Holiday Marketing - Express Writers
SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION

Holiday Marketing

A Content Marketing Christmas Poem

by
A Christmas Poem: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, And All Through The Content… (A Content Marketing Christmas Poem) 

To say “it’s a holiday season like none other” is an understatement. I’d explain why, but one word will suffice – (the) pandemic. And, while the world stocked up on toilet paper, I was grateful to have sustained my daily dose of caffeine without a single downtrend in daily produced word count. (Bonus: I never stopped writing—I wrote a book over the pandemic, launching February 2021!) But more than that, we at Express Writers have so much more to be grateful for. Number one being this was yet another year of fate telling me how right I was nine years ago, to pursue my passion for writing and build this amazing content creation team we have today. I’m so grateful we invested in a strong foundation of content many years ago that continues to bring in new leads and new business. However, we know that the investment never stops. We continue to invest in our content creation efforts – and did so despite the events of this year. And, if there’s one key takeaway from 2020, it’s to take nothing for granted. To start the holiday week off, we have a treat for you – an original Christmas poem, from yours truly. Keep reading below it to get to my two wisdom nuggets to take into 2021. [bctt tweet=”Wrap up the crazy year of 2020 to a fun, memorable close – check out this short original remake of a classic Christmas poem by @JuliaEMcCoy of @ExpWriters. #OriginalPoem ???? Happy Holidays!” username=””] ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, And All Through The Content… Let’s not forget it’s Christmas. I hope you get time to celebrate, relax, and enjoy. To get you in the spirit, we decided to give the year 2020 a fun close with a short remake of a classic Christmas poem featuring a relevant, to-the-times twist. Keep scrolling to watch me narrate the poem! ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, And All Through The Content… (A Content Marketing Christmas Poem)  ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not one skipped a hand wash, not even the mouse. All went to sleep, but for me, a marketer, Whose vacation never included leaving my front foyer.   Out on the lawn with stars glittering above, My thoughts went adrift to the things that I love; Team members, clients, students, my own audience; Oh, how we survived this year with resilience.   No ‘unicorn ninjas,’ just safe and serene, I laughed and recalled my pajama meeting, How close I had been to losing my sanity; Grateful, now my content has more empathy.   As I cared more for people, up went my metrics; Thriving more than those with no online ethics. More leads and subscribers truly counting on me; My heart danced along with the wind in the tree.   ’Twas the night of that year that the world saw it clear, Great content was the one thing that didn’t disappear. A splendid New Year awaits those who do it right; Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Ready to uplevel in 2021? Check out G.R.O.W., my all-new live mentorship subscription community where you can achieve quick wins, high-level training, and direct and daily access to me + top mentors. Julia Narrates Our Content Marketing Christmas Poem     2 Big Takeaways for Conscientious Marketers to Remember in 2021 Here are two more wisdom nuggets that you should take with you into 2021. 1. 2020 Was The Year We Learned the Online World Will Never Die We watched the world shut down. Country after country. It was a year filled with uncertainties – but not for the online world. As we all kept indoors, we all had to rely on online support for help, online search for answers, and online content for updates. During which, brands who’d been neglecting their online presence (or content house), scrambled to meet customer’s needs as fast as possible. Everyone – across the globe – of every age, had to be online to thrive. As a result, Google’s daily searches ballooned, from 3.5 BILLION searches per DAY in 2019, to over 6 BILLION per DAY this year. That’s an average of 70,000 online searches per second! There is no greater time to be online than now. And, I’m beyond grateful that many years ago, I cared enough to introduce the Content Differentiation Factor to help brand’s rise above the cut. If it isn’t clear yet, this is your wake-up call to G.R.O.W. – online – now. 2. 2020 Was The Year Marketers Learned Building Trust is One of the Most Important Factors In 2020, an Edelman report listed brand trust as the second most important factor your customers care about, right next to price. And they found that it is built when you actually do what you say. More than that, 80-85% expect brands to help them, as well as make a positive impact to society. Even without Google’s numbers, marketers saw the opportunity – and took advantage in 2020 of the vaster online audience. Some, to a negative extent. There were the ones piggybacking on trends, and making sure that they had something to say for just about every issue. After all, isn’t that a strategy? Maybe, if you only want to go viral without tangible, clear results. But, if you want conversions, then it’s SEO strategy plus empathy. In the past, you could get away with “positioning” your brand as someone who cares about your customers, or the society, just by consistently posting blogs and newsletters, or having a great social media content strategy. Not this year. This year was all about supporting those, who deserved our support. And, as consumers all over the world experienced a great recession, we all made sure that money spent went to those who were helping make the world better. As Edelman’s brand trust report showed, when consumers trust you: 75% will reward you with loyalty, 60% with engagement, and 78% will become advocates, going out … Read more

