never managed to keep
them alive. She has better luck with indoor plants, though some
of them die from neglect too.
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Outdoor pot plants requiring little maintenance or watering
would be ideal for Jane. Delite Landscape Design could set up
her balcony. They could also maintain it regularly and look after
her indoor plants at the same time.
Identify your key message
List every aspect of your product or service. Sometimes we’re too
close to our own business to see it clearly. Stand back and view
it from an outsider’s point of view. What will they want to know,
and how will they benefit from using your product or service?
Dredge up all the facts and figures you can find—there might be
something in the detail you can use to create a memorable idea.
Specific information is always more interesting than generalities.
You need to present one clear idea in an advertisement. There
isn’t time or space for more. Don’t confuse your prospects with
too much choice. You’re after a �yes/no’ response rather than �which
one?’ If you do present more than one product or service, see if
you can package them together to eliminate the choice element.
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Develop a positioning statement
There has been a lot written on positioning. Early experts in this
field whose work is still relevant today are Reis and Trout, who
wrote Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
Positioning is filling a meaningful and available slot in the
public’s perception. David Ogilvy defines it simply as �what your
product does, and who it is for’. It’s often based largely on
market perception rather than reality. For example, David Ogilvy
says he could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men
with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar
for women with dry skin.
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If you have a unique selling proposition (USP), flaunt it.
A USP is based on a specific benefit that your competitors don’t
offer. It must be a strong benefit that will attract customers or
clients (see Chapter 1 for more information).
Small Business Marketing for Dummies suggests the following
formula for constructing your positioning statement: Your Name
+ Your Business Description + Your Point of Distinction + Your
Market Description = Your Positioning Statement.
Another way of developing your positioning statement is to
write the following sentence: My product or service is the only
one which _______________________ for _____________________
because __________________________.
As we saw in Chapter 1, not all small businesses have an
obvious USP, so you may have to dig into the details to find
specifics that differentiate your products or services. It might be
as simple as your philosophy and style.
Be consistent with your brand image
Remember that everything you do contributes to your brand
image. All your advertisements need to be in keeping with your
overall branding, even if they’re response advertisements. Within
that brand you can play with the tone: for example, even traditional companies can get away with cheeky advertisements so
long as they’re not crude.
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Work out the benefits
Stressing benefits is what advertising is all about, and the benefits need to be stated immediately—not buried in the copy. But
stating a benefit in itself is seldom enough to persuade people to
buy. You need to back up your statement with supporting
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reasons. One way of doing this is to complete the following
sentence: �My advertisement will persuade (target audience) that
my product/service will (describe the benefit) because (describe
how or why it will help them).’
Ask yourself what would make you want to buy the product
or service. Consider the opposite of your product: what doesn’t
it do?
Look at <www.solutionscatalog.com> for some inspiration
and ideas. It’s an online catalogue for a wide range of products
and it obviously employs experienced copywriters. An example
picked at random is Oxygenics Showerhead.
OxygenicsВ® Showerhead
A shower so invigorating, you’d never guess
it’s cutting water and energy use in half!
Conserve water and electricity without
sacrificing comfort. The Oxygenics Showerhead
self-pressurizes for a refreshing spa shower
even with low water pressure. So efficient, it can
reduce the volume and cost of hot water
needed for showers by up to 70%.
Made of chrome-plated
ABS plastic.
It’s a wake-up call to your skin!
The patented Oxygenics system enriches the
water with air, increasing its oxygen content by
as much as 60%. This helps purify the shower,
countering free radical cells that can damage
and age the skin. With its adjustable spray and
massaging action, the Oxygenics Showerhead
energizes your shower, helping to deep clean
your skin, stimulate cells and improve
circulation.
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Be honest and credible
It may be tempting to exaggerate, but avoid the temptation. Trust
is an important issue for your reputation and repeat business.
So be honest and don’t make promises you can’t keep. Also avoid
overselling: it’s stronger to state the benefits and facts than to
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overstate your case. People are discerning, and don’t like excessive marketing hype.
The issue of trust is particularly important for professional
services, so many people use testimonials in advertisements. Make
sure you check with your referees that they’re happy to be quoted
in your advertisement. Another common way of gaining credibility is having a well-known person endorse your product or
service. David Ogilvy recommends using an expert rather than a
celebrity for credibility, as with celebrities people recall the celebrity
over and above your product and assume (usually correctly) that
the celebrity is doing your advertisement for the money.
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Develop a concept
The overall concept is the key to a successful advertisement, and
this is where the experts earn their money—they’re used to thinking
creatively. But it is a craft that can be learnt, and one of the best
ways of learning it is to read books on advertising and to study
advertisements. Copy them at first until you understand how they
work. That’s how many of the top advertising copywriters learnt.
Great ideas are memorable and often have an element of risk.
One of the techniques used by advertising copywriters to come up
with ideas is brainstorming. Brainstorming occurs after you’ve done
your spadework, so you know who your target audience is and
what you want to achieve. It involves relaxing your mind to see
where it takes you and treating all ideas as good ideas so you don’t
block the flow. You doodle, invite others to brainstorm with you,
flick through magazines, look at past advertisements, view your
competitors’ advertisements, and think about the unique benefits
of your product or service. Then suddenly you start to write.
As Luke Sullivan says in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This:
�Eventually you get to an idea that dramatizes the benefit of your
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client’s product or service. Dramatizes is the key word. You must
dramatize it in a unique, provocative, compelling and memorable way.’
Include a call to action and make taking action easy
Encourage readers to take action with a tempting offer, and make
it compelling and easy for them to take the next step.
Pay attention to detail and check whether you need to include
the following information:
•
•
•
•
•
Hours
Map of directions
Parking instructions
Credit card options
Licences, etc.
In every advertisement, your contact details need to be clearly
displayed so it’s easy for people to take action. This sounds
obvious, but is sometimes overlooked.
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Prices
Small Business Marketing for Dummies has some advice on
pricing, starting with the fact that price alone is never reason
enough to buy. Your price announcements must be accompanied by positive reasons and benefits.
Pricing must not be misleading or complex. Your prices need
to be presented in a straightforward and visually attractive manner,
and if you offer a discount it needs to be compelling to be a real
incentive. Many people no longer regard 10% off as a big deal.
Tips Findley Schenck suggests for pricing announcements
include the following.
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PRICING
P R E S E N T A T I O N DO ’ S A N D D O N ’ TS
Don’t
Do
Why
We’ve just cut our
nightly rates—to $89
mid-week. Some
restrictions apply
Announcing a new St
Louis number to
remember—$89 per
night
Sofa and loveseat
$1995.00
Sofa and loveseat
$1995
25% off two or more
1/ off second pair
2
30% off
Regularly $995; now
$695 while supplies last
$6.99 each
$13.99—Buy One, Get
One Free
The second approach makes the
deal sound noteworthy, whereas
the first approach provides no
positive rationale and implies that
�small print applies’.
When prices are more than $100
drop the decimal point and zeroes
to lighten the effect.
Complicated discounts are
uninspiring, plus �1/2 off’ sounds
like double the discount of 25% off
when you buy two.
�1/3 off’ sounds more compelling
than 30% off; but showing a $300
reduction is strongest of all. �While
supplies last’ adds incentive and
urgency.
Sometimes a low price conveys low
value. Consider doubling the price
but making a powerful two-for-onelimited-time offer.
$14.95 plus
shipping/handling
$17.95. We pick up all
shipping and handling
The word �plus’ alerts the consumer
that the price is only the beginning.
Calculate and include shipping and
handling to remove buyer concern
and possible objection.
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Ingredients of an advertisement—
visuals, headlines and body copy
In print advertisements, the headline, body copy and graphic
or visual elements all work together to capture your audience’s
attention and entice them to buy your product or service.
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You may choose to use a designer to put all the elements
together. If you’re doing it yourself, make sure the headline,
body and visuals are harmoniously combined and reflect your
brand as well as advertise your product or service.
Visuals
Illustrations and photos are what catch people’s attention first.
Sometimes they present the product, sometimes they show
the product in use, and sometimes they create a feeling or
mood. David Ogilvy maintains that photographs attract more
readers than drawings, but cautions that photographs reproduce badly in some newspapers so a line drawing is sometimes
better.
Luke Sullivan advises being visual and going short on the
copy, on the basis that showing the benefits is more involving
than describing them. Show not tell can be done well in print,
not just on TV. He gives the example of an advertisement for
Fisher Price’s anti-slip roller skates. In the picture there is
one kid standing in the far right. The headline reads: �Which
one of these three kids is wearing Fisher Price anti-slip roller
skates?’ He comments that the mental image of �two kids
landing on their duffs is more powerful than actually showing
them that way’.
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Headlines
Four out of five people who see your advertisement will read
only the headline. If your headline doesn’t inspire them, the
rest of your copy has no chance. Your headline has to work
hard, so it’s worth spending time getting it right. It needs to
grab attention and say �Stop, this concerns you’. It must
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convey a meaningful benefit and promise a solution to your
problem.
Most headlines are short. Occasionally they’re only one
word. However, sometimes long headlines are effective.
Research has shown that the length of the headline doesn’t
matter, it’s the content that counts. It needs to be compelling.
A famous example is a Volkswagen advertisement in the 1960s
which had a one-word headline: �Lemon’. At the time,
Volkswagen’s competitors were running advertisements with
headings like �Blue ribbon beauty that’s stealing the thunder
from the high-priced cars’ and �Chevrolet’s new engines put
new fun under your foot and a great big grin on your face’
(Sullivan, 1998).
HEADLINES THAT PROMISE A BENEFIT
Have a look at some advertisements and you’ll notice that
many offer a benefit. For example, �Easy, fast, reliable backup’,
�Subscribe now and save’.
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HEADLINES THAT INFORM
Headlines that contain news, such as the launch of a new product
or a new way to use an old product, are effective. According to
David Ogilvy, advertisements with news are recalled by 22%
more people than advertisements without news.
People also like informative headlines that tell them how to
do things, such as �How to make money’, �How to pay your
bills quickly/easily’ and �How to win friends and influence
people’.
HEADLINES WITH MAGIC WORDS
Magic words, although clichГ©d, have drawing power in headlines. Some magic words are: amazing, introductory, now,
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suddenly, you, save, new, free, love, easy, proven, guaranteed,
safe, healthy, discovery and money.
HEADLINES THAT INCLUDE YOUR BRAND OR PRODUCT NAME
If people are going to read your headline and remember it, you
should include your brand or product name. With well-known
companies that’s not such an issue as their brand is distinctive,
but it’s important for small businesses. I’m sure everyone can
think of some clever advertisements but can’t recall what product
they were advertising.
HEADLINES WITH KEY WORDS
If you are targeting a specific audience, include the key words,
such as �asthma’ or �men over 50’, in your headline. This will
attract their attention and entice them to read on.
Also, if you have interesting specific facts, use them. One of
David Ogilvy’s well-known advertisements is for Rolls-Royce.
It states: �At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new RollsRoyce comes from the electric clock.’
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HEADLINES THAT POSE QUESTIONS
Some advertisements use questions to attract people’s attention.
A famous example is the Avis advertisements which successfully
played on the fact that Avis was the second-biggest player, not
the first, in rental cars: �Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars. So why
go with us?’ They gave several answers in the body copy,
including �We try harder’ and �The line at our counter is
shorter’.
