Tag : Writing

Why You Need a Professional Writer

Why You Need a Professional Writer
22Jul

You probably haven’t thought about how much web copy you see online, but take a minute to think on it. Every line of text you scroll past was written by someone, and if what you’re reading seems well-written, there’s a good chance it was written by a professional.

Between the copy you don’t think about and the long-form content you read, there are a lot of words that need to be crafted in just the right way, and that’s where writers come in. I’m going to explain why, contrary to what your ego may tell you, you absolutely need a professional writer on your team.

It’s a Lot
You probably don’t think your business needs a lot of writing done, but trust me, it does. Website copy will pile up before you know it. This includes things like product descriptions, “About Us” sections; everything that’s small individually but comes together to build your perfect website.

That’s before you get into the world of ad writing, creating content, and crafting social media updates. You might be able to hang on for awhile if you’re the least busy business owner in the world, but otherwise, you’ll be much better served by leaving it to the professionals.

It’s More Complicated Than You Think
You can write! You’ve written papers, text messages, and that one love letter in eighth grade—so why can’t you handle your business’ writing?

Because it’s hard.

It isn’t just writing one social media update or the single product description for your new launch. It’s creating and adhering to a tone that fits your company’s branding and values, it’s refreshing old copy to keep up with the changes of your business, and it’s researching industry trends to keep the conversation going with your audience. No matter how tight your budget is, you simply can’t skimp by without a professional writer.

Grammar Is Tricky
Knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re” isn’t enough to create great digital content or copy. Not only are there a lot of grammar rules for you to master, but they’re not going to be the same everywhere. Your professional writer will work with you to find and stick to a specific style so that your business’ writing can be consistent and clear across all channels.

Why does this matter? It might not seem like much, but readers are going to notice when your blogs alternate on using the oxford comma or use “gray” and “grey” interchangeably. They’ll catch on, and their impression is going to be that your business is sloppy and amateurish, and neither of those are words that you want floating around your brand!

Keeping It Fresh Is Tough
There’s more to writing than creating content—there’s also creating a content mix. That means posting more than the same promo with a slightly skewed wording. It’s sharing news, tips, and things that your audience is going to enjoy beyond calls to buy from your brand.

That extends beyond your social media updates, too. Your website copy will need to be updated as you roll out new products and just generally find better layouts. Staff changes will also call for writing new bios, and nothing will ruin your team’s credibility faster than flat, unimaginative bios!

So even if you had the time to dedicate to all of these writing tasks, you’d quickly find yourself struggling to create new, compelling content that wasn’t just a rehashing of the previous week’s work. In short, you can rest assured that your writer will have plenty to keep them busy and justify your investment in them!

Do the Write Thing
It’s normal to want to cut corners by not hiring a writer, but that doesn’t make it a good impulse. Instead, invest the extra resources in having a qualified writer handle your online presence. You’ll be glad you did when you’re not spending every waking moment juggling writing with your other responsibilities!

You might not be completely sold on the benefits of hiring a professional writer. Schedule your free consultation with the Go! Agency and we’ll talk about it!

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5 Things to Have Your Professional Writer Work On

5 Things to Have Your Professional Writer Work On
21Jan

Now that you know how important it is to hire a professional writer, what do you actually have them do? I hinted at a lot of writing tasks in my last blog post, but there are definitely some areas you need to have a writer work on more than others.

Based on what I’ve seen with our clients, I’ve got five areas your writer should be working on ASAP. This doesn’t mean you should limit them to just these tasks, but this list is where you’ll want to start having them work on building your brand!

1. Website
This is number one on my list for one simple reason: You’re not going to draw in any customers or make sales with a bad website. It just isn’t going to happen. If people are reading about your products and finding awkward sentences and typos, you’ll lose the sale every single time.

You’ll want them to write (or re-write) a description of your company, your products/services, and anything else that your site needs. A good strategy is to look at your competitor’s website. You don’t want to copy their formatting or ideas, but this can be a good baseline for figuring out what information your customers are expecting to find on your website.

2. Bios
This is your chance to show the personal side of your business, so don’t waste that opportunity. You want compelling snapshots of your team’s lives, and that usually requires someone with a good bit of writing experience. If your team already wrote their own bios, just have your writer massage them a bit to make them more appealing to potential customers.

If you don’t already have bios up, I’d suggest sending out a questionnaire to your employees and letting your writer use those answers to create entirely new biographies. Then all that’s left to do is get some headshots, post them, and enjoy the new personal appeal that your business has!

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3. Blogs
If you aren’t rolling out blog content, now is a great time to start! Foremost, it establishes your brand as an authority in your industry. It also gives you something to share on social media that both shows off your business and creates real value for your readers.

As a bonus, blogs are surprisingly great for SEO. Keywords come and go with frequent changes of search engine algorithms, but the thing that consistently improves ranking is thoughtful, relevant content. So if you’re looking to improve your search engine rank, set your writer to work on blog posts!

4. Ads
People focus on having a writer for social media updates, but having someone to write your ad copy is just as important. More than just choosing the right type of ad, you need to have a professional write compelling copy that works toward your business’ goals. Even if you’re sure that your ads are fine, just have your writer take a crack at it to make sure!

