Many of my clients have a strong sense of their brand, and they want their marketing copy tone to be consistent with that brand. So how, exactly, does a copywriter convey tone in marketing copy? Although many factors determine marketing copy tone, there are four main variables I use: Contractions Sentence length Clichés, idioms, slang […]
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It’s a common complaint among B2B businesses and understandably so. After all, how many blog posts can you write about industrial fans or flood vents or office supplies or safety equipment? Quite a few, it turns out.
A client recently asked whether I preferred to have design work done before or after I’ve written the web copy. You perhaps won’t be surprised to learn that I prefer to write first, and then have the designer work with what I’ve produced—even if it means adjusting the copy a little once the design is […]
A client recently asked me to write marketing copy for a condominium development advertorial. The ad will be printed in a local magazine with a real estate focus. I’d never written an advertorial before, so it was an interesting (and fun!) thing to do. I do have some experience writing articles for newspapers and magazines, […]
If you’re a small business owner and looking for insight into B.C. companies, then you need Business in Vancouver’s Book of Lists.
I had the great pleasure of attending an event at the Vancouver Writers Fest yesterday. The speaker was Deborah Ellis, who has written a number of books based on interviews with children and youth in Canada and around the world. It was fascinating and moving to hear the stories of these young people, many of […]
A couple weeks ago, Google announced that they’ve implemented a new search algorithm (called “Hummingbird”). According to Google, the new algorithm will return more relevant search results, especially when using conversational search. Conversational searches use natural language (often phrased as questions) instead of a string of terms, e.g. “How tall is Stephen Harper” versus “Stephen […]
I recently had the pleasure of attending Small Business BC’s INSPIRE at Vancouver’s Science World. The event featured a panel of successful entrepreneurs, including Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia, Matt Young, Bob Rennie and John Fluevog. It was gratifying to hear how community and philanthropy inspire their success as much as (if not more than) their business activities.
One service I provide to clients is business blog ghostwriting and editing. Although most small business owners are relieved to pass this onerous task to someone else, some can’t conceive of anyone (even a professional copywriter) writing their posts. To help allay any fears or concerns, I’ve outlined below how the process works.
In the push to expand their online presence, it seems more and more organizations want to use Wikipedia as part of their business marketing. But before you rush to create a Wikipedia entry for your business, you need to ask yourself a few questions: