David Rosam on Feb 15 2008 | Filed under: SEO copywriting, The Power of Words
Please bear with me on this one. Most of my posts here are practical or seek to answer questions that have come up when I’m talking to clients, prospects or colleagues. This one is a little more, shall I say, theoretical - about the nature and process of writing.
Triggered by a Tweet by fellow SEO [...]
David Rosam on Apr 04 2007 | Filed under: Google, Search Engine Optimization, The Power of Words
Ask is using negative advertising on the London Underground, according to Larsz on Flickr.
Ask may capitalize on a groundswell of anti-monopolistic feeling, but the danger as with any such knocking is that it will backfire.
David Rosam on Apr 02 2007 | Filed under: SEO copywriting, The Power of Words
Great copy - whether it’s optimized or non-optimized - shouldn’t follow fashion mindlessly.
Over the past week, I’ve received eight pieces of marketing telling me the company is ‘passionate’ about whatever they do - a company that sells outdoor equipment is ‘Passionate about the outdoors’, a financial services company was ‘passionate about saving me money’ and [...]
David Rosam on Jul 10 2006 | Filed under: SEO copywriting, Search Engine Optimization, The Power of Words
When I’m asked to assess copy on a client’s Web site, here are some of the most important things I look for:
1. Does it read well? Obvious, but vital, when so much content is patently rubbish!
2. Does it accurately reflect the client’s products, services and strategy?
3. Are the benefits clearly expressed? Or, more fundamentally, do [...]
David Rosam on Jun 20 2006 | Filed under: Marketing, SEO copywriting, Search Engine Optimization, The Power of Words
I bet you’re already groaning at the naivety of Emerson’s words. Back when I was foetus copywriter, it was one of the great un-truisms of the industry. Of course you need to let the world know about about their wonderful new mousetrap, that goes without saying, doesn’t it?
So why do so many companies (even large [...]
David Rosam on Mar 20 2006 | Filed under: The Power of Words
Crime writer Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing… is subtitled ‘Being a good author is a disappearing act’.
Read the piece. It’s good. Not good in detail about marketing writing (SEO copywriting, direct marketing or any of those things I do), but the thrust of Leonard’s article is absolutely spot on.
Why? Because 95% or more of [...]
David Rosam on Feb 03 2006 | Filed under: The Power of Words
Only the Interflora marketing department hasn’t worked that one out, it seems.
They sent me a promotional e-mail today with the headline:
Size really does matter to your Valentine
would you believe? What a clunkingly inappropriate and lazy double entendre.
Come on guys, can’t you be a little more subtle in wooing my business?
David Rosam on Jan 25 2006 | Filed under: The Power of Words
I received this earlier today:
Hi David,
Just a short note to express how thankful we are for your hard work on our new range of literature - you analysed our business from the bottom up and gained an in-depth understanding of what we do, as well as how our applicants perceive what we do, in order [...]
David Rosam on Jan 12 2006 | Filed under: The Power of Words
Headlines must get the reader to go further. The most powerful say something personal and compelling; the worst just invite the reader to switch off.
One of those just arrived as the subject line of an e-mail newsletter - ‘An irresistable special offer’, it said. A little voice in my head said ‘I can resist [...]
David Rosam on Oct 26 2005 | Filed under: The Power of Words
Sometimes I wonder what is in the mind of retailers when they put words on packaging.
Sainsbury’s have excelled themselves with the stultifying:
Great when peeled
on a bag of bananas.
How many people really need to be told that the experience of eating a banana is to be improved by peeling the damn thing?
If it doesn’t add anything [...]
