I’m not going to patronise you by recapping the essential components of a good brief — you haven’t built an agency without knowing what they are. But when you’re briefing a freelance copywriter (as opposed to your in-house copywriters) there are three things you might not be telling them. They aren’t essential elements of the […].. Read More
Every copywriter reading this will have been told at some point in their career not to start a sentence with ‘and’. And for every copywriter reading this there’ll be someone else who’s thinking: ‘Quite right. You should never start a sentence with ‘and’.’ So who is right? Well, I think they both are. I think […].. Read More
Here’s the problem. You’ve committed yourself to putting high quality content out there regularly to demonstrate your expertise and attract new customers. But this time round, you’ve run out of time to write anything to post. Don’t despair! The chances are you’ve already got quite a bit of content in your business already that you […].. Read More
All over the world right now, there are marketing teams saying: “Let’s get our subject matter experts to write this blog or article for us! It’ll mean we can give expert insight to our audiences. (It’ll help us spread our workload too.)” Those marketing teams are right. Getting input from subject matter experts is a […].. Read More
The best copy in the world isn’t going to work if it’s sitting in your Drafts folder. You know this. You also know that sometimes getting copy out of your Drafts folder and into the world is easier said than done. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you, no matter which […].. Read More
This is the introduction to an article I first published on Medium. Copywriters — including me — prize the value of conversational copy, clarity of message and engaging our readers. We raise our hands in horror at examples of corporate gibberish. We encourage people to cut jargon from their copy. We praise informality. But I think […].. Read More
When you use this phrase, it’s always ‘should have’ or ‘should’ve’: I should have gone for a run today so I don’t have to go tomorrow I should’ve woken up earlier so I could get more done He should have done that by now to get it over and done with He should’ve thought of […].. Read More
I read an article on Entrepreneur Europe recently that gave tips for businesses hiring freelance workers for the first time. The article gave plenty of sound advice, but I was intrigued by the last tip: Keep an eye on time-tracking reports. As freelancers are often paid per hour, project managers need to be able to […].. Read More
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, prompted by coming across more and more of what I perceive to be misuses of ‘comprises’ and ‘consists’. I feel very strongly about it – but, as you’ll see, I fear may be in an increasing minority. So here we go. I keep seeing sentences […].. Read More
If you’re ever stuck for a topic for a blog, think back to your most recent conversations with clients or prospects. They’ll tell you all you need to know. I work with many different businesses in many different sectors, but the questions I hear from clients and prospects are always very similar. Doubtless you find […].. Read More