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Why is a human content writer better than an AI?

Why is a human content writer better than an AI?
Image by Julie Grant Photography

AI can be a helpful tool when you write content marketing, but a human writer will give you better results in some situations. An AI can help you plan or develop ideas (and yes, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions for this post). When is a human content writer better than an AI? Read on to find out.

Humans are more creative

An AI only gets information from online sources, which can make its content a bit generic. If you use AI for ideas, you can put your spin on them to make them unique.

An AI won’t change its tone of voice in the way that a human content writer can. It’ll typically use the same writing style, although you can ask it to mimic someone. (My son once asked ChatGPT to rewrite something he’d written in the style of a Donald Trump speech. The results were hilarious and accurate.)

Humans have emotional intelligence

Powerful writing engages your reader’s emotions and makes them feel understood. You understand the feelings that motivate your customers to work with you. Your marketing can show that you know how they feel now and how those feelings will change when you’ve worked together. It could be something as simple as offering home delivery or having a big car park so they don’t have to deal with the stress of finding a parking space. An AI wouldn’t understand that, but a human content writer does.

A human content writer can understand your audience

An AI can help identify potential concerns among your audience. However, it can’t write content that helps you form a personal connection. Your audience might want a serious take on a subject or prefer something more light-hearted.

An AI won’t get to know you and understand the language you use to talk about a subject, but a human content writer will. If you serve a niche audience which uses specific terms or references, you can find a writer who understands your niche in a way an AI won’t.

Talking about sensitive subjects

Some topics are hard to talk about. Your work might involve conversations about illness, death, or other painful personal experiences. You might offer a service that helps people prepare for the worst, such as will writing or life insurance. Marketing means discussing topics your audience might rather ignore, and your language must reflect that.

You might need to share stories about others and decide how much information you can reveal without compromising their privacy. An AI can’t choose for you or even act as a sounding board in the way a human writer can.

We can speak from personal experience

Your story can be compelling when it comes to attracting new clients. You might have started your business because you wanted to help others in the same situation. I often work with other mums because we all balance business and family life, and I understand how that works. That wouldn’t happen if I didn’t talk about my children in my marketing. Speaking from personal experience creates a human connection. An AI is more objective, so it can’t offer that.

If you want to work with an actual human to create engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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How can AI help your content writing?

I know you probably expect a writer like me to react to any mention of AI the way that Dracula might respond to someone brandishing a cross in his face. Basically, hissing and hiding my face. However, it’s becoming more of a feature in the content writing landscape, and I can’t ignore it. I’ve even found myself using it a bit. So, how can AI help your content writing? Read on to find out.

How can AI help your content writing? I might be hiding from the answers!

It’s excellent for topic suggestions

When you’ve been in business for a while, it can feel like your marketing has covered everything you could possibly talk about. You’ll have new followers who won’t have read it all before, but you still want to create something fresh.

You can ask ChatGPT for original ways to talk about your product or service, which will give you a list. They might not all be usable, but some will, and it could inspire you to come up with more.

It can come up with new and unexpected angles

Sometimes, writing new content involves presenting the same information in new ways or from a different angle. You can create beginner guides and tips for people with more experience or choose a particular interest group. If you serve more than one type of person, their needs will vary, and you can write for both groups.

AI can help you find new angles, so ask something like “Who would be interested in x and why?” and see what it suggests.

You can use it to mash two ideas together

You might have a great idea for an analogy but struggle to make it work in practice. Writing a blog post could be a bit like cooking a meal. You need the right ingredients, cooking techniques and a big serving dish… wait, where was I going with this?

I could ask ChatGPT to explain how writing a blog post is like cooking a Sunday roast to get the juices flowing.

It can help you get your brain unstuck

Sometimes, you need to translate jargon so your audience can understand it. You try to write an explanation, and your brain goes blank.

When that happens, head to your favourite AI and ask, “How can I explain x in layman’s terms?” The answer might not be a perfect explanation, but it can give you some phrases to use as a starting point.

How can’t AI help your content writing?

