Professional Writing: How to Ace Writing in the Second Person Narrative

Writing in the second person narrative means speaking to the audience from the perspective of a second person (other than yourself). What this means is that the writing will have a conversational feel to it, like you are interacting or speaking directly to another person.

Because of the conversational feel of second person narrative, this style is used less often in novels and short stories. Conversely, it is one of the most commonly used perspectives in songs and poetry. However, it is in business and technical writing that the second person narrative really shines.

Give Me a You!

When writing in the second person narrative, it is all about the pronoun “you.”

First, let’s cover the word “you” from a grammatical perspective. “You” is a really flexible pronoun. Generally, pronouns are either subjective (i.e., subject of the sentence), or objective (i.e., the object of the sentence). Here are a couple of examples:

You light up my life.

Here, “you” is clearly the subject of the sentence where “life” is the object.

I can’t live without you.

However in this sentence, “I” is the subject and “you” is the object. Sounds like “you” is also the object of someone’s affections. (Let’s hear it for love!) Also, unlike most pronouns, “you” can be either singular or plural.

You take the trash out.
I love all of you.

As you can see, “you” is singular in the first sentence and plural in the second. That is one flexible pronoun!

Isn’t It Romantic?

One great thing about the second person narrative is that it draws the reader or listener into the dialogue. It’s inclusive. It makes the reader a part of the action. Second person narrative does a better job of this than first person and a much better job than the third person. Let’s look at poetry for example.

You are my heart and my life.

Gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it? You are the object of this affection so you feel like you’re part of that relationship.

Now let’s change the sentence to a first-person narrative.

I see you as my heart and my life.

See? Not as many goosebumps. It’s a little more formal because it is coming from another person’s perspective. It is still romantic but the sentiment loses some power.

How about third-person perspective?

He saw her as his heart and his life.

Yeah, there are no goosies at all in this one. And if they are, it is from a distance. The action is happening to someone else, and while the reader may feel empathy and warm fuzzies for whoever the “her” in the sentence is, they still feel like they are on the outside looking in. Nothing is directed toward the reader so it’s not as personal.

If you think about it, the same could be said for music. How many love songs have been written to “you”? I don’t know for certain, but I’d guess the number is in the millions! And that is because—by writing the song about “you”—it puts the listener in the position of the one being loved, so they tend to feel it more. They can relate to the song as if a person (probably someone they know) is singing the song to them.

Examples of Second Person Narrative

Business Correspondence

Business correspondence is generally a combination of first person and second person narrative. The use of this combination allows for a more personal touch when communicating. Take a look at this example email and notice the many first and second person pronouns used (which means that it is written in a first and second person narrative).

Kevin,

I have spoken to the other supervisors and I think we need to address your ideas about the Christmas party.

1) We feel that a dunking booth would be inappropriate for the grand ballroom we have rented.

2) There is no such thing as a Santa Clown. It gave us the willies just thinking about it.

3) We feel that your suggestion of an entire ceiling made of mistletoe would discourage our female employees from attending.

4) Even though I anticipated the answer, I still checked and the grand ballroom most definitely does not allow Christmas bonfires indoors.

I thank you for your ideas – although human resources is having trouble finding any record of your employment with us.

With great concern,
Jim Myers, Supervisor

Technical Writing

Technical documentation is definitely better off using second person narrative and the pronoun “you,” since it is largely about conveying instructions.

You should always remove the nut from the bolt before removing the washer. It will enhance the life of your bolt.

Now let’s try it in the third person:

They suggested always removing the nut from the bolt before removing the washer. They felt it would enhance the life of his or her bolt.

Once again, the second person narrative clearly wins out because it makes the reader feel like the author is talking directly to them.

Presentations

Of course, presentations and speeches would be flat-out silly if they were done in the third person instead of first and second person narrative.

First and Second Person:

“I would like to raise a toast to my cousin and his new bride. I am sure you will make each other happy even though you live in two separate states.”

Third Person:

“The presenter would like to raise a toast to his cousin and his new bride. He is sure they will make each other happy even though they live in two separate states.”

Once again, it gives the presentation a completely different feel. It is impersonal, mechanical, and would likely result in the groom cutting his cousin off from the bar for the rest of the night.

Combining First and Second Person Narratives

Of course, there are uses for a combination of first and second person narrative when writing on a more personal level. The primary use would be personal letters. Much like emails, personal correspondence relies heavily on the first and second person narrative to give the reader a feeling of closeness with the writer.

