A Picture Beats a Thousands Words

This following list is a great thing to keep in mind when you are trying to catch the attention of customers - particularly over your competition.

Most of these are based on testing or research by Gallup

1. When appropriate, cartoons attract most attention. They can work well on postal items like envelopes.
2. Photos convince most people. It is sensible to use them if looks or credibility matters.
3. Charts and statistics often attract interest - e.g. weight-loss figures or interest rates.
4. People look at people. 
5. Responses for can double when people can see who is talking to them in adverts.
6. Men look at attractive women; so do women. But women look at babies even more.
7. Illustrations or pictures that relate directly to the message work on average 32% better.
8. Captured TV frames from commercials are extremely effective.
9. If you don't illustrate the product or the idea, your advert can be 27% less effective than average. 
10. Generic stereotypes - smiling business people, chatting 'friends', loving couples and ecstatic eaters can kill your adverts -  they don't demonstrate and develop an uniqueness.
11. If the picture has something odd about it, people remember the message - ask a newspaper photographer!
12. One big picture usually attracts better than several small ones.
13. Pictures should demonstrate what you are saying - Before and after pictures are particularly effective.
14. Cut out pictures with 'free form' shape attract the eye better than squared-up ones.
15. Don't have pictures just for the sake of it; they cost money and can divert attention needlessly.
16. Research suggests that you should never use pictures that have nothing to with the product or service but seem a clever idea... There is a balance between number 11 and number 16!

Top Ten Tips on Writing Copy from a Master

Drayton Bird

I love getting emails from Drayton Bird. Always worth a read - some more than others, but hey ... he is a prolific emailer.

David Ogilvy (an advertising god is case you are too young!) said Drayton Bird "knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world." - that's a hell of an accolade from someone who should know!

Today Drayton sent this excerpt from a book called 'The Unpublished David Ogilvy' that was originally privately printed over 25 years ago.

"The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. 

Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning - and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

Wise words. You can be as clever as you like, but the idea about writing things to be read is just that - they should be written to be ... read. Do yourself and your readers a favour - follow Ogilvy's 10 tips on writing.

To find more Drayton Bird Droppings see - http://drayton-bird-droppings.blogspot.com/