Category: blog writing

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What can Santa’s workshop teach you about copywriting?

He's made a list and is checking it twice. What else can Santa's workshop teach you about copywriting?

There’s something magical about the idea of a snow-covered workshop at the North Pole, where Santa supervises his elves as they make toys and get ready to load the sleigh on Christmas Eve. You might not think Santa’s workshop has much to do with copywriting, but I love thinking of ways to add a bit of magic to people’s lives and help them reach their goals. I don’t think Father Christmas would get very far without some hard work and efficient processes.

Here are some things I reckon Santa’s workshop can teach you about copywriting.

Make a list and check it twice

Santa checks his list twice, and I’m betting he double-checks every name label too. Mistakes can happen, but every good copywriter has a system to help avoid them.

I do my best work when I let the words flow without second-guessing myself too much. If I agonise over each word, everything grinds to a halt, and I end up with clunky paragraphs. No one wants that. Instead, I write a first draft, read it back, edit it and run it through my grammar-checking tool. This helps avoid mistakes and cuts out unnecessary fluff.

Wrap your gift perfectly

A beautifully wrapped gift adds to the Christmas excitement by adding some magic when you start opening presents on Christmas morning. You can do the same with your writing by finding ways to make it more visually attractive.

Even if you leave image creation to graphic designers, there are ways to make your words look better and encourage people to keep reading. Giant blocks of text feel daunting, so write short paragraphs and break them up with subheadings and bullet points.

Recruit your elves

Have you ever noticed how we only mention the toymaker elves when we talk about Santa’s workshop? They can’t be the only ones. What about the elves who get the sleigh through its MOT or the ones who feed the reindeer? There must be quality control or gift-wrapping elves somewhere.

Finding the right elves for each job helps you focus on what you do best. Even a relatively simple blog post can be a team effort with a writer, designer and editor. Building a team of people with different strengths helps you get better results.

Get the timing right

I saw a calculation that estimates Santa delivers presents to 526 million households on Christmas Eve, which defies the laws of physics. Getting to all those houses while it’s dark and the children inside are sleeping is quite a feat. The timing has to be spot on.

The same goes for copywriting. Deadlines matter, especially if you’re counting down to an important date like Christmas Day. Some of your products or services might be seasonal, and you want to give your customers plenty of notice to place their orders. A content calendar can help you track important dates and include a countdown to make sure you get everything done.

Spread some Christmas cheer

OK, this one reminds me of ‘Elf’, but I’m not going to sing to you unless you’re standing next to me at a concert. A magical man bringing wonderful gifts to children is a lovely idea. (Let’s overlook the implications of a stranger letting himself into kids’ bedrooms for now.)

Good copywriting doesn’t always evoke joyful feelings but should connect with your customers’ emotions. Using storytelling and emotional words shows people you understand their feelings, which helps them connect with you and become customers.

I never thought I’d have so much in common with Santa! I hope these tips help you find the right words to connect with your customers all year round. If you’d like me on your team, email me to arrange a chat or book a Zoom call here. I’ll get to know you and your business and write words that sound like the best version of you.

Also, you can just sign up here for helpful writing tips straight to your inbox and the chance to win a free copy makeover in the new year!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

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Do you want to tell a good marketing story?

Image shows a blank page waiting for a good marketing story

Once upon a time, our ancestors gathered around fires to tell stories that kept them alive. It bonded the tribe so they’d all look after each other and know to watch out for that scary-looking tiger that came ‘this close’ to eating the storyteller. (I imagine it as the prehistoric version of ‘the one that got away’ after a fishing trip.) Sharing stories still helps us connect with other people, and that’s what marketing is all about. So, here are my tips on how to tell a good marketing story.

Choose a structure

Good stories have a structure that helps you understand what to expect. Starting a story with ‘once upon a time’ can be comforting if it’s a bedtime story or unexpected if it’s a LinkedIn post. Your story structure depends on whether you share a case study explaining how you solved a problem and the process or a post about a personal decision.

