The Holy Trinity of Service, or is it?

Sometimes it's known as the Iron Triangle. Which to me sounds like a cross between a Tory Prime Minister and a Caribbean vacation.

When you're deciding how to run your business you, supposedly, have to decide which two of these three goals you're going to focus on as "your product". 

Will you be Cheap and Fast? This is great because it gives you high turnover which is pretty important to running a successful business. But quality will suffer and, depending on your field, that could hurt you in the long run.

Will you be Fast and Great? This is close to nirvana, but also very hard to maintain. It requires hard grind, a toll on your employees if you have them, and likely sleepless nights. To do this you have to charge your clients more to justify the effort and/or put on more staff (or end up in an asylum).

How about Great and Cheap? Well, ok. This is probably only your side-hustle, right? I mean, you don't actually earn a living from this do you? No, didn't think so. Clients can expect great work, but you know, when it's finished and stuff. 

Which brings me to a more nuanced look at this. For me, rather than speed, I value reliability. What this means is I do what I say I'll do and deliver it when I say I will.

Or, to put it another way: I deliver on my promises.

So, instead of breakneck speed, I use schedules and calendars and make damned sure I'm not making spurious promises to clients. 

Maybe I'm cynical, but to me, that is a kickass proposition: I would hire a service that offered reliability as a central goal. Perhaps because it seems so rare these days, it is such a pleasure when someone delivers on their promise. 

What it means is that I can focus on Quality, without having to make my prices "premium", because I am not chasing my tail constantly. (I am busy though, don't get me wrong!)

In the end, services with a creative bent, like writing and editing, simply cannot compromise on quality: the quality of our work is our brand. It's our calling card. Do bad work and people simply wont be interested. So really we only have price and speed to work with. Instead, I focus on reliability, which allows me to be realistic with price.

How does this, for instance, translate to my business? 

I'm not cheap; I'm not the most expensive, either. I do high quality work, that people recommend, which is great! I do work quite fast, but I won't rush it if that compromises quality - I will consider each job on its merits, estimate the time it will take, and tell you. Then I'll stick to that timeline to the utmost of my ability (barring major illness, I never miss deadlines). Together this makes for an upper-middle road that I think clients can actually believe in. No unicorns here.

How do you manage this wobbly triangle?

We need to talk about your adjectives.

Hello. Were you writing something? Describing something recently?

Was it a product or a service? Was it, perhaps, real estate?

Yes; it was a house, wasn’t it?

I saw what you did. No squirming out of this one. You used superlatives and intensifiers like confetti. We need to discuss this. Now. Consider this your intervention.

Adjectives, adverbs and superlative nonsense

As you learnt in primary school, adjectives are “describing words” (while nouns are “names and things” and verbs are “doing words”).

Adjectives add to nouns only (the big house; the large tree). Adverbs are words that describe (or modify) any word including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Adverbs commonly end in “ly” (just like the word commonly, which here was an adverb to “end”).

Not really a describing word

Instead, think of adjectives (or adverbs) as “flavour words”. They are the spice that makes the noun go down.

It’s not a living room, it’s a “spacious living room”. He didn’t just walk, he walked slowly.

Some adjectives are useful—an adjective—because they add an attribute to the noun. Things like colour, pattern, design, size etc. These descriptions are essential to a complete understanding of the thing.

Likewise, some adverbs are useful because they qualify what’s going on. Adverbs should be used sparingly (see! Sparingly describes the way to use adverbs like sparingly!)

Terms of abuse

Here’s the problem: Adjectives and adverbs are used too often and frequently incorrectly.

This is not just a nit-picky, grammar-nazi thing. Words have meanings and because there are many different words to describe things, the English language gives us immense variety and nuance.

I know what you’re thinking though: “But I want my [house/car/product] to really stand out!”

Truth is, the pictures of your thing, its location (and its price) will make it stand out (if it’s ever going to stand out) to the kind of buyers who are looking for that type of thing anyway.

Words won’t change the fundamental attributes of your thing, no matter how hard you try.

And, wow, do people try!

Consider a living room in a house. How can it be described? Let’s start with size. No need to be technical, is it a big room compared with living rooms in general? Bigger than your own living room? Yes? OK, lets call it a “spacious living room”.

