Yes, I know. For a lot of people, Twitter’s not that big of a deal. But for me, it is. It’s how I grew my business when I relaunched, rebranded, and relocated to a new state. It’s how I keep in touch with virtual colleagues and keep up-to-date on industry news and even make new friends. And for just a little over a year, it’s a place where I’ve been know as @InkyClean.

And here I am about to change that.

A lot of things have led up to this. For one, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want out of Twitter, and more than anything it’s a place where I connect with other people. The business relationships and the promotion of Inky Clean all come secondary to the real relationships I’ve made. I don’t log on every day to link to my latest blog post, but I do log on every day to check and see how my “tweeps” are doing. Twitter’s a place where I feel I can let my guard down a bit; it’s a place for honesty and genuineness, and for me, the next step in that sincerity is to just use my own name.

Secondly, as much work as I’ve put into Inky Clean, it’s not the only thing I do, nor is it the only thing that defines me. I’m not just a copywriter—I’m an aspiring novelist, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer addict, a nostalgic gamer who occassionally plays Donkey Kong Country on an old-school Super NES, a dog owner, an occasionally moody (but always lovable) wife, a little sister, a Miami transplant living in Austin…the list goes on and on. All of these things, including my company, fall into the very complex and often geeky umbrella that is me.

Third, I want people to know me for me. A year ago when I started this Twitter account, my goal was to develop Inky Clean as a strong, memorable brand. And I think I’ve done that maybe too well (on Twitter, at least) because sometimes, once the online networking goes offline, people will call me by company name and not my actual name. And I love that it sticks, I love that they remember it, but I want my company to be something people remember about me, not all they remember.

So maybe it’s time for me to develop my personal brand just like I developed my business brand. And it’s very possible to develop both at once. It doesn’t mean I’ll be neglecting my business brand (and—let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture here—a brand is much, much, much more than a Twitter handle). If anything, I’ll be working harder to make sure that my business is one of the great things people think of when they think of me. But just one of the things, among many.

Because we are all so very many things.

Do you keep your business and personal brand separate? Why or why not?

I used to play volleyball in high school, and I’ll never forget how my coach taught me to strengthen my overhead serve. It was a simple tactic:

Follow through.

He used to say that if I stopped swinging my arm once it hit the ball, then the power behind it would stop, too. If I kept my arm swinging, even after that initial contact, even after the ball was no longer in my hands, the energy I used in that swing would transfer more powerfully into the serve.

Serving up a Strong Brand

In branding, the follow-through is important because getting the ball in the air isn’t enough. It needs to have enough power that it lands in the right place.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a theme for my new fiction blog. It was supposed to be an easy to customize theme, with endless opportunities to get creative with it. The company did a great job with their branding in this case: their copy clearly explained the ease of using the theme, it placed heavy emphasis on the forums and tutorials in case I had any questions, and they gave off a friendly, very creative and extremely helpful attitude. They used words that highlighted that the user would be “in control” and that the theme was “flexible” enough to give customers the results they wanted. Best of all, they offered a money back guarantee.

Up In the Air

Since this theme sounded sounded like everything I needed, I gladly paid the fee and started playing around with it. Score 1 for their branding, right?

Not so fast. Deduct a point for the fact that I didn’t find the product very easy to use at all. But maybe that was just my fault, right? Maybe all the answers I was looking for could be found in the tutorials and forums like they said they would be. So I looked, and found the whole section to be overwhelming, difficult to navigate, and not as resourceful as they’d promised. Basically, they were back to zero.

After several days of trying to figure this out, and realizing that maybe their product wasn’t a good fit for me, I tried requesting my money back. Nowhere on the site did they explain how one would go about doing this, so finally I used their contact form and requested it. (So much for easy to use, right?)

The next day I got an email saying that they’d received my request, but had I tried their forums yet? Had I browsed their tutorials and asked the community? If after doing this, I still wanted my refund, they could process it, they said.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t waste time asking for something unless I know I want it. I don’t spend 10-15 minutes on someone’s website trying to figure out how to request a refund if I haven’t entirely made up my mind about the decision.

So I kindly responded that yes, I’d done all these things, and while I thought their product seemed like a great option for someone with different needs and experiences, it wasn’t a good fit for me.

Minutes later, I got a response with one line:

We will process your refund

No, “Thanks for trying our product.” No, “Sure, that won’t be a problem.” Not even a period at the end of that sentence.

If my perception of them had been shaky before, with that one line it completely crashed. The whole friendly, helpful, and flexible image of them as a company vanished.

