Tag Archives: copywriting
Internet Marketing Blog Posts Portent Staff // 16 Jan, 2014
As Good as It Gets: What dating can teach us about email marketing.
The greatest thing about email marketing is how direct the communication is. Email is the closest you can get to dating your customers. Creepy? Maybe a little. Intrusive? Not if you do it right. Why bother with email? (Reasons to take the leap) People sign up for emails because they want the inside scoop. They… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Staff // 8 Aug, 2013
Portent’s Kitten Moodinator: When Content Isn’t Words
For a highly visual medium, the Internet has been slow to attract marketers with a graphic bent. Perhaps due to proliferation of search engine optimization, or web browsers originating as text-based applications, many of us have focused on the word, not the image, video, or application. But words aren’t attracting the attention they used to. … Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Staff // 22 Jul, 2013
7.5 Tips for Becoming a Brainstorming Genius
The World Wide Web has robbed the world of mystery. Its epic reach into the far corners of the collective conscious has placed long odds against unleashing amazing new information – and with every blog post and product description, these odds get longer. As a result, it is imperative to creatively impart information to differentiate… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Team // 24 Jun, 2013
Why You Should Add “Building a Lexicon” to Your Copywriting Toolkit
A couple of months ago, Kane Jamison asked me to present at Content Harmony’s first ever content meet up. I was excited, but wondered what I had to say that would actually help other copywriters. And then I realized that my MFA in creative writing means I bring a different set of tools to the… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Team // 24 Apr, 2013
How to Blog: Humanizing Your Brand
So you’ve realized the benefits of having a kick-ass blog. Now what are you going to say on that blog? You could go the route of taking all that carefully-prepared corporate branding, and using your blog to put out press releases about things that you want your customers to care about (but really only matter… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Team // 26 Feb, 2013
The Secret Backstory of Portent’s Content Idea Generator
”There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” – Audre Lorde At SearchFest on Friday, Ian Lurie debuted a fantastic new tool, the Content Idea Generator. I could tell you about how amazing the tool is and how influencers like Jonathon Colman shared it all over social media: How… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Staff // 14 Feb, 2013
Why Tom Cruise Should Be Your Content Strategist [Infographic]
When he’s not streaking through the Danger Zone on an Impossible Mission, the world’s biggest movie star (yes, still arguably) veers Far and Away from his core competency, occasionally taking a mega-risk with his Eyes Wide Shut. Corniness of that opening sentence aside, Tom Cruise makes for a compelling model of how to run a… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Team // 13 Nov, 2012
Editing for Creativity: How to Enhance the Writer’s Voice
In a world of endless content, innovative copywriting is a great way to catch and keep the attention of the customer. While a creative approach will often draw a bigger audience than simply following best practices, it can be tempting for an editor to change the writer’s style to fit an assumption about what sells.… Read More
SEO Blog Posts Portent Staff // 1 Nov, 2012
Balancing SEO and Branding to Avoid Being Covered in Mud
Adding copy to your website can become a tug-o-war between the Branding and SEO teams. One side is representing the voice and tone of the brand. At the other end of the rope, the SEO team is focused on increasing keyword rankings. This can lead to everyone walking away covered in mud. Avoid that unclean… Read More
Portent Staff // 27 Feb, 2012
SNEAK PEEK: Ian Lurie to Present Data-Driven Content Strategies at Tomorrow’s SEOMoz PRO Webinar
Friends, SEOmans, eMad Men— LEND IAN YOUR EARS. Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. (PST), Ian Lurie, CEO and Webfather of Portent, Inc., will give an exclusive webinar at SEOmoz. His free-to-all-comers presentation “Data-Driven Content” will illuminate, educate, inform and otherwise rock your search marketing world. (We hope.) Topics Ian will cover include: Why great content is… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 22 Jun, 2011
New Copywriting E-Book Free for Download
I have written and edited countless numbers of articles, advertisements, and product descriptions since beginning my work here at Portent. In that time period, I have come across dozens of mistakes that I realize are far too common in this industry. So, a few weeks back, I wrote a short e-book on some of the… Read More
Portent Staff // 31 Jan, 2011
4 Sales Tactics That Will Make You a Better Writer
Before I became a writer, I spent eight years in sales. It was a fantastic way to fit work in between classes and afforded me to upgrade my college cuisine to include more than spaghetti noodles. I thought I was just paying for textbooks, but the experience I gathered while selling pianos and cell phones… Read More
Copywriting Blog Posts Portent Staff // 3 Jan, 2011
What an English Degree Teaches You about Internet Copywriting
If you think an English degree would prepare you for anything in the world of copywriting, think again! There are plenty of things you’ll need to unlearn if you plan to write internet content
Portent Staff // 7 Dec, 2010
10 Copywriting Nightmares & How to Deal With Them
Copywriting is a career replete with pitfalls, from editorial visions gone awry to hair-pulling, forehead-pounding hours attempting to come up with synonyms for “elegant” that alliterate with “xylophone.” There are good parts, too. Really good parts. I promise. But that is an entirely different post. This is a post about the depths of despair all… Read More
Portent Staff // 4 Aug, 2009
Write Compelling Messages – Think Greeting Cards
As Mad Men’s Don Draper so eloquently put it, to sell a product you have to first evoke an emotion. Get your audience to feel. Sex doesn’t sell; desire does. But how do you get your customers to feel desire when you can’t even see them?