If You’ve Got It, Haunt It: 13 Spooky Ideas for Your Halloween Marketing Campaigns & Content

by
If You’ve Got It, Haunt It: 13 Spooky Ideas for Your Halloween Marketing Campaigns & Content

Halloween is here! ? ? ? If you’re anything like me, you’ve been running around the house putting pumpkins everywhere, baking fall treats with allll the pumpkin spice flavors, and delighting your kiddo with a few extra-spooky house décor pieces. I hope you also spookified your brand! Halloween is a major holiday in the U.S. – even with all the crazy events of this year, American shoppers will still drop a whopping $8 billion in Halloween shopping. Around 53 percent will still decorate their homes. Dressing up your brand for Halloween isn’t just fun, it’s smart business! Here are 13 creative content ideas for Halloween marketing this year. From blog posts to social media and even a few extra treats, there’s something for everyone. Let’s get haunting! ? [bctt tweet=”Dressing up your brand for Halloween isn’t just fun, it’s smart business! ?‍♀️ Here are 13 creative content ideas for your Halloween marketing this year via @JuliaEMcCoy ??” username=””] 13 of the Best Halloween Marketing & Content Ideas to Try This Year Coming up with Halloween marketing and content ideas is a lot like coming up with a costume. People tend to either throw one together last minute or spend months meticulously planning and assembling it. But when it comes to content, you don’t really want to do either. Halloween is one of our most beloved holidays, and a great opportunity to grow your brand with some creative content marketing. Here are 13 of my best ideas to pumpkin spice things up this season. 1. Creepy Craft Campaigns According to Gallup, customers who are fully engaged with a brand are 23 percent more profitable than those who aren’t. So, give your audience something to do – literally. With everyone stuck at home this year and Halloween cancelled in many places, things like clever crafts can inspire festivity and customer engagement. Have your readers tag you on social media to create a gallery of user-generated spookiness. Target created this Instagram to share instructions for a craft project. Users then made it and tagged @Target. Source: Target 2. A ____’s Guide to Halloween Are you in a profession not commonly associated with Halloween festivities? It’s time to get a guide written on it. Leverage your content differentiation factor and give your readers insights into what unique things you might do for Halloween. Consider including: Spooky uses for your products Unusual recipes Traditions or practices that you might have A DIY costume for your mascot (Flo, anyone?) Tips on surviving a zombie apocalypse from the perspective of your profession 3. Halloweenify Your Products There are plenty of Halloween products floating around every year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put your own spin on it. You don’t even have to go all out with redesigned product packaging – a little bit of clever copy will go a long way. Consider getting some expert product descriptions written that play into the holiday. Or, add a splash of scary into your next email campaign to summon the Halloween spirit. It’s not just fun to “Halloweenify” your products – it’s also smart. Americans spend about $8 billion alone on Halloween every year. Source: Statista 4. Spooky Scavenger Hunt This works best if you’ve got a large site chock full of resources that you want readers to find. Hide Halloween themed images in your pages, then create a list of hints for your users and encourage them to poke through your content. You can even gamify it with a giveaway or other freebies for those who finish the hunt. Pro tip: Pair this with a lowkey product or resource launch and delight your fan base when they stumble on it. Psssst… ? If you sign up for my Content Strategy & Marketing Course, you’ll learn all about creating seasonal content to grow brand awareness. Enroll right here. 5. Fan Base Costume Contest Office costume contests have long been a thing, but in the era of social media, so are customer costume contests. Much like the craft campaign above, encourage you readers to share pictures of their best costumes then tag you via social media or post it to a Facebook page. Then, encourage people to “vote” on the best costume – the top three with the most likes can win a prize. Kia did an IG Pet Costume Contest one year, which can be an adorable alternative. Source: Kia 6. Share Spooky Local History Does your brand operate in an area that’s known for hauntings – or a place with a lesser-known but equally eerie past? Get some content created around it! An expert writer who knows how to really dig deep into a topic to find the most interesting facts can create thoughtful, interesting articles that attract eyeballs (and hopefully no ghosts). Also, content like this can serve as valuable real estate for local SEO. (Do this for every major holiday all year round and you’ll rank at the top for local SEO keywords in no time.) 7. Give Your Readers a Behind-the-Scenes Look Does your company do anything special for Halloween around the office? Do you have any festivities going on, or are you making any special holiday products? Share a behind-the-scenes look! Readers love behind-the-scenes content because of the sense of exclusivity and emotional closeness that it creates. Your readers are curious about you and they want to see the people behind the brands. With Halloween being widely celebrated and a favorite, it’s a great time to connect with your readers on a topic they already love. Dunkin Donuts won the internet with this behind-the-scenes look. Source: Dunkin Donuts 8. Spooky Listicles Listicles are one of the most popular forms of content out there – according to SEMrush, they get about twice as many shares as other blog articles. Take advantage of this by creating some Halloween-themed listicles within your specific industry. For example: 5 Haunting Blouses From Our Fall Collection Health & Wellness: 9 Types of Halloween Candy That Are Totally Paleo 10 … Read more

