Here's the latest case study of real-life copywriting in action graciously sent to us by Sarah Williams, the head of Wordsmith in England. Thanks, Sarah! (Check out our interview with her here.)

The project:
Bizlinx International, a business networking organization (though, for reasons that you'll learn below, business networking is really not the term I should use here) was looking to re-brand and re-position itself after four or five years of successful trading in Australia and New Zealand. (They also have a small presence in the UK.) Wordsmith was appointed to write all the new material for web and print, as well as re-write and re-brand all the existing material. We were also tasked to project manage the whole undertaking, liaising with branding specialists, designers and web developers to deliver a finished product to the client.

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"A corporate brand is meant to be an organizing principle and filter for all actions, behavior and product development of an organization," explains author and veteran branding expert Scott Lerman. The former president of Siegel & Gale and CEO of Enterprise IG, Americas, Scott founded the consultancy Lucid Brands in 2005 to help organizations shape and develop their "brand story." We had a fascinating conversation with Scott about his work:  Continue reading...

How do you effectively communicate -- sell -- your ideas in the marketplace? Anne Miller, a speaker, author and corporate trainer, answers this way: Think in metaphors. Metaphors? Review a speech by Ronald Reagan, Jack Welch or Steve Jobs -- or other legendary communicators -- and you'll read prose laced with imagery and analogies that drive their points home. As the author of Metaphorically Selling, Anne teaches businesspeople to put metaphors to work in their own communication. We spoke to her about her approach:  Continue reading...

According to David Meerman Scott, author of the bestselling book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, the old rules of PR no longer apply. Thanks to the Internet, marketing and PR professionals shouldn't write press releases for journalists in the hope of getting ink.  Continue reading...

Read a thriller novel and the style is fast-paced and loaded with action. Cozy up with a romance and you're spellbound by a budding relationship that struggles to grow and blossom. Review an academic paper and you expect to find an intelligent argument based on solid research and analytical thinking. Every writing genre has its own style, and marketing writing is no different.  Continue reading...

In Part One and Part Two of this series I shared six tools that professional name developers use to turn words into business and product names. In this final installment I'll describe three more-advanced strategies. Don't worry: you don't need special training to use them. Just be aware that implementing them successfully is often trickier than you might think.  Continue reading...

Here's the latest case study of real-life copywriting in action graciously sent to us by Sarah Williams, the head of Wordsmith in England. Thanks, Sarah! (Check out our interview with her here.)

The project:
Oxford University is renowned throughout the world for the quality of its education and the beauty of its buildings. Less well known, however, is that each of the colleges of the university is its own independent organization, with an obligation, where possible, to raise revenue for the college. This is often done by hiring out the college facilities for conferences, seminars and other functions when the students don't need them -- evenings, vacations, weekends.

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