5 Tips for Strong Writing
Flabby prose. Flat, uninteresting sentences. Trite, cliché-ridden advertising and marketing copy. We've all seen it. Heck, maybe we've even written it. I'm here to help you turn that fat-ridden body of words into a lean, mean, athletic machine. I'm here to help you turn flabby, 90-pound weakling words into buff Charles Atlas-fit writing fit for kings. These 5 tips will help you write well whether you are writing for print or web, school or work, fiction or nonfiction, but they are aimed at people writing business documents.
Five Tips for Strong Writing
- Write from the verbs: Verbs provide action. The stronger the verb, the more interesting the writing. A strong action verb immediately sets your prose apart because 90% of people writing blog posts, web copy and marketing copy do not know this trick. The passive voice prevails among academic papers, technology companies, and websites where a 'scholarly' tone is desired. Yet you can write in an active voice even when creating serious, scholarly works.
- Use for strong verbs: A corollary to writing from active verbs dictates writing from strong verbs. Strong verbs describe, inspire, and connect readers to an immediate mental picture. If you use strong verbs, you are less likely to reach for adverbs or adjectives to enhance the reader's mental picture because they already have a clear image in mind of what is happening.
- Shorten your sentences: I'm guilty of this, and it is something I have to work on, especially in my business writing. I love writing lengthy, complex sentences. Blame my earlier training in linguistics and literature, especially Victorian literature. I can string together independent and dependent clauses to rival the most purple-prose riddled Victorian text, but it's ineffective in business writing. Shorten, tighten, and shorten again when writing business copy.
- Start with your conclusion: Business writing begins with the end in mind. State the conclusion first, then back into it with supporting details. In school, triangles were used to help us imagine the structure of a paragraph; an upside-down triangle adequately represents strong business writing. Lead with the conclusion or desired action, then add your strongest supporting details and so on.
- Incorporate a personal tone: Too many business documents sound impersonal and robotic because somewhere, someone learned that to be 'personal' in a business document smacks of ineptitude. Nothing could be further from the truth. A warm, professional and personal tone lends voice and credence to your documents. By personal, I don't mean relating your weekend plans or your breakfast choices. I do mean using contractions, simple phrases, and personal touches to enliven your documents.
Lastly, here are a few rules of thumb for business writing:
- Spell check programs cannot catch everything. It offers suggestions, not hard and fast instructions, so proceed with caution.
- Search online for the correct spelling of proper nouns, especially newfangled brand names which love to mash together two words with random capitalization to make it jazzy.
- Avoid the Random Capitalization syndrome, or capitalizing words to make them appear important. It's distracting and annoying.
- Use a consistent style for writing out numbers and dates. It often doesn't matter which style you use, as long as you keep it consistent. I prefer to spell out numbers zero through nine, and then write numerals beyond 10, but that's a personal preference. AP Style and Chicago Manual of Style are two commonly used style guides that can help you through the nitty-gritty of stylistic choices.
If you'd prefer to hire a professional writer, editor, and word wrangler, let's talk. Until then, may these tips act like vitamins to boost your weak muscles into strong, bone-crunching prose.
(C) 2018 by Jeanne Grunert, The Marketing Writer | Seven Oaks Consulting. I offer writing, editing, and marketing consulting services.
This Shocking Discovery Will Amaze You! Clickbait Headlines
Fell for it, didn't you? If you clicked on the link because of the article's headline, you fell for something called clickbait.
Clickbait is a pejorative term used to describe misleading headlines. It's used throughout the internet, so you've probably seen it before. You see a headline about a favorite celebrity, or television show, or even an issue you care deeply about. The headline promises something emotional - something that makes you curious, intrigued, upset, angry. You can't help but click on the link. Once you get to the article, however, the content doesn't pay off the headline. That "shocking" information is nothing more than the usual drivel spit up and served on a silver platter. The "surprising" fact is nothing more than the facts about the issue. And so on....
