If you’re familiar with this particular chill down the spine, then you probably need an editorial calendar. List your anticipated needs for content over the coming months or quarters, and then distribute that list among your marketing professionals. Your creative folks will always know which assignments are coming up and when, and you’ll have eliminated the “Oops, I forget to tell you” factor on your end.

In fact, it’s smart to have multi-stage editorial calendars for collaborative pieces such as direct mail postcards or newsletters, with separate schedules for idea submission, graphic design, copywriting, revision and publication. The whole project then comes together with Swiss-watch precision, and your team can roll right onto the next job. For example, a mortgage firm sent me a 12-month editorial calendar in January that showed me quite clearly what marketing pieces I’d be writing come December. As a result, we had a year’s worth of email blasts and direct mail postcards ready to go before Spring had sprung.

Of course there will be times when you need to respond quickly to current events. But that’s okay. You don’t have to give your freelancers license to bull ahead with a year’s worth of stuff. Just ask them to keep an eye on the upcoming month or quarter with a “subject to change” disclaimer. It’s much easier to change something that exists than something that doesn’t, and if you have no editorial calendar in place everyone’s just operating on the fly. This can hurt you if your freelancers are non-exclusive, because without prior knowledge they may be working on another gig when you need them.

If you’re a marketing firm ghost-blogging for multiple clients, then you face another obvious challenge. How can you prepare articles months in advance if you can’t always get your clients to send you the necessary background information in a timely manner? Here’s where you hedge your bets by adding alternate titles to the mix — pre-approved, evergreen topics that you can always fall back on. As publication time draws near, if you can’t get the intake on time, go to Plan B. Your copywriter composes the alternate title, you post it on time, and everybody’s happy.

Editorial calendars can make the difference between a last-minute scramble and a calm, smooth ride for your marketing campaign. Create yours today — and then assign the writing to me!

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

We all fall into jargon from time to time. It exists for a reason, and it can be highly useful or even necessary among those in the know. Car buffs debate issues involving torque and fuel ratios, composers pepper their language with Italian musical phrases, electricians casually drop terms such as “resistance” and “capacitor,” and physicists no doubt talk like time-traveling refugees from Star Trek: the Next Generation. It’s only natural for people in the same profession to talk shop. The problem comes when the engineer or the musician or the IT expert suddenly has to speak to a general audience. We’re listening, but we just don’t understand. And after a few minutes of not understanding, we’re no longer listening either.

The problem isn’t limited to industry-specific terminology, either. I’m often asked to rewrite or edit content written by people who work in a more general business field, and I still have to spend half the project time figuring out what the heck these folks are trying to say. A lot of it tends toward the nebulous, stuff about “aligning verticals and utilizing granular compartmentalization to achieve a more impactful synergy,” yadda yadda yadda. Business-speak is a way for people to talk a lot without saying much. But if you’re trying to sell yourself or your product/service to a mainstream audience, don’t be shocked if you’re rewarded by the sound of crickets chirping.

As a first step in clearing up your verbiage, try to avoid jargony words that ordinary language can handle perfectly well, such as “agreeance” (agreement) and “incentivize” (spur, motivate). And watch out for whiz-bang phrases that describe something that isn’t really that amazing, such as “results-oriented.” (You’d never guess how many business professionals think it a huge feather in their caps to describe themselves or their company as “result-oriented.” As opposed to what, “sitting-around-doing-nothing-oriented?”) “Full-service” is another phrase I’ve attacked on this blog before. (Ever hear a company describe itself as “partial service?”) Finally, don’t overuse the relatively simple, easy-to-understand buzzwords just because they aren’t as likely to whoosh us — for instance, not everything has to be a “driver” for something else. (I see that one a lot too.) Get a thesaurus and give another word or two a chance. We’ve got lots of them.

If you’re not sure you can veer away from industry lingo, or you can’t tell how accessible your stuff is to your intended audience, get a professional copywriter or copyeditor to go over it for you. You may get a revised version that makes you exclaim, “Oh, so that’s what I was saying!”

