Merry has worked across all forms of digital content and professional writing. While she has since developed niche assets that include blog writing, landing pages, and scriptwriting, her larger knowledge of other types of copywriting is invaluable in developing a winning content strategy approach for companies using multiple channels.
A fantastic content strategy starts with your unique marketing position and a fully formed picture of your target audience. Merry believes that a good content strategy marries creative, engaging content with an open mind and understanding of metrics.
Merry is an active volunteer in her area, having held positions on her children's school board, the art appreciation department, and the band board. She has a background in website configurations and basic HTML and has worked extensively in the association conference management field.
Her background is in fiction writing and she is currently working on her first novel. She ran a fiction writing blog from 2006-2013, reads voraciously, and enjoys talking about literature whenever the opportunity arises.
I attended Columbia College in downtown Chicago with a focus on Fiction Writing. My course schedule included extensive page count and classes that taught the mechanics of writing and the business of publishing.
As I moved into a professional career path, I found the tools I learned in fiction writing translated exceptionally well to the skills needed in content marketing. This is especially clear in areas such as developing customer persona and building and tone and voice for branding. The mechanics of writing are important, but it's the humanities knowledge that brings clarity and connection to content marketing, more than any other skill.
Merry has written hundreds of eBooks, blog posts, and articles around the subjects of SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing. As a freelance writer, she entered the field as SEO was just starting to take hold, and tons of sites were "stuffing" content with SEO keywords - a practice she always felt was short-sided. Her knowledge of website and social media marketing grew along with the evolution of content marketing. It's an industry she enjoys working in and learning about.
One of Merry's niche writing industries is marketing. Between writing content for marketing professionals and the blogs and articles she produced for her own platforms, she averages a few thousand words of content a week on this topic alone. She also enjoys copywriting and working with marketing deliverables. She feels that the best way to speak with authority on marketing is by staying immersed in the field.
Merry's content strategy services in the marketing niche bring together all of the facets of the client's current marketing plan. She can work with clients to assess and improve specific channels or to develop a wider strategy. Merry also works with developing tone and style guides, schedules for blogs and social media platforms, and to organize cornerstone content and cluster topics.
Once a concise strategy is created, clients can streamline the process of outsourcing assignments to writers or developing content in house. This allows for better ROI in a more efficient process.
Merry’s written widely on business topics such as marketing, hiring, employee management, and organizational issues.
In a content strategist capacity, she's worked largely with small to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs. Merry specifically likes to work with smaller businesses because they often do not have the internal staff to develop and maintain a cohesive strategy but they do have a great deal of passion for their chosen field.
She's worked with both B2B and B2C companies to develop their online presence with a core focus on their unique marketing position and the community that they serve. Each client faces their own challenges and has strengths that set them apart from any competition.
Content strategy involves assessing the individual company's current performance and areas of concern to devise an original strategy to propel success.
Technology, software, and IT are all industries Merry has written in extensively. Her greatest asset here is the ability to explain protocols and programs for the user. Most of her content in this arena is promotional, expressly written to educate and entice new customers. She’s also written widely on technology and web management for the healthcare and marketing industries.
IT became a niche industry for Merry because she has a background in website configurations. She likes to joke that she knows just enough to be dangerous. This is why she enjoys it. Most of the target audience need actionable information that will help them with cybersecurity and to update their IT needs, but they don't understand the industry jargon. Being able to translate the necessary information in a way that's accessible and engaging is important and it helps some wonderful companies in this field really connect with their clients.
As a content strategist, Merry has worked with several IT and Technology companies to develop social media schedules, assess and improve organic website traffic, and develop the blog and email campaign topics/schedules.
Blogging is the medium that sparked Merry's writing career. She started blogging in 2005 as a hobby on a community blogging network. After learning the basics, she built her own blog and expanded to include guest posting, ghost blogging, web content, and beyond. She feels a great blog post can be more conversational than straight article writing and far more interactive for the readers.
Since beginning her blogging career, the field has changed extensively and a variety of new voices have taken center focus. Her favorite form of blogging is conversational. She has also developed many lengthy blog posts that offer a more informational and authoritative tone. Merry's core asset is in writing to the voice of the publication.
Merry excels at building a blog strategy that includes SEO keyword research and expertise in using SEO effectively in content. She believes that the quality of the content and a targeted approach to make sure that the searcher's needs are being met are the two most fundamental requirements for a good blog post and a winning blog strategy.
Merry excels at web content and it’s her favorite form of writing. There’s a delicate mix of conversational tone, ability to capture voice, and the ability to integrate SEO keywords and best practices into the web page. Merry has written landing pages for hundreds of businesses and organizations across numerous industries.
She continually updates her knowledge on content marketing so that her clients benefit from current best practices. Her clients include agencies and small businesses.
Her web content includes home pages, about pages, resource sections, blog posts, service pages, pillar pages, and promotional content.
Industries she’s written web content for include: marketing, business services, pharmaceuticals, physicians, insurance, legal, and IT.
As a content strategist, Merry works with clients to assess their current website content, review performance based on their current SEO strategy, and adjust their SEO strategy based on metrics. She's adept at fine-tuning customer personas and working with clients to define their marketing position. These are crucial aspects of developing the best content marketing strategy to engage with the target audience for a more relationship-centric approach to content creation.
Merry's services include help in choosing pillar content topics, assessing past content to organize topic clusters, and developing a schedule for publication.
Merry brings a background in fiction writing to her scriptwriting arsenal. What this means for the client is that their scripts are conversational and natural. You won’t worry over your subject sounding awkward or unrealistic.
Video is one of the best ways to market your business and services online today. No matter how comfortable you are in front of a camera, a professionally written script is your best asset to clarify your message for your audience. Viewers make their decision on whether to watch your video within the first few seconds.
Video content leads the way in conversion. Merry works with companies to add video strategy to their overall online content marketing plan. This may include schedules for live video, homepage or landing page video content, or content for their dedicated channel. Just like every other form of content, your video offerings need to stay on brand and keep the target audience in focus.
While Merry does work with scriptwriting itself, in a content strategist capacity, she can assist you in developing a solid assignment brief for your scriptwriters and defining the overall goals for your video strategy and individual pieces.
Let Merry’s expertise help you to grab audience attention immediately, and keep them riveted all the way through to conversion.