Why Clickbait Headlines Work
It's a truisim in journalism and marketing writing that the headline is the most important aspect of any article, blog post or document. Most writing teachers and marketing writers will tell you to spend the majority of your time working on your headlines because that is what gets people to respond, click, and then read the content. In other words, if your headline doesn't work well, no one will read the terrific content you've created.
Clickbait headlines work on the psychological principle of dissonance. Our minds cannot stand to be uncomfortable, and the curiosity inspired by the headline creates a gap between what we know and what we desire. This gap makes us feel uncomfortable. We are compelled to click the link to read the text even when we 'know' in our logical minds that the information is just the usual drivel, or that we're on deadline for a project and shouldn't be spending time reading Yahoo! News (King of the Clickbait headlines) (and yes, I fall prey to them all the time) (and no, I won't be late with your project. I promise!)
[Tweet "This shocking discovery will AMAZE you! Why clickbait headlines work. #marketingwriting #writing"]
These headlines are actually crafty little critters. They're used because they work. John Caples, one of the most famous advertising writers of the 20th century, offered 35 headline formulas that are still used today by marketing writers and other copywriters to create the best headlines they can for blog posts, articles, website copy and marketing documents. Clickbait stands in its own category, but it's worth looking at Caples' headline writing formulas and comparing them to common clickbait techniques. There's some overlap, although Caples is probably spinning in his grave at the comparison.
What Marketers Can Learn from Clickbait Headlines
There are several lessons we can learn from the purveyors of clickbait headlines. First, we know that they work. They do draw in the clicks. They don't provide lasting values, and they don't engender loyalty, two important qualities that any serious business should consider as part of their overall content marketing strategy. But they do follow the AIDA formula - attention, interest, desire, action.
And that's what we as marketers and marketing writers must remember at all times: AIDA. Without getting attention and generating interest, no one's going to click on your article. Inspiring desire and motivating customers to take action with an engaging headline complete the split-second decision that occurs in readers' brains as they scan their newsfeeds. Clickbait headlines get the job done in seconds.
Will I use clickbait headlines? Aside from this blog post, where the headline was actually part of the story, the answer is no. I hate feeling cheated when I click on one of those zippy headlines and they promise me "shocking" photos or news and all I get is an article. Sure, I clicked, and sure, you got the page view. But in the end, you didn't get ME - you didn't earn my loyalty. I won't bookmark your site, and I won't follow it on social media. Perhaps more importantly, I won't go there again, because now that you've played a trick on me, I'm wise to your trick.
And I hate tricks.
If you want to gain clicks in an ethical way, the secret remains in writing great headlines. That takes enormous skill and practice, something which a good marketing writer has. I've been a marketing writer for 20+ years. That's the kind of writer you need working on your projects, not someone who can catch a reader-fish on the end of a headline-hook.
To write terrific headlines:
- Make it factual and true
- Go for emotion - pique curiosity
- Ask a question
- Make a crazy promise (that you can actually keep)
- Includes facts like numbers, names, specifics
- Keep it not too short, not too long
- Infuse it with keywords too!
It takes time and practice to actually write such headlines. If you'd like help with your marketing writing work, please contact me.
In the meantime...I hope this blog post shocked, inspired, surprised, amazed, and absolutely delighted you.
Marketing writer Jeanne Grunert knows a thing or two about headline writing, marketing copy, and freelance writing. She's been a full time freelance writer since 2007 when she quit her position as a marketing director for a big global company to return to her roots as a freelance writer. With a background in both marketing and writing, Jeanne brings a unique perspective to all of her writing projects. For more information, please visit her company website, Seven Oaks Consulting | Marketing Writer Jeanne Grunert.
Learning from Business Mistakes
"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes." - John Wooden
Now I don't know who John Wooden is, but I do know that I make mistakes - a lot of mistakes.
Last week, I had the dubious distinction of being the only person I know of to trip going UP the stairs. I was carrying a cup of coffee in my left hand and a piece of toast in my right and ascending the stairs to start work for the day. My dog, Shadow, raced up to my right just as my left moccasin slipped off my foot. I caught my foot on the stairwell, and pitched forward.