Jumping in at the most dramatic part of the story hooks your reader, and you can fill in the details later. Writing bullet points can help if you’re unsure where to start.

What does your story say about you?

A good marketing story shares your expertise but can also let your customers get to know you. When you write, ask yourself what the story says about you. You don’t have to be perfect; it’s better if you aren’t. Telling your audience about a mistake or a challenge and what you learned from it makes you more relatable because we all slip up sometimes.

I once agreed to work with a client because I needed the money, ignoring the alarm bells that told me they weren’t trustworthy. After several stressful months in which I did far more work than we’d agreed, they disputed my invoices. It taught me to pay attention to the red flags and do better research into potential new clients.

The ‘so what?’ test

It’s a harsh truth that your customers care more about themselves than they care about you. You might tell a highly personal story in your marketing, and the response could be a resounding ‘So what?  Before you start, ask yourself what your audience will get from your story. Do you have shared experiences that will resonate? Have you solved a problem like theirs before? It could simply show them that you’re easy to talk to.

Start gathering stories

What stories could you share from your own life? They could be personal or business-related, but you should be able to create a business link to pass the ‘so what?’ test. I once set the satnav to take me to a shop on the outskirts of town. I’d visited before but was approaching it from a different direction. The satnav told me I needed to go straight on, but that felt wrong. Then, I looked up and saw a massive sign on the road to my left. It reminded me that sometimes, in business, you should follow your gut rather than a road map someone else has created.

If you want to tell a good marketing story, I can help.

When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business. I’ll suggest topic ideas if you need them, and we’ll spend half an hour a month (or longer if you prefer) chatting about your business and our latest topic. Then, I’ll write a post that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. To find out more, email me to arrange a chat or book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and you could win a free copy makeover.

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What do beginners need to know about what you do?

What do beginners need to know about what you do?

You’re an expert at what you do, so it might be hard to remember when you were a beginner. However, when new people see your content, a few of them will probably be completely new to the kind of work you do. It’s worth thinking about ways to talk to them, so ask yourself: what do beginners need to know about what you do?

What knowledge helps people work with you?

Does your business help beginners, or is there an entry point that makes your working relationship easier? For example, selling a product is often quicker and easier if your customers know exactly what they need.

I don’t do marketing strategy, so I love it when people come to me with plans or already know their customers well. I can help with topics, but they’ve done the groundwork and know what they want their marketing to achieve.

What information can you share?

If your business offers training, your content can share your knowledge and give your customers a taste of the training they’ll receive. Even if you don’t train people, your marketing can educate them about what will help them work with you. For example, I talk about ways to get to know your ideal customer even though it’s not part of my core service.

Sharing the basics in a short guide or quick tips can also give your audience the confidence to contact you without worrying they’ll sound stupid or ask silly questions.

Use lead magnets

Lead magnets encourage people to sign up for your email list and can work in the same way as the rest of your content. A lead magnet doesn’t have to be complicated; the shorter, the better. The idea is to offer your audience valuable information that gives them a quick win when they put it into practice.

Creating a lead magnet that helps beginners who may want to work with you also means you only spend time emailing people who could be genuine customers.

Create products

You don’t always have to give information away for free. You can offer products even if you offer a one-to-one service like I do. For example, if you have a craft business, you might write about different craft techniques, equipment and how to get started. You can also create a beginner’s kit with a simple project, materials, and instructions that help customers learn and build confidence.

My version of this is in my eBooks, which include ideas for your content marketing and your Christmas posts.

Team up with other businesses

This is one of my favourite ways to work. Collaborating with businesses related to yours but that don’t offer the same service helps you reach a wider audience. You can share guest blogs on each other’s websites and social media feeds, organise joint events, or refer your clients to each other.

This approach can make your clients’ lives easier. If you’re a wedding photographer with a network of other wedding professionals, recommending people can save your clients time and stress. I work with marketing consultants and trainers, graphic designers, and web designers so our clients don’t have to build a whole team from scratch when they start a new project.

