Posted on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
I remember years ago, when my boss would get those well-crafted direct mail pieces inviting him to join "Who's Who of the American Hotel Industry" for the low low price of only $599. It looked like nonsense, but their hook was good. Doesn't everyone want to be in the "Who's Who" of their industry? Especially a man who's known by a lot of people whose respect is important to his business.
Respect is important in marketing communications because it builds trust. Blogging, engaging leads with social media, email marketing, even writing letters, are all about building trust as an individual or a brand. When you write right, your content--and thus your brand--looks intelligent, well-designed and otherwise trustworthy.
Today's tip is about the "Who's Who" of writing right. Remember, whenever that gnarly, annoying apostrophe hooks your reader's eye, it had better be in the right place, doing what it's supposed to be doing.
WHO+Apostrophe = Who is. It can be a question or a statement, i.e. "Who's the one who is going to the tweet up with me?" or "She is the one who's bringing coffee to the tweet up."
WHOSE = Belonging to Who. Here we have another crazy-making possessive pronoun that somebody obviously made up after his older brother stuck the apostrophe on "who's" and he had no other choice. "This is the man whose older brother stole our apostrophe." Or "This is the man who's responsible for losing our apostrophe to his older brother."
Both of them are probably in the Who's Who of ancient grammar.
Regardless of whose fault it is, or whose brother did what to whom (don't get me started on that one), using "who's" and "whose" correctly makes you look like a more intelligent, respected and ultimately trustworthy marketer. So, write right.
Posted on Mon, Mar 08, 2010
by Cathey TarletonI just "met" Jonathan Fields through social media,Twitter I think. From his bio I'm afraid he's someone I'd love to hate. Not only is he a master fitness guru runing upscale yoga studios, he's a dynamite copywriter, author and a happy dad to boot.
That, plus I'm really excited about the ever-expanding social media universe, and I love Twitter. I don't want anybody to bust its myth or my bubble. But, be that as it may, what he says in "Busting the Social Media Marketing Myth" is something that rings true.
Social media, used for sales and marketing, is still sales and marketing. Conversations, relationships, building trust, nurturing a community...why do we do that? To get leads, to drive traffic to websites, to convert visitors to leads and leads to sales.
Integrating social media into a good direct-response program and/or ad campaign is a great way to deploy the best of both worlds.
Check it out:
"More and more small businesses have moved chunks of their services and marketing online in the last few years. Some are blogging, facebooking or straight-up advertising, but a more recent phenomenon is tweeting. Of those businesses tweeting, a smallish handful are starting to realize the revenue-generating power of twitter. But, they are doing so largely by turning twitter into a 2.0 version of direct-response.And, if you’ve never done list-driven direct response, and done it well, this may open your eyes a bit.
Here’s how really good direct response works. You set up a funnel...
Read the full article here.
Posted on Mon, Feb 22, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton You're wasting your time.
No, really. If you are writing a blog post for your business, in hopes it will improve website performance, enhance inbound marketing and generate leads--and you flip flop the words "your" and "you're" the wrong way--You're wasting your time. Because if you don't write right, you don't look like the influential expert you really truly are.
It's like making the PowerPoint presentation with your fly down or your slip showing. You're not putting your best foot forward.
And, as we pointed out with "It's vs. Its," silly grammatical slip ups can catch a reader's eye and distract them from your brilliant blog, superb sales message or terrific tweet. Don't do that. Write right.
YOU'RE has the apostrophe. YOU'RE means YOU ARE. The apostrophe means something is missing, in this case the letter "A."
YOUR does not have the apostrophe. YOUR means "belonging to YOU." It's another example of confusing pronouns (like your, yours, my, mine, our, ours and their, theirs) that have driven people nuts since the inception of the English language. Don't try to understand it, just be like Nike: Just do it.
To figure out which one to use, remember this sentence: "You're wasting your time." (You are wasting time belonging to you.)
YOU'RE=YOU are. YOUR=belonging YOU.
Another tip is to reverse it. "Your wasting you're time." What does THAT mean? "Wasting belongs to you and you are time." it sounds like those bad translations for imported products.
Write right.
Posted on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
by Cathey Tarleton
It's distracting. And it is happening more and more. There you are, happily reading an interesting blog and its content is great, its style entertaining. Then, all of a sudden, ouch. It's like your eye gets stuck on that ornery little apostrophe with its hook between two letters and you have to stop for half a second. It's one of the most common errors in marketing communications, and it's not that hard to write right.
Who cares? What's the difference?
You care. And the difference is between saying what you want to say and saying something else. Between looking like an expert and--well--not.
To remember how to write right, remember this:
IT'S worth ITS weight in gold.
IT'S has the apostrophe. IT'S means "it is." The apostrophe indicates something is missing. In this case, the space and the letter "i" are both MIA. Maybe they ran off together, with the "n" and "o" from "can't." Let them go.
ITS doesn't or does not have an apostrophe. ITS means "belonging to IT." "ITS" indicates possession, which can be demonic or not.
I know, I know. "But, hey, apostrophe+s means possession. We learned that in 5th grade English." You're right, of course. That's usually true. Cathy's Clown, Hawaii's Big Island, the horse's mouth, my brother's keeper. But there are exceptions.
Some of the most confusing exceptions have to do with possessive pronouns: yours, ours, theirs, his, hers, my, mine and its. These don't or do not need the silly apostrophe. We know His & Hers from our bath towels. And we know what's mine is mine and not "mine's." Mine's" would mean "mine is." Like, for example, when the kids are fighting:
"That's not yours!"
"Yes it is! It's mine!"
"No, it's not. I can tell by its red color."
"Mine's red!"
"Hers is red!"
"No, his is red and yours is blue."
"It's mine!"
"It is mine!! Mine mine mine!"
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For now, when you're trying to figure out whether to use IT'S or ITS, remember this sentence, "It's worth its weight in gold." IT's=IT IS. ITS=belonging to IT.
Write right.
Check out the first post in this series: Inbound marketing with a Blog. How to write right.
Posted on Fri, Oct 09, 2009
by Cristine Hafner
The team at Hafner Creative Communications has been busy these last few months, re-evaluating how we might bring more value to our clie
nts by offering products that can be measured and improved over time. We are really excited about the new ways to monitor and measure integrated offline and online marketing efforts that we are implementing in our own business, as well as our clients’.
Small and medium sized businesses that are looking to grow, regardless of what the media says about the economy, can benefit from these integrated services. Businesses that see this time as an opportunity to pull ahead of the competition. Maybe you have a bit more time to devote to marketing. With strategic planning and gradual incremental steps you can make substantial changes over the next 6 to 12 months.
There are so many new social media messages coming at us every day that it’s difficult to sort through and figure out what the right fit is for your business. That’s where we can help. By measuring marketing results we can see what’s working and what’s not. Make timely changes and test again.
Most companies also don’t know which part of their advertising is working and which part isn’t. Our goal is to show you what works through measuring marketing performance and ultimately generate qualified leads.
We’ll be posting tips and ideas to help you focus on improving your Web site, blogs, advertising and marketing materials.