VOLUME 18, ISSUE 8 – AUGUST 2019
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: WRITERS WANTED – $12/HOUR!
Essay-Writing Service Offers Grim Result of NOT Building a $trong Writing Biz
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DO SOMETHING (EVEN A LITTLE) VS. NOTHING!
Small-Biz Coach: Doing Something is Better Than Doing Nothing At All
III. MAIN COURSE: ANATOMY OF CONTENT MARKETING (Part 1 of 2)
CM Agency Pro Serves Up the Who, What, How and How Much of CM!
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
Ad/Marketing Blog Serves Up Laughs, a Contrarian Take, and Marketing Wisdom!
TIP: IL FLCW on Adding Value, Zeroing In and Smart Proofreading!
I. APPETIZER: WRITERS WANTED – $12/HOUR!
Essay-Writing Service Offers Grim Result of NOT Building a $trong Writing Biz
WARNING: Grumpy Old Writer about to rail on about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Came across an article recently about college-essay-writing services that was both interesting AND depressing.
So, according to the site, Essay One Day, to hire them to write your academic essay, your per-page costs (275 words per double-spaced page) for their lovely labor-saving services, are as follows (for the various academic writing levels):
- High School $7.50/page
- College $14/page
- University $18/page
- Master’s $27/page
- Ph.D $35/page
Need a college-level research paper, of 1650 words (6 pages) in a week? $90. Need it in 3 days? Just $114. At $90, that’s $15/page. Assuming a generous company only taking 20% of those fees (unlikely, and they wouldn’t answer that direct question when asked), that leaves the writer with a princely $12/page. Wow.
Even the PhD. Level of $35/$28 per page? Talk about a wrist-slitting bummer for some overeducated scribe. Could someone knock out one PhD.-level page in an hour, including research? With a turbo-charged writing process, I suppose.
Though, for a complex subject, what if you go beyond the hour? Now, you’re down to $20-25/hour, for focused, research-intensive work. And with the pressure of the clock—like constant background noise—always the issue with a “piecework” paradigm.
All in all, a grim vision, one which makes commercial writing look even better, even on the entry-level end ($50-60/hour). Yes, our field demands more than posting your profile on a college-essay site and waiting by your in-box for those $15-25/hour gigs (ugh, shoot me now…).
Invest more time upfront to build a more profitable engine, and you’ll make more money. Throw your hat in the ring with countless other writers offering similar skills, and you’ll reliably make less. On that “count-your-blessings” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DO SOMETHING (EVEN A LITTLE) VS. NOTHING!
Small-Biz Coach: Doing Something is Better Than Doing Nothing At All
Friend, colleague, ex-FLCW and small-business coach, Ed Gandia (Ed’s a regular here!) serves up a wonderful “antidote” piece to the perfection mentality that runs so rampant among us humans. Can’t do the optimum? Guess what? Few people can! Thanks, Ed!
See if this sounds familiar…
You committed to sending out 10 prospecting emails this week. But by Thursday afternoon you haven’t sent one. And now you’re slammed with other work. You might have time to send two or three—if you’re lucky.
But what’s the use? If you can’t send all 10 emails, you might just as well wait until next week and start over, right?
I call this “all-or-nothing” thinking. It’s very dangerous. And very common.
For example: You don’t have a full hour to do your workout, so you don’t do anything that day. Or you were going to call your parents to see how they’re doing. But you don’t have much time to talk, so you don’t call at all.
Or you were going to touch base with three previous clients. But you have only 20 minutes before you have to leave for the day. So, you don’t call any of them.
But here’s the thing: It’s always better to do something than nothing.
It’s better to work out for 20 minutes than skip the whole thing. It’s better to chat with your parents for 10 minutes than not at all. It’s better to send out two warm emails this week than wait until you have time to send a bigger batch.
Two warm emails a week is still 100 emails per year. And when done right, those emails can generate five or more positive responses. Which could lead to one or two new clients.
By sending out two, you’re still getting some practice. And you’ll get more efficient. Over the course of a year, these little efforts can change your world. It’s a compounding effect we don’t notice… because it happens so gradually.
In addition, the danger of doing nothing is that it becomes easier and easier to keep doing nothing. By doing something (even if it’s something small), you’re staying on track to do more next time.
So think about what you’ve been putting off because you just “don’t have time.”
Break up that big task into little actions. And commit to taking just a few simple, easy actions consistently — even if it’s not as much as you’d planned to do.
III. MAIN COURSE: ANATOMY OF CONTENT MARKETING (Part 1 of 2)
CM-Agency Pro Serves Up the Who, What, How and How Much of CM!
If you’ve ever struggled to decipher the “content” puzzle, Beth Carter, founder and Chief Strategist of the content-marketing agency, Clariant Creative (and former FLCW), offers up a real-world example of a CM campaign, in Part 1 of this 2-parter (along with a call for qualified writers.) Thanks, Beth!
Have a client seeking a more robust content-marketing solution than you could provide on your own? Consider steering them to Beth, and be the first writer in line to work on the project.