AI can be helpful in the right circumstances, but it’s a bit rubbish at human emotion. You know, the stuff that helps you connect with your audience and shows them who you are. As a small business, your personality and values help you stand out from other businesses offering the same type of product or service. That’s why you still need to write your own words or work with someone like me, who’ll get to know you and put your personality into your content.

If you want to work with an actual human to create engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, use the form below to sign up for monthly content writing tips straight to your inbox.

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Want to create engaging content? Look at your numbers

Engaging content is about more than words - you need to look at your numbers too.

You might not think words and numbers have much in common, apart from co-existing on a school curriculum. However, your analytics can tell you a lot about what content is striking a chord with your audience and helping you achieve your business goals. Here’s my guide to help you look at your numbers and write engaging content.

Plan your business goals

I’m not going to tell you how to set business goals. For one thing, it’s not my department. For another, your version of success might look very different from mine. However, when you’ve decided what targets you want to hit next year, think about what your marketing needs to do to achieve that. Do you need to reach more people, improve your social media engagement or increase your email subscribers? Knowing where you want people to go helps you focus on the right platforms.

Look at your numbers

You can use your marketing analytics to work out what’s working in terms of the marketing platforms you use and the type of content you create. Reviewing your numbers helps you see what’s working so you can do more of it or tweak things to test a different approach. When you talk about your business, some posts get a better response than others, often due to the language you use.

Remember that what your audience responds to can change over time; regular reviews help you stay up to date.

Think about keywords

I’m hearing more marketing professionals say that SEO is getting less effective. While that’s probably true, there’s still a place for it. Google is the first place many of us ask questions, and if you offer a service in your local area, there are still plenty of people searching ‘service + town’.

So, look at your website analytics. What keywords attracted the most visitors? Where did they go next? Did they leave or visit another page? Look at keywords, but think about the customer journey, too. When people land on your website, what do you want them to do next?

Are your sales pages working?

As the name suggests, sales pages focus on selling one product. Everything on there should be targeted towards persuading someone to decide to buy. If you’re getting lots of visitors but not many sales, look at your language. Does it help your customers understand how buying from you will help them? Does it focus on their needs or your product? If you have some sales pages that work while others don’t, compare the words. Spotting the differences can help you update existing pages to improve their performance.

Social media engagement

If reaching your goals means getting more eyes on your content, look at your social media reach and engagement. Reach is good as it means the algorithm shows your stuff to more people. When your followers engage with a post, it’ll also start showing your posts to more of their friends.

Check your analytics to see which posts got lots of reactions and comments. It shows that the post struck a chord and that you used engaging language. You can create more posts with similar subjects and analyse your tone of voice. Are you using a different style on different posts, and how does that affect the response?

If you want to write engaging content that lets your customers get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to get in touch. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Or, for regular writing tips straight to your inbox, sign up using the form below. I’m a vegetarian so I hate spam and I’ll never share your details with anyone else.

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Why are good headlines important?

A newspaper with good headlines

You might associate the word ‘headline’ with a newspaper or online article, but you use them everywhere in your marketing. They’re the title of your blog posts, the subject line in your emails and even your social media posts have a line at the top that’s the first thing your readers will see. Good headlines can determine whether your marketing hits the spot with your audience. Read on to find out why…

Headlines catch people’s attention

OK, this is the most obvious reason for creating good headlines. They’re designed to intrigue potential readers so that they want to know more. That could be because you’re offering the solution to a problem or because you’ve teased some juicy secret they must know about. It makes them look twice and tempts them to read the rest.

I have one important caveat – a good headline isn’t misleading. This brings me to…

Good headlines let your readers know what to expect

Clickbait may work for some businesses, but small businesses like ours need to build trust. A clear headline that lets your reader know what they’ll get from your content helps you do that. It also allows your audience to decide whether it’s worth their time. That way, when they click through, they know that you’re providing tips or advice they can use.

Even if people don’t read the whole post, it gives them a clear impression of what you do and what your business offers.

