Content Marketing & Copywriting Made Easy

A one-woman marketing and copywriting solution serving small businesses, thought leaders and professional organizations in North Carolina and beyond.

They say hard work beats talent

when talent doesn’t work hard.

With me, you get both.

Sharp Pencils & Sharper Wit

I show up ready to work, but I’m not afraid to have fun while doing it.

Goal-Oriented & Flexible

My job is to get you results. But sometimes we’ll use a little out-of-the-box thinking.

Champion & Cheerleader

You’re an expert at what you do. I make sure your audience knows it.

SERVICES

Award-Winning Writer. Brand Cheerleader. Marketing Maven.

You're the expert (& I make sure everybody knows it).

Catch Up on the Latest Marketing Lesson

Ready to take things to the next level?

True story: I told myself I could (and should!) fi

I'm always skeptical of hard & fast rules in marke

I'm always skeptical of hard & fast rules in marketing, especially when people try to tell you how to do something without little to no knowledge of your business or audience.

That's why I always take rules like how many characters to have in a subject line with a grain of salt. They're great guidelines, but they aren't absolute.

Why? Because people will surprise you.

Last Tuesday, I did a ~very~ scientific poll in my stories about email preferences. This is what I found out:
📧 People prefer witty subject lines over direct ones
📧 Text-based emails win out over flashy images
📧 P.S. messages grab more attention than multiple [FName]s
📧 Personality is king (or queen 👸🏻 in my case, but we already knew that)

I can't write a research paper off this data, but it will help me when I put together my next email campaign. And that's really what marketing is all about.

#emailmarketingtips #oliveandwit #copywriterlife #businesstips #emailmarketing #marketing101 #email101 #emailmarketing101 #ncsmallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #tiptuesday #tuesdaytips #tuesdaytip #marketing #contentmarketing #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneur

Want to look this happy when you're posting on soc

Word of the Week // Mondegreen Sylvia Wright coin

Word of the Week // Mondegreen

Sylvia Wright coined this term back in 1954 after someone mistook the line "and laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen" in the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl o'Moray."

But misinterpreting lyrics happens all of the time in the English language because it's chock-full of homophones. Let's run through a few more:

✏️ "I led the pigeons to the flag" for "I pledge allegiance to the flag"
✏️ "Sweet dreams are made of cheese" for "Sweet dreams are made of these"
✏️ "cross-eyed bear" for "cross I bear"

And to make things personal, I once thought Johnnie Taylor was singing "Mr. Bennett" instead of "Disco Lady" in his 1975 hit of the same name.

Now, that you've indulged me in this Word of the Week moment, I'd love to hear your favorite or funniest misinterpretation.

#whyiwrite #oliveandwit #smallbusinessmarketing #wordoftheweek #smallandmightybusiness #marketingmindset #wordsmatter #copywriting101 #copywriterlife #copywriter #imacopywriter #marketingtips #writingtips #marketing101 #writersofinstagram

Friday Favorites // My 10 Favorite Business Books

Friday Favorites // My 10 Favorite Business Books (that aren't actually related to business)

✨ Brave Enough // Cheryl Strayed
The perfect book for inspiration in bite-sized quotes (and gifted by a dear friend)

✨ This is Marketing // Seth Godin
Found on every digital marketer's shelf for a reason

✨ Complete Writing Guide // Collins
A love letter to legend Graham King and writers everywhere

✨ Oxford Guide to Plain English // Martin Cutts
A handy how-to guide for clear writing

✨ Tiny Beautiful Things // Cheryl Strayed
Before Wild, she was Dear Sugar (and wise beyond her years)

✨ You Learn by Living // Eleanor Roosevelt
Musings on how to cope with personal and professional responsibility

✨ Bird by Bird // Anne Lamott
"Some instructions on writing and life" (gifted by a writing mentor and former boss)

✨ The Lazy Genius Way // Kendra Adachi
The book that opened the doors to my business (and not just because my name is one of the firsts in the acknowledgments)

✨ Everybody Writes // Ann Handley
A helpful guide to writing like a real human person