If you have a plan but lack the time or energy to turn it into new marketing content, I can help. I’ll write blogs, posts, emails, and whatever else you need to engage your audience. Head to my shop for eBooks with marketing inspiration. If you’d like to chat about how it works, you can book a call here.

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Can you create a new angle on an old marketing idea?

Image shows me sitting at my laptop, coming up with a new marketing angle on an old idea.

If you’ve been creating marketing content for a while, you might feel like you’ve said it all. (I know I sometimes do.) However, your existing content can be a great source of new ideas. Here are some ways to find a new marketing angle on an old idea.

Revisit an old post

What do you see when you look back at your old blog or social media posts? Do they make you cringe because you’ve changed or learned more about your audience since you created them? You might find posts discussing issues that are still relevant but where your advice has changed. You can base a whole new post on the same topic, sharing the knowledge you’ve gained since then, and it’ll still be relevant to your audience.

Update a resources post

Sharing the tools you use can help your audience in multiple ways. Say you run a craft business selling tools and materials; showing people what you use yourself can help beginners and improvers. A hairdresser can share products and tools to help customers maintain their locks between appointments. I talk about software such as Grammarly, which helps me with my grammar, so you can use it when you write your own posts.

Expand a subheading

If you’ve ever written a post with some quick and easy tips, review it to see if you can expand on one of the subheadings. For example, some of my posts on writing a blog mention creating a good headline to catch people’s attention as a subheading. I expanded it into a full post on ways to do that. (https://www.kirstyfrancewrites.co.uk/write-a-headline-tips/)

You may have kept things short and sweet for a tips post, but expanding a subheading lets you share more of your expertise. You can also link between the two posts to improve your SEO.

Have industry updates changed how you work?

Looking back at old content, you might find that your advice has changed because of external changes in your industry. ChatGPT has impacted marketing, so you could create a post discussing the issues or recommending ways to use the technology. (https://www.kirstyfrancewrites.co.uk/ai-help-content-writing/)

There may also have been changes in the law that impact your customers and that you can educate them about. Legal changes might also mean people need to review their will or investments. You can contact existing clients, but sharing updates in your marketing could attract new ones.

Create new case studies

Case studies are a great way to show potential customers how you work and showcase the results you’ve achieved for others. When you review existing case studies, you might find that your process has changed with time or that you haven’t talked about a service that has grown in popularity. Creating new case studies with more recent clients ensures your content stays up to date. If you have business clients who are happy to go public and share that they’ve worked with you, it can be a great marketing opportunity for you both.

If you have a page full of ideas but lack the time or energy to turn them into new marketing content, I can help. I’ll write blogs, posts, emails, and whatever else you need to engage your audience. I’ll even look at your existing content to create new marketing ideas. If you’d like to chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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How to use your FAQs for new content ideas

Image shows question marks representing FAQs to help you create new content ideas.

If you’ve ever run out of ideas, think about the questions you’re asked most often and write a blog or social media post to answer them. Your FAQs can be a great source of ideas, as if people are asking you in person, they’re likely searching for answers online, too.

Here are a few ways to turn your FAQs into new content ideas.

Expand the answers to your existing FAQs

Do you already have an FAQ page on your website? If not, think about creating one. The rest of this post should help you come up with ideas if you’re drawing a blank. If you’ve already got a page with short answers, you can share them as social media posts or expand them into a longer blog post or article.

For example, there may be a story behind why you take a particular approach, or you could expand on a process to let people know what to expect.

Link to your FAQ page

Linking between pages on your website is excellent for SEO and gives your visitors a choice about how much they want to read. For some people, a short answer might be enough, and they don’t want to wade through several paragraphs to find out what they want to know. Others might be interested in a more in-depth answer, so you can link from your FAQ page to a blog post to give them more information.

Check your client meeting notes

I make notes of every client meeting so I can remember what questions they asked, what information I gave them and what I need to remember to send afterwards. Sometimes, a potential customer might not get in touch because they’re afraid of asking a silly question. Answering the queries you’ve already had helps them to relax because they know what to expect.