Five Creative Content Marketers: A Thanksgiving Poem

by
Five Creative Content Marketers A Thanksgiving Poem

Tomorrow, we’re closing our laptops, putting away our content strategies, and hitting “pause” on our editorial calendars. It’s a good time to reflect on the year and look at everything we’ve accomplished – not to mention recommit to the stuff that’s still on our goal lists. With that spirit in mind, we’ve come up with a little poem that’s one-part reality and one-part reminder, with a big wink thrown in for good measure. (We do something similar every year. We have a ton of fun getting into the spirit of each season. Check out our past Thanksgiving infographics: How to Be a Thankful Content Marketer and How to Throw Down Your Best-Ever Content Marketing Spread: Thanksgiving-Style.) Enjoy!! Five Creative Content Marketers: A Poem for Thanksgiving Five creative content marketers sitting at their desks, One got lost in dreams of turkey, pumpkin pie, and the rest. Four determined content marketers typing away, One decided not to work ‘til after Thanksgiving Day. Three clever content marketers strategizing with glee, One dropped the ball on topic research – whoopsie. Two driven content marketers hoping for success, One didn’t know their ideal readers – they guessed. One smart content marketer’s audience is king… Because the holidays are sweeter when your content sings. Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s hoping your content endeavors are as sweet as pumpkin pie and as satisfying as a well-roasted turkey. Happy Thanksgiving, marketers! – Julia & Team

12 Days of Christmas Infographic (Original Short)

by
12 Days of Christmas Infographic (Original Short)

12 Days of Christmas (Lyrics) On the twelve days of Christmas, Express Writers gave to me: 12 writers writing 11 editors editing 10 bloggers blogging 9 killer keywords 8 e-books emailed 7 slides a slingin’ 6 creative copy 5 social media po—sts! 4 graphics pushed 3 profiles penned 2 deadlines crushed …and a widely shared creative story! Merry Christmas, from ALL of us at Express Writers! Need creative copy for your next project? Krystal, the author of this fun piece, is a creative copywriter in our team. Get in touch about your projects!