Dear Mary,

I planted a garlic garden today. I hope the neighbours won’t complain when the wind blows in their direction.

Now the letter switches to second person narrative because it goes from telling the personal story of the writer, to speaking to or asking about the reader.

You were in my thoughts as I bit into that first, fresh piece of garlic. Yours was always the best I’ve ever tasted. So it made me wonder, “How does your garden grow, Mary?”

Second Person Narrative vs. Third Person Narrative

Let’s talk about writing in the third person for a minute, as a means of distinguishing second from third person narrative. The third person narrative takes the point of view of a third party that generally is on the outside of a story, looking in or narrating the events as they unfold. As you can guess, it uses third person pronouns like he, she, or them.

This is important to note because third-person narrative is generally reserved for storytelling and novels. It shows a dispassionate or somewhat omniscient view of the events that are being shared.

Now, that being said, writing in the third person can be used in business communications. However, it should be used only when you wish to convey a much less personal feel to your communication.

Hopefully, all of this helps you to understand second person narrative and point of view. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to jot down a note in the comments section below.

Culled from Magoosh

• PROFESSIONAL WRITING
• SECOND PERSON NARRATIVE

4 Reasons Why You Must Build An Email List

In a world where social media plays an important role in marketing, business owners often forget to build an email list. For some reason, they understand they need to be on social channels, but when I ask them about email lists they are lost.

Here’s where the problem comes in. You need to build an email list if you want to make it in business and there are several reasons why you should.

You don’t own social media.

Just last week, Facebook announced that it was doling out yet another algorithm change. In this change, Facebook said it would be prioritizing content from personal pages on newsfeeds (among other things).

This means business owners who don’t have the money for pay to play are up the creek without a paddle. It’s hard enough to get attention for free on business pages, now it will be practically impossible.

This is just one example of how you don’t own social media. Twitter and Instagram can make changes whenever they want as well. About a year ago, Pinterest was working great for me and then the algorithm change killed me.

So if you don’t want to get killed every time a social media company decides to make a change, build an email list. Even when you use social media, use it in a way that helps you build an email list by letting people know they can join one.

The money is in the list.

The majority of my sales come from my email list. Period. Sure, I have a few that come from social media, but people mostly buy from you when they know, like and trust you. Those who are on your email list are more primed to purchase because they have opted into hearing from you.

On a similar note, if you already have an email list but you aren’t actually emailing them, now would be the time to start. Remind them that you exist.

It’s the easiest way to market.

I personally believe that emailing your list is easier than coming up with social media copy all the time. Emails are easy to write and they tend to be more effective when it comes to getting your market to move.

The problem is most people make it more complicated than it actually is. All you need to do is write an email about mundane things that happen in your life and somehow relate it back to a service or product of yours.

For more information on how to do this successfully, I highly recommend reading Dot Com Secrets by Russell Brunsun.

It’s more effective than social media.

Although social media users are climbing, people with email accounts far surpass that of social media. Additionally, according to data from OptIn Monster, most people check their email first, not their social accounts.

This means that if you want to reach customers so they actually buy from you, the way to do it is to get them on your list.

Final Thoughts

If there’s only one thing you get from this article let it be this: Build an email list so that you have an asset you own.

Culled from Due

Post Tags:#email lists#email marketing#Market#media#Social media

How to Put Together A Marketing Plan for Your Book

If you are an author, then one of your goals in writing is probably to make sales and you most likely will if you have friends and family who are willing to buy your book.

But if you want to have large sales for your book, then it is important that you draw up a marketing plan. This is because having a marketing plan will help organize your sales strategies for professional review, help you save your time when marketing your book and it will also help you clearly define your goals. Now, your marketing plan doesn’t have to be very lengthy, it can be something you jot down in your note book or it could be something you write down on a word document page on your system, depending on what makes you feel comfortable.

So, here is a guide on how to put together a marketing plan for your book.