HEADLINES WITH POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE STATEMENTS
Positive statements are powerful. For example, �save time’ is
stronger than �work less’. But negative statements can work as
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well. Luke Sullivan makes a strong case for negative headlines
in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This on the grounds that conflict =
drama = interest. He cites the example of FedEx, which was a
tiny company in Memphis that became an international success
on the back of a series of TV commercials featuring terrible
conflict, such as everything going wrong, packages arriving late
and people getting fired.
Another example is Minties, which showed all sorts of
humorous, disastrous situations followed by the slogan �It’s
moments like these you need Minties’.
HEADLINES UNDER OR ABOVE YOUR ILLUSTRATION?
Expert opinion varies on where to place your headline. Small
Business Marketing for Dummies says headlines can sit anywhere
on the page—at the top, in the middle or along the bottom.
On the other hand, David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising)
advises putting the headline under the illustration. He says that
most readers look at the illustration, then the headline, then the
copy. He maintains that, on average, headlines below the illustration are read by 10% more people than headlines above the
illustration. If you have a large target audience, these numbers
add up. He’s scathing about people who put headlines under the
copy, saying �some dopes even put their headlines at the bottom,
under the copy!’
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Body copy
Only about 5% of readers will read your body copy. But they
may be the 5% of potential customers you want, so the body
copy still matters. Expert opinion is divided over whether to
write short or long copy. The most important factor seems to
be the quality of the copy.
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In your first draft, get all the key information down. Don’t
worry about how well you say it—the information is what
counts. Your second, third and fourth rewrites are the time to
turn your prose into great copy.
Write directly for your target audience in everyday, conversational language with all the rhythms of speech. This means
using simple words, short sentences and short paragraphs. Many
people associate advertisements with superlatives and adjectives.
In fact, the most persuasive advertisements are objective, and
strong on detail and specifics.
Avoid general or clichГ©d phrases that mean nothing. One way
of testing this is to ask yourself whether the phrase could be
used to describe any product or service. When you have an interesting or relevant fact, use it. For example, if your product lasts
20 years, say so.
Many of the headline guidelines apply to writing copy.
Remember to speak directly to your audience using �you’
language and think in terms of benefits and solutions.
Body copy often includes:
• Benefits, backed up by information to support your claims
• The offer
• Sweeteners, such as a guarantee, special terms, trade-in,
discounts, free trial
• Deadline, for example �the first 200’, �until supplies run out’
or �before 23 May’
• A call to action, telling people how they can respond.
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Editing
As space is at a premium in an advertisement, every word has
to count. Once you’ve finished your copy, go back and see how
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many unnecessary words you can get rid of. Remember the
rule—delete, delete, delete. Keep paring away words until you
have the essence of your concept.
Read through your copy and see whether you can strengthen
any words. For example, would �guts’ work better than
�stomach’, or �brains’ better than �intelligence’?
Sometimes when you’ve done a heavy edit you lose the flow,
so go back and see whether you need to use transitions to join
your sentences and paragraphs seamlessly. Then give your work
the final check by reading it out loud. Imagine you’re face-toface with your prospects and they’re hesitating. What can
you say to convince them your product or service is just what
they need?
Advertisement in a trade show magazine
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Buy any Delite
pot or plant and go
into the draw to win
a $20 000 getaway.
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Visit our stand (J8) at the show
for our potting demonstration and
to collect your entry form.
Win a $20 000 getaway.
23 Landscape Lane, Rockville VIC 1999 ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Email: info@delitelandscape.com Web: <www.delitelandscape.com>
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Advertisment in a local newspaper after winning a
furniture award
EMERALD
furniture
Eco-timber
+
eco-techniques
+
style
=
pure class
Stunning stools
Designed by Susan Eves,
Emerald Furniture
Winner of Bronze medal in
Eco-Design Excellence Awards
2 Crampton Street, Browns Bay 1999
ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789, <www.emeraldfurniture.com>
Advertisement in the food section of a daily newspaper
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Join us for lunch or dinner.
With our reputation for quality food,
a great selection of wines and professional, friendly service, Blue Gum is
the ideal place to entertain clients or
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relax with friends.
9 Bannerman Street, Blues Point 1999
ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789 <www.bluegumrestaurant.com>
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Summary
PURPOSE
What do you want to achieve with your advertisement?
AUDIENCE
Who’s your target audience?
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CONTENT
• Offers a benefit
• Is believable and credible
• Is simple and easy to read
• Is specific
• Arouses curiosity
• Captures attention
• Awakens interest
• Contains a verb
• Is proactive
• Is distinctive and memorable
• Informs
• Includes your brand and company name
• Includes a call to action.
TIPS
• You can get extra mileage out of your advertisement by using
it in conjunction with the rest of your marketing and by using
reprints in other promotional material. For example, you
could do a poster-sized version of your advertisement, place
it on your website or insert it in your e-newsletter.
• Advertising campaigns are usually more successful than a
one-off advertisement, as people often need to see an
advertisement several times before they take action.
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How to write
your website
Page 185
8
How to write your website
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A
ccording to the Kingsley Group and Constat, a quarter
of small businesses now use the Internet to service and
support customers. A website is almost a prerequisite for
business these days and is changing the way companies promote
themselves and conduct business. The Internet is a completely
different medium from print, though many of the principles of
good writing still apply.
When talking about websites it’s hard to go past the work of
Jakob Nielsen, a US engineer who’s studied Internet communications and usability since the early 1980s. Based on his studies
and research by the Poynter Institute, we know that most users
(79%) scan pages rather than read them word-for-word, and
only 16% of users read word-for-word. Even when reading full
articles, people read only 75% of the text and ignore the details.
People scan partly because reading from the screen is more
tiring and 25% slower than reading print on paper, but also
because they go to the Internet specifically to find information.
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It’s not unusual for people to alternate between multiple sites—
leaving a site to search another and then returning to the first site
later in the same session. This has implications for the way you
design your site, as each page must stand alone.
The good news for people who like words is that only 22%
of users are drawn to graphics, while 78% look at the text. This
is even on their second or third visit to your site. In general,
people look at headlines, article summaries and captions first.
Most people don’t like scrolling down excessively. They want
information that is short and to the point.
People’s eyes also move differently when reading on screen.
In print, when we read a page our eyes move from left to right.
When we look at a double-page spread our eyes first scan both
pages in a loop, starting at the top right-hand corner and ending
at the bottom left corner. When we look at a webpage our eyes
go to the middle of the screen first, then from the left to the right.
We look at the bottom of the page last. This eye movement
follows the conventional layout of many screens, which have the
main information in the middle, the menu on the left, and other
functions or less important information on the right-hand side.
Before writing or upgrading your own site, look at several
sites to see what you like and dislike—but know when to stop.
I got sidetracked while writing this chapter looking at several
websites, and was disappointed by the overall standard. The
good ones stood out. These weren’t necessarily the corporate
ones with lots of money to spend; they were the ones with clear,
simple content that were easy to read and navigate. According
to Jakob Nielsen, the two major faults of most websites are that
they’re not written with their audience in mind and they’re difficult to navigate. Don’t fall into those traps with your website.
Once you’ve found sites you like, analyse what makes them
work and try to incorporate those ingredients in your own site.
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After writing this chapter I had to rewrite my own website, as
it failed to meet my own standards! It had a flash menu at the
top that faded in and out. It looked very trendy but was difficult to use, and if the menu was in �fade-out mode’ people had
to search for it. My font was also too small, which is a common
fault with websites. Remember, people go to the website for
content, so it must be easy to read. And I wrote very formally,
as if I was writing a brochure. I hadn’t adapted to the online
medium, which is more informal than print.
Types of websites
Before writing or upgrading your own website, ask yourself
why you need a website and how you want people to use it. You
may want a business card website, an interactive website or an
eBusiness website.
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Business card websites
Many small businesses regard their website similarly to a business card. It’s there to provide credibility and an overview of
their products or services. Once they’ve written it, they seldom
update it unless their business changes direction. They also don’t
worry about whether they’re picked up by search engines or
bother to track the number of people who visit their site.
Many small businesses don’t take advantage of the full potential of the medium. They treat their site like an online version
of their brochure and the end result is that their sites are often
static and lacking in personality. Such sites serve a purpose, especially if they look good and are easy to read, but their marketing
potential is limited.
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Customer and client interaction websites
Many businesses take their websites a step further and use them
for customer or client information and support. They have all the
basic ingredients of a business card site but have more personality, are more interactive and are often updated. For example,
companies might regularly add articles they’ve written, write
inspirational quotes for the month, or promote new products and
services.
Often companies drive people to their website through other
marketing material, such as their ezine or advertisements. For
example, in their ezine they may promote a service or product
and provide a hyperlink to the website for more information.
If you do promote your website in your marketing material,
monitor your visitor statistics to see whether these coincide with
your promotions.
Some sites offer online support services, but if you do offer
support make sure you follow it up. My experience is limited,
but I’ve contacted several organisations, including government
departments, large corporates and businesses, via email from
their Internet sites with requests for information and seldom
received a reply! I’ve also bought things over the Internet with
much more success. That’s the third model—eBusiness websites.
eBusiness websites
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Increasingly sites are eBusiness sites, conducting business online.
The Australian eBusiness Guide (CCH) states that businesses
make money from eBusiness through the following:
• Direct sales. For example, through catalogues, auctions and
group buying.
• Advertising. Charging advertisers a fee for placing ads on a website is one of the commonest revenue models on the Internet.
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• Subscriptions. This is a flat fee for access to something valuable
for a specified period of time.
• Pay-per-use. Users pay for content they wish to view.
• Sponsorship. Sponsors pay for prominent display of their
logos. Ezines are often sponsored in the online world.
• Licence fees. These give users the right to use content for a
limited period of time.
• Commission. This is a fee charged when a party has assisted
in generating a lead or closing a sale.
The Australian eBusiness Guide describes some of the main
eBusiness models, which include the online model, the marketmaker model and the content model.
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ONLINE MODEL
The online model sells goods and services direct to customers.
The terms eTailers and online retailers are often used to describe
these businesses. Examples include websites that sell software,
computer equipment, office supplies, tickets and groceries. Many
of these businesses also have a retail outlet, but some, such as
<www.amazon.com> and <www.shopfast.com.au>, are online
outlets only.
This model had some teething problems in the early days and
it has not replaced traditional retail to the extent that many
predicted. But online retailers are here to stay, and most traditional retailers now have an online presence and trade online.
Many smaller businesses today are also using their websites to
sell their own products and services, such as bed linen, workshops or books.
MARKET-MAKER MODEL
Market-maker websites bring buyers and sellers together, facilitating trade between third parties. They provide the software
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platform for trading and often include other value-added
services. There are different types of markets, including:
• Business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, where many traders
sell through a single website
• Business-to-business (B2B) markets, usually based around
industries. Some use electronic catalogues and others have
online auctions. For example, second-hand and end-of-line
computers are often sold at auctions
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) markets, which provide a
forum for the sale of goods, including real estate.
CONTENT MODEL
The content model provides access to valuable or entertaining
content, such as news or horoscopes. Some sites provide free
information and others charge for it. In the early days of the
Internet a lot of information was given away, but there is an
increasing trend for companies to want some financial return on
their investment. Some sell advertising to cover their costs and
many use a two-tiered approach, where some information is free
and some is charged for. For example, many news sites have
current information free, but charge for access to their archives.