In a split second, I had to decide, "Do I save the coffee, the toast, or me?" Well, the coffee sloshed over, the toast landed butter-side down, and I did a nice forearm-face-butt plant that left impressive bruises on my now coffee-splattered personage.
My dog, of course, looked concerned, then snatched up the piece of toast with glee. So much for man, or woman's best friend.
I was thinking about that fall today. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone falls now and then. In business, we make lots of mistakes. We hire the wrong person. We invest time and energy into projects that fizzle out. We launch a new website only to realize that it's not responsive. We make a typo in the annual report, or print a sign that says CHRIS IS RISEN instead of, you know, the son of God, Christ. (I saw that one on Facebook and truly appreciated it as only a writer can appreciate such a magnificent typo.)
After a fall, what do you do? Do you pick yourself up and keep going? Do you nurse your wounds and bemoan your fate? Do you blame others?
When I told my husband later about my fall, he had a good laugh, then asked, "Did Shadow trip you?" I could easily have blamed the dog. Heck, I could even have blamed my moccasins. They are too loose, anyway. But neither caused my fall. I was trying to hurry to work. I was carrying too many things. I'd filled my coffee cup to the brim. It was that kind of a day. It all added up to a spectacular trip and fall that ruined a good piece of toast and necessitated an impromptu scrubbing of my wooden steps.
When mistakes happen, you can blame the dog, your shoe, or your slippery steps. Or you can simply laugh and say, "Yes, I tripped and made a mistake." Then you grab the paper towels and start mopping up the mess.
Good business people know that grabbing the paper towels, mopping up the mess, feeding the rest of the toast to the dog and giving yourself a refill on the coffee is what to do next. It's really no use blaming spilled coffee, loose shoes or slippery steps. Instead, take immediate action to claim and own your mistake...then fix it.
I think you can tell a lot about a person by the bruises they wear and the blame they affix on others. We can only progress in our careers and lives if we accept responsibility for things that are our fault. More importantly, when problems and mistakes happen, we have to be the strong shoulders to bear the load and fix the problem.
When mistakes happen, pick yourself up, accept responsibility, fix what you can, and move on. Most mistakes in business as in life are like a spilled cup of coffee or dog-eaten, butter-side-down fallen piece of toast.
Smart business people know that it's only a piece of toast, after all. There's a whole loaf of bread waiting in the kitchen.
How to Love Your Blog Again
Every relationship can grow stale at some point. That's why partners go into marriage encounter weekends, or why self-help books suggest dating your spouse as if you had just met for the first time.
For bloggers, the relationship between you and your blog can also grow stale. What was such an exciting adventure when you started it now seems ho-hum, or worse still, a daily chore you just want to get over, like brushing your teeth or making your bed.
Here's how to fall in love with you blog again.
Rekindle the Spark: Breathe New Life Into Old Blogs
Reinvigorate, rekindle and rejoice. Breathe new life into an old blog with these tips:
- Enter a blog challenge: Blog challenges can give you a reason to blog again. Blog challenges are online fun contests centered around a theme. "30 posts in 30 days" is one such theme, the A to Z blogging challenge is another. Each time you enter into a blog challenge, you're pitching your blogging talents against the contest rules. For me, entering one of my four blogs into the A to Z challenge helps get my creative juices flowing again.
- Enter a contest: Another fun thing to do is to enter your blog into a contest. You'll find awards competitions from magazines and websites as well as popularity awards given from one blogger to another like the Liebster Awards. It's all in good fun, and the added excitement can make you fall in love with your blog again.
- Start an idea file: Back in the days when I wrote for magazines, I kept a clips file or an ideas file. It was essentially news stories that sparked my interest. When I encountered stories like that, I'd clip them and keep them on file. Sometimes just going through my ideas file would spark new, fresh ways of looking at a topic. Then I'd go off and tackle my own research and have a new story at hand. You can use internet bookmarks to keep your own online clip file or use Pinterest to make a file for future inspiration. Just remember not to rewrite or reword an existing post from someone else. It's still considered plagiarism even if it's in your own words.
