Simon Banks

Be very sceptical of anyone who claims they can 'fix' or '10x the results for' your copywriting using proven formulas or their own innate genius. Especially if that person has little or no track record of sticking it out with a company through some serious growth (as I have with Revolut or Apron). I've been a copywriter for more than 10 years, and I'm still challenged by the complexity of it all every day. Guidelines are one thing, but they don't constitute a fix. Every copywriting job is different, and requires the flexibility to work with people who have styles all of their own. The whims and opinions of Founders cannot be entirely accounted for by someone who speaks as if they've got it all figured out, and who promises extraordinary results before they've even spoken with you. I used to see posts from these 'experts' and think that I was missing something, that I didn't have the clarity of mind or logic they did. But after sticking it out with startups through thick and thin, through multi-million pound investment rounds, I don't think I'm missing anything. Copywriting is hard. What's required changes on a daily basis. There is no magic fix that will 10x your results. Anyone who tells you that there is, is bullshitting themselves as much as they're bullshitting you. Don't fall for it. Confidence is good, but experience is better. #copywriting

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Yes, you work in financial services. Yes, your work is often complex and technical. But your marketing copy doesn't need to be. The premium clients you want to attract are busy people. They don’t want to dissect your website, newsletter, blog or brochure copy to figure out if you’re the solution to their problem. Your messaging needs to be clear, concise and to the point. Make it easy for them to choose you. #financialcopywriter #financialcopywriting #financialmarketing

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If I was running a business and wanted to create content audiences would actually read, here’s what I’d do. It isn’t as fast as getting your mate to knock up 300 words because he used to write instruction manuals for fridges. Or as easy taking the optional ‘content production package,” consisting of links to any news story containing a keyword, that comes with your virtual secretary. (I’ve seen businesses take both of these careless routes, and the results are not pretty. Kind of like letting a five-year old with a box of crayons ‘redecorate’ the kitchen.) But it’s not particularly difficult. It doesn’t have to cost much or require more than a couple of people to do the actual work. You could even get away with one. All you need to do is ask your audiences what they need. Ask the right questions and they’ll tell you, and you use what they say to shape the content you produce. It has a name. It’s called user research. It’s common in the UX world (and if I’ve got any of this wrong, UX people, I’m sure you’ll let me know) but its absence in marketing is noticeable. No-one seems to be doing it. I’ve just been working with some marvellous UX people on exactly this, so here’s the one-minute brief based on what I’ve learnt. 1 Identify your audiences. Write down everyone who might be a potential audience, then thin them out. You can have as many or as few as you want – it doesn’t matter, as long as they’re people you want to attract. 2 Find some audience members to talk to. You don’t have to look far: existing customers, prospects, other people in the industry, professional bodies – they’re all sources of valuable people. 3 Have a chat with them. Take notes. Write it all down. 4 Spot the themes and pick the ones you want to concentrate on. 5 That’s it. See? Not too difficult. Honestly, it’s so much better than guessing, which as far as I can tell is how so many businesses approach content creation.   

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Some lessons I’ve learnt running a travel blog for 6 (!) years 👇 ✅ Some of my best-performing posts weren’t written with SEO in mind  ✅ You can’t always predict which posts will take off - sometimes it’s completely unexpected! ✅ AI is here but it can’t replace human travel experiences ✅ Always diversify your traffic sources to protect yourself against algorithm changes  ✅ Don’t just rely on traffic for your income (I’m pursuing digital products next year) ✅ Get to know your audience on a personal level through email marketing What else would you add? —------------------------- Hi, I’m Francesca 👋 I’m a freelance travel copywriter and blogger helping brands build engaged communities through impactful storytelling. 📸Causeway Coast

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Love the unexpected. B2B marketing might have a rep for being dull and only relevant to LinkedIn but look! Here's Sage, on TikTok, appealing to small business owners with very watchable snippets that have had me totally sucked in. Yes, you heard me right. Accounting meets TikTok. This is actually from a little while back but Sage obviously knew who they wanted to talk to, where those people were and what kind of content would get their attention. My challenge to both of us today: ✨ Find an insight about your audience (like "huh?... they're on TikTok") ✨ Turn up where they are ✨ Dare to do something different I'm going after my nemesis - cold email. I'll let you know how I get on. How about you? #creativity #b2bmarketing ✨ I dare you... ---- Want to know what happens next? Follow me, Martha Moger for weekly-ish posts on telling the story of your impact-driven business.

