These interviews have tended to focus on writing for books and magazines. But there’s a whole other world of marketing writing out there, too! This week Taylor DiMeglio shares the secrets to her marketing success. In addition to her own very cool website, she writes for Jelly Barn, Scholastic, America Online, and many other companies. Take it away, Taylor!
Urban Muse: Tell us about your first clip.
Taylor: My first clip came about when I was still a full-time Strategic Planner for an ad agency. Writing was a big part of that job, too – proposals, new business letters, qualitative research reports, strategic points of view, etc…. Article writing in the vein of positioning the agency as experts in their field, however, was usually reserved for the big wigs. I was thrilled and nervous about the assignment, which they really gave me because they were far too inundated with work to attend to it. When my boss read it, I could tell she was taken aback; it needed very little revision. When we submitted the article, it was accepted immediately without changes and placed as the ‘end note’/last page article in the magazine. I didn’t know it, but my boss told me that was a particular honor, as it was a very highly read section of the magazine. Blush!
UM: What’s your approach to marketing your business – do you seek out new clients or use word-of-mouth?
T: Lately I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to seek anyone out, but I do subscribe to job lists, so I can post to jobs as I come across relevant ones. When things are quieter, I post ads about my services on all the free sites I can, and I submit proposals for opportunities I find on E-Lance.com or Craigslist.com. Word-of-mouth has been great, too, and it’s so nice when a client walks right in your door, isn’t it?
UM: What is your favorite genre of writing and why?
T: That’s a tricky question. I do a lot of ‘marketing writing,’ because that’s my area of expertise. As a Strategic Planner with significant experience as a qualitative consumer moderator and researcher, I am in a somewhat unique position. When someone comes to me for help with their web site, for instance, I don’t just think about what they want to communicate and how to make it sound compelling. I take it a lot further by digging into the brand or core essence of what that person/their offerings represent in connection with who they’re targeting and who they’re up against in the competitive landscape. Then I use that ‘brand core’ as a lens through which I create uniquely compelling, targeted copy. So, that’s what I do most of the time, and I thoroughly enjoy it.
However, there is another side to me that is deeply creative and yearns for more time to write randomly in the fiction or fiction-esque area. I have the entire outline of a novel that I’ve begun, for instance, yet I struggle for time to even contemplate it much less work on it. I also started a humorous piece on the writing life called, “Can Someone Help My Husband, or Tell Me Where My Coffee Is?” about the challenges of living with a writer. My poor family. I would love to find a writing partner working in the fiction genre for accountability and feedback.( If that’s you and you’re in the Hudson Valley, send me a note on what you’re doing: Taylor at The Word Taylor Dot com)
UM: You work on a lot of different types of projects (press releases, features, business plans, etc.) – how do you stay organized and prioritize projects?
T: Since most of my work is in the same vein of business/marketing writing I find that my mind is well framed to transition from one project to another. However, to manage I do two things. First, I don’t take on too many projects at a time. Since mine is an intensive strategic and creative process, I make sure I have sufficient time to become thoroughly absorbed in each one. Second, when I’m juggling more than one project I take a breather between each one. I get up, stretch, make myself a cup of coffee, anything to clear my mind, so when I return to work I can turn my mind fully to the project at hand.
UM: What is the one piece of advice that you wish you’d had earlier in your freelance writing career?
T: I just wished I’d started even sooner than I did. When I first began, I would write more or less as a favor to someone who’d discovered or heard that I had a knack for it. It took me a while to start charging and then moving into freelance writing as a full-time endeavor.Thanks, Taylor. Check out the archives.