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

For example, this article is being posted on Christmas Day, but of course it isn’t likely to get a lot of eyeball traffic today. It may not get much more attention tomorrow, either, as people continue to enjoy their time away from the office or engage in the mad scramble to return or exchange gifts (an epic struggle that merits its own Hollywood title — Christmas: The Return). Even so, this post, this little chunk of branding, is right here for whoever does see it. I’m displaying marketing activity, therefore I still exist. I blog, therefore I am.

Want to keep your marketing wheels turning and still enjoy a much-deserved break? Then plan for it. Engage your copywriters, designers and consultants early enough to construct the December leg of your marketing campaign well in advance. Many of my clients fast-tracked their December requests for just this reason. They knew I wasn’t going to be around that week, they knew they weren’t going to be around either, but they also knew that their business needed to maintain a degree of visibility and marketing consistency. The sooner you communicate with your marketing professionals, the better off you’ll be heading into January.

And speaking of January – have you got your 2012 marketing campaign ready for action? I have several clients who already have clear ideas and timelines for introducing new strategies while keeping up the current ones. Those folks will be able to launch 2012 with all systems go because they took the extra steps at the end of 2011 to load the rocket and clear the gantry. Of course you can initiate a marketing campaign any day of the year, but there’s something about the New Year that makes us want to start new things. In some countries it’s customary to clean the house top to bottom, getting all the old dust out of the way to make room for shiny new endeavors. January makes a great time for a clean sweep – so contact me if you’re ready to take a new broom to your company’s marketing copy.

That is all. And now, back to your (and my) vacation.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

You don’t have a marketing budget. It alarms writers when their clients pay cash out their wallet or purse. Why? Because marketing payments should come out of a business’s marketing budget, not somebody’s grocery money. If you don’t have an official marketing budget, you need to make one that fits into your overall business plan, just like any other corporate expense. Save your grocery money for groceries, and pay your business expenses with corporate funds. If you don’t have any corporate funds, then maybe you have more urgent problems to solve before you go on a marketing binge.

You don’t have a strategy. Just as you need a marketing budget to fund any copywriting or other marketing expenses, you need a marketing strategy that dictates the most sensible way to spend that money. What are your long-term marketing goals for your brand? Which media channels can help you achieve those goals, and how should you use each of them in a way that strengthens your overall message? What is your Plan B in case Plan A gets a hole in it? These are questions for a marketing strategist, not a copywriter. If I get called in to write a press release and the client asks me, “What do you think we should say? Who should we write this for?” and so on, I gently steer them toward a marketing consultant who can help them figure those things out. Once you know how you’ll market yourself, then you can figure out whether you need a copywriter’s services.

If you’re not sure whether you’re ready to hire a copywriter — just ask. Most experienced writers are astute and honest enough to point out any preliminary measures you may need to take first. I’m always happy to refer my prospective clients to other marketing experts who can lend a helping hand. And if you know you are ready to pull the trigger, I’m right over here holding up the big red target.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

No birds
No bees
No flowers
No trees
No wonder
November

While different parts of the world experience various kinds of weather once autumn rolls around, I’ve seen my share of November days that seemed to fit that description pretty well. Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended and the days are growing shorter, dinnertime means nighttime. Unfortunately, a great many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as autumn yields to winter. This “winter depression” can manifest itself in the form of oversleeping, grogginess, inability to focus, social withdrawal and overeating. There’s even a summertime version of SAD that tends to cause opposite symptoms, including anxiety, irritability and loss of appetite.

Your environment can have a profound impact on your productivity, regardless of whether you suffer from SAD. I’ve been searching for the perfect writing environment for years. I’ve never found it and I suspect I never will, though I keep on fighting the good fight. But the surroundings that support productivity for one writer — or sales manager, or business owner, or marketing director — may drive another to distraction. In my case, I’ve found that peace and quiet in a controlled environment works better for me than the bustling atmosphere of a coffee shop or restaurant. Other writers, however, spend their entire careers in cafes, with no concern for the noise and motion swirling around them. A few even require this environmental stimulation to get themselves going; I once heard of a writer did his most productive work while sitting in airport lobbies. Different strokes, as they say.