What does spacious mean here, though? I would argue that it means absolutely nothing at all, because spacious simply means large, which is a comparative adjective (it must be compared to something) and therefore what it means to you is completely dependent on what sized living rooms you grew up with. 

Same goes with large, and very large. Very is an intensifier, like extremely. Use them with caution -- they're likely adding to your problems.

If you grew up in palatial mansions (lucky you!) then a spacious living room would be fit for a King’s banquet. Nothing smaller would suffice. So just how big is this suburban house of yours?

The solution to the comparative problem

VERBS! Doing words! What can you do with this cavernous room of epic proportions? (Now that’s how to make it sound big!) How about fitting a 6-seat lounge setting AND a 10-seat dining arrangement, plus a few scattered occasional tables, and don’t forget the pool table?

“Room to swing a cat” is colloquial and not recommended in professional contexts.

“Room for your lounge suite and a big dining table, with plenty of space left to party!”

This kind of language not only gets the size across, but it paints a picture of how you could use the space.

Sometimes though, it really is big. Vast! I’m thinking of rooms that are 10+ meters long/wide. That’s when you can trot out the big guns like vast; enormous.

These are the extreme adjectives, the superlatives.

Don’t get hooked!

Superlatives are like heroin for writing. The first few times they feel great and seem to add punch to your description. Soon, however, you’re needing more and more of them to get the same hit.

In real estate for instance, the drug-words are the ones that emphasise “goodness”. Words like “exquisite”, “timeless”, “stunning”, “sensational”, “magnificent”.

Really, these are matters of opinion and some potential buyers would argue the point – most modern renovations are done with care, diligence and attention to detail. They use on-trend materials and looks. But to call them all “exquisite” is to dilute the meaning of the word to insignificance.

I won’t provide dictionary meanings here, they’re easily found via Google search, but it’s worth looking up a word before you use it. Is it a true description?

Instead, describe the amenity, the details, how it will feel to use it. A lighter touch on the adjectives will make them more powerful.

An approach worth trying

Try this - pick the stand-out feature, give it one of these superlatives, and leave the rest alone. Well, at least make sure the other adjectives are of a lesser degree than the superlative.

For instance, if the kitchen is marble dressed, with fine cabinetry details and attractive tap ware, call the kitchen exquisite. But not the rest of the house, stick to straight forward descriptions and words that describe what you can do/how you can live there.

A word like exquisite demands justification – it requires details that are themselves fine.

So, here goes (adjectives in bold, verbs in italics to show that we’re doing things, not just describing them):

“An exquisite, modern kitchen showcasing Italian marble, fine cabinetry, attractive tap ware and stainless-steel appliances leads to an open-plan living area featuring room for over-sized lounge and dining settings, leaving ample space to party.”

Could you live in that? I could! And what’s more, it provides information that is unavailable from photographs and floor plans alone. In other words, the copy is doing its job.

A lot more could be said on the myriad nuances of words. Some words might be very descriptive, but also awkward; “moist” anyone?

The point is this: simply thinking it through, taking care with your word choices and, notably, leaving out needless words will improve your writing no end.

Clear, concise language is powerful.

Yours in exquisite, timeless attention to detail…

Giving you a reason to buy

A while ago, I wrote a piece on narrative; on storytelling in marketing and advertising. Blah, blah, blah. Buzzwords blah blah.

You probably didn't read it then and probably wont now, which is disappointing, but there's only so much time in the day, right?

It's been fashionable for a while to talk about storytelling, but clearly it's gotten way off track. Like one of those awful subplots that leads you down a garden path to nowhere (final seasons of Dexter, anyone?)

We're not really "storytelling" in the Hans Christian Anderson way, and not every piece of advertising is about this. Sometimes it's just branding, pure and simple.

The thrust of this storytelling bizzo is that we're simply trying to give people a reason to buy. In my earlier piece, I called these 'little stories'.

Example:
Why did I buy a donut with my morning coffee this morning when I am clearly on a diet? Because I was in a hurry and didn't want to be on a sugar low for that important meeting.
How to use that story: Target rushed people with an easy value-add of a donut with their coffee... position it near the transport hub, make it visible.

