Author: Michelle Troutman

For more than ten years, Michelle Troutman has crafted newsletters and other content for service providers. She has spent a decade creating attention-getting e-newsletters for law and economic development firms. Her marketing and business administration background and education enhance clear and persuasive copy. Through features in publications like "Attorney at Work" and "Law Fuel," and her e-newsletter and YouTube channel, she inspires professionals to create engaging content. She enjoys helping businesses who serve others reach their marketing goals.
newsletter writing, newsletters, writing a newsletter, writing advice

5 Newsletter Best Practices

1. Send regularly — If you have an email newsletter, it’s easy to click “send” whenever you have something to share. Online or not, if you issue your newsletter only a few times a year, subscribers can easily forget about you and your offerings. At best, you should send an online newsletter at least once a week and at minimum — print or digital — quarterly, four times per year. This will help ingrain your business or organization in people’s minds to build trust with them to boost sales and/or memberships.

2. Keep a schedule — I’m for testing newsletter delivery at different times of day, especially for e-news, and certain days, for the best open rates. Some marketing experts suggest mid-week is best, others believe weekends work better. Let the results be your guide. Unless your experience shows otherwise, it’s best to commit to a delivery day, even if you can’t always publish at the same time. It shows follow-through, and people like consistency, which boosts your image, and again, builds trust.

3. Publish “sticky” content — No one wants to stay subscribed to a dull diatribe. You don’t have to stun everyone with every issue, but your content should offer value to readers beyond pitches. People tend to gravitate to content targeted to their interests and demographics. Pay attention to their questions or poll them to find good subjects. Publish readers’ comments or articles, which can increase your bond with them. Listen to their responses; for e-news, watch your unsubscribe rates and your newsletter and link open rates — and tweak headlines to catch readers’ clicks.

4. Make it a marketing tool — A newsletter is also an effective content arsenal. If you archive back issues at your website, optimize them for search engines. Link to them in blog posts, in comments, or in online forums you frequent. Give out copies at events; email helpful articles to your leads when you follow-up with them, and gain more subscribers. Many of these methods have helped me, and they can help you, too. Newsletters, combined with social media, a blog, and a website, form a powerful marketing combo.

5. Recycle — Again, work your existing content into other marketing platforms; you can save time and see returns. Repurpose your articles into blog posts, eBooks, articles for publications, PowerPoint presentations, social media posts, or other means, or do the reverse and reprint content from those sources in your newsletter (with permission, if necessary).

Need help with your newsletter?  Request a free e-news audit.  No strings attached, and nothing required to buy.  Just good, solid advice which can result in more leads and more money in your pocket.

Quotes

66% of Americans made a purchase as a result of an email from a brand — more than three times the number of people who bought in response to a Facebook message — 20%, or a text message — 16%. ~ Exact Target

…Marketers consistently ranked email as the single-most-effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention…56 percent of respondents identified email as being most effective at retention, several points ahead of the second-most effective tactic (social media marketing). ~ Gigaom Research, Workhorses and Darkhorses: Digital Tactics for Customer Acquisition

Comments? Suggestions? Need help? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

scannable content

5 Ways to Make Your Content Scannable

1. Write less — It’s easy to get so focused that you write more than you should. To make your content scannable, and without sacrificing readers’ understanding, cut as much as possible.

2. Format for your media — Think about where people will read your content. Will it appear in a booklet, a brochure, a print magazine, or on a smartphone? This can affect how you lay it out, especially if it involves design elements, such as fonts, art, or photographs.

3. Think structure — One way to make your content scannable is to work within the structure of your document, which is why a clear beginning, middle, and end helps. Headings and subheadings provide effective transitions to different parts. You can also place images in certain areas to better illustrate certain concepts. Google tends to appreciate structured documents, which may also lead to higher page rankings.

4. Break it up — Look for ways to splice items in a series with bullet points or numbers and get away with turning sentences into phrases.

5. Variety adds spice — Bold words and phrases, and in online content, links to other sites or media (music, videos), grab attention; if you don’t overuse them, they liven up your text.

Quotes

“The key ingredient to better content is to separate the single from the stream.” ~ David Hahn, LinkedIn

“Your top of the funnel content must be intellectually divorced from your product but emotionally wed to it.” ~ Joe Chernov, Kinvey

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

writing advice

5 Reasons to Think Before You Write

1. You’ll build R-E-S-P-E-C-T. If you keep your audience and their interests in mind, you’re more likely to write shorter, more focused attention-getting content. One size doesn’t fit all: if you’re targeting sneaker wearers, they’re more likely to feel comfortable dressing-down than those who don high-heels.

2. You’ll build believability. Readers tend to trust informative, stylish, and error-free text. Such content is also more memorable. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola’s slogan “Coke is it” reinforced its name and reputation among the biggest soft-drink sellers.