If you don’t speak with new clients one-on-one, review your emails or messages to see what comes up regularly.

What do you hear at networking events?

You may have noticed that I network a lot. I always keep my ears open to understand what people struggle with because I can include details that show I understand my customers’ lives and provide tailored information about how I can help them.

Whether you attend in-person events or network online via Zoom or social media groups, see what questions and comments come up to see if they inspire a new topic idea.

Create a knowledge base

Sharing your knowledge is incredibly powerful as it shows your customers the benefits of your service and that you know what you’re talking about. It can also save you time. If a new client comes to you knowing that they need a particular product or service, it means you don’t have to answer lots of questions to help them make the right choice.

You could write about different products or explain how something works. For example, I write for an insurance broker and we create lots of different knowledge posts about how life cover or health insurance works. Their clients get to know the basics and then come to them for detailed advice.

If you’ve got a page full of ideas but lack the time or energy to turn them into new marketing content, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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Why is a human content writer better than an AI?

Why is a human content writer better than an AI?
Image by Julie Grant Photography

AI can be a helpful tool when you write content marketing, but a human writer will give you better results in some situations. An AI can help you plan or develop ideas (and yes, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions for this post). When is a human content writer better than an AI? Read on to find out.

Humans are more creative

An AI only gets information from online sources, which can make its content a bit generic. If you use AI for ideas, you can put your spin on them to make them unique.

An AI won’t change its tone of voice in the way that a human content writer can. It’ll typically use the same writing style, although you can ask it to mimic someone. (My son once asked ChatGPT to rewrite something he’d written in the style of a Donald Trump speech. The results were hilarious and accurate.)

Humans have emotional intelligence

Powerful writing engages your reader’s emotions and makes them feel understood. You understand the feelings that motivate your customers to work with you. Your marketing can show that you know how they feel now and how those feelings will change when you’ve worked together. It could be something as simple as offering home delivery or having a big car park so they don’t have to deal with the stress of finding a parking space. An AI wouldn’t understand that, but a human content writer does.

A human content writer can understand your audience

An AI can help identify potential concerns among your audience. However, it can’t write content that helps you form a personal connection. Your audience might want a serious take on a subject or prefer something more light-hearted.

An AI won’t get to know you and understand the language you use to talk about a subject, but a human content writer will. If you serve a niche audience which uses specific terms or references, you can find a writer who understands your niche in a way an AI won’t.

Talking about sensitive subjects

Some topics are hard to talk about. Your work might involve conversations about illness, death, or other painful personal experiences. You might offer a service that helps people prepare for the worst, such as will writing or life insurance. Marketing means discussing topics your audience might rather ignore, and your language must reflect that.

You might need to share stories about others and decide how much information you can reveal without compromising their privacy. An AI can’t choose for you or even act as a sounding board in the way a human writer can.

We can speak from personal experience

Your story can be compelling when it comes to attracting new clients. You might have started your business because you wanted to help others in the same situation. I often work with other mums because we all balance business and family life, and I understand how that works. That wouldn’t happen if I didn’t talk about my children in my marketing. Speaking from personal experience creates a human connection. An AI is more objective, so it can’t offer that.

If you want to work with an actual human to create engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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How can AI help your content writing?

I know you probably expect a writer like me to react to any mention of AI the way that Dracula might respond to someone brandishing a cross in his face. Basically, hissing and hiding my face. However, it’s becoming more of a feature in the content writing landscape, and I can’t ignore it. I’ve even found myself using it a bit. So, how can AI help your content writing? Read on to find out.

How can AI help your content writing? I might be hiding from the answers!

It’s excellent for topic suggestions

When you’ve been in business for a while, it can feel like your marketing has covered everything you could possibly talk about. You’ll have new followers who won’t have read it all before, but you still want to create something fresh.

You can ask ChatGPT for original ways to talk about your product or service, which will give you a list. They might not all be usable, but some will, and it could inspire you to come up with more.

