What content do you crave? We talk a lot about content. What will bring more people to our website? What will get people to subscribe? We brainstorm story ideas. We seek out new ways to present information. We dig deep to find new angles. Sometimes in all of this content creation, we lose [...]
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Before you bring on the corned beef and green beer, take time to participate in our fourth Wednesday Writing Prompt. Remember: The goal here is to get you writing and thinking — not to waste your day away. So, set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and really focus [...]
Who is your ideal client? This is the third in our Wednesday Writing Prompt series. First time tuning in? Check out our first prompt and our second. Once again, set a timer for 15 minutes, and when you hear the ding, click “save” or close your journal. This week’s writing prompt: Describe your [...]
How do you want your clients to feel after they work with you? This is our second writing prompt in our Wednesday Writing Prompt series — a set of simple exercises to get you thinking and writing about your business, your content marketing strategy and how you convey it all. Missed the first [...]
What is your content mission statement? On a regular basis, I want to invite you to think about some aspect of your content marketing or writing or business development. That’s why I’m starting this Wednesday Writing Prompt series. (You can also catch it on Instagram every week.) You don’t have to turn it [...]
When you provide good direction to your writer, you’ll increase your chances of getting good content back. You know that preparing an assignment for your writer is a good idea. (For a refresher on why, refer to part one.) But how do you do it? Let's break it down and make it easy. [...]
Why spend time on writers’ assignments? There are at least three very good reasons. You hired a writer. Problem solved, right? Not necessarily. That's because if you want to get good content from your writer, you need to provide good guidance. That's where a writer's assignment/contract comes into play. And preparing a good [...]
Content is king. Photo: Thinkstock If you work in communications, you know that beautiful is not a metric. Clever headlines and great writing are nice, but they aren't measurable or quantifiable. When you are given a budget, you are expected to generate customers and drive revenue. And that's exactly what makes content [...]
Do you know your audience for a technology success story? (Photo: Thinkstock) When you write about complicated topics like technology, success stories are an especially useful tool. That's because success stories are the perfect way to show rather than tell. First and foremost, technology content writers must remember their audience. Are you writing [...]
Photo by Thinkstock One of my favorite television shows is Chopped. In this Food Network competition program, the contestant-chefs have a short period of time — no more than 30 minutes — to create a spectacular dish, incorporating four mystery ingredients. At the end of each round, there is invariably one chef who [...]