If this had been a volleyball serve, it would’ve landed on the wrong side of the court with a big thud. They had been happy to try and charm me up until the point I bought their product, but after, there was absolutely no follow-through. The customer experience didn’t live up to the hype.

The lesson? Don’t build a brand if you’re not prepared to make it a reality. Don’t get the ball in the air if you don’t have enough strength in the swing to get it over the net.

What are the steps you take to ensure your brand is consistently strong from start to finish?

Photo credit: (cc) Scarleth White

I’ve been noticing one word keeps popping up to describe how marketers should make their audience feel: charmed.

Charming someone is far more powerful than leaving a good impression. A person who’s charmed by you won’t stop thinking about you after you’ve met. They’ll smile when your name comes up, and want to gush to their friends about how great you are. They’ll hope that your initial encounter will turn into something much more long-term.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? So how exactly do you go about doing this?

Think of it like a great first date

1. The first impression sets the tone: Get yourself dolled up, stand up straight, and speak with confidence. In other words, present yourself in the best possible light. You can’t fake a great web presence (just like you can’t fake a good suit) so make sure your web design is appealing to the eyes (cleanliness, please!), your web copy has strong headlines, and your site is easy enough to navigate that it makes for a pleasing experience. Also, get rid of anything that oozes cheesiness—flashy graphics, taglines that rhyme for no other reason than to sound “clever,” and auto-music are huge signs that you’re trying too hard.

2. Sincerity works wonders: Don’t you hate it when people give dating advice like “just be yourself”? Well, it’s true. You won’t get matched up with your right audience if you’re not putting the real you out there. Be honest about your product or service and you’ll build an invaluable trust with your customers. That trust—in the quality of what you’re offering, the quality of your service, and the promises that you make—is the only thing that’ll stop them from leaving the second someone else claims to be #1.

3. Talking about yourself is still a turn-off: Nobody wants to sit through dinner with someone who won’t stop bragging about themselves. The same goes for your marketing copy: It can’t be all about you. If you’ve won awards or Mashable called your startup the next big thing, share it in places where it’s relevant. Your About page, Press Page, a sidebar or even (briefly) on your homepage are all good places as long as they’re not taking the focus away from the main point: What can you do for your customers? Which brings us to number four…

4. You gotta think about their needs: Be a good listener and be considerate of their needs. That’s usually enough to get you a second date. Before you write any marketing copy, listen to your target audience and its needs. Keep them in mind at all times: What are they looking for in a product like yours? What problem do they have that you might not be aware of? How can you make their life easier?

5. Nobody likes a bland date: You could have all of the above and still not charm anyone if you don’t show some personality. Step outside of the misleading safe zone formed by boring, “let’s please everyone” branding and make a real statement. It might not charm everyone, but it won’t matter as long as you’re charming the right people.

photo credit: chibi_m

Remember that novel I talked about a few months back? I recently completed the final draft (insert huge sigh of relief here). I’m lucky to have had an amazing group of writers who critiqued the manuscript throughout its numerous versions and offered some solid feedback that helped me improve it along the way.

When you’ve been in writing groups long enough, you start to notice recurring questions that readers ask to determine the strength of the work. Some are questions we ask subconsciously as we read, others are questions we ask out loud to get a discussion going. And while my book is a work of fiction, I’ve found these questions also apply to copywriting.

Next time you’re getting ready to edit your own copy, take a cue from my writer’s groups and ask yourself these questions:

Do the characters feel real? Before you say, “My copy doesn’t have a character,” think again. Your company’s persona and brand are the main characters in the story you’re telling. They’re essential to making your message something people will connect with. Take a moment to study the impressions you’re putting out into the world. If you want customers to trust your brand, it absolutely has to be authentic and sincere.

Do the characters have a distinctive voice? In fiction, one of the signs of great dialogue is that you know who’s speaking even if the writer doesn’t tell you. A writer who pulls this off is creating a bond between the reader and the character—the reader feels like they really know this person (similar to how they know a close friend). Does your copy have a unique voice? Is it true to your company culture and what it stands for?

Is this action justified? Characters in novels do crazy things. Sometimes they’re justified because they seem like something the person would do. Sometimes they’re so out of left field that readers start thinking, “That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

What ends up happening is that this disconnect chips away at the authenticity of the character. To make sure this doesn’thappen to your brand, it’s important to be consistent. Your brand should align with your message, but so should your actions. So let’s say you have a product that’s meant to help simplify people’s lives. But your copy makes it difficult for them to find the information they’re looking for, check-out is an eight-step process, and returning the product is an even bigger hassle. If the experience doesn’t live up to the promise, people will simply stop buying into it.

