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Writing

How to Circumvent Resistance and Stay Out of the Trash Bin

by Travis Heermann July 29, 2010 Communication
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In an age super-saturated with marketing messages, your prospects have developed such an aversion to being sold anything that you have to overcome resistance at every step. They pick up your direct mail package, see what it is… and toss it in the garbage. So you add some intriguing copy or graphics to the envelope, [...]

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How to Be a Marketing Drama Queen

by Travis Heermann July 21, 2010 Communication
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Evoking response is the primary duty of any marketing campaign. Generating more sales and revenue than the campaign cost to produce is the bottom line. Any good marketer knows that the first step is understanding the benefits of the product or service. Why should the customer care about what you’re saying? How can your widget [...]

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What Motivates Your Prospect?

by Travis Heermann July 14, 2010 Audience
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The Myers-Briggs Temperament Test is an increasingly popular way to identify what makes a person tick. The Myers-Briggs Test, originally developed in the 1950s, is now used worldwide to identify patterns of behavior and attitude. The expansion of the test’s popularity has been spurred in large part by Dr. David Keirsey, who refined and expanded [...]

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7 Tips for Tapping Your Creativity

by Travis Heermann July 6, 2010 Writing
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Professionals of all backgrounds need to unlock the doors of creativity at one time or another. Copywriters, marketers, executives, anyone who needs to find new solutions to intractable problems. Sometimes those solutions do not come. The brain feels blocked. How do you free your imagination? Writers, for instance, are in the business of capturing emotions. [...]

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Why Less Is More in Writing

by Mistina Picciano July 1, 2010 Writing
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“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – Mark Twain I’ve just finished reading The Power of Less by Leo Babauta, yet another book that promises greater productivity with less effort. His principles are sound, and reading the book takes very little time. Putting those principles [...]

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4 Essential Tips for Writing an Effective Letter

by Travis Heermann June 8, 2010 Audience
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Does anyone write letters anymore? We have e-mail, text messaging, social media web sites, and the soul of communicational brevity, Twitter. With all these other forms of communication, do we still need to know how to write a good letter? Whether you’re seeking employment, trying to sell widgets, or contacting business associates, now, more than [...]

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Why Good Writing Doesn’t Matter

by Mistina Picciano April 29, 2010 Business Development
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When people find out I have a business writing agency, they often smile and nod. Then, invariably they tell me about their wife, nephew, fourth cousin, etc., who’s “a good writer.” What, exactly, does it mean to be a good writer?   Signs of writing competency Vivid storytelling abilities Creative, effective syntax Mastery of grammar [...]

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Do you invite clients to check out or check in?

by Mistina Picciano April 23, 2010 Audience
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My husband and I are vacationing in Charleston, S.C., next month. We’re renting a charming house across the street from Folly Beach, which looks perfect: a good-sized kitchen for culinary experiments, easy access to the beach, close proximity to historic downtown Charleston. Yesterday the homeowner emailed instructions on picking up the key. I perked up [...]

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Top 10 Writing Mistakes Part 2: Today

by Travis Heermann March 31, 2010 Communication
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In Part 1, we examined error studies of writing during three decades of the 20th Century: 1917, the late 1930s, and 1986. We found that the nature of the errors shifted slightly–even though the primary errors were with comma usage, pronouns, spelling/misused words, verb tense–but the incidence of errors held steady, at about 2.1-2.2 errors [...]

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Top 10 Writing Mistakes Part 1: the 20th Century

by Travis Heermann March 18, 2010 Communication
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Many people speculate that writing is getting worse. Employers lament the ubiquity of text-speak and inappropriate informality in professional communication from new college graduates. Grammarians gnash their teeth at the downturn in writing quality across the board. But is it true? While it is true that technology is changing how human beings interact, the effect [...]

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