When it comes to technology, I basically sit back until something
becomes so painful I simply must deal with it (keyboard gumming up), or someone brings it to my attention (using their super human power of emphasis) that my
life could be made a whole lot easier if I implement just one awesome new technology.
Thunderbird, the f ree email system from Mozilla/Firefox, was one such awesome tech item I downloaded last September. (Thank you, Jeff.) Until then I was using Outlook Express which was okay, really, but Thunderbird is so much better. (And did I mention it was fr ee?)
Well, to make things even sweeter, Mozilla has just released Thunderbird 2.0, and it’s pretty cool. My favorite new feature is that when I’m typing along in a Word doc and a new email comes in it, I’m not only alerted it’s there, but I’m also told who sent it, what the subject is and am given the first line or so of the email’s content. Blowing off s pam has never been easier—and neither has instantly seeing that a vital missive has arrived. (It’s like the mailman coming up the front walk calling my name and waving a big check.)
I’m still exploring Thunderbird’s other features, but another one I highly recommend is setting up the mail filtering system so ezines and other regular communications are neatly filed away until you have a few moments to browse through them with patient attention. (Rather than being so overwhelmed by your inbox you madly click through looking for a reason to delete every item and simply be done with it.)
So, if you’re frustrated or are even just “fine” with your current email system, take it from a non-techie and check out Thunderbird.
P.S. Don’t think the download is going to screw up your day, either. It’s done in a matter of seconds, and you’re up and running practically instantly.
P.P.S. I’m not getting any kickbacks from Mozilla—just doing my part to make the online world a more peaceful and easier place to be.
Labels: email, technology, Thunderbird
I recently interviewed magazine journalist Elizabeth Razzi. She established herself as a consumer journalist at Kiplinger’s before leaving to freelance and write a couple of consumer real estate books. We had an interesting discussion about voice. Razzi said that she enjoyed consumer journalism because she had the opportunity to explain financial mysteries to people and positively affect their lives. She’s good at it, yet when it came time to write a book proposal, that was “marketing writing—something I had never done before.” After that, there came writing the book itself, another matter of finding a voice.
“At Kiplinger’s, everything was in ‘their’ voice,” she said. “There’s more of a personal approach with a book—that’s me talking to the reader. It’s a personal approach to writing and something I had never done before. Once I got the book assignment, I had to sit down and figure out what I wanted to say all by myself.”
That can be intimidating, but Kiplinger tapped into one of the qualities she developed as a journalist where you learn to write to your audience. She determined that the book writing audience was an audience of one: a reader. “It was more of a direct link between me and my reader,” she said. “That took a little getting used to.”
I say it’s the same when it comes to online copywriting. When I write sales or other copy for a web page, I picture the one person I’m writing to. In our industry, this is called a “tarket,” where you identify the one nitty gritty member of your target audience. Some clients protest, saying that their product should appeal to more than, say, a tarket of “35-year-old female, who’s an east coast corporate executive, divorced parent of two, driver of a Honda Element and makes $70,000 a year.” Don’t worry, your product does. But you want to make sure that it first appeals to the one person who’s most likely to buy. So you must find a voice that speaks directly to that person—and other buyers will follow. If you try to speak to everyone, no one will buy because no one connects to the message personally. Your copy doesn't have a voice that they can hear.
For another example of sales copy speaking to a tarket, read the home page of the site for my book, 29 Days to a Smooth Move. Just 20 lines in and it’s obvious who we’re targeting with the sales copy. And, I’ll tell you what, it works. Most of our book buyers are women with families, pets and a pressing need to organize themselves for a do-it-themselves, inexpensive household move.
To sum up—good copywriters serve clients best by writing in a voice that speaks so a target audience will listen. If you're a writer, it's a good idea to develop those skills. If you're in need of a copywriter, be ready to think about and explain to your copywriter the specifics of your target market and the needs it has that your product or service can fill.
Labels: copywriting, tarket, voice
