Writing seldom comes easy

‍You probably didn't get into business because you wanted to write. If writing was what you wanted to do, you would have taken a different path.

"Writing feels like bleeding onto a page."
"I'm not a word person."
"I see people on the social media hamster wheel and I don't want that to be my life..."

I've heard these comments and many more from new clients coming to us for help with their messaging. Because as much as they resist the writing projects of their business, they know it's essential that they do them well--

Your bottom line depends on the investors loving your presentation deck, your audience loving the content you create, and your visitors totally getting what you can do for them after skimming your homepage for all of 30 seconds.

If you're in business, there is writing to do, so how can you make your word projects easier?

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SYSTEMATIZE YOUR BUSINESS

‍Ditch the blank page & build on bones instead

Writing for business can be (much) easier

We're in the business of making marketing easier for entrepreneurs. My job is to help business owners get the words right and nail their message. In the process, their relationship with marketing goes from hesitance or dread to confidence and even enjoyment.

Here is one of the tips I give our clients and students to make things easier:

Never start from scratch if you can help it

Staring at a blank page is intimidating, even for seasoned professional writers. It can be exhilarating to see what emerges from the depths of your soul onto the page. It can also be excruciating.

In business, there will be times you need to tackle the blank page and do this excavation work. But most of the time, there is no need. Most of the time you can let someone else do the heavy lifting and be much more efficient about your writing task. Good news huh?!

Today's marketing tip: Make the most of templates

Templates are bones. They are structure. They are form and foundation. Templates provide the starting place so you can focus on filling in the blanks.

There are many ways to use templates in your business and some great places to source them. Here are two you can start using right away to make your writing projects easier:

• Swipe! When you come across an awesome email message, social media post, or sales page--save it! Create a Swipe File and start adding to it. There are a lot of great marketers out there and you're probably on some of their lists and/or following them. If not, be on the lookout or seek out examples of excellent marketing--stuff that is clear and really speaks to you. I guarantee you that your favorite marketers have swipe files of their own and make good use of them.
• Keep your good stuff. The marketing pros aren’t the only ones who are doing things well—you’ve done some great work yourself. Don’t keep re-inventing the wheel! If you just onboarded a new client, save that email so you aren't starting from scratch with the next one. If you crafted a launch email sequence that got decent results (congrats!) and save that too to build on next time you launch.

Customize the communication until it's your own

Whether you're starting with someone else's copy or your own, use your template to discover the bones of the message.

Remember MadLibs? The word game back in the eighties where you had a page with a few words and a bunch of blank lines for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and you filled in the blanks to create a hilarious story of your own? That's how you want to treat your templates.

What your template gives you is architecture. A container for your brand’s unique message. Your writing task is to create the blanks and then fill them in. You create the blanks by subtracting out the original writers details and replacing those elements with your details. Customize it completely.

(Otherwise, it’s not swipe, it’s plagiarism. Which is not only illegal and would feel smarmy to do, but would probably get mediocre results anyway because it wouldn’t be true to your business.)

Replace all the particulars of the original message with the particulars of your message. It's ever so much easier to fill in blanks than to start from scratch. And if you pick well-crafted marketing templates you're likely to have awesome results.

Know what to put into the blanks

While templates are the path of ease for business writing and your marketing, you also need a clear brand message to plug into whatever template you're using.

With Strategic Storytelling, that gets much easier too. Not only do you end up with a clear, compelling brand story that speaks straight to your unique market—you also walk away with a strong understanding of the eight essential ingredients that make up your brand story. Those eight ingredients are what go into the blanks of any template you use.

Once you understand those story ingredients you’ll understand why the strong marketers you follow are so masterful, and it will be that much easier to build on their templates and do great marketing yourself.

If you want to learn about how you can nail your own brand story click the button below to chat with us about the options for your business.

Leverage the mindset, tools, & team that free you to focus on what you’re here to do

Learn more about nailing your brand story

Thanks for doing what you do in the world,

Kai & Michael

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