That's too easy, right? Well, sure, but it is an example of a product and advertising that fits in with a narrative.

At the higher end, Apple creates an entire image and lifestyle for which its products are custom made. If you aspire to that image, then its products become part of your life story.

Mark Wnek wrote a piece on the importance of story tellers, noting that many companies are so data and tech driven these days, you'd swear they were selling to robots.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs, and I tend to agree, this Big Data thing is out of hand - it creates so much information that it is actually beyond the capabilities of marketers and advertisers to use it. Sure, it's nice to be able to discretely target a particular audience, but you still have to know what to do with them...

3 things I've learnt from writing real estate copy

I have a few suggestions; both for real estate agents, and for buyers and sellers, but we'll get to that.

I've written copy for hundreds of properties. It means that I walk in and visit between 15 and 30 properties a week. It can be even more during the busy seasons of Spring and late summer. Every day, after visiting all these properties, I have to sit down in front of my computer and come up with creative ways to present the benefits in a way that not only describes a property but also sells it to the right kind of buyer. What do I mean by that?

You only need one

Well, as any real estate agent knows, sure, you have to market a property broadly, but in the end each property only needs one buyer. In the end, all this marketing eventually comes down to one person, one individual who thinks "that's the kind of property I want."

Nudging you towards the property

I seem to be saying vague things here. I use the words "kind of" because an important distinction needs to be made between what the advertisement for a property does, and what the real estate agent does when there's a potential buyer in the property. Put simply, the written copy on the ad does not sell the property.

Instead, the purpose of the ad is to start the customer down the slippery slope towards a sale. If my ad causes an individual to decide to turn up to a home open, then the ad has been a complete success. This might sound like a cop out, and for a while I was a bit uneasy about thinking of it in these terms. But then I stopped and I thought about how you actually search for real estate; something I am personally in the process of doing right now for my family. When you go onto a listing site like realestate.com.au you're already a fairly motivated and interested consumer. You've already got and idea of the kind of property that you would like to rent buy or invest in. You've probably got an idea of the area if you're looking in, and some pretty firm opinions about price range and the basic features that a property requires. You may also be educated in the state of the market, and particularly in what you're looking for; how to spot quality etc.

You are a highly educated and motivated consumer; but there's a lot of property out there and you only have so much time. How do you decide?

The copy paints a lifestyle picture

You search for your basic requirements and you look at the photos and see if it's something you might like. You look at the floor plans to see if it'll work for you.  You look at the map to see if it's in the area that you want to live in and then you read the copy, because you might have missed something like a garden studio, attic storage; something that you can't see in the photo.

Then the copy will relate to you the feel of the property and lifestyle it could grant you. Which school zone it's in, other delights. These are the details that bring it home, that get you emotionally involved. This starts make you feel warm about living there. It begins to put you inside the property and make you imagine how it will make you feel. Think of this as the point at which a car dealer might say, "Hey, why don't you take it for a test drive?" If all of this resonates with you there's really only one more thing you need to do and that is going have a look at the property. So, assuming the agent makes that easy for you, the advertisement has now done it's work.

I said I had some advice. I do, but my real purpose in this post was to describe what a real estate ad is doing, and what it is not doing. It's not a plain description of the property, and yet that is in there. It's not a strong sales pitch, nor a novel, because no one has time for that. Instead, it is a quick picture of the place and how it would be to live there/own it.

What are the three things then?

Well:

1. It's not just a description.
2. There's actually a lot to it, and a lot to consider and include.
3. You need to remember standard sales copy principles, such as a hook, and call to action.

I guess I should also add that I am busy as the proverbial one-legged riverdancer right now, and it takes a lot of effort to get around and see properties (especially with big family homes, it's better to visit to get that personal feel and touch, but it's a nightmare on scheduling!)

For the buyers, allow yourself to get lost in the copy - if it resonates, go view the property. These things are written with what I might term, "exuberant honesty". It paints the property in a positive light. If you don't subsequently like it, well it's not the property for you. No loss but a bit of time, and you've made your way closer to the perfect property.

For sellers, demand the best. The copy, the photos, the floorplan, they all make a difference. A big difference.

For agents, get it right and the campaign should be a breeze. Take the time, or get some help, it's more cost effective than you might think. If you want great, effective copy on your property ads, drop us a line today.

