More Matter. Less Art.

In Act 2 of Hamlet, Gertrude insists the windbag Polonius make his point. "More matter, with less art."

Geoffrey James, writing for Inc., sides with the queen. 

"If you've got something to say, say it in as few words as possible," James writes.

"All companies today are trying to do more with fewer people, which means that everybody is short on time. That's why it's crazy to load up your documents (e-mails, brochures, Websites, etc.) with fancy-sounding business cliches, and unsubstantiated opinions. Nobody has time to wade through biz-blab." 

Get to the point, James insists. "Especially if you don't have all that much to say."

Blogging is Easy. Just Open a Vein.

Two in three B2B marketers say producing sufficient content is their biggest challenge, according to a new study by the Content Marketing Institute.

But blogging's easy, if you think like a journalist.

Lack of content never fazed famed journalist Kurt Loder, who once said, "News is anything that's interesting, that relates to what's happening in the world, what's happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience."

News in your industry is anything that's trending around your products and services. 

That means industry-focused content is all around you—in mainstream newspapers, television shows, trade magazines, scholarly journals and nichey newsletters—just waiting for your unique spin.

If anything's a challenge, it's the latter effort. 

Spin demands a little sweat.

As another famed journalist, Red Smith, once said, "Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein."

How Did We Get the Word "Target?"

Part 5 in a 5-part series on word histories

The Franks used the word targe to signify an archer's shield.

During breaks from battle, archers would hang their shields on trees and shoot at them to improve their aim.

By the 14th century, the French used targette to denote a light shield.

Two centuries later, English-speakers adopted the word.

By the 18th century, target came to mean something shot at for practice.

Where Did We Get the Word "Zombie?"

Part 3 of a 5-part series on word histories

During the 18th and 19th centuries, along with thousands of West Africans, voodoo was transported to North America on slave ships.

Voodoo's practitioners brought with them the word zombie, the name for a snake god with the power to reanimate the dead.

When the dead walked, they were called zombies.

Got it? 

Now, run!

The Elevator Post

Readers report they enjoy Copy Points because the posts are concise.

That's no accident.

I think of each post as the e-version of an "elevator speech."

And the elevator is in downtown Washington, DC, where no building may be taller than 14 stories (so as not to contravene Jefferson's vision for Our Nation's Capital).

It's mind-boggling that, in the age of Tweets and TED Talks, so many bloggers are windbags.

They've forgotten one of Strunk and White's chief lessons:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Got that?

Make. Every. Word. Tell.

Trust Busters

Without your Website visitors' trust, you're toast.

Writing for Copyblogger, Barry Feldman lists these nine ways to void visitors' trust:

You're doing all the talking. You offer visitors no opportunity to comment. "When your brand does all the talking on your Website, you’ve got a recipe for distrust," Feldman says.

You’re anti-social. You ignore social media.

You're writing for robots. "Keyword stuffing is a certain mistrust trigger," Feldman says. Write to motivate people, not to drive SEO.

You’re not helpful. Givers earn trust; the needy don't. "In the online world, the most fervent servants have the most loyal friends."

You're never home. Your Website omits contact information.
You’re never wrong. This is the cardinal sin of large companies and TV pundits. Don't commit it, too.

You're a mess. If your Website design stinks, "you’ll never even get the chance to develop trust," Feldman says.

You’re using bad words. Feldman doesn't mean profanities, but "spelling mistakes, poor grammar, blatant bastardizations of the language, clumsy sales pitches, clichés, and jargon-laden nonsense."

You're slimy. You're guilty of using the ultimate trust-busters: bait and switch tactics, fine print, aggressive cookies, fabricated testimonials, privacy policy violations, spam and missing unsubscribe protocols.

"You can’t beg, buy or borrow trust. If you want it, you have to build it one article, podcast, tweet, and headline at a time," Feldman says.

Learn more about building trust from my free white paper, Path of Persuasion.

Why I Blog

Rereading George Orwell's 1946 essay Why I Write led me to wonder why I—or anyone—would blog.

"Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing," Orwell says.

Writers want to boost their egos. Writers "desire to seem clever," Orwell says. They share this desire with "the whole top crust of humanity," including scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers and businessmen.

Writers want to share their enthusiasm. Writers want to share their perceptions of the world and the pleasure they gain from "words and their right arrangement."

Writers want to record history. Writers hope "to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity."

Writers want to change things. Writers "desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples' idea of the kind of society that they should strive after."

In each writer's case, Orwell says, these motives will fluctuate from time to time; but you'll always find at least one of them driving the efforts.

