CONEX S1: Our Words are Our Ambassadors - Ann Handley

 Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer for  MarketingProfs, a company that offers real-world education for modern marketers through training, best practices, research, and other content. She also literally wrote the book on how to create great marketing content with her bestseller,  Everybody Writes.

 In this episode of Content Pros, Ann reiterates that writing isn’t reserved for a chosen few: “Our words are our ambassadors. They’re carrying messages for us. So when I hear from marketers sometimes, ‘I’m not a writer’ or ‘I don’t write,’ I call BS on that, because I think we are all writers. We are all communicators and we’re all communicating.” The first step is getting over the initial fear of the blank page and just get it out, whether through dictation or on the page. Then, on the rewrite, you can ask questions with the reader in mind: “Am I saying this as clearly as I could? Could I say this more briefly?”

 On an organizational level, Ann talks about the six essential roles needed for  a successful content marketing team, and the importance of setting goals and measuring success. Everything should connect back to an overall business strategy, but at the same time, that business strategy must be customer-centric. Talking about ourselves rather than how to help ease the customers’ pain points won’t do the job. Obviously the harder goals of leads and sales should be measures, but Ann also measures softer goals: awareness and shares. As someone who must be tuned into what resonates with her audience, she is not one to discount the validity of shares.

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