1. Define your goals: At this stage, you need to determine what you intend to achieve with your book marketing. Is it sales, recognition, or both?
2. Have a target number: After you have determined your goals, you need to have a target number for what you intend to achieve. How much money do you intend to have? How much interviews do you intend to attend relating to your book? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself.
3. State your book details: This is a very critical step because it helps you evaluate your books. Write down the summary of your book, the category it falls in, your ISBN number, your book format, the key words relating to your book and every other important detail you can think of.
4. Determine your target audience: Determine the people you intend to buy your book or know about your book. When you write about your audience ensure you are as detailed as possible. Write their age bracket, their estimated income, geographical areas and the likes.
5. Determine your book price: Determine your book price and don’t forget to have your target number in mind when you determine this. Also, consider your target audience and come up with reasonable price that will favour your audience and will also help you meet your goal.
6. Decide on your retailers: Then after settling on a price, you need to take note of all the platforms you would like to have your book on for sale such as Iwe, Amazon, Kobo, Okada and the likes. Also, decide if you will sell to your readers directly depending on the number of followers you have on your blog and social media platforms.
7. Decide on your promotional strategies: At this stage, write down how you intend to promote your book, who you will engage in promoting your book, how much you intend to spend on your book promotion and how much each promoter will cost you. Also, consider how much people you can reach depending on the platform you choose and have in mind your goal when deciding on your promotional strategies.
8. Review your strategies: After you have finished working on your book marketing strategies, take some time out to review your strategies. You can also give it to your family and friends to help go through your plan before you hatch it.

When you take the time out to write down every detail of your book and marketing strategies, you will be setting yourself up for success and you will be halfway to achieving your book goal.

If you have questions or are interested in marketing and promoting your book(s), please contact us on this page.

Do You Really Need That "Very?"

Do You Really Need That “Very”?

As both adjective and adverb, the word very is appropriate in many contexts, but when prefixed to a strong word like chaotic, it weakens the expression.

Very has its place in numerous useful idioms:

That lamp is the very thing for my new end table!

Private car ownership is all very well, but billions of cars take a toll on the planet.

–Do you like me? –Very much so!

This is the very last size six they have in the store.

–Private Jones, bring me my rifle. –Very good, Sir!

A phrase associated with Elvis Presley is, “Thank you very much.”

The word very derives from Latin verus, “true,” and in some contexts, it can still mean true in English:

“She’s the very epitome of class.”

“That’s the very truth, so help me.” (literally, the “true truth.”)

The use of very becomes questionable when it’s slapped indiscriminately onto adjectives that don’t need it.

With throwaway adjectives like good, bad, and nice, adding a very does no harm; it may even contribute a little meaning to mostly meaningless words. But with expressive adjectives like gory, heartbroken, and chaotic, adding a very has the effect of diminishing their power.

Here are examples of precise and powerful adjectives being vitiated by the unnecessary use of very:

 

The growth of the receipts has been very phenomenal.

I have a very stupefying headache today.

This guy committed very, very heinous crimes.

The man became very disconsolate after his wife’s death.

A child’s death leaves the mother very heartbroken.

 

All of these adjectives–phenomenal, stupefying, heinous, disconsolate, and heartbroken–already convey intensity of meaning:

 

phenomenal: (in this context) marvelous, extraordinary, fantastic.

stupefying: numbing, deadening.

heinous: hateful, odious; highly criminal or wicked; infamous, atrocious.

disconsolate: of a person: lacking consolation or comfort; forlorn, inconsolable.

heartbroken: overwhelmed with anguish, despair, or grief.

And, the adjective that prompted this post:

chaotic: utterly confused or disordered. (In Greek myth, Chaos is the “formless void” from which the universe came: earth, air, sky, water–all are mixed up and without order.)

Very has its uses, but next time you are tempted to put it in front of an adjective like overwhelming, you might want to reconsider.

 

**

Maeve Maddox

 

#vocabulary

#writing

6 Tips for World Building in Your Fantasy

 

Because of my love of world building, I’ve always been drawn to the fantasy genre and knew I wanted to try writing a fantasy. But I found out very quickly that crafting a breathing, living world isn’t as easy as reading about one. Suddenly, I needed to know how long it would take to get from one city to the next on horseback. And how long could a horse travel at top speed in a day anyway? When the main character got to that next town, what does the architecture look like? What’s the hierarchy of authority?

It occurred to me then that I wasn’t just building a world where the main character lives, I was building a world where thousands of people exist. If I wanted to make my fantasy feel real, then I was going to have to understand what was going on beyond my main character’s point of view.

With that in mind, here are a few tips I’ve learned to help craft realistic fantasy worlds.

1. Not every world needs to be based off of the European Medieval period.

I love “classic” European-based fantasy, and the fashion of the medieval period fits so well with the epic fantasy feel. But I’ve found that selecting other cultures as a base for your fantasy world can really bring that fresh feeling to your fiction.

