Article Writer

This morning I moderated a panel on SEO and organic search at the eMarketing conference in San Francisco. Content was the over-riding theme of our SEO panel. Which is music to my copywriter and content marketing services ears, right? 

There was plenty of talk about Panda too, again, getting us to look at content. Here's the thing about content and content marketing: You can create all kinds of content, but it must be good content. As the panelists said, the content must educate, entertain and enlighten (the three Es). 

After the panel, I checked my email and read the following (with specific company names removed to protect the sender).


I smiled when I read this because of all the discussion about Panda that happened during the panel. Here's my reply to him:


Honestly, $150 per month spent on good content is going to do this small business more good than all the free repurposed content he's going to grab from other places. Because it's not just having the content. It's about having good content. Period.

According to a recent MarketingProfs article on B2B email marketing, these marketers are primarily concerned with improving the relevancy of the content in their emails.

In fact, it's so important to them, 66% of B2B marketers surveyed cited improving content as a goal for the next 12 months. The next highest goal was list hygiene at only 42%.

In the interest of being self serving, may I point out that it's interesting that content is such a huge concern at the time when content marketing is coming into its own as a marketing strategy and tactic? 

And if two-thirds of B2B marketers want to make their content more relevant, then copywriting and content marketing services providers like We Know Words should plan to get really busy. Because the best content, the most relevant content these marketers will create will come from tapping into a customer-centric approach to content creation, the intellectual property known as their employees, the seasoned and skilled input of professional writers and editors, and a content coordination approach that ties it all together.

Which is a really long-winded way of saying the answer lies in outsourcing content marketing to a reputable, experienced content marketing agency...like We Know Words.

Really, why is this a concern for so many B2B marketers when there are companies like We Know Words who can make it all happen? 

Outsource the content marketing, marketers, and move to the next item: list hygiene.

I can't help you there. But I sure can help you with the content! 

Because I am a mother, I tend to click on those links promising "entry-level jobs that pay" or "best degrees to get now," that kind of thing. I skim them and send some on to my teenager, hoping to spark an interest in something. Anything! 

Because I am a professional copywriter, I was annoyed at the last such article. It suggested English majors get jobs as copywriters.

Ouch.

I've been a copywriter for 10 years. Although I've always enjoyed writing, I do not have a degree in English. I have a degree in Cultural Anthropology. And a Master's Degree in Art History. But back when I was putting all that knowledge to work publishing my little art magazine, I fell in love with marketing.

And that's why an English major can't cut it as a copywriter. At least not straight out of college, and definitely not in my experience.

Being a freelance copywriter, or an in-house professional copywriter, requires a way with words, yes, but more important, knowledge about marketing. In fact, I consider myself a marketer first, a writer second. My business card gives my job title as Marketing Maven.

I've had the English majors and the journalists work for me. It took me three years with one very talented writer to get her to where she was writing marketing copy without my help. She wrote wonderful copy! But it didn't DO anything but read well. It didn't market. It didn't sell.

The others I didn't waste my time with. Once I realized their gift was for writing but they were complete marketing neophytes, I'd give up. I don't have time to teach them about marketing.

I'm not advocating copywriters who don't get English, who can't punctuate or write with correct grammar. But I am advocating marketing before copywriting. If you don't know how to sell something, how are you going to write about it in a way that works? 

Do I sound grumpy? Sorry. I'm just so tired of bad copy. And articles like this likely contribute to bad copy by perpetuating the myth that as long as you can write, you can write copy! 

One of my favorite sayings is: "Write to sell, not to tell." The English majors might be able to sell eventually. But please don't encourage them to go out and sell themselves as copywriters until they get marketing down!

As a copywriter, I had to laugh when I read the following comment in Email Insider yesterday:

 

“44% of marketers surveyed believe the biggest challenge in email is providing relevant content. - eMarketer (2006)”

 

That’s hilarious to me because any copywriter worth her salt can serve up relevant content on a daily basis. Really what these marketers are probably saying is they don’t know how to not talk about their products or services. Relevant content means simply information that’s useful to the recipient, not a sales pitch.

 

Take the email newsletter as an example: I’ve yet to sit down with anyone thinking about doing an email newsletter and been at a loss when we started talking topics and articles. Quite the opposite! My brain typically goes into overdrive.

 

Maybe it’s my magazine editor background, maybe it’s because I’m a writer, or maybe it’s because I’m not stuck in the company mindset meaning I can think like a customer: What would be interesting to me, the customer, not you, the marketer?

 

And this should be true of any copywriter.

 

So if you’re a marketer who thinks “relevant content” is a challenge, I challenge you to bring in a copywriter who doesn’t eat, drink, breathe it like you do…and relevant content will be a breeze.