On the other hand, research companies may charge for current
research but provide old research free.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite uses its website extensively to promote its products and services and
uses its ezine to drive people to its website for information and specials.
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It also sells some products online.
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EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture has an eBusiness website with a catalogue online to make
it easier for customers in other places to buy the furniture.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant originally had a business card website, but as it has
recently started writing an ezine, it is now updating its website more often
and monitoring the site visits with interest.
Essential ingredients for writing for
the web
Write for your audience
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One of the difficulties when writing for your website is that
you have to write for your target audience, but you must
remember that people from anywhere around the world may
visit your site through search engines. So your site must speak
direct to your target audience but also offer something to the
casual visitor. This is a challenge if your content is highly
specialised, but it can be achieved with good, clear writing.
If your readers need more knowledge to understand your
subject, then provide a link to other pages for background or
explanatory information.
Avoid writing like this on your home page:
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Cato [not real name] is commercialising the Cato technology
into the Cato System to enter the critical care segment of the
pathology testing market. The Cato System will be a point of
care, critical care pathology system, comprising an instrument
and an associated series of test specific single use disposables.
Maybe people familiar with the biotech industry will understand,
but casual visitors certainly won’t. The writing could be much
simpler and clearer.
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Make your website easy to navigate
People go to your website to get information, and they want to
be able to access that information quickly. Because people aren’t
willing to read screeds of information in one hit, you need to
split your information into multiple hyperlinked pages.
When people arrive at your site they need information about
the site and how to navigate it. Opinion is divided over whether
it is best to have your navigational bar or buttons—which in print
terms is your table of contents—along the top, along the bottom
or down the side. Some large sites use more than one place for their
navigational devices. Wherever you have your toolbar, it should
be visible on all pages so people can move easily around your site.
The terms used in your navigational bar should be brief, as
all are hyperlinks to take people to the relevant pages. The page
headings should be identical to the navigational bar.
Every page on your website needs to stand alone, as some
people may be after information on only that page. Or they may
come to your website via another link which specifies that page,
so it’s the first introduction to your site.
People won’t necessarily want to follow all your links, so
provide summary information to save readers from following
links unnecessarily. At the bottom of each page, lead your readers
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to the next logical page on the site. Don’t just leave them there
hanging, wondering where to go next. Make it informative, easy
and fun to visit your site.
CONTENT CHECKLIST
1. Home—an overview of the company
2. Products and services
3. News—latest e-newsletters, dates of training programs etc.
4. About us—often includes a profile and photo of the director
of the company
5. Articles
6. Case studies/success stories/samples of work
7. Client list
8. Testimonials, reviews or references
9. Contact us.
Be direct and concise
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Readers are impatient. They want information and they want
it now. You have to get your information across clearly and
quickly using the �most important news first’ technique. This
is known in journalism as the �inverted pyramid’. A test often
used for the opening paragraphs in a news story is: does it
answer the 5W and H questions (i.e. who, what, when, where,
why and how)? Apply this technique to your web writing.
Size does matter. Short is better. The word count for online
content should be about half the number you’d use in a print
version. Your writing has to be even simpler and plainer than
print text, with:
• Simple words
• Short sentences (15–20 words)
• Short paragraphs (three to five lines).
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Each sentence should have one idea, and that idea should usually
be at the start of the sentence. Each paragraph should contain one
main idea and it should be in the first sentence (topic sentence).
You can convey the same information, but you have to write
in small, bite-sized pieces, often called �chunks’, broken up by
headings and subheadings. This is a very different way of writing
from when you’re writing a report, though some of the online
techniques are increasingly finding their way into the printed word.
Either you can chunk material into screen-sized pieces, using
hyperlinks if necessary, or you can scroll. But remember that
people don’t like scrolling too deeply. There are no rights and
wrongs about using chunks or scrolled text. It depends on your
purpose and audience and your personal preference.
Often chunked text is aimed at people who visit and leave
quickly, whereas scrolled material is more suitable if you expect
people to print off a copy. If you use scroll, pay attention to what
is above the scroll. Make sure that the information and links that
all readers of a page need are visible without scrolling when a page
is first viewed. Whether you �chunk’ or �scroll’, the principles of
effective writing remain the same—keep it short and simple.
Longer text is sometimes published as Adobe PDF files. This
has the disadvantage of taking ages to download—and not
everyone has downloaded the software from the Internet they
need in order to view PDF files. Also you can’t copy and paste
any of the material (maybe that’s a plus!) Another alternative
is to write a punchy summary that links to another webpage.
Be credible
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Your content must be credible. Many people visiting your site
won’t know you, but they want to be able to trust your information. You’ll automatically have some credibility if your site
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is well written, has simple or high-quality graphics and is easy
to get around.
You also gain credibility if you avoid making exaggerated
claims or using boastful language. Research has shown that
people don’t like marketing hype, often known as �marketese’
on websites. So avoid superlatives like �best’, �cleverest’, �fastest’,
�cheapest’ and �largest’, and stick to the facts.
Many businesses use testimonials or reviews to support their
claims. It’s often easier to have other people extol your virtues
than to rave about yourself. If you have articles or reviews on
other websites, insert hyperlinks to these pages.
Some experts maintain that you can also enhance your credibility by providing outbound hyperlinks to well-known sites. For
example, an environmentally friendly furniture business in the
USA provides outbound links to Smart Wood, Forest Stewardship
Council and National Wildlife Federation. If you do use outbound
hyperlinks, check with the organisations you’re linking to.
Use a conversational style and tone
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Online writing is more informal and conversational than print
material, so relax into your own writing style and let your
personality shine through. Even large corporates write more
informally on websites than in print material.
Think of your favourite sites and you’ll notice that most have a
distinctive style and tone that draws you back again and again.
Talk direct to your audience in �you’ language. For example,
instead of describing the features of your product or service, talk
about what the benefits are for them. Read through your work
and highlight each time you’ve used �we’ or �I’, and see if you
can change these into �you’. This simple technique can change
the entire emphasis of your writing.
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Write about yourself
Many people when they go to websites like to learn something about
the people behind the business, especially with small businesses.
So include some information about yourself and even consider
putting in photos. Make it chatty and include some personal details
so readers feel they know a bit about you. It will help break the ice
and encourage them to make that first contact call.
Write to be found
More than half the people who use the Internet rely on search
engines to find sites. If you’re listed with search engines, you
put your information in front of more people. You can tempt
people to revisit your site through keeping it updated and interesting to visit.
Make sure you’re listed with the top search engines. Even
though your main business will come from your marketing efforts,
some of those chance visitors may turn into clients or customers.
You’ve got a better chance of being listed high up in a search
engine by using key words in your summaries and headings that
accurately sum up the page. Use words and groups of words that
people are likely to use to look for you. There are useful tips on
writing to be found at <www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
wftw6.html>.
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Make your writing easy to scan
USE HEADINGS AND SUBHEADINGS
Research has shown that people like headings that are short,
simple and descriptive as people scan for meaning. Remember
to keep your headings close to the text they describe. If you make
your headings large or in flash they’ll take longer to download.
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Use subheadings as well as headings to further break up your
text and provide people scanning your page with more clues
about the content. If you’ve got a long, scrollable page, put an
index of bookmarks at the top so people can jump to the section
that interests them.
Some tips for writing headings are:
• Use simple, short headings that clearly indicate the contents
of the sections.
• Use specific headings that promote benefits. For example,
instead of just saying �services’, a marketing company could
say �strategies to increase profits’.
• Choose a consistent hierarchy of headings, with the main
heading larger than any of the others.
• Don’t go beyond four levels of subheadings, as headings
below this level can become confused with the body text.
• Keep your headings on a separate line so they stand out from
the body text.
• Use key words in headings that you’d like search engines to
pick up.
• Stick to plain text. Use capitals and italics minimally, as these
are more difficult to read, and use underlining only for
hyperlinks.
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There’s more information on writing headings in Chapter 7.
USE LISTS
Bulleted or numbered lists work well on webpages as they provide
information succinctly and provide white space. Bulleted lists are
more popular than numbered lists, but use numbers if the order
of the list is important. As a general rule don’t have more than
nine items, preferably fewer, and use one or a maximum of two
levels. There’s more information about lists in Chapters 2 and 3.
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USE PICTURES AND CAPTIONS
Pictures add spice to a site, but if your site is simple you can get
away with not using them. Often visitors to a small business site
want to know more about the person or people behind the business, so consider putting photos of key people on your site.
Use captions under pictures or tables unless the content is
so clear that a caption isn’t necessary. Make sure your captions
uniquely refer to the material, and don’t use a caption that’s
similar or identical to a heading on the same or any other page.
As with headings, keep your captions short and descriptive.
Don’t number your captions unless there’s a sequential order
that people need to understand that isn’t clear from your layout.
USE PULL-OUT QUOTES
Use the magazine technique of pull-out quotes for emphasis.
Pulling out brief, relevant quotes from your text adds a level of
scanability. Choose a sentence that is both catchy and relevant.
To keep it brief, you may need to edit the original sentence.
HIGHLIGHT KEY WORDS FOR EMPHASIS
When writing for the web, you can highlight key words for
emphasis. This technique is used much more often in online
writing than in print material. Have a look at websites and you’ll
be surprised how often it is used.
Avoid using underlining for emphasis, as underlining is
reserved for hyperlinks on the web. Also avoid capitals and
italics. Plain text and bold work best in online writing.
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Rewrite and edit ruthlessly
Writing your content is only the first step. You need to rewrite,
edit and proofread your website ruthlessly and thoroughly.
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Remember that people come to your website for content and
skim-read online material. So all your words must count. You
can’t afford to waffle.
One of the biggest mistakes is not writing for the audience.
As you rewrite and edit, look at your pages through your
customers’ or clients’ eyes. Would it make sense to them? Ask
colleagues or friends to read your site to see whether it makes
sense to them and to pick up any typos you’ve missed.
Once you’ve written the words, it’s time to design your
website. Once again, think of your audience and make sure your
design enhances your words and that your site is easy to navigate.
Change and update
People are generally resistant to change and won’t appreciate
radical rewrites of your website too often. It’s a bit like going
to your favourite supermarket and finding they’ve rearranged
the shelves. So if you want to radically overhaul your site, do it
no more often than once a year.
But people do like regular updates. There’s nothing worse
than visiting a site that hasn’t been updated in months (and sometimes even years!) It shows obvious signs of neglect and lack of
attention. So keep your statistics, numbers and examples up-todate or your credibility will suffer. Having a frequently updated
site will also attract visitors and business.
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Design
Some people have the skills to design their own website, but it
is a specialised area so most businesses employ a designer to
create the look of their site. Although people go to websites for
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content, good layout and design enhance readability, and first
impressions count. The best sites have a harmonious relationship between the words and design.
Make sure you brief your designer thoroughly so they understand what you want to achieve with your site. Designers have
talents and skills that can add style to your site, but they often
approach material from a different perspective. Don’t allow
yourself to be overawed by their superior design knowledge and
talk you into things you don’t want, like a small font size or
gimmicky visuals.
Your choice of graphics will depend on your content and
audience. For example, if you’re a graphic designer and want to
show off your work, your text will be minimal and the graphics
will tell your story. If content is paramount, then graphics should
be used only so far as they help get your message across.
