Lights! Camera! Call to action!

I reviewed a lot of recruitment letters during the past week, and I saw evidence of some great work. The writers provided a lot of compelling reasons why a prospective affiliate would want to join our programs. What was sometimes lacking, however, was a strong call to action. After providing all of the great details of a program, we sometimes fail to entice the recipient of our recruiting e-mail to take action now! Let me provide a few examples:

One letter ended with "Let us know if you would like to discuss a possible partnership or if you have any questions." This is a passive statement. It doesn't guide the recipient to do anything except to decide whether or not they want to contact us. Is that really the message you want to send? The rough translation of this is "You can contact us if you want to. Whatever. Either way." We need to close these letters strongly with clear direction as to the action we want these prospects to take.

How about this? "Contact us today so we can help you join this great new program!" or "Join this program at [ web site address here ] and start earning great commissions!"

Here's another example. One recruitment e-mail ended with "Please get in touch with us at your convenience." It's better. The recipient knows what we want them to do - contact us. But it's still a bit up in the air, isn't it? "At your convenience" doesn't exactly instill urgency, does it? To be honest - we could care less about their convenience. We want them to drop everything and ACT NOW! How about "Please contact us at your earliest convenience so that you can start earning money by promoting this program." Now we've given them an incentive - money!

Some of the opening lines of our recruiting letters also showed signs of passivity when we want ACTIVE VOICE. For example, "I wanted to contact you regarding the XXX program." Drop the "I wanted." You crossed that bridge when you sent the e-mail. Understand? How about "I am contacting you with regard to the XXX program."

Another opening line was "We'd love to speak with someone about a partnership with our client and your site." Someone? Some random person? We are making it sound like we are just flinging these e-mails randomly into the ether, hoping someone gets the message. No! Always assume you've reached the decision maker and try to convince that person to take action now. Try "We'd love to speak with you about a partnership between you and XXX." This makes the message more immediate and, if you can convince this person that the message is worth acting on, they will either act or pass it on to the real decision maker.

Our recruitment letters are full of strong reasons to join our programs. We just need to stand behind those reasons by providing strong calls to action so that prospects become affiliates. If you are ever in doubt, send your e-mails to me and I'll help you through it. Good luck!

One last note this week. Some of you may already be aware of this, but I wanted to point out that no matter how big the company, mistakes will be made. Google learned that lesson this week when its Valentines Day holiday logo mispelled the company name. As you know, Google is known for holiday logos. This week's Valentine's Day featured the latest example, but the giant search engine was definitely not feeling the love. That's because Google was misspelled "Googe" this time around. Huge Googe mistake! Just goes to show you're never too big to ignore the importance of proofreading!

When to use e-mail and when to pick up the phone

It is so important in business communications to remember that words have power. They have the power to inform, the power to inspire and, unfortunately, the power to irritate. We all become so accustomed to communicating via e-mail that it is important to recognize that there are times when e-mail is not appropriate. Because we all telecommute, we cannot often have face-to-face discussions. Therefore, picking up the phone is critical at times when you want to ensure that your words are understood.

So, if you need to talk to a merchant, client or affiliate about an issue, potential problem, point of contention, etc., the BEST way to avoid confusion, misconceptions, etc., is to pick up the phone.

When to AVOID using e-mail:
- Never send e-mail when angry. Type your message in a text editor (don't let it anywhere near your e-mail client as the SEND button is so often confused for SAVE). After you are calm down, re-read the message, edit it and hit send. Or better still, pick up the phone and be professional in tone even when you're really steamed!
- Keep e-mails constructive in substance and professional in tone. Treat people with the same courtesy and respect in e-mail as you would do face-to-face.
- Write in a factual style, avoiding verbiage that can be misconstrued. E-mail is one-directional. The recipient cannot "hear" your intonation. You cannot see their facial expressions as your message is being read.
- Guard against sending e-mail that can be taken out of context or that contains confidential corporate information. E-mail is easily forwarded and copied. Once it leaves your account, an e-mail can take on a life of its own.
- Do not use slang or idioms that could be misunderstood outside your region or country.
- Resist replying to all recipients in a distribution list unless the sender specifically asks you to do so.
- Never use e-mail to communicate proprietary corporate information. With millions of hidden readers and dastardly hackers lurking in cyberspace, eMail simply is not secure.
- Never conduct negotiations by e-mail. If you are going to have a conversation that requires give and take, pick up the phone.
- If you're conducting a long interview with lots of questions, pick up the phone.
- If you are delivering bad news, it's always better to pick up the phone so you can explain, console, etc.
- If you have any reason to suspect your message will be misconstrued or confusing to the recipient, pick up the phone instead.