It can come up with new and unexpected angles

Sometimes, writing new content involves presenting the same information in new ways or from a different angle. You can create beginner guides and tips for people with more experience or choose a particular interest group. If you serve more than one type of person, their needs will vary, and you can write for both groups.

AI can help you find new angles, so ask something like “Who would be interested in x and why?” and see what it suggests.

You can use it to mash two ideas together

You might have a great idea for an analogy but struggle to make it work in practice. Writing a blog post could be a bit like cooking a meal. You need the right ingredients, cooking techniques and a big serving dish… wait, where was I going with this?

I could ask ChatGPT to explain how writing a blog post is like cooking a Sunday roast to get the juices flowing.

It can help you get your brain unstuck

Sometimes, you need to translate jargon so your audience can understand it. You try to write an explanation, and your brain goes blank.

When that happens, head to your favourite AI and ask, “How can I explain x in layman’s terms?” The answer might not be a perfect explanation, but it can give you some phrases to use as a starting point.

How can’t AI help your content writing?

AI can be helpful in the right circumstances, but it’s a bit rubbish at human emotion. You know, the stuff that helps you connect with your audience and shows them who you are. As a small business, your personality and values help you stand out from other businesses offering the same type of product or service. That’s why you still need to write your own words or work with someone like me, who’ll get to know you and put your personality into your content.

If you want to work with an actual human to create engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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Want to create engaging content? Look at your numbers

Engaging content is about more than words - you need to look at your numbers too.

You might not think words and numbers have much in common, apart from co-existing on a school curriculum. However, your analytics can tell you a lot about what content is striking a chord with your audience and helping you achieve your business goals. Here’s my guide to help you look at your numbers and write engaging content.

Plan your business goals

I’m not going to tell you how to set business goals. For one thing, it’s not my department. For another, your version of success might look very different from mine. However, when you’ve decided what targets you want to hit next year, think about what your marketing needs to do to achieve that. Do you need to reach more people, improve your social media engagement or increase your email subscribers? Knowing where you want people to go helps you focus on the right platforms.

Look at your numbers

You can use your marketing analytics to work out what’s working in terms of the marketing platforms you use and the type of content you create. Reviewing your numbers helps you see what’s working so you can do more of it or tweak things to test a different approach. When you talk about your business, some posts get a better response than others, often due to the language you use.

Remember that what your audience responds to can change over time; regular reviews help you stay up to date.

Think about keywords

I’m hearing more marketing professionals say that SEO is getting less effective. While that’s probably true, there’s still a place for it. Google is the first place many of us ask questions, and if you offer a service in your local area, there are still plenty of people searching ‘service + town’.

So, look at your website analytics. What keywords attracted the most visitors? Where did they go next? Did they leave or visit another page? Look at keywords, but think about the customer journey, too. When people land on your website, what do you want them to do next?

Are your sales pages working?

As the name suggests, sales pages focus on selling one product. Everything on there should be targeted towards persuading someone to decide to buy. If you’re getting lots of visitors but not many sales, look at your language. Does it help your customers understand how buying from you will help them? Does it focus on their needs or your product? If you have some sales pages that work while others don’t, compare the words. Spotting the differences can help you update existing pages to improve their performance.

Social media engagement

If reaching your goals means getting more eyes on your content, look at your social media reach and engagement. Reach is good as it means the algorithm shows your stuff to more people. When your followers engage with a post, it’ll also start showing your posts to more of their friends.

Check your analytics to see which posts got lots of reactions and comments. It shows that the post struck a chord and that you used engaging language. You can create more posts with similar subjects and analyse your tone of voice. Are you using a different style on different posts, and how does that affect the response?

If you want to write engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Or, for regular writing tips straight to your inbox, sign up using the form below. I’m a vegetarian so I hate spam and I’ll never share your details with anyone else.

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Why are good headlines important?

