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Building a Sense of Community
We are all in this world together. What we should be focusing on is coming together and helping each other make this place we call home the best it can be. This includes whatever we can do in relation to helping small businesses with the text they need to become successful. At Unreel Media, we care about our clients and we want to help them succeed in their endeavors. We have a special passion for social causes, social justice, and non-profit organizations who are working for the betterment of our global community. We want to be a part of helping build a better community.
Many people won’t watch television news anymore, or read the local papers, or even read news on the Internet because those in charge of relaying that news to us seem to dwell only on the bad news in the world. There’s more than bad news to be had, though. Look at some of these recent stories and you will see a different tale:
Woman works tirelessly to find owner of a found letter.
Homeless man returns backpack with more than $40,000 inside and a fundraiser is set up to help him in response for his good deed.
Homeless man returns ring and gets a new home as a result.
These people performed their good deeds or acts of kindness not to get anything in return but to do what was right. If they received anything in return, it was a side benefit.
The Huffpost Good News is an example of those striving to make a positive difference in the world of news and journalism. Another example is Happy News. All you really have to do is look for the positives in life.
Each of us belongs to a community, a community of people who are working and striving to do right, to build lives, to create businesses, and many who also include in these goals the business of trying to make the world a better place each day.
Let one of our passions be to help each other. Individual entrepreneurs or a combination of efforts among several people work to provide services and products that will benefit others. Work for the greater good and you will benefit also in multiple ways, many of which you could never have foreseen.
Announcing New Services!
At Unreel Media, we are expanding our services!
- Web copy non-SEO based
Now, besides focused-SEO content for home pages and landing pages, we are also proud to offer non-SEO copy designed to address the content needs of your business. This wording scenario is designed for those who feel confident that they can SEO their own content; we just help with the wording on the pages. We are putting this offer in our new Economy services to help those who need more budget-friendly text choices.
- New and Improved Newsletters
We now have access to a variety of designs so we can customize your newsletters, add colors, different fonts, and graphics to really make your newsletter pop. We can also send your newsletters out for you — a time-saving feature to be sure.
- Email campaigns
We can help with the wording necessary for your email campaigns — and we can send them out for you, too. These days, in the world of short attention spans, you need to keep your products and/or services fresh, exciting, and constantly in front of your customers.
- Economy packages
Our new economy packages are designed to help small businesses who are in special need of budget-friendly pricing. If you don’t need specialized research and don’t need a great amount of time taken with your blogs, articles, press releases, or web content, talk to us about how we can offer you the same high quality text for a lower price.
- Specialized packages
Do you need specialized services with an expert on your topic to help you sort through the words you need to relay your message? We can help with that, too. We have specialized writers who are intimately familiar with complicated subjects. Ask us about this new service.
As well, these copywriting services have always been offered as part of who we are and what we do:
- Articles
- Blogs and Blog Management
- Social Media Management
- Editing and Proofreading
- Business Plans
- White Papers
- Press Releases
- Guest Blogs
- Brochures
- Case Studies
- Ebooks
- Basic WordPress site creation
Making the Most of Twitter
If you’re like many small businesses these days, social media platforms like Twitter are all part of your content marketing strategy. It seems nearly every business uses Twitter. Unfortunately, only a few seem to make the most of it. These tips can help.
- Post Regularly: You can’t be part of the conversation if you’re not on at regular intervals. Post routinely to stay present.
- Be Original: Retweets are good, but if that’s all you ever post, how do you expect people to consider you an expert in your field. Post something that’s uniquely yours on occasion.
- Make Friends: You have to have followers to get someone to listen to you. Make friends and treat them like real friends. Talk to them. Interact with their posts. It will enhance your presence.
- No One Likes a Walking Sales Flyer: If you’re just there to promote your products and services, get off. Now. Seriously. You have to be part of the atmosphere, not just push your products on everyone.
