Before I start back with a truly informational blog post, I wanted to catch you up on what you’ve missed.

Websites, websites and more websites:

I’ve been busy writing websites for a variety of clients including two law firms, one court reporting firm, one cerebral palsy FAQ site, and a professional organizer. I truly love writing websites, and can’t wait to share them. Only one of the websites is up and running, but please take a look:

www.garlovskylaw.com

I wrote the content for the site along with the blog posts.

Blogs, blogs and more blogs:

In between writing websites for various companies, I’ve also been maintaining blog posts for many clients including lawyers, a moving company, a laundry bag manufacturer, and more. If you’re interested in how to have a green move, or how to create the perfect laundry room, take a look:

www.sortasack.com/blog

www.manchestermoving/com/blog

www.divorcelawyerschicago.org/

www.focusonaging.com/blog

www.garlovskylaw.com/blog

I also have been busy creating content for social media campaigns for a majority of these blogs.

And that’s just my blogging and website work! As I said, it’s been a busy couple of months. But I’m back to blogging and can’t wait to share some ideas on how to use content and copy to really skyrocket your marketing and your business.

Summer and fall have really brought on an explosion of clients, and I’m loving every minute of it. I also have another top secret exciting blog project in the works that I can’t wait to share when it’s ready, hopefully just another week or two.

What have you been up to? Is fall bringing as many fun projects for you as it has for me?

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I hate this question.

It’s not because I’m not proud of being a Chicago freelance writer. I used to dream of the day when I could answer the question with one simple phrase, “I’m a writer.”

Truthfully, I never thought I’d actually be able to say that and have it be true.

Why?

Because I had the exact same misconception that many people seem to have about professional writers.

I can anticipate the questions flying through their head.

How do I make any money? Why am I talking to them, don’t I have absolutely no social skills at all? Do I write fiction or poetry?

Here are four common misperceptions about writers decoded and explained:

1. We’re all broke

I used to think this too. There was no way to make a good living while being a writer unless you wrote fabulous fiction like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling.

Turns out, I make almost twice as much writing as I used to make at my old job working for a publishing company. It took me awhile to get here, but now that I am here, I’m a happy camper.

I think the reason most people assume writers are broke is because very few appropriately price the service they provide. I used to be one of them, charging pennies for hours of my time. I thought that even though I was a professional writer who had mastered my craft, what I was doing still wasn’t worthy of real money.

That’s until a fellow freelancer sat me down and set me straight. She asked me how much money a company would make if they had great sales copy that really sold their product rather than blasé copy an amateur had written just to get a website finished. The answer is a lot more money.

If my copy gets a product sold, or a service provider hired, then I’m worth way more than my hourly rate.

2. We’re all socially awkward

This is the biggest fallacy of them all, at least as it pertains to freelance writers. I can’t speak for poets or fiction writers.

I try to split my time 50/50 — 50 percent actually writing, and 50 percent networking to find my next clients.

I have to be more social in this position than I ever had to be while working in an office. I have to sell myself and my services on a daily basis. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of the job, because truthfully it can get lonely sitting at home writing all day. I crave the social interaction. And, just for the record, I never, ever, ever work in my pajamas.

3. We all write fiction

I used to think that to be a “real” writer, you had to have a book of poetry published or a fiction book in the works.

That ain’t my bag.

I love writing sales copy. I love figuring out a new angle that will help get a product sold. I love telling a company’s story.

Web writing suits me. I can get a point across in 350 words or less using bullet points and tons of white space. It’s not every writer’s forte, but it just happens to be mine.

I’m never happier than when I have a blank new website just begging for copy that will bring it to life.

I’ve waxed poetic on the need for effective web content before, so I’ll spare you now, but let it be said that a website with poorly written content is an anti-sales tool.

4. We have no business sense

It’s true I’m not great with numbers. If I was, I’d be a fancy investment banker on Wall Street and wear power suits. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to run a business.

Being a writer doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to invoice, or price appropriately, or determine overhead costs.

