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New environment = new ideas

Posted byIan Brodie on May 10th, 2015.

I like to get out of the house on Sunday. There's something about working from home that makes you go a bit stir-crazy sometimes, so getting out is nice.

And I've found recently that changing my environment can do wonders for productivity.

I spent half a day in a coffee shop and wrote four and a half thousand words on a monster article I'm working on (who knows, it might even turn into a book at some point).

I don't like to take calls when I'm out (seems rather rude to shout away into a phone when people are trying to grab a coffee).

But for thinking, planning and writing it just seems to work well to sit by yourself with a bit of a general buzz going on behind you in a coffee shop.

I even used to do it when I was running big projects as an employed consultant. I'd escape from the office every few days to get some quiet time for thinking and planning. Although I must admit, sometimes I was planning my escape from employment :)

I'd advise you to try to change your environment every now and then. Get out and do some work from a coffee shop. Or sit in a meeting room by yourself for a while.

It can make quite a big difference.

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3 mistakes most bloggers and emails make with writing

Posted byIan Brodie on May 3rd, 2015.

I'm not going to pretend I'm some kind of brilliant writer. But I've had my share of success through emails, blog posts, articles and a best selling book.

So I often get asked to give feedback on other people's writing. Here are some basic mistakes I see made time and time again:

1. Trying too hard to be clever

I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people trying to use clever puns, aliteration, cutesy phrases. Especially in the vital areas of headlines and email subject lines.

It doesn't work.

In marketing you want clarity first. If you can be clear and write something clever or funny at the same time that's great. But very few people can. Instead they write something vaguely humourous that fails to get across the key points.

Focus first on being clear. And in your headlines and subject lines make sure you get across the benefits of what you have to offer.

2. Writing that's too complex

This was my big achilles heel when I started. I'd have big long sentences with complex clauses and multiple commas.

Often the only person who could understand what I'd written was me. And if I read it a day later sometimes even I couldn't decipher what it meant.

It's a particular challenge when you have quite detailed knowledge and you see shades of grey.

You want to caveat everything. Lay out all the different situations and complexities.

But if you confuse all your readers you achieve nothing.

It takes work to simplify your writing yet still get across a complex message. But you have to put in that work.

3. Writing that doesn't go anywhere

A lot of writing just peters out.

The writer makes their main point, then kind of rambles on a bit. Then it just ends.

In almost all marketing-related writing you need a call to action. And I've seen many people fight shy of calls to action.

They don't want to be too pushy. They're hoping people will just spontaneously know what to do and do it.

But they rarely do.

If your article has given a clear reason for taking some action, then ask your readers to take that action.

If it makes sense and it's a fit for them, they will. If it isn't a fit they won't.

Don't make their decisions for them by not giving them the choice.

Of course, now I've said that all good marketing-related writing needs a call to action, I need to have one too.

Normally it would be something suggesting you join the %mctrial% trial of Momentum Club.

But what I really want you to do this week is just pick one piece of your writing. A important blog post or email for example.

Read through it and just tick off where you're trying to be too clever. Where your writing is complex. And mark a big X if you don't have a call to action.

Do this for your next half dozen pieces of writing and I promise you it will improve.

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Groundhog day

Posted byIan Brodie on April 12th, 2015.

Here's a conversation I have with someone every couple of weeks – not the same person each time of course ;)

Here's how it goes:

Fella: “Ian, what's the fastest way of attracting more clients?”

Ian: “Create something uniquely valuable and give it away to potential clients in exchange for their contact details and permission to keep in touch”.

Fella: “But isn't that a bit old fashioned, isn't everyone doing that?”

Ian: “Are you doing it?”

Fella: “Well, no, but…”

..there then follows a bunch of excuses why he (or she) just can't get round to producing a lead magnet, how it probably wouldn't work in their business, blah blah blah.

For me there's no more powerful method of establishing yourself as an expert in your field, getting your relationship with a potential client off on the right footing, and identifying who's really interested in what you have to offer.

And believe me, most of your competitors don't do this.

And those that do, don't do it all that well.

So do me a favour. No more groundhog days for me. Make sure you have a strong lead magnet in place.

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Learn from the best

Posted byIan Brodie on April 5th, 2015.

Christopher Booker says there are just 7 basic plots in fiction: overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, journey and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth.

Whether he's exactly right or wrong, its certainly true that the same “formulas” come up time and time again in successful literature.

It's the same for poetry, music and art too. There are certain patterns which are appealing to the human eye, ear and brain.

So if you want to write a bestselling novel or a number one pop song, you stand a better chance of success if it follows one of the successful formulae of previous hits.

That's not to discount creativity. And it's not to say that there aren't plenty of successes that trod a different path. Just that your safest bet is to be creative within a pattern that people find inherently appealing.

I believe it's the same with marketing too.

A friend of mine shared an idea he'd had for a sales letter with me a couple of weeks ago, asking for feedback.

I pointed out that the headline looked and sounded a lot like John Caples' classic ad from 1926, “They laughed when I sat down at the piano…but when I started to play!”

He liked that connection (the Caples letter made millions for the US School of Music) and ran with it. He wrote a brilliant sales letter in that style and it ended up being his most successful promotion ever.

Now his letter is far from a copy of the Caples original. If you read it and didn't know the inspiration you wouldn't pick up any connection.

It's very different. But it has the same kind of feel and cadence. It picks up on the same emotions – the hero doubted at the start proves his detractors wrong.

Marketing that works can be repeated again and again.

David Ogilvy's classic ad for Rolls Royce “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock” was actually based on an ad for Pierce-Arrow cars from 30 odd years earlier.

And it's been re-swiped and used by Landrover just recently too.

Martin Conroy's “Two Young Men” advert for the Wall Street Journal that ran from 1975 to 2003 and reputedly generated them over a billion in sales was actually based on an ad from 1919 for the Alexander Hamilton Institute.

Successful marketers – whether they're writing sales letters or emails or blog posts – take their inspiration from “swipe files” of marketing that's worked well in the past.

Marketing that works because it's based on timeless principles of human nature.

Have you got a swipe file?

If you haven't it's time to start building one.

Whenever you see an ad or an email or a web page that works to sell to you take a copy and file it. Ideally make sure the marketing piece is proven to work (Denny Hatch's “Million Dollar Mailings” is a great source for this).

Of course, you must, must, must use these for inspiration and NOT to copy verbatim.

But just reading through classic marketing before you write can have a big impact. And studying them and learning what makes them work is even better.

You might even get your best results ever like my friend.