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My #1 tip for new freelancers? Build up a late payment float. When I first started out, getting paid late was a shock. I had lovely clients - surely that would mean payments would arrive on the day I sent my invoice? Lol, no. Your clients can have the best intentions in the world, but that doesn’t = getting paid on time. Whatever the reason (and there will be reasons! Missed your invoice email, error with the payment run, international client struggling to set you up as a supplier, the list goes on) there will be days when the money you’re expecting doesn’t hit your bank account. Contracts, late payment fees and taking money upfront help - but they won’t stop it. Personally, this never felt like a legit reason to dig into my emergency fund (as one client is never responsible for more than a third of my income) but it would be enough to impact my spending plans. Not fun. What has helped is a small late payment float to dip into if I need it. I’ve actually only used it once, but the difference it makes to my health and happiness (mainly happiness) is huge. Freelancers, what’s the first thing you would tell someone just starting out?

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Over the weekend I surveyed over 61 super-small UK businesses and asked them what they thought about using social ads to promote their business. I fished for users from sections of my mailing list, and on Facebook Groups where I knew they are active, ran an ad on Facebook, and used a picture of my cat to attract their attention (as these guys love distractions). I attracted a majority of sole trader-type business owners (perfect!) working in mostly in consulting and professional services and ecommerce, and asked them what they thought about using social ads to promote their business. The results are in this slideshare if you want to see more, and of course do not cover all businesses, but the ones that are mostly actively using Facebook. Long story short: they don't like to use ads at all, but love to use social for organic promotion. They don't want to pay anyone to help, and it's 50/50 if they would pay for a course to help them run ads themselves. The majority have a bad impression about ads - the net promoter score asking if they would ever recommend ads to others is super negative. And they're only willing to spend under £500 a month on any media spend if they every did run ads. I wish I had the capacity to ask them more questions but if I had I would have asked: Why the hate? Why are ads that bad if you have a poor opinion of them? Is it that you tried and lost money but didn't understand why? Maybe you generally don't like the platform? Is it just a budget decision? If there was a tool that could help you promote the work you've been doing with your organic social, why would you not use it? I won't ever give up on the micro-businesses out there, I promise. There is always an option to get help with The Social Ads Squad if you need, but I think we have a bigger job to do as an industry to promote the basics of what socials ads can do and help dispel the myths and bad opinions. Just to end this - some lovely soul commented on my post on Facebook asking for help with "eff off scammer". Even just asking super small businesses what they think about ads can evoke that reaction. People hate ads, I get it, but businesses? Why would you not want to get in front of your audience? Again, I won't give up on them but they make it hard 😂 Let me know what you think of the data below!

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A note on DM etiquette... As a business owner, making connections is incredibly valuable, and one way to do that is through DMs. I'll be the first to say that I'm not the greatest at responding to every message (especially because many of them are freelancers asking me for work. Erm, I'm not the right person for that). But if you choose to contact someone here on LinkedIn, be nice! It seems obvious, but a few weeks ago I received a message from someone pitching their services. When I finally messaged them back asking for more info, they were quite rude & told me that I never answered their question, I wasn't committed to my business, and they "didn't like where this is going." It caught me off guard. I blocked the person and went along with my day. But it reminds me that simply being kind and personable goes a long way in business. Building genuine, helpful connections work best. Have you had any negative encounters with others in your DMs? #businessowner #contentwriter #freelancewriter #LinkedIn

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One more time for the people in the back: your financial brand can sound professional without relying on formal, stuffy, or technical marketing copy. While some brands are still stuck in their old ways, others are really getting it right. Take PensionBee UK, for example. This online pension platform uses an informal tone across all its channels, including its website. This makes the typically complex and dull topic of pensions feel accessible and even engaging. A couple of examples… Instead of using jargon like "pension consolidation," they say, "𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒔." 👉🏻 They’ve picked words that make sense to anyone, especially those who might feel confused by pensions. They also say: “𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚. 𝑷𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒚𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 7-10 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔.” 👉🏻 No confusing references to funds or transactions—just clear, concise copy that anyone can understand. 🎯 What other financial brands really ‘get it’? Drop your favourites in the comments. #financialcopywriter #financialmarketing #websitecopywriter

