Articles by Ashley Leone
Blog Archive
Why Marketers Should Stress Over Addressing Recipients of Their Offers
Not too long ago, I talked about how to address formal mail properly for the 21st century. At the end of the post, I attempted to soften the hundreds of words of etiquette by saying that even if you don’t get it totally right, it’s the effort and thought that counts.
15 Ways to Make the Most of Stay-at-Home Orders
Stay-at-home orders are in place in Minnesota and Pennsylvania—where our production facilities are located and the majority of employees reside. IWCO Direct provides essential services according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and has been allowed to remain open; however, the stay-at-home orders make nights and weekends at home a bit bleaker looking. But […]
Communicating During the COVID-19 Outbreak
If you haven’t been sending out messages related to your COVID-19 response to employees, customers, prospects, and others, you need to start now. Consistent communications regarding how your business is dealing with this public health issue serve a broad range of purposes.
Tips for Addressing Holiday Cards in the 21st Century
Is it “The Jones’” or “The Joneses”? How do you refer to families with multiple last names? What about married couples? Live-in family? A lot has changed about how you should address your holiday cards. We’re here to help …
Five Gruesome Grammar Rules You Can Bury
Horror! Terror! Grammar! Halloween is supposed to be spooky, but you don’t need to be filled with fright at the thought of mastering grammar. In fact, some of the more terrifying grammar rules you were told around campfires as a kid (…No? Just me?) aren’t even real. Here’s a list of five grammar rules that have been slaughtered, slain, or were never really there in the first place [...]
Avoid Another Mea Culpa with These Tips for Using Common Latin Phrases
Latin is a dead language. Or dead-ish. Detective Amy Santiago states in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that “it’s just taking a long nap,” which in a way, seems more accurate. There are many reasons people continue to study Latin, despite the fact that no one really speaks it [...]
Hey! Stop Using So Many Exclamation Points in Your Marketing Copy!
Hey! Exclamation points are used in marketing copy writing a lot! Some might say too much! I agree! Cringeworthy, isn’t it? If readers can tell that too many exclamation points creates poor writing, why don’t we recognize it as writers? Probably because exclamation points can be effective [...]
Who Cares About the Oxford Comma? We Do!
It’s the little things in life that bring real joy. A cool drink on a hot day, a favorite song on the radio, a well-placed Oxford comma. Ah, yes, the Oxford comma: grammar’s hot-button issue (you may be shocked to hear that grammatists have tempers, but oh boy—the Oxford comma gets us going) [...]
Xennials Explained: When is a Millennial Not a Millennial?
The problems millennials have created have been a point of conversation more than once around the Saturday coffee table (a time-honored Leone tradition). My two oldest siblings are staunch believers that millennials ruin just about everything (though, they add, it’s not always their fault). When I point out they are millennials—Pew Research lists millennials […]
3 Times You Can Break the Grammar Rules in Your Marketing Copy
Grammar is nit-picky and tricky, and it’s constantly evolving with our culture and turning hard-and-fast rules into bendable guidelines. Yes, there are still rules, but they can be a bit obscure or not entirely enforced in colloquial speaking, so we can run into situations in which following proper grammar rules makes writing sound overly formal […]