- Talk to your readers: By this I mean get out from behind your computer and actually mingle with the folks who read your blog. If you write about antique cars, go to a car show and listen to what people are talking about at the car show. If you're a recipe blogger, visit a cooking supply store or try a new restaurant. Get back to your roots and find the inspiration among your readers and target audience who inspired you to start your blog.
- Make an idea calendar: The creative well can run dry just when you least expect it. One way I get around this is to have an idea calendar for each blog. It's a printed blog planner (I like Sarah Avilla's planner at My Joy Filled Life. It's $4.95 but well worth it). I have posts noted for each week, so if there's a week when nothing immediately comes to mind to write about, I can flip through my binder and choose an idea. You can accomplish the same thing using a notebook. List the months of the year and ideas for posts that come to mind for those months. Maybe April is spring, Easter, new clothes, shopping, and September is back to school, new year, whatever. Having ideas at the ready can be a lifesaver when you feel like you just don't want to write anything more
Fall in love with your blog again. Find ways to rekindle that passion you once had for writing.
5 Surprising Reasons Why Blogs Fail
Do you know the reason why blogs fail? You might think it’s lack of interest, or maybe poor writing, but I’m here to share with you the 5 surprising reasons why blogs fail…and how you can turn that frown upside down and get your blog back on track.
5 Reasons Why Most Blogs Fail
One of the goals that I set for my website, Home Garden Joy, is to increase my site traffic and decrease my blog’s bounce rate this year. It’s not an easy goal. With WordPress reporting 74,652,825 blogs on their site alone, it’s tough to crack the blogosphere with zippy content.
I decided to join a link party or blog party this year to help boost traffic to my own blog. A blog party is an online event in which a group of bloggers bands together to share, promote, and help each other with their blogs. As part of the blog party, I visit at least 60 to 100 different blogs each week. That’s a lot of blogs!
Because I’m now reading so many blogs, in so many different categories than my own, I’ve gotten a really good sense about what makes a great blog, a good blog, and a boring blog. These 5 tips are derived from my own experiences reading 100+ blog posts a week.
Ready? Here’s why most blogs fail:
- What’s the point? Many bloggers have a hazy, unfocused blog that tries to cover everything under the sun. Today they’re writing about parenting issues, tomorrow about fashion, and on Friday, home decorating. That’s not to say that you can’t do this, but if you do decide to cover a multitude of topics, make sure you do in a fresh, fun way. Having your blog structured around particular posts on a certain day of the week, such as Foodie Friday or whatever can give it structure. Keep your blog focused around one major topic and similar related topics. Structure in blogs, as in art of music, is a key to a successful blog.
- Where do I look first? If you have 17 ads blinking and screaming at me, all boldface type, no discernible headlines, and giant blogs of text, I’m skipping your blog and heading elsewhere. Don’t try to cram your blog with every advertiser you can to make money. Focus on just a few or even none if you’re starting out. Purchase a good blog template if you’re not used to designing a blog. My site host, Web Design of Palm Beach, did an excellent job on the original layout of this website. I purchased the template for my blog, Home Garden Joy, on Etsy. Blogs can fail due to poor design. Hire a professional graphic designer to design your blog or purchase a license to a good stock template. Poor blog design turns readers away.
- Nothing new here. When was the last time you updated your blog? While you don’t want to be a slave to blog updates and send out several day, you also don’t want to let months rush by without at least one blog post. A good rule of thumb is to post 3-5 times per week if you want to grow your blog. Blogs can fail from lack of attention. Frequent updates signals your readers that you’ve got something to say. Don’t neglect your blog.
- Nobody cares about you: Unless your blog is about an experiment you’re doing or your life, and you’re doing something incredible, I have to say this straight out: nobody really cares about you. If all your posts are about what you want for your birthday, your last pedicure, or the coupons you found online, you’re going to bore your reader to death. Many blogs fail because they are written all about the writer and not about the audience reading the writing. Write with your reader in mind. What do your readers want to know? That’s what you should write.
