The Art & Soul of Marketing

Story Craft

THE Most Important Character in Your Business Story

Who's the Hero? Who's the Big Bad Wolf? Get it wrong and you lose your customer. Most businesses get it wrong. Learn how to reach a happy ever after ending.    Learn More

Story Craft

How to Make Your Story 10 Times More Memorable

A little practical science on how to make your story, or any marketing message, 10 times more memorable.    Learn More

Story Craft

How to Uncover Your Strategic Story

Corporate storytelling is regarded as an essential skill to differentiate a business these days, unfortunately there’s little guidance on how to craft a strategic story that works    Learn More

authenticity

Dangerous Faces on Your Homepage

There's an alarming trend in web design lately for business owners to put big pictures of themselves on their business homepages.

This is bad marketing for many reasons.

Story Craft

How to Brag About Yourself and Stay Humble

The secrets to bragging about yourself without coming across as a big headed jerk.

Practical tips to create powerful recommendations that will win you business.

authenticity

Marketers Need to Act like Dancers not Stalkers

Most marketing these days is downright creepy. Skin-crawlingly so when you get down to it.

Discover how not to be a marketing creep.

Story Craft

How to Write a 2,000 Word Post that Actually Gets Read

There’s a lot of drivel going around the internet that 2,000 word or longer posts rank better on search engines and get shared more on social media.

Discover what's really going on...

Digital transformation

There is No Digital Economy, it’s Just the Economy

From haute couture to warehouse logistics, digital technologies are so enmeshed in everyday life trying to separate the digital economy from the actual economy is a fool’s errand.

Digital transformation

A Digital Dependency Intervention (Again)

Social media sites and digital media are not doing your business any long term favours.

An over dependence on them means your business can be held to ransom at any time.

Story Craft

The Six Secrets of Great Results Nobody Tells You

Before you waste your time and money on advertising, analytics, conversion rate optimisation or digital transformation, here are six secrets that will give you the biggest breakthroughs in your business and marketing.

Digital transformation

The Myth of Digital Transformation

Seven out of 8 companies are failing at digital transformation. Are they doing it wrong or is there something else going on that most people have missed?    Learn More

Digital transformation

Five Digital Transformation Tips [Infographic]

Five Digital Transformation Tips [Infographic]    Learn More

Digital transformation

There Is Not a Shortage of Digital Talent in Australia

How many times do we have to say this?

I am sick and tired of seeing reports from recruitment agencies and other businesses complaining that they can’t find digital talent, it's absolute rubbish.

Digital transformation

Australian Business Lags in Digital Transformation

Many Australian businesses are still far behind what their customers expect and demand.

This leaves the door open for more agile start-ups to simply take their business and customers away from them.

Digital transformation

If Pizza Can be Disrupted, So Can You

The Pizza show on SBS recently showed a fascinating example of how every business is now a digital business.

Learn why you need to change your mindset about what digital techniology can do.

Story Craft

How to Make an Offer They Can't Refuse

Are you wasting too much time testing minor things and ignoring the one thing that will make the biggest improvement to your results?

   Learn More

authenticity

How To Talk About Yourself Without Peeing on Your Leg

Some practical tips on how to write about yourself without spoiling your pants.

Learn how to avoid “We we” and its confederates "Aye aye, Mimi, Hehe and Chi chi," as well as the dreaded third person affectation.

Story Craft

Why Small Text Size Will Lose You Business

The average text size on most marketing material is costing business owners money because it's too small and hard to read    Learn More

authenticity

Why Being the Best is Really Bad for Your Business

One of the quickest ways to make your prospective customers throw up and leave is to say you are: “Australia’s leading expert in...” Whether you’re in real estate, marketing, training, or social media: Make the above statement and you lose all credibility with customers.    Learn More

Story Craft

Titles Can Kill or Convert

Titles, headlines and headings cause more confusion for online writers than anything else.

Get them right, and you'll get more traffic, engagement and conversions; get them wrong and you get nothing.

authenticity

Never Send a “Do Not Reply Email

Using a Do Not Reply email address breaks the customer communication model and robs many businesses of the chance to really engage with their customers.    Learn More

Story Craft

Is 35 Pages Too Long for a Product Story?

Learn how Apple uses very long product descriptions for great results.    Learn More

Story Craft

How to Write for Digital

Too much about what is written about writing for the web comes down to rigid rules that can often do more harm than good.

A better approach is to take a more strategic look at your web writing and go from there.

Story Craft

People Read on the Web the Same as They Do Offline

People read exactly the same way online as offline.

So called web copywriting gurus mistakenly say that writing for the web should be different.

authenticity

Remind, Reintroduce and Re-seduce

Just because someone signed up to your email newsletter or service doesn’t mean they have a clue who you are.

You have to start the relationship from scratch everytime you call.

Story Craft

Learn From Master Storytellers

This clip with Ronnie Corbet and Harry Enfield is a short master-class in clever copywriting.

Obviously it's funny, but it's funny because the writers have done their research. Every line is packed with meaning, both subtle and obvious.