Last week I went to Melbourne for the Problogger Training Day to lead the panel on Editorial Strategy with Sonia Simone from Copyblogger and Lucy Feagins from The Design Files. Each of us had quite different experiences with editorial strategy and how it could be applied to both personal and business blogs.

Lucy, Sonia and I talking about editorial strategy

What’s editorial strategy?

Newspapers and magazines have been using editorial strategy to plan the how, what and when of content since publications first started.

Now that we are all publishers (on the internet) editorial strategy is still an important way to ensure your blog (or website, or newsletter, or other content marketing activity) supports your business goals.

Key themes from the panel discussion

It was a great discussion and one I’m sure could have extended for another hour or two.

Key themes which came out of the panel included:

• Know your audience and what they expect from your blog. Lucy uses an annual survey to do this, and then backs it up by monitoring metrics to see which posts are more popular than others, and (as she posts daily) which days of the week are more popular.
• Think about post topics in advance and use an editorial calendar to keep track of what’s going to be written when. Think about holidays and celebrations, seasons, or major sporting events that may be relevant for your blog.
• Stay flexible enough to still post about hot topics in your niche, or events you hadn’t planned for. The whole day had a strong theme of balancing blogging from the heart with blogging strategically.
• If you have other contributors to your blog, have some editorial guidelines so the voice and personality of your blog stays true.
• An editorial strategy can help you come up with ideas for posts by breaking larger ideas into smaller chunks of content.  It can also help with SEO as you can build a number of posts around a particular topic (or set of keywords).

An editorial strategy can be as simple or as complex as your needs. For personal bloggers, it may be a simple list of post ideas. For bigger sites it may be a more complex road map of deadlines, approvals and costings. Sonia said she used an editorial calendar plugin to map out posts at Copyblogger up to 12 weeks in advance. She also provided some fantastic insight into how editorial strategy works at Copyblogger, including how they link post topics with other products and services that are in the Copyblogger Media stable.

If you’re interested in what some of the other panels covered, Annabel Candy live blogged a number of the sessions including the one I was on.

Do you use an editorial strategy in your business?

If you don’t already have an editorial strategy for your business, why don’t you get in contact with me so I can help you write one?

This week I went to a pantry tour at Black Pearl Epicure. It was for Brisbane Food Bloggers, and although I don’t have a food blog I figured I really do love food and was very keen to learn more about it.

The demonstration was hosted by Black Pearl’s founder Babak Hadi, and was simply amazing.  Babak took about 30 of us through the ins and outs of extra virgin olive oil, different vinegars (including aged balsamic – yum!), salts, chocolate, saffron, vanilla, and cheese.

We all left with a full belly and a better appreciation of how these staple ingredients are made.

So what does this have to do with writing?

The stand out of the night (in my mind) was Babak’s knowledge and passion for his products. He was really interesting to listen to, was very confident in what he was saying, and had answers for a couple of curly questions that were asked.

This knowledge and passion are the foundation for successful sales.

1. Know your product

Babak explained everything from how extra virgin olive oil was made, to the fermenting process of balsamic vinegar.

You should know your business and your products that well too. Describe it in your sales pages, detail it in your customer service info – show your customers that you’ve taken the time to learn.

2. Understand how your customers will use your product

Throughout the demonstration, Babak related all information to how we would use the products ourselves. This is a great technique for selling as we all were picturing using the product in our own kitchen before any purchase had been made.

Unfortunately, this is an area where I see many businesses fail. There are a lot of business owners who are really out of touch with their customers – make sure you aren’t one of them!

3. Love using your product

Sure the foods we sampled were all top-notch, but Babak has a genuine love for using them all. When you are excited about your own products or services, it acts as a reinforcement for potential customers. The old “I’ll have what he’s having” mindset.

So after all that eating (erm, learning), what did I buy? Check it out:

Note: I did get some chocolate too, but it was gone before I took this picture!

Are you passionate about your products? Share your thoughts below.

Working with a copywriter for the first time can be daunting. Writing is very personal, and having an external person write about your business (your baby) takes a lot of trust and communication.

And to be honest, the actual writing is only one component of a much larger relationship. Get these other components right and the words will come much easier.

Completing the brief

I’ve talked about the importance of a good client brief as a key component of a successful copywriting project. Keep in mind that you know  your business best, and it may take a lot of questions and discussion for me to get my head around what you do, what makes your business so special, and who your customers are. If you don’t know the answers to some of the questions – be truthful. We can work through it together.

Allowing enough time

A rushed job is never good. As soon as you know you have a project, make contact so I can add it to my schedule. The more time I have to prepare and write, the better the outcome for everyone. It doesn’t mean that I’ll necessarily take longer to write your content, it just means I can spread it out and have enough time to refine  it.

Providing feedback

I like happy clients. I want you to be happy with the work I do. I want you to let me know what works and what doesn’t work. I want you to tell me why. It’s all about communication. Don’t be afraid to say what you think – I want the best outcome for the project just as much as you do.

