We just got a make-your-day kind of email from a distinguished man of marketing named Arik Abel, Head of Digital Services at an Agency called French, West, Vaughn in NC. Arik who does a lot of PR work along with everything else, decided to create a Micro-Script “quick start” guide to put up on the wall in his office, so folks could reference the keys to Micro-Scripting in a marketing communications emergency–just like they post on the backroom wall at restaurants for how to perform CPR. He called it the Micro-Script Cheat-Sheet. You can download the actual one at Arik’s blog. or see below. It’s a super distillation of “carry-on” wisdom to remember when you need it. I’m going to print it out and put it on my wall. Just like an airline pilot who looks at the same checklist every time he lands, great communicators need to remind themselves–talk to themselves even–to heed the great fundamentals every day, every time they communicate. A boat captain says to himself silently, every time he enters the ship channel, “Red Right Returning.” A little mantra, a little script that aligns everything in one action. Communicators must remember mantras like “Specific is terrific” and “Find the Headline in the Copy” and the “Simple Message Wins” and think of the basic constructions that make sound bites into “Story Bites–” Micro-Scripts that is. Thanks Arik.
Here’s the link to Cheat-Sheet .pdf. Bill