2. If you do decide to base your fantasy world off a certain culture, do your research.

This is such an important detail. I know it’s tempting to start writing after plotting and creating characters, but researching about the culture and time period you’ve selected will allow you to pick the most important aspects to add. Research far and wide, even though you’ll only end up keeping about 10% of what you find. If you’ve done your homework, it’ll show in the informed decisions you make while writing and will make your world feel unique.

[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing: How to Build Fantastic Worlds]

3. Say “yes” to yourself.

This is one I had a lot of trouble with in the beginning. It’s hard to trust your gut, but the worst that can happen when you’re writing a fantasy is to get too bogged down in the details. If you find that to be the case, you can edit them out. Better to have many details that you can par down than to have a bare and unimaginative world.

4. Only keep your best ideas.

This one might be in contradiction with the last tip, but it’s really important, too. If you’ve said yes to everything about your world that’s popped into your head, the likelihood of your story being long and reading slow is pretty strong. But now you have so many details to work with. Use the details to craft multiple sentences of the same topic, describing details in different ways. Half of my first drafts are sentences written over and over again describing things differently. It’s easier to shape your favorites after you’ve done the hard work of thinking them up.

5. Give your world a history.

Take the time to go through your world’s backstory, per se. Even if you don’t know who first decided to cultivate the land your bustling main city is on now, make sure there are at least rumors on how the people think their world was created. Nothing is worse than reading about a setting that feels like it just sprang to life because the main character came there. Know the history so you know what shaped your character’s minds—even if you only use a fraction of it.

6. Keep it simple.

Above all, simplicity is always the right choice. If you have to bend over backwards to explain something, it probably doesn’t need to be in your manuscript. If you need to drink an entire mug of coffee to interpret or discuss your world’s over-complicated magic system, you should rethink things. Chances are that the simplest answers are often the strongest, and these details will make your world crystal clear to the reader.

Fantasy novels demand lush worlds. Readers want to discover the world you’ve created as much as they want to meet your new characters. Crafting a world that feels unique isn’t always easy, but if you do it correctly, every place on the page will feel like its own character. And who knows, you might even get readers to say a swear word you created or utter nox when turning out the lights after finishing their new favorite book.

**

Source: Amber Mitchell on Writer’s Digest

• FANTASY
• FICTION
• WORLDBUILDING
• WRITING

Five Secrets to Writing a Fascinating Memoir

Writing a memoir is difficult and extremely time consuming. Like many things in life, if it were easy, everyone would do it. It is so difficult, in fact, that there are in all likelihood more memoir drafts on paper, computer hard drives, and various memory devices than memoirs published.

The rewards of writing a published work, however, can be beyond imagination. No words can adequately describe the feeling of seeing one’s book on the shelves of a bookstore for the first time. It is like Christmas morning and your birthday all rolled into one.

While the writing of a memoir is difficult, it is obviously not impossible given the number published. To assist the aspiring new author, I have distilled the problem down to five basic areas for anyone bold or insane enough to venture into these waters:

1. Was Your Life Interesting to Anyone Other than You?

Before any would-be author writes the first word of a memoir, they must decide whether the details of their lives have been so interesting that if put to paper, people would wish to read the work.

By the time most of us have reached middle age, we possess an abundance of experience in a specific subject or simply life in general. However, are those experiences interesting to anyone else other than ourselves? While each of us may feel our lives have been utterly fascinating, others may not find our experiences as enthralling. The best way to determine whether your life is worthy of a formal memoir is to speak with people other than family or friends about the issue. They are best suited to give you an honest opinion on whether your proposed memoir would be of interest. While almost everyone has at least one book in them, and there is an audience for almost every book, be rational in your decision whether to move forward with a memoir.

2. Time and Place

Once a person decides to write a memoir, they must resign themselves to the fact that time is perhaps the most important element in any significant writing adventure. Someone once said, “The most difficult part of writing was putting backside to seat.” No truer words were ever spoken. Writing a memoir piecemeal, a few minutes each day, is almost impossible. Rather, it should be attacked with an aggressiveness and sense of purpose, which can include writing for hours and days at a time. It is helpful to set aside a specific time each day to write, but impromptu sessions based upon sudden ideas are fine too. Never let a spontaneous memory or idea go unwritten or it will surely be lost. In addition, while devoting a great deal of time to the work is essential, take a day or two off from writing when you develop a case of writer’s block. It is not uncommon to simply lose focus from time to time. A little time off will generally put you back on track.