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Colour
Choose a colour scheme for the site in keeping with your
brand, and stick to it. Colour schemes can be quite simple,
such as one or two colours plus black and white. For readability it’s hard to go past black or navy text and a white
background, though coloured headings and subheadings can be
effective. Use colours in keeping with your brand. Don’t use
bright blue for words, as this colour is commonly used for
hyperlinks.
Make sure your use of colours complements and doesn’t
distract from your text. Some common mistakes are busy background graphics or very dark backgrounds, especially black.
I personally hate sites with coloured or busy backgrounds—they
lose credibility in my eyes before I’ve even read a word, as
I know they’ll be more difficult to read.
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Images
Images, such as photographs and drawings, can add interest to
a site, but many sites work well without them. If you do use
images they should serve a purpose, such as help tell the story
or convey an emotion that underlies the key messages. For
example, Delite Landscape Design has photos of its work to
demonstrate its capabilities, and Emerald Furniture has a photo
of a lush green forest which supports the environmentally
friendly nature of the furniture.
If you use images, you’re best to use images specially created
for your site or buy images from a high-quality image library.
You can download images from free libraries, but the quality is
usually not so good.
Flash
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There is an ongoing debate about the use of multimedia like
Flash, which is used in the introductions of many sites, but the
software may in the future become the foundation of many sites.
In 2000, Jakob Nielsen pronounced Flash bad, stating that:
About 99% of the time, the presence of Flash on a website
constitutes a usability disease. Although there are rare occurrences of good Flash design (it even adds value on occasion),
the use of Flash typically lowers usability. In most cases, we
would be better off if these multimedia objects were
removed.
Flash tends to degrade websites for three reasons: it encourages design abuse, it breaks with the Web’s fundamental
interaction principles and it distracts attention from the site’s
core values.
Source: <www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html>
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Macromedia produced a new version of Flash in 2002 (Flash
MX), which has solved many of the technical usability problems.
In June 2002 Jakob Nielsen and his consulting firm, the Nielsen
Norman Group, formed a strategic partnership with Macromedia to improve Flash usability.
Typeface and font
When writing for your audience, consider the typeface and font
size that will appeal to your readers. Sans serif typefaces are
used most commonly in websites, and the popular choices are
Verdana, Helvetica, Tahoma and Arial. When writing for the
web, use a font size that’s easy to read—different typefaces have
different qualities. For example, Verdana in 10 pt looks larger
than Tahoma in 10 pt. You want your website to appeal to
people of all ages. The first wave of Internet users were young
people, but now older people are becoming avid users of online
communications.
Use technology that you know your target audience can
access. For example, it’s pointless having fancy graphics that
some browsers can’t display if your target audience does not
have the latest technology. Also, remember that colours,
graphics and fonts appear differently on MACs and PCs. For
example, font sizes look smaller on a MAC, so if your font
looks small on your PC it will be even more difficult to read
on a MAC.
Print-friendly
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Your webpage needs to be print-friendly. So watch out for
traps for the unwary, such as pages that print only the frame
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and not the content, and tables and text that go off the side of
the page.
Making your website work for you
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What action do you want people to take as a result of reading
your webpage? Do you want people to merely be informed
about your business or do you want also to encourage them to
purchase your products and services? If you’re clear about what
action you want people to take, you can design your site to
increase the likelihood of that happening.
Promote your site through as many off-line mediums as you
can. For many businesses this starts with your web address on
all your printed materials, such as your business card and
brochure, in your Yellow Pages advertisement, your email signature, on handouts for talks and at the bottom of articles you
write. Talk about your site whenever you give a presentation or
meet people at networking functions.
Aim to get as many prospects as possible to visit your site,
so they can learn more about you and your business. This will
help them take the next step of contacting you directly.
Encourage people to respond by, for example, answering a
survey, entering a competition, signing up for your ezine or
buying a product. If you want people to ring you, make your
contact details, including your email address and phone number,
stand out.
Promote your website in your ezine and provide hyperlinks
to articles or news on your site, so people can get straight there
by clicking on the link.
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
For gardens that delight
Subscribe to
our monthly
e-newsletter, which
brings you up-todate gardening
snippets and news.
Our shops
Commercial
landscape design
Residential landscape
design
Garden maintenance
Courtyard and
balcony design
Irrigation and paving
Samples of our work
Before and after
About us
e-newsletter
Contact us
What our
customers
say about us
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�My garden was an
eyesore before Delite
Landscape Design
came in. Now it’s a
pleasure to be in.
Delite Landscape
Design did a
wonderful job and
were a delight to
work with. Thanks to
all the team.’
Delite Landscape
Design at work
Working out of our boutique
gardening shops, Delite Landscape
Design provides the full range of
landscape design, construction and
maintenance services.
Whatever your landscape problems,
we can work with you to find a
solution that suits your budget and
your needs. Our clients include home
gardeners, local authorities and large
property developers.
Environmental and water
management concerns are vital
issues today. We can create you a
beautiful garden that needs little
watering and doesn’t require
pesticides or fertilisers to flourish.
Garden design
workshops
Learn how to design
your garden from
scratch or give it an
overhaul. Join us for
our evening classes
on garden design.
When: Every
Wednesday evening
June and July 2003
from 8 to 10 pm
Venue: St James
Price: $150
Balcony and
courtyard design
Balcony and courtyard design is a new
service. With more
people living in
cities, many people
no longer have the
quarter-acre garden.
We’ve developed this
service to bring your
garden back into
your life.
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MERALD
E
class
that
lasts
furniture
Home
Eco-facts
Online catalogue
205
Order
About us
Contact
Creating comfortable furniture out
of environmentally friendly products
Emerald Furniture makes handmade office and home
furniture.
Environmentally friendly describes both the products
and processes we use to create comfortable and lasting
furniture for your office or home environment. Many
people are now aware of the need to create healthy
home and office environments. Furniture and cabinetry
are a potential source of pollutants.
•
•
•
We salvage fine woods, such as jarrah and cedar,
from demolished buildings and source hardwood from
certified plantation forests.
We use kangaroo leather for some furniture, and this
we source from agricultural culling programs.
Our furniture is assembled using traditional joinery
techniques and protected with a non-toxic, citrusbased oil.
By buying and using environmentally friendly products we minimise our impact on the
environment and help you create your own healthy work or living space. The products we
use are readily available so the extra cost to you is less than 10% more than traditional
products. The benefits are priceless.
Links to other sites
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Forest and Bird Environmental Council
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
About us
Current menu
Dial-a-dinner
Directions
Reservations
Tania James and Bill Johnson
Blue Gum Restaurant is family owned and run. Tania James
and Bill Johnson set up Blue Gum Restaurant in 1993. Both
Bill and Tania are passionate about food and love providing
memorable meals for all their guests.
Tania manages the restaurant and Bill chooses the wine list
and does the accounts. Their children are also involved, and
you’ll often have Belinda or Tim waiting on your table. It’s a
family affair.
Function room
Join our club
About us
Gary Burgess
The kitchen is run by award-winning American chef Gary
Burgess, who is renowned for combining the freshest ingredients he can find into delicious modern cuisine dishes.
Gary has worked extensively in the United States and New
Zealand, and has loved cooking since he was a child. One of
his earliest memories is helping his grandmother make
braided bread.
His philosophy is simple: food must look good and taste good.
There are no dramas in Gary’s kitchen—just good cooking.
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Join the Blue Gum Club and receive our free monthly e-newsletters and occasional emails.
You’ll receive news of special events and our current hot recipes. Join now.
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Summary
PURPOSE
• What do you want to achieve with your website?
• What action do you want people to take once they get to
your website?
• How will your website increase your business?
AUDIENCE
• Who is the target audience?
• What is the age group of the target audience?
• What is the education level of the target audience?
• Can you class them in any other way, such as professional or
industry group?
• Is your target audience local, national or global, or a combination of all three?
CONTENT, NAVIGATION AND APPEARANCE
CONTENT
• Concise?
• Credible?
• Clear?
NAVIGATION
•
•
•
•
•
Is the site easy to navigate?
Does it require lots of scrolling?
Are there lots of page jumps?
Does the page load quickly?
Does it require plug-ins, like Java or Shockwave?
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APPEARANCE
• Do the graphics enhance the site?
• Are the words easy to read?
• Is the layout clear?
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TIPS
• Promote your website in all your marketing material so
people visit your site.
• Make it easy for people to respond.
• Update your site regularly but make major changes
infrequently.
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Glossary of web terms
Bookmark—A named location on a page that can be the target of
a hyperlink. A bookmark can be applied to a set of characters
or it can exist on a page separately from any text. Bookmarks
allow you to link to a specific section of a target page.
Buttons—Another name for the navigational hyperlinks on the
homepage.
Homepage—This is the front page of a website and gives an
overview of the site. It is the page you first enter unless you
have come to the website from a hyperlink in another website
or email.
Hyperlinks—Sometimes called hypertext, these are blue
underlined words that provide a link to other material. There
are two types of hyperlink: (a) information hyperlinks, often
known as bookmarks, which when embedded in text indicate
that there is related or background information elsewhere on
the site; (b) navigational hyperlinks, which are structural
links that allow you to move to other main areas on the site.
Navigation devices—Tools, such as hyperlinks, that help us find
our way around websites.
URL—This stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and is your
website’s unique address. Although on your business card
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your web address will start with www, when you include a
hyperlink in your ezine you must also include http://. Http
stands for Hypertext Transport Protocol. The Internet is casesensitive, so make sure your url is all in lower case.
Webpage—The screen displayed to the user. Websites usually
consist of several pages.
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newsletters
and ezines
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9
How to write newsletters and ezines
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N
ewsletters and e-newsletters are an informal, low-key way
of keeping your name in front of your customers, clients
and prospects, helping establish your reputation and credibility,
and promoting your business. Some businesses and organisations
also use newsletters for internal communications, to keep staff
informed of what’s happening within their company and industry.
E-newsletters are often called email newsletters or ezines (from
e-magazine). The term ezine will be used in the rest of this chapter
to make the distinction between newsletters and e-newsletters
clearer. The latter part of this chapter focuses on ezines, as they’re
a more recent marketing tool with distinct distribution methods.
With ezines it may be tempting to send them all to your
customers, clients and prospects. Don’t. All email marketing,
including ezines, must be opt-in. Unsolicited emails are known
as spam. Spamming is both unprofessional and illegal. Servers
take spamming very seriously, and if someone complains about
you all your future emails may be blocked.
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ORIGIN OF THE WORD �SPAM’
The word �spam’ was originally the brand name of a tinned meat
product produced by Hormel Foods in the United Kingdom.
It took on new meaning from a Monty Python’s Flying Circus
skit. In the sketch, a restaurant serves all its food with spam, and
the waitress repeats the word several times describing the food.
A Viking chorus in the background sings �Spam, spam, spam,
spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam!
Wonderful spam!’ louder and louder until they drown out all
conversation.
�Spam’ probably came into the language with its new meaning
in the 1990s in the United States, where people started sending
out mass unsolicited marketing emails.
Objectives
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Like all marketing communication tools, your newsletter or
ezine has to bring results over a period of time or it’s not worth
it. So before you start planning your first issue, ask yourself what
you want to achieve. You may well have more than one objective. For example, do you want to attract more customers, gain
more business from existing customers, keep an open line of
communication with customers and prospects, or establish yourself as an expert in your field?
