Warming Up to Your Copy Freeze Deadline
If you’re old enough to remember writing on a heavy, anvil-shaped thing called a “typewriter” — well here’s to you, my fellow editorial veteran. Back in the ’80s, at my first newspaper job, we banged out stories on thin yellow typing paper, using Liquid Paper and correction tape to fix our mistakes. “Cut ‘n’ paste” […]
Should Writers Be Industry Experts?
Wordsmithie writers work with clients in a range of industries, including technology, education, finance, healthcare, retail and entertainment, as well as nonprofit organizations. But does a writer need to have experience within the industry to write the content? Should writers be industry experts? The short answer is, it depends. There’s an ongoing debate about whether writers […]
How to Bring Customers Into Your Brand Storytelling
Customers are an integral part of your brand story. In fact, they’re the star attraction. Wordsmithie helps businesses tell their brand stories through their customers’ voices and experiences. These can take the form of short testimonials, longer case studies or feature articles. Customers who’ve benefited from your products or services are often happy to share […]
6 Tips for Avoiding Speedbumps During Copywriting Revisions
There’s an old saying among writers and editors: The best writing is rewriting. At Wordsmithie, we aim to nail our clients’ copy in the very first draft. We spend time up front getting to know your needs, wishes and expectations, so by the time we sit down to write, we understand your audience and message. […]
How to Create an In House Editorial Style Guide
One little comma can create a whole lot of havoc. Whether to use the serial comma—a.k.a. the Oxford comma—before “and” to separate three or more items in text is a hotly debated copyediting topic. Do you prefer apples, oranges, and pears? Or apples, oranges and pears? Proponents say the series comma makes things clearer, while […]
Case studies, White Papers and E-books (Oh My!)
Choosing the right medium for your message Wordsmithie clients have a lot to say, and it’s our pleasure to help them develop articles for their blogs, websites and email newsletters. When they want to extend their industry knowledge and expertise into more in-depth pieces, we help them go long, too. Long or short, it’s important […]
Do Journalists Make Good Marketing Writers?
“We don’t hire journalists.” That’s what one agency told me several years ago, when I was transitioning from magazine journalism into marketing communications. What a difference a few years—and the digital content revolution—makes. Now we’re hearing a lot about brand journalism and journalists being hired as content creators. With the newspaper industry struggling to remain […]
3 Ways to Tap Customers for Content Ideas
Successful businesses and organizations don’t create content that just talks about them. Sure, it’s important to let customers know about your products and services, company mission and history, news and events, etc. But it’s not all about you. It’s about them. A savvy content-marketing plan covers what customers need and want to know from your […]
3 Reasons Why Writing Shorter Takes Longer
If I cut the length of her web articles in half, a client recently asked, could I write “two stories for the price of one?” I explained that it would actually take longer to tell the same story in 350 versus 700 words. That might sound counterintuitive, but not to writers who’ve struggled to convey […]
10 Tips for Conducting Interviews
Whether writing bios for a company website, ghostblogging articles or gathering background info for a case study, writers often don the journalist’s hat and conduct interviews. We interview all kinds of people in marketing communications, from business executives to staff members to consumers. Regular Joes and Janes often make the best interviews, bringing heart and […]