Simplified analytics for the non-IT user
Imagine, for a second, that all the pertinent information gleaned from your organization’s data was accessible to everyone—not just IT gurus.
Get out of your social media comfort zone
If we said any social media channel could work for your brand, would you believe us?
Drowning in content? We’ve got a solution.
If your marketing department is drowning in content—yet still failing to keep up with the demand for more—we have a few tips that might help.
Great writing starts with a great process
Outsourcing great b2b writing—content that reflects your company’s style, tone and overall brand—can be a tricky process. Not only do you have to find a great writer (or agency of writers), but you have to be able to establish a writing process that works for both parties.
The writing process can be different for every company. So, while an experienced writer will be able to offer suggestions as to how things could work—or how other companies have done things in the past—you ultimately have to know what will work best for your specific organization. To help, here are some questions you may want to consider:
- Will you provide the writer with content ideas or will they be expected to come up with topics themselves?
- What materials, information or interviews with subject matter experts will you provide? How will interviews be arranged and conducted?
- How hands-on are you going to be? Will you write something first and simply ask the writer to fix it up? Or will they be expected to write the articles from scratch?
- If you have a larger in-house team, how will you streamline the outsourcing process and keep track of the external writer’s workload?
Feel free to involve your writer in the discussion and acquire insight into their preferences. The ultimate goal, after all, is to find a system that works well for both parties—and is most likely to elicit great results.
To hear more tips on how to improve your company’s content with an external writer, download the new AR Communications Inc. ebook—The Right Fit: How To Outsource Great Writing.
Do copywriting formulas work?
I hate it when content takes longer to write than anticipated—especially when my calendar is overflowing with deadlines. So when I recently came across a website that offered a complete handbook of copywriting formulas—a handbook that promised to drastically reduce the amount of time I spent writing content—I felt like I hit the jackpot.
Right there in front of me were standard formulas for writing tweets, headlines, blog posts, web pages—virtually any form of content you could imagine. But, once I had a chance to really look at them, I have to admit—those formulas made my head spin. Honestly, I think it would take me longer to force information to fit into a template than it would to simply write that same content from scratch.
The entire experience got me thinking—is there really such thing as a copywriting formula? Judging from personal experience I’d say yes—but in very rare situations. If you’re sending out a standard press release—say, announcing the opening of a new office—then sure. Certain types of speeches could probably benefit from a fill-in-the-blanks approach also. But things you write in abundance—like blog posts? Personally, I think you need to freestyle those.
My reasoning is simple. The whole POINT of content marketing is to write pieces that will capture the attention of your target audience, and you can’t do that if all your content follows the same, predictable formula. Writing a boring, run-of-the-mill press release is fine if you just need something—anything!—to post in your website’s ‘news’ section. But if you want to really capture the attention of the media—and gain some coverage—you need it to stand out.
To do that, I suggest ditching the templates and, instead, trying some of these time-saving techniques:
- Put the most interesting/important/eye-catching messages at the top of the page. Not sure what those messages are? Try implementing some tried-and-true journalistic rules—sourcing out the 5Ws, the news peg, the inverted pyramid—to help you organize your thoughts and find the nugget of information that will really speak to your audience.
- Stop thinking so much. Can’t get that first paragraph perfect? Jot down the first thing that comes to mind—without worrying if it’s good or not. Revising it later is so much easier than getting it perfect the first time.
- Tell the story. When verbally telling stories to others, we tend to naturally offer up the most interesting information first. It’s a great way to determine what’s really important about your piece—and also offer some clues on how to arrange your thoughts.
- Glance at some precedents. When all else fails, look at a similar, previously-written piece of content. Pay close attention to how the information is arranged and copy that “formula” (in your own words, of course).
What do you think? Is there a time and a place for copywriting formulas? What tricks do you use to write efficiently? Please share—I’d love hear!
Is your email font ruining your life?
You spend hours a day staring at your computer screen—with a good portion of that time writing and reading emails—but have you ever given any thought to your email font? In all likelihood, probably not—but you should. Because it could be ruining your life.
According to this Bloomberg article, many email clients default to Helvetica or Arial—two serif fonts that are incredibly difficult to read because their letters are just too close together. While they may work in glossy magazine advertisements due to their simplicity, they’re not great for reading on itsy bitsy computer screens—or mobile devices.
So what fonts should you change your email client to? Fonts like Georgia, Calibri or Verdana are apparently much more legible and professional at the same time. Whichever font you choose, however, make sure you’re comfortable with it—and enjoy it on an emotional level. After all, given the amount of time the two of you will be spending together, you want to find one that makes you happy.
Here at AR Communications, we quite enjoy Calibri. What email font do you prefer?
Finding your writing soulmate
Finding the right external writer to handle your b2b writing needs is a lot like dating—you have to know yourself first before you’ll even have a chance at finding your perfect partner. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of questions you may want to consider before beginning your search for your business writing soulmate.
The secret to getting the writing you want
Even if you were to hire the absolute best writer in the world, they could potentially deliver content that fails to meet your expectations. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure your expectations are as clear as possible—and well-communicated to your writer.