Hey friend, 

Renae Gregoire, here.
 

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Beyond Copy, the weekly newsletter that helps you elevate your content, grow your know-like-trust factor, and win more sales.
 

If you've ever created marketing content for your business, you know how much goes into it.
 

Success takes FAR more than “copy.” 

There’s the design aspect—how your copy looks on the page. There’s the flow aspect. The readability aspect. The aspirational aspect. The emotional aspect. 

You also have to think about:

• Personas—to whom are you writing? (Or is it "who are you writing to?") What are their challenges? What do they want and NEED?
   
• Competitive research—what are competitors writing about? What can you do better? Where are the gaps? Where are the opportunities?
   
• Content strategy—which content should you create for which persona for which stage of the buying journey? Email newsletter? Lead magnets? Blog posts? Ebooks? Awareness or consideration stage?
   
• Content creation—who's going to do it? You? Me? Someone else? Who will handle the writing? The editing? The design? What are the best practices?
   
• Content distribution—this is a whole ball of wax. What technology will you use? How do you set it all up? Who will set it all up so that you can get your content into the hands of your readers?
   

Beyond that, if you want to create unique content—content no one else on the internet can create—you'll need an ongoing supply of ideas and inspiration.

That's what I want Beyond Copy to be for you.
 

Each week, I'll send you an issue with my greatest finds and ideas designed to help you create exceptional content experiences that look, sound, feel, and function well—from your reader's perspective.
 

You'll learn to:

• See content through your reader's eyes.
• Write better content.
• Edit your content like a pro.
• Figure out what content to create.
• Tap your life, work, and experiences to create unique content.
• Be a thought leader in your space.
   

I'll also share my favorite tools, resources, and people—all you need to create content and run your digital business.
 

Is there something special you'd like me to cover? Hit reply to let me know.
 

This newsletter is for YOU. I want to send you what you want to learn about and discover.
 

Now... for my first two shares.

I hope you like them!

5 Easy Ways to Improve the Performance of Your Marketing Content

Your business likely has pieces in its content arsenal that have fallen flat or aren’t performing as well as they could. 

The content could be fluffy or too high level. Maybe it’s uninspiring or boring. Perhaps it’s redundant, having been said by others 1,000 times before.

The truth is: Unless you’re a monopoly or selling something rare or one of a kind, substandard marketing content can easily become the deciding factor in a buyer’s sale or no-sale decision.

If buyers are hungry enough for what you’re offering, they’ll be willing to overlook a multitude of content sins. If they’re not, then mediocre content might push them away from you and into the arms of your competitor.

Think about it. If your content is poor, and your competitor’s content is not, then all else being equal, whom do you think a buyer will choose?

Whom would you choose?

In this Forbes article, I share five easy actions that can bring new life to your marketing pieces, colorizing and accessorizing them to boost their appeal and lead more buyers to say YES to the next step in the journey.

The Purpose of Marketing Content: It's Not Just to Sell, Folks!

I love words, with all their nuances and histories.

One day, I came across an ugly word with a beautiful, hidden meaning.

Ready for it?

Here it is...

Refulgent.

The adjective itself is not pretty. By the looks of her, I am reminded of repugnant, and regretful, both things I wish to avoid.

The beauty of the word refulgent lies beneath her covers, within her definition:

“Shining with, or reflecting, a brilliant light; radiant; resplendent; gleaming; lustrous.”

A few other words and phrases from her various forms shine brightly as well:

• Splendid
• Illustrious
• Shining
• Sumptuous
• To radiate light
• To flash before the mind
• To be conspicuous

This definition, and the word brilliance, in particular, resonates with me because, as writer and editor, I help people share their brilliance, clearly, concisely, effectively.

It also resonates because I called my online blogging program Blog Your Brilliance, which helps small business owners and online content creators accomplish the same, only through blogs.

But what really lights me up, and what I want to share with you now, has to do with two words in that long definition: Or reflecting.

Those words remind me that what I should do … what we all should do … is to REFLECT the light of our prospects and customers.
 

And therein lies the key message of this post:

▼▼▼

Our job as marketers isn’t to SELL something.

It’s to REFLECT something.

Our job is to show people how using our products and services will help them shine most brightly.

Et Cetera

Executive presence — What is it? Do you have it? Do you want it? This LinkedIn post by an executive coach lays out four elements of executive presence. Read.

Business name generator — Use this free AI-driven business name generator to come up with cool, brandable business names. Try it.

Fancy Fonts for social media — Ever wonder how people post in bold, italic, and other fancy fonts on Facebook and LinkedIn? This site converts text into fancy fonts. Visit.

Me, myself, and I — Know when to use these pronouns? Don't feel bad if you struggle; I'm a professional writer and I sometimes have to look up this trickster, too. Learn.

That's all for this week!

I'll be back again next week with another issue of Beyond Copy.

Until then,

Write on!