Equally important as time is a proper environment to write in. While Hemingway frequently wrote standing up from any place he could set a typewriter, most of us do not work that way. To write effectively, it is best to segregate one’s self in a quiet room away from family, TV, pets, and all other distractions. Let everyone in the house know that you are not to be disturbed for anything other than a true emergency during writing hours. Along these lines, be aware that the writing bug can cause family rifts. Children sometimes do not understand why mom or dad disappear each evening into the study with orders not to be disturbed rather than spending time with them. Also, spouses and significant others may find it difficult sharing you with your new lover known as the memoir.

3. Make an Outline and Begin at the Beginning

Before beginning to write your masterpiece, it is best to begin by writing the table of contents, as this will serve as the all-important outline. I discovered that my writing moved in a logical, easy flowing sequence by deciding at what point in life the memoir was to begin from, then chronologically writing about each phase. For example, do you want to begin your story from the cradle, or perhaps merely mention those years briefly and move right into the main story? Once the outline or table of contents has been completed, you may then fill in each section as you wish. In other words, while the table of contents must be in order, you do not have to write your memoir in order from beginning to end. Simply fill in each chapter as you outlined them and it will all fall into place. The writer should always attempt, however, to keep the information flowing chronologically and in a logical fashion.

4. Learn From Others

While plagiarism is a major sin in any sort of writing, there is nothing wrong with examining the memoirs of others to help with your own ideas. Decide what memoirs are similar to what you are trying to write. If you are a pilot for example, study the memoirs of Chuck Yeager or John Glenn. If you are an actor, read memoirs of actors for ideas. In the end, your writings must be your own but there is no reason to re-invent the memoir wheel.

5. Consider a Ghost Writer

Perhaps you have an idea for a great memoir, but you are not much of a writer. Do not let your amazing, exciting life go unwritten simply because you cannot put a sentence together. If that is your situation, find someone who can write to help you polish and structure the work. Perhaps you know a former English major who can help, or simply a well-read person willing to review your work and help correct the draft. While a draft may be as ugly as you wish, the final product must be clean, grammatically correct, and readable. There is also the option of merely sitting down with a writer and speaking your memoir to them, then let that person do all the work. Writers can be contracted for a price, or if you are fortunate enough to sell a publishing house on your work, they will provide the ghostwriter at no charge.

Credit: Writer’s Digest

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The Seven Most Common Email Marketing Mistakes

1. Unsolicited messages (but you don’t believe they are)

Are you absolutely sure that you have your customers’ consent to send them a specific message? If you send a commercial message to customers (or prospects) who did not subscribe to receive such messages from you in a direct and verifiable way (i.e. they received a subscription confirmation request and confirmed the subscription), you are sending SPAM. It doesn’t matter if you believe it isn’t, or if you think that the recipients will definitely be interested in what you are about to tell them. Don’t do it. It will negatively impact your reputation, the perception and respectability of your brand, the deliverability of future messages (as users will complain), and – of course – the effectiveness of the message itself.

Some businesses send spam because they believe it has a positive return on the investment. Apart from being illegal, unsolicited messages typically have a minuscule return on the investment. Responsible and well-managed marketing campaigns – even on small numbers – will deliver a much higher return.

2. Sending without testing

It’s a jungle of desktop- and Web-based email software out there! That said, many businesses can spot and resolve problems in just a few minutes by testing a message on the most popular email clients (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, Outlook,…). Make sure links work, images are loaded correctly (once permission has been granted), and there are no grammar and spelling mistakes. Then, focus on how the message is displayed across the different email programs.

For a more in-depth review of the message, you can use a service like Email Analysis.

In terms of testing the results of a campaign – if you are becoming a pro – you can use A/B testing to test variations of the same message on a small portion of the list, and then send the best-performing one.

3. Underestimating subject and sender

The key to the success of an email campaign resides with two often overlooked elements: subject and sender. They are absolutely critical in the recipient’s decision to open or not open a message. First, they need to recognize you (don’t change the sender!). Secondly, you need to convey that the message is an interesting one.

A subject that says “September Newsletter” is likely going to attract a lot less attention than “[News] The 7 ways to send effective emails”. That said: no tricks: never create a subject that is not consistent with the body of the message.

