Strategy+Design

I read an excellent post by James Chartrand over at Copyblogger recently, How to Turn Yourself Into a Damn Fine Writer. There are some real nuggets of wisdom in this post that I think every B2B marketer needs to revisit often, including yours truly. The one about motivation really struck me because I don’t consider myself a writer (let alone a good one), but I am now motivated!

Here are 10 things I learned from this excellent post:

1. Content marketing is the most effective way to promote your business.
2. Writing well means writing in an effective way that gets results.
3. They don’t teach you how to write for results in school… they teach you how to write for grades. They don’t teach you how to write effectively when you hit the workforce, either.
4. Almost everyone knows the basics of how to write… but very few know how to write effectively for business, for marketing campaigns, for newsletters, for blog posts, for results.
5. Great content marketing programs need a steady flow of terrific content.
6. Copywriting is the most important skill for any businessperson to learn.
7. Studying content and copywriting will teach you about the psychology of your customers, about how to craft products people want to buy, and about how to structure your business for success.
8. Read to learn “” and make sure it sticks by reading carefully, re-reading, and immediately applying what you read to some hands-on practice. Not just today, but tomorrow, for the rest of this month, and for as long as it takes to master that technique.
9. Writing for your business involves work so think about what motivates you. Set specific goals. More time? More money? Philanthropy?
10. That goal you want to achieve? Writing can make it happen.

Someone once told me that if you want something out of life, you have to speak it into existence. According to James Chartrand, writing things into existence works well too.

What about you? What are your ideas and thoughts around writing well?