Paying the invoice

My invoices are due within 14 days of the date of issue. If you know that your accounting department doesn’t work that quickly, please let me know before I start so I can plan accordingly. It may mean that I ask for a deposit up front, or issue more frequent invoices along the way.

What are your experiences? Please share them below.

If you are ready to take the plunge and work with a copywriter for the first time, contact me to arrange a quote.

I’ve got a sneaky little side project on the go. Very exciting.

Without giving anything away, it has something to do with books. Real books.

My question to you is:

What’s your favourite copywriting, usability, information architecture, writing for the web, or content strategy book?

Let me know.

I’ve knocked back a couple of jobs this week. Not because they didn’t sound interesting (actually one would have been really interesting), or because the brief wasn’t complete.

No, it was the deadline. Both had a deadline of this Friday. Neither were small jobs, and the content had to be written from scratch.

And (without sounding too big-headed) I’m pretty busy at the moment. With clients who booked me in weeks (and months) ago.

So why do people get caught out? I think it’s because they underestimate the time it takes to create great content. They often give it (the writing) a go first, then realise at the last minute that they need help.

Why I need time to write

Content creation involves far more than just typing words into a document. I also need time for:

• Making sure I have a comprehensive brief before I start anything. This may involve a lot of back and forth over email, the phone, or for big projects I will require a face-to-face briefing session.
• Extra research. I will look at competitors’ sites, industry sites, blogs – whatever is relevant for the project. I also have a fantastic collection of books that I’ll often refer to.
• Leaving the work and coming back to it later with fresh eyes. I rarely sit down and write a complete project in one go. Often I’ll start a draft, leave it, come back to it, leave it, then finally polish it before I’m happy for the client to see it.
• Revisions. I have a one revision policy – clients receive a draft, they provide feedback, and then I send a final version. If a lot of people need to provide feedback, this process takes time.

So, if you are currently planning a new website, a newsletter or something else you would like me to work on please contact me now so I can give your project the time it deserves. Because great content takes time to write.

As part of my initial quoting process, I ask all clients to complete my client brief. Some do this with ease, others find it more difficult as some of the questions in the brief include:

• What are your unique selling points?
• Who is your target audience?
• What do you want you call to action to be?
• What is the personality of your business?
• What is the objective of the copy?

Most of the time after a telephone call these questions can be answered. After one such phone call, a client said to me:

Hey, you should offer this as a service!

What a great idea.

So now I have added content workshops to the range of services provided by Snappy Sentences. They will be almost like an extended briefing session, but I will write a report at the end for clients to keep and use for other communication activities too.

I’ll go through (and document) things like:

• The target audience of the site.
• The language and tone to be used.
• Key messages and calls to action.

So what do you think? Would this be the type of service you would find useful?

A simple style guide is a must for any business – no matter how big or small.

Head over to www.snobs.com.au for my new post on developing a style guide for your business.

On Wednesday night I attended a Networx event called Marketing on a shoestring budget. It was a great night and I think everyone in the crowd learned some good tips and tricks to make a small marketing budget go further.

One idea that wasn’t really expanded on though was the value of good content. I think that if you are going to go to the effort of pulling together a website, some direct mail outs, or even a decent business card (which were all items given the thumbs up), then don’t forget that the right words can really seal the deal.

Hiring a professional copywriter – even for a few hours – can make a huge difference to your brand. We can help you focus your call to action, define a personality for your business, or even simply set up a style guide for you to follow when you write material yourself. In fact, a style guide is one of the most overlooked tools for a small business. Consistency in the way you write sends a message to your potential clients that you are professional and organised – qualities that are good for business!

What are your value-for-money marketing tools?

It’s officially the downhill slide to the end of the year. The first Christmas party invites are starting to filter through, the weather is getting hotter and hotter (around here anyway), and there is a last minute push to get things done before everyone goes on holidays.

The savvy ones out there are also starting to think about their content needs for 2010. While it may be hard to do (with all the frivolity on the horizon), start having a think about:

• What blog topics would you like to cover? Do some brainstorming and map out what you are going to cover for at least the first six months. You can always be flexible (if something more timely or exciting crops up), but having a schedule makes it far less intimidating to keep up to date with posts.
• What special events do you want to target with your business. Mother’s Day? Easter? The local show? If you plan ahead, you’ll give yourself enough lead time to write some cracking content to attract customers and generate sales.
• Who really is your target market? If you haven’t done so already, start analysing your website traffic and metrics, develop some personas of your different types of visitors and target them with specific content.
• Train your staff. We run some great Writing for the web workshops – contact us to find out more.

Small steps such as these will help prepare you for the year ahead. Then you’ll really be able to enjoy all those Christmas parties!

What will be on your content to-do list for 2010?

I’ve been having some problems with Technorati, basically because I’ve changed my blog URL since joining. The site doesn’t seem to pick up my new blog posts, so after much trial and error I am deleting my claim and re-claiming www.snappysentences.com/blog

To get this to work, they need a piece of code. Here it is: fvdq67ky8x

Fingers crossed this works