4. Mishandling unsubscribes

Your customers need to be able to unsubscribe with a maximum of 2 clicks, without having to receive a confirmation message, and without having to enter the email address that they are unsubscribing or a password to log into an account. Making it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe can only have one effect: they will complain by flagging your message as spam, or blocking you as a sender.

As multiple recipients take these actions, your sender reputation will begin to deteriorate, and your deliverability will suffer. Your messages will start getting delivered directly to the spam folder, or not delivered at all.

5. I’m a graphic artist!

Creating a well-formatted email message is not like writing a Word document, and not even like creating a Web page. The fact that different email clients can render the same message very differently – if certain best practices are not followed – creates complexities that can heavily affect the success of a campaign. A list of do’s and don’t’s is available in the article “How to create a good HTML message”.

A message quickly thrown together will immediately be recognized as such by many of your recipients. The risk is that the message may not even be legible on some email clients (e.g. because of the way backgrounds are handled). The structure of the message is also very important: don’t take for granted that the message will be read in its entirety (it often is not), that recipients will fully understand it, and that they will know what you are expecting them to do. Be as concise and clear as possible, and then link to more information.

If the message contains a request for action, make sure that it is prominently displayed and explained, and not just contained in an image (which might not be shown). Letting graphics do the talk is not a good idea because in many cases those graphics will not be displayed (e.g. blocked by default, not downloaded by the user who might be in a hurry, or not shown due to the message being accessed on a mobile device).

6. Ignoring message statistics

Message statistics are nice, but few actually take the time to really review them, learn from them, and act accordingly. Each piece of information carries an important message. The Open Rate is typically affected by the mailing frequency, by the sender/subject combination, and by the trust-based relationship that you have established with the customer over time. The Click Rate (within opened messages) is a great indicator of the quality of the content, the effectiveness of the “call to action”, and the relevance of the message to those particular recipients.

Other statistics such as the Delivery Rate (how many emails get there?) and Unsubscribe Rate will help you understand the quality of the list and of the overall communication strategy. Monitoring statistics over time will help you anticipate potential issues, profile recipients, discover the best time and frequency for your mailings, and track the percentage of active vs. inactive customers.

7. I don’t need an email marketing system

Without a professional email marketing system, the likelihood to see poor campaign results grows exponentially. Over 50% of recipients will likely never receive the message, for a number of reasons. An analysis of message statistics and bounces, together with some tests on the most popular email clients, will provide evidence of this.

Sending a message in BCC to a large number of recipients is a particularly bad idea. Apart from the fact that this technique leads to mistakes, is slow, does not allow for any personalization, and is blocked by many providers, many recipients will recognize that the message is part of a poorly executed mass mailing. This was the technique used by the first spammers.

The main reason to move to an ESP (an Email Service Provider) is – in one word – “infrastructure”. We do this for a living, and we worry every day about things like (sorry for the technical jargon) IP reputation, well formatted headers, throttling, feedback loops, bounce management, SPF, DKIM, etc. etc. We do it, so you don’t have to. And as antispam filters become stricter and stricter (rightfully so!), you need to know that all the precautions are in place so that your messages are not mistakenly flagged as spam.

Culled from Mailup

Post Tags:#email marketing#messages#mistakes

Selecting Your Niche As A Writer

There are different forms and types of writing. And it is important for a writer to have basic knowledge about each of the different types and forms, even if it is not your preferred choice.

It is also good for a writer to have a most preferred niche. That is, a place where you are comfortable, where you can write at any given time.

Sometimes, finding that niche might be very easy for some writers, while for other writers it might be difficult. This might be because of several reasons.

And one major difference is that people are different. While some people prefer creative writing, some prefer content writing. Some will rather write stories and have the liberty of picking their characters and giving them life, while some would love to write for brands and write within a framework. Meaning that they will write a few hundreds or thousands of words and be done.

This same thing happens when it comes to book writing. Some people prefer to write novels while some prefer motivational books or self-help books. And even for the creatives, there are still other genres like romance, suspense, thriller and the likes.

Here’s a guideline you can follow when selecting your most preferred niche.

You can select a niche based on what you want to build your name or brand on. That simply means you can select a niche around what you want to be known for. Do you want to be a novelist, or someone that writes children’s books or self-help? The choice is entirely up to you and up to your career choice. So make a careful exploration, know what you want to do and go for it.