✨ Joyful // Ingrid Fetell Lee
A study on how ordinary things can lead to the extraordinary (plus a confetti cover, duh)

#oliveandwit #whyiwrite #copywriterlife #businesstips #businessadvice #howtowinfriendsandinfluencepeople #writingtips #marketingtips #bookrecommendations #businessbooks #booksonwriting #smallbusinessadvice #ncsmallbusiness #smallandmightybusiness #fridayfavorites

One of the best self-editing techniques I've start

One of the best self-editing techniques I've started using in the past few months is asking myself:

Am I making sure the reader understands or am I just trying to look smart?

It sounds simple, but it'll spot that pesky know-it-all tendency in an instant.

There's nothing wrong with showing off what we know. Credibility, social proof, and being a trusted resource are crucial in our conversations, whether we're marketing a product or ourselves.

But, at the end of the day, the other person cares more about what they're getting out of it than about how smart we are.

If your emails/texts/posts aren't getting much traction, try asking yourself if what you're sharing is clear for the reader or if you're clearly just showing off.

#oliveandwit #marketingmindset #copywriting101 #digitalmarketing #quotestagram #quotesofinstagram #bookstagram #businessadvice #businesstips #takingcareofbusiness #smallandmightybusiness #ncsmallbusiness #womanowned #writerlife #wednesdaywisdom #knowitall #onlinemarketing #writebetter

Writing things down so you don't have to since 201

Writing things down so you don't have to since 2011. 🤓

In a Leuchtturm dotted, hardcover A5 notebook with a black Tūl needlepoint pen because I know you wanted to ask. 😉

#emailmarketingtips #oliveandwit #copywriterlife #businesstips #emailmarketing #marketing101 #email101 #notebooks #notebooksofinstagram #emailmarketing101 #ncsmallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #marketing #contentmarketing #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneur #behindthescenes #whatsonmydesk #takingnotes #takingcareofbusiness

We've talked about trying too hard, but what does

We've talked about trying too hard, but what does that actually mean?

One try-too-hard mistake I see all over copywriting and content marketing is using a lot of big words to sound smart.

It's easy to fall into the trap of trying to prove you know your stuff by using jargon and words like superfluous, utilize, emergence and more.

Resist the urge to impress your audience with fancy words. Copywriting is rarely about you. It's about the user experience (& we always want them to understand what's going on).

#marketingmindset #oliveandwit #marketingmatters #marketing101 #smallandmightybusiness #ncsmallbusiness #copywriterlife #copywriter #copywriter101 #smallbusinessmarketing #smallbusinessowner #marketingmondays #businessminded #takingcareofbusiness #businesstips #businesstalk #business101

The face Griffin makes when I spend too much time

The face Griffin makes when I spend too much time writing...

There's a new blog post on oliveandwit.com and it's all about the do's and don'ts of serving your audience when they're freaking out.

Tap the link in bio or go straight to oliveandwit.com and click on Lessons.

#whyiwrite #oliveandwit #smallbusinessmarketing #fridayfacts #smallandmightybusiness #marketingmindset #wordsmatter #copywriting101 #copywriterlife #copywriter #imacopywriter #marketingtips #writingtips #marketing101 #writersofinstagram #fridayfavorites #marketingtools #tooltime

Need a gut check? I'm in the middle of @jonacuff's

Need a gut check? I'm in the middle of @jonacuff's latest book Soundtracks, and he says one way he finished writing it was by telling himself, "Writers write."

Simple, but significant.

There are many days I get to my desk and it feels like I have to climb Mt. Everest to figure out what I'm going to say. But writers write. It's the only way to get my job done. Maybe there’s a simple phrase to get you through the hard days, too.

#oliveandwit #businessbooks #soundtracks #marketingmindset #copywriting101 #digitalmarketing #quotestagram #quotesofinstagram #bookstagram #nonfiction #readingmakesyoubetter #businessadvice #businesstips #takingcareofbusiness #smallandmightybusiness #ncsmallbusiness #womanowned #writerlife