December is shaping up to be a busy month both personally and professionally so I’m taking my usual holiday blogging hiatus, albeit a little early.

But honestly, I’m also assessing the long-term value of this blog for you — and for me. I’ll be back in January with new content or a new blogging strategy.

Until then, there’s lots of great content within my previous posts. And, I’m still microblogging regularly on Twitter so follow me for quick-hit ideas that can instantly improve your writing and communication.

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I’m constantly asking my clients who they’re trying to reach. When it comes to effectively communicating, you must know who you’re talking to. You wouldn’t talk to a first-grader the same way you would talk with a college professor, right?

Here’s a tip for getting inside the mind of your audience:

Go to where your customers are and silently observe. Watch what they do and how they do it. Read the emails they send customer service. Eavesdrop on their conversations with each other.

Refrain from making assumptions. Resist the urge to lead. Don’t ask questions (just this once). Simply watch and listen.

I promise you’ll come away with a new perspective about what their proverbial “pain points” are, but you’ll also have fresh insight into what motivates and excites them.

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It’s nice to be back blogging, in part, because I enjoy sharing ideas but also because it means I have some breathing room in my schedule. Which leads me to what I want to share here: do you give yourself enough time to write?

Just about everyone underestimates the amount of time needed to write well.

Sure, Stephen King or John Irving can bang out novel after novel after novel. But they are the exception, not the rule.

I believe that writing even a thoughtful email should take a certain amount of time. And certainly writing web copy requires more than a day or a week.

One of the projects I’ve been working on are some fast turnaround presentations for a major health care company. We typically have a week to distill the message, craft the story, create visuals and produce what is essentially a mini movie. It’s a very compressed timeframe. And while we’ve done a really good job, it could have been less painful for all involved if we had extended our project timeline just a bit.

Sometimes a project dictates a short timeframe. But most times, we self-impose time limits. Perhaps we do this because we don’t want to disappoint the client, the boss, the coworker. Perhaps we do this because we (or others) don’t value our contribution. Or perhaps we do this because we simply don’t know how much time something will take. (Trust me, it will invariably take longer than you think.)

Honestly? I’m a fast writer. Quite fast, in fact. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need a fair amount of prep time, which could include doing research, conducting interviews, brainstorming, noodling, whatever I need to in order to get as much information in me as possible. In fact, I believe I’m a fast writer because I do so much upfront work. It makes the writing process so much easier when I’m well prepared.

Let me encourage you to allow adequate lead time for all your writing.

I recommend keeping track of how long various writing projects take you. It’s a necessity for me to log my exact hours since I juggle multiple clients and projects at any given time. But the other important reason I do it is because it helps me more accurately estimate needed hours for similar, future projects.

It’s also good to build in at least part of a day so you can set your writing aside and come back fresh in the morning for one last round of revising and proofing.

And, lastly, I find it challenging to write for hours and hours on end. I prefer to chunk my writing time with breaks in between, which means I need to allow perhaps two days instead of one for a small project, or fours hours instead of two.

Do you agree that it takes time to write well? Do you allow yourself the time? Do you feel resistance when you do ask for extra time?

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While doing some research for an upcoming content project, I did a little poking around the About Us sections of some Fortune 100 companies.

Would you be surprised to learn that some of the biggest companies in the world use nondescript and innocuous language to describe themselves? I wouldn’t. It’s a comfortable place for many companies (and their copywriters) to be.

Phrases like “serving you in over 100 countries around the world,” “making great products for generations,” “dedicated to supporting,” and “our commitment to providing” say nothing of worth to your target audience. Worse, that kind of language does zip, zilch, nada to differentiate you from your competitors. Besides, who even talks like that in the real world?

Seth Godin says in marketing, if something makes you nervous, it’s probably a good idea. I say in copywriting, if you could write your Company Overview or About Us page in your sleep, rest assured that your audience will snooze, too, when they read it. If they read it.

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