Copywriting is a hugely important part of your business brand. Paper Lime Creative often partners with Fine Point Writing and Editing to give our clients a well-rounded experience that includes brand writing and visual development.

While graphics and logos are incredibly important to your brand, if you don’t know how to talk or write about your business, then graphics can only do so much. We sat down with Danielle Mohr, owner of Fine Point Writing to talk about what she does and how it integrates into graphic design and branding.

 

Can you explain a little bit about what you do as a brand writer?

I am a marketing copywriter. That means I help clients with small to medium-sized businesses create messaging for their websites and blogs that capture attention and bring in new clients. I’ve been in business for four years.

My three tenants are clarity, confidence and creativity. I like to help people clarify their message which usually involves taking out words because people are generally too wordy.

Confidence comes in because it’s really hard to write your own content. What most people don’t realize is: that yes you can write, and yes you know your business but writing for your business doesn’t come from those two things. I always tell people that I even find it difficult to write for my own business! This is why my website is so sparse; I don’t like writing for myself.  

For creativity, clients always want me to either have worked in their industry or not have worked in their industry. If I haven’t written in your industry before, I do the research part – getting a sense of the lingo, and how the language differs in tone or audience. If I have worked in their industry and they worried about unique content, you can write something in hundreds of unique ways even if it’s the same content or concept. At that point, it’s more about brand voice and what you can bring to the message as opposed to the content itself. 

 

How does writing influence a company’s brand?

Think about all the things you write for your brand emails, websites, social posts, and even speaking! You have all of these methods through which you communicate your brand so if you don’t have a guide for that, especially if you have employees, then your message will just get confused and your brand will get confused.

Having a professional copywriter can help you maintain that consistency and then on the flip side if you want to DIY you can get a brand voice guide! I also find that after people approach me they just feel more confident about their brand and sharing it. It feels more like a story to them. People can be embarrassed about their story until they hear someone else tell it. Most people overlook brand voice when it comes to branding.

 

When should someone be contacting a brand writer?

Most people contact me last minute because they didn’t realize the content wasn’t included in their website package. If you have a professional website designed, it’s worth it to pay a bit extra to have the copy match the brand.

People should also come to me when they need more traffic to their website or when they want to rank higher on Google. In that regard, I help them with blogging. The other thing people should come to me for is when they’re making a big branding change or changing directions in their company. That’s when clarity becomes important.

 

What are some of your favourite projects that you have worked on or clients with whom you have worked?

My favourite clients are the ones who came to me with an initial project and then they’ve never stopped coming back since! It’s not industry-specific, but people who see the value and time savings. Once I get to know a brand I can easily recreate the messaging so it’s faster for me and gives them more clarity throughout their brand and business. 

 

What services do you offer that people might not realize?

I have a 6-month free content calendar off for clients who have a consultation with me. That is an outline of your blogs for the next six months and it helps you stay on schedule and spend less time thinking about your blogs. Templates would be the other one: email templates, proposal templates, process template, etc..

 

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing local businesses right now?

The biggest problem is not enough clients/customers. How do you get more people in the door? There’s marketing and there’s sales – without good marketing you don’t even get to the sales process.

 

What industry hacks or tips can you share?

Planning content ahead of time is really big and batching so that instead of every time you sit down to write a blog, you do all of your creative thinking in one session and then it makes it more enjoyable just to sit down and write. If you’re getting a website designed always ask about content upfront – is it included and who is going to be writing it?

 

What’s your favourite thing about being a brand writer?

I love that I get to learn different stories, whether personal or business, and there’s part of me that thinks I should’ve been a journalist because I love the interview process. (When it’s not me being interviewed!) The second part of that is I like turning people’s uncertainties into this cohesive brand story that helps them see their own value. People are always so humble and disparaging of themselves and more than half of the time people are killing it!

 

Want the best of both worlds?

A huge thank you to Danielle for sitting with the Paper Lime Creative team and explaining a bit more about what brand writing is and how it affects branding. Fine Point Writing & Editing and Paper Lime Creative offer an awesome Brand Mastermind course if a personalized session sounds perfect for your team!