Get back on the wagon – your content needs you

seed copywriting web content resolutions 2

At the start of January we were all full of the best intentions. Let me guess some of your business resolutions for 2019:

Create and stick to a blogging editorial calendar.

Update the “meet the team” page.

Revamp your website from content to design.

Really get to grips with Instagram for business.

Make sure social media is updated every day.

Start sending weekly eshots to clients and customers.

You’re not alone. These were some of the most popular business resolutions set at the beginning of January 2019, and it’s not surprising. Blogging and web content have become vital in the war against Google snubs and ghosting customers. Social media is more central than ever to our targets and KPIs, but it doesn’t get any easier or any less time-consuming. Eshots? Who has time to write, send and then update the data?

I understand where you’re coming from. You know how essential they are – you’ve been to enough workshops and training sessions to understand that – but after all the big stuff, there’s so little time left in the day. It can be difficult to incorporate copywriting and social media into your daily routine.

There are certain little things you can do to help. Here are some of my best cheats and tips I’ve learned along the way that really do help you battle with the never-ending marketing tasks that come your way. Trust me, the work never stops, but the time and resources you spend can be dramatically reduced. What you’re looking for is efficiency, not total ignorance. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Put an editorial calendar together

It sounds like a lot of work, and when you’re sat in front of a blank spreadsheet, it feels like a lot of work too. It really doesn’t have to be.

Take a look at what your customers will be interested in at different times of the year, and fit your content around what they’ll be searching for. Try to incorporate things like:

National holidays
National “days” – if you sell pies and you miss out on National Pie Day, shame on you
Your busiest months – offer faster shipping deals
Your quietest months – offer package deals and boost your profile

Schedule your socks off

Once you’ve got an idea of what you’d like to post and when, start scheduling.

A lot of the time this advice is met with “but when have I got time to schedule?” The answer for me is, you set aside an hour or two a week and you blitz it. If that’s not how you work, try to use your down-time to get some scheduling inputted.

Using tools like Buffer or Tailwind can really help you gain traction on your posts too, as they show you analytics which you can then use to better place your posts at times your clients and customers will see them. Smeurt.

Don’t give up

If you missed a couple of days on your social media accounts, or your blog post wasn’t finished in time for your scheduled slot, you feel like giving up. Trust me, I’ve been there.

The important thing is – that’s right – getting back on the wagon. So you forgot to schedule some Tweets before you left the office on Friday. It’s not great, but it’s not the end of the world. It seems like a disaster right now but full disclosure – your followers probably didn’t notice. Make up for lost time by putting some extra hot content on your platforms as soon as you can, and get that ball rolling again!

Never apologise

My golden rule for blogging, social posts or even in eshots is never to send out a blanket apology for radio silence.

If you’ve not updated your blog in a while, write an engaging, gripping post that gets people sharing again. If you’ve let your Facebook page gather cobwebs, dust it off and start as you mean to go on. Do not, for the sake of all that is online, start typing the words “sorry you’ve not heard from us in a while!”

Your followers probably hadn’t been too upset that you hadn’t posted recently. Or they figured you were working on something exciting and were too busy to post. Or they hadn’t noticed until now, right now, and you’ve gone and brought your lackadaisical attitude to their attention.

In my humble opinion, the best thing to do is accept you’ve got a gap in your posts and move on with purpose. Strong bicep arm emoji.

Ask for help

Of course I wouldn’t be doing my job correctly if I didn’t explain that help is out there if you really need it. If you don’t have the time to think about your content, outsourcing is a great option – providing you can find somebody who can really understand exactly what it is you’re looking for.

Again, this is only my opinion, but there are thousands of copywriters out there. Don’t be afraid to search for one who understands your industry, or who really seems to “get” your business, or whose writing you actually like. It’ll be worth the time.

Speaking of which, if you’d like to find out how I can help you tackle your copywriting, social media or web content mountain, get in touch.

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018

Freelancers are good for your health

freelance copywriters are good for your health

Did you know that freelancers are good for your health?

Not only are they proven to reduce stress, they’re also great at improving staff morale and office dynamics, and that’s before we start getting into all the positive motivational impact they can provide.

Here are the reasons we’re so good for you.

We’re infectiously enthusiastic

The thing about freelancers is, we love what we do. That’s why we’ve decided to devote all of our time to our careers, focusing intensely on one particular talent we know we’re a leader in. For me, that’s writing. For others, it’s web dev, or design.

No matter our niche, you can guarantee that we’re more enthusiastic about it than you could possibly imagine, and that we are excellent at what we do. That’s our job. To be great. The side-effects of this in your staff might include renewed excitement and positivity.

We take a load off your shoulders

That blog post you know you should be writing? Consider it done. Scheduling this week’s social media posts slipped down your to-do list again? Take a deep breath and cross it off completely. The buggy little fixes on your company site you keep meaning to get round to? Bibbity, bobbity, boo.

