5 Ways To Power-Up Your Marketing Content

5 Ways to Power-Up
Your Marketing Content
How to infuse life into dreary, under-performing

blog posts, ebooks, and other marketing content
www.ineedcopy.com
INTRODUCTION
Does your marketing content need help?
Friend, let me assure you right out of the gate.
If you think your marketing content is:
• Fluffy, meaningless
• Uninspiring
• Poorly written or edited
• Boring
• Pedantic
• Verbose
• Redundant, having been said by others 1,000 times before
Then ... it's okay. No judgement.
You’re not alone.
You're also among friends.
www.ineedcopy.com 1
INTRODUCTION
Unfortunately, bad marketing content pushes people away.
You and I both know that crappy marketing content is never likely to be a life-or-
death issue. People will overlook a multitude of content sins if they want what
you’re selling badly enough.
But unless you’re a monopoly or selling a one-of-a-kind product or service, crappy

content can easily become the deciding factor in a buyer’s sale or no-sale decision.
In other words, if your content is crappy, and your competitor’s is not, then all else
being equal, who do you think a buyer will choose?
Who would YOU choose?
Exactly.
www.ineedcopy.com 2
INTRODUCTION
How to tweak your marketing content so it leads more people to YES.
Inside this guide, you’ll discover five easy actions you can take right now to bring
new life to your marketing pieces, colorizing and accessorizing them to boost
appeal and lead more buyers to YES.
1. Add in quotes and stories from your clients or customers.

2. Cut the length by half.
3. Turn groups of three or more words and phrases into bulleted lists.
4. Put less stuff on each page.
5. Rewrite with real people in mind.
Ready? Let's go.
www.ineedcopy.com 3
1 Add quotes and stories
from YOUR clients.
www.ineedcopy.com 4
1. ADD QUOTES AND STORIES
The sea of sameness needs your help.
How many times have you started an online search in hopes of finding some new
tidbit of information, some useful, recent morsel, only to come away from the
search feeling like a greasy, exhausted mess, still without answers and dreading
the thought of having to read even one more crappy article, blog post, ebook, or
report that regurgitates the same, tired content?
Yeah. Me, too.
www.ineedcopy.com 5
You CAN be a shining buoy in the sea of sameness.
And let me tell you: It’s even worse to be a marketing writer — to have to write
those crappy posts, ebooks, and articles knowing full well that with a little more
effort you could be creating a unique, readable, differentiating piece of content that
no one else on the whole Internet could offer.
I’d be proud to add that piece to my portfolio.
You — the marketer who hired me — would get a piece people would feel is worth
reading because, hey, look, it's not the same generic stuff I just saw on the last 10
websites!
People might even bookmark or share a piece of content like that.
www.ineedcopy.com 6
Adding quotes and stories is in direct opposition to the MSU approach.
I can’t emphasize the importance of this tip enough.
I’ve written so many dreary marketing pieces based ONLY on information that’s
already out there on the Internet and what’s in my head.
I’ve also read hundreds … thousands … of pieces written in the same way.
And, frankly, I’m shocked by how many marketing and content professionals are
okay with using this method to create content.
It’s what I call the MSU approach — the making-shit-up approach.
www.ineedcopy.com 7
If you take nothing else away from this guide, let it be this tip.
Are you creating a field guide to your industry, or an idea book?
How about a long-form, epic blog post, or an Ultimate Guide?
Yes, it’s okay to link to materials created by others.
But, if you want your piece to truly stand out … if you want to create content no
one else on the Internet can duplicate … then include quotes and stories from
YOUR customers, and people within YOUR company.
No one holds and can tell those stories—no one but you. And those unique stories
are what will make your content unique.
In fact, if you act on only ONE tip from this guide, I’d want it to be this one because,
if your content is unique, then people might not care as much about the other four
improvement measures.
www.ineedcopy.com 8
2 Cut the length of your
content by half.
www.ineedcopy.com 9
2. CUT THE LENGTH BY HALF
Just how important is that first paragraph?
Seriously.
We're all overwhelmed out here.
If anything in your document is not critical to the overall message — be it an image,

a paragraph, a quote — cut it out.
One tip that works well and can shave at least some of the length: Remove the first
paragraph (or more) from your piece and see if it still makes sense. Writers are
usually warming up with their first paragraphs, so removing those early words might
not hurt the story.
I remove my first paragraphs often.
www.ineedcopy.com 10
2. CUT THE LENGTH BY HALF
Longer, rambling content is easier to create than shorter, tighter content.
Why do people produce longish content?