Think about the things that draw you into a good book. How can these elements be translated to help your copy?

photo credit: doctor paradox

I know, I know. The whole “Lessons from [insert trending topic here]” thing can get kind of annoying. Just be thankful I didn’t make this a “Lessons from the Gap Logo Fiasco” post. I was thisclose to writing one.

I went to see The Social Network this weekend. Parts of it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside even though they weren’t meant to. I have this thing for seeing old screenshots of popular websites, and seeing shots of Facebook as “TheFacebook.com” took me back to my sophomore year of college at the University of Miami.

Is it weird that I still remember where I was when I first heard of the site that would change the way we experience each others’ lives? I was standing in the school’s breezeway interviewing a source for an article for the student paper. Somehow it came up as a “site that lets you see what other students’ schedules are.” Weird, but okay. I created a profile. I got friend requests from students whom I’d never even spoken to in class before. You know the rest of the story.

The World Got Onboard for the Ride

But that little cusp, that time when people were jumping on the Facebook bandwagon with no clear idea of where it was headed, is beautifully depicted in the movie. There’s a scene where Zuckerburg’s CFO is anxious to find a way to monetize the site now that it’s reached 100,000 users. He wants to set up meetings with advertisers.

In the movie (because who knows what happened in real life), Zuckerburg tells him that they can’t do that yet. They can’t start making it a business because they don’t know what Facebook is going to be yet. Users don’t know what it’s going to be yet. All everyone knows is that it’s cool, and that’s why they’re joining. The site’s “cool” is the greatest thing they’ve got going for them.

What’s your Cool?

We don’t all have the luxury of waiting like Zuckerburg did to become a billionaire. But we all have to keep our cool. That thing that drives people to your business, that makes them be loyal to you and keeps them coming back. The thing that makes them feel like they’re getting something out of the experience, instead of the other way around.

Movie Zuckerburg didn’t want people coming to Facebook and being bombarded with ads because this would change their message from “Facebook is about you” to “Facebook is about how we can profit from you.” Before the company could start making money, they needed to define what their users would get out of it, and how to keep giving them that.

It’s Not that Making Money’s Not Cool…

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t advertise on your website. I’m not saying that trying to make money from your business is bad. I’m not even saying you have to be cool. Maybe that’s not your brand’s style (maybe it’s more of a friendly smarty-pants or a nurturing mother type).

I’m just saying to guard your cool above all else. The cool is hard to define because it’s an essence. It’s that feeling people get when they realize that a product or a service is going to change their lives in a way they’ve been waiting for. It’s the satisfaction they get when this promise is delivered.

It’s the only thing that will keep them coming back to you. The only thing that will keep money in your pocket and you in business.

And it’s not at all about you.

So, what’s your cool? And, more importantly, is it showing?

Two months ago, starting an email newsletter had, quite frankly, not even entered my mind. I know how ridiculous that sounds considering I write email newsletters for my clients, but for me it was always one of those things I’d decided I’d do…eventually.

So you can imagine my surprise when I signed up for a Personalized Twitter Strategy session with Marian Schembari and she basically said: You really should start a newsletter. I’m not one to argue with Marian (the girl knows her stuff), so I agreed to start a newsletter…eventually. I procrastinated by implementing every other suggestion she’d made about how I could engage more people on Twitter until finally the inevitable was staring me in the face. I’d resisted because I’d thought starting a newsletter would be a huge time-suck. There was the question of what to focus it on, what to call it, how often to send it out, what software to manage it with.

The not-so-simple process of getting started

When I finally got around to the newsletter, I took what I thought would be baby steps. I signed up for MailChimp and started poking my nose around. Then I dove (or maybe fell) head-first into what became quite the branding endeavor.

When MailChimp said, “Hey! You can create your own header for your newsletter” I went and got my logo and the newsletter name (Wordy Goodness) and meshed them into a pretty little graphic that would be on top of each newsletter.

When they said, “Here’s the link to your signup form!” I rewrote the copy they’d provided in each template. I could have just stuck with “To confirm your subscription, please click the link we just sent to your email” but that just didn’t sound like me. I rewrote (as much as they’d let me) of the copy on the unsubscribe form, even though I’m hoping not many people will click on that. I made sure the fonts and colors on each form matched the ones I’d been using on my site.

The YOU Filter

I was feeling pretty happy with myself. Getting started with my email newsletter even gave me an idea for a blog post about how we should seize every little opportunity to brand our business. If the signup form for your email newsletter supplies you with some generic copy, don’t settle for it. If you have to write a “Please do not disturb” sign outside your office, who says you have to use those words? And if someone stumbles upon a page that no longer exists on your site, why not find a way to tell them that other than “This page no longer exists”?