10 Best Christmas Wordplays (Infographic)

by
10 Best Christmas Wordplays (Infographic)

Ready for Christmas? These 10 wordplays, handpicked by our copywriters, will put you in the mood. Save and share — around the office, Christmas dinner table, or with your favorite grammar-lovin’ friend! 10 Best Christmas Wordplays 1. Heard on the roof, the prancing and pawing of each little hoof On Christmas eve, one of Santa’s reindeer asks Mr. Claus why Dasher and Dancer are always taking coffee breaks. Santa’s response? “They’re my star bucks!” 2. The coziest season Why do dogs love the tradition of a Christmas tree? Because they get to enjoy an indoor bathroom when you bring it home. 3. The hustle and bustle of the holidays Red, white, red, white…what’s that? It’s Santa Claus, rolling down a hill! 4. Tasty treats everywhere! What do snowmen like to eat for breakfast? Snowflakes. 5. The perfect gift beneath the tree Last year, I wrote a letter to Santa asking him to bring me the sexiest person in the world. On Christmas morning, I woke up in a box. 6. New lessons to be learned from loved ones near and far What do elves learn at elf school? The elfabet! 7. A holly-jolly season Who says “oh oh oh?” Santa walking backwards. 8. Winter sports to enjoy and share! What do you call a snowman wearing ice skates? A snowmobile! 9. A chilling situation How do you know if the economy is in trouble on Christmas? The snowmen are selling themselves on the streets. 10. The most wonderful time of the year The most wonderful thing about Christmas is it’s the only time of the year when you can gather around a dead tree and eat chocolate from a sock. (Source: funny-jokes-quotes.com/christmas-jokes.html) Merry Christmas to you & yours from all of us at Express Writers! We’re still here and working over the holidays…need last-minute content support? We got you covered!

