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six-figure lifestyle
Blog
Updates
1st December 2020
Why Are We Still Pushing the Six-Figure Ideal?

A week ago, I was followed on Twitter by a chap promising to help me become a “six-figure copywriter in six months”. His pinned tweet told me he’d just won a $65 an hour job. £50 an hour. Let’s do some maths. To reach £100,000 at £50 an hour, we’d need to work 2,000 hours. […]
email marketing
Blog
Industry
26th November 2020
Did You Start a Newsletter in Lockdown?

The year is 2002. A student, absentmindedly humming Girls Aloud, thumbs her way through the school newsletter. She feels a pang of guilt as she reads one excruciating line: “Sadly, we received no entries to our competition last month.” Ouch. Does anybody read these things? Fast forward to 2020. The velour tracksuits are gone, but […]
Blog
Updates
19th November 2020
Black Friday 2020: Retail Frenzy or Digital Disaster?

We’re one week away from Black Friday and I’m still pulling Excitable Edgar’s dragon ash out of my hair. Is it that time of year already? If you’ve not been on the internet this week, first, check your pulse, then check social media. The Christmas adverts are back with a vengeance. And with them, the […]
trump balloon
Blog
Updates
12th November 2020
Did Bad Marketing Cost Trump the Election?

Popping the cork of a Tesco Finest prosecco bottle might sound like standard practice at Katie Lingo HQ, but last Saturday there was a reason: the defeat of Donald Trump. Trump supporters, look away now. You’re about to see a scathing, although balanced, attack on your man. For all his money, Twitter followers, 72 million […]
tone deaf
Blog
Updates
5th November 2020
Tone Deaf or Virtue Signalling? Watching Our Words in #Lockdown2

At the turn of November, I shared a ‘guilty’ Instagram post stating that I’d been feeling a little ‘tone deaf’ with my content. There you were, watching old Floppy Hair telling us to stay home. I was prancing around in a Halloween costume. Thankfully, my three whole followers told me there was nothing to worry […]
katie barcelona
Blog
Industry
30th October 2020
Why a Second Language Will Make You a Better Writer

Those of you who’ve taken a cursory glance over my LinkedIn profile may have noticed I hold a Spanish Language and Linguistics degree. Truth be told, it’s not something I shout about too loudly, and usually only comes up after a few…shall we say…sangrias. I keep tranquila about it because: I’m so terrified of getting […]
greenwash
Blog
Industry
22nd October 2020
Forget Greenwash Hogwash: Why Sustainable Copywriting Matters

Choosing a niche is a hotly debated topic for humble copywriter folk. Some argue that they relish the variety their non-specialisms bring; others love to niche as a means of becoming more competitive. So, where does sustainable copywriting fit within this? In the interests of ease, I’ve used the terms ‘sustainable copywriting’, ‘ethical copywriting’ and […]
Blog
Industry
15th October 2020
Are Podcasts a Viable Form of Marketing?

In a shocking twist, I discovered this week that podcasts suffered a dramatic listener decline during lockdown. But we’re doing nothing all day. That can’t be right, can it? Figures vary, but Podnews.net tells us that, as the pandemic took hold, listener numbers were down by 20 per cent. Well, this is 2020, and nothing […]
procopywriters
Blog
Industry, Updates
8th October 2020
How to Make the Most of the ProCopywriters Conference

You may have noticed that the ProCopywriters Conference is taking a slightly different approach for 2020. Last year’s attendees may recall running around London’s Barbican Centre with lanyards swinging. This year, we’re taking in the wisdom of the industry’s finest at home. In our pyjamas. What’s on at the 2020 ProCopywriters Conference? If you’ve not […]
extrovert
Blog
Industry
1st October 2020
PSA: You Don’t Need to Be an Extrovert to Succeed

Am I in the wrong job? Apparently, in a sea of introverts, I’m one of the only extroverts. Based on evidence from two social media polls, it appears that half of all copywriters are the shy and retiring type: Another #question for #copywriters, or #bloggers, or any #contentcreators really. It’s a little study I’m doing […]
lead gen katie
Blog
Data, Updates
24th September 2020
Leads in the Time of Corona

Ten points if you get the joke, Colombian literature enthusiasts. This week’s data-is-sexy-I-promise tribute goes out to leads, and how we’re approaching lead generation right now. Lockdown really does feel like 100 years of solitude, doesn’t it? Okay, I’ll stop. But it does shed light on the powerful switchover to virtual we’ve seen in recent […]
trim content
Blog
Industry
18th September 2020
Making the Cut: How to Trim Long-Form Content

Everywhere you look there’s yet another SEO guide telling you that long-form content is king. It feels a little contradictory in the age of skim-reading, and yet, it’s backed up by science: The average content length of the first 10 SERPs is more than 2,000 words Longer articles can increase conversions by up to 37 […]
katie lingo 4th bday
Blog
Industry
10th September 2020
Four Years in Freelance Writing: Every Lesson Learned

Lesson one. Tell everyone you’re pregnant and the internet loses its collective shit. But seriously. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll likely have been bugged by those annoying ‘celebrating four years at Katie Lingo’ notifications. Sorry about that. In 2016, post-Brexit vote but pre-Trump, my good friend Jonny and I were sitting in a […]
Accessibility in copy
Blog
Industry
2nd September 2020
The Case for Camels: What Is Accessibility in Copy?

