VOLUME 21, ISSUE 9 – SEPTEMBER 2022
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: A TASTY SAMPLER PLATTER
Are You Preaching Marketing? Another “Longhand” Fan; Free File-Finding App
II. “FIELD” GREENS: KEEPING YOUR EYES & EARS OPEN?
Creativity Pro: It’s OUR Job to Know What Clients Need
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: MAKE YOUR GOALS MORE ATTAINABLE
Strategies for Staying Motivated & “On-Track” to Reach More Goals
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
A Follow-Up “Win” & Tactics for Ongoing Success
I. APPETIZER: A TASTY SAMPLER PLATTER
Are You Preaching Marketing? Another “Longhand” Fan; Free File-Finding App
Exhibit A: We Are SO Needed: Had an email exchange with a reader recently who was lamenting that his ad-agency clients will almost always opt for copy focusing on features—all about the company/their products; he calls it “We-We-We” copy—instead of benefits-oriented copy that speaks to the things that really matter to the end client.
Because he’s working through agencies in these cases, he can suggest, but too often he’s voted down. Nature of the beast. You can lead a horse to water…etc.
It just underscored that, we always need, as much as possible (even if it falls on deaf ears), to be evangelists about good sales and marketing principles.
The jury isn’t still out on this: understanding “audience” leads to more effective copy. Ditto with leading with benefits, not features. Ditto with identifying and highlighting a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)—what a company/product does better than the competition.
And ditto with internalizing The Curse of Knowledge, so you don’t end up assuming prospects reading your copy know more about the subject than they actually do.
Another “Longhand” Aficionado: In last month’s Greens course, I shared my possibly eccentric habit of writing out everything longhand—not composing on the computer.
I heard from now-happily-retired (thanks to a lucrative commercial career) Danish FLCW Anne Neilsen, who enthusiastically seconded my decidedly analog writing style, adding a reason that hadn’t consciously occurred to me, but absolutely resonated. She wrote:
“I’ve [written longhand] throughout my working life, especially when stuck. When that happens, longhand writing with a smoothly-working ballpoint pen on a piece of physical paper seems less intimidating than a computer screen. It helps me out of the hole.”
I replied that I hadn’t considered the “intimidation of the screen” angle, but I wholeheartedly agreed, adding, “Starting out on paper is much less daunting, and the medium of pen on paper invites experimentation because, by definition, it’s not the final “canvas,” while a computer screen feels more final.”
Finding a Lost File, PART 2: In July’s E-PUB, I shared a piece about my white-knuckled experience thinking I’d lost a file completely, along with the solution that ultimately unearthed it. In the wake of that, I heard from a reader who shared this cool tip:
Peter: You can also consider using this great, essentially free app:
Thomas (the developer) is also available quickly if you have a problem.
II. “FIELD” GREENS: KEEPING YOUR EYES & EARS OPEN?
Creativity Pro: It’s OUR Job to Know What Clients Need
Got the following fun and exceptionally useful piece from friend and colleague Sam Harrison—speaker, author and coach on creativity-related topics and presentation skills.
While written for general marketing audiences, it’s absolutely applicable to folks like us.
Loved the first line about clients often not knowing what they need. We’d love to think that clients know exactly what they need, and we’d be happy to deliver it, provided they explain it in sufficient detail.
Yet, in most cases, they look to us for guidance. Commercial writers who can study a client’s business, listen to what they want to accomplish (in a general sense), and suggest good courses of action, will financially thrive.
Sure, few clients have NO idea what they want, but if all we are is “yes-people” who just “take dictation” from clients (vs. providing expert advice that often challenges clients’ thinking), we won’t earn top dollar. AND, don’t angst: you WILL get better at this over time. Enjoy!
Your customers and clients may not tell you what they need, because they may not know exactly what they need.
Steve Jobs once said, “It’s not the consumer’s job to know what they want.”
He proved his point again and again by providing Apple products that people didn’t know they wanted or needed until they saw them and used them. Of course, this philosophy didn’t start with Steve Jobs.
Back in the early 1900s, Walter Deubener watched customers shop his grocery. He noticed purchases were limited to what people could carry in their hands and tuck under their arms.
So Deubener rigged up a large paper bag reinforced with a cord running through it. The patented Deubener’s Shopping Bag held 75 pounds, and the cord doubled as a handle.
He was soon selling a million bags a year to retailers everywhere.
Whether you’re in product design or event planning, communications or marketing, public relations or photography—whatever your career—keep watching your audiences.
Because no matter how many times you ask, people won’t always tell you what they want or need. Because they may not be able to articulate or visualize the ideal answer and solution.
As Henry Ford famously put it, “If we had asked the public what they wanted, they would have just said faster horses.”
