New Jersey Entrepreneur

Quick Tips for a Happy 2007

Those nasty New Year’s resolutions rarely last, so why make them?

Instead, focus on your business: Get your bottom line in order by committing to more clear, more results-based marketing communications. Sound daunting? It’s not. You can start the year right by writing right.

Raise the ROI

If you didn’t get the return on investment you needed from how you wrote your 2006 marketing tools, take a demanding look at the message you’re sending prospects. Whether you’ve hired an agency to help or you’re struggling to create promotional tools on your own, look at your message. Remember, appropriateness and quality of how you said what you said is more important than arbitrarily saying a particular strategy or communication vehicle never works. So if you have the right audience and the right strategy and the right tactical tool, get to the heart of your promotions and study the writing.

Here’s the good news. Even when you’re writing your own ads, you can dramatically improve your results by applying a few simple writing tips.

First, remember your readers are smart. Too many marketing pieces imply customers "ain’t so bright." Treating customers as if they’re dumb doesn’t encourage sales or loyalty. It impacts your writing’s value, and that impacts ROI.

Start every marketing piece right by writing right. Know your audience. Don’t be condescending. And don’t confuse humor with making your customer look foolish. Whether you’re targeting leaders of large companies or potential investors, you can be clever without patronizing.

For example, I often see popular TV commercials imply men are bumbling fools who are easily hoodwinked by savvy women. One shows a man who can’t figure out how shop for plug-in air freshener, opting instead to set-up an industrial strength fan near his inferior air freshener. His wife saves the day with a plug-in air freshener equipped with an internal fan to disperse the scent. Ads like this are created by writers who no doubt thought they were being clever and funny. Do we remember their commercials? Yes. Do we buy their products? Maybe … not.

Instead, create the response you want and still be culturally correct, demonstrate empathy and make an appropriate connection to the appropriate audience.

Tell Customers What to Do

Don’t make your customers hunt for information.*

Did that * stop you in your tracks? Did you scan the rest of this page for the secret footnote and its accompanying disclaimer?

If so, you see the value of this tip: Skip the asterisk.

It distracts the reader, taking her away from the heart of the matter on a search and rescue mission she may or may not find worth her time. Just say it: Tell customers what you want them to do. Simply.

The asterisk hints of trickery. You’re making readers work hard to find the "prize." It tells them what they’re reading isn’t the real deal, and often leads to extensive descriptive copy detailing the nearly impossible steps they must take to qualify for something special. That’s more work than many customers are willing to do.

Keep the compelling copy coming. Be straightforward. Be honest. Detail your benefits in a brief, upfront and realistic way. If necessary, you do the work and simplify the offer before you commit it to print. When disclaimers or rules are necessary, include them in a straightforward way. The less work the customer has to do, the better the response.

Don’t Forget to Follow-Up

What sales professional worth a great commission would forget to follow-up? Precious few I would guess. But follow-up extends to tasks not directly related to sales. Here’s an extreme example.

At Mitchell Rose, LLC, I receive many unsolicited resumes. Some are replete with typos and grammatical errors, and are immediately trashed. But on occasion, one catches my eye, and I give it a second look. Such a resume recently crossed my desk. I called the potential candidate and asked him to return the call to discuss opportunities.

He never called back. Never even sent an e-mail. Guess where that resume now resides?

Whether you’re looking for a job, selling your products and services or hoping for angel funding, failure to follow-up is incredibly poor salesmanship. A timely reply to an inquirer’s call, e-mail, snail mail or fax is a must. If you don’t faithfully follow-up, all the empathy and connections you developed through tightly targeted writing are lost. Perhaps forever.

The new year is a great time to take stock, throw out communication tools that aren’t working and implement the new. Write right, and create a profitable new year.

Roger A. Shapiro is the president/creative director of Mitchell Rose, LLC (www.mitchellrose.net). He founded the creative consultancy in 1997 to help clients improve the results they get from their marketing budgets. During the ensuing decade, Mitchell Rose has helped many clients achieve business goals through the strategic use of concepts, copy and design. In addition, Roger has authored a book, "Write Right, 26 Tips to Improve Your Writing. Dramatically," (