The Paper Architect

23/08/2023

I had the honour of attending two panel sessions at the BRICS Business Council Energy Cooperation Forum hosted by Naspers Limited, last Saturday💡⚡

Topics discussed included:

👉 Furthering the Green Economy in Industrial Value Chains
👉 Growing Small Businesses from Just Energy Transition Initiatives

Feeling inspired as I work through the summaries of the discussions! 💪

18/08/2023

It's not all that often I get to venture out of my home office in-person, but....

Every now and then I get to do something unspeakably cool like jet off to Joburg to attend the BRICS Business Council Energy Cooperation Forum hosted by Naspers 💡⚡

I am the official rapporteur (bonus points if you don't need to Google that 😉) for two talks about:

👉 Furthering the Green Economy in Industrial Value Chains

👉 Growing Small Businesses from Just Energy Transition Initiatives

Such important discussions to be had and I'm super excited to be part of it!

Looking forward to collaborating on this with Jonathon Hanks from Incite.

Read more about the Energy Forum here: https://www.esi-africa.com/regional-news/brics/brics-key-policy-funding-issues-to-be-discussed-at-energy-forum/

BRICS Energy Cooperation Forum to focus on youth, women, persons with disability “as part of the broad stakeholder base that will be engaged.”

16/08/2023

Do you ever come across online writing that seems so packed-to-the-gills with 'personality' that it kinda makes you cringe?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗮𝘇.

I love pizza with extra cheese, but I definitely don't like my copy the same (unless of course that's the goal).🧀

When it comes to B2B copywriting though, you have to be sparing with the jokes, puns, and cliches. It's a fine and delicate line you need to tip-toe along.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹!

If you add just the right amount of personality to your writing you get pizazz, which means:

🤖 You show people you're a human not a robot
🎤You showcase your brand's voice
🦻 You relate to what your audience needs
✨ You add some sparkle
🧠 You are remembered

In essence, copy with pizzaz is not only informative but also memorable. It speaks the language your audience wants to hear, without being cheesy. It's also important to remember that less is more when it comes to incorporating humour and puns into your writing.


__________________________________________________

I'm Mary Anne, also known as The Paper Architect.

I'm a magical unicorn architect turned copywriter for businesses with purpose and passion. 🚀

Let's connect!

09/08/2023

It's Women's Day here in South Africa, so I'm posting a shout out to all the strong, courageous, bad-ass women in business. You are doing so well whether you think so or not (just in case you needed to hear that).

Platitudes aside, Women's Day is a very important day for us. It marks the anniversary of a great women's march in 1956. These brave women marched to the Union Buildings to protest against the Apartheid government. Their legacy lives on as it's now become a day where we celebrate all the courageous women in our lives who are doing amazing things! 🎉

04/08/2023

Had such a fun branding photoshoot for my business yesterday with photographer extraordinare, Kat Grudko Photography! It was a perfect sunny day in Cape Town. 🌞 Only one small blip unusually heavy traffic on the route home so we stopped at the Wi******er Hotel for a glass of wine to wait it out! 🍷

Thanks to my wonderful friend Rachel Biskupsky (in the middle) for being a fantastic photographer's assistant!

02/08/2023

Creating a cohesive brand identity for your business is crucial. You need to develop both a visual identity and a brand voice (that's the bit I help businesses with :) ).

This week I'm focusing on the visual part of my brand, The Paper Architect! 📷

It's my birthday this month so I'm giving myself and my business a gift - a branded photo shoot! Tomorrow, I'll be out on the streets in this location with my talented photographer Kat Grudko Photography 🎉

Can't wait. Can you guess where this location is? Let me know in the comments.

Photo by Claudio Fonte on Unsplash

18/07/2023

So, funny story about that one time I plagiarised myself! 😂

I always put my writing through a plagiarism checker (I use Copyscape - it's one of the best). Not because I don't write original work but because when you are doing lots of online research it's possible to sometimes not rewrite stuff properly in your own words - hey I'm not a robot, so I'm not perfect! 🤖 (Also, it usually comes out clean!)