When it comes to making my business profitable and successful, being a writer only helps me as I know how to convey my message and get myself hired.

What are your misperceptions about writers? Do you assume we all sit in coffee shops wearing berets and toiling over our latest short story? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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But then we get into the sticky questions. What is your purpose? What do you want to accomplish? What is your grandmother’s maiden name? You may not know the answers to these questions.

While many businesses take the time to make sure their website is visually beautiful, selecting colors that compliment each other and provide a sense of calm, they may not take the time to answer the two following questions:

What is your mission?

What are the benefits of working with you vs. a competitor?

Some people put motivational quotes on their desk. I would argue that every single company, whether you are 1 person or 100,000 people, should answer these questions, write the answers down, and post it on every desk in the building.

Knowing the answers to these questions is a powerful tool. Let me give you an example.

Here are my answers. Now, I’m only one person so I don’t need to have conference calls and call in the national guard to get people to agree, but knowing this information helps me make informed and appropriate business decisions every single day.

What is my mission?

To provide the best quality writing for websites, blogs, and marketing materials as possible. To make certain that every piece of writing I deliver to a client is perfect in every way. To be the best at what I do.

What are the benefits of working with me vs. a competitor?

I provide MORE than just quality writing. I provide the full customer service experience. I am available to speak to all my clients whenever they need help. I never, ever nickel and dime clients. I help in anyway I can, even if that goes beyond what I’m hired to do.

I know these answers to my business, and I think about them every time I have a business decision to make. A client needs to talk asap, can I make time for them? Of course, it’s part of what makes me unique. A client wants me to write an article about something I’m not comfortable with. Will I do it? No, not unless I think I can do the absolute best job possible. If it’s not for me, I know other freelancers who can take over.

These decisions are informed by what I know I want my business to be.

For your business, if you know the answers to these questions, you can also get your business to where you want it to be. Sticking to your guns on these two simple ideas will inform all your decisions, and I would bet very good money, make you a better business for it.

Sit down as a team and agree on these answers. Take a full day and refresh your mission and your uniqueness. I promise you will not regret it.

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Become A Source of Information

One way to position yourself as an expert is to be a go-to source of information for your field. Every week search out interesting articles, blog posts, and videos that are current and useful.

Take those articles and write extremely short blurbs giving an introduction to the article, and explaining why you, as an expert in your field, found it to be interesting and worth a read. Link to the article.

And that’s it. If potential clients know that instead of searching out their own information, they can come to your site, they are more likely to stop by. Plus, if you find truly great content to share, they will start to associate you with that greatness.

Find the Quality Content

The next question is obvious. Isn’t it hard to find great quality content? The answer is no. I’ll explain how.

Go to www.google.com/alerts. Put in what you think are a few keywords on your subject. If you’re a pet store and want to be known as an expert on how to keep pets healthy, some phrases to use may be: canine health, pet health, dog health, how to keep pets healthy, and so on.

Sign up to receive the alerts every day, and one day a week go through them, finding the best articles and writing up your blog post. Easy as pie.

You’ll still want to write posts on certain topics that you want to be an expert in. For example, today I’m writing a post on how to write blog posts, but perhaps next week my post will simple be a round-up of other posts on the same topic. It’s an easy way to get out quality content that paints you and your company as an expert.

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via I Love Typography

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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.

Execute Your Plan

There are a few elements that you need to make sure to include in order to have the most effective campaign possible.

- Every blog post and email has to have an extremely strong headline

- Every blog post and email has to have a call to action

- Set up landing pages for those who click through to “land” on that makes it incredibly easy to achieve your goal.       For example, if your goal is to get more Facebook followers, your landing page will be a link directly to your Facebook fan page.

Pay Attention

Just because an email goes out doesn’t mean your work is done. Make sure you are monitoring your open rate, click rate, and purchases. If they seem weaker than you wanted, next time try tweaking the headline or having a super simple landing page.

Take the time to set up a blog and email campaign and you will see your sales and website numbers go way up.