5. eBooks
Like blogs, ebooks are great ways to establish your business as an authority. They take in-depth looks at issues relevant to your business, so they need to be well-researched enough to bring real value to your readers.

This is also a great way to get leads for your email marketing strategy. Offer your ebook for free and let people download it, provided they give you their email address. This sets you up to keep the conversation going with your audience, and they get quality content at no cost to them!

Get Started Write Away
Now that you know how to get started, don’t be afraid to dive in! Use this list to help you guide your new writer, and you’ll see what a huge difference having a professional writer can make!

Are you still a little lost on how to direct your writer? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency and we’ll talk about it!

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7 Rules For Writing Eye-Catching Tweets

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20Jun

Writing a tweet is a lot like writing a headline. You have to consider every letter, space, syllable, and of course, the audience’s reaction. A tweet is a powerful tool that could make your brand stand above the Twitterverse, or make it sink into the depths. It’s up to you to make a tweet compelling.

Today we’re going to focus primarily on the copywriting side of a tweet, as opposed to the visual side. The following are proven ways to improve your Twitter marketing and marketing copywriting in general.

1. Front load your keywords.

Let’s face it. People don’t have very long attention spans, even with a 140 character limit. Don’t risk people missing the message and make sure the important detail such as keywords are at the beginning of a tweet.

2. Use hashtags — in moderation.

Hashtags are a great way to join a larger conversation about a particular topic. If possible, convert a normal keyword into a hashtag and for those that don’t fit, place them after a link. I would suggest no more than 2 hashtags per tweet.

3. Use “big brand” handles.

Tagging a large company, especially when sharing their content, is an excellent way to garner attention from big names. You will be surprised how many times major companies will interact with medium to small-sized businesses.

4. Make sure your content is relatable and shareable.

One of the most important elements of Twitter is to ensure your content is shareable and relatable to a larger audience. Make sure you tweet about subjects people care about and love talking about.

5. Keep in mind the “curiosity gap.”

The curiosity gap is what all marketers strive close. What makes people interested enough actually to click, thereby making all this work worth it? The answer is enticing content.

6.Chime into nationally trending conversations.

What’s everyone talking about? #NationalSelfieDay? The Olympics? Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Make your brand have a human voice and speak about human issues. Just try and stay away from controversy if at all possible.

7. Simplify, then simplify again.

Okay, so you have 140 characters. That doesn’t mean you should create every tweet at that amount. You shouldn’t do 130 either. Try to leave enough space that people could “quote tweet” your comment with a simple response. Twitter is all about keeping it simple, so the fewer unnecessary words, the better.

Twitter is a valuable tool in your social media utility belt. Each tweet you send out has the power to draw in a broad audience, and increase engagement. Take your time and craft every tweet carefully!

Need help with Twitter? Contact us! We’ll handle your company’s Twitter account and help you achieve online brand recognition.

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4 Ways Simplicity Is Best For Social Media

4 WAYS SIMPLICITY IS BEST FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
9May

When people log on to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another platform, they are immediately bombarded with enough content to make their head spin. With millions of tweets to read, comments to like, and live videos to stream, just viewing social media could be a full-time job! This, in a nutshell, is why simplicity is key.

People do not have time to try and decipher your message. They like clear-cut, concise ideas that are presented in the most convenient fashion possible. How can your brand adapt this simple philosophy?

Check out these 5 methods of keeping things simple with your online marketing.

1. Short, punchy sentences.

When you are writing social media content, take a step back and try to determine which words are absolutely necessary. Take out anything extra and while you’re at it, replace weak words with stronger ones. This will help your message get across in a reader-friendly fashion.

2. “Iconic” imagery.

A rule of thumb in the world of graphic design is “if your design can’t be recognized when it’s on a billboard and you’re speeding by a 70mph, then it’s not an effective design.” Simplicity is the answer for designers and as such, your visuals should be instantly recognizable as online viewers “speed scroll” through their news feeds.

3. Call to actions.

Don’t make your readers have to go very far to visit your website. Provide a link and most importantly, make sure it takes them to exactly where you want them to go, whether a homepage, landing page, contact form, etc.

4. Numbers and bullets.

Imagine this article without these ideas being broken down into numbered points. It would be just a blocky mess. Breaking down information, specifically blogs and social media articles help your reader to take easy, digestible bites and understand the overarching takeaways.

So, let’s not waste any more time. It’s simple. Get to work on social media marketing!

Need help with social media? Contact us today!

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How To Avoid Writing Clickbait

214124
26Apr
Ah, clickbait. We’ve all seen it, whether it’s part of an online marketing campaign or simply a scam lurking around the web. Most of us have fallen for its trap at least once. If you’re unfamiliar with the term clickbait, you’ve still experienced the practice without even knowing it. It’s essentially social media posts, news article headlines, and online advertisements, that entice the reader to click to learn more information. However, it’s often a veil for low-quality content. If you’re a social media copywriter, it’s a frowned upon practice that needs to be avoided at all costs.
The reason clickbait has such a stigma in the world of copywriting is that it’s disingenuous and frankly, a cheap trick to get engagement. It’s a way to get your audience’s attention and get some interaction with your profile or site, and while that sounds ideal for an online marketer, it makes your brand look illegitimate in the process.
Here are the top 3 signs that a piece of writing is clickbait. Are you copywriters guilty of them? 

