Fredricks Communications recently had the pleasure of working with Advent Media Group and its clients to develop advertorials that are appearing in major publications such as Bloomberg Business Week, Cosmopolitan, Entrepreneur and Fortune. Here’s one in the category of “Leading Women in Business” about and for BOAR, a personal and professional development community in Las Vegas. Thank you, Advent Media Group!
Click for better view of full advertorial.
Fredricks Communications is proud to be working with Foot to Soil and the Trails Please Foundation, both of Franklin, Tenn.
A significant percentage of families in our nation, including many led by single mothers, can’t afford a vacation, even a one-night camping trip. And a lot of them don’t have transportation in the first place. Foot to Soil is working to change our communities one family and one person at a time by taking them to the outdoors for a unique camping and hiking experience. The Trails Please Foundation is a 501(C)(3) that raises funds for the program.
Fredricks Communications helped the organizations’ founder to develop the organizations’ messaging, developed website content and wrote copy for a program introduction/fundraising flyer.
Thank you, Glenn Sweitzer for taking a chance on a copywriter hundreds of miles away.
Please consider making a donation to the Trails Please Foundation today.
Click to visit full Trails Please Foundation website.
New Work – Lions United Fitness Center is designed specifically for people with disabilities who want to live a healthier, stronger life and and adaptive athletes who want to improve their performance. FredComm has been working with the nonprofit’s founder, Andrew Cameron, since he began putting a public face to his dream of creating a welcoming, inclusive training and workout facility, with his business plan, positioning line development, copywriting and content development for the Lions United website and flyer and other miscellaneous projects. The latest work is messaging development for the new Lions United “ROAR Scholarship.” Click the image to check out the webpage.
“Technology That Works” is the tagline for True|IT, a business technology company in West Fargo, N.D. When the company needed messaging strategy, website content and marketing material copywriting that works, it turned to Fredricks Communications. Check out the new True|IT page in the “my work” section.
Bonus: Fun
I like to have it. So do the pros I work with. And FredComm clients appreciate it.
Let’s get started. To build an effective brand story through strategic messaging development, copywriting, content creation and all the associated services that lead to advertising, marketing and public relations success, get in touch today.
Like using qualifiers? A lot of them, perhaps? As professional copywriters, we need to do a little better.
That’s the advice of Stunk & White, authors of the bibles on grammar and style.
In “The Elements of Style,” William Strunk and E.B. White put it eloquently: “Rather, very, little, pretty – these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words.”
Harsh, even without the vampire imagery. Harsh, but right on.
Besides, copywriters should always cut unnecessary words. It’s the “Less-Is-More Principle.”
Which has more life?
This isn’t a life vs. death deal – except maybe in that last example – but for a prospective client, neither is hiring you. Take the advice of Strunk & White for your public relations writing: be a life-giver, not a leech; throw the qualifiers back into the mucky slough.
It is not something you’re born with.
It’s not something you either have or you don’t.
Even so, you’ve probably heard something like this before: “Oh, wow, she’s sooooo creative,” or “I have no idea where he comes up with his ideas. I could never do that.”
I can’t say this strongly enough –
BALDERDASH!
Creativity is something we develop, so I’ll revise my previous statement. We are born with creativity; it’s called imagination. And that means every single one of us is born with the potential for creativity.
Every. Single. Rootin’ tootin’. Ever lovin’. One.
Whether it’s creating campaign concepts (i.e., coming up with The Big Idea), copywriting, graphic design, photography, videography, audio or a thousand other endeavors, creativity is in our hands, our heads and our hearts. All we need to do is look for it or, alternatively, be willing to let it in (or out, depending on your perspective).
To put it yet another way, we all have a set of creative muscles. And like literal muscles, we can exercise them, build them into something awesome with practice and repetition.
Roger von Oech’s timeless book, “A Whack on the Side of the Head,” is a great place to start.
Von Oech, founder of Creative Think, says creativity is the result of thinking about what you already know in new ways. “Look at the same thing as everyone else and think something different,” is his advice.
He also defines 10 mental locks that keep our minds from making creative connections:
Like Von Oeck, I suggest turning those “rules” on their backsides.
Release yourself, let your mind wander, follow paths that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. You might be surprised where you arrive.
Dictionary.com defines it this way: (Creativity is) the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.
Are artists creative? Without question. But you don’t need to be an artist to be creative in your work.