CHECKLIST OF OBJECTIVES
1. Gain new customers.
2. Gain more business from existing customers.
3. Stay in regular contact with customers and prospects.
4. Build a relationship with customers and prospects.
5. Build and maintain good staff relationships (internal newsletter).
6. Establish your expertise in your field.
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7. Demonstrate your credibility—you’re established enough to
have a regular newsletter or ezine.
8. Promote your products and services.
9. Educate your customers and prospects about your business
and its products and services.
10. Receive feedback from your customers and prospects about
your business.
11. Seek ideas from your customers and prospects for your
future growth and direction.
Once you’re clear about your objectives, stop and think again.
Maybe you can see the advantages clearly, but do you have the
time and resources to produce a newsletter or ezine on a regular
basis? To make it an effective marketing tool, you must produce
it regularly. You may have enough time now, but what about in
six months’ time when you’re snowed under with work? Will
you still have the time then?
You will get quicker at writing the content, but there will
be times when you’re so busy that thinking about what to
write and finding the time will be difficult. That’s when many
people give up. And once you’ve missed one issue, it’s harder
to write the next. Too many businesses rush into producing
a newsletter or ezine and state with great fanfare that it will
be a monthly publication. Six months later they have produced three issues, and a year later it’s fizzled completely.
What does that say about their reliability? Better not to start
in the first place.
Another issue to consider is that, unlike an ad, a newsletter
or ezine is unlikely to bring instant results. You may be lucky
and find that it is an immediate hit with a huge return for your
business, but realistically it will take time to bear fruit. The benefits will come as you develop a loyal readership. For this to
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happen, you need to produce a quality newsletter or ezine that
people look forward to reading.
Once you’ve acknowledged the drawbacks, if you are prepared to take on the commitment and challenge, a newsletter or
ezine can be fun to write as well as good for your business.
The next step is to choose the medium that suits you best.
There are advantages and disadvantages with both. Take the
nature of your business, your budget and your objectives into
consideration when you make this choice.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite has both a regular monthly ezine and newsletter, containing similar
information. The newsletter is available in the shops, and staff put it into
every bag along with customer purchases. The newsletter encourages
people to register online for the online version.
The newsletter includes photos and pictures, but the ezine is purely
text. John Pettit has some customers who prefer the print version and visit
his shop every month, just to pick up the newsletter.
John finds that the newsletter and ezine are excellent for building
customer relationships and making sales. Every time the newsletter or
e-newsletter goes out, sales increase in the following week. They’re also a
good way of promoting special deals.
EMERALD
furniture
Following the success of her workshops for women, Susan Eves has started
an ezine based around woodworking tips. At this stage her database is very
small (about 40), and she plans to build it slowly by promoting it in all her
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marketing material.
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She intends to send her ezine out every six weeks, but she hopes to
make it monthly if it works well for her and doesn’t take too much time.
She’ll reassess the situation in a year’s time and weigh up the costs (time
and money) against the benefits.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant has a regular ezine that they send to people
who’ve joined their club, informing them of special events and sending
them a new recipe from chef Gary Burgess each month. They also send
occasional promotional html emails.
Similarities and differences
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Similarities between newsletters and ezines
SHORT
The content of newsletters and ezines is similar. Both deliver
newsworthy information, provide useful updates and reminders
of what your business does, promote upcoming events or
new products or services, and have content of interest to their
readers.
They’re both short—though there are always exceptions.
Each item within them is also short, although some do have
longer lead articles or feature articles. The advantage of being
short is that people will read them more readily.
Many ezines with longer articles send their readers a short
email with summary paragraphs and hyperlinks to a website.
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These ezines are often more like magazines than newsletters.
One drawback to this method is you may lose potential readers,
who would skim the story if it were in front of them but won’t
click on a hyperlink.
REGULAR PUBLICATION
Most newsletters and ezines are produced regularly—weekly,
fortnightly, monthly or quarterly. Newsletters are more likely
to be quarterly than ezines, which tend to be distributed more
often. Some ezines are daily. This is a huge commitment, and you
also run the risk of overwhelming people with too much of a
good thing.
Some of the most successful ezines are run by large companies with the resources to maintain consistent quality.
I subscribe to emarketer, which is a daily ezine. It has summary
information and links to websites. It usually has three articles per issue. I find it manageable, as I’ve set up a folder in
Outlook Express so it automatically goes straight there
without clogging up my inbox. The article summaries are easy
to read at a glance and I can delete them if they are of no
interest. But there are enough articles of interest to keep me
subscribing.
When you start receiving a newsletter or ezine, you usually
know how regularly you will receive it. Some even give a specific
date, such as the 20th of the month. A few newsletters and ezines
are occasional or intermittent. This may be a good way to start
if you’re not sure how often you will manage to write your
newsletter or ezine. Once you’ve established a pattern that
works, you can publish more regularly. Even if you don’t want
to make a public announcement about the frequency of your
newsletter or ezine at the start, set yourself a deadline so you
have something to work towards.
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Differences between newsletters and ezines
APPEARANCE
Newsletters are better-looking and easier to read than ezines—
even html ezines, which look like a page from a website. You can
be more creative with your layout and use illustrations, photos
and white space effectively. Even your choice of paper makes a
difference. The look is part of the package, and conveys information about your company and brand to your readers before they’ve
even read a word. For example, a glossy newsletter with zany
photographs sends a different message from a black-and-white
newsletter on matt paper laid out in columns with no graphics.
There’s more about html and plain text ezines later in the chapter.
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DISTRIBUTION METHOD
Newsletters are usually posted, and this plus the cost of printing
the newsletter limits the size of your audience, even if you find
a sponsor to pay for the postage. This may suit your business if
you want to keep your audience select. It has the advantage that
you know who your audience is and can target your communications to them. You can also offer special promotions that are
of direct relevance to your readers. Some newsletters are converted into PDF files and emailed to people. The disadvantage
of PDF files is that they can take a long time to download.
With an ezine your audience is potentially unlimited. A few
businesses keep their membership select, but anyone can
subscribe to most ezines. Think about how big you want your
readership to be—and take your ego out of the equation. This
is a business decision. With a large subscriber base, most readers
will never become customers. But the more readers you have,
the greater your profile and credibility and the more paid work
you could receive from your database.
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LANGUAGE AND TONE
Both newsletters and ezines are informal and conversational in
style, but ezines tend to be more informal than newsletters. Most
newsletters are written in the third person (�he’, �she’ and �they’),
but ezines are often in the first person (�I’).
Ezine writers express their personality in their writing, often
sharing anecdotes and experiences and stating their personal
opinions. Over time the readers learn quite a bit about the writers
and feel they know them even if they’ve never met them.
Newsletters and ezines may be informal and friendly, but
the rules of good writing apply—good use of headings and subheadings, simple words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
Check for grammar, spelling and typos before you print
your newsletter or send your ezine. If possible, get a friend or
colleague to read it for you. One way of seeing an ezine more
clearly is to send it to yourself first. This way you can check the
layout too.
Advantages and disadvantages of newsletters and ezines
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Advantages of newsletters
• You know your audience so you can
tailor your content to suit their interests
• You can make your newsletter visually
attractive with photos, illustrations
and good layout
• People tend to hold onto print publications or pass them on to others or
leave them on coffee tables for others
to read
• Print material is easier and more
enjoyable to read than online material
• People read print material more thoroughly than online material
Advantages of ezines
• Cheap and easy to produce—the
main cost is your time and the cost of
distribution
• Can reach a large number of people
• People often do a quick scan of your
ezine even if they don’t read it word
for word
• People may forward your email to
others
• Can include hyperlinks to your
website and encourage people to
click through
• Ezines from small businesses develop
a personality of their own so the audience feel they know the writer
• Saves paper
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Disadvantages of newsletters
• Limited readership (though this can
also be an advantage, as you can tailor
your material to your audience)
• If newsletters are produced quarterly,
some of the news may seem out-ofdate
• Cost of production
• May not be read and sometimes not
even be opened before it hits the
rubbish bin
Disadvantages of ezines
• If people don’t read your ezine at the
time, the chances of their reading it
later are slim. Research shows that
80% of emails that are filed are never
read later
• If your subscriber base is large, you
won’t have an intimate knowledge of
your audience so your content will
have to be more general
• If people unsubscribe you’ve lost
them forever, which puts the acid on
you to perform consistently
• Easy to delete without reading
• Ezines are not as visually attractive as
print material, even if they are html
Common issues for newsletters
and ezines
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Branding
NEWSLETTERS
While they still need to be consistent with your brand, most
newsletters have a modern, up-to-date feel rather than an expensive, high-quality, staid look. Unlike your capability brochures,
they are not a big budget item. If you get a good template, you
can produce your newsletter yourself. Microsoft Publisher is a
good software package for newsletters, but Microsoft Word also
works.
Sometimes, if you have a large customer base and your newsletter
is quarterly, it will be worth having it professionally designed and
printed. If you choose this option, build it into your timeline. Your
newsletter must be topical. You don’t want a glossy publication full
of yesterday’s news. The worst example I’ve seen is a July newsletter
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with photos from the Christmas party. This particular newsletter
was supposed to be quarterly, but July was the first issue for the year.
EZINES
With plain text emails you cannot use colour and graphics for
your branding, but it is important to have the name of your
company and the ezine prominently displayed in the subject line
and the heading. Html emails are usually written within a
branded template and banner heading. Some include graphics.
Consider using a web designer to develop your template.
Even though your visual branding is limited with ezines,
everything you write is making a statement about your business.
Keep your audience and objectives in mind as you write, so that
your key messages are consistent throughout all your ezines. It’s
easy to get side-tracked and write about things that interest you
but do not reflect your core business values. You want your
readers to be interested in your business as well as the content
of your ezines.
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Content
The best way to get ideas for your own newsletter or ezine is
to read lots of others. Don’t limit yourself to others in your industry
—read as many as you can find. It will be time-consuming, but
it will help clarify what you want to write about.
When planning your newsletter or ezine, think about your
readers. This will be easier if you have a limited readership, but
even if your readership is large you will have some idea of the
sort of people who subscribe. For example, a golfing site is likely
to attract people who enjoy playing or watching the game, and
a marketing site appeals to people in the industry or those
wanting to learn more about promoting their business.
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Remember that your newsletter or ezine is for relationship
building, not just a sales tool. They may include some promotions,
but their real value lies in creating an environment and relationship
which predisposes the reader to buy your products or services at
some time. So instead of, for example, advertising your ergonomic
chairs, you might write an article on correct posture and include
some stretching exercises. Then you could include a hyperlink to
your website where you promote your products or services.
The two most deadly sins in newsletters and ezines are to be
too overtly promotional or boring. Both are total turnoffs and
ezine readers won’t hesitate to press the delete button, especially
if they don’t know you personally.
If you use your newsletter or ezine to advertise your products or services, think carefully about where you position your
ad. An ad at the beginning may turn some readers off. Many
newsletters and ezines start off with general information and tips
and put their own ad towards or at the end. Consider offering
your readers a true discount on your services or products.
To keep people reading, you will need to provide valuable
content that is timely and interesting. If you’re stuck—and there
will probably be times when you are stuck—think about what
inspires you about your business. If you write about things you
care about, that will show in your writing.
If the writing becomes too onerous, consider asking
colleagues to write the occasional story or contribute regular
items. This will take some organising, but will take the pressure
off you and provide your readers with variety as well.
