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Writing tips

Hot off the press: our thoughts on what's happening in the world of brand language and business writing. Warning: may contain the occasional rant.

Writing tips

The science of emails #1: write adult-to-adult

More than any other type of comms, emails run the risk of coming across the wrong way. And when it comes to communicating about coronavirus, the particular words we choose matter more than ever.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Woolly words won’t beat coronavirus

We’ll keep this brief. Firstly because other writers, Tweeters and politicians have already noted it, and secondly because we’ve covered this topic before. (It’s kind of our thing.) But one last time: if you want someone to do something, please make it clear.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

A theory of funny

Here’s my theory: In life, things can be one-beat, two-beat or three-beat funny. And you have to pick the right number of beats for your message, audience, and how long you have their attention for.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Our job spec dos and don’ts, inspired by Dominic Cummings

When Dominic Cummings, chief aide to the Prime Minister, posted job ads on his blog recently, it caused quite a stir.

Writing, Learning & development

Writing tips

Shout it out loud

Chances are you might be eyeing up a smart speaker in the Black Friday sales. YouGov have said one in ten people now have a speaker like Amazon Echo or Google Home in their pad, up from one in 20 last year.

Consulting, Training, Customer experience

Writing tips

Our written prescription for medical folk

Doctors and the healthcare industry have unique problems with the way they communicate. Medical terms and words can feel like a foreign language. (Sometimes what’s written literally is, with Latin origins that aren’t generally in use.)

Writing, Training, Customer experience

Writing tips

Email fails - how to avoid the pitfalls

It’s hard to get a feel for tone when you’re reading off a screen It’s easy for an email to be misconstrued. We don’t have the luxury of facial expressions or seeing someone’s mannerisms, and can’t always pick up on the way they’re saying it.

Training, HR & internal comms

Writing tips

Once more with feeling: why empathy is more than a tick-box exercise

Personalised letters, tick. Approved list of empathetic phrases (including ‘I’d love to help you with that today’), tick. Think you’ve got this emotional connection malarkey nailed? Not quite.

Writing, Training, Customer experience

Writing tips

Pushing your customers’ buttons

On a recent train journey, I was sat behind a jovial group of tech bods. They were talking about their ‘elevator pitch’...

Training, Writing, Customer experience

Writing tips

GDP-argh?

The General Data Protection Regulation comes in on 25th May and the new privacy rules have got marketers in a bit of a flap. That's no surprise when you read the document itself. It’s opaque and chock-full of jargon. Is your business is updating its privacy policy?

Writing, Consulting, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Just what the doctor ordered

My running buddy’s a doctor. And while pounding the pavements, she’s given me a few tips on how to get to the point. Because sometimes, it can be a question of life or death.

Writing, Customer experience

Writing tips

Everything before the but is codswallop

‘I see where you’re coming from, but…’ ‘He’s a nice guy, but…’ ‘We’re really sorry, but…’ But undoes all the words before it Sat in one of many business-y corporate conferences a few years back, our marketing director shared six words that really stuck with me

Writing, Training, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Take some wishy-washy words. Add a line about causing offence. Sprinkle a hashtag. Hold the sympathy. Leave to simmer, then turn up the heat online for 15 minutes. There you have the recipe for a half-baked public apology, cooked up by a publicist on behalf of a shamed celebrity.

Consulting, Writing, Training, Customer experience

Writing tips

Churchill’s 10th time lucky: why ‘effortless’ writing is anything but

‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ No prizes for guessing who said this one, especially as I’ve put his name in the title. Churchill’s words on the Battle of Britain in 1940 are probably some of the most famous in history.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

2018: the year of sounding human (say the analysts)

Our Emma explains why letting your human side show can help your business.

Consulting, Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

How to sell an ice cream

We talk to a lot of our big FMCG clients about functional and emotional benefits. Functional benefits tell you what a product does for you. This deodorant stops you sweating. This bleach kills bacteria....

Training, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Four quick tips to improve your comms

Our Hannah gave a great talk on language in culture recently. And although she covered a lot in the talk, we've thought it was worth pulling out four quick wordy tips that you can put into action, straight away.

Training, Learning & development

Writing tips

Deliveroo’s linguistic loopholes

In most language guidelines, there’s a bit that goes, ‘Don’t say that, say this instead’. Usually, the don’ts are hideous corporate-speak, which then emerge in the ‘do’ column as gleaming paragons of concise simplicity.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

Should I be worried for my little brother’s soul?

My youngest brother is, at the tender age of 22, living in his first definitely-not-a-student flat and working in his first ‘proper’ job. In the process, he’s encountering a whole new world of bureaucracy. And bureaucratic language.

Writing, Brand & marketing

Writing tips

How can you be clear? Ask an 11-year-old

Are you already testing your documents to check their ‘reading age’? Well, one company is taking it a step further.

Writing, Brand & marketing