Let your voice pop up and charm customers with your unique personality in the most unexpected places—they’ll remember you for it. Before you do or say anything, pass it through the “You Filter.” Let your brand filter out all the generic gunk that’s floating about. Serve up a cup full of freshly brewed, customized goodness that says you know who you are and can’t help but show it.

So that’s what this blog post was supposed to be about. Until I pulled up my blog on my browser to start writing it.

Every last drop counts

You see, if you’ve ever been to the Inky Clean website, you’ll realize it doesn’t even look like a distant relative of this blog. *Update: The blog has since been redesigned (yay!), but here’s what it used to look like:

That’s because at the time I designed my website, I didn’t know enough about WordPress to make this blog match. So I picked the most unoffensive-looking free template I could find and left it at that. The result is that when you go from my site to this blog there is no brand continuity whatsoever. It basically goes from bubbly and fun to blah. Meh. Eh.

Not very memorable at all.

So there I was with this newsletter coming up in September, ready to send writing tips, special offers, links to this blog and Inky Clean’s latest news to subscribers. And I thought, if I worked so hard to brand the newsletter, why would I send people to this blog where the branding falls flat?

It was clearly time to keep filtering until every last drop had passed through my “You Filter” (or my Me Filter, or my Inky Clean filter, or…you get the point). So I went and hired someone to create a custom WordPress template for this blog that’ll match the Inky Clean site. I couldn’t be more excited about it, and I’m hoping that in the next few days the makeover will be complete.

I’ll make sure to let you know when it is (though hopefully, it’ll be pretty obvious). In the meantime, you can always sign up for my newsletter. Let me know what you think about the forms

Last week, it took me two hours to find the right facial sunblock online. A year ago, it would’ve taken me ten minutes—just a quick drive to my neighborhood pharmacy, picking up the same brand I’d used for years.

Why the big change?

About a year ago, I started copywriting for a new skin care line as they prepared to launch. I’ve written their web copy, bottle labels, product descriptions, brochures. Their goal was to make people rethink how they shop for beauty products and take a closer look at the ingredients. There are all sorts of potentially harmful chemicals in skin care products we see on shelves every day, in brands that many people trust (this video sums it up beautifully). Recently I also started writing for another beauty line that has a similar mission and because of this, sticks to natural ingredients.

There’s a point to all this, I swear.

Just yesterday, as I was explaining to my sister that many popular fragrances contain potentially harmful chemicals that are not listed on the label, I realized that I was the perfect example of a marketer’s dream consumer. I heard their message. I believed in it and made it part of my life. What’s more, I even passed the message on to others.

Clients often come to me with the concern that they don’t want to sound too pushy in their marketing copy (or sales-y, which has become a common term). When I initially sat down with the first skin care client, listening to how her products were different and how she was trying to improve her customers’ lives, it was enlightening. She didn’t need to be pushy because she knew exactly what problem she was solving for people. She had a genuine concern for their well-being and wanted to help.

The word “sales-y” has gotten a bad rap. We assume that to sell someone, we have to convince them, possibly even trick them, into thinking that they need what we’re offering. There’s a connotation of deception there, of sleaziness, of having to keep a person’s attention because they’d rather be doing something else. Those are clear signs of two things:

1) you’re targeting the wrong audience

2) you’re focusing on how they can help you instead of how you can help them

When people are truly loyal to a brand, it’s because they consider them a friend. That brand looks out for them, that brand helps them out every time. Instead of being pushy, the best thing we can do is listen to our audience’s needs and be that friend. Only then will they listen to your message and look for more of it. And, when they realize it’s not just talk, that your product can really follow through on the promise you’ve made, they’ll take it in and pass it on to their friends.

As I got my new sunblock in the mail today, I was actually grateful that there are companies out there looking out for their customers’ well-being. I changed my shopping habits and switched brands because I wanted a healthier alternative. Nobody had to convince me to make that decision. It was a matter of me wanting something, and of someone else having exactly what I was looking for.

How about you? What brands are you most loyal to, and why?

I’ve never mentioned this before, but I’ve been writing a novel for a few years now and am finally at the final draft stage. It’s been a crazy ride (I’ve changed characters, entire plot points, and settings, so much that it’s almost as if I’ve written three books) and as overwhelming and close to me as this book is, I never mentioned it on this blog because I thought I had to keep my copywriting and my fiction separate.

And then it dawned on me: that’s just silly. Good copy tells a story, just like a great book does. Why should I keep my copywriting and fiction separate when the skills I use for both are so closely related?