3. You’ll build credibility. You’ll look smarter if you consider how people will understand your writing. To use Coca-Cola as another example, when the company began selling their soda in 1920s China, shopkeepers translated their name phonetically on signs and among the variations was one that meant “bite the wax tadpole.” This funny misinterpretation has become so famous Coca-Cola even features a blog post about it.

4. You’ll make a better impression. Forethought cuts the effort required to create a piece compared to winging it until it fits your topic. This results in clearly structured, easier to understand writing.

5. You’ll build authenticity. Friendliness and approachability helps business. If you aren’t too pushy and take care to write truthfully with heart and some soul, you’re closer to connecting with customers. Overall, follow the first four steps and people will like your content more than if you ignore them. 🙂

Quotes

Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. ~ William Arthur Ward

Before you speak, text, or write:

T: Is it True?
H: Is it Helpful?
I: Is it Inspiring?
N: Is it Necessary?
K: Is it Kind?

~ anonymous; sometimes attributed to Socrates (“Socrates’ sieve“)

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

writing advice

5 Grammar Rules You Can (Sometimes) Break

The passive voice – Passive verbs, those in “to be” form tend to weaken sentences compared to active verbs. You can’t always avoid them, especially if you don’t know who did (or will do) something.

Example: “Your landscape plan determines how you want your lawn and garden to be designed.”

In this case, if the document isn’t specifically addressed to the do-it-yourselfer, the passive voice is a shortcut around whether the reader will handle the details him or herself or choose a professional.

Otherwise, knowledge of who will tackle the task yields a more direct revision: “Your landscape plan determines how you want to design your lawn and garden.”

Prepositions at the end of sentences – “With,” “for,” “on,” and “to” are among the prepositions some grammarians suggest you shouldn’t park at the end of sentences. But if you rearrange them, your sentences will sometimes sound awkward.

Example: “Which street are you on?” vs. “On which street are you?”

Conjunctions at the beginning of sentences – When I was in elementary school, my teachers advised me not to start my sentences with because, but, also, and, or other conjunctions; despite the formality, it was a way to make students work harder to word their sentences. To me, it’s fine if the sentences you start with those conjunctions aren’t merely fragments.

Example: “And vanilla ice cream.”
Better edit: “And I love vanilla ice cream.”

Split infinitives – The phrase Captain Kirk (William Shatner) says during the Star Trek TV series opening credits before the theme starts is a classic example: “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” (a la Grammar Girl.) Essentially, it’s the placement of an adverb — in this case, boldly, before a verb form (to go; the infinitive) — instead of after it, where some grammarians believe adverbs traditionally belong. Sometimes, it just doesn’t sound right to position adverbs properly, and we split infinitives to clarify what we mean.

Use of the second person – Depending on their audience, not everyone writes in a formal, grammatically correct tone. It’s more personal and direct to refer to you as you, instead of the more distant phrase the reader.

Quotes

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education — sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street. ~ E.B. White

Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs. ~ Jack Lynch

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

business communication, business writing, clear writing

5 Steps to Clear Writing for Business

1. Use the right words. Some words sound alike but have different meanings, which can prevent you from achieving clear writing for business. A common example: “effect” and “affect.” If you don’t know the meaning of a word, look it up.

2. Choose smaller words. Some of us like to use big “ten-dollar” words because they sound more important or intellectual. Too many can make you sound arrogant. Skip the formality — see a dictionary or a thesaurus for simpler terms. Write like you speak, or in a way that comes naturally, a hallmark of clear writing for business.

One way to do this is to watch your syllables. Words with one or two syllables are obviously shorter than those with three or four. And just what are syllables? They are the parts of words we place stress on when we pronounce them.

Example: syllable — syl-la-ble. It contains three syllables.

3. Shorten your sentences. Sentences that go on and on tend to cause readers to lose their focus. Some experts recommend that the average sentence should contain 15 to 40 words at most. Several commas are a sign your sentence might be too long — replace them with periods to break the sentence into two (or more). Remember that too many short sentences in a row can become boring and repetitive, so vary the length and rhythm of your passages.

4. Get to the point. I can’t stress this enough. Before you begin writing anything, decide how much information your piece will cover about your topic. For shorter passages, a few key points are fine. Come up with a title, even if it’s just temporary, that effectively summarizes your topic ahead of time to help you stay focused.

5. Explain unfamiliar words and concepts. Industry jargon, foreign terms, and acronyms are among the unusual references that can block clear writing. It’s best to explain them because not everyone is familiar with everything. Sometimes, they’re not necessary, so it’s better to remove them. Take care to write full descriptions of acronyms.

Example: World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF was also once an acronym for the World Wrestling Federation.

Quotes

“Clarity is the most important characteristic of good business writing.” ~ Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

“Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” ~ William Zinsser, On Writing Well

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com