So if you’re getting less work done than usual, examine your surroundings. Is the room bright enough? Too bright? Is that leaf blower outside your window grinding your brain to a halt? Do you suffer from SAD? You might benefit from some new full-spectrum lighting, a pair of earplugs or other corrective gear. If you thrive on human interaction and solitude depresses you, maybe you need to abandon the home office in favor of the nearest Starbucks. Even if you’re not actually chatting with the folks around you, just being in the middle of human activity could cure your working blues — regardless of what kind of work you do.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

This writer suffers from a mistake that many of us make, whether we write for a living or not. It’s called putting all your eggs in one basket, and it isn’t a good spot to be in. I know, because I’ve been there.

When I first launched my freelance writing career, I knew a little about writing but not much about how to run a writing business. I had two major clients who called me every once in a while and supplied me with enough work to pay my rent and (some of) my bills. It was a tenuous existence at best, but I was just happy to have any kind of freelance work at all. And it was so easy! All I had to do was sit around and wait for the phone to ring.

You can predict the next twist in the plot. One of my big clients decided to take the work I’d been doing in house, and the other went totally silent — I later learned that it had pulled out of town altogether without bothering to let me know. Instead of sitting around waiting for the phone to ring, I suddenly found myself just sitting around, which doesn’t pay terribly well.

So for any fellow freelance writers or other contractors out there, here are some tips for keeping abject poverty at bay:

Multiple eggs. It’s great to niche yourself so that your target market can zero in on your services and vice versa, but build some versatility into your offerings as well. You might want to learn how to work in multiple formats so you can create a press release, two-column video script or whatever else a client might need with equal ease. Or you could establish yourself as a generalist who can write on every conceivable subject from eyebrow tweezing to rocket science.

Multiple baskets. Build your clientele through a variety of channels, including online ads, a well-optimized Web presence, active participation on social media sites and face-to-face networking. Always play the “who do you know” game by asking your current clients and networking buddies for referrals. Make an effort to help others in the same way. Plug into the community and let it work for you.

Whatever you do, don’t wait until that stream has become a trickle. Whether you’re a freelancer or some other small business trying to remain strong, work on your eggs and egg baskets right now — and you’ll never find yourself without an omelet cooking on the stove.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

It’s interesting that I wouldn’t dream of blowing off a client’s writing project while I’m willing to leave my own marketing high and dry. I know better. But it seems to be a universal issue — the expert who fails to take his own advice. I’ve talked to plenty of other copywriters and marketing consultants who admit to occasionally letting their own marketing efforts slide down the priority list. We’re so busy putting our clients’ needs first that we forget our own: “I’ll get these big marketing campaigns off my desk, and then if I have a few minutes to spare I’ll work on my own stuff.” A marketer short-changing his own marketing is like a CPA who forgets to file his own taxes, or a doctor who never has time for her own physical.

You can see the problems in such an approach. First of all, failing to keep up with critical everyday tasks in your own business hurts your ability to conduct or grow that business. Second, failing to “eat your own dog food” gives the impression of hypocrisy. A marketing consultant can’t preach the importance of blogging regularly and then fail to blog regularly. And you might laugh at a movie scene in which a chain-smoking doctor coughs and splutters within a halo of smoke while listening to a patient’s lungs — but how seriously would you take that doctor’s lecture on the dangers of smoking?

If I had followed my own advice, I would have built up a stockpile of ready-to-go blog articles for those days when I’m feeling sick, stumped or just plain lazy. My clients who order my Blogger’s 4-pack enjoy just such a benefit. They receive four finished blog posts at a time, and if they stagger their purchases they can end up with more blogs than they need at any given moment — a perfect strategy for refreshing their online content on time and on schedule.

So from now on, I will treat myself like one of my writing clients. I’m looking forward to it, actually. I’ve heard good things about this guy….

For more about my writing services and current deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Because we writers make up a diverse population, and because everyone perceives the occupation differently, I’d accept any of the above answers. But in my case, another definition applies: I’m a service provider.

What difference does it make to think of me that way? Plenty. Let’s take your cable provider as an example. If you needed Internet, phone and cable TV services, imagine what a hassle it would be to call a bunch of different companies around town and say, “I’d like, uh, some Internet and some phone service and some cable TV.” What does that mean? How many TV channels did you have in mind, and which ones? What speed of Internet connection do you need? How many long-distance minutes do you plan on using every month? When the customer faces all these unanswered questions, suddenly the idea of a quiet room and a dark TV seems oddly soothing.

