7 Sharp Writing and Marketing Links

7 Sharp Writing and Marketing Links

Reader Comments (14)

  1. hai,
    I read the post How to Write, by David Ogilvy.
    People who think well, write well only if they write and in think in English.. If the People think well in their mother languages other than English then i feel they shouldn’t write well in English..
    Thanks.

    • Vladimir Nabokov was one of the greatest writers in English and his native language was Russian, but it’s certainly true that writing in English as one’s second language is very challenging. Fortunately, businesses can be built on the web to serve customers everywhere, not just English-speaking ones.

      • Hai,
        I accept your point “Businesses can be built on the web to serve customers everywhere” But their promotion language is English. Can you tell me how many businesses (like Copyblogger Media) on the web have their websites in different languages as like English. Many of the businesses have provide voice support in different languages but their website is in English. It seems they wanted to serve the customers who know English.

        Is copyblogger media have their website in Chinese and Hindi ( major populated countries nearly 2.5 billion) to serve people?
        Thanks.

  2. Well, Sonia that’s a great point, but you also need to consider Joseph Brodsky and scores of other writers. They don’t necessarily write best in the mother tongue, although a lot of them work well exclusively in their mother tongue. The problem is, really, that English is the lingua franca, that is, the international language of trade and commerce. With one dominant language, other languages tend to get the step-motherly treatment. English is Cinderella and a lot of parents in developing nations want to send their children only to english-medium schools. Parents realise that in order to join the swelling ranks of the global elite, a knowledge of English is a must. In the event, mother tongues tend to fall by the wayside or receive little or no importance. I look forward to the day when people feel as comfortable with their native tongues as they do with English and that their works are not just read as english translations. We are losing out on a great amount of the world’s diversity when we emphasize the importance of only the English language. By the way, this is a great post by Robert, as usual, and the links are much appreciated. Thanks so much. Cheers.

  3. I read the article you recommend by Mamet. Although it is remarkably poorly written, it does communicate some interesting ideas about drama and writing for audiences.

    Ogilvy’s list is obviously written by a businessman and not a writer. Good writers do a number of the things he mandates, but several of his suggestions are ludicrous.

    Thanks for posting the list!

  4. If you think that an English-language website is the only way to go, take a look at this post. https://copyblogger.com/global-marketing/ There are some very interesting opportunities in other languages.

    We don’t have the cultural or language abilities to run Copyblogger Media in Hindi or Chinese, but that just means there’s an opportunity for a smart collection of folks to create a similar business in those markets. Suresh, maybe you should be marketing to folks closer to home and become an affiliate for our stuff. 🙂

    • Hai,

      From your words “businesses can be built on the web to serve customers everywhere” to achieve this goal, I think having a website in English is important. Without having a website in English-language we cant serve the customers globally even though we had number of cultural websites in Hindi, Chinese, Korean ,etc.

      Nowadays without English global marketing is very complicated.

      Thanks

  5. I’d like to add one. Chapter 1 – The Ten Rules of Effective Language from Dr. Frank Luntz’s “Words That Work.” Regardless of what you think of his politics, those 30+ pages are worth the price of the whole book. A must read for anyone who trades in words and communication.

This article's comments are closed.