Don’t stop asking around. But also keep looking around.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: MAKE YOUR GOALS MORE ATTAINABLE
Strategies for Staying Motivated & “On-Track” to Reach More Goals
Wonderfully practical and easily “doable” advice on how to reach more of your goals, from friend, colleague, business-building coach for writers and copywriters and E-PUB regular, Ed Gandia.
LOVE the opening Jim Rohn quote—worth reading multiple times. Enjoy!
“The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.” – Jim Rohn
Most of us realize the importance of setting goals. They give us something to work towards. But that doesn’t mean we’ll always achieve them. And when we don’t, it can be disheartening.
If it’s already becoming apparent that you won’t reach the goals you set for this year, don’t give up—and don’t be too hard on yourself. Here are two things you can do to stay motivated:
#1: Break Big Goals into Smaller Goals
Setting goals, whether it’s income or some other measure, can be intimidating. You look ahead and wonder whether you can actually reach them. And that alone can take the wind out of your sails.
However, things start to look much more doable if you break your big goals into smaller goals. This approach also allows you to adjust and course-correct sooner.
#2: Focus on What You Can Do TODAY
While setting goals is a good way to keep ourselves on track, it is possible to become too goal focused. We set goals—and then somehow feel “less than” until we reach them. We don’t feel whole or complete until we get there.
That’s a dangerous mindset!
Instead, shift your focus from the goal itself to the practice of working toward that goal. (An idea that’s championed in the book The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner.)
Focus on taking action.
Ask, “What can I do right now to bring this goal closer?” Sure, you might be thinking about the future and what it will feel like to have reached your goal. But life is happening today! Right now! Not tomorrow. And not yesterday.
So, try to fall in love with the practice of working toward your goals … and the practice of taking daily action to move closer to them. And enjoy the process along the way!
My Healthy Lifestyle Goals
I’ve been applying this practice to my own life, especially over these past few years. As some of you may know, I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my life. In the past, I would set weight-loss goals and then try hard to meet them within a set timeframe.
But a few years ago, I shifted my approach. I still set weight-loss goals. But I put my focus on what I could do right now to bring that goal closer.
I kept asking: “What can I do today or this week to make this happen?” As a result, I started to change my eating habits. And I started going to the gym.
Over time, those changes have had a major positive impact on my weight, my health and how I feel. Getting these results wouldn’t have happened (or happened as easily) if I’d set a goal and then obsessed over it—without taking action every single day.
Don’t Let Your Goals Throw You Off Track
This combination of setting shorter-term goals and shifting focus from the future to the present is a powerful combination. Put them both in place, and things can happen very quickly.
Continue to set goals for yourself and your business, but don’t become obsessed with them. Because goals themselves aren’t the end game.
The end game is everything you do on the road to reaching them.
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
A Follow-Up “Win” & Tactics for Ongoing Success
Many moons ago, I got an email from an author interested in my Title Tailor service. He was, “just a few weeks away” from completing his manuscript.
Being all too familiar with that time-tested corollary of Murphy’s Law (i.e., “Everything takes longer than expected”), I didn’t honestly expect to hear from him in a few weeks.
Replying to that first email, I asked if I could stay in touch (always ask, don’t assume it’s okay), and he said yes. And I did. Sometimes I just said hello, other times I steered him to newly posted titling samples.
But I never flat-out asked, “When will you be ready?”
Just saying hi was enough to stay “top of mind.” If/when he was ready, he’d know how to find me…or not, if he decided to go another route, in which case, he’d likely say something.
Every 4-5 months, I’d spend 2-3 minutes to bang out a quick email. Then, last month, a full three years later, when, out of the blue, I got a PayPal payment in full to get started.
Follow-up is absolutely critical—in any business, but certainly in ours. If you contact—or are contacted by—someone who interested in hiring you at some point (but not yet), get permission to stay in touch, and then do just that.
Of course, follow-up doesn’t always work; more often than not, it won’t pay off. Yet, the Law of Averages is alive and well here: do it consistently, and it WILL deliver, and easily make up for—many times over—the aggregate (and miniscule) effort invested.
Needless to say, follow up not just on prospects, but on existing clients as well.
Definitely do so with clients who haven’t tapped you for a while, but don’t miss opportunities to share samples with your “regulars” (either emailed or posted to your site) as well. What kinds of samples?
Send/link to ones similar to what you’ve done for them—say, case studies—and obviously, from companies that don’t compete with your recipient. That can often give them ideas for their own company, but at the very least, it shows you’re busy and in-demand.
Even better, send/link to samples of project types different than what they typically hire you to execute, so they’re reminded of your broader range.
I have one client who quickly designs/produces such beautiful final deliverables of my work (and is quick to share with me) that I just want to share.
You better believe a sample that’s graphically impressive will make the writer look better. It sends the subtle message that you travel in professional circles.
P.S. Following up NOW, with regulars and prospects, right after the traditionally slower summer season, makes ALL kinds of sense.