“What should I make for dinner tonight?”
“How do I get rid of dandruff?”
“What’s the best videoconferencing tool for my business?”
When people turn to Google for answers to all of their questions, it creates rich opportunities for companies to address these questions with content. But, to create the right content, companies must understand who their buyers are, what questions these buyers ask, and what info they need to make their buying decisions.
This “buying journey” can generally be broken down into three stages:
- Awareness (of a problem/challenge)
- Consideration (evaluating options), and…
- Decision (making a purchase decision).
The company that can provide content specifically written for each of these stages will be more likely to win that buyer’s business.
For Example… Imagine a fictitious company, Abacus, that sells personal finance software. A content marketing campaign for Abacus might unfold like this:
1) Henry is about to become a new father. He searches online for “when should I start saving for college” and finds a blog post by Abacus titled, “5 Things Every Young Family Needs to Know About Saving for College.”
2) Henry reads the post, and at the end is a clickable graphic that says, “Want to learn more? Explore your best options to save for college!”
3) Clicking the graphic takes him to a landing page describing an ebook titled, “How to Evaluate College Savings Options,” and a form asking for his name and email address.
4) He provides the info, clicks “Submit,” and is taken to a thank-you page where he downloads the ebook—which he then reads, but doesn’t act on yet.
5) Four days later, Henry receives an email from Abacus asking if he found the ebook helpful, and suggesting he check out their buying guide, “The Best Personal Finance Software Options of 2019.” Because he’s on the train into work, he doesn’t download the buying guide.
6) Five days later, Henry gets another email from Abacus, again suggesting the guide might offer solid college-savings strategies. He’s on his home computer now, so this time, he clicks the link and downloads and reads the guide.
7) The next day, he receives an email offering a free 30-day trial of Abacus. College savings is still “top of mind,” and because he found the buying guide helpful, he launches his free trial. The software fits his needs, so, after the free trial, he purchases a subscription.
Abacus used content to strategically connect with Henry multiple times. Somebody has to write all this content. Why not you?
Next month, I’ll share the different content projects you’d be creating, how much you can make, and a handful of solid resources. Stay tuned!
P.S. (from Beth) I’m always looking for great B2B content writers who can get up to speed quickly on new topics and know how to write complex ideas succinctly. If this sounds like you, PLEASE FIRST send me a link to your online portfolio, and I’ll see if I think we’d be a good fit!
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
Ad/Marketing Blog Serves Up Laughs, a Contrarian Take, and Marketing Wisdom!
TIP: IL FLCW on Adding Value, Zeroing In and Smart Proofreading!
It’s summer, so I’m lightening up a bit. As such, this month’s success story isn’t one as such, but rather a fun blog, which, if you visit it regularly, can give you valuable perspective on our industry—perspective that can absolutely lead to more success.
Just read this post on one of my favorite blogs, The Ad Contrarian. In this installment, written by crusty, cantankerous, social-media-loathing, ad-industry veteran Bob Hoffman, you’ll learn what you’re missing by not going to marketing conferences. Hilarious. Some sample gems…
“There’s no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he’s missing a trend.”
“We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product.” And my favorite…
“The idea that the same consumer who was frantically clicking her TV remote to escape from advertising was going to merrily click her mouse to interact with it is going to go down as one of the great advertising delusions of all time.”
If you’ve ever had that sneaking suspicion that much of what high-profile marketing, advertising and social-media “experts” espouse is utter B.S., but you dismissed the thought as that of a clearly callow perspective, well, not so fast.
Poke around his site. You’ll laugh plenty, soak up a lot of wisdom, start trusting your instincts more, and end up being a smarter marketer.
Naperville, IL FLCW Karen Dix shared this solid series of tips with me recently, and I’m passing them on. Good stuff, Karen!
MORE BANG: One thing I’ve taught clients over the years is that there’s more value in what I produce than they see. If I’m hired, say, to write a blog that describes a process, a graphic designer can turn that into an infographic for their employee manual. A long-form ebook can be sliced up into digestible bites of social media or blog posts.
This “repurposing” breathes new life into your work and amplifies your value as a copywriter. Sometimes, the client does it on their own but why not suggest it, and pick up some more work while boosting your value in their eyes?
ZEROING IN: When a client says their target market is “everyone,” watch out! You need to learn as much as you can about their target market—age, gender, interests, ideas, economic status, goals and dreams. Then use that data to transform “everyone” into the person they truly want to reach. The more effectively you can do that, the better you’ll tailor your copy to their needs.
Related to that, when a client wants to keep adding more copy to a project in order to educate several segments of their target audience at once—and risk muddying their message—it might be time to produce a second version of copy for Audience #2.
PROOF SMART! Proofing your content before sending it in can be tricky. The best way? Have another human read it (proofreader). If YOU’RE your proofreader, my favorite two ways to see my copy in a different light are:
1) Print it out and review it that way; and/or
2) Change the font on my computer screen.
Both methods jar my psyche into reading my copy with fresh eyes while reducing the chance of skimming over homonyms spellcheck doesn’t catch.