- Be original: Even though I don’t want to know every detail of your pedicure, I do want you to be yourself. I’d rather read the writings of a truly original person than to read a poorly reproduced carbon copy of someone. Be yourself. You can’t be anyone else. If you love puppies and heavy metal music, let your readers know that. Just because Blogger A is famous and Blogger B seems to be making a lot of money doesn’t meant that A and B know what they’re doing. They may be lucky, they may have good sponsors, or they may just have hit on a hot topic. I know of one writer whose blog gets 30,000+ hits a month. Now, I could copy what she does…or I could continue to be an original and grow my blogs in my own voice, style and tone. She’s popular…but I’m not her. Blogs can fail when you try to copy someone else’s style or tone, even if they’re popular. Be yourself. You can’t be anybody else.
Building a successful blog takes time. I know that there are stories out there of people who have managed to build a smashing success in six months, a year, or two. Good for them! Congratulations! For more writers and bloggers, success takes time. It takes practice. It takes blogging, day or night, day in and day out, until finally you hit that sweet spot known as success, however you define success.
Don't Rely on Free Sites for Your Small Business Website
A small business website is absolutely essential today to acquire, retain and create loyal customers. Self- hosted websites, or sites that you pay to have hosted online, are the smartest, safest option for most businesses. Why?
Once upon a time, there lived a young couple who were eager to make a home for themselves. They were newlyweds, and with all the enthusiasm of newlyweds, they set out to find a house they could afford. But they couldn't find anything, not even a fixer-upper, that was within their price range.
A friend suggested they rent his aunt's home. His aunt was going into a nursing home and didn't want to sell her house, but was willing to rent it. "Don't worry," the friend said, "When auntie dies, I'll sell you the house at cost, at this very low price, so you will have it forever."
Now he was a good friend...a great friend...so the couple never got the agreement in writing. Friends don't bail out on promises, do they?
The house hadn't been updated since 1952. It needed new windows. It needed new doors and a new roof. The lawn was ugly and bare. The inside and out needed paint and new carpet. The couple set out with a will, doing the painting themselves, even installing new windows.
They did a lot of work on a home they were sure would be theirs someday.
Now you know what happened next, right? They were just renters. The old aunt died, and suddenly the nephew realized he had a valuable, newly painted and fixed up property...to sell. The asking price was way outside what the couple could afford. They complained, but too bad. Out they went, the house was sold, and they moved on to their next apartment.
The story I've just told you is true. It happened to a relative of mine. And it goes to prove the old adage: NEVER build on rented land. In other words, if you rent a property, don't invest in it! Whoever owns the land gets whatever improvements you've made on it. Period.
Now what does this have to do with a small business website?
The Importance of Owning Your Own Small Business Website
How many small business owners do you know who rely on "rented" property for their websites? I'm talking about the businesses who insist that their Facebook page is their web page, even going as far as printing the URL of their Facebook page on business cards and brochures in lieu of a web address.
Others build websites on free hosting platforms. They're doing the same thing--investing in rented land. They have no guarantee that the site host won't discontinue the platform.
[Tweet "The importance of owning your own small business website. Free sites are dangerous!"]
I went through that exact experience with ivillage. Do you remember ivillage? It's faded from memory, but back around 1999 it was the bee's knees. I had my email account with them and set up several free websites for hobbies and my freelance writing. Then they decided to discontinue their free web hosting and email service. Ooops. Gone. My stories, everything I'd published online vanished. I had to scrambled to copy it all down before the site was removed.
Ditto with Yahoo Geocities. Remember Geocities? A great source for free websites...until Yahoo decided to discontinue their free service. Then they moved to SiteBuilder, and I had my business site hosted with them for over a decade. THEN they decided to shut down their service on that software, too. They'd still offer hosting, but only with their templates or your files. They discontinued the easy to use software that let me run a great retail site.
