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And let’s face it, I didn’t expect to be in a position to be advising anyone on which products to stock.

But over the course of two years, I had the unique opportunity to be a part of the Organic Beauty Now brand from idea to full-fledged online retailer of organic beauty products.

That meant delving into a new industry and applying strategic skills as well as copywriting chops to a bi-weekly blog on organic beauty products. It also meant wearing lots of hats, not the least of which was assisting in product evaluation.

As a marketer, I’m trained to look for the differentiator in any situation. It’s in my blood.

So when I saw my own daughter, whose love of the pretty little bangles and baubles of Claire’s, home to beauty accessories galore for tweens, had turned to their new makeup kits, I got curious on several fronts.

First, I looked at the ingredients, as anyone who knows organics would do. Sure enough, I spotted several on the no-no list.

Immediately after, I wondered, do moms know there are cancer-causing ingredients in this stuff? (I bet they didn’t.) And if, like me, they were horrified at the prospect, would they be able to find an organic play makeup alternative? Did one even exist?

So with a few hunches in hand, I did what any good consumer and marketer does. Market research.

I started with our competitors. Nope, no one carried anything for kids other than shampoos, soaps and toothpastes.

Then I looked for organic play makeup altogether. Turns out, almost no one made organic play makeup for kids. Almost. There was one little-known wholesaler who made a cute little 5-piece kit.

Bingo.

With a swift decision to stock it right before the holidays, plus a strong outreach campaign to mom-centric blogs and move to put some of our PPC dollars into focusing on the kit, we sold out. Three times over.

The organic play makeup kit was our hottest-selling item of the 2010 holiday season and remains one of the company’s biggest-selling items to date.

So, if you hire me, will I pick your next big seller? Maybe. (I’d love to try!) More to the point, I’m always thinking about your business, not just when my hands are on the keyboard. So contact me if you want a copywriter who’ll do more for you than just put words on the page.

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What I found for most clients is that, at a minimum, it’s best to set a quarter as a goal for your plan. Even better is to look at a whole year and create a roadmap of topics that are seasonal, newsworthy and topical.

While many of the tips I’m giving here relate to the blog calendar I created for Organic Beauty Now, online retailer of organic beauty products, you can use them no matter which industry you’re in.

Here’s what I recommend:

1. Tackle seasonal topics. In the beauty industry, there are obvious seasonality topics, such as solutions to the dry skin of winter, sunscreen for spring and summer (although sunscreen is actually a year-round topic), fashion trends for each season as well as the trends for the coming year, holidays, weddings, etc. But you can find seasonal topics for any industry.

For example, on the other end of the spectrum, B2B technology has new product releases and upgrades, yearly tradeshows and industry events, and budgetary cycles. You can also follow the seasonality of industries that use B2B technology products and services, such as education, travel, and retail, which is pretty much every industry.

2. Cover industry-specific topics. In the organics industries, there’s still much education to be done for consumers seeking to avoid harmful chemicals and new information is coming out all the time. The key, for any industry, is to be tied into several good sources of news and information so that you can educate yourself and share them. I find it to be helpful to use a reader service such as Google reader to keep abreast of news throughout any sector.

3. Look abroad. By seeking sources of news outside the US, you get an interesting angle on any sector or topics you follow. In the organic beauty industry, for example, there’s a widely divergent set of standards in Europe and Australia than here at home. Often, I’d find news that impacted the kinds of products being imported into the US (as many organic beauty products come out of other regions) as well as regulation of the term “organics,” types of ingredients used, sustainability, etc. It pays to look beyond US borders.

4. Follow the personalities. In the world of beauty, there are flocks of celebrities hawking products and brands and the organic sector is no exception. By following the personalities in any industry, you can keep on top of the trends and topics many people will be interested in.

5. Be ready for late-breaking news. There are news flashes in every industry. In organic beauty, for example, when a new report came out that a sunscreen ingredient actually caused skin cancer, it was all over the news—and in our blog.

All this said, being a professional copywriter has a lot of advantages in both planning and executing a blog because, of course, you already know how to craft a topic as well as how to write. It is a skill that, like all others, gets refined the more you do it.

So if you need ideas to plan your blog calendar, what to publish in your blog, or just want a copywriter to take over the task of writing so you can focus on your other responsibilities (which are legion, no doubt), email me. I’m always happy to help.

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It’s a perennial discussion because people continue to get it wrong: Marketing gurus and sales geniuses (and even some DM copywriters) continue to promote features and ignore benefits as if hubcaps or a QWERTY keyboard would convince someone to buy.

So let’s end this now, shall we? It’s easy. Here’s how.

The simple addition of two little words can force you into thinking about benefits. Just by adding the words “which means” after every feature, you’ll push yourself out of “what” and into “why”.

“This car comes with hubcaps, which means your car will look better.”

“This computer comes with a QWERTY keyboard, which means you don’t need to learn a new keyboard configuration.”

Simple! By adding “which means” to your features, you force yourself to consider why it really matters to your customers and you’ll be able to communicate it more effectively. This works if you’re writing marketing copy or if you’re in a face-to-face selling situation.

But it doesn’t stop there. Adding “which means” just once might not be enough. In fact, as you prepare your marketing or sales presentation, add “which means” until you run out of things to say. Then you’ll have discovered the real reasons that people buy your product or service:

“This orange juice is loaded with vitamin C, which means you’ll get your daily requirement of vitamin c in just one glass of orange juice, which means you’ll be healthier without having to eat a whole bunch of other things that contain vitamin C, which means you’ll feel great and look great but save time, which means you’ll enjoy a longer, healthier, and more fruitful life doing the things you like to do.” Ergo, Vitamin C helps you enjoy a long and healthier life.

See how easy it is? Adding “which means” to your features will create powerful benefits statements, which means you’ll close more deals, which means you’ll earn more money, which means you’ll have money to spend on the things you like and you can retire sooner, which means you can move to Bermuda sooner than you thought possible. Ergo, adding “which means” can help you retire to Bermuda faster.

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