WELCOME TO WRITE CLUB

I've been spending more  time with clients discussing the craft of writing than at any other time in my career. Not that surprising really, more of them are writing more themselves. Several are doing company blog's or undating their websites themselves and another is handing their own newsletters.

In fact I'm going to go as far as say the craft of writing has never been so important in the communication mix in recent times as it is right now.

So, I thought I'd start Write Club, an occasional series on writing.

I got this email sent to me before Christmas, interesting enough proposition tucked away at the bottom - 'unusual gift no effort', but for Conde Nast that really wasn't the hook. They'd rather tell you how they feel rather what they can do for you, as a result they lost me with the subject line. Because frankly, it's for me to decide whether or not it's a generous offer.

I mention this not to pick fault (or a fight) with someone's work but to highlight a very common problem and that is clients and their agencies writing from their perspective (i.e. I'm sure Patrick thinks he's being incredibly generous). But in doing so he has completely removed me any connection I might have. It's like having a conversation with a chat show host or someone on cocaine.

(Possibly the finest example of this was when a senior exec at a agnecy I was at sent an email to clients notify them he was leaving with the subject title: Great News. Great news for who? The rest of the email was equally self-congratulatory.)

So, the First Rule of Write Club is;

Understand the perspective of the reader. And remember what interests you about your business probably doesn't interest them.

As my main man Howard Gossage once said; People don't read ads, they read what interests them and sometimes it happens to be an ad.

Comments

[Helen]

I love the idea of Write Club. Will it all be comms writing focussed?

[Rob Mortimer]

Shouldnt the first rule (and I say this having written a piece for work on the art of direct mail writing) be, get the name right, and remember capitals.

If the name isnt right, you wont read any more. If it says Dear Occupier, you know its trash... etc