Can you see a pattern here? As a small business owner, I absolutely need a strong, robust and well-optimized website. I have several sites now, two of which I host with Web Design of Palm Beach. (I highly recommend them, by the way. Great service, reliable hosting, fair prices, USA-based.) I now own my own land, so to speak, so the "house" I build on it in terms of my blog content and other content is mine.
Relying on a free web service, free blogging platform or worse, a social media website to host your online presence is like the couple in my story making repairs and improvements to a house they don't own. At any moment, the homeowner can snap his fingers and kick you out and take what you've invested. It's his right and your tough luck.
You do realize, of course, that a social media site or another platform can do the same with your business site? And then where would you be? You'd lose all that time and money invested in your site. You'll have to throw away the business cards, bumper stickers and t-shirts printed with your "website" address because it wasn't really a website at all.
Invest in yourself. Own what you build. Although at first it may seem like a strain on your wallet, in the long run, it's money well spent to build and own your own small business website.
If you're ready to build your own small business website, hire a professional marketing writer to craft engaging, search engine friendly text. Invest in professional writing services for a better return. Contact me, Jeanne Grunert, "the marketing writer", for great service and superior writing that gets results.
Long Form Content Ranks Better
A new report from QuickSprout underscores what many content marketers have known all along: longer copy ranks better with Google's search engines.
The report, available from the QuickSprout website, provides details on the company's study of page length, ranking and conversion. Among their findings:
- The average page length for content that ranks among the top 10 search results Google is at least 2,000 words.
- The better a site ranks, the more content it has.
- Overall, Google's search engine algorithm prefers content rich sites.
Why should longer content help with search engine rank? Longer content keeps people on your website for greater lengths of time than shorter content. If I can see at a glance what you're trying to say, I might click away quickly, resulting in low time on page and high bounce rates. But if your content requires me to focus on what you are saying, draws me into the page, provides insights or useful information, and keeps me reading, I'll stay on your site longer.
Longer website content also tends to get more inbound links. These inbound links are strong signals to Google's search engine algorithm that a web page has merit.
Lastly, social media users tend to favor longer content, even if they're not aware they're doing it. By studying sharing patterns on Facebook and Twitter, QuickSprout determined that a post with 1,500 words or more received 68 percent more tweets and 22 percent more Facebook likes than a post under 1,500 words.
Are You Ready for Long Form Content?
Long form content for content marketing programs takes skills and finesse. You can't just keep blabbing away and stuffing keywords and expect to get the same results as a thoughtful, in-depth and insightful long form article.
As a long form specialist, my freelance writing services include extensive research. I have a gift for finding excellent original research from well-regarded and reputable sources to support the theme of your article. My writing is also creative, engaging, and insightful, which will make your content highly shareable, too.
If you're interested in receiving an estimate on your long form content projects, please contact me.
Irony: This post is under 500 words.
But you now what? Sometimes you only need a few words to say what you want. Sometimes, short copy is appropriate. Know when to use long form or shorter copy in your content marketing programs is what I do best.
Content Marketing Case Study: The Whole Seed Catalog
This week's content marketing case study focuses on an excellent example of content marketing: The Whole Seed Catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
If you're a gardener, then you probably know about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This seed company, founded by Jere Gettle in 1998, sells heirloom, non-GMO, organic seeds. Sounds simple, right?
Their marketing, however, is anything but simple. The 2016 Whole Seed Catalog is like a symphony of excellent content marketing in one gorgeous, can't-stop-looking at it package.
Here's what this company's content marketing gets right:
- The catalog tells a story. From the first page, where the reader is introduced to Jere and his family and their life's mission to preserve historic seeds to the stories from the seed growers around the world, we're drawn into this amazing global community of gardeners. It made me want to run out and start gardening immediately even if it was only January.
- The pictures are gorgeous. The cover looks at first glance like gemstones stacked one on top of the other, but it's actually a close-up photograph of corn. CORN! Beautiful, gorgeous, multicolored Indian corn. Inside, each plant is featured in color photographs that also capture the people who raised the seeds.