Part of the reason (a large part) is
because writing longish content is easier
than writing shortish, tight content.
Mark Twain said it best: "I didn't have

time to write a short letter, so I wrote a
long one instead.
If you want your content to stand out,

then take the time to refine it. A good
marketing editor (like me) can help you
there.
Trust me: Your readers will thank you.
3 Turn groups of three or
more into bulleted lists.
3. USE BULLETED LISTS
The proof is in the bullets.
Here are three reasons why you should use bulleted lists as much as you can:
1. Bullets, whether numbers or points, break up threatening-looking walls of text.
2. When content doesn’t look threatening, people are more likely to read it.
3. You read this, didn’t you?
Now consider if I had delivered that bulleted content to you like this:
“Here are three reasons why you should do so: Bullets break up threatening-
looking walls of text; when content doesn’t look threatening, people are more likely
to read it; you read this, didn’t you?”
See what I mean? Bullets are great to use whenever you find yourself listing three
or more things in paragraph form.
3. USE BULLETED LISTS
Your goal: make things easier for your readers.
But don’t go too crazy; a list of 100 bullet points is going a wee bit overboard.
If you do find yourself with a long list of bullets, format them in columns to save
space and make things easier for your readers.
4 Include less stuff on
each page.
4. INCLUDE LESS PER PAGE
Your goal: make things easier for your readers.
This is more of a design issue, but it affects how people perceive your content. And
we all know that perceptions shape reality.
Roll your eyes over the two images that follow. Assuming that the content in both
pieces is the same, which looks easier to read? Which would you prefer to read?
This one:
4. INCLUDE LESS PER PAGE
Or this one:
Now, I’m not suggesting that you should avoid all long-form content forever and
until the end of the universe.
But you should avoid it as much as you can, and especially when the content is
meant for people who are early in the buying process.
Those folks are easily distracted. Don’t give them even one reason to turn away
from your content and towards your competitor’s.
5 Rewrite with real people
in mind.
5. REWRITE FOR PEOPLE
If you say "quick read," please mean it.
I recently downloaded a beautifully designed guide with the words “quick reads” on
the cover, as if the guide was part of a “quick reads” series.
“This, I have to see,” I said to myself, knowing full well that true “quick read” content
is the exception rather than the rule.
Still, a part of me was hoping to find a quick and easy-to-read guide.
I should have known better.
It was hard reading, which made my brain sad, and my experience with the content
anything but quick.
What makes a "quick read" a true "slog of a read."
A quick analysis revealed the following facts about the “quick read.”
First, it has 11 pages, including the cover and table of contents. That leaves nine
pages of content, which doesn’t sound bad. That's a lot shorter than this guide!
But spread over those nine pages are 2,536 words -- more than five, typed, single-
spaced pages! This guide has a lot less content than that.
I also ran a few pages through two readability scales, Flesch and Gunning.
Because I'd gone through the "quick read" myself, I knew it was a slog-of-a-read. I
ran the text through the readability tests for the sake of this guide.
If you say "quick read," please mean it.
Here’s what readers might think when they first open and scroll through such unfortunate
content, especially after being promised a “quick read”:
Empathy: the magic sauce of content marketing.
I feel for those readers.
They downloaded or clicked into the content in the hopes of finding something to make
their worlds better, but instead they found that the content producer was lazy.
The content producer didn’t bother with the hard work of shortening, tightening, clarifying,
and designing for readers, which means readers must work a whole lot harder than they
should to get the message.
Bottom line? It's about empathy.
Empathize with readers, and they'll notice.
Improve the readability of your content -- fast.
A quick-and-dirty way to improve the readability of your content is to swap out $1.00
words for $0.25 words. Here are a few examples.
*My pet peeve; use only when talking "utilization rate" or "uptake"
Your readers are smart and busy. Treat them that way.
It’s not that your readers are dumb or can’t understand those $1.00 words.
It’s that those words, especially when piled on, one after another, make the content read
and feel more like a textbook.
And who wants to read a textbook when all you did was download a “quick reads” guide
to get an answer to your question or a solution to your challenge?
Not this reader.
No one will ever tell you that your content is too easy to read.
I also feel for the companies that produce such content.
They’re generally presenting good information. They just don’t share it in simple language
and in a format that makes it easy to consume quickly.
Copywriter Bob Bly, whose stuff I used to follow long ago when I first got into the writing
business, once said that he never had anyone tell him the content he produced was too
easy to read.
I assure you: The same is true for YOUR content and readers as well.
CONCLUSION
Power up your content. Lead more people to YES!
There you go.
Five ways you can improve your existing content, starting today.
You might even be thinking of a piece or two that could use a facelift. Send those to
your writer now.
If you don’t have a writer, send them to me. I’ll review them, give you my
recommendations, and let you know how much it would cost for me to apply the five
fixes you read about in this guide—and then some.
ABOUT
About the author
Hi. I'm Renae Gregoire, marketing writer, editor, critical thinker, obsessive
questioner, and excellent-results deliverer who adds value to every engagement by:
Creating warm, emotional connections with readers.

