If a storyteller and a grammar nerd had babies, they would birth us.
What we offer: Process
We are writers.
We create compelling, on-brand marketing content for businesses.
If we want to get pretentious about it, we’re content marketers.
Some people call us copywriters, marketing writers, content strategists, or ghostwriters, but bottom line - here’s what we do:
-
Consult, listen and learn: Determine and document what the client offers, their target audience, pain points, perspective, unique selling proposal, competitors, differentiators and most critical… their voice and vibe.
-
Gather information: Interview primary sources including tech/R&D developers/CEOs/founders/visionaries/product managers to extract nuggets of information; review all existing client collateral, audit it, and perform external research to form a complete understanding of their market.
-
Create deliverables: According to the client’s digital marketing strategy or communications calendar, create pieces that turn their source material into powerful, relatable, consumable content geared toward both informing and inspiring their target audience to act.
What deliverables?
If it can be written, we can write it.
Sometimes, even things that you think can’t be written… we can write.
Like that time we explained the concept of the metaverse and the spectrum of augmented reality within it, as well as the roles IoT and big data play to create an uber-network, and what can be done with those insights… in one page.
Or when we explained waveguides, and the difference between utilizing diffractive vs. reflective light coupled with facet manipulation to achieve the optimal field of view. It took a few physics lessons, but we did it.
Or when we were tasked with creating a comprehensive guide to developing operational technology security methodologies for distributed energy resource power grids. Yes, that is a real thing.
Here are the kinds of deliverables we create:
Internal blogs
Our bread and butter, internal blogs (blogs published on your website) are not just for SEO. We believe they should offer valuable information, advice, inspiration and amusement… all in one, all the time.
Website content
Your website is often the first impression of your brand. It’s therefore critical that your content represents your value proposition in an inviting, clear, consumable manner, targeted specifically to your audience.
One-pagers
Whether it’s pre-sales collateral (top of the funnel), a download (middle of the funnel) or post-sales feature follow-up (bottom of the funnel), one-pagers play an important role in the marketing process.
Brand ambassador stories
The veritable case study 2.0, a brand ambassador story is more genuine, more personal, more vulnerable and less advertorial/metrics-based than a case study. Think of it as a personal testimonial on steroids, with a little Brene Brown as a chaser.
Thought leadership
This is not your mama’s guest blog. It’s our favorite kind of content, but also the hardest, requiring not only an investment in knowledge, voice and strategic angle but also a raw story, idea, discovery or data that actually qualifies as newsworthy. This is journalism/post-pandemic PR. Thought leadership articles are written for non-sponsored placement in the media. Keep in mind: we write, but we have no little black book of journalist connections - the client must market and place thought leadership articles in media outlets independently.
Guest blogs
Guest blogs are often either sponsored advertorials or vendor swaps. Although in years past, it was easy to offer another business (inside or adjacent to your market) free content with “no strings attached”, today the content marketing world is often either a pay-to-play or blog-swapping model.
Lead magnets
Often promoted on LinkedIn or offered as a gated download, lead magnets can be eBooks, informative checklists, listicles or any other catchy, sometimes click-baity, non-standard-blog-format content.
eBooks
Usually situated as top of the funnel content (ToFu), but sometimes used as middle-of-the-funnel content (MoFu), eBooks can range from 1,800-10,000 words, but usually land in the 3,000 - 5,000 word category (equivalent to 4-6 blogs worth of information).
Brochures
Like one-pagers, brochures dictate expensive content real estate; every word counts and messaging matters. Often catered to a specified vertical, product, service or event, the content should include a specific Call To Action, even if the intention is to print. The target audience should know what to expect and should be directed toward the next stage in the sales funnel.
Newsletters
The mainstay of our nonprofit clients’ donor communication, newsletters are often teasers to previously published blogs, studies, and stories. In addition, they highlight discoveries or announcements and act as a fundraising and donor relations tool.
Whitepapers
Ranging in length from 1,200 - 3,000 words, whitepapers either showcase technology (“this is the ‘behind the curtain’ of how we do what we do”) or present a logical argument from start to finish. Both types lead the reader through a format which combines text and often data-based images or infographics, providing information or a conclusive argument.
Email drip campaigns
Now called “nurturing” campaigns (but once called drip campaigns) these are often planned based on strategic segmentation or automatically triggered by customer behavior. Drip campaign series range from 3-7 emails, most of which are 300 words or less.
Boilerplates
A 100-word-or-less description of your company, its value proposition and all differentiators sounds like a quick project, but it becomes the building block of everything you publish, so boilerplates take research, interviews and several rounds of edits.
Case studies
A well-structured, metric-heavy, intro/problem/solution/results-based case study can do more for your brand than anything else, when it comes with a real name, quote and story. The best case studies are written from a combination of metrics, a brief from the client pinpointing what to highlight, and a direct interview with the showcase client.
Need something you don’t see here? Check our FAQ or reach out.
I want a website, and I want it blue.
How much does that cost?
The short answer to “how much does content cost” is obviously “it depends”.
Some of our clients prefer to contract us for specific projects like an overhaul of website content, a newsworthy, timely thought leadership piece, or adding new pages to existing websites. One-off projects are priced per deliverable, and pricing depends on the following:
-
How comprehensive is the brief?
-
Does the information gathering stage include arranging, conducting and documenting interviews?
-
Is there an established branding, messaging, or voice and tone guide?
-
Are sources primary or secondary?
-
Is the client providing content resources, or do we need to research independently?
-
Do we know the subject, or is this a new topic and therefore requires a learning curve?
-
What's the word count on the piece of content?
-
How technical is the subject and how technically adept is the audience?
We can also work hourly, which is often what we do for proofreading or copyediting. Some clients, however, prefer to work on retainer since they can predict (and we can produce) a set of recurring deliverables.
We don’t require commitments or banks of hours. The more planning we can do, the better we can manage your expectations and exceed deadlines, but we mostly work on the Israeli premise of zorem (flow).
All clients are invoiced monthly, and payments are due within 30 days of first draft submittal.
Is HFC a digital marketing agency?
Nope.
Digital marketing is a broad field.
While we have amassed a vast collection of knowledge about the many streams, shades and methodologies of digital marketing over the years, we don’t actively perform any digital marketing activities outside of long-form content (over 300 words).
We are content specialists.
We work in partnership with the client’s SEO experts, strategy teams, and UX designers; we take direction from them, brainstorm with them, and collaborate with them. But we don’t lead, dictate to, or manage these teams.
We are the storytellers.