Writing to customers (marketing copy)

`1:15:19`

loud. Talk it out. Because it it takes the whole like I have to write something down pressure off of it and then it's just communicate it's pure communication at point and humans are very very good at just talking to each other so just talk it out that's what I'd say and like okay now like you can even just record that and like literally write it down word for word if you wanted to or just then I would say then I would say just say that then just write that. I'll often do this for myself like when I'm writing some like marketing copy for um and I want to talk about this actually in a second cuz I don't I don't like the current state of websites which is one of the reasons I write letters and we'll talk about this in a second. I'm going to inject an idea here to talk about but but um writing like a headline or something and and I'll and I'll I'll write this like

`1:16:05`

pithy clever headline or something I'm like and then I'm like would I ever say that out loud to anybody to describe Basecamp? And I'm like no I wouldn't so why would I say it here? And I find that like there's this there's this feeling of like writing clever copy and head and I love writing headlines I it's probably one of my second favorite things to do besides these letters I love it but it really has to be something I would say out loud otherwise it feels disingenuous. Yes. And then it's like this mark then you're in this marketing mode exercise where you're almost trying to impress yourself with your cleverness but you're just like not communicating anything in a in in a real way so I'll often just say like would I ever say this to anybody? Or or if I'm trying to describe Basecamp like how would I describe Basecamp and I would just say I'm like that's better than any I spent an hour trying to write

`1:16:50`

out how to describe Basecamp versus I just said it in 12 seconds and like that was better than anything I've ever written basically. But you know this happens all the time it's so easy to fall into this trap but it's telling that you do too after all these years. The challenge is at work and you're kind of talking all your co-workers about about what's going on and then it's really musicians do this all the time where they start making music to impress each other or like think of your classic sort of film festival movie it's like made for other people who are interested in film and not just made for your average person who for you is just buying software. And this is a real trap that when you're writing marketing copy or trying to communicate anything about your product it's so easy to fall into. it's like it's the jargony side of it it's it's the it's the you're forgetting