{"id":19126,"date":"2022-11-27T09:39:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T09:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/11\/27\/book-review-ann-handleys-not-to-be-missed-guide-to-better-marketing-writing\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T09:39:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T09:39:33","slug":"book-review-ann-handleys-not-to-be-missed-guide-to-better-marketing-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/11\/27\/book-review-ann-handleys-not-to-be-missed-guide-to-better-marketing-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"[Book Review] Ann Handley’s Not-To-Be-Missed Guide to Better Marketing Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Source:\u00a0 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.<\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Ann Handley’s new book, Everybody Writes:\u00a0 Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content<\/a><\/i> (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2022), was released last month, just in time for astute marketers to add it to their wish list for the upcoming holidays.<\/p>\n

Even better, you should just go ahead and buy Everybody Writes<\/i> for yourself and use the holiday season to read and digest the many valuable insights the book contains. That way, you can start applying Ann’s principles to improve your writing at the beginning of the new year.<\/p>\n

Ann Handley is well known and highly respected in the marketing community. She is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs<\/a>, a marketing training and education company, and a frequent speaker at marketing industry events. In short, Ann knows whereof she speaks (and writes).<\/p>\n

Everybody Writes<\/i> is a second edition; the first edition was published in 2014. But the new Everybody Writes<\/i> is, well, new in many ways. Ann Handley says she went into preparing the updated edition thinking that it would take “maybe 10 minutes,” that she would, “Run the vacuum and puff the throw pillows and spritz some Febreze around the pages . . .”<\/p>\n

Instead, the update took six months, and Ann says she “also built an addition on the back. Replaced the draftiest windows. Installed a bouncy house in the yard . . .”<\/p>\n

Early in the book, Ann makes two points that provide the rationale for Everybody Writes<\/i>. First, she argues that effective marketing requires good marketing content, and good marketing content requires good writing – regardless of the format the marketing content takes.<\/p>\n

The proliferation of marketing channels and content formats, and the nearly ubiquitous embrace of content marketing have put extreme pressures on marketers to feed the content beast. Unfortunately, this incessant demand for content often results in the production of content that isn’t very good.<\/p>\n

Ann describes this problem in unambiguous terms:\u00a0 “We are a planet of publishers, yet many of us are polluting the pool with content rubbish. We are all creators, yet many of us are squandering the opportunity we have to communicate directly with those we care most about reaching.”<\/p>\n

Ann’s second point is that writing is a craft that can be learned. Therefore, any marketer can improve his or her writing skills by “working the right muscles.” She writes, “You can learn to be a better writer – the same way you can learn algebra or Excel formulas or playing the ukulele. You need only a little knowledge, a lot of consistent effort, and good habits.”<\/p>\n

What’s In the Book<\/b><\/p>\n

Everybody Writes<\/i> contains an introduction, 91 chapters and a section devoted to content tools. You read that right . . . 91 chapters. Ann chose to share her advice with readers in bite-sized portions. The shortest chapters don’t fill even one full page, and most are only two to four pages long.<\/p>\n

This approach makes Everybody Writes<\/i> extremely reader-friendly. You can read the book in small increments without losing your way.<\/p>\n

Ann organized the 91 tapas-sized chapters in six thematic parts.<\/p>\n