Walt Kania, Marketing Writer

The sound of good copy

When writing narration or dialogue for video scripts it's a good idea to read the lines aloud to make sure they will work when spoken.  Lines that look swell on the page don't always sound right.

I sometimes read my print copy aloud, too.  It's easy to spot sentences that are too tangled, too long or just plain ugly that way.

Like that last sentence, for example.

This reads better: "It's a sure way to spot sentences that are too tangled, too long or just plain ugly."

Tag lines: Do you need one?

Maybe not.

When tag lines are de rigeur, when virtually every company has some poetry tacked onto its name and logo, you can actually gain distinction by not having a distinctive tagline.

I notice that some adventurous companies are choosing to go without these dangling modifiers. 

Bylines. Why not?

I like the way Apple's communications people handle their user profiles.  The pieces are engaging and human, and go easy on the company hype.  They sound more like magazine articles than marketing stuff.

The tricky grammar rule you don't realize you know

Why do we write "a graceful 40-foot wooden sailboat," and not "a wooden graceful 40-foot sailboat"?

Why is it "a stunning new ten-inch carving knife", instead of "a ten-inch new stunning carving knife?"

There's actually an official grammar rule governing those strings of adjectives.  In a series, adjectives must appear in a prescribed order based on their function:

opinion -> size -> age -> shape -> color -> origin -> material -> purpose

Vocabulary refresh

I hereby introduce the following words into the Approved Vernacular.  The words are valid only for 365 days, until 5/20/08 when they must be retired due to overuse.

stout  adj.  strong in body, sturdy in construction. Also, fat; thickset; corpulent.
"The software mounts a stout defense against denial-of-service attacks . . . "

bespoke adj.  custom or custom-made; made to order.
"The development group created a bespoke module just for their manufacturing environment . . ."

casefy v.  to become cheese-like; to curdle, as cheese.
"The entire product team casefied within weeks under his vicious and vindictive management."

tidy  adj.  neat in arrangement; in order; trim
"They outlined a tidy sales plan that required only a single PowerPoint slide. . ."

(Sure they did.)

Google Cliche Search

Try this eye-opening reality check.

If you suspect you are using certain pet phrases too often, try running Google searches on them.

"A solution that meets your needs"
25,800 people have used that phrase already. It doesn't exactly set your company apart.

"We work closely with you. . ."
Apparently, so do 116,000 other companies.

"Gain a competitive edge."
480,000 others thought of that already.

I often catch myself trying to get away with pre-fab phrases like these, usually around 4:45 on Friday.  I have to remove them Monday morning.

Good rule:  If you get more than 10 Google hits on a darling phrase, retire the poor thing.

I've retired dozens.  Although I do miss them.

The 2000-word photo

A picture is worth a thousand words?

Not quite. A picture with a 25-word caption is worth a thousand words.  Or maybe two thousand. A caption easily doubles the impact of a photo or diagram. Why?  First, a caption provides context, a reason to care.  The National Geographic is renowned for its unforgettable, evocative, gut-stirring photographs, which are always run with captions.  They answer Who is this person?  What is this scene?  What am I looking at?  And why?  Without this context, without this reason to care, even the most dramatic photo loses half its steam.  And when you run a photo without a caption readers will consider it less important, as mere decoration.

Bonus benefit:  People will read your captions.  Every readibility and eye-tracking study I have seen shows that people read captions, and often only the captions.  Using captions is a smart way to reach people who don't read, or people who are just skimming.

The formula:

- Explain what you're looking at.

- Note why it's interesting, important, where it fits

- Add something that's not obvious from the photo.  A bonus insight for people who read the caption.

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