Keep digging for the stories

When not copywriting, I spend some of my time digging away at my family tree. That's how I discovered the story of Robert Widdowfield, a distant cousin who left the coal fields of Durham, England with his family for the coal fields of Wyoming in the 1800s.

Still frontier country back then, Robert was a mine worker and a deputy sheriff of Carbon County. Back in 1878, he was sent along with Union Pacific special agent, Henry 'Tip' Vincent to track down George Parrot and his gang after they tried to derail and rob a Union Pacific train.

After tracking the gang to Elk Mountain, Robert and Henry were both shot and killed at Rattlesnake Creek. Robert was just the second lawman to be killed in Wyoming, Henry was the third.

The gang escaped, but each member was eventually captured, including 'Big Nose' George Parrot himself. While waiting to hang, George tried to break out of the jail but failed. On hearing that he had tried to escape, the local townsfolk were so enraged, they stormed the jail and hung Parrot from the nearest telegraph pole in the street.

As there was no one to claim the body, it was passed over to two doctors. As well as performing some examinations, a Dr Osborne had Parrot skinned across the thighs, had the skin tanned and then made into a pair of shoes. Osborne wore the very same shoes for his inaugural ball when he was elected governor of Wyoming a couple of years later. The top of Parrot's skull was given to a nurse who used it as a door stop. Parrot's bones were then placed in a whiskey barrel and buried in the high street. It lay there till it was rediscovered in the 1950s.

The moral of the story? Keep digging till you find a great story. Because when you do it has the power to pull you right in.

Why some memories are truly golden

Does emotion beat logic? Got the ‘new’ Atari 2600+ coming in November. Basic graphics, old-skool sounds, but with a tsunami of nostalgia. Bought it in a heartbeat.

Even though part of me knows I’m daft, it’s easily shouted down by the noisy kid inside who wants a second crack at Christmas 1980. Logical me’s never gonna win this one.

In the rush for new, a lot of companies forget about the power of the past. But there’s a reason those memories are golden. You’re probably ready to pay over the knocker to experience those feelings all over again.

We’re already emotionally invested in our past, so in some ways it’s got to be an easier sell than buying new. So while you’re looking forward, maybe take a look back now and again and hit the nostalgia feels in your copy. It’s a great way to make a connection, or maybe even a re-connection, and tighten those bonds a little more closely again.

Surely premium property should sound premium?

£500K, £1M+, £10M+, no matter what the price tag, why are property descriptions so dry? Here are a few thoughts that could make them instantly more engaging.

OK, I get that the pictures do the heavy lifting, but most copy seems to read like an audio floor plan. And if the piccies are showing so much, why repeat what you can see anyway?

Buying a house isn’t a logical thing, it’s probably one of the most emotional purchases you’re going to make. So why not sell the dream, or at least engage more of the buyer’s senses. What do you feel as you approach the building? Can you smell the roses and the wildflowers in the garden? Just how quiet is it? Can you hear the birds in the hedgerows nearby? What about those dog walks across the fields? How much light floods into the lounge through the French doors on a Sunday morning?

People buy big-ticket items with their emotions and rationalise their decisions afterwards. So doesn’t it make sense to crank up those emotional cues right from the off? Describing a home like a dry list of shopping ingredients isn’t really adding value to the imagery – it’s missing an extra emotional drive that could make that house the one.

If that make sense to you, why not give me a shout and let’s make your copy work even harder.

Listen to the voices inside your head

I still use my old mum as a benchmark to check my copy. Bless her, she’s been dead for two years.

Why do I still use her as my sounding board? It’s not because I’m suffering from some kind of Norman Bates-like syndrome or ‘cos I can’t let go. It’s simply because I knew her so well.

 If I’m in any doubt about whether any of my copy or creative ideas are crystal clear, I just think, ‘What would my old mum have made of it?’

 She wouldn’t have wasted a second telling me that it was ‘complicated’ – or ‘that it didn’t make sense’. Or the classic, ‘That’s just stupid, Andrew!’ (always Andrew, never Andy).

All the tech in the world won’t ever replace real writing for real people. So always keep someone in your head when you’re scribbling away. Someone you know really well. It’s a great way to make sure your thinking stays human and to keep you well grounded.

What makes a TOV guide really work?

Once you’ve worked out a tone of voice (TOV), you obviously need to show how to apply it. Over the last 25 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of TOV guides. While some have clearly given little thought to how they really sound, some have maybe thought about it waaay too much and stuffed in every guide they could possibly think up.

If you want writers and non-writers to really use your guide, then the simplest advice is – don’t make it complicated. Your TOV needs to be so simple and intuitive anyone can ‘get it’. Here’s my take.

A few TOV pointers:

1. Make it idiot proof

Make it super simple to understand. You want people to get the idea in one or two sweeps. If they’ve got to keep referencing the guidelines, it’s too complicated.

2. Cut the waffle

You might have tons of insight, but this isn’t the place for it. People just want to know how to turn A into B.

3. Keep it real

Take existing copy examples and rework them. If you make them up it doesn’t really show how the tone has moved on.

4. Use your TOV for the whole guide

Why limit your new tone to specific examples? Use your new TOV throughout the guide and make it the benchmark.

5. Don’t try and be cute

Forget about trying to create acronyms for tone descriptors. Or giving them all the same starting letter. Just make your descriptors easy to understand and interpret.

Sound reasonable? Let me know what you think makes a good tone of voice guide. Are there some things that really drive you mad?

Never underestimate the power of insight

Quite a few years ago, I had a mysterious meeting with a gypsy woman. By the end of our conversation, I was giving her money.  How did she manage that?

Easy, everything she said felt like a real insight into me and who I was.

From the first moment she spoke, she was able to tell me things I thought were unique to me. It was almost as if she could read my mind.

So when she finally asked me for some money to “guarantee my good luck for the future”, I was so convinced of her powers, I happily handed it over.

Never underestimate the power of insight in marketing and copy, it has a way of connecting with people deep down. If someone feels the same as you, if their problems sound just like yours, then there’s a really good chance you’ll connect and convert.

I know, I paid £10 to secure my own good fortune. How skilful was that?

Dead bodies and tone of voice

I used to be a special constable. It opened my eyes to loads of things – like how to get the right tone of voice when you’re dealing with a dead body.

Don’t worry, I wasn’t talking to the body. But I did have to talk to everyone else: like the regular officer who took charge of the incident, and the family of the lady who had sadly passed away.

Whether it was trying to sound confident and unfazed while I checked over a body under instruction, or being as practical and compassionate as I could for a family who were shocked and upset, tone of voice played a massive part in everything I did.

As individuals, we all change of our tone of voice depending on whatever situation we’re in. If it’s a tense situation, we can be the voice of reason to help diffuse a problem. If someone’s a bit panicky, we can reassure them with a calm and considered tone. No matter what the occasion, we’re all pretty tuned in to what the right tone of voice can do.

So why do so many companies struggle to create any tone other than a default ‘Business Friendly’? A simple, text-book English that your teacher would have liked back in the day, but no real person ever sounds like, ever, because it’s waaay too beige.

Want to lift someone’s spirits? Throw in some uplifting statements. Want to motivate them to do something? Tap into their emotions.

Words have the power to encourage, inspire, reassure and comfort. So why not try letting some real personality and tone into your communications – you might be surprised at what it could do.