A picture may tell a story but words SELL.

Yes we live in a more visual culture than twenty years ago and yes, most people have less time to read.

But words are still our primary means of communicating. They make us laugh, cry, sing and buy - it just depends on which ones you use, and the order you put them in.

Incise offers three writing services:

. direct response copy for print and the net
. promotional copy for literature, advertising, websites and public relations
. clear 'plain language' communications for organisations involved in complex areas such as financial services.

Direct response - writing for results

'Why do I keep getting all this junk mail?' A question we often ask ourselves, which is a little odd because the answer's obvious - it works. And if you get lots of mail it's because you're 'mail responsive'. You may not respond to every solicitation you get - who could? - but the direct response marketers will have reams of data demonstrating who's likely to buy and who isn't. Guess which ones they mail?

There are many components to a successful postal or electronic mailing campaign - the product, the list to be mailed, the offer and the response mechanism. Research shows that sales copy is 4th in importance after the product, list and offer - but without strong copy, your campaign will fail.

The Incise approach to direct response is methodical. We'll want all the information you can give us about previous campaigns, what's worked and what hasn't, who responds to what and how often they buy. Before we write anything we have to understand what motivates the likely buyers - their primary and secondary emotional drivers. Why emotional? Because we all buy on emotion. Yes, we like to kid ourselves that we're smart and rational creatures, but the truth is that we use our logical powers to justify our emotional decisions.

We'll then start working on the structure of the mailing or website - every successful mailing follows an almost standard structure - and draft the headings. Then we get down to the serious and often lengthy business of the body copy - the bit that creates interest in and desire for your offer - to prove the prospect should buy. And don't let anyone tell you that nobody reads long copy - they do and there's mountains of evidence to prove it. What they don't read is copy that's irrelevant to them and their needs.

Incise can write direct response copy for print and the net. We'll quote you a price once we've seen the brief.

Promoting your business

You can judge for yourself whether we can write promotional copy - we wrote this website.

Our approach to all writing tasks is to find out as much as we can about:

. who the copy is for
. what you want to tell them about
. why they need to know what you want to tell them - sometimes they don't
. what you want them to do after they've read your copy.

We've written promotional copy for whisky companies, custard powder manufacturers, pub retailers, financial services companies, telecoms operators and marketing agencies. So we can probably help you.

Clear communications - how you can benefit

If your company communicates clearly, you'll benefit in several ways. You'll get fewer complaints, be seen as modern and professional and have fewer 'customer service' queries. Today, when websites are available to criticise every aspect of companies' performance - see PlanetFeedback.com, Ciaou.com, Epinions.com or Payusback.com - it's simply inviting trouble not to communicate clearly.

Our clear communications clients include Ecclesiastical Insurance, Norwich Union and Zurich Financial Services. We've also worked on major simplification projects for the Financial Services Authority and the Association of British Insurers.

Communicating clearly is partly about using plain language but it's also about understanding what readers need to know and how they're likely to access and use the information. Structure is as important as content and nonsense is still nonsense in plain language. So, if what you want to communicate doesn't make sense to you, change it or query it with the decision makers!