Is your property sales copy boring?

Because if it is, your sales might be flat too.

There’s no point in me sugar coating it. If the copy on your ads does nothing more than describe the property, then it does nothing to sell the property. You need to target your specific buyer market with your words.

You don’t need a simple property description; potential buyers can already see what it’s like from the professional photos (you do use professional photos, right?)

Good copywriting sells. What it does is connects vendors’ property with the buyers’ desires. It plants a story in their minds as to why they need this property; how they would live there; the lifestyle they might enjoy; or the easy investment returns they might make.

You want to inspire a potential buyer, so as to inspire faster sales and higher sale prices (and better commissions!)

Professional property photographs are essential these days, but without the words, they are a series of dots without connections. The words fill the gaps and tell the story. The copy gives them a reason to buy.

But you don’t need to toil away at this for hours! Incorporating top-notch sales copy into your marketing is easy: if you’ve got a property that needs powerful, persuasive copy, just drop me a line and I can do it for you, at reasonable rates and with a fast turnaround to make your job easy. Make your listings tell stories that leave buyers inspired!

What is "narrative" anyway?

You're probably sick of the terminology already; the buzzwords of marketing; the new age of engagement.

Engagement. Isn't that an annoying word? There was a time when engagement really had two principal meanings. One was a meeting or event you were to attend, the other was a state of pre-marital bliss.

Now it means something far more nebulous. Something like attention. Yes that's it, we call it engagement but what we really mean is to hold someone's attention long enough so as to convince them to do something about it. Like buy your product/service or connect with people.

Connect. Almost worse than engagement. Another infuriating word that really means to meet, or to correspond, or to make friends. Why do we have to be so general in this day and age of information, when words on screen are so cheap anyway?

Why not be specific? "I met with Brian on Thursday, I think we're going to do business together, hell, we might even become friends!" There. That's better. Now I understand what you're saying!

Which all leads me to the big one doing the rounds these days: Narrative. And its cousin, Storytelling.

I bet you think to yourself, when you see these words in a marketing context, "I AM RUNNING A BUSINESS HERE, FOLKS, NOT TELLING FAIRY TALES!" I know I do, and I write stories for a living!

Yes, I am guilty. I use these words; more than I should. I think it's better to think of everyone's lives as an anthology of short stories. We're doing one thing for a bunch of reasons; and then we're doing something else, for different or perhaps related reasons. The key is that a person is involved, you, and so you're running through this series of little stories that sum to your life. Scary but true: you could tell a story about nearly every aspect of your life. Some of you have some pretty thrilling stories I'm sure!

When we place this into the business context, what us narrative-weaving, storytelling, keyboard-tapping marketers are saying is that you need to focus on the who and why and how of your product/service, rather than just the what and where (which are really just a description of your thing, whatever it is. They might be features, but by themselves they are not benefits, which is to say, they do not, in and of themselves, deliver value. For that, you need to demonstrate how you're making a difference to someone and why they need it).

Some products benefit strongly from the who. For instance, a biography is all about the who and its exact job is to tell that story. Many services depend on the who: you want to know who's providing the service, whether you can trust them, etc. Sometimes, the who is all you need to sell.

The why and the how, however, are the big game. In almost all cases, the reason something sells is because someone has a problem to solve or task to complete, but they don't have the tools or resources. Then you come along with the solution.

• Need to share a picture of your cute kitten, right now for all the world to see? How are you going to do that? Instagram of course!
• Looking for a place to stay that's more homely than a hotel? Airbnb will show you how. 
• Need to settle an argument? Google it. (OK, I say that with caution, but you get me.)

What do all these have in common? They're little stories.

I was trying to get home from the bar [why I was looking for transport], but there were no taxis around [don't know how I'll get home], so I used the Uber app on my smartphone and within minutes, a nice man in a nice car was driving me home. It was a great experience!

Tell that story, and people will start using Uber. Millions already do and you know this story because it could be your own. That story is told the world over, and is a driving force behind their expansion (along with a related story about better service than taxis, which is really just a taxi-avoidance version of the story above). Uber even caters for the business executive who wants to look like he's stepped out of a private limo - Uber Black. There's another story...

