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Upgrade your emails in three easy steps

Sometimes we forget that it’s OUR job to write letters, emails and business communications so they’re clear and understandable. It’s not the poor reader’s job to try and puzzle out what we meant. That way, my friend, lies heartbreak (and possibly Chapter 11).

Author and blogger David Silverman offers some good advice on how to make your emails more readable. Short answer: edit, revise, rewrite. Or to paraphrase him:

Make it shorter.
Stay focused. Delete anything off-topic. Keep it tight.
Try to make just one important point per email. The others may get overlooked.
Delete redundancies and repetition. (Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department)
Use numbers and be specific. E.g., not “way behind schedule” but “3 weeks late.”
Edit it for clarity and length. Keep it brief.
Never email anything written while you’re in an emotional state. Sleep on it first.
Did I mention “make it shorter?”

I might add, “Make it clear what you want them to do next.”

Silverman might go a teeny bit overboard when he suggests the number of revisions you make depends on how many people will receive the email. His take:

1 to 5 recipients = 2 to 4 revisions
5 to 10 recipients = 8 to 12 revisions
Company-wide or to Executive Committee = 30 to 50 revisions

Yikes, at that rate, you might be able to finish only a few emails every day. (Now that’s something to look forward to…)

Et tu, Google?

Zone Alarm has big news about Google:

R.I.P. Cringe-worthy buzzwords

INC. Magazine is out with “15 Business Buzzwords We Don’t Want to Hear.” As a copywriter and lover of language, I agree that these buzz babies might have been fresh and vibrant once, but that time has passed. Now they’re like fingernails screeching across a chalkboard.*

Is your favorite pet peeve among the words that need to be retired pronto?

“Actionable.” “Authenticity.” “Best of breed” (animal husbandry, anyone?). “Disintermediate,” as INC points out, “has the same number of syllables as ‘cut out the middleman’ with none of the clarity.” ZING!

Then there are bastardized non-words like “incentivize” (ack!) and “synergy.” And my longtime personal skin-crawler: “solution,” which died of overuse a decade ago and cries out for decent burial. [Question: If your “solution” is a liquid, does that make it a “solution solution?”]

The article also lists 15 buzzwords they still like, including “angel” and “frictionless.” But give them time. In a year or two, I’m sure we’ll be sick of them, too.

* Does anyone under 40 even know what chalkboards are? Fingernails clawed across a whiteboard just can’t duplicate the chalkboard’s cringe factor.

Four magic words that will transform your marketing

“I can help you.”

Simple, isn’t it? Your prospective customers don’t need more information. Chances are, they’re drowning in information. And they sure don’t want a sales pitch.

What they really want is advice. Guidance. Expert help from someone they know and trust. Someone who has demonstrated that s/he understands their problem or need, and has a solution. Maybe it’s not even the perfect solution. But it’s a solution, and that’s more than they’ve got right now.

Remember, most prospects want to buy. It’s fun to buy. Besides, they want to solve their problem or satisfy their desire, then get back to whatever they were doing before.

When you look at it that way, marketing and copywriting become pretty simple. It’s not about what you’ve got. It’s about what they get.

What customers really want to know is, “Can you help me?” So four simple words can and should form the foundation of your marketing message:

“I can help you.”

Then just tell them how you’ll do it. Voila! You’ve turned a browser into a buyer.

Twitter update: They like me, they really like me!

Despite a LOT of initial skepticism, I have been tweeting for exactly one week now, squeezing it in between my client work — and trying to resist the temptation to do it ALL the time. It’s really fun!

Here’s an update. I have attracted 65 followers in those seven days. That’s amazing to me, since I have done zero promotion except for the two previous posts (scroll down). Wiser tweeters than I have told me that’s pretty good for one week. All I did was spit out the quick ramblings of my troubled mind. 🙂

As I mentioned before, I was a HUGE Twitter skeptic. It seemed like nothing more that a huge time-waster to me. Where were the benefits? What was the upside?

Boy, was I wrong. First, did I mention it’s fun? Second, Twitter makes it incredibly easy to connect with anyone, including major figures in my field (and probably yours). I have already made connections with people I would never have dreamed of emailing for fear it might be perceived as spam or just an unwanted intrusion.

My tweeting hasn’t turned into paid work yet, but I’m confident it will, and probably fairly soon. I’ve already received one message from someone looking for a good copywriter. I’ve also gotten some good ideas from other people’s tweets. Knowledge is a wonderful thing, and sharing it is even better.

Twitter is filled witrh smart people who help you stay fresh and up-to-date in your field. Each message (tweet) is quick and VERY brief — 140 characters max, including spaces — so it’s much less of an intrusion. Plus, people seem to really welcome tweets, although you can ignore them if you like.

Conclusion: Definitely worth a try.

Look, I’m busy, just like you. I have no use for stupid fads, no matter how popular or trendy they might be. But this is something more. If you haven’t take Twitter for a test-drive, do it soon. If nothing else, try to grab your name (or your business name) while it’s still available. Come to think of it, that was the ONLY reason I signed up originally.

I have seen the future of networking, and its name is Twitter.

Want to be one of my Twitter groupies? Follow me. C’mon, it won’t hurt a bit.

Is Twitter good for finding leads?

How would I know? I’m a complete Twitterookie. (Twookie?)

Seriously, lots of smart people are extremely enthusiastic about its ability to find, attract and influence prospective customers. Today John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing offers a guide to Mining Leads on Twitter, focusing on utilizing Twitter’s advanced search tools.

“Advanced search is where the real data mining comes to life. It allows you to filter everything that’s being said for your keyword phases in your town, for example. Think that might be useful?”

It's true. I've become a Twit.

Despite hearing a lot of hype about it, even from people I like and respect, I have been a huge Twitter skeptic. I perceived it as an enormous time-sink with little or no value, except maybe self-gratification. (No, not that kind!) That was until I finally took the time to actually visit the site yesterday. Wow, amazing people and ideas flying around there. Fun, too.

Now my problem is, how do I get any work done? Being a twit (hmm, that’s probably not the right term, is it?) is a lot more fun than actually working!

Shameless plug: Follow me at @tom_mckay