You can select a niche based on job demands. This point applies to ghostwriters or people that are just writing to make money, and not necessarily to make a name for themselves in the writing world. So you can train yourself and get comfortable in the niche that most people seem to have a need for in your location.

You can select a need based on your preference. In as much as it is good to have an idea of the different forms and types of writing, it is also important to find a place where you are most comfortable in, where you can make stretches and meet the deadlines of your work. Settling in a niche where you are not comfortable can be quite a stretch and can tarnish your image if you do not deliver, or if you do not do a good job.

Writing is very important. And sometimes, this writing can be based on your character as a person. So if you are good at marketing generally, you might be very good at writing content for clients that need advertising. If you love telling stories, you might be a good story writer or a novelist. Find that niche and spread your wings.

How To Measure Brand Awareness

Measuring brand awareness divides marketing. It is viewed by some as a pointless exercise, an accumulation of vanity metrics that bears no relation to marketing ROI.

The other school of thought, advocated by Bryan Sharp, contends that one of the strongest drivers in making consumers buy is simply the ability to recall that product. Sharp states that brand recall is improved with a consistent and ubiquitous logo and tagline, by celebrity endorsements and traditional mass marketing.

This helps to explain why brands push so much money into sponsorship: by partnering with another global brand they increase their exposure to a wider audience.

 

Nobody expects Manchester United fans to rush out and buy a Chevrolet purely because the brand appears on the players’ shirts, yet the car manufacturer pays $71.4 million a year for the privilege.

The advantage for Chevrolet is that when a potential customer thinks about buying a car, the Manchester United deal increases the likelihood they can recall the brand and therefore consider purchasing one of its vehicles.

As Chevrolet’s CMO Tim Mahoney states, “Manchester United provides us with a global stage, including here in the U.S. That’s rare.”

 

According to Ad Age Datacenter Coca-Cola spent $3.3 billion worldwide on advertising in 2013 alone. Their brand is so strong Coke is one of a handful of generic trademarks. Without thinking, consumers often ask for a Coke when they mean any brand of cola.

So increasing awareness is important, which means measuring brand awareness to see what works for your brand and what doesn’t. However, brand awareness has always been one of the hardest things to measure. We take a look at the different ways you can monitor awareness below.

Tactics for measuring brand awareness

1. Surveys

Whether you conduct a survey by email, website or telephone, you can either ask existing customers how they heard of you or ask a random selection of people if they are familiar with your brand. The first approach will give you an understanding of how people hear about you, the second will give you an insight into the number of people that can recall your brand.

2. Look at website traffic

Measuring your website traffic over time can reveal insights into brand awareness, but it’s important you are looking in the right places. The direct channel in Google Analytics tracks the number of people who typed your URL into their address bar, used a browser bookmark, or clicked a link in an untracked email or offline document. Monitoring this over time will give you an indication of changes in brand awareness.

In the past, Google Analytics users were able to easily track the number of people using branded keywords to arrive on website.

Since Google moved to secure search in October 2011, measuring keyword traffic has become more difficult with the vast majority of keyword data hidden behind ‘(not provided)’ in the name of privacy.

This means you won’t know what proportion of people arrived through search knowing your brand, compared to those who have searched for non-brand keywords and happening upon you by chance.

Of course, not every brand will rely on a website to sell their products. Consumer goods is one example of an industry that is less reliant on direct-to-consumer sales.

The majority of Tide sales are likely to come via supermarkets as opposed to tide.com, meaning that website data might not reveal much insight into how brand awareness is driving sales.

3. Look at search volume data

Use Google Adwords Keyword Planner and Google Trends to check the volume of searches for your brand name, and to track it over time to see if search volumes are increasing.

This can be a simple but useful tool, but the data will be too dirty to use if your brand name is a generic term such as ‘Shell’ or ‘Seat’.

4. Use social listening

Perhaps the most effective tactic is to look at where people are already talking – social media and other websites.

Social listening allows you to listen into online, organic conversations about your brand across social media and the web. Listening to these unsolicited opinions allows you to hear consumers’ thoughts as they are naturally expressed.

This also overcomes one of the problems with surveys, response bias, where people may not give natural answers simply because of the format in which they are being asked.

Social listening tools, like Brandwatch, allow you to write your own refined searches that can overcome the problem of a generic brand name, allowing you to filter out all irrelevant mentions.

Which metrics should you measure?

Volume of Mentions

Simply by tallying the number of times your brand has been mentioned online you can discover the number of conversations involving your brand, and track any changes over time.

