“Before they hire you, the client wants you to come in for a timed writing test. They’ll give you a topic, then see what you can do in fifteen minutes.” This request came from a technology company a few years ago. The founders probably thought that they were cleverly optimizing the hiring process by making sure […]
Business writing
How to Find Your Unknown Audience
The other day, a company called Tenfold added me to its Top 40 Customer Success Influencers list. (You can download the list here.) I never set out to write and speak for the Customer Success industry; it happened by accident. I tell you this story not to brag, but to illustrate the importance of looking for […]
Three Reasons It’s Hard to Write for Your Audience
I’ve spent a couple weeks ranting about the importance of writing for an audience. (See One Question to Ask Before You Write.) But here’s the thing that I’ve neglected to mention: Writing for a specific audience can be really tough. Even when you’ve chosen an ideal audience, you may struggle to write stories or content that resonates […]
To Expand Your Reach, Narrow Your Focus
Finding your audience, as a writer, is critical. But narrowing down on a specific audience can be quite painful. That’s because as writers, we suffer from Fear of Missing a Reader (FOMaR). FOMaR is closely related to Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), except that I just made up the term and it’s not a documented […]
One Question to Ask Before You Write
Want a quick, easy-to-implement strategy for improving your writing? Before you sit down to write anything (a blog post, a report, a book), ask yourself this simple question: Who will read this? Who are you writing for? Can you envision an ideal reader? Why would they want to read this piece of content, and what will […]
Lazy But Efficient Content Marketing [Book Review]
![Lazy But Efficient Content Marketing [Book Review]](https://annejanzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/lazyeffectivesquare-300x200.jpg)
A Review of Master Content Marketing by Pamela Wilson Partway into the prolog of Pamela Wilson’s Master Content Marketing, there’s a section with the following heading: “My Lazy (But Efficient!) Approach to Content Marketing” As soon as I read that heading, I knew that I’d found a content marketing and writing soulmate. My life goal is […]