6 Brands That Win at Fantastic Holiday Content

by
6 Brands That Win at Fantastic Holiday Content

With the holiday season upon us, brands in every industry are putting together their holiday editorial calendar. It’s important to adjust your blog content, your email marketing, and even your social media presence to target the holidays your audience is celebrating. We recently shared five tips to help you create “irresistibly tasty” content for your readers this holiday, but today we have some new inspiration for you. We are sharing six brands that consistently do a great job with their holiday content year after year. 6 Brands That Win at Fantastic Holiday Content These brands may create festive content for their blogs and social media or they might give their product a fun twist around the holidays to get you feeling jolly. Whether you’re in need of some inspiration for your own brand’s holiday editorial calendar or you just want to get in the holiday spirit, look to these brands for some help! Starbucks: The Yearly Tradition It wouldn’t be possible to have a round-up of brands that do the holidays right without mentioning Starbucks, would it? Although Starbucks isn’t exactly known for festive blog posts around the holidays, they are known for those classic red cups. And you know what? It works for them! Each and every year, the coffee chain releases a brand new red cup design (or even multiple red cup designs, like they did this year). Their customers get excited to see what they have come up with, looking forward not just to the seasonal lattes, but the seasonal red cups as well. Not only do people get to enjoy their delicious drink in a decorative cup, but Starbucks also encourages customers to share photos of the popular red cups on social media. For the past few years, Starbucks has run an Instagram contest where they ask people to share photos of their red cups. Customers are encouraged to snap a photo of their red cup with the hashtag #RedCupContest for a chance to win prizes. This motivates customers to head to Starbucks and share photos, which likely prompts others to do the same when they see the images in their Instagram feed. It’s effective marketing for Starbucks and gets people in the holiday spirit! The Takeaway: Create something your audience can look forward to every single year. Then, get people involved! Create a challenge of your own and encourage your audience to participate. You can even take it up a notch by giving back through giveaways people are sure to love. If you choose to do a photo challenge like Starbucks, it provides amazing user-generated content you can share on your own profile, too. Target: Masters of Storytelling The Christmas season is a pretty big deal for Target. Because many parents are shopping for presents to put underneath the tree and children are adding to their Christmas lists, Target is a popular destination for gift shopping. So, it should come as no surprise that the nationwide retailer puts a lot of effort into their Christmas ads each and every year. In 2015, Target used their television commercials to tell a story of children and the store mascot, Bullseye the dog, as they set out to light up a giant Christmas tree. Throughout the commercials, you would see famous characters children are familiar with, such as the Minions. People would pay attention to the commercials so they could see what would happen in the end. While it may seem the commercials were designed with only children in mind, Target slipped in details parents would want to know, too! They would add pitches about some of their holiday offers, such as free shipping for online purchases until Christmas. Their goal is always to take the viewer on a journey, so it’s no surprise they plan to do the same thing for 2016. This year’s advertisements are said to be a Broadway-style marketing campaign that will feature some celebrity guests. Target doesn’t just put a lot of effort into their advertisements every year. They also have the Kids’ Wish List App, which children a way to save all of the items on their Christmas wish list. And it gives parents a list of exactly what to buy! You’ll likely see pitches for this app in the commercials as well. The Takeaway: Create a holiday marketing campaign that tells a story. Draw your audience in with a captivating story that leaves them wanting to know more. J.Crew: Embracing Social Advertisements Fashion retailer, J.Crew, is pretty savvy when it comes to their social media marketing, especially around the holidays. Last year, the company ran a few ads on both Instagram and Facebook. Now, it’s no secret that social media ads can be a great way to increase sales for your product and build brand awareness. So, what’s the big deal? J.Crew knew what they were doing with the ads they created. They took advantage of the “Shop Now” button that can be placed on ads, which would encourage people to click over to the website and immediately start shopping straight from the ad. The Takeaway: If you’re looking to boost sales this holiday season, don’t be afraid to experiment with social media advertisements. They can be a great way to reach your audience. Figure out which platform your audience is most active on and start building an ad. Promote your product and send people over to your website to encourage them to make a purchase. Tone It Up: Cooking Up a Great Holiday The mission of the Tone It Up girls is to help you get fit and healthy, no matter what time of the year it is. However, it’s not surprising that can be difficult this time of year. We often indulge in large meals and lots of sweets during Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Karena and Katrina of Tone It Up show that it doesn’t have to be that way! Because the ladies also share healthy recipes on their website, they keep holiday dinners in mind when cooking … Read more

Announcing Our #ContentWritingChat Christmas Giveaway!

by
Announcing Our #ContentWritingChat Christmas Giveaway!

It wouldn’t be the holiday season without a fun giveaway from Express Writers, now would it? Of course not! And you’re in luck because we have a fantastic giveaway planned for the month of December, with a winner every single week! The best part? All you have to do to be eligible to win is participate in #ContentWritingChat on Twitter. Keep reading to get the full scoop and find out exactly what you could win this month. What is #ContentWritingChat? #ContentWritingChat is our weekly Twitter chat that we have been running since January of this year. We chat every Tuesday from 10-11 AM Central Time and are lucky enough to welcome so many new faces to the chat each week. It really has grown into an amazing community that has become a go-to place to learn and develop connections online. In our chats, we primarily talk about copywriting, content marketing, SEO, and social media. We make sure these chats are jam-packed with value by inviting guest hosts to join and sharing the questions we know our audience is asking. If you join us throughout December, you just might want to bring a notepad to take a few notes. If you aren’t able to take notes, never fear – I post weekly recaps in the #ContentWritingChat section! To visit the recaps, click Learn from the menu: Hover and then click Twitter chat. You can see all our recaps posted there. Join Us for 4 Weeks of Giveaways! What can you win this month and what do you have to do? Each week, one lucky participant will win one free blog written by the talented team right here at Express Writers. This blog will be written by our general writers, made-to-order around the keywords/topic of your choice, and tailored to your online presence and brand. This also includes one custom branded visual to go along with the post. ? We’re having a Christmas giveaway for #ContentWritingChat! You could win a FREE blog from Express Writers. (View the image for details!) ? pic.twitter.com/gWQzlg4Flv — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) November 29, 2016 So, is this exactly what your blog needs? Here’s what you need to do if you want to win: All you have to do is join us during the live #ContentWritingChat hour on Tuesdays from 10-11 AM Central Time. You can also refer your friends to the chat and let us know you invited them to join the fun. It’s as simple as that and it’s happening every week in December. That means you have four chances to win a top-notch post to share on your blog. Best of luck to everyone who comes and joins us to enter – we can’t wait to see you in the chat! Mark your calendars for Tuesdays at 10 AM CST, and join us on @ExpWriters or @writingchat with our hashtag #ContentWritingChat. 

