Content marketing Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Conversational Copywriting

August 27, 2019April 13, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Email has been around for longer than the web itself.

I remember sending my first emails way back in the late 1980s.

Funny thing though. Online pundits keep telling us how email is going to disappear. Eaten by the web, made obsolete by texting, made irrelevant by messaging apps.

And yet… email is still going strong.

More amazing still, it still functions in pretty much the exact same way as when the SMTP, POP3 and IMAP protocols were formalized back in 1995.

Everything else online changes at warp speed… but email and its functionality remains the same.

No wonder marketers love it. It’s easy, and familiar.

March 15, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Man holding out a microphone to record what you say

It takes courage to stand out on your own.

Particularly if you’re a solo professional of some kind… Like a freelancer, coach, consultant, therapist, or anyone else who works one-on-one with clients.

The safe way to sell yourself is to adopt the persona of others in your industry.

Look and sound like your fellow solo professionals.

If you’re a freelancer, you might model your website on those of other successful freelancers in your niche.

February 17, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Conversation makes people smile

It’s not hard to write in a conversational way.

Or to make people smile.

You just need to relax a little. Access your inner human.

But a lot of people in business struggle with that simple idea. Being human.

They’ve convinced themselves they need to sound like a “real business” or a “real marketer”.

The trouble is, as soon as you do that you create distance between yourself and your readers.

January 27, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Many of the people I interview are colleagues and friends I’ve known for a long time.

But while Jay and I have both been working online for over two decades, and have a ton of friends in common, we’ve never connected before now.

So I’m really excited to have this opportunity to put that right, and to ask Jay a few questions.

And no, I’m not excited in the way a professional interviewer might be “really excited” to talk to any and every guest. I’m excited because Jay is a giant in the world of online marketing. And because I’m an avid student of his work in the field of word-of-mouth marketing.

Let’s get started…

January 19, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Imagine you receive an email is from the boss of a local lawn care company.

He’s a local guy. A lawn care guy. He has dirt under his fingernails.

To my mind the email should sound like it came from him… not from a fancy-pants marketer.

I’m not saying the email should be unsophisticated in how it’s put together.

But just suggesting the tone of voice should match our perception of the person whose name appears at the end.

And it’s not just about tone of voice. It’s also about what he says.

January 14, 2019 by Nick Usborne

Questions about conversational copywriting

I keep a list of people who’ve signed up to learn more about Conversational Copywriting, but haven’t enrolled in the course.

I write to them every week.

Last week I asked if they had any questions they’d like to ask me about the course.

More specifically, I told them I planned to do a live video Q&A to answer their questions. And I’m going to do that.

Anyway, when I asked if people would be interested joining the call, a ton of people said yes and went one step further by sending in a question or two.

I thought I’d get ahead by answering some of those in advance.