They can express a particular mindset

Have you ever stood and looked at a newspaper and magazine display in a shop? Each publication could be talking about the same subject or news story, but they all do it differently. The headlines they use help you understand their political viewpoint or the issues they care about.

Your headlines can do the same; they can help you attract customers with a similar worldview to you or tell them something about your personality, so they’ll know whether you’re their kind of person.

Headlines are great for SEO

Headlines work to boost your search engine rankings in two different ways. Firstly, the fact that you have a headline tells Google that your content is well-organised and likely to be helpful.

Secondly, you can include keywords in your headlines. Then, when search engines look at your site, they can immediately tell what your subject is. That means when someone asks a question with your keywords, they know your content is relevant to that search.

Good headlines = more clicks

When you create marketing, you want people to read it, and a good headline encourages them to do that. That doesn’t just apply to content you created to educate your audience. It can help you to get new sign-ups to your email list and more sales. A headline can make it clear that you’re selling something and give your audience insight into the benefits of your product or service so they click through to find out more and ultimately buy from you.

Do you want to grab your audiences’ attention and create content that speaks your customers’ language? I can help with that. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

You can also sign up to receive monthly emails packed with useful content writing and marketing tips using the form below.

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Case study: writing a blog for Goldfinch Marketing’s client

Image shows a pile of magazines and a laptop with the kind of project that Goldfinch Marketing got to work on when I started writing a blog for their client.

One of my favourite things about my work is the chance to learn about the different ways that creative people work. I loved art at school, but I know that there are artists and designers out there that are far better at creating visuals than I am. Hand me a pen and a notebook, and I’m happy. I don’t panic in the face of a drawing pad and pencil, but I might not show the results to anyone. It makes me happy when I see work from people who can make stuff look beautiful.

This means that I was thrilled when I met Christina from Goldfinch Marketing. She creates gorgeous designs, and she’s also brilliant at techy stuff. It all comes together in beautiful websites that Google will love as much as your customers do. She’s also very good at writing; in fact, she’s so talented I would hate her if she wasn’t also lovely.

This may have you wondering why she’d need me, a writer when she’s already good at writing. Read on…

The pandemic

I met Christina during lockdown when everyone was virtual networking; some of us were home-schooling too. She’s based in Dorset, so the chances of us running into each other in person were virtually non-existent. Like many of us, Christina had taken some time during lockdown to evaluate her business and work out what she wanted to spend her time doing.

She’d started Goldfinch Marketing to help her clients with all their marketing needs, whether that was a new website, graphic design or content writing. Her review told her that she loved web design and graphics work but didn’t want to do content writing anymore. That’s where I came in.

The project

Christina had gradually reduced the amount of content writing she took on, but she still wrote blogs for one client. She told me they were lovely people she enjoyed working for and didn’t want to let them down. At the same time, she wanted to free up some time for other projects, so she wanted to see if I could take over writing a blog for them.

Of course I could. Writing their blog was right up my street; they’re a business offering a professional service, so they needed to share their expertise but didn’t want to be stuffy. I read the posts that Christina had already written to follow the same style and suggested some new topics. I also wrote social media edits for each blog post so that the individual paragraphs would work as standalone posts. The client was still happy, and Christina had time for other things.

If you need a new website, I recommend checking out Christina’s work here. Alternatively, if you want to outsource your content writing, either for yourself or one of your clients, let’s have a chat. You can book a call with me here.

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Are you making one of these blogging mistakes?

Man writing on a pad and making blogging mistakes.
Photo by Cup of Couple: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crumpled-papers-near-a-person-writing-on-a-notepad-6632868/

A blog is brilliant for letting your audience get to know you and how your business helps them, but it only works if people keep reading and take action when they’re finished. Read on for the top 5 blogging mistakes that will have your readers wandering off to your competitors.

Clickbait

I loathe clickbait with a passion, mainly because I’m not immune to it. There’s always a wonderfully intriguing headline (that’s the point). You click through to find pages of nonsense that don’t deliver what you expect. It only works if your business model is based on high-volume content that generates ad revenue when people click through. If you want to build trust with your audience, it’s horrendous.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Do. Not. Do. This. To. Your. Customers.

