The Turner Ink blog contains rants, bloopers, observations and opinions. It also has handy tips on grammar and punctuation such as colons: semicolons; and full stops. As well as some very useful ‘how tos’. Feel free to leave comments. Be nice though.

Turner Ink

Copywriting Services London

What would you do with this flyer? Read it or bin it?

19th
May
by Sarah Turner

I get loads of direct mail. I give most of it a cursory glance – more out of professional interest than anything else – before tossing it in the bin. And you probably do the same.

It seems that Amnesty knows this. Because their latest direct mail piece has on its front cover:

This flyer will ask you to make six choices. Here’s the first: Read it or bin it.

IMG_0002

Now there’s no way I’m going to bin it now. The least I’m going to do is open it. Inside follow more choices:

Speak out or stay silent? Object or accept? Make a stand or walk away? Act or do nothing?

And then finally Join or not join?

Amnesty Flyer inside

 

The copy includes the line ‘for these and many, many more the fact you chose to read this leaflet rather than bin it, is a source of unimaginable help.’ Powerful stuff.

As a direct mail piece this is superb. Eye catching, emotional, appealing and with a strong call to action.

Find our more about Amnesty.

 

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Posted in Copywriting, Marketing | comments icon No comments yet »

Why old school communication gets my vote

6th
May
by Sarah Turner

If you’re in the UK, you’ve probably been inundated with marketing bumph from your parliamentary candidates in the last few weeks. They’re often garish, glossy flyers stuffed full of daft images of various political bods grinning gormlessly as they plant a tree. And they tend to go from my letter box to my recycling box with hardly a glance.

But yesterday, this arrived from my Lib Dem MP Edward Davey: a personal letter. Well, not quite. It’s one of those handwritten-but-printed letters but it still felt more personal than all the other stuff I’d received.

 Ed Davey MP letter   Ed Davey Mp (2) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And do you know what? I read the whole thing from beginning to end.

A few weeks ago, at a networking event, I met Jerry Marshall from Tozer Marshall Design in Kingston. We chatted. We swapped business cards. The usual. And then a few days later I received a handwritten postcard from him saying thanks for the chat and hopefully we can work together at some point in the future. How cool? I actually called him up to say thank you, and the postcard is now pinned to my wall.

Is this old style personal correspondence making a bit of a comeback in these days of impersonal emails, tweets and texts?

James over at Freelance Switch thinks so. In a blog post this week James has some great old school ideas:

Write a handwritten thank-you note to your clients, then tuck in an extra business card – and a request that the client pass on that card to a colleague who could use your services.

So I’m digging out my fountain pen and I’m getting writing. Which only leaves the question: Should I vote for Ed Davy or Monkey the Drummer from the Monster Raving Loony Party? (And yes, he really is standing in Kingston.)


Tags: handwritten notes
Posted in Business writing, Marketing | comments icon 5 Comments »

Can I trust you? Why we’re not believing our friends anymore

5th
May
by Sarah Turner

When you book a holiday, buy a gadget or download an album, chances are, if you’re anything like me, you read all the reviews on Amazon, TripAdvisor and iTunes before parting with your cash. Once, much to the annoyance of the boyf, I changed our hotel booking in Marrakech – just because Enid Williams in Basingstoke hadn’t thought much of the quality of the linens in my previous choice.

There was a time, where we took every review at face value. After all, why would Quickmix Boxer Boy bother to log in to iTunes to tell us how brilliant  Lady Gaga’s latest album was if he didn’t really think that? And yet. And yet…

The latest annual Trust Survey from Edelman’s has revealed that our trust in the information we’re reading online has reduced dramatically. In 2008 45% of us trusted the views of our friends and peers online. In 2009 that figure was just 25%.

So what’s happened?

Have big brands infiltrated the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to such an extent that we no longer trust what we’re reading?

Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet thinks so.

“Social networking used to be innocent, peer to peer conversation and now it’s turned into a marketing playground in which almost everything — blog space, tweets and, in some cases, opinion — is for sale.”

It seems that Tweets, blogs posts and comments are all up for grabs. Remember Paris Hilton’s “I love The Coffee Bean – The Frozen Chocolate Drink is Amazing. If you haven’t tried one before I deinitely [sic] reccomend [sic] it. :) x0x0 Paris”. Yeah, right. With all those calories? 

But if we’re starting to mistrust what we’re reading online, how else are the big brands going to reach us?

Last month the Sunday Times Magazine reported how brands and their ad agencies are now hiring actors for ‘brand experience solutions.’

