I’ve been quiet for what feels like absolutely ages. In reality, it’s only been a couple of weeks. And what a big couple of weeks.

My parents arrived, to help my fiancé and I move house. When they arrived, Dad announced that his father had died the previous morning.

Throughout the week (Dad leaving early for obvious reasons), we moved a bajillion things, scrubbed the previous property, had the carpets cleaned, and ate a lot of pizza. Then, on mum’s last day, we hired a car I just wished I could’ve kept, I kissed my other half seeyalater, and we headed interstate for my grandfather’s funeral.

I thenceforth stayed three days, wept a lot, laughed a lot, and ate a lot. Then I drove the return 6.5 hours alone (complete with adventures, like getting run off the road by a B-Double at high speed), and kept setting things up. I’ve only just now got my beloved ADSL back.

As for my office? Frightful mess. Absolutely frightful. Five minutes at a time is all I can manage… but I’m getting there.

So, this is a bit of an update to you all to say I’m still here! There have been several sign-ups for my free online course, which is fabulous. I’m thinking of running a half-day workshop (or more than one) on the topic. I’d love to know your thoughts on it.

And over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a mini-series of blogs based on the products in my shop. Should be good fun all round!

What have you all been up to since I’ve been “missing in action”?

Tags: adelaide, brutal pixie, copywriting, copywriting buy online, free online course, news, update, workshops
Filed under: Brutal Pixie Things

Just a quick post to let you guys all know that my Create Sparkling Copy short course is now available.

This course will take you through the fundamentals of creating awesome copy. You’ll learn about planning, audiences, purpose, and getting the words right.

Best of all, you will learn about the principles of review and continuous improvement. Not many other courses take you through this vital part of getting your copy right.

Sign up to the course here! If you like it, let me know. Feedback is what counts!

Tags: copywriting, course, free, online
Filed under: Copywriting Resources

Getting your email newsletters out, flashing yourself around the social networks, and generally being a bit of an e-vamp is all great for your business. Ask yourself, though, whether you are splashing around the electronic world, or immersing yourself into it.

From my isolated little (currently too-hot) loungeroom, it’s all well and good to imagine that people have moved away from print newsletters. But they haven’t!

In the past two workplaces in which I have been a paid monkey, not one little bit of thought — at all! — was given to emails or e-newsletters. These two companies would prefer to spend thousands on print documents. Filled with bad art, misspelled words, appalling styles of writing.

Not to mention the letters that would go out. Oh my lord.

Honestly, if you want to connect with people, at least go the yards and make it error-free. Nothing says “I don’t have much pride in what I do” than a document full of errors. The second stage is bad typography, awful design, and clip art.

These organisations ‘think electronically’ or believe themselves to be ‘thinking E’. They are trying desperately to go paperless, with intranets and new whiz-bang computer systems. But instead of changing their cultures slowly, integrating themselves with what is not new technology any more, they’re sitting it on top. Of course, it teeters and wobbles and eventually falls over. Nobody has managed the change properly, and nobody is immersed in the electronic world. Every one of them is splashing around and being excited by the pretty patterns.

For those businesses who are actually serious about thinking electronically, here’s a tip. You aren’t immersed until you are measuring how you are rolling.

You might be sending newsletters out by email; but until you are measuring the performance of each one, you aren’t anywhere close to Thinking E; at least, not fully. It’s when you get to the point where you are monitoring the performance of your communications that you are truly immersed.

If you are a true E company, you would:

• send email newsletters out, regularly
• assess the performance of your previous newsletter to improve on it, month-to-month
• reassess your website content for relevance, every six months
• maximise social networks with communication strategies, monitoring, and analysis
• keep on top of your website analytics, understand them, and push better and better performance
• keep on top of your grassroots metrics: word of mouth, recommendations, which are reflected online through social networks
• help your employees become engaged in promoting and talking about your business online (which they will, if they’re happy and encouraged!)
• … and so on and so forth.

I might ‘just’ be a copywriter. But I’ve worked in the field long enough to understand how your business’s attitude towards the electronic world can impact on its communications.

Does your business splash about, or is it immersed? Thinking E isn’t just about marketing or profit margins, it’s about communication.

Filed under: Marketing