You have a personality and so does your organization. Show it.
Your marketing materials should convey your style—the one that got you this far in life and sets you apart from the pack—while highlighting the benefits of your services.

Truth sells, honestly.
You speak honestly and directly in person and you know how to get straight to the point. Your written material should be equally crisp and direct. It should establish you as a top-notch professional and inspire people to want to work with you. It should be free of the generic puffery and glaring BS that makes a lot of promotional materials interchangeable. Above all, your writing should be truthful—if only because the truth is so much easier to remember than the alternative.

Imaginative stories stick.
I recommend narratives that tell what you can do and have done for people or companies and make you memorable to new clients. Everyone has stories. I help clients tell them. Readers enjoy emotionally engaging stories with believable and happy endings that you, overcoming astonishing odds and obstacles, made happen. When talking you up to friends and colleagues, people are more likely to remember and repeat well-told, response-producing tales than bullet points and lists. They also like to laugh.

Even the most desiccated subjects can be enlivened with writing that’s smart and sexy and funny. You use your creative thinking to differentiate your ideas and products and your approach to business from your competitors. You should use it in any writing that’s not for regulators.

 

©2010 Pam Leven. Words Will Fly. Phone 310.391.3978.