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Social media has been front and center for most marketing managers this year. Don’t overlook basics, though: You still need decent marketing communications writing on your Web site. The folks at MarketingProfs do a magnificent job of conducting webinars and providing material for marketing managers. For about $200/year, you can have your fill of very [...]
The blank page is a big obstacle almost every writer faces on almost every piece. You can play an important role in helping your writer over the hump, and get better writing in the bargain. Every piece that your marketing communications writer sends you started out as a cursor blinking on a completely empty screen. [...]
Are you convinced that you need a white paper, because everybody has them? Don’t weld yourself to a single format for your story; think about other ways of telling it. Jay Baer has an excellent post this week on Info-Snacks, based on the notion of “atomizing” content, in the words of Todd Defren of Shift [...]
Graphics and diagrams are at the heart of good marketing communications, but your writer can’t always make them work for a written piece. The deadline loomed, and still I had no more than an outline from the writer. “What’s taking so long?” I asked. “I think I have writer’s block,” replied the writer. “You don’t [...]
Most of your followers in social media are external, but don’t forget to build a following among your writers as well. As a marketing manager, your social media efforts are mostly outward-facing: start conversations with prospects, curry favor with journalists, keep existing customers engaged and inform investors. Have you tried using social media for internal [...]
White papers – or any long pieces – need structure, and you need to agree on the structure before you write the paper. Be sure your writer includes these elements in an outline. How often do you get started down a path in your work, only to realize you have to backtrack and go down [...]
At its core, the goal of a marketing effort these days is to create a following and start conversations that include you. Hire a writer who understands how you want to go about it. My friend and colleague John Bromhead is fond of saying, Marketing is the process of starting a conversation. David Meerman Scott [...]
Your white papers are good incentive content. If you think nobody’s reading them, maybe it’s because the ideal readers cannot find them. It’s hard not to feel good about having a white paper to give prospects, even harder when you have an entire library of them. If well done, they demonstrate the willingness to align [...]