"So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information," Orwell says. "It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself."

Don't Look Comma-tose

Part 1 of a 3-part series on the usage rules for commas

It's easy to misuse commas. 

The rules of use are terribly complex.

But they're worth mastering, because a misused comma makes an otherwise sharp marketer look dull.

Here's Rule One.

Use a comma when you name something that's the only thing on earth described by the words you use to identify it; otherwise, don't use a comma. For example:

If you attended our annual meeting, FACE, you know it featured as keynote speaker the CEO of Techno, Sue Smart. 

There's only one FACE and only one CEO of Techno.

Our monthly Webinar WOW featured technology expert Dot Friendly.

There are many WOWs and many technology experts.

When your description stands on its own—because there's only one—the name isn't needed in the sentence. So use a comma before it; otherwise, don't.

Learn to Love Tofu

I've just concluded my first month as a Vegan and resigned myself to loving Tofu.

As a marketer, Tofu should be part of your daily diet, too.

Tofu is an acronym that stands for “top of the funnel.”

The top of the funnel, of course, is your lead-cistern.

According to inbound-marketing agency FiveFifty, 97% of first-time Website visitors are top-of-the-funnel people.

They're "just looking" and far from ready to buy. 

So, if your content appeals only to bottom-of-the-funnel people, you look a little desperate.

"Remember the last time you were shopping at a retail store, and the sales representative kept asking if they could start a dressing room for you?" FiveFifty asks. "If you’re just browsing, their attempts to close a sale can feel overly pushy."

To make delicious Tofu, you need to prepare "buyer personas" that include the demographics, pain-points and priorities of your leads.

"The world’s best Tofu is based on answering real-life questions people have when they first come to your company's Website," FiveFifty says.

Carpetbaggers

During a phone call this week, blogger Michelle Bruno complained to me about the unsavory folks who copy the content of her blog, Fork in the Road, and publish it under their own names.

"I see my stuff all over the place," she said.

Michelle spoke with resignation. 

But I'll take a New York minute to call out these plagiarists.

Or, as I prefer, carpetbaggers.

You'll remember from US history classes that carpetbaggers were opportunists who descended on the vanquished South just after the Civil War. They exploited Southerners by stealing their land and businesses.

The term is synonymous with "crook," "charlatan," "plunderer" and "thief."

Perfect B2B Posts

Inc. offers these tips for publishing perfect B2B posts:

On LinkedIn, you should:

• Use 16-25 words
• End posts with exclamation marks
• Avoid ending posts with question marks
• Post between 9 am and 1 pm
• Post at the top and bottom of the hour 
• Post on Sundays

On Twitter, you should:

• Use 11-15 words
• Use numbers and numerals
• Use hashtags
• Avoid ending posts with exclamation marks (unlike LinkedIn!)
• Avoid ending posts with question marks
• Tweet between 10 am and noon
• Tweet at the top and bottom of the hour
• Tweet on Wednesdays

A Plea for Civility

Just when you were ready to throw culture to the dogs, Copybloggers' Sonia Simone issues The Civility Manifesto.

"If you write and publish regularly on the Web, you’re an influencer—whether you have 100 readers or a million," she writes. "And I’d like to call on all of us to work together and return some civility to the Web."

Without a greater measure of civility on influencers' part, Simone predicts that "anonymous creeps and soulless bullies" will soon rule the Web.

She asks influencers to rally behind five principles:

1. Recognize diversity as our strength (respect different people and views)
2. Stop using the language of trolls (avoid abusive words and phrases)
3. Stop giving attention to anonymous trolls (ignore them, block them, report them)
4. Look for connection (empathize with people you disagree with) 
5. Be real (stay honest, but "respect your own dignity and that of your fellow human beings")

Short Words Win

George Orwell advised, "Never use a long word where a short one will do."

The results of a 2005 experiment by psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer suggest Orwell was onto something.

Oppenheimer showed that writers who use big words needlessly are judged by readers as less intelligent than writers who use short ones.

To conduct his study, the Princeton psychologist borrowed students' writing samples and doctored them.

First, he created "highly complex" versions by replacing every noun, verb and adjective with its longest synonym.

Next, he created "moderately complex" versions by replacing every third noun, verb and adjective with its longest synonym.

Oppenheimer then asked subjects to read the various writing samples and rate the intelligence of their authors.

Across the board, the original samples won out over the moderately and highly complex versions.

Oppenheimer concluded, "Contrary to prevailing wisdom, increasing the complexity of a text does not cause an essay’s author to seem more intelligent. In fact, the opposite appears to be true."

