Want more clients tomorrow?

You run your business full time, but maybe you don’t have the talent, time or staff to communicate with potential clients. We can help you grow. Whether it is a Request For Proposal (RFP), a business plan or a presentation for venture capitalists, we’ll write the words that close the deal.

Because of our experience in the financial services world, we get a lot of requests for Investor Relations copy. When you have a company that’s funded by a pool of investors (whether privately or publically financed) you know the pain of trying to get your message through the super-saturated media noise. In this increasingly sophistcated world, you know that PR puffery won’t work with the day-trading soccer mom or the sell-side analyst.

With our decades of journalism experience, we give your copy credibility and authority. Your clients don’t see the sales pitch. It’s marketing that feels like news to them.

Your business is more than the sum of its financial numbers. Let us tell your human story to Fleet Street, Wall Street and Main Street.

What We Do

We provide branding/copywriting services for clients of all sizes from private small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. For reasons of confidentiality, in this arena all of our previous work remains the proprietary property of our clients. We will handle your business communications with the same level of discretion. Here are some of the services we have done for other clients.

• Advertising and collateral copywriting
• Advertorials
• Annual reports & shareholder letters
• Articles, booklets, reports
• Bios/Profiles
• Books
• Brochures and fulfillment pieces
• Business letters
• Business plans
• Buy-side/Sell-side marketing
• Case studies
• Conference call scripts, Q&A preparations
• Dealer manuals
• Direct response sales letters
• Direct mail newsletters, email newsletters or ezines
• Fact sheets and IR collateral materials
• Ghostwriting
• Investor presentations
• Key messages and positioning statements (talking points)
• Management’s discussion & analysis sections of 10-Ks and 10-Qs
• Manuals
• Media backgrounders and press kits
• Message board perception audits
• News releases and media materials
• Newsletters
• Position papers
• Presentations
• Press releases
• Print ads
• Radio ad copy
• Retail marketing
• Sales letters
• Speeches
• Trade journal articles
• Trade show materials & presentations
• Training workbooks, teleclasses
• Website content (including search engine optimization)
• White papers

Ghostwriting

As ghost writers, we don’t care if our name is on the book or byline as long as it is on the check. You’ll get all the credit, we’ll get the cash.

Because our work is subject to strict non-disclosure agreements, we can’t mix names and stories. However, we can tell you that some pretty popular thought leadership content by some well known business figures originated with us.

We have produced books, articles and regular columns for well known executives, doing everything from shaping existing material to interviewing principals and writing whole manuscripts.

Initially, we work with you (and your publisher) to create a detailed outline that includes much more structure than a mere table of contents. If your piece is designed to aid people (rather than convey a life story), we will help you develop or refine a signature concept centered on a set number of principles or a mnemonic.

We then interview the subject(s), and the interviews are transcribed overnight. Additional web research is done by our online research team. Most of our initial background material is collected in a matter of days. Primary research from original documents can take longer depending on the project. Some projects have completed first drafts in as little as a month. Two revisions later, you have a book ready for publication.

Our prices are competitive. Working from the detailed outline, we line-item the whole process so there are no surprises. Generally we charge a flat fee that represents the estimated time for the project at our hourly rate. What we charge depends on what material you bring to the table.

Books, columns and articles provide incalculable value by cementing your position as a leader in your field. If you don’t have a publisher lined up, we can help you self-publish the book so you can sell it at events or in stores. You can offer it as a premium to your clients, or you can use it as an eBook to entice potential customers to register as part of a qualified sales lead generation program.

Your book is a stepping stone that will take you to the next level. Let’s get started.

You choose the market, we provide the content. We’re an editorial team that has re-engineered the custom content business so there’s no lost time. Ever.

Custom Publishing Experts

When publishers need their content fast and laser targeted, they call Write the First TIme. We’ve worked with publishers as small as one-person trade, association or custom publishing shops; with medium size custom groups like Sunshine Media and Naylor and giants like Time/Warner, McGraw-Hill and Sony.

TOPICS SCIENTIFICALLY-PROVEN TO PROVOKE READER INTEREST
Everyone knows the old PR technique of tying your product to the news. We take this one step further. We look for the most searched terms in the topic area and build articles (and web sites) around those keywords. This is not only a way to craft an article that is scientifically proven to interest readers, but will also score high on the top ten search engines.

When we ghostwrite for executives, we also use this technique to widen the appeal of what would otherwise be a boring example of preaching to the choir.

This approach creates benefits for your ad sales team by having content that will rank high not just with readers but also with advertisers.

How can we do it so fast, and so much better than anyone else?

RESEARCH AROUND THE CLOCK
We work 24/7. We have a team of researchers on the other side of the globe who:

• Create trend data on the top keywords on the topic.
• Compile existing articles on the topic.
• Find experts on the topic, complete with contact information for quick interviewing.
• Perform message board audits of companies/topic areas to glean key issues.
• Transcribe our interviews overnight while America sleeps.

When the background work is done, we do all the interviewing and writing.

WRITING
Choose one of our custom publishing topics (or create your own) and we’ll craft targeted, market-specific articles just for you.   All you have to do is click a few boxes, and we’ll do the rest.

We can write in whatever voice you choose, with an angle designed to hook your readers.

We’ve got hundreds of article templates that will work with each of the main topic areas. These templates make writing a flash but each article is 100% original. The details and the voices of the individuals interviewed make each article feel fresh.

FAST FACT CHECKING
When we submit an article for publication, we send a list of interviewees including their phone, email and snail mail (to send them an issue when published). We will also include (for the editors who request it), all of our research including web site grabs and interview transcripts with the facts mentioned in the story highlighted for easy checking. (To save editors endless searching through the notes, we use anchor tags/bookmarks in Microsoft Word to point to the source of each fact in the background document.)

FAST FACT CHECKING BENEFITS

• Our high level of accountability gives editors confidence.
• By automatically providing the hyperlinked background research, an editor can quickly find information.
• We’ve found that this process helps sharpen the focus of the stories from just a boring data dump into something a lot more reader-friendly. After all, good writing doesn’t just give facts, it explains what they mean. Good analysis brings the story home.

PRICING
Our prices are very competitive. In fact, not only can we save you money, we can make you money in ways you never thought possible.

Instead of getting one-time revenue from ad sales, we can create a program so that your magazine group gets ongoing income from your custom publishing imprints. How?

Custom publishing imprints have a shelf life of 18 months or longer. We can link ads to a portal page on your magazine’s web site that not only creates trackable return on investment for the advertisers, but also ongoing revenue for you. How is it ongoing?

We’ll create a site that will not only bring in new readers to your magazine, but a new source of qualified advertising leads that are already proven to advertise in content like yours. Instead of paying top dollar for such a lead list, you get paid to collect it. The advertising leads are already getting value from your content. All you have to do is give this list to your sales crew to land these new accounts.

SALES & DESIGN SUPPORT 
Additionally, for clients who want a full service approach, we have freelance custom publishing advertising experts ready to sell advertisements for your publication. Need graphics or a new web site? We have teams standing by.

Choose only what you need.

CONTENT ONLY: You tell us the topic, how many articles you want, the tone and the deadline. A week or so later, you’ll receive your copy-edited, fact-check-annotated product ready to drop into your graphics department.

CONTENT AND WEB SITE: All of the above plus the ability to create an online version of custom publication that can be a year-round source of exposure for your clients and ad revenue for you.

CONTENT PLUS AD SALES, GRAPHICS AND WEB SITE: If you want the whole enchilada, give us a call and we’ll set up a program that gives you exactly what you need to succeed.