Deciding to combine blog posts and an email campaign is a great idea. But most business think all they need to do is write a post and send an email. There is more that goes into a campaign than just those two steps. The most important component is having a plan and recognizing your goal.

Setting Your Goal

Understanding what you want to get out of a blog post/email campaign will help you achieve it. Do you want to sell a certain product? Get more Facebook fans? Get more readers to your blog post? Whatever it is, make sure you understand it and always have it in the back of your mind.

Create a Plan

Because you don’t want to inundate your readers’ email boxes daily or most likely even weekly, get out a calendar and pick a few days throughout the year that will have a blog post and a corresponding email campaign. You may want to choose holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day if it corresponds with your goal, or it may just be every 3rd Thursday. I usually suggest around 8-10 emails a year, plus a few other tricks to stay on the forefront of people’s minds. [...] Continue Reading…

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I’m trying an experiment this week. I am going to try to keep both posts under 200 words and still get my point across. I want to see if shorter blog posts can still be effective. I think shorter posts will get read more because they can hold people’s attention span. Let me know what you think of short vs. long in the comments. And now here we go (these words don’t count toward the 200☺):

Blogging takes time, effort, and money (if you pay a freelancer). They’re fantastic on a website because they show visitors you’re current, you follow through on commitments, and blog posts help position you as an expert if you write about topics you know inside and out.

If you’re taking the time to write the posts, why not leverage them even further? I have three places every blog post you write should be disseminated to.

1. Facebook

Get a Facebook fan page and put those blog posts on them. Even if you have no followers yet, get in the habit of posting and then start working on building followers. Tip #1 on how to get followers? Put a link to your Facebook page on your website.

2. Twitter

Ditto on the followers. This is a great way to hit people who might not be potential customers but find your blog useful, which gives you more credibility. [...] Continue Reading…

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I realize this headline might come off as a bit controversial. There is so much that goes into branding, how can copywriting be the key to success? I’ll tell you why. Without a message, you have no brand at all. If you aren’t able to write down your message and define it, then you aren’t able to get across who your company is and what you offer.

When most businesses brand, they focus on the logo, color scheme, and tagline. I argue that a well-crafted brand is all of the above plus a website and the marketing materials that go along with it, which is where the copywrting comes into play.

A great copywriter should be able to sit down with you and ask a few simple questions about your business, take those answers and craft your message. From there, you will understand your business’s characteristics.

When I am helping to define a company’s branding message for a website or marketing materials, I ask seven important questions. I’ll share my favorite two with you: [...] Continue Reading…

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Case studies are in high demand. With ROI being the important acronym on the market today, a case study is a sales tool that companies cannot be without.

Simply defined a case study is: “a detailed account of a company, industry, person, or project over a given amount of time. The content within a case study may include information about company objectives, strategies, challenges, results, recommendations, and more.”

Case Study Formats

I write case studies two different ways. The first is in as an article and follows this format:

1. A problem is identified. The customer looks for a solution.

2. The customer finds a new product that might help solve his problem that is offered by a company. The customer tries this product.

3. Wonderful news! The product worked and the customer is thrilled because his problem is solved. He tells everyone how wonderful this product is.

It’s a success story written in an article format, trying to pull out some of the human elements. It’s a feel good story and is usually around a page or two in length and has a design to give it a corporate feel.

The second way to write case studies is in short form. Instead of writing a story, I identify three facts:

1. The problem

2. The solution

3. The results
[...] Continue Reading…

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Hiring a professional copywriter means you will have more time and energy, and you’ll make more money. Not a bad deal, is it?

Most people don’t realize how important strong writing is as it relates to their business. Nor do they understand how a copywriter makes the difficult job of selling a product or service easier. Or how using a copywriter frees up time and energy for other aspects of business. In case you are one of those people, I am going to use this post to explain why hiring a copywriter could be the best decision you ever made. I will go so far to even suggest it can be the difference between success and failure.

What Does A Copywriter Do?

Quite simply, we write copy. This can be for a website, brochure, blog post, or a promotional material you’ve never even thought of. Thanks to the Internet and social media, there is a bigger demand for quality writing than ever before. Additionally, copywriters are experiencing greater freedom making them (and me) even more effective. Hiring a copywriter can take an ad campaign or website from plain to successful.

The reason we are able to achieve so much just with words is because we understand them and know how to use them to our advantage. Every word that goes into a project is given careful consideration. Creating that all important hook in a promotional piece or writing the tone of a website is both a skill and an art form that copywriters excel at. In my own process, I experiment with the important words, the ones that do the selling, to see what word best fits with what I am trying to accomplish. My goal is always to drive traffic to my clients’ businesses.

What Are The Perks Of Hiring A Freelance Copywriter?

Many businesses chose to hire a freelance copywriter rather than have one in-house. The reason? Most freelance copywriters, myself included, are used to working with short deadlines (sometimes only a few hours) and stressful situations, while still being able to deliver effective and hopefully brilliant copy.

Additionally, what may take the non-professional writer four hours to complete, I can have done in around one hour, most likely with better results. In the business world time is money, and paying a copywriter opens up many hours to accomplish tasks other than writing brochure copy or proofreading a press release.

What Can I Expect From A Freelance Copywriter?

There are two answers to this question. The first is you can and should expect to receive copy that engages current and potential customers, sells your products or services and positions you as a professional.
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