These techniques have really helped me out this year
This year, I’m most thankful for my family, my friends, my health — and you, my clients, customers and readers. I appreciate you!
With that in mind, here are eight of the best writing tips I’ve used this year:
1. Stop agonizing over the right length for your blog post. SEMRush analyzes successful posts to let you know what Google will rank for your search term. Get word length, keywords to use, readability levels and more. Learn all Ann’s tricks for taking the pain out of SEO. >>>
2. Reach readers where they are, not where you wish they would be. Most Americans have basic or below-basic reading skills. That means that if you write at the 9th-grade level, you’ll miss 88% of U.S. adults. Learn all of Ann’s tricks for writing for real readers. >>>
3. Tailor, don’t just personalize, subject lines. For higher open rates, go beyond, “Hey, Ann.” Adding a second data point to your subject line will multiply your campaign success by 10 times, according to Eloqua. Learn all of Ann’s tricks for getting your email opened. >>>
4. Make the important interesting. It’s not enough that your message be important. (But it is essential: Nobody likes an urgent update every time a paper clip drops at your organization.) To get attention, you need to make those important messages interesting. Learn all Ann’s tricks for grabbing attention with creative, engaging copy. >>>
5. Put your effort up top. Most writers spend very little time getting ready to write, more time writing and the most time fixing what they’ve written. But comma-jockeying ain’t writing, and the result is some pretty tepid prose. Learn all of Ann’s tricks for writing better, easier and faster by flipping the writing process on its head. >>>
6. Avoid the worst news release quote clichés. We know your VP is overcome with emotion over your latest Whatzit. But instead of quoting executives about how delighted, pleased, excited and thrilled they are, write about how users are benefitting from your product, service, program or idea. Learn all of Ann’s tricks for writing sound bites that journalists will use and readers will read. >>>
7. Use the bait your readers like. That’s my grandfather, George Wylie, serving his famous catfish to Doc Severinsen, the band leader for the “Tonight” show. Grandpa said, “If you want to catch a fish, you need to think like a fish. Then you need to use the bait the fish like, not the bait you like.” So what bait are you using on your readers? Learn all of Ann’s tips for Catching Your Readers and moving them to act. >>>
8. Write better bulleted lists. Web visitors look at 70% of the bulleted lists they encounter … but only if you do a few things right. Get all of Ann’s tricks for getting the word out with display copy on the web. >>>
Happy Thanksgiving!
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