That’s why service providers have found a way to make the choices a lot easier — through productizing and bundling: “Here’s the Starter Pack, and here are the Bronze, Silver and Gold Levels. Oh, and here’s our menu of individual services and fixed fees.” Suddenly you have something concrete to point at and say, “I’ll have that one, please.” Multiple problems solved, with minimal loss of brain cells.

That’s why I offer clear, fixed-rate products such as my Small Website Package and Blogger’s 4-pack. Productizing takes all the uncertainty out of the process. You, the prospective client, always know what you’re getting and what it costs, just as if you were ordering a cable, Internet or phone package. This gives me a huge advantage over other freelancers who simply name an hourly figure for “whatever you need.” “Whatever you need” doesn’t evoke a clear image or help define what those needs might be. A well-defined product package does.

My next step? I’d like to collaborate with an increasing number of marketing companies in the creation of product packages and bundled services, allowing those companies’ clients to buy different combinations of Web-marketing or print-marketing products in one fell swoop. If you’re in the marketing industry and you’re already offering package deals to your clients, why not throw copywriting into the mix and give yourself one more edge over your competition? I know a guy who can help….

For more about my writing services and current deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

The article mentioned another good reason, though — the possibility that you may be “too close to the topic.”

Let’s face it, you know your business inside-out. You’re immersed in it on a daily basis. You work with other people who also know the industry, and you communicate with colleagues that speak the lingo as well as you do. You live in the world of your business. The problem is, your customer probably doesn’t.

You may find it impossible to see yourself objectively enough to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Sometimes it’s hard to pretend you’re John Doe instead of Jane Manufacturing Incorporated long enough to really grasp what the reader wants to know, as opposed to what you want to tell him. Time to bring in an objective party — one who happens to write marketing content for a living. Your copywriter can see John’s perspective as well as Jane’s, creating a message informed by one and aimed at the other.

You may also find that your industry speaks a language the general public doesn’t understand. I recall the time I walked into an engineering company and the owner said, “Ah, so you’re the guy who’s going to rescue us!” The company’s leadership team had spent so many years talking engineer-speak to engineers that they’d lost a handle on how to translate their features and benefits into common English. Again, copywriter to the rescue!

Whatever your writing roadblock may be, don’t keep suffering from it. Offload that specialized work to a specialist, and welcome a new brain to your company’s think-tank.

You can check out the rest of the Copyblogger article here.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

People sometimes cut freelancers a weird amount of slack that they wouldn’t give their own employees, especially the ones who perform creative work: “Oh, those right-brain eccentric artists, they march to a different drum and we’re just lucky they come down to Earth once in a while to help us regular folks.” But freelancers aren’t flakes, or at least they don’t have to be. The successful ones take their freelancing seriously and run it as a business instead of a lark. Unfortunately, though, they still suffer from the behavior of the less-serious ones who give the profession an apparent case of terminal dandruff.

Watch out for these potential problems:

The unknown price tag. Beware the freelancer who refuses to give you a firm quote for a job before starting work. For many of us who tend to charge flat per-project rates, this issue never comes up. But even if your freelancer bills by the hour, you should still insist on a realistic estimate of what you’ll pay, even if that estimate falls into a range.

Excuses, excuses. There’s always a good reason not to get a project done on time, and some freelancers want to make sure you hear all of them. “Sorry this is a month late, but my dog came down with mange and my kid’s having attitude problems and I had to get my tires rotated and the recent spell of bad weather has deprived me of Vitamin D and….” Some of these excuses may even be legitimate. But even if there’s always a reason for the late or sub-par work, the end result is still late or sub-par work.

The disappearing act. “I had a freelancer working on this eight months ago, and then he went off somewhere and I haven’t been able to get ahold of him since.” Some freelancers go bust and return to the world of standard employment, while others only do it as “gap work” between day jobs. Even in these cases, though, a courteous professional would contact you to let you know, or at least answer your inquiries.

So what should you look for in a freelancer? A portfolio of strong samples, a solid track record, recommendations from satisfied clients and clear ground rules. Always ask about the freelancer’s billing and work processes, turnaround times and availability. Get hard numbers and set deadlines, and hold your freelancer to them. The good ones will make every possible effort to deliver as promised. As for the flakes — well, you don’t put up with dandruff, do you?

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.