Walls of text

Most people don’t read a blog post all the way through. They’ll skim it to get the gist or to find the piece of information they searched for. It’ll put them off if they land on your post and find a big block of text with no subheadings to guide them through. It’s a good idea to plan, so you know what you want to say in the post. Then you can have a subheading for each point and separate paragraphs if there are a couple of different elements to each subheading.

Breaking your post up makes it more visually appealing too.

No through line

Sometimes going off on a tiny tangent can give your content more personality, especially if your topic reminds you of something from your life outside business. However, you’ll lose readers if you wander too far from the point. This can hold true even if your off-topic bit is interesting; it wasn’t what they expected.

That’s why it’s vital to ensure that each section refers back to the central theme, so everything is relevant and you have a clear through line running through your post. Planning will help you do this.

Talking down to your reader

No one likes being patronised. Even if you’re an expert in something and your reader isn’t, they don’t want to be spoken to like they’re five years old. It can be difficult to judge what level of knowledge your audience has, but it’s something you can develop over time as people respond to your content or ask questions in person.

You might also work with professionals who understand business but don’t know the technical terms you use. Professional but jargon-free content is your best bet, or you could offer a quick definition if it’s a term you’ll use throughout your post.

No call to action

You’ve written a helpful blog for your audience that’s answered one of their questions or taught them about an important topic. Now what? How can you keep them on the path to becoming a customer rather than drifting away?

The best way to get someone to do something is to ask them; your marketing is no exception. If you want them to offer an opinion, ask for it. If you want them to book a call or sign up for your mailing list, give them a link or a form to fill in. Your call to action (CTA) aligns with your business goals, so think about what you’re trying to achieve and how your content can help you do that.

If you want to create blogs that will turn your readers into customers, I can help. Book a call, and let’s have a chat.

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5 ways you can blog without needing a website

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/author-blog-create-creative-267569/

You’ve decided to write a blog that’ll stand up on its own or form part of your marketing strategy, but you don’t have a website yet. Maybe you don’t need one at all. You want to start writing and engaging with your audience, but how do you start? Here are 5 ways you can blog without needing a website.

Use a free blogging platform

A free blogging platform lets you start writing your blog without needing a website that you have to pay for. WordPress has free and self-hosted versions so you can choose the option that’s right for you.

It’s worth considering whether you might want to expand your blog into a full website eventually. If you do, it might be worth paying for hosting. That option lets you choose your own URL rather than a link that has the provider’s name in it, so you can build your brand identity from the start.

Write for someone else’s site

Medium hosts thousands of articles on an impressive range of subjects. You can create content and tag the topic to build a following in the same way as you would on social media. There’s a version that pays or you can add links to Ko-fi or Buy Me a Coffee to let readers send you a donation.

To build your business network, you can also guest blog for other businesses with a similar audience to yours. I’ve hosted blogs from everyone from social media experts to nutritionists as they can help my readers with topics outside my expertise.

LinkedIn articles

I hesitated to include this one as you’ll generally get better reach with LinkedIn posts than you will with articles. However, if you’re trying to build a following articles are still worth your time as it gives you more space to share your expertise than you’d get in a normal post. You can also share articles in your main feed and repurpose them to create a LinkedIn newsletter.

I’m hearing from more and more people who are focusing on LinkedIn for their marketing, so if you want a business audience it could be a great platform.

Microblog on social media

If you’re writing a blog to share your views or offer hints and tips you can do that on social media. The only real difference between a standard blog post and a microblog is that the second one is shorter. That means that a limited character count isn’t a problem.

A microblog doesn’t give you the chance to go in-depth on a subject, but it can help you to learn your writing craft and start building a following.

Create a YouTube vlog

I know I’m all about the writing but creating a video blog on YouTube lets you try out content and build a following the same as any other social media platform. You can also transcribe your videos to turn them into blogs and make them accessible to people who prefer other types of content.

