NeilMattingley.com

I listened to a speech last night. It was for a competition conducted by Toastmasters, the international organisation set-up to promote public speaking in the community . It was a good speech. The speaker was clearly passionate about the topic (he’d just written a thesis about it)… He was extremely knowledgeable about the topic… And [...]

They say a picture tells a 1000 words. And it does. But according to advertising legend, David Ogilvy, some pictures are more powerful than others. As a case in point, in his 1963 work, Confessions of an Advertising Man, Ogilvy cited an example of a campaign his firm had been asked to create for the Dutch [...]

I was talking to a guy the other day who sold mortgages to farmers. His job was to travel around the various communities in order to assess what the farmers were looking to buy, and to discuss some of the finer details of the actual mortgage. To my way of thinking, Brent’s about as close [...]

I read recently that between 1995 and 2005, the sales of cookbooks increased by 5% a year. That’s a sizable increase – in any one’s language. Obviously there are lots of reasons why cookbooks sell. It could be the food itself. Or the photographs that show off the food. Or the emotional connotations associated with [...]

One of my favourite copywriters is Ben Settle. I get an email alert from him about four or five days a week. Now Ben’s one of a number of copywriters I get email alerts from. And even though time doesn’t allow me to open every email he sends me, I do open the majority of [...]

I learned something today. I’ve always known that print types can broadly be categorised into two distinct types: Serif and San-Serif. And though I knew that Serif has more squiggly lines, I wanted something more definitive. Well, it turns out that Serif fonts also have “little feet” on them. And the reason they’re preferred in [...]

I had to buy a present for a guy at work the other day. John was leaving to go to another firm. No one had an idea about what to get him. So in the end, we decided to heed some advice I was given a long time ago, which was: “if in doubt, buy [...]

I’m a dog person. I’ve got a little Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Bess. Now Bess is the friendliest dog you could meet. She loves people, she’s got a permanent wag of her tail, and she has a “smile” on her face that still stops people in the street, even though she’s now 10 years old. [...]

It’s easy to write sales copy that flows. But if you want it to sing… To reach out from the page and grab the reader by the lapels. You have to be clear about what it is you are trying to say. Here’s one way that will keep you on track. Ask yourself: “By the [...]

In my previous post I talked about the importance on linking one sentence to the next… So that people want to keep reading. But how exactly do you do that? Well, there is no exact way to do it. But there are numerous ways you could do it. Telling a story is a great way. [...]