Category Archives: how to write

Picture a geisha.

She’s lovely. She’s charming. She knows how to tell stories and dance and play an instrument. Her wit is disarming. She makes you laugh and can speak artfully. She asks you questions, and she is genuinely interested in what you have to say.

It would make you feel like the world revolves around you. Wouldn’t it?

But then the conversation takes a turn. She starts talking about how it took her several hours to do her hair and makeup. She tells you that she’s been taking fan dancing lessons in a little town outside the city every …

There’s two kinds of writing in this world, when it comes to marketing your business.

Regular and too fancy.

Regular is when you just say “here’s what I’m selling” and just—PLUNK—put it out there. A lot of fliers do this. Unfortunately, so do a lot of emails.

Regular writing doesn’t work so well when it comes to promoting your business.

Because regular writing rarely answers the question “what’s in it for me?”… which is the question that your reader is asking herself. Without talking in HER language about the results SHE wants, your stuff falls on deaf ears. Or …

Have your efforts to “sell” sold you out?

Lately, I’ve been chewing on the idea that a lot of marketing out there is like fast food. Predictable, cheap, and ubiquitous.

And I feel sick, unnourished and hungry after I eat it.

Why? What we call fast “food” isn’t much like real food at all. It’s been scientifically developed to store, travel and reheat well. Much of what we taste is actually chemically crafted. In a lab. By engineers and scientists.

The same holds true for marketing messages in a lot of people’s stuff:

“Make more mo.ney with ease …