Us freelancers relish the challenge of getting down to work on a tight deadline. What looms in the shadows to you is a sparkling opportunity to us. Don’t sit there stressing over work you’ll honestly never get around to doing – just pass it on to a pro, wipe that forehead and feel the sweet chill of a job well done.

We’re life-givingly honest

If we don’t think we can hit a deadline, we’ll tell you. If you’re asking us to work on something that’s not our forté, you’d better know we’re working extra hard to get it right because otherwise we’d tell you about our limitations.

We don’t work for your company; you’re hiring our services. That means when we come in and sit opposite you, we’re going to be straight with you. We already have the job, we have nothing more to gain from blagging at this point. We’re often refreshingly blunt too – especially if you’ve asked us to critique your work or run an audit. Not having emotional ties gives us the freedom to say exactly what we think and you’d be surprised how much life that can give you.

We motivate you to look at your own deadlines

If you’re giving us work you need a quick turnaround on, we’re going to email to request amends and feedback. Sorry about it. We want to make sure the work you’ve tasked us with hits the deadline right, and suits the brief well, so it’s on us to make sure we can get the job done correctly.

That doesn’t mean we’ll be bothering you though. Freelancers are self-sufficient geniuses who can work away to a brief without any further intervention. All we’ll get in touch about is fact-checking and deadlines. Listen: That’s the sound of peace and quiet. Now there’s no excuse. Time to crack on with your other priorities.

Think you could use the soothing effects of a freelance content creator and copywriter? Get in touch and let’s talk about what I can do this week, right now, to make everything better.

April 1, 2018April 4, 2018

A glorious future where we can ignore our customers

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but this LinkedIn update gave me the heebie jeebies.

I think it’s the use of the words “should have to.” It implies, pretty directly, that interacting with your followers is a chore. Using Hootsuite, the social media management tool that Ryan Holmes is the CEO of, makes it a lot easier to interact with those pesky followers. You can plan and schedule and set up all manner of time-saving tricks to ensure that your time spent with the people talking to you is kept to a minimum.

What I want to ask is – why are you doing that? Why do you hate your customers so much?

People like to interact with the brands and companies they use. Whether it’s to confess their love (Yorkshire Tea’s Twitter account is a good example of this) or to complain (Southern Rail) these interactions make them feel empowered. It’s important to consumers to keep in direct touch with the things they use every day. People feel the need to talk to everyone about what they’re doing, what they’re using and how they feel about it. That’s not the Millennial effect. We did that.

Businesses and brands have spent the past 30 years developing advertising that doesn’t just instruct, but encourages a feeling of loyalty. The idea that an individual would buy a cup of coffee not for the contents but because they want to be a part of something bigger (Starbucks Pumpkin Spice every damn year) is a sales and marketing dream come true. Fostering that warm and fuzzy feeling of togetherness means answering a few Tweets, offering a couple of competitions and replying to any complaints. That’s the price you pay.

Why would a consumer use social media to talk to a brand?

To make a visible complaint (empowerment)
To talk about how much they love the brand (loyalty)
To join in or add to a conversation (being a part of something)
It’s how they communicate (convenience)
To make a smartass comment in front of “everybody” (also empowerment, but a bit of fun too)

If you have never talked to a brand on social media yourself, try to think about a situation that would encourage you to do so. For most people who don’t use social media regularly, it’s to make a complaint.

Imagine you spent the time thinking of the best way to complain to a company who you believe have made a mistake. You’ve found their Twitter handle and you’ve hit the word count dead on. Everyone is going to see how mad you are and they’re going to apologise. You’ll feel better, and maybe they’ll take the time to improve their services in the future for other customers.

Now imagine you ‘send tweet’ and an automated response comes back to you. It tells you that your concern is important to them and that in 18-24 hours you’ll receive a full response. Or, it offers you a discount code and hopes you have a nice day. How does that make you feel?

Social media isn’t about fire-fighting – or at least it shouldn’t be. A well-cultivated social media account is a place where your customers feel listened to, and where you initiate the conversation. You might get complaints – in fact you almost definitely will – but with a decent social media plan behind you, your company or brand will be able to cope well with that situation.

Social media isn’t an inconvenience. It has become integral to most people’s everyday lives, and to treat it as peripheral means losing out on valuable consumer feedback and customer retention. Using automated services may save time, but they will never be the same as a proper representation of who you are – they will never be a trained employee able to give quickfire responses, start conversations on a whim or turn a negative conversation into a sale.

If talking to your customers is a job your organisation feels it can’t spare the time for, it might be time for a re-structure – or at the very least, some social media training.

Thank goodness then, that this was posted on April 1st. This whole thing was a Hootsuite joke, aimed at making the exact same points I made above. If you’re still wondering whether AI chatbots could help your business, hire a social media Apprentice instead, or ask me to come in and talk to your team about why it’s so important.