Compelling Copy Home for the Holidays: 10 Tips for High-Performing Seasonal Content

by
Compelling Copy Home for the Holidays: 10 Tips for High-Performing Seasonal Content

Christmas is almost upon us, and you can bet that your audience is feeling festive and frisky. But is your content set up to match? The holidays are the best time to alter your content in the name of engagement and celebration, and many site owners find that adding a bit of holiday flair and seasonal content to their web pages is an efficient way to draw attention and promote more conversions and sales during the holiday season. What’s more: there are dozens of places to do this! From product descriptions to blogs, bios, and social media updates, creating festive copy is a fantastic way to make your company more approachable and keep your readers happier than a group of hard-working elves on their day off. Bring Compelling Copy Home for the Holidays: How to Create Your Best Seasonal Content As Christmas draws near, people dive headfirst into purchasing mode, and they’re looking for things to buy, companies to engage with, and new brands to discover. What a perfect time to be a marketer! By rewriting your blogs, descriptions, and social updates to provide a bit more of the holiday spirit, you can create content with a seasonal appeal that will leave your readers wanting more. Holiday Content on the “Nice” List: 3 Examples of Companies that win at Seasonal Content For three examples of businesses that are great models to follow in seasonal content that wins every holiday, check out these three businesses: 1. ModCloth ModCloth is one company I always reference when we start talking about great product descriptions, and rightfully so. The clothing company is the queen of wildly creative copy, and the names of their clothing alone is enough to make you want to buy. For an example of a holiday-themed product description that went particularly right, check out the “Oh Christmas Treat Sweater:” While the sweater itself is cute enough, it’s the product description that drives the point home and makes holiday-focused buyers want to click “add to cart.” For another great example, check out the “Barkin’ Around the Christmas Tree Knit Top:” Sweet, reliable, and decidedly festive, these product descriptions add a festive feel to shopping for clothing, which may otherwise be a mundane process. 2. PooPourri PooPourri is famous for its decidedly raunchy but very (um…) honest product descriptions. For an example of some of their more recent holiday-focused content, check out last year’s “Even Santa Poops” commercial, which has earned more than 15 million views on YouTube. While you may not want to get this gross with your holiday content, this commercial just goes to show that ‘tis the time of year for creative copy to take hold. 3. Backcountry.com Backcountry.com is a “Gearhead’s paradise” that offers outdoor clothing and accessories for people who ski, run, hike, climb, and camp. Every year, the site puts together one massive product description. It calls this its “Holiday Gift Guide,” and it features curated gear for both men and women. As a user, you click the guide and wind up on a page featuring dozens of drool-worthy gifts for men or women. While the products are exciting enough, Backcountry got it right by compiling some of its most festive offerings into one convenient platform for its users. While the holiday marketing isn’t over-the-top, there’s no denying that this is a downright festive experience: How to Write High-Performing Holiday & Seasonal Copy: 10 Timely Tips When it comes to writing high-performing holiday copy, here are a few tips to get you started: 1. Keep your choice of holidays broad Because there are several holidays throughout December, it’s smart to avoid putting all of your focus on one of them. Unless, of course, your company sells Christmas trees, Thanksgiving turkeys, or something else that is decidedly singular. For everyone else, keep your holiday options open, or opt to choose a few holidays and work around them. In addition to allowing you to appeal to the broadest segment of the audience, this also gives you a framework for keeping your content fresh and ensuring that you’re not getting too wrapped up in a single holiday and neglecting the others. This can make it difficult to create useful topics, and people who keep things open-ended commonly have an easier time staying creative. 2. Offer surprises, discounts, or contests To make the most of the festivity of the season, provide your readers with the occasional holiday surprise, giveaway, or offer. Because the holidays are a season when people shop till they drop, now is a fantastic time to give things away and draw new customers through unique offers and surprises. If you’re not sure what to give away, don’t worry. Free downloads are a fantastic option, as are eBooks and other types of digital content. If you’d prefer to give away a product, run a holiday contest on a social media platform of your choice. In addition to spreading the word about your goods and services, this is also a fantastic way to keep your customers happy, festive, and engaged. 3. Add holiday graphics to your site If you look more closely at the Backcountry screenshot above, you’ll see that the company has developed a unique little Christmas logo to jazz up their holiday content. While you don’t need to go over the top with neon elves and light-up monstrosities, adding some festive holiday visuals to your site is an excellent way to get people into the Christmas spirit and ensure that your content is the one gift that truly keeps on giving. To maintain your brand identity in the process, work to make sure that your holiday additions stay in-line with your company colors, voice, and approach. Additionally, work to find areas in your existing brand strategy where you can add some Christmas flair like Moz did last year with a dog named Lettie Pickles, the company’s resident brand ambassador: 4. Revisit your older holiday content If you’ve ever created holiday-focused content before, now is an excellent time to bring it out to play once … Read more