The magazine interviewed David Chambers, a guy who had worked for an unnamed web search engine. He and a group of colleagues had infiltrated the studio audience of The Wright Stuff, a day time show on Channel 5 here in the UK, which relies heavily on audience participation. Chambers reveals “we were there to plant subliminal messages. It was all about inserting the key phrase, about freeing the information into the conversations.”

“The same day we did dozens of radio phone-ins, calling up and pretending to be different characters and just getting the phrase in”.

According to the Sunday Times, brands are increasingly targeting our conversations. One agency director revealed “it has all become a lot more under the radar. Sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors. Consumers will sometimes never know they’re being influenced by a brand.”

What does the future hold? Who can we trust?

Only last week we saw a release of the film The Joneses starring David Duchovny and Demi Moore. They’re a perfect couple with beautiful teenagers, a suburban McMansion, expensive designer clothes, smart looking cars and all the latest gadgets. And of course, they’re happy to recommend these products to their friends, family and colleagues.

But this is no ordinary family. They’re slick marketers employed by brands to sell their products.

Of course this is just a movie. But how long will it be before we see this for real?

So when that lovely family move in next door with their flash Audi A8, 3G iPads and Jimmy Choos*, don’t be jealous. It could be that they’re just being sponsored. Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?

*I have not been given any reward for mentioning these products. Or have I……?


Tags: edelman, facebook, iPad, iTunes, Social media, trust survey, twitter
Posted in Social media | comments icon No comments yet »

Where do commas go in a list of adjectives?

28th
Apr
by Sarah Turner

A comma should be used to separate two or more co-ordinate adjectives that describe the same noun.

Or to put it more simply, if you’re using two similar words to describe a thing, person, place, animal or idea you should use a comma to separate them.

She worked in a happy, relaxed office.
He pointed to the big, tall guy in the gym.
Her boss was a strong, confident woman.

The easiest way to test if the two adjectives are similar is to reverse their order or stick an And inbetween them.

She worked in a happy and relaxed office. She worked in a relaxed, happy office.
He pointed to the tall and big guy in the gym. He pointed to the big, tall guy in the gym.
Her boss was a strong and confident woman. Her boss was a confident, strong woman.

Yep, they all work. Which means they’re all co-ordinating adjectives and need a comma between them.

Now use the same the rule to spot non co-ordinating adjectives.

He wore his blue cotton shirt to the office.
It was a stripy football jersey.
The extensive briefing document was nearly finished.

If we swapped them round or added an And we’d get:

He wore his cotton blue shirt to the office.
It was a stripy and football jersey.
The briefing extensive document was nearly finished.

Nope. These don’t work. So no comma.

As a general rule, adjectives of size come first, followed by adjectives of age, shape, colour, material, origin and purpose.

Blue cotton shirt.
Tall, young guy in accounts.
New French film.

 


Posted in Grammar tips | comments icon No comments yet »

How to write a blog post…when you’ve run out of ideas

13th
Apr
by Sarah Turner

Let’s be frank. Writing a blog post every day, every other day, or even once a week can be a right pain in the neck. Unless of course your actual job is writing for a blog.

But if you’re a freelancer or you run your own company, it’s easy to put your own blog on the back burner while you get your real work done. Especially if you’ve run out of ideas about what to write.   

But stick with it. Because your blog is one of the easiest, quickest and cheapest ways of getting freshly baked content on to your site – and Google loves fresh content; it’s a great way of getting traffic to your site; and it’s the perfect way to build relationships with your customers and attract new clients.

But what to write about? Try some of these ideas for inspiration.

  • Interview someone in your industry or someone you’re inspired by
  • Ask a question
  • Review a product and show how you use it in your business
  • Tell a personal story and let people know the real you
  • Review a book
  • Write about something that affects your industry
  • Read the Sunday papers for inspiration (I especially like the Sunday Times magazine)
  • Write a response to something someone else has posted, giving your point of view (and link to the original post)
  • Review a piece of software and show how it’s helped your business
  • Take photos on your camera phone, whilst you’re out and about, and use in a post
  • Write a post on something that’s in the news today (look at the BBC website first thing or see what’s trending on Twitter)
  • Use a band or a movie as inspiration. The Sex and the City post over at Copyblogger was one of my favourites, like, ev-ah.
  • Do a survey – and then publish the results
  • Write about how you screwed up or how you learned a lesson
  • Write a How to blog post…

And if you have a flash of inspiration for a post, leave yourself a voice memo on your iPhone or write a note in Evernote.

Any more ideas? Share in the comments.


Tags: blog writing, evernote
Posted in Business writing, Marketing, Social media | comments icon 2 Comments »

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Definition of a blog: A blog or web blog is a website usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. (Wikipedia.com)