Create a dialogue with your readers. Many newsletters and
ezines use surveys to enter into an exchange with their readers and
to help them refine their products and services. If you do survey
your readers, keep it short to encourage people to reply. Stick to
four or five questions. You’ll often receive more useful informa-
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tion if your questions are open-ended. Consider offering a draw
with a prize as an inducement and remember to give a cut-off date.
CONTENT CHECKLIST
Common ingredients of newsletters and ezines are:
1. Industry information (many ezines have hyperlinks to other
websites for industry news)
2. Personal anecdotes (more common in ezines), although some
staff internal newsletters include staff information
3. Opinion pieces
4. Useful tips
5. Reviews of websites or books
6. Guest columnists or items by contributing writers
7. Questions and answers—for frequently asked customer
queries or to anticipate customer queries
8. Staff changes
9. Company news
10. Product information
11. People profiles
12. Surveys
13. Results of surveys
14. Competitions
15. Advertisements—for own business and/or from other
businesses
16. Quotes.
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Costs
A newsletter costs more than an ezine to produce, but both
are usually provided free so you need to budget to cover the
costs. There are exceptions. Some newsletters are provided as
part of an overall membership fee, while other newsletters and
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Delite-ful
NEWS
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
— S P R I N G
Fair daffodils are here again
It’s daffodil time and, unlike in Wordsworth’s day, you no longer have to weep
that they pass too soon.
Today you can choose from a huge
range of daffodils in all different shapes
and colours that will flower continuously
from winter to late summer.
Why deprive yourself, when they are
such a cheerful show of colour? Once
you’ve planted them, you’ve got them for
years. Just remember that they don’t like
being cut back, so let them die down
naturally.
You can leave them in the ground,
but they do multiply, so it’s a good idea
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to lift them when they’re dormant after
Daffodil species
Narcissus King Carnival
Narcissus Sabine Hay
four or five years and divide them. You’ll
Narcissus Glowing Red
instantly have more daffodils to plant or
Narcissus Precedent
give away.
Narcissus Acropolis
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Gardening tasks for Spring
Pruning
Prune back your wisteria after it’s flowered, to just past the flowers. This
will direct energy into the buds for next year’s growth.
Pansies
Your pansies are probably past their best now, so cut them back by half.
Feed them liquid fertiliser and they might surprise you with another burst
of flowers.
Tulips
It’s now time to lift and dry your tulips. Let them dry off for a few days,
then dust them with sulphur powder and store them in a paper bag in a
cold, dry, well-ventilated space. If you’re afraid rats might eat them, put
them in a rat-proof nylon bag.
Cuttings
Tip cuttings take well at this time of the year. So try taking cuttings from
plants like geraniums, begonias, fuchsias and from silver foliage plants,
like lavender.
[Based on information in ABC Gardener, October 2002]
23 Landscape Lane, Rockville VIC 1999
Phone/fax: (01) 0345 6789
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Email: info@delitelandscape.com
Web: <www.delitelandscape.com>
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
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some ezines charge a yearly or monthly subscription fee. Many
offer the first newsletter or ezine free to tempt people to
subscribe.
The majority of smaller newsletters and ezines don’t have
paid ads, but it’s not unusual for newsletters and ezines with a
large readership to carry ads. Sponsorship is another option,
where in return for a subsidy you promote the sponsor in your
newsletter or ezine. Sometimes the name of the newsletter
sponsor will be on the envelope as well as in the newsletter
itself. Before deciding to carry either ads or sponsorship,
consider your readers’ reaction. Will they accept this or will they
disapprove?
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Monitoring your inputs and outcomes
Although you will have accepted that your newsletter or ezine
won’t give you an immediate return, after a certain period
of time you will need to see a return on your investment.
If it’s not working for you, then change it or be ruthless and
axe it.
Before you start, set up a monitoring system. A simple table
or Excel spreadsheet will work. State your objectives and
measure your inputs and outcomes. Your inputs may include
time, distribution costs and other expenses such as your mail
list server or software. Your outcomes, reflecting your objectives, could include the number of new customers, the dollar
value of new business, the number of new subscribers,
the number of customers who communicated with you, and
so on.
Don’t get too hung up on the number of people who
unsubscribe—it usually isn’t personal. I expect to get two
people cancelling each issue, but it’s balanced by new subscrip-
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tions from viral marketing (jargon for people forwarding your
email).
I can get a bit stuck on the numbers side (how many subscribers
do I have and what do they think of my ezine?), but the bottom
line for me is how much new business it brings in. I have to admit
I’m not yet so vigilant in my monitoring as I’m advising you to
be, but I can name the clients I have acquired as a result of
combining a regular ezine with telemarketing. And practically
every time my ezine goes out, the phone will ring from an existing
client in the following week (I must monitor this!). Even if they
don’t read my ezine, my name is in front of them in their inbox.
One of the advantages of having a mail list subscriber is that
you can find out what percentage of people opened your ezine.
If you’ve provided hyperlinks in your ezine to your website,
you can also look at your website statistics and you’ll hopefully
see a huge increase in traffic corresponding to the date you sent
your ezine.
More about ezines
While there are many similarities between writing newsletters
and ezines, the distribution methods are so different it’s rather
overwhelming when you’re a novice. As with everything, when
you don’t have the knowledge, just keep reading and asking
questions. There’s no magic to ezines—except in the words, of
course.
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Ezine structure
Whether ezines are written in plain text or html, ezines have
developed unique structure conventions.
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SUBJECT LINE
Use the subject line to identify your ezine so the readers know
immediately what they can expect. Many people make a decision on whether or not to read the ezine based on the sender
and the subject line.
Many state the name of the ezine and include a brief caption
that tells the reader something about what’s in the ezine—a bit
like a press release heading.
Some ezines use clever and witty captions to grab attention,
like �Beware of superhighway robbery’, which related to a story
about domain name thieves, or �Big boob theory’, for an article
on the different types of Internet users (ranging in a concentric circle from expert to novice). If you do choose to be witty,
it must be attention-grabbing. If in doubt, stick to a simple,
clear heading that gives an indication of the content. This also
has the advantage that if people save your ezines they can find
the information they want later based on the subject line.
Some ezines include your name in the subject line. For
example: �Subject: Jane Your Marketing newsletter—Surefire
sales tips for January’. Some people simply give the name of
the newsletter and the issue number. But be aware that some
servers block emails that have words like �issue’, �ezine’ or
�number’ in the heading. The same applies to the word �free’.
Look closely at subject headings on all your emails for a while
and you’ll soon see which ones work the best.
HEADING
Use a header to identify your ezine. It should contain the name
of your ezine and your company name. Even if you’ve put the
name of the ezine in the subject line, repeat it here because if
your ezine is forwarded the subject line may be changed.
Include a line or two about your business for new readers.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Many ezines, even though they’re short, start with a table of
contents. The items in the table of contents are often bulleted.
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CONTENTS
Ezines are short. Many you can read in their entirety at a glance.
Others provide a short summary of the article and then hyperlinks to their own or other people’s websites for the full article.
If you are providing hyperlinks to other people’s websites, have
the courtesy to notify them.
Some ezines provide a summary at the top; you can then
scroll down to read the entire article if the summary interests
you. The title in the summary is often a bookmark to the article
below to save you scrolling.
A common feature in many ezines is reviews of useful
websites and links to these sites.
HTML OR PLAIN TEXT
When you collect information about your subscriber database,
find out whether people want to receive emails in html or plain
text. With an html ezine, you receive what looks like a page from
a website with colour and graphics. It is much more attractive
and easier to read than plain text, although some people make
the mistake of using a small font that’s difficult to read or
choosing a distracting background colour. Most, but not all,
people can receive html emails these days, but some corporate
servers block html. Some corporate servers also strip html from
outgoing emails.
Plain text, as its name suggests, consists of plain text and
hyperlinks without any formatting data such as font size,
bold and layout. Capitals are usually used for headings to
make them stand out. The term �plain text’ is sometimes
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referred to as �textual data’ in ASCII format or �clear text’.
You need to use a plain text editor, such as Notepad, to write
plain text emails. Some plain text editors can be set to automatically wrap the line after a designated number of
characters and adjust as you add or delete text. In general
your lines should probably be no longer than 65 characters
in plain text.
FOOTER OR SIDEBAR
Develop a standard footer or sidebar. This should include information such as:
• Your contact details
• How to unsubscribe—this must be easy for the reader to do
• Encouragement to forward the ezine to colleagues or friends
who may wish to subscribe
• Copyright
• Disclaimer notice, if you’re offering opinion or advice
• Privacy statement—your guarantee that you won’t distribute
information about your readers.
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When developing your own privacy statement, check out the
privacy legislation and look at other people’s privacy statements.
These vary in length and detail. The simplest merely state that the
ezine owner will not sell, rent or give the mailing list to anyone.
BACK ISSUES
Choose a way that suits your marketing strategy to manage your
back issues. Some people archive them on their website, some
provide the latest issue only on their website, and a few companies don’t put their ezines on their website at all, choosing to
keep their readership select. I assume that the rationale for not
providing back issues on the website is to encourage people to
sign up so they don’t miss out.
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Extract from e-zine
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit sends his ezine out in both html and plain text, but chooses not
to use pictures as they take too long to download. Sometimes he provides
hyperlinks to his website.
From:
Delite Landscape Design
Subject:
Delite—daffodils and azaleas
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite-ful gardening news
Contents:
• Daffodils
• Garden tasks for Spring
• Monthly specials—don’t miss out on our great deals on azaleas
• Readers’ handy hints and tips
Daffodils
It’s that wonderful time of year when you can go out in your garden
or onto your balcony enjoying the smells of Spring. A sure sign of
Spring is the daffodils. Once daffodils were on display for only a brief
period, but today you can plant different species of daffodils to flower
continuously from winter to late summer.
Daffodils originated in the western Mediterranean, and there are about
50 species of wild daffodil. With all the breeding over the years, there
are now about 25 000 cultivars and many are commonly available.
They come in an amazing array of shapes and colours. Go to
<http://www.delitelandscape.com/daffodils.html> To view some species
currently available.
They’re good value in both gardens and pots as, after the initial
outlay, they continue popping up year after year. Daffodils dislike
being cut down too soon after flowering. You need to wait first about
six weeks. Then cut the flower stalk but leave the rest of the foliage
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to die down.
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Some people lift their daffodils each year, but you can let them lie
dormant and divide them every four or five years in autumn or
summer once the foliage has died down. You can either replant them
immediately or store them and plant them in autumn. If you store
them, cure them first by lying them singly in a shady spot with good
air circulation. Then once they’re dry, which takes only a few days,
put them in a paper bag and store them in a cool, dark, wellventilated spot.
Garden tasks for Spring
• Prune back your wisteria once it’s flowered to just past the flowers.
• Cut pansies back by half. Feed them with liquid fertiliser so they
flower again.
• Lift and dry tulip bulbs. Dust them with sulphur powder and store
them in a cold, dry, well-ventilated space.
• Take tip cuttings of geraniums, begonias, fuchsias and silver foliage
plants.
• Lift and divide clumping plants like mondo grass and day lilies, and
water them once you’ve replanted them.
• Re-pot plants that have outgrown their pots now to maximise
summer growth. Gently shake off old potting mix before replanting
them in fresh mix.*
Please feel free to forward this email to friends or colleagues who may
wish to subscribe.
To subscribe click here.
To unsubscribe click here.
