Monthly Archives: December 2016

Using direct mail to address the fear in people hit with criminal chargesThis direct mail letter for a criminal defense attorney was designed to be mailed to folks as soon as cases against them were filed.The idea here was to play off the single, greatest emotion that the reader would be feeling: FEAR. Fear of […]

Capturing new prospects and clients for a management consultantThis direct mail letter for a consultant proves, once again, that direct mail still works.The consultant, a management consultant, had an idea for a campaign already in mind: To send a two-page letter to CEOs, presidents, and business owners who might be facing a difficult situation.To capture […]

Filling the marketing funnel for future drip campaignsThis sample direct mail letter for a consultant comes from working with a physician who advised the leaders of pediatric emergency centers.The direct mail letter’s goal: To generate leads and gather the names and contact details of prospects for future drip marketing campaigns.​The most compelling part of this […]

Persuading dentists to try a new online marketing systemThis goal of this direct mail marketing letter for a marketing firm specializing in dental office marketing was to persuade recipients to sign up for a free trial of an automated system for patient communications.We had a few challenges and objections to attend to along the way:Overcome […]

Selling a training product with a series of emailsHave you ever signed up to receive news or information from a person or company and found yourself on the other end of an email nurture sequence?Yeah … me, too. I actually sign up for a lot of newsletters and offers, the best of which become part […]

Editing for people: From “about us” to “for you”This provider of consulting and technology solutions for equity compensation compliance asked me if I could rewrite its brochure content in advance of an upcoming tradeshow. Of course I could!The original brochure content was affected by the same ills that plague many promotional brochures today:Predominantly written in […]

Using a folder brochure with stepped insertsThis provider of IT asset management services came to me wanting to create a folder brochure with stepped inserts. Stepped inserts are sheets of varying sizes that overlap so that readers, when opening the folder for the first time, view the tops and titles of all four sheets at […]

Tailoring brochure content with a pocket-style brochure and insertsConsidering a brochure that goes by the name pocket brochure, folder brochure, or pocket-folder brochure? This brochure style is great if your companies wants to “wow” prospects while also being able to customize the content inside.This client, a corporate relocation firm, came to me for content for […]

Using a trifold brochure to turn prospects into coffee buyersSometimes a trifold brochure can serve a very specific purpose, such as, say, to encourage people who’ve never heard of you to fill out an order form and send it in with their hard-earned money.That’s exactly what this trifold was desiged to do for this independent […]

Aiming to educate, differentiate, and call prospects to actionHow do you plan to use your trifold brochure? Will you:Mail it as a follow-up in a standard, business-sized envelope?Create a series of them to focus on specific product or service lines?Make it available as a download from your website?Hand it out at networking events?Leave it around […]

Creating a multi-purpose, capabilities brochure for print and downloadThis CRM and digital print firm wanted to create a versatile capabilities brochure they could hand out to prospects at trade shows, use as a leave-behind after meetings, and mail in response to inquiries. The trick was to make the brochure content different enough from the web […]

Tying brand brochure messages to conference or trade show themesThis client, a leading provider of customer satisfaction and loyalty software, wanted to create a conference-themed SaaS brochure handout that:Integrated new messaging elementsTied directly into the key ideas raised during conference sessionsPositioned the company’s key products as direct lines for implementing ideas discussed at the conferenceTo […]

Answering “why me, why now” with an email-able, downloadable brochureAfter decades in the business world as an executive himself, this business professional decided to reclaim his life by starting his own Executive Coaching business so he could share his accumulated knowledge with other executives.We worked together to create this two-page, downloadable brochure-type overview, which he […]

A few years ago, while pursuing a master’s certificate in professional and technical writing, I dabbled in a grant-writing class. Something I read in that class stuck with me because it’s as relevant to content marketing and content writing as it is to grant writing.From Miner and Miner, 2005, p.5., emphasis mine:​During the review process, […]

Educating, inspiring, and shifting mindsets for a technology startupIs your product or service new or unique, so much so that people don’t yet realize they need it? In such a case, the job of web content is not to differentiate; instead, it is to educate, inspire, shift thinking, and create awareness.When this then-up-and-coming provider wanted […]

Upleveling a B2B SaaS company’s ebookTo drive interest and awareness, my client, a B2B SaaS company, publishes ebooks to help its target market solve common industry challenges. The company’s chief revenue officer (CRO), after reading the latest in-production ebook, asked her VP of marketing to send it to me. “I like it, but I don’t […]

Create ease for readers with fast-read, single-page success storiesWhen it comes to content, shorter is always better, which is why this SaaS company agreed with my thinking that short success stories would have better chances of being read.People are just too busy; they want to get at the information they’re looking for as quickly as […]

Connecting local employers to local job seekersThe owner of this job board came to me for a direct mail letter that would offer a special, limited-time savings opportunity to chamber of commerce members only.Based on my in-depth questionnaire, I learned that employers regularly faced two key challenges when trying to hire:Online job boards and newspaper […]

Differentiating a talent agency / event planning companyIn my mind, this project exemplifies why you need more than a “writer” to help you produce web content, brochure content, or whatever it is you want to create. Why? Because what you really need is to be able to — through your content — answer reader questions, […]

Testing a non-traditional success story format for a SaaS companyOf all the success stories I’ve written, I’m most proud of this one, a SaaS success story, because it breaks the traditional success story format.I’m all about finding ways to stand out from the pack–and that includes in the packaging of typical marketing content. My client […]

Ghostwriting an ebook based on webinar content In a different webinar-to-ebook example of content repurposing, I shared one part of a two-part ebook series I created based on a webinar. In that example, the ebook content mapped to the structure of the webinar.In this “content repurposing” ebook I created for another client, I turned a webinar […]