In fiction, one of the most important skills a writer has to develop is that of building believable characters. Readers need to feel like they know these people, they need to believe that they’re real, that they have motivations, virtues, vices, issues, opinions and hot buttons just like any other person. Most of all, the writer needs to create a character that readers care about. Why else would a reader follow someone’s journey for 300 pages if they’re not loyal to them?

It’s the same in copywriting. A company’s brand is like the characters in a book. If it’s bland, forgettable, doesn’t feel genuine, or fails to set itself apart from the thousands of other brands/characters in the marketplace, then people aren’t going to connect with it enough to go on a journey with them. Just like in creative writing, your character needs to be fleshed out. It needs to come alive. To do this through copywriting, it’s all about the voice and the word choice and the messages you put out there.

So…quick question for all of you. If your brand were a character in a book, who would it be, and why?

When I moved my copywriting business from Miami to Austin, I decided it was time to rebrand. I didn’t think my current brand showed enough personality. I thought, if I’m not clear about my business identity, how am I going to attract clients who are a good fit?

Less than a month after I arrived in Austin I relaunched as Inky Clean. I didn’t worry about the fact that my brand was kinda quirky, nerdy and even a bit cute. I enjoy writing for businesses that can appreciate these qualities, in their copywriting or in general. Shouldn’t my brand speak to this audience instead of trying to reach out to a faceless mass?

Turns out, I’d landed in just the kind of town that could appreciate quirky. In case you haven’t heard it before, “Keep Austin Weird” is the slogan adapted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to promote small businesses. It was coined as the result of an offhand remark by a librarian calling a local radio station, then caused some controversy once it was trademarked by a company that printed shirts with the phrase.

The slogan is all over the Austin area: t-shirts, bumper stickers…and probably tattooed on a die-hard Austinite or two.

But in the short few months I’ve lived here, it’s become apparent that “Keep Austin Weird” is much more than a slogan. It’s a way of life around here, and a great way to do business and approach copywriting.

Austinites protect their mom and pop shops and their trailer eateries and independent bookstores because they know that this “weirdness” is what gives the city its character and charm. (Not to mention that keeping it weird stimulates the local economy). They don’t want Austin to turn into just another city, where all the coffeeshops are Starbucks and all the bookstores are a Barnes & Noble.

You could say they’re trying to preserve who they are. What they stand for. Their uniqueness. Their brand.

Shouldn’t all businesses, large or small, be doing the same?

That’s why copywriting is so important. The words on a business’s marketing materials make up their voice; they determine how readers will hear them in their minds. What you say and how you say it is just as important as how you look. If you’re going to make an impression, shouldn’t you make one that’s a real reflection of you, what you stand for, and what makes you different?

Shouldn’t you build your true brand?

Maybe your brand isn’t weird, like Austin’s is. That’s okay. “Weird” isn’t so much about being weird as it is about embracing what makes us all different. And when a business does that, they stand a much better chance of attracting the right people.

That must be how I ended up in Austin. The weirdness was calling to me.

What about you? In what ways are you keeping your business “weird” and embracing its unique qualities?

Having majored in Creative Writing in college, one of the things that always stuck with me was the way my professors talked about voice–probably because most admitted it’s the one thing you can’t teach. It’s something a writer develops on her own, and you may not know how you get it, where you get it from, or even when you finally have it. You just write a whole lot and then one day you realize you have a style, a voice, that’s truly your own.

Funny thing is, with copywriting, that voice is still so important. Only it’s not about me anymore. It doesn’t matter what my voice is (the voice I use when I write this blog, or poetry, or fiction) because great copywriters listen to their client’s voice and bring it out in their writing. Each company has a unique personality, a unique set of values and a mission that’s going to align them with their audience. Even if they’re not writers, the voice is still there because their brand is. It’s my job to use that brand to shape the tone and style I use in my writing.

Now the other funny thing is this: Not all companies realize they have this voice, and writers often need to search for it and pull it out. Or sometimes a company might be fairly new, so the challenge is to find the voice in the first place. In both cases they’re a lot like that young creative writer. Both need to look at themselves and find a way to stand out in a crowded world full of product launches and authors. Voice is so important because when it seems like everyone else is trying to say or sell the same thing, a distinct voice reminds us that this product, this company, this service, is different. This is one that gets us and that we can trust. This is one people remember.

Think of a crowded room where everyone’s yelling at you. Even if you’re able to hear a message amidst the chaos, will you know where it’s coming from? What if, in the middle of all of that, one person came up and leaned in to tell you something in a calm, collected manner, completely differently from everyone else? Would you remember them then?