The Write Blog

I recently attended a webinar featuring David Meerman Scott, author of the WebInkNow blog and World Wide Rave, the latest book on creating effective social media content that works.

During the webinar, an interesting question popped up in the Q&A section: What’s the purpose of a press release – and how can it be used effectively?

Scott suggested taking a new approach: instead of writing press releases that target media, why not target your buyers, the people that really matter to your bottom line? Journalists don’t sit around, waiting for your press release to float across their desks before they decide what they want to write about. If they want to write about you, they’ll search you out.

Reaching out to journalists is important, but it’s not as important as reaching your clients. So here’s where we get into the new PR: instead of using your press release to grab the attention of journalists – who may or may not care about you – why not use your press release to sell? I’ve put together five steps here to target your press releases to potential clients and journalists alike: Continue reading The New PR: Five Steps to a Press Release that Really Sells

Let’s be honest: As writers, we’re all big sponges – we’re copycats and thieves, and we’re constantly looking at (and borrowing from) other writers’ work to make our own stuff fresh and interesting. There’s nothing wrong with scouring the Internet for inspiration, but if you’re on a tight deadline, you don’t always have the time to spend a leisurely afternoon digging for good headline-writing pointers or blogging tips.

And now, you don’t have to. If you aren’t already smitten with sales and marketing blog Grok.com, get ready to fall in love. Check out their “Ultimate Cheat Sheet” – it’s a comprehensive guide to the best copywriting tips on the web, all in one handy place. It’s even broken down into categories like “Readability” and “Blogging” so you can browse by topic. Continue reading Yay, Cheating! (Well, Not Exactly)

Or..How to Write Great Website Copy for Your Design Agency

This blog post was spurred by an answer I recently posted on linked in to a website design agency. They were in the process of redesigning their website, and they wanted tips on what to do with their copy. This specific design agency was struggling a little because they kept falling into flowery high-handed words and phrases that ended up translating into…well, nothing.

Anyway, we’ve worked with well over a dozen design agencies over the years, as well as written copy for a few, so I started thinking about what I look for in a design agency, and I came up with a list of five criteria for my perfect website design agency website… Continue reading Why Website Designers Don’t Need Differentiators

If you’re not already a regular reader of Copyblogger, you should be: Their writers offer a varied approach to copywriting for almost any genre you can think of. I was looking through their archives when I stumbled on a really, really interesting post by Barry A. Densa about attracting and keeping customers in any economy.

Densa points out the still-hard-to-swallow reality of our current economy: if your business specializes in discounted or low-ticket items, you’re probably doing fine. But for everyone else, the economy is really threatening the viability of business. So, how do you find new customers, and keep the ones you have?
Continue reading How Tweaking Your Copy in a Recession Can Help You Keep Customers

So, I was cruising for creative inspiration yesterday and I stumbled on this cool post about headlines on ToddAnd’s marketing blog. I’ve seen about a zillion blogs and articles about writing great headlines, and they all start to look alike after a while – but this post deserves a look.

Admittedly, I usually don’t like slideshows – they make me think of those awful, hours-long PowerPoint presentations you find at big conferences and staff development sessions (yawn). But this one’s different. Continue reading Killer Headlines, a History Lesson, and a Slide Show that Won’t Put You to Sleep (Promise!)