Ending the Writing Struggle

There are a lot of misconceptions about marketing.

And one of them is that "marketing is about convincing strangers to do business with me." Not true. It's about developing relationships with people who you can serve. Quite a difference.

Another misconception:

"Marketing is difficult because it's hard to explain what I do so that people understand." Again, a myth. Marketing is easy because it's really about educating people about the results you produce for your clients.

Yes, marketing is primarily about relationships and education.

And a great way to build relationships and educate prospective clients is through writing. For instance, for the past ten years I've been building my business though writing this eZine.

As you read More Clients, you get to know me better - relationship; and as I provide ideas in More Clients, you start to understand what I do - education.

It really is that simple.

But then we hit another misconception - "Writing is hard!"

Although you understand intuitively that if you communicate with your prospects you'll be building relationships and educating them about your work, you're not sure how to go about this.

The biggest complaint I get about writing is "I don't know what to write." And, as you know, when we believe what we think, we act in alignment with that thought. So we simply avoid writing.

Is it true you don't know what to write? Are you sure? Let's see...

What are your clients interested in?

My observation is that everyone is interested in solving their problems and learning how to do something better. So that's what you write about.

And the process is easy.

Make a list of ten or more problems your clients have. It could be anything they struggle with or don't know how to do. If you've worked with a few clients you should know what those things are.

Just finish these sentences:

My clients struggle with...

A common mistake my clients make is...

I wish my clients would learn how to...

If only my clients had this resource...

Doing this costs my clients money...

I bet you could fill in five or more sentences for each of these problems, right? OK, guess what? Those exact issues become the topics of your marketing writing.

What you do is turn topics into titles and you have the beginning of an article. For instance, this article started with the topic of marketing being a struggle for Independent Professionals. I was having this discussion on a teleconference last week. I know it's a real issue, as I've heard it many times before.

The title emerged: "Ending the Writing Struggle"

And then the article developed from there. All I've done in this article is started by discussing the misconceptions that many Independent Professionals have when it comes to marketing their businesses.

Then I showed how writing is central to marketing and offered a simple methodology to address that problem. If you look back over my eZines you'll notice that this exactly is what I do in all of them. And you can do the same.

Once you understand and duplicate this basic approach to writing, an amazing thing happens: Writing becomes a whole lot easier.

Here's my formula:

A situation becomes a topic; a topic gets turned into a title; the article starts with the problem and then you solve the problem in the article with a step-by-step how-to.

If you're not writing in your business (everything from eZine articles like this, to articles for publication, to content for your web site), you're failing to build relationships and educate your prospects.

Time to start writing, don't you think?

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The More Clients bottom line: Writing is Marketing. When you give up the story that writing is hard, you may discover that you have more ideas to write about that you have time to write! (And finding the time... well, that's another eZine article!)

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How have you made writing easier for yourself in your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Comments

[Carole DeJarnatt]

Thanks again Robert for a great post. I have been struggling for the past two weeks on writing another article and I finally accomplished it yesterday after reading your post.

[Doug Hedlund]

"Time to start writing, don't you think?"
--Your e-zine this week reminded me again, Robert, of why your articles have been "must-read" material for me for so long. You're the best. Enjoy the 4th of July week-end.

[Terrill Welch]

Writing for my clients is the backbone for maintaining and developing relationships with clients and potential clients. In addition to using the formula outlined in the article, I sometimes do a series of articles around one subject area. This allows me go deeply into the area and still keep the articles short (800 - 1000 words)clear and practical. Another tip that I have discovered through practice is to think about a handful of particular clients that I want to reach through the article. This seems to enhance the conversational tone and my ability to use immediately accessible examples. And finally, I pick topic areas that are of cutting edge interest to my clients AND I am really curious and excited about researching and thinking about myself. I have an in house editor with a masters degree in English who LOVES to do the final polish so it is often only a few hours to a day between writing and distribution. This allows me to keep the material feeling fresh and use current news examples if appropriate.

[Andrea Glass]

To assist me with all my writing projects, both for my business and my clients, I hired a student intern who is an English major at a local college. Her work is good and with my guidance, it's becoming better and better. She writes my blog posts and monthly articles. I highly recommend this course for anyone who is as overloaded and short on time as I am.

[Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert]

I'm lucky--the act of writing has always been easy for me, and for more than 30 years, I've made my living through it: hundreds of articles, press releases, sell sheets, newsletters, etc., as well as seven books--most recently, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers.

But the act of sitting at a compute does not come easily to me. It bothers my hands, my eyes, and my brain--and therefore I create shortcuts.

For instance, when I get an inquiry from a copywriting or marketing client, I hit "reply with" in Eudora and pull up the appropriate template letter: book marketing client, marketing client not about books, web copywriting client, etc. But then I don't just hit "send"--I spend two or three minutes right at the top of the template, responding directly to something specific in the inquiry, if the prospect has given me any information at all.

Another thing I do is always have a document open with multiple versions of my signature, so I can quickly copy and paste, and never worry about a typo in my URL, etc.

Shel Horowitz - copywriter, marketing consultant, author, speaker
Affordable, effective marketing materials and strategies
"I make the world INSIST on knowing why YOU'RE special"
shel AT principledprofit.com * 800-683-WORD/413-586-2388
http://www.frugalmarketing.com
Books: Grassroots Marketing, Principled Profit, others

[Kammy Thurman]

Just as you mentioned, Robert, not knowing what to write about is one of the key reasons people don't do it. It's hard to pick a topic out of the air half an hour before the e-zine is supposed to go out.

So, I took a page from the magazine editors I've written for (no pun intended!). In January (can be any time of year tho) I create an annual editorial calendar for my e-zine, and the other articles I want to submit elsewhere for publication.

To that outline I add points I'd want to make about each topic that I can think of right then. Throughout the year, when I run across information on one of those topics, I add it to the outline.

By the time each topic comes around, I have a really good idea of where to go with the article, and the research I need to complete it. And I didn't have to spend a lot of time trying to come up with ideas or research at the last minute.

It's a real stress reliever!

Kammy

[Lynne Lee]

When I first wrote an article it took me the whole day! I'm now up to 44 articles on Ezine articles, my blogs are 8 months old and my website 5 months. The more I write the easier it gets.
I can now write and publish an article in under 2 hours. One of the reasons I'm able to write more quickly is that I've given myself permission to let something be 'good enough' rather than constantly perfecting it.
One thing that didn't get a mention was keywords. If you want articles to be found it helps to have keywords in titles and sprinkled throughout the article. If you visit my website there's a page on writing for marketing. It has some useful links.
http://www.christianlifecoaching.co.uk

[Claire]

I started my blog by writing what I felt strongly about on any given day, to do with emotional intelligence, happiness, wealth etc. I decided that if I had never written before I was allowed to practise a bit, and let my skills catch up.......I still read things, do things or experience things that touch me deeply and then I write about them.

I also started writing articles for nursing journals from a position of being authentic and speaking in 'my' voice, leaving whether it was what the editors wanted up to them to decide, but being ME at all times. The reception has been good, because few other people in professional journals have the same knowledge, skills and style. I love it because it is all about being me, and sharing what I know with my own 'voice'.
I get the feeling that the actionplan blogs have the same authenticity.

Just start - learn and develop as you go
Claire
Creating healthy happy nurses

[Edward Mills]

What an incredibly simple, yet powerful formula for writing blog posts, ezine articles, pretty much anything! I;ve got the situation > topic part down. But I tend to go jump into the writing before getting clear on the title > problem > solution parts. This is going to make a big difference in my writing!

Thanks.