Plagiarism is a real killer for SEO so it's always good to check to make sure your writing is top quality and original! 🙌

So, while writing for my one client, AlphaMap, I put the article through Copyscape and a whole sentence came up as plagiarised. 😮 Oh dear, I thought. I clicked through the link and low and behold, it was actually another article I had written for the same client that I was plagiarising. 😅 😂

Some of the topics I write about are quite similar so I had accidentally repeated something I'd said in another article. BUT the exciting part about this happening is that I found that specific article in the top 10 of Google search! I work with an amazing agency on this client, who has a team of people helping with the technical aspects of the SEO. I've learnt so much about SEO writing and am really proud that our content is beginning to rank.

If you're impressed by this, and you also want high quality, original content that ranks highly with the Google gods, get in touch! ✏

Link to my work for AlphaMap in the comments. Yes, all of these articles are written by The Paper Architect (that's me and my team) 😁

14/07/2023

I just discovered a cool new word today: 'Goblin mode'. 👾

It's apparently the 2022 Oxford word of the year decided by public vote - well ok then - and it means, “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, or slovenly, and typically rejects social norms or expectations”.

Examples of Goblin mode include:
- Mindlessly scrolling social media while also binging Netflix 🎥
- Pouring the end of the bag of chips into your mouth 😂

In the online world, goblin mode is an opposition to conventional internet aesthetics. Think maximalism in response to minimalism. The source I discovered it on was relating it to website UX trends, and that got me thinking...

Goblin websites put the brand first before the user, ignoring best practices and being shamelessly over the top. They might feature lots of gimmicks and 'loud' visuals.

The truth is that as much as it feels Boring (with a capital B) to follow best practice guidelines which facilitate your user's journey through your website, they are there for a reason. As much as we sometimes want to do something over the top, quirky and silly, the best way is always to be simple and straightforward. As Donald Miller puts it "Be clear not clever".

It's all about balance though! A brand without any personality would be even more Boring.

If you need help finding the balance between being clear and straightforward but also having a bit of goblin, get in touch!

PS. Let me know what goblin mode means to you in the comments👾

11/07/2023

The number 1 tweak you can make when you DIY your own copy:

Lead with the transformation and NOT the struggle!

Understanding your audience’s struggles and talking about them will help you to connect with your customers on an emotional level. People buy from you when they connect with you emotionally. So, connecting on an emotional level is an important trigger if you want to eventually make a sale. It’s also important for the content that you put out as you build a relationship with your potential customer. You want to make them feel seen and heard. 👀

But don't overdo it!

The trouble is that connecting ONLY with the negative emotions of your audience – while it can be effective – is that it will most likely only trigger them into action because they feel shame, guilt, fear or desperation.

Wouldn’t you rather your audience feel positive, hopeful and empowered? Me too!! 🚀

Leading with the transformation taps into the positive energy of the action that the customer needs to take, rather than compelling them to move forward by making them feel bad about themselves.

Instead you inspire a vision of what their lives could be like after working with you. You ignite the possibilities! 🔥

And while you might be thinking that this seems pretty simple to do, you’ll soon discover that it’s a little more complex than you thought. If you're ready to up your copywriting game and create persuasive messaging that connects with your audience on a deeper level, I'm here to help. 😉

Signup to my email list for funny stories about life, business, marketing and copywriting tips. Details in the comments. 👇

07/07/2023

I was talking about how overloaded we all are with the information with some friends the other day. I feel like I'd love to feel a normal amount of 'whelmed' for just a moment in the day! And that got me thinking about all the noise we have to filter through online on a daily basis. 📢 This is why having a concise and clear brand message is so important. You have so much noise to cut through to reach your ideal customer.

I'll be talking about 1 of THE key mistakes people make when they try to write their own copy in my email next week. Signup details in the link below. :)

PS. And now there's a new Social Media feature to grapple with 😬 (I'm talking about Threads and no I ain't joining it. Are you?)