Of course, you can always do it the other way around. If you’ve written a blog on another platform and want to help it reach a wider audience, you can create a video summing up the highlights and include a link to the original post for anyone who wants more detail.

Wherever you choose to blog, the quality of your content matters if you want to build a following and promote your business. If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat.

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Do you need a website to write a blog?

The short answer to this is that no, you don’t. The question is, will a standalone blog help you to achieve your goals if it isn’t part of a larger website? Here’s my rundown on the reasons why you don’t need a website to write a blog and why you might want a website after all.

What’s the difference between a blog and a website?

When you visit my website you’ll find lots of different pages about my business, products and services. My blog is just part of a larger whole. The reason I do it this way is that my blog is part of my marketing strategy, not a business in itself.

If you run a business, your website is your virtual shop window. The blog is part of the content that helps your customers to find you.

What do you want to achieve?

If you want your blog to be a business, you might not need a website. However, if you want a site that lets you offer products, build your email list and offer affiliate links you almost certainly will. Some brands will only offer affiliate links if you have a website rather than a standalone blog or social media presence.

It’s also a good idea to think about your brand and the kind of image you want to create.

You can use a free blogging platform

Some platforms let you choose whether to create a self-hosted website or a free blog. WordPress is just one example; you can create a website and pay for hosting. Alternatively, you can have the free version to create a blog.

If you choose the free version you’ll have WordPress in your website URL, which might not look all that professional if you’re trying to build a brand that goes beyond blogging.

Third-party selling sites

If you create products your main source of income might be a third-party platform like Etsy or Not on the High Street whose brands let small businesses reach a wider audience. Building your own website could let you make sales at a lower cost, but you’d have to do the work to promote it and attract visitors.

If you’d prefer to start by creating a blog, you can use it to send visitors to your shop even if it’s on a third-party platform.

You can use another blogging site

There are blogging sites that operate in a similar way to social media platforms. You can create a profile and attract followers who are interested in the topic you cover or who’ve searched for specific hashtags. For content that’s heavy on visuals, Tumblr could be a good option. Alternatively, if you create in-depth written content Medium is a great platform and there’s an option to monetize your content too.

Microblogging

Microblogging is short-form content (like a longish social media caption) that helps you to share your expertise and tell your story. It’s a great way to start if you’re trying to find your voice. The only disadvantage is that you don’t get to share as much detail as you would in a standard blog post.

I tend to create this kind of content by writing a longer blog post and then breaking it down into individual sections.

Wherever you choose to blog, the quality of your writing matters if you want to build a following and promote your business. If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat.

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Why you still need to write marketing content

Image shows a woman with black fingernails and a 'be happy' mug using a pen to write marketing content in her notebook.

When it comes to marketing, video is everything, right? You might be getting amazing results on TikTok and Instagram is showing Reels to more people than static images. Why would you need written content when you can put everything you want to say into a video? It won’t surprise you to hear that I think you still need to write marketing content. Here’s why.

Social media doesn’t belong to you

Social media platforms are amazing marketing tools and definitely need to be part of your strategy. The trouble is, I’ve seen too many people who only use social media and find themselves with a massive hole in their marketing because they get hacked or banned.

When you have an email list or website, you’re in control because it belongs to you. You can use video but you’ll get better results by using good writing as well.

Sometimes you need more depth

Social media videos need to be short and snappy to hold people’s attention. They can still help you to build a relationship with your audience, but what about the times when they need more than that?

Sometimes you need to write a long post to go in-depth on a subject to help your audience understand what you offer or how you help them. That’ll work better on your website, not just because there won’t be room in a social media caption, but because your audience will be more willing to read.

Your audience might just like reading

Believe it or not, some people prefer to get their information by reading. They might avoid videos because they find the sound intrusive or want to absorb something at their own pace.

There’s also the fact that you can’t skim-read a video. If your audience is looking for a quick answer to a question they can probably find it in a couple of minutes by skimming a blog post. Your one-minute Reel might give them what they need but they’re less likely to search on social media in the first place. By using a mixture of content types you can talk to a wider range of people.

