How i Work

Walk softly and carry a big thesaurus.

Words are the most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. A picture may be worth a thousand words. But properly connected, words are invaluable.

Depending on the objectives, I use words to:

• Explain • Persuade • Build Credibility • Reinforce • Reassure • Overcome • Educate • Emphasize • Counter • Bridge • Pull
• Stroke • Excite • Elicit • Sow • Elucidate • Connect • Introduce • Reiterate • Interest • Clarify • Pique • Proclaim • Justify
• Caution • Captivate • Unnerve • Satisfy Curiosity • Engage • Position • Answer • Provoke • Entice • Claim • Nullify • Delight

COPY IS MORE THAN WORD PLAY

Words are the tools of my craft. But copywriting is more than just the clever combination of words.

The message has to zing directly to the reader’s hot buttons…and press down hard. First I need to get inside the reader’s head and understand her motivations, then pull her need for your product/service through from awareness to interest to action.

RESEARCH AS CREATIVE CATALYST

The crux of good writing is good research. Creativity is applying that research to influence behavior.

Through internal and external research I seek to discover, understand and explain:

• Who are you and what do you do?

• What drives your market to respond?

• How does your business satisfy their need?

• Why should I buy from/contract with/give money to you?

READY, AIM, READ

I strive to convince your audience to sit up, pay attention…and DO something!

I then massage the answers to the questions above into headlines, value statements, supporting text, captions, and callouts.

GO WITH THE FLOW

My philosophy: Never make the reader work too hard to answer the question “What’s in it for ME?”

I try to make your reader feel at ease and want to read more. She should not have to struggle to get your point – or find out what she wants to know. User-friendly navigation is an essential part of my web sites. The same logical flow of reader-focused information applies to all my writing.

THE DESIGN ELEMENT

I maintain creative alliances with local graphic designers and agencies including:

Profile by Design Kelsie Zimmerman Design by Friday West Packard Wiley Design Communications

Working in tandem, we ensure that the visual identity clarifies and reinforces the client’s value proposition. I collaborate with the designer to make sure the hierarchy of information and nuance of language receive a complementary visual interpretation.

Mighty Pen Writing & Editing

This website is dedicated to my mother, Eileen Cash Reid, who did The New York Times crossword puzzle daily in ink. She is the inspiration behind the name Mighty Pen.