A newspaper with good headlines

You might associate the word ‘headline’ with a newspaper or online article, but you use them everywhere in your marketing. They’re the title of your blog posts, the subject line in your emails and even your social media posts have a line at the top that’s the first thing your readers will see. Good headlines can determine whether your marketing hits the spot with your audience. Read on to find out why…

Headlines catch people’s attention

OK, this is the most obvious reason for creating good headlines. They’re designed to intrigue potential readers so that they want to know more. That could be because you’re offering the solution to a problem or because you’ve teased some juicy secret they must know about. It makes them look twice and tempts them to read the rest.

I have one important caveat – a good headline isn’t misleading. This brings me to…

Good headlines let your readers know what to expect

Clickbait may work for some businesses, but small businesses like ours need to build trust. A clear headline that lets your reader know what they’ll get from your content helps you do that. It also allows your audience to decide whether it’s worth their time. That way, when they click through, they know that you’re providing tips or advice they can use.

Even if people don’t read the whole post, it gives them a clear impression of what you do and what your business offers.

They can express a particular mindset

Have you ever stood and looked at a newspaper and magazine display in a shop? Each publication could be talking about the same subject or news story, but they all do it differently. The headlines they use help you understand their political viewpoint or the issues they care about.

Your headlines can do the same; they can help you attract customers with a similar worldview to you or tell them something about your personality, so they’ll know whether you’re their kind of person.

Headlines are great for SEO

Headlines work to boost your search engine rankings in two different ways. Firstly, the fact that you have a headline tells Google that your content is well-organised and likely to be helpful.

Secondly, you can include keywords in your headlines. Then, when search engines look at your site, they can immediately tell what your subject is. That means when someone asks a question with your keywords, they know your content is relevant to that search.

Good headlines = more clicks

When you create marketing, you want people to read it, and a good headline encourages them to do that. That doesn’t just apply to content you created to educate your audience. It can help you to get new sign-ups to your email list and more sales. A headline can make it clear that you’re selling something and give your audience insight into the benefits of your product or service so they click through to find out more and ultimately buy from you.

Do you want to grab your audiences’ attention and create content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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Case study: writing a blog for Goldfinch Marketing’s client

Image shows a pile of magazines and a laptop with the kind of project that Goldfinch Marketing got to work on when I started writing a blog for their client.

One of my favourite things about my work is the chance to learn about the different ways that creative people work. I loved art at school, but I know that there are artists and designers out there that are far better at creating visuals than I am. Hand me a pen and a notebook, and I’m happy. I don’t panic in the face of a drawing pad and pencil, but I might not show the results to anyone. It makes me happy when I see work from people who can make stuff look beautiful.

This means that I was thrilled when I met Christina from Goldfinch Marketing. She creates gorgeous designs, and she’s also brilliant at techy stuff. It all comes together in beautiful websites that Google will love as much as your customers do. She’s also very good at writing; in fact, she’s so talented I would hate her if she wasn’t also lovely.

This may have you wondering why she’d need me, a writer when she’s already good at writing. Read on…

The pandemic

I met Christina during lockdown when everyone was virtual networking; some of us were home-schooling too. She’s based in Dorset, so the chances of us running into each other in person were virtually non-existent. Like many of us, Christina had taken some time during lockdown to evaluate her business and work out what she wanted to spend her time doing.

She’d started Goldfinch Marketing to help her clients with all their marketing needs, whether that was a new website, graphic design or content writing. Her review told her that she loved web design and graphics work but didn’t want to do content writing anymore. That’s where I came in.

The project

Christina had gradually reduced the amount of content writing she took on, but she still wrote blogs for one client. She told me they were lovely people she enjoyed working for and didn’t want to let them down. At the same time, she wanted to free up some time for other projects, so she wanted to see if I could take over writing a blog for them.

Of course I could. Writing their blog was right up my street; they’re a business offering a professional service, so they needed to share their expertise but didn’t want to be stuffy. I read the posts that Christina had already written to follow the same style and suggested some new topics. I also wrote social media edits for each blog post so that the individual paragraphs would work as standalone posts. The client was still happy, and Christina had time for other things.

If you need a new website, I recommend checking out Christina’s work here. Alternatively, if you want to outsource your content writing, either for yourself or one of your clients, let’s have a chat. You can book a call with me here.