Entries by Matt Wright

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‘The Ideal Client’ Venus Fly-Trap

Step #1 – Sketch out your Ideal Client

This is often the 1st step that mentors or business coaches undertake. There’s potentially an ‘infinite’ amount of research you could do, but I prefer to start with a few pointers just to get clients thinking on the right lines:

  • Who are they?  Sex, age, location, status, budget
  • Why are they searching? Replacement, time-saving, reliability, brand
  • How do they search? Online, brochures, desktop v mobile, forums, referrals

Step #2 – Write for the Ideal Client

Use words that resonate with your ideal client – don’t worry about writing for a generic group.

Assuming the ideal client is, say, a 40-60 year old male business owner with 5 staff, I would come up with a list of words or short descriptive phrases to help keep my writing and messages on track; e.g. read more read more

September 7, 2015 /0 Comments/by
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Don’t misunderstimate the importance of vocabulary

“If you’re using complicated vocabulary and complex imagery, you’re going to lose people” – Seth Linder, Dukas PR

For some reason, American presidents spring to mind in respect of  both good and bad uses of vocabulary – for every one of Ronald Reagan’s memorable ‘thousand points of light’, there’s a less memorable George Bush ‘misunderestimation’ lurking in the background.

George was quite fond of mashing up the English vocabulary – don’t follow in his footsteps.

1. Don’t use -ize to make a noun into a verb read more

August 31, 2015 /0 Comments/by

Blogs – The Thinking Policeman

“The blog is my Jupiter – it keeps all the meteorites from hitting the Earth. It shields me from all the dangers I can’t see coming” – Sunday Times Magazine interview with PC Colin Taylor

PC Colin Taylor who polices 2,200 inhabitants of The Scilly Isles has become a social media phenomenon with a huge Facebook following. How? By writing a tongue-in-cheek account of the daily happenings on the 5 islands he polices along with two other constables. read more

August 17, 2015 /0 Comments/by

Case Study: igiveu Brochure

“I love this brochure….I absolutely love it!” 

Brochure Challenges

Create a memorable brochure to position igiveu’s offering in a competitive marketplace
Work with Kieran to clarify his USP and set this down in writing
Brief and liaise with graphic designer to combine eye-catching imagery with copy

read more

August 10, 2015 /0 Comments/by

Top Tips for creating a Brochure : Part 2 – Content

In Part 1 (see previous blog) we looked at how to design the ‘Layout’, so assuming that’s been completed, we’ll now turn our attention to the content.

1. Proper planning prevents poor performance

This is a derivation from the old military adage ‘the 7 Ps’….with the extra ‘P’ being a fruity qualifying adjective for ‘poor’ which I won’t repeat here!

Using the acronym ‘AIDA’ alongside this helps to focus the mind in the military-sense when planning the content for a brochure: read more read more

August 7, 2015 /0 Comments/by

Top Tips for creating a Brochure – Part 1: Layout

Brochure tips ‘n tricks

Here at Nobleword, we design a lot of brochures and see a lot of mistakes being made…..which we’d rather you avoided, so here are a few pointers:

1. Does a brochure really have to be A4?

Brochure. a pamphlet or booklet, esp one containing summarized or introductory information or advertising [C18: from French brocher to stitch (a book)]

The standard definition of a ‘brochure’ suggests a small book, and maybe once upon a time we were limited to this format, but now the only limiting factor is our imagination. read more

August 5, 2015 /0 Comments/by

The importance of names: Cannabis-speak

“Dense and luscious – mellows out in a peachy-smooth daydream”

A sophisticated Merlot perhaps, or a gutsy Cabernet Sauvignon perhaps?

Nope, these were the ‘Tasting notes’ taken from a brand of cannabis (i.e. weed, hash, or whatever you prefer) sold over the counter in a shop in Denver, Colorado, one of 14 US states where it has now be decriminalised… The importance of names : Cannabis-speak.

Description ≠ Name

“If you want this drug with serious medical benefits to be taken seriously, how about adulting up the names a bit? That way, a sick old man doesn’t have to ask for a quarter ounce of ‘Rainbow Diesel Funkadelic Cheddar Harmony’.” John Oliver, ‘The Daily Show’ read more read more

August 3, 2015 /0 Comments/by
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Customer Research – in the political world

“You can’t fatten the pig on market day” 

– Times Interview, 4th July, Lord Feldman – Chief Executive of Conservative Campaign HQ

The need for long-term planning

Politicians are famously short-termist – after all, they are judged on results, even though the underlying issues may have been years in the making.

So it was refreshing to come across this interview with Lord Feldman who detailed the extent of long-term planning that had gone into the Conservative’s 2015 Election Campaign….planning which began just weeks after the 2010 Coalition was formed. read more read more

July 27, 2015 /0 Comments/by

What’s your business card? Plain filter or a triple-shot, decaf, frosted latte?

“What does your business card say about you?”

This was the topic for discussion at one of my fortnightly networking groups (BLT).

What promised at first to be a rather mundane topic, ended up provoking some rather passionate exchanges.
Business card coffee

So, rather than the plain ‘ol ‘filter coffee’ business card I used to present, once I’ve added a Strapline on the front, a Testimonial on the rear and played around with the formatting, I’ll have a triple shot, decaf, frosted latte of a business card if you please….bring it on! read more

July 23, 2015 /0 Comments/by
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Case Study: Iffley Blue blogs

“Creative, imaginative, well-thought out ideas, and excellent use of the English language – I couldn’t do without Matt!”

– Lara Avincola, Restaurant Manager (Iffley Blue)

Blog Challenges

Create and post a weekly blog to drive traffic to the website
Work alongside to the Restaurant Manager to create offers to attract diners to the restaurant
Schedule & manage blogs in advance to relieve the workload of the Restaurant Manager
Liaise with other social media to distribute blog content

read more

July 16, 2015 /0 Comments/by