A. James Editing, Inc.

I was sitting down to a fine catered lunch at this month’s PABA Luncheon when the woman sitting next to me asked, “What do you do?”


I love this question.


Because I get to tell people what I do and, more often than not, help them with their copywriting.


This time was different though.


After I had given her a rundown of what I do, she very pointedly asked me, “So you could come into a business and help them figure out what their next step should be in terms of their content and marketing?”


Wow.


“Yes,” I answered. “I can.”


She wanted me to consult on the content of her marketing efforts, and help her and her assistant come up with some new marketing ideas that were low-cost, relevant to their customers and within their capabilities to perform.


This was the first time a client had asked for this service specifically, and in that moment it occurred to me that I’ve been doing content marketing consulting for almost five years.


I didn’t even know I was doing it.


Turns out, when you educate people about their marketing options, and you do it well, you’re a content marketing consultant!


Huzzah!!


I am a content marketing consultant!


Usually I’d be working with a client on something else entirely–a website, an email, a press release–and I’d answer any questions they had about writing and marketing.


Who knew I could offer this (apparently) extremely high demand service separately?


I did a little research on my new area of expertise and found a great content marketing consulting resource:


The Content Marketing Institute (CMI).


While CMI discusses content marketing in terms of strategy, I came across a much more simplistic definition of content (not marketing) consulting that limits it simply to written content.


I guess the term can be as broad or as narrow as you need it to be to accomodate what it is that you do.


Mine is broad: working with written content in addition to marketing strategy.


I bet there’s something you do that you didn’t even know you were doing that your clients and prospects would love to get from you as a potentially separate service.


The question is: what is your little gem?




Thank you, Robert Rose, for writing the article that got my wheels a-turnin’.

As a consumer of cat videos, I’m not entirely convinced that this idea would never work.


On a more serious note though, I think this video speaks to the dangers of following the trends of the moment that may not have much staying power.


It’s certainly a hilarious video though.


Trombone cat! Hah! Priceless. Enjoy.

(Thank you, Peter Bowerman, for sharing this!)

I do a bit of writing for email marketing campaigns and thusly, I follow the musings of Ben Settle, email marketing rockstar.


He sends a daily email to his list with information about all things marketing, but specifically as they relate to email. Some email subject lines from the past: “Who wins the fist fight: copywriters or marketers?,” “Best emotion to sell to in emails,” and “Shy bladder at the keyboard” to name a very few.


Today’s email was entitled: “How to profit from typos.”


Perfect timing considering yesterday’s post.


With Ben’s permission, I’ve copied his email below:

Amber,

A new reader slaps the spelling cuffs on me:

“Your site looks great, but you have put there, instead of their in
your first paragraph and it creates a poor impression. Just thought
you’d like to know “

I must be losing my touch if you only saw one.

You see, not all typos are bad.

In some cases, they serve a valuable purpose.

Here’s what I mean:

First, if someone decided not to buy something from me or hire me
(actually, I’m not for hire, but still…) because of a misspelling
or whatever then I’m delighted — that person would almost certainly
be a big pain in the gluteus assimus to deal with.

(If I sold proof-reading services, that’d be the exception…)

Secondly:

I rarely care about spelling or grammar.

At least, in emails.

In fact, I often purposely leave misspelled words intact.

Why?

Because as Dan Kennedy and email Grand Puba Matt Furey say: “Money
is attracted to speed” — and spending time fixing little
grammer/spelling erros (hehe I misspelled those words on purpose)
is a waste of time when 99.9% of people simply won’t care or notice
anyway.

More:

This’ll REALLY freak ye olde spelling police out.

But in another market (weight loss) I send first drafts.

By that I mean…

I crank the email out (usually in about 4-5 minutes) and then let
‘er rip. No editing (unless the URL is wrong) or even thinking
about it.

Just sit, pound, send.

And it doesn’t hurt sales at all.

I’ve noticed it even HELPS sales sometimes.

That’s probably why old school copywriters used to purposely
misspell things in their ads

It made their letters look genuine.

Like personal letters.

And not “sales pitches.”

OK, enough.

For more contrarian email training, go to:

http://www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Ben Settle
Marketing Specialist
Settle, LLC
www.BenSettle.com

Copyrighted & published by Settle, LLC.

All rights reserved.

Settle, LLC | P.O. Box 866 | Long Beach, WA 98631

A few posters to my previous post agree that spending too much time correcting errors is wasteful and unnecessary; keeping up with the speed of business being more important.


Really?


Typos actually helping sales?! (Gasp! Grammar Guardians, cover your eyes!)


I never thought so, but then again, maybe I’m missing out on millions when I refer to Grammar Girl and The Elements of Style for some of my copy.


Well, Ben Settle hath spoken.


What dost thou sayeth to that?

According to Webster’s, a survivalist is “a person who advocates or practices survivalism” or “one who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society.”


Being a freelance creative won’t necessarily prepare you to survive a natural disaster or societal meltdown (though I’m positive we have some transferable skills), but it will enable you to take control of your income.


Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard the term “starving artist.”


And conventional wisdom tells us that being a freelance anything is dangerous because you never know how much money you’re going to make in any given month.


This is only partially true, and far more alarmist than it needs to be.


As freelance creatives, we have the power and the privilege to steer our own careers and set earning goals that could change every month if we chose.


We, not our passive-aggressive supervisors or the faceless CEO of the company, have the power to give ourselves raises, take 20 weeks of vacation per year, work remotely from anywhere on the planet, and climb our industry ladder as quickly, or not at all, as we see fit.


Our position is unique too, in that we can change the course of our business or work as quickly as our personal and client needs dictate. What’s easier, turning your car around or turning it around while a trailer’s hitched to the back?


We just have less baggage, less bureaucracy and way more flexibility in every aspect of our business.


Is being a freelancer really all roses, rainbows and sunshine, as you say?!


Hell no!


Being a freelance creative is hard work and sometimes we don’t make our monthly earning goals. C’est la vie.


But we don’t do it because it’s easy.


We do it because we love it.


We do it because it’s our right livelihood.


We do it because we wouldn’t want it any other way.


We know what to do and where to go to make our dreams come true. We’re certainly not islands, but we each produce enough of our own natural resources, to at least be self-sustaining.


That’s why being a freelance creative is like being a survivalist.


Because we have the skills to survive and thrive, regardless of the economy. Unfortunately, wage earners are not always so fortunate.