“No writer that we work with has the ability to capture the essence of our message like Randy.
He has the unique ability
to understand both the strategies behind our communications as
well as our more direct response needs.”
Juan Nodarse
The Marketing Advantage
—Joseph Addison
“Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.”
—Leo Burnett
Welcome to Trumpet Call
I’m Randy Heuston, a free-lance writer, editor, producer and consultant with 40-plus years of professional experience. My wife and I have two happily married daughters and three grandchildren. Five years ago she and I moved to Atlanta (actually Kennesaw, just up the pike) after spending most of our lives in Iowa. So, here we are, loving it in Hotlanta, yet oozing family values and Midwestern work ethic.
Why the company name Trumpet Call? Well, I’m a big jazz fan—especially of classic bop/fusion trumpeters like Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Roy Hargrove and Atlanta’s own Russell Gunn—and I play a little trumpet myself. More to the point, the often-quoted line about the trumpet sounding a distinct call fits how I approach marketing and communications. Find the right notes, play them the right way, make the melody clear, move the listener to act.
The plural “we” is used in the headers on this Website because many projects are collaborative. I work with graphic designers, photographers, videographers, Web programmers and printers to produce a wide variety of high-end marketing and communications materials. My personal education and expertise, however, is in writing, so that’s the main thing discussed on this site.
How Trumpet Call Serves You
When you glance over the adjacent resume, you may be struck by the diversity over so long a time. Communications is the common thread, but it’s been woven through a fabric of varied settings, an abundant array of topics and every possible communication vehicle.
As a client this means you’re working with someone who has broad perspective—as an interviewer, reporter, researcher, teacher, producer, editor and writer—on people, business, health, government, social issues, entertainment and other aspects of life. Please check out the samples on this Web site and see for yourself. You can be confident you’re working with a real professional who has something perhaps only rich experience can bring—good judgment.
That’s why I charge more than most.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “The years teach much which the days never know." The Talmud notes: "For the unlearned, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the season of the harvest." With each new writing challenge, I treasure this “season of the harvest.”
One is also reminded of Mark Twain: “You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.” Imagination in non-fiction writing involves looking at the ordinary and finding creative ways to make reading about it extraordinary. Still, good writing must stay on point. Marketing communications, while often fun, is not a place to wander off into flights of fancy.
One of the joys of writing is knowing how to focus one’s imagination simultaneously on both the topic and the audience. After one has written literally thousands of newspaper headlines and scores of ads, blogs, radio spots, feature stories, speeches, business and motivational videos, billboards, Web content, white papers, brochures, you know that, if the focus isn’t sharp, nobody reads, and, of course, nothing sells.
Broad perspective, good judgment, imagination and sharp focus—these are the tools to tell your story and sell your product. Accept no substitute.
Good Writing in the Digital Age
We’re told again and again: “In this day and age, you must be brief. Sound bites only. People just want information, not a lot of words.” True, but there is more to the story.
The epitome of brevity is Twitter, and the challenge for those doing business via Twitter is selling a product or service in 140 characters or less. And herein lies an irony. With those tight constraints, and everybody and their brother’s dog tweeting and text messaging, it turns out that the commercial need for professionals who can convey a message in a few well chosen words is greater than ever. Those of us who learned the craft of headline writing as journalists and ad copy writers are suddenly in high demand. Many companies are hiring “ghost bloggers,” and there’s a dramatic increase in “ghost tweeters.” Choosing the right words—it’s a time-honored craft, and many of us would like to think it will ever be appreciated, the tsunami of bad writing washing over the Worldwide Web notwithstanding.
There’s another irony in this claim that “all they want is the facts, ma’am.” What drives Facebook and Linked-in and Twitter turns out to be not just information but knowledge of people. These venues are about relationships, not just facts. One ghost blog writer advises CEOs to tell their customers not only about the company and the products but also personal things about themselves and their families. It seems marketing these days has one cardinal requirement: trust. Unless people know who they’re doing business with, they aren’t inclined to do business. For decades a rule of thumb in journalism was, “People read about people, not about events.” Looks like that’s still true.
The Trumpet Call Website
Which brings us to this Web site. It’s intended to demonstrate what Trumpet Call can do for you, but it’s more than that. The samples shared here—several from books and magazines admittedly lengthy for Internet reading—are preceded by a note about what I was trying to accomplish. In what’s written and why it was done that way you get to know how a writer thinks. Also, this site’s writer’s blog, which is both a general commentary and a vehicle to connect to other writers, is intended to convey a sense of how seriously professional writers take our craft. It’s a craft you need to employ if you want to succeed, whether you’re marketing electronically or in print. Don’t leave it to amateurs.
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