So that's why we do it, because it is memorable. If a product or service is to really sell, it needs to fit into people's lives. It must fill that gap. The story of why and how gives a person a compelling reason to buy.

The brands that are best at this invite their customers to tell their own stories about their use of the product. This kind of customer participation in the story of a brand is incredibly powerful in building a business. And it's pretty straightforward in a world of social media.

Tell your story well, and people will sell your product to themselves.

Salespeople have been doing this for centuries. You've no doubt heard of the "create a problem then solve it" technique for selling (and advertising). Well, that's a story based technique. And it works, like crazy. Nothing better than hearing from a customer, "yeah, I can really see why I need this!"

That's what you're trying to achieve when you tell your brand/product/service's story. You're just making it fit into people's lives. Giving them a reason to engage buy.

By the way, to return to the original question, narrative is just an account of connected events. That's what the word means. It's how you tell a story. You narrate a story. You're a storyteller! Get telling! Or, if storytelling IS that gap in your life, get in touch with us and we can help!

1 Powerful Way to Differentiate Yourself in the Property Market

Scene:
A trendy suburban cafe, around 11 am on a warm spring day. The customer walks past a stand with some local mags, sees a page with a real estate agent's banner. She's about to move on, dismissing it as advertising, but then sees a catchy headline and an article. "Well," She thinks, "I dropped in for a coffee, and don't have anything to read. This'll do." And with that, she picks it up and orders herself a skinny latte.


A few minutes later, she's on her smartphone and scanning ads for real estate in the area. She's a successful woman, has a young family, and is still in the house they bought when they married. The house is getting a little cramped now though, "I wonder what we could upgrade to, if we did?" She ponders before looking again at that article, which discussed the booming real estate market. "Perhaps I'll give them a call."
Get help if you need it, but do it anyway



You published that article a few weeks ago, and it made it into that cafe, and now it is being read by a potential customer. A person who, for whatever reason, was not even thinking about real estate, and especially not about selling their house, until now.

What changed her mind? You did.

The persuasive power of words

Now this woman has taken the first step towards selling, and you were the catalyst. It's very likely you'll be the first call she makes. You'll now get the chance to talk to her about selling and buying in the same market. The pros and cons. The advantages of getting it done efficiently. You will be able to explain to her how you can make it easy for her. And the best bit? She's a willing listener. She came to you, not the other way around.

This is the power of having market commentary out there, in writing. It carries authority, it delivers non-sales-pitch information, it has a subtle call to action. Most of all, it sparks interest, puts the seed of an idea into the reader's head.

Differentiating yourself

The truth is everyone can find a real estate agent if they need one. One Google search and it's done. But often they don't have the prompt to do so. People need to be asked to think about selling or buying real estate. That's why real estate agents spend so much time canvasing the market for listings. It's the hardest part of the job (it's not uncommon to make hundreds of calls a week), which is why anything that assists people in getting over that hurdle is so valuable. If a simple article makes people think about selling; then it's worth its weight in gold.

It doesn't have to be a big thing though - you're an expert in your field, and well acquainted with the goings on in your local market. I bet you have lots to say. I bet you wish people knew how good you are at your job. Well, the answer is to get your opinion out there; regularly. Start locally. Start by communicating with your established client list and roster of sales queries. Get your picture and opinion in the local paper. Write a newsletter. Write a blog.

It does require some work, but consider this: If just one extra listing came from your blog or newsletter, the commission on that sale alone will repay you for your efforts.


Despite what you might fear, generally people are not too picky about grammar. So if writing is not your forte, don't fret. A poorly worded or written piece is better than nothing at all, so by all means, write it anyway and get it out there.

If you really want your opinion to convert to sales though, you need to write it well, and with an ear for persuasive copy. Good writing gets more attention than bad writing. And human beings simply enjoy well-written material. So it is worth the effort to get it done well. Given how much money is potentially waiting, it's worth considering hiring a writer to do it for you. Rates are more reasonable than you might imagine, and the big advantage is that you can establish a regular flow of writing from your desk; freeing up your time for better things, like selling property!

If you are interested in hearing more about how a professional writer with real estate experience can help you, have a look at our services and get in touch today.