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Why are you looking at Spotify? If you're an insurance company, why don't you want to be the best insurance company for your customers? And why don't you try to understand what they need? Because they're not looking to you for a music streaming service. - Dominic Price What's the context of my industry, my environment, my success, my customers, and how do I delight them? - Dom Price You're on a bike and I'm in a car, so I'm going to go faster. That doesn't mean you're not going fast - Dom Price ------ I don't have to out run the bear I just have to out run the competition It's always good to keep the relative comparison in mind.  Many small improvements compound over time. A Modern Workplace Manifesto for Distributed Teams https://lnkd.in/grmyx67K Full Length Conversation  Dominic Price | Experiment, Feel, Safety, Learning | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick  YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gcPukd7U - Spotify - https://lnkd.in/ghZSdZPF - Transcript and Show notes - https://lnkd.in/grqagxXC - or wherever you podcast #MondernWorkplaceManifesto #ModernWorkplace #Workplace #Work #Office #Experiment #Feel #Safety #Learning #Blueprint #Success #Culture #ModernWorkManifesto #BusinessStrategy #IndustrySpecific #CustomerFocus #SustainableBusiness #Innovation #CorporateIdentity #Adaptability #BusinessModel #FoW #FutureOfWork #ValueCreation #Interview #Podcast #Work20XX 

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I don't buy this notion that a reason for a full return to 5 days p/w in the office is because 'That's what we were doing before Covid, and it worked'. It didn't work, for a great many people - that's what WFH has highlighted. Remember: Chamber pots and throwing our waste out of the window worked, until proper sanitisation/sewage systems came in. Doing all jobs by hand worked, until the Industrial Revolution. Taking films to the chemist, to be processed, worked, until digital cameras came into being. Taking a selection of books on holiday worked, until there were Kindles. Writing and designing from scratch was the done thing, until AI came into play. Covid proved that working 5 days a week from an office doesn't necessarily work. It proved that we can be trusted to work from our homes, have meetings virtually, and still get all of our work done... or get even more work done as we're; a) not distracted by colleagues, trying to chat with us, or having banter (as much fun as that is). b) able to work until later (maybe 7.30pm instead of 5.30pm), as we don't have to tack a commute onto the end of our days. Those who don't abuse the privilege of WFH still hit their deadlines and still hit their targets, maybe in more comfy clothing. If the work wasn't being done and targets weren't being hit, then no companies would still be offering hybrid or remote working. WFH also showed us how crazy it was spending c.15 - 20% of our take-home pay, per month, just on getting to and from the job that paid us that wage - effectively a tax (as in, we had no choice but to pay it). That's not to mention the hours wasted on trains, buses, and in cars. And it showed parents they could have more quality time with their children, or make the school run/nursery pick-up and get their work done after that. It showed those with disabilities and chronic conditions that they didn't have to struggle in an office environment any more. So it's not a case of 'Well it worked before Covid, so we can go back to it now'. It didn't work before - that's the point: not finacially, not in terms of efficient use of time, not in terms of productivity, not in terms of family life etc. And actually, Covid shone a glaring spotlight on that - it showed us we were perfectly capable of getting all of our work done, and hitting all targets, at home. So it's not a case of 'going back to what we were doing before', in the same way we're not going back to getting our photos developed at Boots.

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Freelance writers can take a major load off busy marketing teams, without having to hire a full-time staff member. Here’s how you might find one that fits your needs: - ask colleagues if they’ve ever worked with a freelance writer that worked out - search LinkedIn or your favourite search engine for freelance writers that might have worked in your industry - find content you really like and sleuth out who wrote it. Hopefully, there's a byline that will make this easy. For instance, you can find my bylines on the work I’ve done for Procore Technologies and Truss. What are your experiences of finding and hiring freelance writers?

