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’.
There are, of course, hundreds of thousands of internet resources for writers. One of the multitude that I know about and regularly recommend to others, is Mediabistro.
Mediabistro offers classes for further writing development in the areas of your choice, information and resources, job postings for seekers, and resume postings for employers. I don’t use this site enough but this post has reminded me why I should!
The article on the front page of Fox News, “Health Care Revolt,” has a typo. Adding a missing comma would have made this article punctuationally perfect (yes, “punctuationally” is now a word).
The event drew the conservative “tea party” activists but unlike past rallies was officially sanctioned by House Republicans.
I would have written:
The event drew the conservative “tea party” activists, but unlike past rallies, it was officially sanctioned by House Republicans.
It’s the little things that make all the difference.
As a copywriter and guardian of the written word, I instinctively notice typos and grammatical errors everywhere I go. I learned a long time ago that correcting people’s speech is a good way to get on their bad side so I discontinued that practice. Channeling my grammatical gravitas into more constructive means, like copywriting, has been more rewarding and not to mention socially acceptable.
I came across this restaurant in the course of a previous job and cringed and corrected it in my head every time I passed it. Taste of what village? Did you mean “The Taste of the Village?” What about “Taste the Village?”
To all you business owners out there: I have no doubt that you know your stuff when it comes to your business, but it might be worth its weight in respect to have a copywriter look over your written materials before you go public and have your knowledge of the English language questioned.
To all you freelance copywriters out there,
The 2009 Copywriting Success Summit is fast-approaching. It runs from October 6-28. There was an opportunity to save $100 off the ticket price ($497) but the deadline has passed. Sorry about not posting this sooner. So here’s the link. I’ve never registered for the Summit and I won’t be registering this year but I thought some of you out there might be interested.
Oh! And the best part?…It’s all online. All the speakers are live and if you miss a session you can get a recording of it. It seems pretty cool and my roommate (also a freelance copywriter) is doing it. So there you have it. Enjoy!