1. The Answer Lies Within

“You will never believe what Apple has in store for the new iPhone! Click here to find out.”

Yes, marketers want people to click and interact with their content. But the above example has no substance or “take away.” It’s simply a way to get people to visit your site for the answer. Often times, blogs and companies won’t even have the answer to the question they pose. They will instead utilize the keywords of a trending top, like “Apple” and “new iPhone” and extort it for clicks. While you should always try to incorporate appropriate trending topics, this kind of approach isn’t the best.

2. Explosive Vocabulary

“You’re MISSING OUT on this UNBELIEVABLE sale!”
One of the first rules of sales writing is to use strong verbiage – which makes complete sense if you want to present your brand or product in an appealing light. However, if you use words of such exaggerated magnitude that it looks like you’re a used car salesperson, then you’re going to look like a scam artist very quickly. When you use words like “unbelievable”, “amazing”, and “once in a lifetime”, you’re almost setting your brand up for failure because you’re putting it on a pedestal.

3. Unnecessary Suspense

THIS is what happens if you don’t have your computer files backed up!”

If a cyber security company created a piece of content with the above sentence, they might get a few clicks from interested viewers. However, instead of luring readers to your website, simply present ideas, facts, and honestly up front. Your writing represents your brand’s code of ethics and as such, transparency is key.

While it’s true that clickbait has the power to create short bursts of engagement, your company will suffer from this type of marketing in the long run for the following reasons:

  • Overuse of these tactics will cause your audience to be annoyed and regular customers to question your legitimacy. Would a huge, established company use this type of advertising? Most likely not. Then neither should you!
  • Your bounce rate will go up. A lot of

    clickbaitwill either lead viewers to an irrelevant website, or it will drag the reader down a rabbit hole of sketchy sites until they finally, maybe, get to the article, which will no doubt be riddled with ads and hard to navigate. Because of this, people will spend a VERY short amount of time on your website and then leave. As a result, SEO and social media efforts will suffer.

  • Clickbait has a tendency to attract the wrong audience. This is particularly the case if you “highjack” a trending topic on social media and try to take advantage of it by shoehorning your own content around it. Subtle, powerful, and clear writing is always the way to go.

To the core of every social media and online marketing strategy is writing. Make sure yours is worth reading and clicking! Even though a short and powerful burst brought on by clickbait may be enticing, clickbait will only hurt your marking efforts in the long run because it has a high chance of annoying and turning away customers who will actually turn into conversions.

Your brand deserves effective and professional copy. Contact us today to see what our copywriters can do for you!

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8 Top Tips For Powerful Social Media Writing

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13Oct
What would Shakespeare or Hemmingway say about Twitter? What would Dickens’ or Tolkien’s opinions be about hashtags, likes, and character count?
I think the literary greats would be amazing at writing for social media marketing, albeit with some heavy-duty training. Social media marketing requires creativity, but writers and marketers may have to rewire how they work. The following tips are excellent starting points to become a social media writer.

1. Ultimate efficiency. Even if you aren’t writing for a platform with a character count such as Twitter, you want to be as sharp, precise, and “to the point” as possible. Sorry, there’s no room for a prologue. You need to hit your audience with your message with as little words as possible.

2. Hashtags. What words or phrases do people use to find content such as yours? Do your research. Discover what’s trending and take advantage of the hashtag system with moderation.

3. Buzzwords. Hashtags aren’t the only important words in your social media composition. Make sure you use relevant, searchable words. Try not to be too wordy but rather add words with strength and potential. Each business has different verbiage that should be incorporated. Their industry, location, time of year, subject matter, and type of content will determine which work and which don’t.

4. Hyperlinks. Always leave room for hyperlinks. Your social media updates should be a gateway to more information. I suggest using Hootsuite’s ow.ly links so you can study their effectivity through analytics.

5. Add imagery. Writing for social media marketing isn’t just about words. Your well-crafted sentences need to compliment a piece of imagery. Whether you add a video, picture, GIF, or a simple emoji, you need visuals.

6. Speak in the “we.” A good rule of thumb for Facebook, Twitter, and other updates is never to use “I.” You are, after all, representing your team and brand. This isn’t your story to tell, but rather the business’s that you represent.

7. Have energy. Having energy doesn’t mean you have to be super perky and happy. Instead, make your updates pack a punch with visceral vocabulary. Use exclamation points, question marks and colons. Avoid ending an update with a period as much as possible.

8. Utilize the power of blogging. Does your heart long for a longer format? Your answer is blogging. A company blog can significantly benefit from a blog. There, you’ll be able to post longer pieces of writing, just be sure to promote them with a social media post.

Do you have writer’s block?  Our team of copywriters creates expertly-crafted social media posts every day. Contact us today to see how professional writing can help you.

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