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You go to agencies to hire copywriters, graphic designers and web developers. Why not go to an agency to hire your head of content, too? Avoid the rigamarole of hiring your own content department and go straight to Scon. We'll help your business start its very own content marketing pipeline: 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧 Discover your audience 📅 Build your content calendar 🖊️ Create expert content for marketing 📈 Track your success Our end-to-end service helps your business take advantage of everything content marketing has to offer, without committing to permanent hires. In other words… we're your outsourced content marketing department. #content #marketing #copywriting

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Hello all - for an article to be published on a financial services website I'm looking for tips from a business coach or consultant on negotiating techniques for small business owners. Hoping to confirm interviews ASAP and do interviews next week - if you'd be able to help, please do drop me a DM or email - thanks! #journorequest #sme #businessadvice

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I recently found out that one of my favourite pieces of website content I've worked on won't be going live. The company sadly just don't have the funds to launch their new business anymore. And I think it's such a shame that so many small businesses are struggling SO much at the moment. (I did get paid for the work, don't worry). I love working with small businesses. I love their passion. I love listening to the owners talk about their ideas. I love helping them launch and grow. One of the main issues I’ve noticed that lots of new (and established!) businesses have is that when it comes to their website copy, they have no idea where to start. They have a rough idea of their brand, they KNOW their product, but when they’re creating a website from scratch their mind goes blank. I get it because I recently had this issue when writing for my own website. Luckily for the people I work with, I’m an excellent listener. I’m good at digging deep and asking the right questions to get a clear picture of what they want to say but don’t know how to articulate. So yes, I am really sad that my client’s amazing website won’t be going live yet. But I know that what we worked on together was pretty amazing. And if you’re a small business owner struggling to define your website’s tone, let me know. I’d love to help.

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This mistake is hurting your conversion Recently I met a business owner who was delighted to find out that I was a copywriter, even though they didn't know what I did (this happens more often than you might think). We got to chatting and he asked me for my opinion on his website copy (this also happens often. Kind of like being a doctor lol) Let's start with what he did right - The aim of his business was clear - The website was easy to navigate *these may sound obvious but trust, you can get lost in the sauce when designing a website and make it far too complicated, leaving out the simple stuff* But the one mistake he made? No CTA. No clickable text. No button. No easy to fill in form. Nada This means that people would visit his website, be spurred to take action but unable to. With no choice but to visit a different website. He's a small business owner so this oversight makes complete sense. With an endless to-do list and a head bursting with ideas, it makes sense that this would slip through the cracks. But this one slip costs him. It hurts his mission. All. the time. So if you: - Are a small business owner in the health and wellness game - And have a to-do list as long as your arm Let me tick off a very important box for you. Your content. Together we'll work on a plan to draw your readers in, make them stay and build brand loyalty through SEO researched content writing. #freelancer #freelance #contentwriting #content #copywriting

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My under-desk apprentice, Hugo, has been promoted. Tilly’s 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 him to enter the special ‘blue bubble’. For thinking, sleeping and cuddling. His typing output may not have improved or increased, but he’s keeping her warm (which I suspect is the real reason she let him in) I’m rather jealous! --- DM me if you’d like to talk about your content. I can help you fix your copy, scale your content and ghostwrite your stories ✏️ 𝗜'𝗺 𝗗𝗶 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗲. 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿: 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 + 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿. There’s 20+ years’ writing experience packed in my keyboard (+ marketing mgmt before that) and 3 options to work with me.

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I’ve seen a lot of chat about pricing transparency on here. We LOVE to see it 🙌 You can find my pricing on my website but it never hurts to remind you lovely lot here as well 😘 ✨ Website projects ✨ For solo business owners: £3,000 (fixed price with a set number of pages) For SMBs: From £5,000 (depends on the state of your current site, SEO, migration requirements, and size of the site) ✨ 1:1 programs & consultations ✨ Write Your Own Fucking Content: £750 (Website copy done with you over 4 weeks) 1:1 consultation calls: £125 (One hour, recorded and sent to you) NEW: Clarity sessions: £250 (2 one-hour calls designed to help you find clarity with tone, messaging, target audience, and pricing) Website consultation: £200 (One hour on-call audit of your website to help improve copy, design, conversion, and SEO) ✨SEO support hours ✨ 4, 8, 12, or 16 hours of support Booked as a one off: £75/hr Booked for 3+ months ongoing: £60/hr ✨ Some kinda mish mash ✨ Sometimes you just need a combination. So naturally, that’s gunna be priced entirely based on what you need. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise 😜 Do you share your prices on your website? When was the last time you told everyone about them here? —- 🤓 Hi, I'm Alice. Your friendly no-bullshit website copywriter and SEO nerd 🤩 Helping freelancers level up and SMBs sort their shit out 🎉 Now booking website projects for Jan - March 2025 (and 1:1s for Oct - Dec) 🔔 Follow for more chat about website copy, SEO, and content strategy

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