For managers, here are a few more tips:
- Don't become a robotic e-mailer to your employees or the members of your team. When you rely on e-mail to the exclusion of all other means of contact, you risk alienating others. Employees, customers and suppliers all crave human interaction. While some people may be content to communicate electronically nearly 100% of the time, others may feel slighted or unappreciated unless you maintain ongoing personal contact.
- Never use e-mail to fire employees or deliver bad news. Without the benefit of body language, facial expression, or intonation, e-mail is the worst way to deliver bad news to employees. Whether your objective is to terminate an employee or notify a department head of budgetary cutbacks, demonstrate respect for your employees by delivering bad news in person or by phone.
- Do not use e-mail to discuss an employee's performance with other managers. Managers are not required to like every employee on a personal level, but they are obligated to treat each worker with professional courtesy. If a manager needs to discuss an employee's professional shortcomings with the human resources director or instruct a department head to terminate an employee who just isn't working out, this discussion should be held in person and behind closed doors or by phone.

What about Instant Messaging?
Instant messaging is also written communication and can therefore be just as misconstrued as e-mail with the saving grace that, because it is mor e instantaneous, you might be able to quickly clear up any misunderstandings. However, in most cases picking up the phone is preferable to using instant messaging.

Instant messaging is really for quick communications (such as "Just reminding you our conference call starts in 10 minutes. See you there!" or "Hi. I'm checking in to see if you received that document I e-mailed you last night."). If you are communicating detailed instructions or sending documents, it's best to use e-mail as the message trail is easier to pick up later if the need arises.

Expand your vocabulary with words coined in 2006

New words enter the English language every day. Some are slang. Some are useful. A few will even find their way into dictionaries after much consideration and debate. What follows are some of the words that made their way into dictionaries in 2006. Some of these words have been in use for years, though they were just added to a dictionary in the past year. Enjoy!

agritourism - the practice of touring agricultural areas to see farms and often to participate in farm activities
bahookie - a person's buttocks
big-box - of, relating to, or being a large chain store having a boxlike structure
biodiesel - a fuel that is similar to diesel fuel and is derived from usually vegetable sources (as soybean oil)
celebutante - a celebrity who is well known in fashionable society.
crunk - a type of hip-hop or rap music characterized by repeated shouted catchphrases and elements typical of electronic dance music, such as prominent bass.
hardscape - the man-made features used in landscape architecture, such as paths or walls, as contrasted with vegetation.
mouse potato - a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer
plank - a stupid person.
polyamory - the practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time
radge - a wild, crazy, or violent person.
sandwich generation - a generation of people who are caring for their aging parents while supporting their own children
supersize - to increase considerably the size, amount, or extent of
tri-band - a mobile phone or devide having three frequencies, enabling it to be used in different regions (typically Europe and the U.S.).
truthiness - a satirical term coined by comedian Stephen Colbert that refers to the quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively, instinctively or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination or actual facts.
upskill - to teach (an employee) additional skills
zombie - a computer controlled by a hacker without the owner's knowledge, which is made to send large quantities of data to a website, making it inaccessible to other users.

So, mouse potatoes! Let's all get off our bahookies and start using these new words!

Lost in translation

Some of the biggest blunders in advertising have occurred when American advertisers push their campaigns to international markets without first ensuring that the message will translate correctly. It's not just small agencies making the mistakes, either. If you ever find yourself working on an international campaign, take the time to find out how your message translates in all applicable languages. You'll be glad you did when you read about the following blunders.