Summing up your approach to business in 140 characters can be tough at times. If you’re not quite sure where to start or it’s one more thing on a to-do list that won’t quit, let us help with our social media management services. They’re cheap, they’re effective, and they’ll get your brand in front of more eyes every day.
So You Want to Be a Writer . . .
We hear from potential writers on a fairly regular basis. Most are looking for a virtual home or at least a bit of work on the side. We all have friends who are writers, too. If you’re thinking about a copywriting career, here are a few things you may want to consider.
Stories and Poetry Are A Long Way From Commercial Text
There are millions of people who enjoy penning a good short story. There are thousands of unpublished novels waiting to happen. Some people get up and start every day by composing a beautiful poem. All of these things make writing a hobby, not a profession. Most professional writers (those who don’t have contracts with big name publishing companies, and some that do) spend their days carefully crafting text to a client’s exact specifications. The difference between a story about a boy and his dog and a landing page for a new umbrella that can achieve high conversion rates is massive. If you’re not willing to take on a textual challenge, commercial writing probably isn’t the right avenue for you.
Making Money Isn’t Easy
Writing is hard work. What’s more, though, is that the world of commercial copywriting is one of the single most competitive industries. There are thousands of copywriters in the US alone. Add in the competition from overseas countries and literal text factories in countries like India, and you have a contest that is often hard to win. Running a text company, even if it’s just you, is as difficult as running any other small business. There’s marketing to be done, overhead to pay, and there is always something else to write. The danger of running out of time, energy, and money is a real one every single day.
Writing is Subjective
When you order a sweater online, you know exactly what you’re going to get. When someone orders a text, there are a million different ways you could go with it. For example, perhaps someone wants a blog post on “Wedding Gown Styles.” There are hundreds of different styles, not to mention custom choices out there. You select what you think might be best, but your client might not think that’s what you should have covered.
In addition to the fact that you may have a clash about the information to cover, you can also clash about writing styles. If you’re particularly casual and your client is looking for something a little more formal, you may have a stylistic difference you just can’t escape.
For some, writing is always a pleasure, and the challenges that accompany the world of professional copywriting are exciting. For others, though, it’s a nightmarish world full of deadlines and sentence construction that sounds more interesting than it actually is.
Taking the Whole Picture More Seriously
The other day, we had an international client who wanted to put his project on hold because his entire staff was currently on holiday. We were more than happy to accommodate, but the wheels of thought began spinning. As is true with most hard-working Americans, we’re on the job even when we’re on vacation. Morning, noon, night, vacation, power outage, there’s very little that stops us from fulfilling our commitment to clients. We even have neat smartphones so we can check our emails no matter where we are. As consumers, that level of dedication is phenomenal. As business owners, it’s a recipe for burnout.
We talk to business owners all of the time who are on the verge of losing their passion, literally getting crushed under the weight of what they’ve created, whether it’s succeeding beyond their wildest dreams or they’re financially struggling. If you’re a small business owner, your leadership skills are what led you to create your own company, but that level of independence may actually be more difficult to sustain than you can imagine. Here are a few ways to avoid the burnout that is so often a part of the small business world. It’s advice we’re certainly going to follow, and we hope you will, too.
- Outside help and expertise is sometimes going to be necessary. You may never be big enough to have an onsite marketing department, and tackling those side duties can be draining. Consider creating a support system that can help your business stay on the right path.
- Schedule carefully. When you’re a small business in today’s connected world, it’s easy to never be off. You have to make room for your needs, as well as those of your family. That may mean moving some tasks off of your plate. Perhaps it means not handling your own social media marketing or allowing someone else to do website updates, but in the long run, it’s going to mean keeping your energy up.
- Know time management. The need for everything to be just right is one that overwhelms most small business owners. You’d likely turn that project in as-is if you were working under someone else’s umbrella, so if it’s a four hour job, be sure you just spend four hours on it, not twelve because you need it to be more than perfect.