These days, we’re mostly too busy copywriting for clients to blog for ourselves. But rather than take down what’s now a 20-year+ archive of posts and newsletters, we’re leaving this final post with highlights from two decades of strongly held opinions about B2B copywriting. Here’s a selection of the most popular posts, plus our own […]
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Copywriting across the spectrum: TOV and why it matters
There’s a copywriter out there whose website features a slider with which visitors can ‘tune’ a paragraph of copy through a spectrum of tones of voice. It’s a brilliant device and we’re extremely jealous of it. Mostly because it’s a great way to show off an important copywriting skill: being able to write in different […]
Another book on “business bullshit”? I call bullshit
In a book called Business Bullshit, trailed in a Guardian Long Read, author André Spicer joins a long tradition of jargon-bashing that stretches back to George Orwell and beyond. As someone whose job is writing stuff for business that’s clear, appealing and easy to understand, my reaction to this latest broadside against jargon is: Stop it. […]
Our acclaimed copywriting workshop is back!
“Extremely relevant”, “Well delivered”, “Definitely recommend”, “Relaxed but informative”, “Interesting and engaging”, “Well structured”. These are just a few of the 2016 plaudits for Words that Work, Plain Text’s 90-minute copywriting workshop. We enjoy these sessions very much – and it seems our clients do too. So this year, once again we’re offering one free Words that Work session to our […]
Why copywriting is a craft, not an art
Obviously, we want you to believe that copywriters are magicians. You send us a brief, we summon the Muse, and persuasive words pour forth. The prosaic truth, however, is that copywriting is a craft, not an art, demanding old-fashioned tools and plenty of hammering and polishing. How does it work in practice? This recent real-life […]
Mugged by The Suits
One from the archives. It’s 14 years now since we wrote a post entitled ‘Case study carnage’ about what happens when business case studies get mugged by The Suits, i.e. transformed into gibberish by jargon-obsessed managers. There’s less of this stuff around now, but still, happily, enough to keep us in work. It’s worth getting […]
Words that work: our new writing workshop
Welcome to Words that work, a writing workshop that packages everything we’ve learned about B2B copywriting into 90 lively minutes. For a limited period we’re offering one free workshop to our clients and contacts. Feel free to share this page or click the image for a PDF that shows off our partner IDB Creative‘s sumptuous […]
It’s all about me: why B2B customers aren’t listening
Draw a cup. What do you see? A stylish item of crockery? A football trophy? Half of a bra? The point of this classic psychology exercise is to show that what one person says can be interpreted by others in many different ways. Now draw a “seamless integrated solution”. Your IT supplier would no […]