How to Be a Thankful Content Marketer This Thanksgiving (Infographic)

by
How to Be a Thankful Content Marketer This Thanksgiving (Infographic)

10 Reasons to Be a Thankful Content Marketer As You Gather Round the Table 1. Writing elite content is something we take pride in. So’s eating three slices of pumpkin pie. 2. Two rules to live by: save room for dessert & make time to relax. We can help with the latter. 3. Feel like your copy looks more like a snood than something with swag? Invite us to your table. 4. Content marketing can be as easy as sweet potato pie, with the right resources. 5. Gobble, gobble, gobble! (That’s called onomatopoeia.) 6. Only the best ingredients for our copy make it to the table! 7. While you’re stuffing turkey, we’ll roast your copy. 8. Sweet potato pie vs. pumpkin pie. Quality vs. quantity. Find the right team, you get someone that perfects all the flavors. 9. Turkeys CAN fly — so can your content when it goes viral with the right content touch! 10. A thankful content marketer is one that’s found a content creator they can trust. Happy Thanksgiving from Your Friends at Express Writers! This Thanksgiving, we hope you get to spend some time with loved ones gathered around the table, relishing good food, fun, and making memories. (For the Friendsgiving goers among us—I’m in your group this year!—enjoy your special day of gratitude, good food and companionship, too!) Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at Express Writers!

Merry Christmas From Express Writers! Bonus: How To Create Awesome Holiday Campaigns

by
Merry Christmas From Express Writers! Bonus: How To Create Awesome Holiday Campaigns

