Dear Reader, One of the occupational hazards of being a copywriter is that people sometimes think they need to know exactly what kind of copywriting they need before they call me. Which is a little like knowing what’s wrong with your car before you take it to the mechanic. If you already knew that, you’d be halfway to fixing it yourself. Most people come to me knowing something much simpler: this isn’t working the way I want it to. Maybe it’s a homepage that no longer reflects the business, a...

Dear Reader, I think there’s a misconception about hiring a copywriter that may be keeping some very annoyed business owners unnecessarily annoyed. You think you need to have A Project. A new website. A brand overhaul. An email campaign. Something substantial enough to warrant Bringing In A Copywriter. You don’t. You don’t need to do a gut reno of your website if changing the curtains will do. Maybe your website is basically fine, but the opening no longer explains what you do. Maybe your...

Dear Reader, My friend Carrie Flynn of Virtual Simplicity has a phrase I’ve loved since the first time I heard her use it: Random acts of marketing. It’s how she describes all those disconnected marketing things businesses do without a larger strategy tying them together. And it’s perfect. Four words. Immediately understandable. Entirely Carrie. That’s the kind of language I listen for when I’m talking with someone about their business. Carrie wasn’t trying to come up with a clever tagline...