Write Right

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Business Writing

The Real Building Block of an Effective Content Marketing Plan

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What is the real building block of a content marketing plan?I was reading an article about effective content marketing the other day. I was slightly alarmed when I read the following line: “Creating and maintaining personas are building block number one when it comes to an effective content marketing plan.” The statement didn’t sit well, and it wasn’t the fact that the “are” should have been an “is.” It was the fact that the statement seemed to argue personas were a thing to be created and discarded as needed. It neglected the real building block behind any effective marketing plan: a good product or service.

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Follow the Rabbit Trail

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You never know where a rabbit trail might lead.I’m not usually one for encouraging the pursuit of rabbit trails. They typically lead nowhere except a swamp or tangled underbrush or quicksand, and the only recourse is to turn back and to return to the beginning. That being said, rabbit trails can serve a purpose. They can lead to the finding of a new path or a new way around the quicksand. Unlike early computer games, one can make choices other than right, left, or back.

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Forget SEO

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SEO practices often seem like moving targets.I wouldn’t be much of a writer, especially a writer who tends to work with digital communications, if I didn’t have some understanding of SEO. I do have it. I’ve read books about SEO; I’ve made recommendations to clients about headings, subheadings, meta tags, titles, et cetera, et cetera; and I’ve learned about black and white hat SEO and long-tail keywords.

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Remember the Writing Rules

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Sometimes, you have to follow the rules. Other times, you have to break them.In the past few weeks, I’ve stumbled upon articles that suggest a person forget the basic rules of writing, grammar, and punctuation. The authors suggest that a person should focus on voice at the expense of those rules. I can’t argue against the necessity of voice – it is important – but I can argue against forgetting the basic rules.

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Should I Soften the Blow?

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Should I soften the blow?I know that most people don’t care about the difference between “hopefully” and “I hope” or “nauseous” and “nauseated.” Such nit-picky things are the realm of grammar snobs and word nerds and perhaps the few people who find my Write Right slant on grammar amusing. They are not the sort of things that draw immediate or plentiful attention.

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