We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, …And a Happy New Year!    Merry Christmas From Express Writers! It’s already the end of 2015. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are upon us! I hope that you’re not spending too much time in front of the work screen, but if you are, you should read this one blog. (Insert brazen-faced winky emoticon.)  I hope it’ll inspire you and that you’ll leave with some content marketing tips you can start using right now – and bring into your New Year. First: Why Christmas Doesn’t Have To (Ever) Be Your “Slow” Season I’m even more excited to bring you this holiday post and hereby “blog,” or “work,” on the holidays, because, well, December is becoming our hottest month of the entire year!  I couldn’t believe it myself, but we broke records and had over 1,000 pages of content ordered in 48 hours, our first week of December. This is the most we’ve had ordered in 48 hours since I created the company, in 2011. Our financial graph for the entire year looks like this: (The lowest point, in January, looks lower than it was because we actually started our online Content Shop then and had all our clients begin placing orders online.) We still have one more half-week in December, and our team is in the office throughout this month still – so we expect the year to end with our busiest month yet! That’s my reason directly to you why December doesn’t need to be your slowest month. We actually saw it become our best month for 2015 – which means anyone can, too, provided they never let go of the hustle and effort it takes to get a best foot forward and put in some real work and passion. Copywriting Tips for the Holidays (and Beyond) Even as the holidays are quickly whizzing past us, there’s still plenty of time to hone your skills for your holiday campaigns and start converting readers into buyers. But before you do, let’s take a look at the top copywriting tips to get your writing into shape. 8 Top Copywriting Hacks 1. 90% Of Your Time Should Be Spent Crafting Killer Headlines There’s a lot to be said on the topic of headlines. Strong conversion copywriters spend at least 90 percent of their time crafting one, or two… or three for every piece. It’s important not to stuff your headlines with keywords. And while you’re at it, throw out everything you were taught by those old-school SEO dictators on how to craft those headers. Make them attention-grabbing, borrow from winning formulas, do what you got to, to reel readers in. Here’s an important tip to remember: great headlines are very often incarnations of the value proposition of the very thing you’re trying to sell. Here’s another tip: ask yourself this about the prospect you’re writing for: “what was going on in their life that brought them to you today?” 2. Write Amazing Headlines Using “Without”, “Even If” and “Data” There’s so much to be said about headlines and that’s because they really are THAT important. Here are a few things you could include to help make your headers stand out: Use an “even if” clause to overcome hesitation Add a little data about the outcome Replace “even with” with “without” – what don’t your readers have to do to get the result? 3. Stay Away From Positioning Statements – Use Value Propositions At its very core, a value proposition needs to express what’s desirable and unique about your offer. Never confuse it with a positioning statement. You should state something about that your product does. You can include an end benefit. But don’t make your value proposition a laundry list of benefits. 4. Get To Know Different Types of Awareness There are a couple of different kinds of awareness your readers will have during the sales process. Depending on the stage of awareness they’re at, they’re going to need different messaging and content: Pain Aware – in this stage people respond to seeing solutions to their pain, or even their own pain. Solution Aware – this is where people respond to high-level benefits, so avoid thinking of the problem and think of the solution. Problem Aware – during this phase, people realize they actually have a problem but don’t know how to solve it. Product/Brand Aware – here people want to know what best and biggest benefit your product has to offer before they’re introduced to the benefits. People love the phrase, “but wait! There’s more!” Completely Unaware – during this phrase, people are completely clueless about their problems. 5. Embracing Similarities Between Taglines and Value Propositions Sometimes the very best taglines are actually your value propositions (as discussed above), just whittled down smaller while being specific. 6. Keeping Swipe Files for Inspiration Never heard of a swipe file? It’s a collection of content that you can use for ideas – all that memorable stuff that’s resonated with you. Save everything you love so when the well runs dry, you have a file full of inspiration. 7. To Write Content That Shocks and Generates Shares, Go Ahead and Pick a Fight! Take a completely accepted way of doing things and go and turn it on its head. Don’t be insulting, though, just provocative. 8. Top X Lists Can Still Work These lists can work well, provided they add something meaningful to the conversation. Try to be better. Aim to be different. 5 Tips for Effective Holiday Content You Can Do Now Here are 5 bonus tips for crafting effective holiday content as you leave my blog today (and go eat chocolates, or open gifts, and enjoy your holiday – in short, get away from the computer :D). 1. What Are Your Customer’s Holiday Needs? One of the best things about the holiday rush is you get to offer your customers great value when you create content that will help them cross something off their to-do list, saves them time or makes the holidays more fun. Consider … Read more

No HR needed to get access to the best writers, editors, QAs and strategists. We are your all-in-one content writing service delivering publish-ready content.

Copyright – 2025 Expresswriter -All rights reserved