Mathematics jumps immediately to mind. (I can’t personally attest to it; there’s a reason I work with words, not numbers. Even so.) Without creative problem solving, it’s unlikely Katherine Johnson would have ever figured out how to get NASA’s ships into space, into orbit and back again. (Check out “Hidden Figures,” the book or the film.)
Your accountant wouldn’t be able to use combinations of rules, regulations and programs to your advantage come tax time. A logistics manager wouldn’t be able to come up with more efficient delivery routes. And so on.
Some say there are no new ideas, that new ideas are simply combinations of old ideas or new applications for old ones. I think there’s something to that. How many TV ads have you seen lately that combine two seemingly disparate ideas into something new?
Familiarity or expertise breeds creativity. The better someone knows a topic, practices a skill or understands a concept, the more likely it is they’ll be able to make connections between old ideas that lead to new ones.
An oldie but a goodie is the milk mustache and overall health. Got milk? More recently, an insurance company developed the personification of mayhem with hilarious effect. Another pulls together the idea of insurance and replacement of damaged takeout. Good stuff, even if you don’t like the pizza.
In my view, creativity is simply the difference between stop-criticize-worry and allow-imagine-innovate.
Whatever works. The point is, when you give yourself that whack, you’ll have to think something different, or think differently, or don’t think at all and just let your mind wander, instead. You’ll be forced to be – drum roll, please – creative.
Do your reps. Build up your muscles. Don’t give up. And always, always remember, you can do it.
Heck, anyone can. How do I know? Because I was one of those “I’m-not-creative” guys myself once.
You’ll improve the impact, the POP!, of your writing without changing meaning almost every time.
Example:
Example:
But what about that pesky “almost” above?
Purists will spew some grammar mumbo-jumbo about how “in order to” is a subordinating conjunction. Huh? They’ll also say that when you drop “in order” you lose the underlying meaning of the phrase, which more clearly conveys intent than “to” alone. Your intent is to achieve invigorating writing, they’d say, and “in order to” conveys that more clearly. Same goes for the desire to increase efficiency.
They’re right. After all, they’re purists; being right is their job.
But who the heck even knows what a subordinating conjunction is. Right? Plus, here’s the thing –
Randomly ask 100 people which is more correct in those situations – “to” or “in order to” – and I’ll bet 99.99 percent of them won’t know the difference. Or give a rat’s patootie.
Which brings us back to Rule #2 for marketing writing: brevity.
(Rule #1 is to answer the Golden Question of Marketing – What’s in it for me?)
Dropping “in order” keeps your copy shorter, punchier.
It might not seem like much, but over the course of a longer brochure or training video, dropping the two extra words makes a difference.
If you’re writing a novel or an in-depth assessment of foreign affairs, by all means, write “in order to.” I don’t want you starting any wars because the intent of your sentences wasn’t absolutely clear.
Otherwise, go with “to,” especially in advertising, marketing and public relations.
“Which reference books should copywriters have on their bookshelves?” I often get this question when I speak to groups. The quick answer is always, “Depends on the copywriter.”
As for this copywriter, I wouldn’t, and sometimes couldn’t, do the job without these seven magnificent tomes:
While there are more books on my shelves that I reference from time to time about advertising, brand development, copywriting, marketing and sales, like –
– the seven at the top of this post are what I find indispensable in my day-to-day writing life. They’re my Magnificent Seven, constantly protecting me from the Malevolent Mistake Gang of bandits.
But only one copywriter really matters, and that’s you. Find the references that work for you, and for your purposes, actually read and use them, often, and your work will be better for it.
Or, if you want more detail, here it is –
Like all of us, members of your target markets are bombarded by thousands of marketing messages every day. And, also like all of us, they have less than zero time to burn and are not likely to take much of it to read advertising/marketing copy.
It’s the “Get in, get out and live to fight another day” of advertising/marketing messaging:
So. There you have it.
As I said, enough said.
I am a proud member of Creatives for Climate (C4C), a not-for-profit and global network of thousands of professionals committing their creativity to driving positive impacts. C4C membership includes a commitment to avoid work with fossil fuels clients.
Fredricks Communications is a proud signatory of the Clean Creatives pledge to eschew work with fossil fuels companies and organizations. We’re a movement of advertisers, PR professionals and clients cutting ties with fossil fuels to fight climate change. Join us today!
Union Strong! I am a proud member of the Freelancers Union, the largest and fast-growing organization representing the 56.7 million independent workers across the country. Join today!