Privacy statement: We don’t rent or sell our list to anyone.
*Based on information in ABC Gardener, October 2002
Extract from ezine
EMERALD
furniture
This is the first ezine Susan has sent, so she is sending it to everyone in plain
text using Notepad with an autowrap after every 65 characters. She has not
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included her logo, as it takes up too much space.
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From: Susan Eves
Subject line: Emerald—Furniture-making tips
Emerald news
Boutique furniture maker using eco-materials and techniques.
Welcome to the first Emerald e-newsletter. In each issue I will give
you some woodworking tips and keep you informed on what we’re up to
at Emerald Furniture.
Preparing and cutting wood
Cutting out wood is a bit like cutting out a pattern in sewing. One
mistake and you can wreck your whole project.
Take your time. One of the most important qualities of a successful
carpenter is patience. Think through each step carefully before you
start so you have a picture in your mind of what you’re doing and
why. The golden rule is: measure twice and cut once.
Start with a sharp pencil and hold it at a 45-degree angle so the
point is resting against the edge of your ruler as you draw your
lines. Don’t hold the pencil straight up and down as it’s less
accurate.
Draw your pencil line first. Then trace over it with a piece of
blackboard chalk. The chalk doesn’t stick to the pencil line, so
you’re left with an easy-to-see black line between the wider chalk
areas. Alternatively, draw your original line with a white pencil.
If you’re working on a project where dimensions are critical, use the
same measuring tape throughout. You’d be surprised if you laid your
measuring tapes and rulers out alongside each other that there are
minor discrepancies in the measurements.*
Useful websites and books
If you’re just starting out learning woodwork, you’re in for an enjoyable—and frustrating—journey. Over the years, the books and websites
that I keep going back to for inspiration and help are:
• <www.woodwork.com> is one of my favourites because it has so much
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information about woodworking techniques.
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• <www.timber.com> has useful information about different types of
timber and their strengths and weaknesses.
• Woodwork made Simple is a basic and timeless woodwork book. It’s
clearly written with great illustrations. I recommend it for both
beginners and professionals.
• Furniture Design History is another must-have if you’re serious
about design. It covers major furniture design periods in Europe and
America and is beautifully illustrated. Not cheap—so put it on your
Christmas wish list.
Woodworking courses
A big thank-you to everyone who came to my woodworking courses. You
were a great group to work with. I plan to hold more in the New Year
(there’s information on my website at <www.emeraldfurniture.com>).
Your feedback
I’d love to get some feedback from you about what you’d like to read
in my e-newsletters. Please email me at <susan@emeraldfurniture.com>.
Please feel free to forward this email to friends or colleagues who
may wish to subscribe.
To subscribe click here.
To unsubscribe click here.
Privacy statement: We don’t rent or sell our list to anyone.
*Based on information from <www.woodshoptips.com>
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Manage your database and distribution method
FROM YOUR OUTBOX
The simplest and cheapest method of sending out ezines is from
your email software, such as Outlook, Lotus and Eudora, but
this has the disadvantage that you can’t personalise your ezine
by addressing it to the person by name unless you send out each
ezine individually.
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How to write newsletters and ezines
You first need to create an ezine folder in your address book
with the names and email addresses of your database. After
you’ve tested your ezine by sending it to yourself, send it to
everyone on your database by addressing it to yourself with a
blind copy (Bcc) to your readership. This way your readers
won’t know who else is receiving it, so you’re not exposing your
database.
You will find your ezine easier to send in batches than in one
hit. I found, when I tried to send a large number at once, that
the ezine sat in my outbox forever. I’ve read since then that you
can safely send your ezine out in bunches of about 100. After
my experience I erred on the safe side, and sent it in groups of
about 50.
If you’re using this method make sure you back up your
database. It’s devastating to have a hard disk crash and to lose
important data. Also back up your address book. I learnt this
the hard way. I had my database in a Word file, but didn’t know
how to back up my actual address book (in Outlook Express
it’s the win key + f, then *wab, then copy and paste into My
Documents). I managed to delete my entire ezine address book
by mistake when deleting one entry. It took me hours to reenter the data and gave me numerous headaches the next time
I sent my ezine out as I had made a number of typing mistakes,
such as commas instead of full stops. The experience had a good
side: I decided it was time to stop using Outlook Express to
send my ezine! But it had worked well for a year while I was
starting out.
So while using this method is fine when you have a small readership (up to about 700 max.), if your subscriber base grows
beyond this point or you want to make your ezine more professional and effective by personalising it, you need to consider
either buying software or using a mail list server (sometimes called
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a mailhouse or mailing house provider). If you have in-house IT
knowledge, you can also build your own software program.
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SOFTWARE
Some people choose to go the software route, as it’s a one-off,
up-front cost and they then have greater control over their database and the process.
Software works like mailmerge and will merge any part of
your database within an email. Software will personalise each
email, handle your subscribes and unsubscribes, send all your
ezines in one hit and allow you to do both html and plain text
versions.
MAIL LIST SERVER
A mail list server does everything that software does, but
saves time and hassle. Once you’ve entered your database and
learnt the system, all you need to do is type in your ezine,
convert it to plain text, and your mail list server sends it to
all your subscribers immediately or at a later specified time.
So if you’re going on holiday you can write your ezine in
advance.
Be prepared for a steep learning curve when you first sign
up, but after that a mail list server is easy to use. Most people
I know with large databases go the mail list server route after a
while, even if they’ve used software as an interim step.
Do some research to find a reliable provider. Location is not
an issue, and many of the most reputable providers are in the
USA. When choosing a provider, look at the conditions as well
as the price. Some are free, but may have terms that you find
unacceptable such as automatically inserting an ad in your ezine.
Most providers charge a reasonable annual fee, and many have
a sliding scale that depends on the size of your mailing list. Some
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mail list servers can �sniff out’ whether servers block html, but
many rely on you to state your subscribers’ preference.
Mail list servers handle �subscribes’ from your website. Many
send a follow-up email after people have subscribed, confirming
the subscription. They also handle unsubscribes.
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Building readership
The number one rule is to make sure you get everyone’s email
address when you meet them. But don’t just add them to your
database—remember, they have to opt in. Ask them at the time
if appropriate or send them a sample ezine and ask them whether
they want to receive it. When you enter them in your database,
include some identifying information, such as city, so you can
also use your database for targeted email marketing. Include a
subscription form on your website.
Decide in advance how you will build your subscriber base
and set yourself growth targets. You will probably start with
your current customers and prospects and then expand your list
through your marketing efforts. You can encourage people to
sign up to your ezine by including information in your other
promotional material, such as your website and direct mail, and
by listing yourself with search engines. You can also list your
ezine with ezine-promoting companies, most of which are based
in the United States (see <www.ezine-tips.com>).
Some businesses that work with many clients with common
interests or issues set up an email discussion or research and
development group. These groups have different functions. With
the discussion group, you provide the infrastructure and the
members discuss topics of interest. Although you make comments
too, the group develops a life of its own. A research and development group is like having a virtual board of people who are
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prepared to comment on your ideas and provide feedback on
questions relevant to your business and the industry you share.
This engages people more actively in your business and helps
you develop a more customer-focused service.
Be prepared for disappointment as well as success, but
focus on the positives and don’t take it personally. People will
unsubscribe, and the majority of readers will never become your
customers or clients. But hang in there and you’ll develop a longterm relationship with a loyal readership, and many will become
your customers or clients.
Summary
PURPOSE
Newsletters and ezines build long-term relationships with
clients, customers and prospects to achieve your marketing
objectives. For example, they might help establish you as an
expert in your field or help you gain more business from your
existing database and new business from prospects.
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
AUDIENCE
Your existing client database, prospects and, in the case of
ezines, people who subscribe because they enjoy the content of
your ezine.
CONTENT
• Information of interest to your readers—not a hard sell
• Short
• Informal, but well written. Ezines are often more personal
than newsletters and reveal more about the personality of the
writer.
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How to write newsletters and ezines
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
TIPS
• Use your newsletter and ezine as a relationship-building tool,
not a hard sell. You can still advertise your products or
services, but the emphasis must be on providing information
of interest.
• If you want to expand your ezine subscription base, market
your ezine through all your marketing material.
• Collect your customers’, clients’ and prospects’ email
addresses for ezines (remember the opt-in rule).
• Register to receive my free monthly e-newsletter and
occasional updates at <www.themfactor.com.au>. It contains
helpful writing and grammar tips.
237
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References
References
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Books
CCH, Australian eBusiness Guide, Sydney, 2001. Very sound book
for the Australian Internet market.
Denton, Peter, How to write and pitch your Press Release, Prentice
Hall, Sydney, 2000. An excellent book on press releases.
Evans, Wendy, How to Get New Business in 90 Days and Keep it
Forever, Millenium Books, Sydney, 1993. I read this book years
ago but it has stood the test of time. It has probably influenced
my marketing strategy more than any other marketing book.
Findlay Schenck, Barbara, Small Business Marketing for Dummies,
Hungry Minds, New York, 2001. Sound and comprehensive.
Gerber, Michael, The E Myth Revisited, HarperBusiness, New York,
1995. A basic, easy-to-read business book.
Griffiths, Andrew, 101 Ways to Market Your Business, Allen &
Unwin, Sydney, 2000. Some great ideas.
Hailey, Linda, Kickstart Marketing, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2001.
A useful marketing book for small businesses.
Kilian, Crawford, Writing for the Web, Self-Counsel Press,
Bellingham, 1999. One of the few good books on writing for
the web currently available.
238
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Page 239
References
Mayo-Smith, Debbie, Successful Email Marketing, Penguin Books,
Auckland, 2002. A sound book on email marketing.
Ogilvy, David, Ogilvy on Advertising, Prion Books Ltd, London,
1983. Old, but still sound.
Stapleton, James J., Developing a CPA Practice, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1997. Written for accountants, this is an excellent
book on marketing. It has one of the best sections on
telemarketing I’ve ever read.
Style manual for authors, editors and printers, Sixth edition, John
Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd., Melbourne, 2002. A must for all
writers and editors in Australia.
Sullivan, Luke, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1998. An entertaining and informative book on
advertising.
