These women write about how to market, brand and communicate to, well, women. Check out their influential blogs:

Wonder Branding

Marketing to Women Online

Learned on Women

Lip Sticking

Almost 400 years after the death of William Shakespeare, theaters still regularly perform his plays, children study his work in school and we are still moved by the complexity of his stories and the beauty of his language. But what's less well known is that Shakespeare also provided superb advice for copywriters and corporate communicators. Here are five of his best tips:  Continue reading...

Visual Thesaurus subscriber Sarah Williams runs a busy copywriting company called Wordsmith, based near Oxford, England. When we spoke to her recently, she quipped that "copywriting is a bit like method acting." Hmm, that got us curious. So we asked Sarah to tell us more about her approach to developing her clients' communications. Here's our conversation:

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"Why do the people who write scripts for recorded announcements in elevators and shuttle buses and subway trains have such a tin ear for ordinary-sounding English?" wonders Language Log's noted linguist Geoffrey Pullum, after listening to a grammatically-challenged warning at the San Francisco International Airport. Why indeed? Read Geoffrey's thoughts here.

Subscriber Larry Oakner graciously sent us this terrific piece on branding -- and how the Visual Thesaurus can help. Read it carefully: Larry's been building brands for over three decades and is the author of And Now a Few Laughs from Our Sponsor. Thanks Larry! -- Editor

How do you describe a personality? You might call a witty conversationalist "clever." Your friend who bungee jumps? "Courageous" or even "fearless." The grandfather who counseled you on life's mysteries? "Wise," of course. We differentiate people's personalities by using words that describe their actions that set them apart. Branding works the same way.

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You have an e-mail, direct mail letter, web page, or other promotional piece to write. How much copy is required to do the job? One paragraph? Five? Twenty?

Most marketing writers struggle with this question. And for good reason. There's a lot of misinformation out there. One so-called expert claims that all marketing and PR copy should be long and involved. Another insists that short and concise works best these days.

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