Clearing out some old magazines and newspapers this week, I came across this great little ad from Hiscox, a UK based insurance company. The ad explains how they believe in straightforward jargon-free policies and how they're committed to using plain English. Hooray. Couldn't we all do with a bit of plain ol' English from our insurance companies? Now I don't about you,...
When it comes to planning copy, copywriters, me included, love a good acronym. Anything that helps us keep the message focussed and tight. Back in the day I was taught to use AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. Grab your customers' attention with a good, pithy headline which pulls them into the piece. Create interest by demonstrating your product; telling your...
This month's interview is with Alison Blake, marketing expert, and head of Add Agency, a creative marketing agency based in south west London. Turner Ink: A few weeks ago I wrote a post about why companies shouldn't cut their marketing budgets during economic downturns. Are you finding that's the case Alison? Are companies increasing their spend? Or are they cutting back? Add...
As an SEO copywriter I'm always rattling on to my clients about keywords and where they should appear on a web page for maximum SEO. As I'm going on about Page Titles, H1 Tags, Meta Description Tags and Alt Tags I see their eyes start to glaze over. So hooray for the chaps over at Seomoz who have put together the nifty visual below. It...
Let me come right out and say it: there are a lot of SEO companies out there that are full of bull. I had such a company email me out of the blue last week. They advised me that they had studied my website (yeah, right) and were concerned that I was not 'appearing on the major search engines'. Not only...
So this company calls me up on Friday afternoon and says: Dubious company: Hi, we're working with Google and we just wanted to let you know about a phrase that has recently become available which was last seen 11 months ago. It's ‘marketing agency Surrey'. It's a great opportunity. (There are so many lies in this opening sentence it's hard to know...
Editor's note: This is a guest post by grammar guru Ivy Wigmore. Myself abuse is rampant online and nowhere more so than in business communications. My fond hope is that the following rant might shine a little light into the dark corners of the Internet and, perhaps, stop one person from saying myself when the right word is I or me. As Dr. Grammar...