Websites
Being a typical user of search engines who often dips into multiple sites
on this list, I sometimes forget what sites I’ve visited. But these sites
are all worth more than one visit.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
•
•
Jakob Nielsen’s website: <www.useit.com>
Excellent, succinct advice on writing for the web:
<www.sun.com/980713/webwriting>
Crawford Kilian’s personal page (author of Writing for the Web)
with useful links to other sites:
<www.capcollege.bc.ca/dept/magic/cmns/crofpers.html>
A prolific American copywriter with some useful articles on
writing: <www.bly.com>
Check out how customer-friendly your website is:
<www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.html>
Articles and case studies about marketing: <www.clickz.com>
Useful Internet statistics: <www.internetstats.com>
eBusiness strategy consultant’s site with some good articles and
speeches on the Internet: <www.cyberspeaker.com/index.html>
Good site on email marketing: <www.successis.co.nz>
Useful information on writing for the web: <www.tightcopy.com>
239
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Index
Index
Index
newspapers, 162
outdoor advertising, 164–5
radio, 165–6
television, 166–7
types of, 161–2
visuals, 177
AIDA, 145
see also call to action
angle (press release), 111
appearance, 144, 216
see also design; illustrations;
images; photos/pictures; visuals
Aprimo Inc. case study, 135–6
audience, 53–6,
advertising, 170–1, 191–2
direct mail, 136–7
(continues)
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
5W & H, 60, 113–14, 193
action plan, 1–2, 24–5
action step, 100
active voice, 118–19
adjectives, 65, 73–4
adverbs, 65, 73
advertisements, 160
body copy, 180–1
campaign, benefits of, 167–8
concept, 174–5
creating an advertisement,
169–76
directories, 163
ingredients of, 176–83
Internet, 167
magazines, 162–3
240
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Index
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
audience (continued)
press release, 110
website, 191–2
Australian eBusiness Guide, The,
188
Australian Financial Review, The,
114–15, 120
background information (press
release), 122
benefits
advertising, 172–3 181
brochures, 94–5
Blue Gum Restaurant, xii, 3
action plan, 25
advertisement, 183
business card, 37
capability brochure, 82–3
colours, 32–3
competitor analysis, 16
email, 152
goals, 9–10
logo, 34
market trends, 13–14
marketing, 23
mission, 6
name, 31
positioning, 20
press release, 128
product brochure, 85, 88
review, 96–7
SWOT, 18
tag line, 36
vision, 6
website, 191, 206
body copy (advertisement), 180–1
bold (text), 42–3
bookmark, 208
branding, 28–30
advertising, 172
branding (continued)
business cards, 36–7
colours (company), 32–3
consistency and change, 39
design and layout, 140–9
logo, 33–4
managing a brand, 38–9
name, 30–1
newsletters and ezines, 218–19
slogans and tag lines, 34–6
stationery, 36
brochures, 75–6
design and print, 100–1
editing, 101–2
ingredients of, 93
types of, 76–91
writing of, 91–100
see also capability brochures;
flyers; folders; online
brochures; product brochures
budget, 23, 76
see also prices; costs
bullet points, 98
see also lists
business cards, 36–7
business plan, 1–2
action plan, 24–5
budget, 23
competitor analysis, 14–16
description of business, 2–3
goals and objectives, 6–10
market analysis, 10–14
marketing, 20–3
measuring and monitoring, 25–6
mission and vision, 3–6
positioning, 18–20
SWOT, 17–18
buttons (website), 209
241
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call to action, 138, 140, 175, 181
campaign (advertising), 167–8
capability brochures, 76–83
capitals, 42
captions, 198
case studies, 95–7, 135–6, 150–1,
173
chunk (website), 194
classified advertisements, 161–2
clichГ©s, 64
collateral, 75–6
colours (company), 32–3, 200
competitor analysis, 14–16
conjunctions, 74
Constat, 185
contact details, 100, 122–3
content
brochure, 93
direct mail, 132
ezines, 219–21
website, 193
costs, 221, 224
see also budget; prices
credibility, 115, 173–4, 194–5,
customer/client interaction
websites, 188
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Delite Landscape Design, xi, 2
action plan, 24
advertisement, 164, 182
brochure, 102–3
business card, 37
capability brochure, 79–80
colours, 32
competitor analysis, 15–16
direct mail, 147
email, 151
ezine, 213, 229–30
goals, 7–8,
logo, 33
market trends, 12–13
Delite Landscape Design
(continued)
marketing, 22
mission, 5,
name, 31
newsletter, 213, 222–3
PAKO, for brochure, 57–8
positioning, 19–20
press release, 112, 126
product brochure, 85–6
style guide, 48–9
SWOT, 17
tag line 35
testimonial, 96
vision, 5
website, 190, 204
demographics, 54
Denton, Peter, 111–12
design, 40–9
brochure, 91–2, 99, 100–1
direct mail, 144
emails, 158
websites, 199–203
see also appearance; images;
photos/pictures; visuals
determiners, 74
dimensional mailer, 135–7
direct mail, 130–3
AIDA, 145
appearance, 144
audience (list), 136–7
call to action, 138, 140
case study, 135–6
letter, 138–44
offer, 138
testing and evaluation, 145
timing, 137–8
types of, 133–5
see also DM (direct mail)
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Index
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
directories, 163
distribution
ezines, 232–4
press release, 125
DL brochure, 84
DM (direct mail), 130
eBusiness websites, 188–91
editing, 69–71
advertisements, 181–2
brochure, 101–2
press release, 121
websites, 198–9
electronic (medium), 58
email marketing, 146
advantages of, 148
case study, 150–1
frequency, 153–4
list, the, 152
opt in, 146, 152
personalise, 153
plain text, html or rich text,
154–5
spam, 210–11
timing, 154
writing of, 155–8
Emerald Furniture, xi-xii, 3
action plan, 25
advertisement, 183
business card, 37
capability brochure, 79, 81
colours, 32
competitor analysis, 16
email, 152
ezine, 213–14, 230–2
flyer, 90
goals, 8–9
logo, 34
Emerald Furniture
(continued)
market trends, 13
marketing, 22,
mission, 5
name, 31
positioning, 20
press release, 112, 114, 127
product brochure, 85, 87
review, 96–7
SWOT, 17–18
tag line, 36
vision, 5–6
website, 191, 205
endorsements, see testimonials
Essential Guide to Email
Marketing, The, 155
evaluation, see measuring results;
monitoring results; testing
ezines, 210–14, 225–36
advantages and disadvantages,
217–18
appearance, 216
back issues, 228
branding, 218–19
common issues with newsletters,
218–25
content, 219–21
costs, 221, 224
database and distribution,
232–4
footer, 228
html or plain text, 227–8
monitoring, 224–5
sidebar, 228
similarities and differences
between newsletters and
ezines, 214–17
(continues)
243
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ezines (continued)
subject line, 126
see also design
homepage, 208
html, 154, 227–8
hyperlinks, 208
FAB (features, advantages and
benefits), 94–5
facts and figures, 97–8, 119
Findlay Schenck, Barbara, 168, 172,
175–6
flash, 201
flyers, 89
folders, 89
follow up, 125
see also marketing
font, 40–2, 202
footer (ezines), 228
format (press release), 123–5
see also appearance; design
illustrations, 99
see also appearance; design;
images; photos/pictures;
visuals
images, 201
see also appearance; design;
illustrations; photos/pictures;
visuals
Internet advertising, 167
Internet press release, 109
italics, 42–3
geographics, 54
getting started, 60–2
goals, 6–10
see also objectives; purpose
grammar see adverbs; adjectives;
conjunctions; determiners;
nouns; prepositions; pronouns;
prepositions; verbs
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
10:52 AM
headings, 46
brochure headings, 99
direct mail, 139
ezines, 226
websites, 196–7
see also headlines
headlines, 120–1, 177–80
see also headings
Helen Bateman Shoe Store case
study, 150–1
key messages, 56
advertising, 171
press release, 110–11, 113
Kingsley Group, 185
layout see appearance; design;
visuals
letter
Delite, 49
direct mail, 138–44
letterbox drops, 133
list (of recipients), 136–7, 152
see also audience
lists, 47, 68–9, 98, 197
local press, 108
logo, 33
lower case, 42
magazines
advertisement, 162–3
press release, 108
magic words, 143, 178–9
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Index
mail list server, 234–5
main messages see key messages
market analysis, 10–14
market trends, 11–14
marketing, 20–3, 26–7
brochure, 102–4
ezine, 235–6
website, 203
measuring results, 25–6
see also monitoring; testing
mission statements, 3–6
monitoring results, 25–6, 224–5
see also testing
My Business magazine, 113–14, 115
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
name (company), 30–1
navigation devices, 209
navigation (website), 192–3, 209
Neilsen, Jakob, 185–6, 201–2
news agencies, 107
newsletters, 210–14
advantages and disadvantages,
217–18
branding, 218–19
content, 219–21
costs, 221, 224
monitoring, 224–5
similarities and differences
between newsletters and
ezines, 214
newspaper advertisements, 162
newspapers (press release), 107
nouns, 73
objectives, 6–10, 211–12
see also purpose
offer, 138–40
Ogilvy, David, 171, 177, 179
online brochure, 91
opening sentence, 139
opt in (ezines) 146
outcome, 56–7
outdoor advertising, 164–5
Oxygenics showerhead, 173
PAKO, 52–3, 57–8, 61, 72
paragraphs, 44–5, 67–8, 98, 193–4
PDF, 157, 194
perspective (clients’/customers’),
54–5
persuasive writing, 141–2
see also writing
photos/pictures, 99, 121–2, 198
see also appearance; design;
illustration; images; visuals
plain text, 154, 227–8
positioning, 18–20
positioning statement, 171–2
positive statements, 97
prepositions, 74
press release, 105–6
distribution, 125
follow-up, 125
format, 123–5
planning, 109–11
timing, 126
where to place, 106–9
writing, 111–23
prices, 175–6
see also budget; costs
print (medium), 58, 100–1
print-friendly webpages, 202–3
product brochure, 83–8
pronouns, 73
proofreading, 70–1
see also editing
245
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PS (direct mail), 140
psychographics, 54
purpose, 52–3
advertisement, 169–70
direct mail, 131–3
email, 149–50
newsletters and ezines, 211
press release, 109–10
see also goals; objectives
quotes, 198
see also spokesperson
radio
advertising, 165–6
press release, 108
readability, 43–4
read (how people read), 185–7
Reiss and Trout, 171
reviews, 95–7
rewriting, 69
see also editing
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
10:52 AM
search engines, 196
sentences, 67, 98, 193–4
set the scene, 114
sidebar (ezines), 228
slogans, 34–6
Small Business Marketing for
Dummies, 168, 172, 175–6
software (ezines), 234
spam, 210–11
spokesperson (press release),
115–17
stationery, 36
structure, 59–60
style, 62, 195
subject line, 120, 155, 226
Sullivan, Luke, 35, 61, 165, 174–5,
177–8, 180
SWOT analysis, 17–18
tag lines, 34–5
target markets, 10–11
targeted direct mail, 134
television advertising, 166–7
testimonials, 95–7
testing, 145, 158
see also measuring your results
third person (press release), 118
timing, 126, 137–8, 154
tone, 63, 195, 217
trade journals, 108, 162–3
typeface, 40–2, 202
underlining, 42–3
unique selling proposition (USP),
18–19, 93–4, 171–2
URL, 208
verbs, 65–6, 74
viral marketing, 155
vision, 3–6
visuals, 177, 201
see also appearance; design;
illustrations; images;
photos/pictures
webpage, 209
web glossary, 208–9
websites, 185–7
change and update, 199
design, 199–203
essential ingredients of, 191–9
glossary of web terms, 208
navigation, 192–3
types of, 187–91
see also chunk (website)
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Index
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
white space, 45
words, 63–4, 98, 193
writing, 59–69
brochure, 91–100
direct mail, 141–4
emails, 155–8
writing (continued)
for the web, 191–9
press release, 111–23
Yellow Pages, 137, 163–4
�you’ language, 95, 195
247
A&U-PYBusiness Cover 9/25/03 8:23 PM Page 1
Mary Morel
B592C9D1-5AC6-4661-B803-042A553766CE
Promote Your Business
• brochures • newsletters • press releases •
advertisements • websites • brochures • newsletters
press releases • advertisements • websites •
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Need
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course you• do.
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But you don’t need to hire an expensive copywriter or
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Whether you’re
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Your Business
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it
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to
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n
i
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mar
your small business
Mary Morel
Verizon Wireless is proud to have sponsored
this ebook for you. If you would like to know
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