14
Apr
2011
Recently, we published a short piece on the folly of using generic business pictures in communication. So it’s only fair to say something about typical business words.
The b2b agency for better business
29
Mar
2011
They say that all healthy things grow. But even if your company is healthy and you consistently work hard, there is always the risk that your competitors will grow more. Or that you don’t grow at the rate you want. So what do you do?
16
Feb
2011
Would you like to swap jobs with me for a few weeks? Before saying yes, I must warn you, it’s only for those who enjoy writing. You do? Great, then read on. Just so you know, you’ll be sharing an office with Cecilia, a delightful woman and a fellow copywriter. You two will get along really well.
25
Jan
2011
When I was growing up in England (many moons ago), advertising was liberally sprinkled with all manner of grammatical transgressions.
These ranged from the tantalisingly tautological ‘Domestos – kills all known germs dead’ (they’re already dead if you’ve killed them, right?) to the British Egg Industry’s admonition that we all ‘go smash an egg.’
15
Dec
2010
Nowadays it’s pretty easy to check if a tagline has already been used. One way is to google the expression in inverted commas. Search “feel the difference” for example, and you’ll see that several companies have had the same thoughts. You can also search in this database for advertising slogans in several areas of business. The database is also useful as a source of inspiration when trying to come up with a tagline for your company.
18
Nov
2010
Mark Twain once said ”I didn’t have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead.”
There is, of course, something in what he said. But how do you write briefly and succinctly? Here are some useful tips.
3
Nov
2010
Don’t be fooled by the ready smile and the polite, friendly manner. Like a bird of prey, she hovers over our printouts, swooping down with her red marker to eliminate stray umlauts, greengrocer’s apostrophes and a thousand other illiteracies. For sensitive American audiences, she happily removes taps and installs faucets, while never straying from the sidewalk to the pavement. In fact, very few words in any language or medium leave the building before she’s cast a critical eye over them – carefully weighing linguistic and cultural subtleties. The people who wrote or translated them wouldn’t have it any other way. And neither would the clients. Thank you, Barbara, for not only being a patient sounding board, but also our ultimate quality insurance policy.
PS. If you have any questions of your own about English copy, by all means get in touch with Barbara at
12
Oct
2010
Many of our customers are looking to sell their products and services internationally. So they need solid, confident, native English copy.
Because it’s not just about grammar. Texts need to have a style and tone that rings true to the reader. A reader who is often more wary of foreign suppliers and needs extra reassurance that they are speaking the same language – both commercially and culturally. One word out of place and you’ve suddenly got a much bigger mountain to climb to gain their confidence.
25
Mar
2010
A picture says more than a thousand words, so the saying goes. And good photos and illustrations can really help convey a message quickly and easily. But many of us are writing more and more both professionally and privately. So we certainly need to say it well, whether it’s an e-mail to a colleague, a letter to your mother-in-law or a brochure for your customers.
It is even more important to express yourself well in social media. What you write can spread like wildfire. And there’s no way you can erase what you’ve written on the net.
15
Feb
2010
During the 1960s our predecessors Anderson & Lembke produced a publication called ”Technical advertising texts – how and why?”. It was meant as internal training material for copywriters.
The publication is of course dated in many ways (few would call an art director a layout man today). But on the whole, it contains thoughts and writing tips that as just as relevant today as they were then. Here are some of them and if you are interested you can download the whole publication as a pdf. (Only available in Swedish. The ten points below are a summary of the contents)