Tip #5 for the Business Writer

Keep Your Phrases Parallel
Part 5 of a 5-part series on writing well.


Parallelism adds clarity to your writing readers appreciate.


In a parallelism, you keep the structure of any series of related phrases consistent, repeating the same word forms (your nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) in the same order.

Parallelism can occur within a sentence or within a paragraph.

Here's an example (from Florida Coconuts) of a faulty parallelism within a sentence:

Coconut water is fat free, delicious, and a great way to rehydrate after strenuous physical activity.

To make her structure parallel, the writer should say:

Coconut water is fat free, delicious and refreshing. It provides a great way to rehydrate after strenuous physical activity.

Here's an example (from Sony) of a faulty parallelism within a paragraph:

The installation of 600 Sony SNC-DH140T cameras was decided upon for three main reasons. The first was Sony’s outstanding image quality, both at day and night, in any season, and under any light conditions. The second related to backlighting: cameras in an airport terminal have to offer good image quality of the traffic inside as well as the people outside. The third criterion focused on the necessary integration with ADP’s existing Genetec software. Sony delivered seamless compatibility here: as soon as a Sony camera is installed on the ADP network, the Genetec software can add it automatically, without human intervention.

To make his structure parallel, the writer should say:

The installation of 600 Sony SNC-DH140T cameras was decided upon for three main reasons. The first was Sony’s outstanding image quality: images are clear both at day and night, in any season, and under any light conditions. The second was Sony's exceptional backlighting capability: cameras in an airport terminal have to offer good image quality of the traffic inside as well as outside. The third was Sony's seamless compatibility with ADP’s Genetec software: as soon as a Sony camera is installed on the ADP network, the Genetec software can add it automatically, without human intervention.

Tip #4 for the Business Writer

Avoid Imprecise Pronouns
Part 4 of a 5-part series on writing well.


If clarity is the aim of your prose, you miss the mark when you use imprecise pronouns. In particular, this and that.


These pronouns work only when clearly tied to a previous reference.


If used otherwise, they destroy clarity.


Here's an example (from Winterthur Technology Group) of an imprecise pronoun:


For the Winterthur group, the term "engineering" covers the complete consulting, support and training program. This helps customers to optimize the quality and efficiency of their grinding processes and achieve added value.

The pronoun this always refers to one thing. 

So, Winterthur, exactly what helps customers? Is it the term "engineering?" Consulting? Support? Or the training program?

The writer might have achieved clarity by saying:

For the Winterthur group, "engineering" means three things: consulting, support and training. Our three-pronged approach helps customers to optimize the quality and efficiency of their grinding processes and achieve added value.

Or the writer might say:

"Engineering" at Winterthur encompasses consulting, support and training, so you can optimize your grinding processes and get added value.

Tip #3 for the Business Writer

Subordinate conjunctions: handle with care

Part 3 of a 5-part series on writing well.

If you botch your use of subordinate conjunctions, you might be understood by readers. But you won't get any medals for logic.

Subordinate conjunctions are the glue that binds the independent and dependent parts of your sentences.

Subordinate conjunctions—handy words like after, because, however, until, where, whether and why—depict vital parts of reality, such as cause, sequence, timing and location.

Careless writers use subordinate conjunctions in ways that defy reason.

Here's an example (from Mobile Deals):

Tiny smartphones are selling like hot cakes these days, and HTC Wildfire S is clearly the proof of this statement, however one company who was trying too hard to prove this point is now no longer between us.

The sentence is illogical. The writer wants to tell readers:

• Sales of Wildfire S prove the high demand for tiny smartphones.
• In spite of the demand, one manufacturer of tiny smartphones has failed.

He should say:

As the HTC Wildfire S proves, tiny smartphones are selling like hot cakes, although one company that tried hard to prove the point is no longer with us.

A better alternative might be:

Sales of HTC Wildfire S prove the popularity of tiny smartphones, although one company that tried to milk the demand has failed.

Here's another example (from Smucker's) of the faulty use of a subordinate conjunction:

Moms and dads work hard to make sure their kids have a great start each day, but time and organizational challenges can make mornings stressful. Whether rushed or relaxed, the makers of Smucker's Snack'n Waffles brand waffles want to hear about your morning routine.

The writer's real aim is to say: 

• Morning routines are stressful for dutiful parents.
• Smucker's wants to learn whether yours is rushed or relaxed.