It was a cheeky homemade video that inspired this week’s #Write52 post on accessibility – among other things. While some laughed at my feeble Love Actually reconstruction, another remarked: “All I could read was ‘big kiss’! Sorry Katie!” In hindsight, that was some pretty tiny copy. Not to mention some godawful handwriting. Either way, it […]
recovery
Blog
Updates
28th August 2020
What Recession? How Speed Affects Post-COVID Recovery

Is anybody else feeling like this? The mainstream media forebodes a looming recession, but life feels like it’s going at breakneck speed. Of course, there are always winners and losers in a crisis. Travel has taken a devastating hit, while Netflix had its biggest quarter ever this year. Others are slowly creeping back. 10.5 million […]
katie team member
Blog
Industry
21st August 2020
Are Your Freelancers Part of the Team?

Today started with a surprise in my inbox. It was 9am and I’d just been sent my ‘team’ headshot by one of my agency clients. There she was, staring back at me with gleaming white teeth, flawless skin and perfectly preened eyebrows. Is my nose really that big? Who’s to say? This avatar would soon […]
digital women awards
Blog
Industry
13th August 2020
Is Your Content Really Worth It?

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I do not like the word ‘content’. Shocking, I know, considering it’s my livelihood, and I use it pretty often. Why the beef? The term ‘content’ is simply too catch-all: it makes me think of ‘contents’…you know, like E numbers in baked beans or the contents of […]
propcopywriters report
Blog
Industry
7th August 2020
The ProCopywriters Report 2020: What Have We Learned?

If you’re a regular on the Katie Lingo blog, you’ll know I love a good report. Evidently, it seems that you do too. The 2020 ProCopywriters Report has had the biggest number of respondents ever at 640 – up 13 per cent on last year. With perhaps the most diverse participant pool ever, including a […]
freelance heroes
Blog
Updates
30th July 2020
Beware - Freelancers Are Taking Over

Yay! Another sobering stat from our good friend the coronavirus. Marketing Week  is predicting “significant job losses” as the furlough scheme comes to an end. With marketing departments shrinking, are we now relying on freelancers to pick up the pieces? Like anything in the digital/creative space, it depends. Certainly, in recent years we’ve witnessed a […]
writing
Blog
Industry
22nd July 2020
This Is Why You Suck At Writing*

*and why you really, really don’t. If I had a penny for every time a client told me they had no confidence in their writing… Well, I’d have a lot. Don’t ask me to do maths. I’m a writer. While it’s not in my best interests to pat these people on the back, it does […]
Content or UX?
Blog
Industry, Updates
15th July 2020
Move Over, Content – Is User Experience Now King?

“A great user experience enables us to get more done. In contrast, a bad experience could stand in the way of finding valuable information on a page.” These wise words from Google signal a forthcoming algorithm shift, with user experience at the helm. This poses the question, then: Is user experience more important than content? […]
Katie Lingo coaching
Blog
Industry
8th July 2020
Is Business Coaching Right for You?

Business coaching. Like it or loathe it, the industry is growing, and was valued at $15 billion globally in 2019. The definition of “business coach” is a bone of contention. Some prefer to focus solely on advancing the goals of their clients’ businesses, while others use “coach” as an umbrella term for life coaching, encompassing […]
Reuters coronavirus
Blog
Industry
28th June 2020
The Reuters Digital News Report 2020 - Can We Trust Anyone?

Another year, another belter of a Reuters Digital News Report. I’ll admit I had my reservations about this year’s study. Thankfully, the C-word was a minor “backdrop”, and we still have the same shrewd insights. Recap: what is the Reuters Digital News Report? Led by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, this yearly […]
Dad and kids
Blog
Updates
21st June 2020
Father's Day - a Few Words of Wisdom From My Father

Father’s Day. To the ire of traditionalists, this ‘Hallmark holiday’ has earned its place in the supermarket aisles – perhaps even overtaking Mothering Sunday. (No Easter egg distractions. Good move, dads.) Friends and extended family have trodden on eggshells around me for the last two Father’s Days. Having lost a parent in 2019, I find […]
Owen Turner UBD
Blog
Industry
17th June 2020
Is 'Freelancer' a Dirty Word?

Owen Turner – United by Design Today is National Freelancers’ Day – a celebration of the finest self-employed talents out there, whose contributions make up some 5 million of the UK’s workforce. As a proud freelancer, I like to think I espouse good values. Professionalism, reliability, courtesy. Ask any other and you’ll doubtless hear the […]
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