Written content is good for SEO

If you want to rank highly in a Google search, you need words. Google’s search bots can’t scan videos and rely on your written content to decide where your site should rank. Even YouTube likes a reasonably long description to help your video rank.

Having a wide variety of keywords on different platforms will help your content rank more highly so your ideal customers have a better chance of finding you in a search and other content creators are more likely to link to your site.

Writing can help you to make sales

If you have a low-cost product that your customers will buy on a whim, a short video will probably get you some sales. You’ll get even more if you’ve already built a relationship with your audience so they know they can trust you and they’ll get something good for their money.

That starts to change if your product or service costs more. People are less likely to take a chance so you need to make sure they’ve got all the information they need. When you write that down you help them to refer back, check details and then decide. There’s also a chance that they’ll take written content more seriously than a video.

Don’t have the time or the inclination to write your own content? If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat.

Alternatively, if you’d like to get blogging and content writing hints and tips straight to your inbox every month, subscribe using the form below. I’m a vegetarian so I hate spam and you can unsubscribe any time you like.

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Does grammar even matter anymore?

The image shows a woman in a black t-shirt writing on a notepad, probably wondering if her grammar is OK.
Photo by picjumbo.com: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-blue-ballpoint-pen-writing-in-notebook-210661/

Every so often, a conversation will crop up in my social media feed about grammar. The person writing the post wants to know how much we all care about it and whether mistakes bother us. Aren’t we all talking more informally now? Does grammar even matter anymore? Here’s what I think.

Your audience matters

When I write my content, I’ll be thinking about you. Not in a weird way, of course. I’ll think about how you balance running a business with everything else in your life and the marketing challenges you might face. It’s the same when I write for my clients. The type of language I use depends on who we’re talking to.  It’s not so different to having a conversation when you think about it.  A chat with your friends is very different to a meeting with the bank manager.

Think about the kind of person you’re talking to and what image you want to put across. Do you need to be professional but approachable? Could you have a chat with your customers over a cuppa?

Speech vs writing

It can be easy to get the right tone when you’re speaking but writing it down can prove a bit more difficult though.  I’ve often advised people to record themselves speaking if they’re struggling to write. The trouble is, they often find that their sentences suddenly look wrong on paper.  We start to wonder whether that word is spelt right or if there should be an apostrophe somewhere.

I’ll admit that I’m a grammar pedant. Even if my clients are relaxed about grammar, I want to get it right. Having said that, there are times when bending the rules can make your message more effective because it’s the sort of language your audience would use. At the same time, I’m not going to judge anyone for getting it wrong. I know some highly intelligent and creative people who struggle with grammar and spelling. In the grand scheme of things, it’s more important to get the message across. 

When does grammar matter?

There are forms of communication where every comma matters.  Legal and financial documents must be precise.  They have a language all their own.

It’s important to strike a balance.  Say, for example, you’re a financial adviser who wants to start a blog.  You need to create the right impression.  You’re intelligent, experienced and (most importantly) you know what you’re talking about.  However, none of that will matter if your potential customers don’t understand a word you’re saying.  Your tone needs to be formal but accessible.

If you’re a mum making baby clothes to sell to other mums, they’ll still want to hear about the quality of the product but your tone can be much more conversational.  You’re having a chat with someone who shares your experiences.

Listen to people talk

Conversations are going on all around you.  Some involve you, others don’t.  If you want to start tailoring your language to your audience, start listening to how people speak.  You can start with your customers and the people you meet at networking events but eavesdropping can help too. Think about how the language you hear in a business-focused setting differs from the conversations you overhear in coffee shops or on public transport.  Ask yourself whether the person you can hear could be a potential customer. Different groups of people have very different speech patterns and learning about them can help you to write for your audience.

Is grammar important to you? If you want some help writing in a way that speaks your customers’ language, let’s have a chat. Alternatively, use the form below to receive writing and marketing tips straight to your inbox every month. I won’t share your details with anyone else and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.