- Throughout the entire seed catalog are sprinkled well-written, in-depth stories that support the Baker Creek story. These stories or articles explain what GMO seeds are and why the company believes they aren't good for the environment. Other stories share the history of various plant varieties or stories of the people who grow them.
- Each item's description includes all the relevant information you'd expect to find in a catalog, such as item number, price, growing season, cultural information, etc.
- The catalog's layout is clean and easy to read.
- The paper quality is excellent.
The catalog isn't free. I received a free copy because I am a member of the Garden Writers Association, but the cover price of this book is $9.95. I'd say it is well worth it. I actually brought my copy with me to the salon while getting my highlights done. As any woman will attest, that means hours of styling, coloring and drying...and I was engrossed in my seed catalog. Can you imagine reading a seed catalog so intently?
Content Marketing Tips
All in all, the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog gets an A+ from me for its expert content marketing.
Great content marketing hits the sweet spot between informing customers about products and services, entertaining and engaging them, and yes, selling products. Some content marketers talk about the undersell or soft sell, and some pretend that they don't want their content to sell anything at all. While content marketing isn't direct marketing (it's not about the direct sale), your content marketing programs should always support the consumer's choice to buy your products or services. Information is the key to helping people move along the decision ladder, ultimately choosing YOUR company to do business with among the many companies available.
That's where the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog hits all the right points. It's incredibly informative while simultaneously being entertaining, and that's not easy to do in a market saturated with seeds. Seeds aren't particularly high margin items, and it can be difficult to invest in marketing them. But because garden seeds are everywhere for consumers to purchase, you've got to make customers understand why your garden seeds are different or better than other companies'. And that's where Baker Creek gets it right.
They are selling a different product. They invest time, money and resources into finding heirloom seeds - seeds passed down through generations of gardeners, families and communities. These seeds are free from genetic tinkering by humans and are open-pollinated. Some are said to be more nutritious or tasty than commercially grown varieties. Others are quite difficult to find among the large commercial growing operations. Baker Creek tells a unique story, and because they tell it well, consumers understand what sets them apart and why they should shop from their catalog.
Would You Like Your Company Features as a Case Study?
I'd love to share YOUR company's content marketing case study here. Please contact me and share samples of your firm's content marketing program if you'd like to be featured on the Seven Oaks Consulting content marketing blog.
Five Reasons Why Your Business Needs Bloggers
Do you have a business blog? If not, why not? According to HubSpot, business who run a blog receive 67 percent more leads than those who do not. I don't know about you, but I'd sure like to get 67 percent more leads than my competitors.
Heather over at the Virginia Bloggers Club (of which I'm a member) has written a great post, The Five Reasons Why Your Business Needs Bloggers. A good blog can generate leads, improve your search engine rank, and drive more leads, traffics and visits to your website at a minimal cost.
Samples of Freelance Writing - Don't Write Them for Free
If you're asked for samples of freelance writing by a potential client, do share published samples. These can be samples you've published on your own - on Medium.com, on your blog, on your website. Or, they can be samples of published work completed for your clients.
But whatever you do, do not provide free samples for a potential client written specifically on their chosen topic. Any company serious about hiring pays a small stipend, even a fraction of the actual cost, to show good faith and good will to freelancers.
If you're a company considering writers, please do not ask them to do a test article or sample for free. Why? Watch this video.
Samples of Freelance Writing: Asking for Free Samples Is Not Industry Standard
Writers, companies hiring for freelance work do need to see samples of your work. But they should not ask for free samples of freelance writing. I have had 'samples' published by such unscrupulous companies.
Instead, provide samples as follows:
- Your own website and blog - yes, it is okay for you to write your own blog and use that as a sample
- Published works - anything published with your byline is great! Do share it.
- Samples of client projects (with their permission)
Paid test projects, on the other hand, are fine. If a client asks for a sample of your freelance writing work and is willing to pay even a small amount, that is acceptable.
Here's a more in-depth article I wrote about "writing on spec" - a term which means writing on speculation, or with an eye towards future work. It never or almost never works out. Professional writers, do not write for free on speculation or in hope of getting an assignment.