We live in a society that places a lot of emphasis on money. Money makes the world go round. Cash rules everything around me. Buy low, sell high. Coffee is for closers. It’s all about the Benjamins. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash. Even Andy Warhol famously said “Making money is art”. Far too often, this focus on money causes those in the financial industry to forget an extremely important fact: Effective Financial Content Isn’t About Money. That’s right. Repeat it aloud. Effective financial content isn’t about money. Again, with gusto: Effective financial content isn’t about money! Have I lost my mind? Maybe—but not about this. While money is perhaps the most important resource to individuals in western society, it’s also completely meaningless on its own (or, at least, it hasn’t since the gold standard was ditched about a century ago). Money doesn’t have intrinsic value—but...
Paging Dr. Google: The Dangers of Writing a Clinical/Medical Blog
If you operate in the clinical space—whether you’re a physician, psychotherapist, RMT, physiotherapist, optometrist, chiropractor, or dentist—having a regularly maintained blog can be a tremendous help, not only keeping your current patients informed, but also attracting new patients, establishing your authority, building up your SEO, and providing a resource for the world at large. (After all, regardless of your area of practice, your content can benefit everyone in some way—every human body operates with the same basic machinery, so-to-speak.) However, as helpful as informative blog posts can be, they can sometimes be a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to patient wellness, causing unintentional consequences that can be dangerous—and, in some cases, even fatal. In this post, I hope to outline the potential dangers of well-intentioned articles, and follow with how you can make sure that the content you put out there to help your patients doesn’t inadvertently...
7 Content Considerations Every Law Firm Needs to Make
If you’ve read anything about Precision Impact, you’ll know that we write content for a number of highly technical industries, including law firms. As such, I’ve spoken to quite a few lawyers about how they approach their content, as well as digital strategists and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts. Each side has legitimate concerns with the other, and there is certainly merit in both perspectives. Lawyers tend to prefer to keep a hand on the wheel, regardless of how busy they might be. Some will outsource their writing to some form of expert, be it a writer or a marketing firm, but even they are concerned about the quality of their content. However, from the SEO perspective, content simply needs to be written and put out there, particularly when it comes to blog articles. Google hates an infrequently updated website, and most lawyers don’t have the time to write and...
Cold Logic vs Mass Hysteria: An Exploration of Persuasive Tactics in the Tax Reform Debate
In recent months, the Canadian government has made a tax plan. And it’s… well, let’s just say that it’s not the most popular piece of legislation to cross the desk of small-to-mid-sized business owners. Naturally, there’s been a backlash. Most of the literature you can find on the matter has at least a soupcon of vitriol, and even those attempting to be impartial are obligated to mention the fervor with which the business owners disagree with the plan.
Should I Take a Writing Course For My Business Blog?
While on a run the other day, I passed by a learning annex that had a sign in the window for business blog writing workshops. As a content writer myself, I had two thoughts: “This is a good idea for a lot of business owners who want to maintain their own web content,” and “This is a bad idea for a lot of business owners who want to maintain their own web content.”
Fast vs Cheap vs Great: A Treatise for Impossible Expectations
There’s a Venn diagram floating around the creative marketing world that’s famous among graphic designers (pictured above). The joke is that you can only ask for two, and the one you don’t pick will burn you in the end. The joke plays with the notion of standards vs expectations—a notion that slaps entrepreneurs and business owners in the face time and time again.
Com-placehold-ency: The Dangers of the ‘Band-Aid Web Page’
Marketing is all about presentation. It’s how businesses put their best foot forward, and make sure that your first impression is always a good one. And still, a number of businesses often find themselves with sections of their websites—or even their entire web presence—walled off with a ‘coming soon’ placeholder page. It’s not just small or local businesses, either. Large companies, and even some marketing agencies, will find themselves hiding behind a placeholder website for months on-end.
But Wait, There’s Trump: Salesmanship Meets Politics
Like many copywriters, I can be a bit of a language nerd. Understanding how others’ perceptions of us are coloured by the words we use is an extremely important skill that everyone in marketing should at least understand, if not outright master. And when it comes to wizardry of public perception, you can’t ignore the Republican nomination of Donald Trump.
Save 10% Off Holiday Services with Our Annual ‘Christmaween’ Promotion
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now the streets fill with jack-o-lanterns and cottony cobwebs. Little ghosts and ghouls are peeking out from the window, just waiting for that hallowed night when they get to haunt the neighbourhood–and get some candy while they’re at it. As a business owner, this can only mean one thing.
Ghostwriting and Contracting: Writing Content Without Writing Content
A steady flow of quality content is extremely important, both for demonstrating your expertise and activity in your field as well as weighing heavily in your search engine ranking. However, not everyone has the time to formulate, write, polish, and post fresh content every few weeks. And even if you do, you might not have the skill to create content that is high enough in quality to represent your business. Ignoring your content can heavily damage your business. So how do you keep up if you don’t have time?