When you’re ready to publish your latest stroke of brilliance, it’s common to have an itchy trigger finger. Never before has the wit and wisdom flowed so effortlessly and elegantly from your brain to the screen. But will your audience feel the same way?
Read more...5 Ways to Wreck Your Own Brand
When was the last time you looked at a person or a company, whether it was in person, on Facebook or on television, and said to yourself, “What were they thinking?”
Was it within the last five minutes? Me too.
From a business perspective, there are simple things that brands do and don’t do that can lead to serious self-inflicted damage. Sometimes that damage may seem minor on the surface, but the cumulative effect can be crippling.
Judging by the majority of the social media posts I see, websites I visit and emails I’m unable to open on my mobile phone, a lot of brands just seem intent on knocking themselves senseless.
Read more...How I Used Content Marketing 101 to Land My Biggest Client, and Why Any Business on the Face of the Earth Can Do What I Did
I posted a blog, as I do every week, and followed my usual email distribution and social sharing routine. A few people viewed my profile on Linkedin, and one person in particular caught my eye – the president of a marketing firm that specializes in content marketing for information technology (IT) companies.
I thought this was a great niche because the IT industry is constantly innovating. And great content is needed to introduce and explain those innovations.
Soon after I viewed her profile, she invited me to connect.
I eagerly accepted.
And so we danced.
Read more...Why You Need to Write for Your Audience, Not the Grammar Police
The great David Ogilvy once said:
“I don’t know the rules of grammar… If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.”
Read more...3 Things Your Competitors Love To Hear You Say
I was speaking with a prospect about ghostwriting blogs for her clients. When we finally got to the topic of price, she told me her main resource for content had been charging her $15 per post.
After I threw up a little in my mouth, I asked what kind of quality she got for that price, and she said, “Well, it’s just for SEO.”
Read more...Why Content Writing Needs a Little Less Einstein and a Little More Oprah
I always used to say that the best way to expose bad content was with “good SEO.” That’s because stuffing keywords and links into content was accepted by many as the way to tame the Google monster and punch a ticket to the top of search rankings. Scott McKelveyI’m a content writer, marketing consultant, lifelong […]
Read more...The Marketing Prodigy Returns: 5 Questions with Donovan the Popcorn Scout
Two years ago, a 10-year-old Boy Scout named Donovan came to my house selling popcorn and chocolate pretzels to raise money for the scouts and our troops. I was blown away by his presentation on his iPad, the follow-up emails and the Facebook page that he created with the help of his father. When Donovan […]
Read more...How a Sketchy Headline Can Come Back to Bite You
Earlier this month, The Harvard Business Review Blog Network ran the blog, Marketing Is Dead. It made me think of a recent blog of mine that revealed the one thing headlines must do. After reading this HBR blog, I feel like I need to add a big old “BUT” to my statement. Scott McKelveyI’m a […]
Read more...How NOT to Offer Free Advice in Your Marketing
As I was driving to work this morning, I heard a PNC commercial on a major New York City radio station. The commercial started something like this. Keep in mind that I’ve paraphrased some details that the vast majority of listeners like me would never remember because those details are irrelevant. Hi, I’m John C. […]
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