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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? Here are three places every blog post should be disseminated to.

1. Facebook

Create a Facebook fan page and put those blog posts on them. Even if you don’t have any followers, 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.

3. LinkedIn

There is a WordPress plugin on LinkedIn. Add it to your profile and let everyone who views you see your blog. It will impress them.

My top three ways for making every blog post count. What do you have to add?

*196 words. What’d you think? Not in depth enough or refreshingly short?

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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:

1. What sets you apart?

2. Who is your ideal customer?

Many businesses are surprised they don’t know the answers off the top of their heads. They seem like such simple questions, but often it can be like trying to define a word that you know what it means but can’t figure out how to describe it to others. You might know the definition, but if nobody else does, what good does that do you?

How to Use Copywriting to Develop a Business Brand

When a copywriter is asked to write copy to help build a brand, here are some of the materials this may include:

1. A clear and concise few sentences or paragraph

2. Tagline or slogan

3. Product description

4. Website

5. Brochure

6. Company profiles

7. Many, many, many more

In all of the copy, the brand’s message needs to be reinforced again and again. For example, if after answering the questions and defining the message, it turns out the core concept of your doggy grooming business is offering incredible customer service and only organic products, this needs to be said again and again in the copy. Every part of the copy needs to address customer service and organic. From the CEO’s profile to the tag line that goes on the business cards.

Creating great brand identity is not just in the design, but the really important parts lie in the words that accompany the design.

Do you agree or disagree with my assertion that copy is more important than design? I’d love to know your thoughts.

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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

These are usually only 200 words and are much more focused. They don’t go into a ton of detail, but instead work to really showcase the results.

How To Use A Case Study

If a business invests in having a case study written, there are several highly effective ways to put that case study to use to get more clients and make more money. I’m going to share a few with you below:

1. Feature the case study on your website

By having the case study on your website, any prospects who come across it will have instant proof that you have had success before and aren’t afraid to share the results. In fact, you want people to know how great your company is.

2. Provide to sales people

A case study can be used as a sales tool. Anyone going into a sales meeting armed with solid proof that the company they work for had such a happy customer, they were willing to be interviewed for a case study has a pot of gold with them. It adds credibility to the company and the meeting.

3. Turn the case study into a press release

Use the case study to generate publicity. Try getting your name in the media for your amazing results.

4. Mail it to prospects and customers

Not only is this a great way to keep in touch, but it gets you in front of potential customers again. Reminding people you exist is half the battle of gaining new clients.

5. Give it away for free

Use the case study as an added incentive. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll give you a case study that shows how our product truly helped another company and how we can help you do the same.

In the end, a case study is basically a giant testimonial from a really happy customer. Every company should be using these as a way to sell their services or products. It’s like the best Yelp review ever.

Do you have any questions about case studies? I’d be happy to answer them and show you how a case study could help make you money.

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Most businesses don’t realize the importance of strong writing. 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 the 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 will ever make. 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. Copy for a website, brochure, blog post, or 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 choose 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.

The second answer is less about the copy and more about your business. You can and should expect to spend less time writing, editing, proofreading, and researching marketing materials for your company. That is now the job of a copywriter.

You can also expect to make more money. Good copywriting will drive sales by explaining to potential customers why they need you, and getting at their deepest emotions.

Why Can’t I Just Write Materials Myself?

Paying someone to write may seem like an unneeded expense when you know how to write perfectly well. In addition to making more money and having more time, which I’ve already covered, there is a third reason why hiring a professional copywriter is worth the investment. You’re too close to your business.

Having an objective opinion can help you see your business in different ways. A copywriter can come in and really see what is working and not working in your business, take that information, and craft marketing materials that contain effective messaging.

Are You Sure The Expense Is Justified?

Think about all the expenses of your business. What do they accomplish in the end? Is it clear and effective communication with your current and potential customers? If not, what can be more important than that?

Hiring a professional copywriter is a business decision that will change almost every aspect of your business for the better.

The only question left to ask is how can you not afford to hire a copywriter?

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