We might wrap it up as a lack of time, or a lack of direction, or lack of need, but not marketing often boils down to the same thing - the fear of being seen. It’s a mindset thing. Marketing is the way you build a bridge to the business you want to run. Here’s another way of looking at it.

When it comes to telling stories to build your business, the founder or origin story is one of the most powerful. It can be the hook that pulls in investment, and the glow that attracts the best talent. Founder stories can make brands famous, with the owner’s personal story of how and why they started becoming part of business folklore.

A copywriter asks questions. What’s the most important thing to say here? What do you want people to do when they read this? How do you want people to feel? Good copywriters get inside the head of the ideal reader, just like you want to get inside the head of your ideal client. Think like a copywriter, and you’ll know just what to deliver to the people you serve.

In these turbulent times should you lower your rates or change your offer? Or should you keep holding out for your ideal clients? Tips for attracting your hero clients.

Two months ago I wrote a blog about the first week of being in lock down. I’ve just reread it, anticipating finding different words on the page. Two months seems like an age, and I feel more grounded now, so I was expecting to find something more naive and jittery. But actually it’s pretty sound. I surprised myself.

Imposter Syndrome is everywhere, and it’s got some new guises. There’s the ‘anything I say right now feels irrelevant compared to what’s going on in the world’ version. There’s a debilitating ‘I’ve lost all my confidence’ strain.

If you’re thinking ‘there are real heroes emerging all around us, I’m not expert/brave/important enough to add anything worthwhile’ I’m not surprised that you’re finding it hard to write anything at all.

This might help.

Our words are a proxy for everything we can’t do at the moment.

We can’t meet people; touch them, hug, laugh, persuade, smile, show, flirt, reassure, explain, commiserate, calm. We can’t just be with each other, passing the time doing nothing in particular, sharing the everyday mundane things that connect us - but our words can do at least some of that for us.

Here’s how to make your writing feel more immediate and alive while you’re isolating.

If you’ve had your fill of corona virus inspired blogs, then this isn’t for you. But if you’re like me, and keen to find out how other people are coping, then this might be helpful. From managing anxiety to feeling cheered by seeing other people’s piles of washing, here’s what’s helped this week.

Last Tuesday my client made the decision to cancel her two day workshop booked for Friday and Saturday in London and deliver it online instead. It was a hard decision to make, but the right one. Here’s what happened, and some ideas for you if you have to change your plans and deliver online fast.

If you want to speak out clearly to a big handful of perfect clients, then you’ll be relying on your unique blend of experiences and expertise to create the story that will lead them towards you.

Here’s how to use content to spotlight your expertise and build your reputation.

Businesses that really connect with people put their clients and customers at the centre of all they do. How do you do that? By talking to the people you serve; asking them the right questions and listening hard. The single most useful thing that you can do to inform your marketing, and indeed your whole business, is to invest in customer feedback.

We often talk about the need to have a really clear message. Capture the value of what you do in simple language, and share that story consistently in the valuable content that you create. Build a brand and a reputation by getting known for the one thing you do really well. Be niche.

But what if you want to shift the focus of what you do? What if the one thing you’ve become known for is no longer lighting your fire?

Writing your business story is a creative exercise. It’s not like any of the other writing you do – very different from blogs or sales proposals – and you need to approach it in a different frame of mind. Here are five steps to help you write your business story.

If your aim is foggy, your content marketing efforts will stumble. It’s easy to get caught up in tactics - I’ll write a six blogs a month, I’ll make the newsletter weekly not monthly, I’ll start a podcast - rather than being really specific about the goal you want to reach. 

Here’s how to focus your marketing efforts and thrive in 2021.

Setting up on my own after nine years of working in partnership has been a big adventure and it’s taught me lots of things. Here are a few of the most important lessons I’ve learned about writing, focus, and getting stuff done. I hope they’re helpful for you too.

Which words matter most for your business? Is it your strap line? Your ‘About’ copy? The words you use to describe what you do? Or does it go deeper than that. Here’s my view on what to prioritise.