Motivating people to participate, get involved, take action.
Creating online experiences that maintain the human touch.
Seeing details others don't (and thus raising the bar).
Intuitively understanding the ideas and feelings of prospects.
Showing people how to improve themselves and their delivery.
Encouraging people to seek higher levels.
Visit www.ineedcopy.com to learn more about me, sample my style, see a list of
clients, and view project work. If you like what you "hear,” here and there, then
please get in touch so we can talk more.
WriterRen@gmail.com
WriterRen on Skype or Hangouts
828.685.7370

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5 Ways to Power-Up

Your Marketing Content

How to infuse life into dreary, under-performing

Does your marketing content need help?

Friend, let me assure you right out of the gate.

If you think your marketing content is:

Then ... it's okay. No judgement.

You’re not alone.

You're also among friends.

Unfortunately, bad marketing content pushes people away.

But unless you’re a monopoly or selling a one-of-a-kind product or service, crappy

Who would YOU choose?

How to tweak your marketing content so it leads more people to YES.

1. Add in quotes and stories from your clients or customers.

Ready? Let's go.

The sea of sameness needs your help.

Yeah. Me, too.

You CAN be a shining buoy in the sea of sameness.

I’d be proud to add that piece to my portfolio.

People might even bookmark or share a piece of content like that.

Adding quotes and stories is in direct opposition to the MSU approach.

I can’t emphasize the importance of this tip enough.

It’s what I call the MSU approach — the making-shit-up approach.

Are you creating a field guide to your industry, or an idea book?

How about a long-form, epic blog post, or an Ultimate Guide?

Yes, it’s okay to link to materials created by others.

Just how important is that first paragraph?

We're all overwhelmed out here.

If anything in your document is not critical to the overall message — be it an image,

I remove my first paragraphs often.

Longer, rambling content is easier to create than shorter, tighter content.

Why do people produce longish content?

Mark Twain said it best: "I didn't have

If you want your content to stand out,

Trust me: Your readers will thank you.

The proof is in the bullets.

1. Bullets, whether numbers or points, break up threatening-looking walls of text.

3. You read this, didn’t you?

Your goal: make things easier for your readers.

Your goal: make things easier for your readers.

If you say "quick read," please mean it.

Still, a part of me was hoping to find a quick and easy-to-read guide.

I should have known better.

What makes a "quick read" a true "slog of a read."

If you say "quick read," please mean it.

Empathy: the magic sauce of content marketing.

I feel for those readers.

Bottom line? It's about empathy.

Empathize with readers, and they'll notice.

Improve the readability of your content -- fast.

Not this reader.

I also feel for the companies that produce such content.

Power up your content. Lead more people to YES!

There you go.

About the author

Creating warm, emotional connections with readers.

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