Importantly, you can track conversations that do not include @mentions or happen outside the official, owned channels of your brand.

Our analysis shows that up to 96% of conversations are outside these media. If you only use inbuilt analytics platforms (such as Facebook Insights), you can only see the tip of the iceberg.

Reach

Reach is the potential number of people that those mentions will be seen by. It takes into account the number of followers of each author who mentions you. So if someone with a million followers tweets about your brand it will spread brand awareness much more than a share from somebody who has 100 friends.

This is one of the reasons influencers are often courted during marketing campaigns; their large audience means anything shared by them has the potential to be seen by a lot of eyes.

Engagement

For some, engagement is beyond the remit of awareness – yet it can be important to track as it will provide an indicator of the effectiveness of awareness. The two do not exist independently of each other.

You want to know if people are actively digesting your content rather than watching it slip by on their news feed.

What should you be measuring against?

Benchmark

In order to track changes in brand awareness you need to benchmark against your baseline metrics, looking at a long enough time period to spot any natural peaks and troughs, as well as any anomalies.

Brandwatch provides historical data so you can easily measure and benchmark awareness over time from your very first login.

Share of Voice

Benchmarking your metrics will tell you if your awareness of your brand has increased, but you will not be getting the full picture.

The mentions of your brand could be a drop in the ocean compared to your competitors.

You need to establish the proportion of conversations concerning your industry that are centered around your brand. By tracking share of voice and the changes over time you gain context for the data.

The foundation of success

Brand awareness can be the foundation on which to build your marketing strategy.

Increasing the number of consumers that can recall your brand is usually integral to success.

In the past, the challenge was gaining an accurate insight into the level of awareness, but social listening has simplified the process while supplying richer data. Using Brandwatch Analytics to track brand awareness provides you with the tools you need to both monitor and grow the buzz around your brand.

Find out how Brandwatch Analytics can help you measure and understand brand awareness by booking a free demo.

 

Culled from Brand Watch

#brand awareness

#brands push

#Marketing

#surveys

#traditional marketing

Ten Words To Cut From Your Writing

When you want to make your writing more powerful, cut out words you don’t need – such as the 10 included in this post:

1. Just: The word “just” is a filler word that weakens your writing. Removing it rarely affects meaning, but rather, the deletion tightens a sentence.

2. Really: Using the word “really” is an example of writing the way you talk. It’s a verbal emphasis that doesn’t translate perfectly into text. In conversation, people use the word frequently, but in written content it’s unnecessary. Think about the difference between saying a rock is “hard” and “really hard,” for example. What does the word add? Better to cut it out to make your message stronger.

3. Very: Everything that applies to “really” applies to “very.” It’s a weak word. Cut it.

4. Perhaps/maybe: Do you want your audience to think you’re uncertain about what you’re saying? When you use words like “maybe” and “perhaps,” uncertainty is exactly what you’re communicating.

5. Quite: When someone uses “quite,” he or she either means “a bit” or “completely” or “almost.” Sometimes the word adds meaning; sometimes it’s fluff. Learn to tell the difference–but, when in doubt, cut it out.

6. Amazing: The meaning of “amazing” is causing great wonder or surprise–but some writers use the word so often that the meaning gets lost. How can something be amazing if everything is? Ditch this diluted word.

7. Literally: When something is true in a literal sense, you don’t have to add the word “literally.” The only reason it makes sense to use the word is when it clarifies meaning (i.e., to explain you aren’t joking when it seems you are).

8. Stuff: Unless you are aiming at informality, don’t use the word “stuff.” It’s casual, it’s generic, and it usually stands in for something better.

9. Things: Writers use the word “things” to avoid using a clearer, more specific word that would communicate more meaning. Be specific. Don’t tell us about the “10 things,” tell us about the “10 books” or “10 strategies.” Specificity makes for better writing.

10. Got: Think of all the ways we use the vague word “got” in conversation: “I’ve got to go,” “I got a ball,” or “I got up this morning.” Though it’s fine for conversation, in writing, “got” misses valuable opportunities. Rather than writing a lazy word, look for clearer, more descriptive language: “I promised I’d leave by 9,” “I picked up a ball,” or “I woke up today,” for example.

Whether you’ve been writing for a few days or for many years, you’ll benefit from evaluating the words you use. Cut the filler to make your writing stronger.

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Credit: PRDaily