Observed

Aristotle and other classical Greeks got it. They understood how making what we write more real made it more believable.

Every writer wants to be read…and remembered.  So, when you’re about to go down the same old boring, forgettable rabbit hole, think about Aristotle.

It was Aristotle, Plato and other ancient Greeks who began to understand that readers need to sense the reality of a thing in order to better believe it.  Medieval poets and dramatists  picked up on this literary device and eventually named it — verisimilitude…or, literally from the Latin, likeness to truth.

Example?  (more…)

Want more client-facing marketing materials, including your newsletters?

The Hollywood-based BIRD branding agency recently celebrated 20 years of terrific work in the entertainment and lifestyle sectors. They excel at theatrical promotions (including this 2005 poster), logo design and branding for some of the biggest names in the business. AND, they're fun to work with! The kind of client I love.

Looking for ways to make your biz dev more about the other person?

Then consider…

• Invite a client or referral source to contribute a guest column.
• Showcase a client, recent in-the-news mention or something.  Write about something they have accomplished, not about something you’ve done for them.
• Fix your ego-centric copy.

Remember:  250 to 300 words is plenty long and engage your reader with a picture…a mugshot, product, corporate logo, etc.

Plus, whatever I’ve suggested for newsletters also works for Web sites, presentations and probably anything else of which we can think.  In fact, leverage something client-centric you’ve created for one platform by recycling it somewhere else.

The Battle of Jericho, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1851-60. Joshua and the Israelites marched around the walls of the fortress seven times before blowing their horns and bringing down the walls.

Looking for a good way to be remembered?  One route is literary.

Another way is more quantitative than qualitative.  More about deployment than style.

I’ll call this one The Rule of Seven.

Most behavioral psychologists will tell you that it takes between about five and seven impressions for most humans to store anything in their long-term memory.  Short-term memory, BTW, lasts about 18 seconds; long enough to remember, for example, a phone number. (more…)

Here’s a clip offering six best practices for proposal writing. Let me know (doug@doug-stern.com) if you’d like a sample proposal I wrote.

For more info, go to http://xrl.us/WritingGreatProposals to read the article on which this clip was based.

An interesting post in lawyerist.com recently made the case for being prepared for walk-ins.  The writer says that whether a firm thinks it’s a good idea or a bad one, at least have a sense (or, better yet, a written plan) of what happens when someone just shows up.

If you’re like I am, you’re saying, “When someone just shows up and walks in the front door?  Don’t you mean if?”  (more…)

This clip offers six best practices for client-satisfaction interviews and surveys. Doug Stern outlines how to get the most out of your investment–and how to really set yourself apart. (more…)