When Pepsi decide to take it's new "choice of a generation" campaign to Taiwan, they failed to realize that "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation" means something far different in Chinese, where the slogan translates as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the grave."

Here are some more examples of advertising slogans that were famously lost in translation:

Campaign: Parker Pen
Message: "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you."
Spanish translation: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."

Campaign: Frank Perdue
Message: "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken."
Spanish translation: "It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused."

Campaign: Coors
Message: "Turn it loose."
Spanish translation: "Suffer from diarrhea."

Campaign: Braniff
Message: "Fly in leather."
Spanish translation: "Fly naked."

Campaign: Kentucky Fried Chicken
Message: "Finger-lickin' good."
Chinese translation: "Eat your fingers off."

The proof is in the proofreading

You know the drill. You're a reasonably intelligent person and a working professional. You are in a hurry. You don't really need to have someone else proofread your words, right? You bravely hit send. Then you spot it. The typo that ruins the whole message.

If it hasn't happened to you, count your lucky stars and realize that, statistically speaking, your time will come sooner than you might think. Nothing kills your message - or your credibility - like typos.

We're about to start a new year, and it's time to make your resolutions. You could have no better resolution than this: I will always have my words proofed before I hit send.

Today's headlines provide proof that when it comes to typos, little things mean a lot. Check it out:

Typo takes tourist 13,000 km out of his way

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

Dressed for the Australian summer in T-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.

Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake.

The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.

"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.

Be optimistic! You'll live longer

Did you hear the story about the optimist and the pessimist? The pessimist turns to the optimist and says, "It can't get any worse." The optimist replies, "Of course it can." All irony aside, it's important for business writers, which we all are, to be optimistic in our communications with prospects, partners and clients. Optimism instills confidence, and the key to selling anything is giving them confidence in the product or service being sold.

What do we mean when we say be optimistic? It means never give up hope. If you're notifying a client about a drop in sales, be sure not to stop there. Point out steps that are being taken to reverse the decrease. If you have to tell a potential affiliate that their application to join a program is denied, make sure you offer a few tips that could help them make the cut next time. If you find yourself speaking about pitfalls in your industry, make sure your speech includes thoughts about how these pitfalls can be overcome in the future.

Things go wrong. People make mistakes. Campaigns have bad months. What's important is that you don't become overwhelmed by the negative side of things. Here are some different ways to think about optimists and pessimists. Whenever you find yourself slipping into negativity, read these and turn that frown upside down:

* An optimist thinks that this is the best possible world. A pessimist fears that this is true.

* An optimist laughs to forget. A pessimist forgets to laugh.

* A pessimist complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.

* The optimist is as often wrong as the pessimist, but is far happier.

* I'm an optimist, but I don't think it helps.

* Optimists are nostalgic about the future.

* It doesn't hurt to be optimistic. You can always cry later.

* Always borrow money from a pessimist. He or she doesn't expect to be paid back.

* The optimist says, "My cup runneth over, what a blessing." The pessimist says, "My cup runneth over, what a mess."

* A pessimist is one who sees in others his or her own worst characteristics.

* No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."

Wishing you a grammatically correct holiday season!

Many of you are probably just now sitting down to write and send your holiday cards for family and friends. That's why in this week's copywriting lesson I thought it would be nice to review the correct way to address holiday cards.

Rule No. 1: Never use an apostrophe when writing the family's name because you are addressing the entire family - not something they own.
Example of INCORRECT usage:
The Smith's
900 Merry Lane
Kansas City, MO 64110

Example of CORRECT usage omits the apostrophe:
The Smiths
900 Merry Lane
Kansas City, MO 64110

Rule No. 2: You must add "es" to the end of any family name that ends in "ch," "s," "sh," "x" or "z."

Examples of INCORRECT usage:
The Thomas's
212 Oak St.
Overbrook, KS 66524

Example of CORRECT usage:
The Thomases
212 Oak St.
Overbrook, KS 66524

If this seems a little strange to you, you can also omit the "es" and add the word family to the end.

Example:
The Thomas Family
212 Oak St.
Overbrook, KS 66524