Uncanny Content turns TWO YEARS OLD this month! Happy birthday to us! The Uncanny Content team is celebrating with desserts, beers, and individual dance parties in the comfort of our homes.
Our fearless leader Latasha has been running the biz for over six years by now, but we officially rebranded to “Uncanny Content” at the end of 2019. (You can see one of our earliest Instagram posts as Uncanny Content here, in which we share one of our many opinions).
In case you missed it, we’ve been in a pensive mood lately. And now that we’re preparing to kick off 2022, we thought it an appropriate time to share some of the lessons we’ve learned about content and copy — as well as owning a business and working with clients — the last couple of years.
Content and copy
Brand voice is everything
How many times can we shout this from the rooftops? Many, many times, if you look at our blog.
With so many choices at their fingertips, people want to support businesses they connect with. Businesses that speak to them. If you don’t have a genuine, unique brand voice, you’ll have to work a lot harder to win your potential customers over.
You can try every magic formula or use every template ever written and people still won’t buy if your content and copy doesn’t sound like you.
Strategy works only it if you stick to it
Create all the awesome content you want, but if you don’t have an overall strategy that explains why you’re creating it, you’re setting yourself up for failure. An editorial calendar can help you create an easy content strategy. (We have a free training to show you how to do this!)
On that same note, once you figure out your content strategy, give it a chance to work. Stick to it for a while before you change things up.
People want to connect with people
Your goals for a piece of content may vary from “get more sales” to “spread brand awareness” to “grow the email list.” But ultimately, remember that the point of your content is to connect with your audience. That’s what people want when they follow an Instagram account or do a silly dance on TikTok: to connect with others.
How do you forge that connection? By having a clear, single message at its core. With the right message, you can easily turn one piece of content into five, saving you time and energy fleshing out the content that you need.
Accessibility is key
Read through our blog on accessibility for more in-depth tips, but basically:
- Make your content copy easy to read with thoughtful design, word choice, and font
- Use alt text for images
- Use descriptive links
- Check your captions for video content
- Share transcripts for audio, like podcast episodes
It’s almost 2022, people. If you’re not making your digital content as accessible as possible for everyone in your audience, you’re being a jerk. Not to mention turning away customers and risking lawsuits. It’s not hard nor time-consuming, so make accessibility a regular part of your content creation process.
Owning a business
Our biz was booming
Story time! Did you know that we had a full-fledged business about two years before we even realized it? Latasha had grown our client base and found that, once Jess came onboard, clients kept coming back. We didn’t even have to actively seek out new clients; in fact, our books were closed for most of the shitshow that was 2020.
It’s been fun to see how Uncanny Content has changed since rebranding in 2019 from Latasha Doyle Writes. (Cute name, right?) Since then, our lovely team has hit double digits in number. We can’t wait to see how it grows and evolves in the years to come.
Bring on help when you need it
Running your own business is a lot of work. Duh. Keep an eye out for signs that you need to bring on help — preferably before you’re drowning and/or on the verge of burnout. If you’re turning down clients, your current team members are overwhelmed, or the quality of your work is slipping, then it’s time to start hiring.
Pro tip from Latasha: Bring someone on to manage tasks and clients even earlier if you’re a service-based biz. Kylie has completely changed the game by moving tasks and edits out of Latasha’s inbox and getting them to our writers.
Bye bye, bro marketers
The bro marketer business era is dying and we are here to enjoy those last gasping breaths.
When Latasha started freelancing, she constantly fought people who insisted on using gross sales copy and strategies that shamed people into buying. Ick. That, plus stupid bro marketer language, is finally coming to an end. We’re happy we never supported that shit to begin with.
It’s not “just business”
Your audience, your employees, and even your competition all struggle with something. That struggle may be a family emergency, balancing kids with work, a disability — the list goes on. Here’s your gentle reminder to get to know the people you work with and support them. Be a human first, k?
Working with clients
VIP days are not for everyone
As a service-based business, we’re realizing that there aren’t many other service providers out there who show up frequently and continually do the work. (Sorry, but we gotta say it). Tons of contractors have switched to VIP days and it’s actually affecting clients’ output and income.
When clients have to delay launches and promotions because a contractor isn’t available for a month, or because we can’t get an edit on a graphic for two weeks, it is incredibly difficult. Now, that’s not to say VIP days don’t work in some instances — we’ve seen them work. But we can’t be the only copy/content team out there who works more than 1 day a week, right? RIGHT?
Again, stick to the plan, please
We don’t have this issue as much anymore, because Latasha finally grew a pair and fired some people, but clients, we have a bone to pick with you. Please, for the love of God, stop acting like your fresh new idea is more important than the projects you’ve already got brewing.
Your team works so hard — it sucks to not see anything get out into the world because projects are constantly being shuffled. We’ll say it louder for the people in the back: Stick to the plan and have some patience. Give your current project a chance and leave your plan alone.
Figure out your role
Are you a CEO or are you an implementer? Are you both? Trick question! You can’t be both. Try to be both and you’ll probably get in your own way of your business.
It’s cool if you want to do behind-the-scenes work for your business. (Hey, we certainly do!) It’s also cool if you want to be the CEO and hire someone else to manage your day-to-day. But again, you cannot do both. Pick one.
Thank you for being a friend
One of the best things about working with clients is finding people who are caring and supportive. People who have wicked senses of humor. People who trust the process. People who also trust your advice about brand voice or launch copy or content strategy. People who just “get” you. That’s you, folks.
Thank you for supporting Uncanny Content the last two years, and if you’re an OG from the days of Latasha Doyle Writes, the last six years. Here’s to many more.
