Role: the title and/or behaviours and actions associated with or expected of someone. It also applies to the playing of a character in acting.
In the role of friend, I have to tell you that there is a problem.
Roll:to move along or around in a circular or cyclical way
They used to roll jaffas down the aisle in wooden theatres.
The students’ knowledge grew as the weeks rolled by.
Retch: the act of vomiting, or trying to
Just the smell of the rancid meat made them all retch into the bushes.
Wretch: someone you pity for their miserable state OR someone you despise and consider lowly and/or despicable
He threw some coins to the poor wretch beside the pier.
Then the rotten wretch set the house on fire with me in it!
This definitely is not a pair of words to get wrong – imagine implying someone you pity induces vomiting! The way to remember which is which is to use w for who – who is the wretch? The verb retch is not a person and doesn’t have a w!
When marketing, it is important to point out how your business (or product or service) is superior or different to others – in other words, why should people come to you?
This difference is often known as a unique selling point (USP) or a point of difference, and there are many ways to make use of it.
However, it is also important to show you are different by avoiding being the same. What do I mean by that? Well, if everyone in your industry talks about their compact products, don’t use the word compact – try space saving, small, minimalist or mini for instance.
Additionally, it’s not a good idea to use over-used words such as quality, value, fast and safe (see what Drew McLellan and others say on this in Drew’s recent blog post – he gives some good alternatives and the discussion is interesting.)
In writing as in business, being original and providing interesting content is likely to make more of an impact than being the same as everyone else. And making an impact may be just what you need to get customers to you rather than your competitors.
But when you are stating those great differences and reasons to use you, remember to be honest and only state real advantages rather than making up something your customers want to read.
Reign: period of leadership and power, especially for royalty.
During the reign of Henry VII, people mostly travelled on foot.
Rein: a tie to maintain control over another being
The horse rider kept tight hold of the rein in each hand.
Rain: water falling from clouds in the sky – a form of precipitation
The farmers are hoping for a lot of rain this month.
A few days ago, I was reminded of the importance of tracking advertising through a story a friend told me.
The story: a company spent $60,000 or so on an advertising campaign, but didn’t implement any means of tracking the results of the ad. Meaning they have spent $60,000 and have no idea if it raised their brand awareness or brought in customers and revenue (I’m not sure which was the aim of their campaign.) So when the radio stations come back and ask if the company wants to repeat the ad, who knows if they should say yes or no…
The moral: tracking advertising is important for a number of reasons:
Even if your budget is nowhere near $60,000, tracking of advertising is a worthwhile exercise.
Don’t assume that free ads aren’t worth tracking, either. Why?
Have you used tracking with your advertising? Did you find it a useful activity, even if tedious and time consuming?
P.S. You can read more about the basics of tracking your advertising or assessing the results of tracking in my articles.
I spoke at a workshop this morning on goal setting – we worked on SMARTY Goals, business values and setting challenges.
As part of setting goals and milestones, it is important to notice the work you have done and the progress made even if you haven’t fully reached the original goal (as Melissa, wrote in her blog, aim for the moon as you’ll at least reach the stars.) Having small rewards for yourself is one way to acknowledge what you have done, which makes it easier for you to move on and do the next step, and the next, and the next…
Rewards can be anything that you gain pleasure from (booking a massage, eating a doughnut, taking time to read a book, buying a book or magazine, seeing a movie, taking your family on a picnic, sitting in a spa, and so on.) You can keep the reward to yourself, too, so don’t worry about what anyone else would think of the reward.
My guidelines for rewards are:
And don’t be afraid to share your achievements with others, either. Even small achievements can be shared and acknowledged by friends, people you network with or a coach.
How often do you reward reaching a goal? Do you give yourself acknowledgement of work you’ve done and how far you’ve come, even if it wasn’t actually a goal?
Sometimes, I really wonder how people learn English as a second language – it can be so tricky! For instance, the letters s and c can sound exactly the same but using the wrong one can totally change the meaning of a word, such as in recent and resent.
Recent: of a similar time to the present – not long ago or far into the future.
The recent rains have helped our water supply.
Resent: to send something again.
I resent the email after he said he hadn’t received it the first time.
If English isn’t your first language, do you find learning such words difficult?
Today’s meanings are not words that sound alike (well, except for starting with rav!) but can be easily confused…
Ravaging: causing destruction, destroying something
The Vikings are known for ravaging many towns and villages.
Ravishing: taking by force; raping. It is more commonly used to mean ‘of great beauty and delight’ which derives from women of great beauty ‘raping’ men of their senses with their beauty!
Ravishing rich women was one of the old pirate’s delights.
Ravenous: very hungry {as hungry as a beast came from the devouring aspect of ravish.}
They were ravenous after their long hike.
The Victoria Police have a sign that is used by some shops that amuses me. It aims to reduce shoplifting and finishes “why risk getting court?” Obviously, it is a play on words and catches attention, which is what I like about it.
In case you are struggling with why this amuses me, here are the definitions of the words court and caught.
caught: the past tense of to catch
She caught the ball and won the game.
court:an institution that applies law and justice for society; a defined area, usually with markings, for the playing of a specific game.
Judges, lawyers and jurors come together in court.
A tennis net is strung across the court.
The legal system is there for us, as as games – you could say they are ours. So the word our is in our court…
I recently read a post by Melissa about being sick and running your business and it made me smile. I think I can safely say I went beyond the call of duty for one of my clients last month, on the day Melissa wrote that post…
I spent the morning in hospital in false labour and the afternoon doing errands. By late afternoon, I was in full labour with painful contractions and received a request for an urgent client newsletter mailing. So I spent the early evening preparing and sending out an email in between major contractions – and then went back to hospital for my son’s birth!
Aside from my dedication to client’s :), managing business during personal health issues is a serious topic for business owners. Do you struggle on and hope you’ll get better but risk making yourself worse? Do you tell clients you’re sick and delay their work? Do you get help from somewhere?
As professionals, we want to fulfill promises to clients and deliver on time and to a suitable standard. As people, we need time to recover from illness and time to rest and care for ourselves. It is when these needs clash that we struggle.
The ideal is to prepare for such issues, rather than find ourselves unable to deal with it (imagine being so sick you can’t even warn clients things are running behind…) What ways have you prepared your business for your unplanned (or planned) absences?
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