Selling the value of tech by telling a storyTo write this enterprise technology success story, based on a an interview with the associate publisher and director of Highwire Press, a division of Stanford University libraries, I followed a procedure that works well for most stories:Developed a list of interview questions and vetted them with my […]

Testing a new success story format: Will the idea work for you?One of my clients, a leading provider of technology that allows companies to measure and monitor customer satisfaction, wanted to test whether a first-person success story, written in the voice of the customer, would work.To create this first-person narrative sample, I used an existing […]

Helping writers and marketers create winning success storiesWonder what goes into a high-impact success story? Check out this presentation on Success Story Development. I created it for a client’s client, working as a consultant under my client’s umbrella.View the presentation: Secrets of Success Story Development More details about the presentationFor the work, I evaluated and […]

Providing proof for people considering a SaaS productTo create this winning technology success story for a major SaaS enterprise solution provider, I drew from an interview recorded by my client and provided to me.View the technology success storyClick the image that follows to see the raw first draft I submitted to my client. The story […]

Differentiating a translation and localization agencyNeed web content?Chances are good that most of your prospects are scouring the web for information long before they initiate contact with your company.And you know what they say about first impressions….​That’s why it’s so important that your content does a solid job of differentiating you and building a case […]

Simplifying complexity and creating awareness / interest with educational web contentIf your space is complex, either the buy or the offering itself — if readers generally tend to have lots of questions and objections on the path from awareness to purchase — then you might want to consider a dedicated area on your website with […]

Using email to drive spa customers to a free teleseminarThis client came to me through a marketing agency that had set up a multistage marketing campaign for a spa offering various laser treatments, such as acne care, hair removal, vein removal, and skin rejuvenation.My role was to develop a series of three chatty email letters […]

Attracting new clients to a new practice at a physical therapy centerThe owner of this physical therapy center came to me for a four-page direct mail letter offering readers a limited-time deal on four sessions of a newly developed technique for dealing with chronic pain.Since people often go to great lengths to rid themselves of […]

Series of direct mail letters and free reports for a foreclosure attorneyThis attorney specializing in foreclosure cases came to me for help in developing a direct mail campaign to send to homeowners at distinct stages of the foreclosure process.To give me a sense of what we were up against in a homeowner’s mailbox, the attorney […]

Generating leads for a physician consultantThis consultant serving pediatric emergency departments wanted a way to collect email addresses from people arriving at his site through word-of-mouth referrals, organic search, and other marketing campaigns. To accomplish this task, we decided to offer a free autoresponder eCourse filled with valuable, actionable information.Doing so not only allowed the […]

Announcing a new educational portal with a press releasePress releases announcing a new blog or website are not big news these days. That’s why this blog-launch press release announcing the Promo Know-How Zone opened with a question that we thought would be compelling to readers: “Can promotional products really help companies open new revenue streams, […]

Announcing a new line of green products with a press releaseFor this promotional products provider, I wrote a press release announcing the launch of its new “green” product line with 100 eco-friendly products, tying in nicely with a global focus on environmental conservation.View the press release sampleClick the image below to view the press release […]

Sharing news with clients and prospectsSometimes a press release is simply informational–as in the case of a press release announcing a new office.Although the news may be “big news” internally, and perhaps to clients, the rest of the world may not get too excited.And that’s okay.You need not always garner a media storm when you […]

Winning press coverage and an interview with a press releaseOne of the key ways to get your press release noticed is to write a newsworthy press release–or at at least tie the content of the release to something newsworthy.That’s what we did for this consultant working with companies doing business in Korea; we tied the […]

Generating quote requests for a niche, B2B insurance agencyThis project came to me through a direct mail agency whose client–a seller of insurance services to businesses in the woodworking industry–would soon be launching a direct mail campaign.The goal of the letter was to persuade readers to complete and fax an enclosed quotation form. We had […]

Sharing an executive’s insights through a ghostwritten articleBased on a brief phone conversation and a short emailed description, I prepared this ghostwritten executive article targeting niche financial professionals.The topic: Foreign exchange volatility.For the meat of the content, I used previously published articles and case studies I had rewritten for the company earlier in the year.View […]

Sharing real-world peer stories to encourage peer actionFor this retirement plan provider, I interviewed several employees from client companies for a newsletter designed to encourage retirement planning and saving.View a sample newsletter articleClick the image to read one of the resulting newsletter articles. Get interview-based newsletter articles for your businessYou know what lights me up? […]

Using a white paper series to introduce a new methodology in lead management This B2B prospecting and lead management firm came to me wanting to develop a four-part whitepaper series introducing what was then a new three-pronged methodology for “fixing leaks in the sales pipeline.”To write the papers, which I eventually named the “Breaking Traditions” series, […]

Giving prospects more information and more proof after a meetingAfter developing and creating content for an engineering consultant’s trifold brochure, I developed content for what he called a datasheet: Something he could leave behind after in-person meetings.The goal of the datasheet? To educate readers about the processes for different project types, thus removing much of […]

Driving awareness and interest for a business organizationHow do you drive awareness and pique interest in your offer, organization, or event? As you’ll see in this sample, the old-fashioned, thumb-tack-able flyer still works.This example, a flyer for a European association serving the interests of European businesses, shows how simple generating interest can be.View the sample […]

Selling niche healthcare services with a multi-stage campaignThis was a fun project, the goal of which was to develop a lead magnet–a “free, special report” for a multi-stage marketing campaign. The idea was that my client would advertise, offering the free report, and then use the free report to sell body scan services.Although I created […]