Know Which Side Your Bread is Buttered On

Here's an exercise that will serve you well.

Take the classic ad below and change out "Avis" for your name or your company's name.

Where it refers to "rent a cars", change it to your primary product/service (copywriting, marketing, content writing, advertising, whatever).

Customize the rest of the copy to your business (e.g., "lively, super-torque Ford" to "engaging website copy").

In other words, steal this brilliant ad and change it to fit your business.

Don't publish it. Print it out and tape it to your wall.

Read it before, during, and after client calls.

And do the level of work that makes your client need you.

To make the exercise easier, copy and paste:

Avis needs you.
You don't need Avis.
Avis never forgets this.
 
"We're still a little hungry.
 
We're only No. 2 in rent a cars.
 
Customers aren't a dime a dozen to us.
 
Sometimes, when business is too good, they get the short end and aren't treated like customers anymore.
 
Wouldn't you like the novel experience of walking up to a counter and not feel you're bothering somebody?
 
Try it.
 
Come to the Avis counter and rent a new, lively super-torque Ford. Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So we have to try harder to make our customers feel like customers.
 
Our counters all have two sides.
And we know which side our bread is buttered on.