We often talk about the need to have a really clear message. Capture the value of what you do in simple language, and share that story consistently in the valuable content that you create. Build a brand and a reputation by getting known for the one thing you do really well. Be niche.

But what if you want to shift the focus of what you do? What if the one thing you’ve become known for is no longer lighting your fire?

My new website is like the first few hours after a snowfall. The landscape is pure and white, and I can see exactly when people have stepped out into it and the route they’ve taken because their footsteps are starkly visible in my analytics. 

Did that headline get your attention? I hope it did. Writing effective headings is not easy. This one is very much of the “it does what it says on the tin” school — and that’s often no bad thing.

But when your audience is skimming through hundreds of emails, posts, tweets and blogs, how do you write headlines that grab their attention?

Writing your business story is a creative exercise. It’s not like any of the other writing you do – very different from blogs or sales proposals – and you need to approach it in a different frame of mind. Here are five steps to help you write your business story.

If your aim is foggy, your content marketing efforts will stumble. It’s easy to get caught up in tactics - I’ll write a six blogs a month, I’ll make the newsletter weekly not monthly, I’ll start a podcast - rather than being really specific about the goal you want to reach. 

Here’s how to focus your marketing efforts and thrive in 2021.

Setting up on my own after nine years of working in partnership has been a big adventure and it’s taught me lots of things. Here are a few of the most important lessons I’ve learned about writing, focus, and getting stuff done. I hope they’re helpful for you too.

When there’s so much that you could say it can be hard to know where to focus your limited time. You know that digital marketing relies on creating and sharing a steady stream of content, but what content and when?

What does your business stand for? Would a manifesto help you tell your story? Here’s how to write a meaningful manifesto for your business.

When it comes to websites, sales pages are often overlooked. Home pages get all the attention and design love, ‘about’ pages get all the storytelling magic, but sales or ‘our services’ pages push people away.  Here’s how to write pages that encourage people to buy from you.

You want your writing to feel like the conversation with a friend, not a lecture from a distant expert. So how do you do that? How can you write so that readers stick with you?

Having a few metaphors up your sleeve is a short cut to making your writing warmer and more memorable. But how do you write a good one, and how do you use them to best effect in your content?

Which words matter most for your business? Is it your strap line? Your ‘About’ copy? The words you use to describe what you do? Or does it go deeper than that. Here’s my view on what to prioritise.

Being able to say what’s needed in a few good words is a skill that will help you communicate more easily.  Not every piece of writing needs to be short, of course, but in many places short copy is vital.