But she puts the dependent part of her second sentence in the wrong place. She should say:

Moms and dads work hard to make sure their kids have a great start each day, but time and organizational challenges can make mornings stressful. The makers of Smucker's Snack'n Waffles brand waffles want to hear whether your morning routine is rushed or relaxed.

Tip #2 for the Business Writer

Choose the right modifiers

Part 2 of a 5-part series on writing well.


Modifiers—the words that qualify nouns and verbs—can make or break your writing.


Like concrete nouns, modifiers can add precision your readers will appreciate.


But modifiers are tricky.


Use the right modifiers and your writing lifts off (think The Right Stuff).


Use the wrong modifers... use weak ones... use too many... or use clichés... and your writing fizzles.


As a rule, it's wise to omit modifiers, unless they add mojo to the nouns and verbs they qualify.


Here's an example (from Apple) of mangling your modifiers:


Sometimes life takes you by surprise. You’re reading a best seller on your iPad waiting for the morning train when you spy a gifted performer on the platform. Or you’re browsing the web on the couch when your dog trots by wearing your daughter’s tutu. The iSight camera on the new iPad lets you capture all these unpredictable, beautiful, and hilarious moments.


Does morning fortify the noun train? Only if the writer wanted us to think, "I can use my iPad while I commute."


Does iSight fortify camera? Positively.


Does new fortify iPad? Sure. No argument there.


Does gifted fortify performer? Nope. It's a cliché.


Do unpredictable, beautiful, and hilarious fortify moments? No. Once again, they're clichés.


How might the writer have better said this by omitting the modifiers?


Sometimes life takes you by surprise. You’re reading a best seller on your iPad waiting for the train when you spy a performer on the platform. Or you’re browsing the web on the couch when your dog trots by wearing your daughter’s tutu. The iSight camera on the new iPad lets you capture those moments.

Tip #1 for the Business Writer

Use concrete nouns

Part 1 of a 5-part series on writing well.

Concrete nouns not only bring your writing to life, but signify to readers that you care about them.

Abstract nouns, on the other hand, are usually the sign of an indifferent writer.

Face it: abstract talk is easy.

Finding the right concrete noun is hard.

The indifferent writer, instead of doing the heavy lifting, simply labels general categories of things.

The result?

Readers are left with little or no grasp of the writer's point. 

Worse, they're left wondering if the writer even cares about connecting with them.


Here's an example (from Delta Airlines) of overusing abstract nouns:


Earth Day provides a great opportunity for us as an airline to reflect on the importance of sustainability efforts in our industry. We're proud to say we've made a lot of progress in recent years, yet remain aware of the work still ahead of us.


How might the writer have better said this by using concrete nouns?

Earth Day provides us a moment to reflect on Delta's responsibility to help sustain our planet. We're proud of the strides we've taken in recent years, yet aware there's work still ahead.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

A military judge would argue that, in battle, there are no "accidental" self-inflicted wounds.

But I've discovered one in the war for attention.

It's an article offering Tips on Becoming a Good Writer that begins as follows:

"As the saying goes, the pen is sharper than the sword. A good writer is able to influence their readers into their train of thought; he or she is able to encourage and motivate the reader, gain their trust, and make the readers practice what they learnt from them. What it means to you that, whether you are aspiring to be a author of a bestselling novel or you are a marketer representing your company products and brand, being good in writing can put you in many advantages."

Chinese proverb: If your words are worthless, don't give advice.

The Secret to Better Blogging

Many social media experts insist that you cannot succeed at blogging without a content plan.


They argue that, without one, you'll procrastinate... or you'll fizzle out.... or you'll stray from your goals, producing off-target posts that fail to earn you followers.


I'm not so sure they're right.


Sure and steady output—even without a plan to back it up—may be just the thing for you.


In fact, a content plan may be the last thing in the world you need.


If planning your blog's content seems foreign, you might be the kind of writer economist David Galenson calls a "seeker."


Seekers, Galenson says, share "persistent uncertainty about their methods and goals."


And that uncertainty leads them to be dissatisfied with their output.


"Their dissatisfaction impels them to experiment, and their uncertainty means that they change their work by trial and error, moving tentatively toward their imperfectly perceived objectives."

One example of such a writer is the novelist Virginia Woolf.

Describing her production of Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf wrote, "the idea started as the oyster starts or the snail to secrete a house for itself. And this it did without any conscious direction. The little note book in which an attempt was made to forecast a plan was soon abandoned, and the book grew day by day, week by week, without any plan at all, except that which was dictated each morning in the act of writing."


How about you?

Are you a planner?

Or a seeker?