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Words, ideas and the odd short story
Thoughts on writing and marketing, real client work, and occasional fiction for a change of pace.
I write about marketing, writing and small business life.
You’ll find practical advice, honest case studies, thoughtful guest posts and the occasional short story for when you’re ready for a break.
How to edit your own marketing content (up to a point)
The first draft of a blog or social media post, or an email to your subscribers, is only the start of the story. Reviewing, editing and refining your work helps you express yourself, show your expertise and connect with your ideal customers. If you’re reading your…
Why good marketing content starts after you stop typing
You’ve written a blog post that will help your ideal customer find you and understand how you can help them. You have a great, eye-catching headline, subheadings to keep everything organised, and a call to action that makes it easy for readers to take the next step….
What’s a scrappy strategy and how can it help your small business?
When I started as a marketing consultant, I would be asked, quite reasonably, ‘What type of marketing do you do?’ and this was often followed by ‘Is it websites, SEO, copywriting?’ No-one ever mentioned marketing strategy. That’s because for non-marketers, marketing…
How to write for humans (and the AI reading over their shoulder)
Writing content that focuses on what your actual human readers need makes it easier for them to find you and gives them something that helps to answer their questions. SEO might rely on an algorithm with a layer of AI, but the words themselves need to focus on the…
Why your SEO needs to be human
Good search engine optimisation (or SEO for short) helps the people who need you find you online. Thankfully, the days of stuffing blog posts with keywords are long gone, but how can you increase your chances of turning up in a Google search in the age of AI? SEO…
How to plan your marketing so you can actually take a break
You’re allowed to take a break and reduce the amount of marketing you do, or even pause it altogether. (If you’re not sure about that, read this first.) You don’t have to keep all your marketing guns blazing all the time. Maintenance mode can keep people engaged while…
Does your marketing stop when you do?
As I write this, I’ve just come back from a brilliant family holiday. My kids are both in secondary school now, and I’m increasingly conscious of the need to make the most of the time I have with them. At the same time, I have a business to run, which means making…
How to write content your ideal customer wants to read
You understand why it’s a good idea to think about your audience when you write marketing content for your small business (and if you don’t, this is for you). You’ve done your research, and you know who your ideal clients are, what they need from you and where to find…
Why knowing your audience changes your marketing
Have you ever written a blog post or a social media update and wondered if anyone reading it actually cares? Deciding what you want to write about is hard enough in the first place without wondering whether you’re just shouting into the void. I get it, even as I’m…
What I Wish I Had Known Before Becoming a Parent
This is the kind of message I wish someone had shared with me before I became a parent. Not to frighten me, and not to make me question whether having children was the right thing to do, but to offer a more honest picture of what parenting can ask of a person…
Can you have personality and still be professional?
What image pops into your head when someone says you need to be professional? It might feel a bit stiff, possibly even boring. You need to be reserved, use formal language, and keep your views out of it. I don’t think so. You can have a personality and still connect…
Does your business have more personality than a big brand?
Have you ever looked at a competitor’s marketing and thought, “I’ll never be able to do that.” You can really feel it when you’re a small business, and they’re a big brand. They have teams of marketers, and you have, well, yourself. They look polished, their posts pop…