Nicole Bianchi

Writing, Copywriting, & Marketing Strategies

The Powerful Ingredient in ‘A Christmas Carol’ That Will Make Your Writing and Marketing Compelling

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Illustration from the first edition of A Christmas Carol | Scanned image by Philip V. Allingham via Victorianweb.org
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Every Christmas Eve, my whole family gathers around the TV to watch the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. It’s one of our favorite traditions.

(If you haven’t seen this version, you can watch it on YouTube here — I believe it’s the best film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic story.)

No matter how many times I watch it, my heart is always touched by each scene. I feel the happiness of the crowd at Fezziwig’s party. Tears come to my eyes when Bob Cratchit cries over his poor Tiny Tim.

But, most of all, I love Alastair Sim’s wonderful performance as Scrooge — how he convincingly portrays Scrooge’s change from heartless and tightfisted to kind and joyous.

You watch with delight as the once grim man can’t stop laughing and smiling and stunning all with his kindness, even while muttering to himself, “I don’t deserve to be so happy.”

What makes stories like A Christmas Carol so enthralling? Why do we love watching movies like these year after year?

In today’s post, let’s look at one ingredient that makes stories like A Christmas Carol so powerful and emotionally compelling. It’s an ingredient you can use to make any type of writing captivate your readers, whether you’re working on a short story, a blog post, or even a sales page. [Read more…]

3 Simple Descriptive Techniques That Will Help You Write Vividly

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3 Simple Descriptive Techniques That Will Help You Write Vividly
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It feels like you’ve been staring at the computer screen for hours as you struggle to rewrite several paragraphs. You’re trying to capture in words the images in your head, but the sentences on the page sound lifeless and dull.

Maybe you’re writing a blog post about a recent trip you took, and you want your readers to hear the cacophony of the city’s traffic and see the neon signs drenching the street with color.

Or maybe you’re writing a sales page, and you want your readers to be able to envision themselves using your product. You want them to feel as if they’re already holding the product in their hands and can see how it will make their lives so much easier.

The ability to describe something vividly is an essential skill for every writer to master, no matter whether you’re a blogger, novelist, or copywriter. Vivid descriptions transform your paragraphs from vague and boring to engrossing and memorable. [Read more…]

How to Use the Four Modes of Persuasion to Make Your Writing Irresistible

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How to Use the Four Modes of Persuasion to Make Your Writing Irresistible

This is the view from my new writing desk in my new home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

My family and I are loving Raleigh. The house we’re renting is surrounded by woods that are so beautiful and peaceful. I’m torn over whether to go out exploring or stay here in my new writing space typing away.

After several weeks of not having a permanent address, I’m happy to finally have a place to call home. And to once again have a desk to write at!

As I wrote in my last post, I had to get rid of many belongings and pieces of furniture during my move from New York. My desk was one of the things that I ended up giving away, and I never could have imagined how difficult it would be to replace it.

If you’ve ever hunted for furniture before, you know that there are hundreds of decisions to make.

What’s your budget? How big of a desk can fit in your space? What type of a desk? A traditional design of solid wood or a contemporary design of metal and glass? One with a computer drawer? Or maybe you’d like to try a standing desk?

I visited several furniture stores but didn’t see anything that I liked. So my hunt for a desk ended up involving many hours of searching online. I read countless product descriptions, which are really advertisements in disguise. Each one tried to convince me that this was the perfect desk for me.

Of course, my eyes started to glaze over as I read so many product descriptions, but some stood out from all of the others. Those were the ones that had my cursor hovering over the “add to cart” button.

What made those descriptions different from all of the rest?

In a nutshell, they expertly employed four powerful rhetorical strategies known as the modes of persuasion.

These four persuasive techniques are essential for making any argument compelling.

You can use them in a blog post, in a speech, in an essay, or even on your website’s homepage – anytime you’re trying to persuade your reader to take action, form a new opinion, or take a big step that will change their life.

Read on to discover the four modes of persuasion and how you can use them to make your writing more effective. [Read more…]

I’m Moving! (Here’s What It’s Teaching Me About Writing)

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Photo by Congerdesign

These past few months I haven’t had a chance to write on the blog because I’ve been preparing for a big adventure. I’m moving to North Carolina!

It still feels strange to write that though the moving date is now days away. I’ve lived in New York my whole life so it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I’ll soon be calling another state home.

But I’m excited for what the future holds, and I can’t wait to get past the craziness of moving.

This move so far has felt like a crash-course in becoming a minimalist. My parents are selling their house and moving to North Carolina too, and we simply can’t take everything with us.

So we’ve had garage sales, given away or donated furniture and books, and thrown out everything else that won’t fit in the moving truck. [Read more…]

A GDPR Compliance Checklist For Your Email Marketing

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A Super Simple GDPR Compliance Checklist For Your Email Marketing

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Over the past several weeks, the blogosphere has been buzzing with talk of a new EU privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that will go into effect on May 25.

When I first heard about the law, I thought, “Well, I’m not in the EU so I guess this doesn’t apply to me.”

Wrong. I soon found out that if I had any email subscribers who were EU citizens, the law applied to me as well. That means it probably applies to you too if you have EU subscribers on your email list.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of conflicting information out there about GDPR and what actions to take to make sure your email marketing is GDPR compliant. [Read more…]

Use this Strategy to Craft Captivating Blog Post Introductions

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Use this Strategy to Craft Captivating Introductions For Your Blog Posts
Photo by Christin Hume
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When I was a little kid, I fell in love with a book and read it so many times that I nearly memorized the first page. Here’s the book’s opening line:

Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

Do you know what book it’s from? It’s the first sentence of the children’s classic Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White.

Now go back and read that opening line again. It really grabs your attention, doesn’t it?

It certainly grabbed mine when I was a kid. Just like Fern, I wondered why in the world her dad was heading out with an ax. Was he going to chop down a tree or, heaven forbid, kill someone? [Read more…]

How to Write in a Conversational Style That Will Connect with Your Readers

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Photo by Pablo Heimplatz
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The other day, I was checking my email when I came across a suspicious looking message. It began with the line, “Dear Sir/Madam”.

The first paragraph read,

Please pardon me if I intrude into your privacy, and may I humbly solicit your confidence in this transaction. I came to know about you in my private search for a reliable and reputable foreigner to handle this confidential transaction.

Wow, that writing sounds like something straight out of a Dickens novel. I quickly clicked delete, suspecting that this was a phishing scam.

You’ve probably received emails like this too. And maybe you’ve also chuckled at their standoffish, overly formal tone. It seems to be a trademark of these types of spam emails.

However, not too long ago, no one would have laughed at that style of writing. It’s the style most people would have used if they wanted to come across as polite and professional.

In fact, your English teacher probably taught you a similar academic style when you were in school. Flowery language. Long paragraphs. Precise grammar. No contractions.

And then came the Internet. Over time, everyone from bloggers to big corporations realized that a conversational style of writing is a much more powerful way to engage and connect with your audience. [Read more…]

The Two Magic Words That Will Strengthen Your Writing

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The Two Magic Words That Will Strengthen Your Writing
Photo by Alexa Mazzarello
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It’s a Thursday afternoon, and I’m teaching a group of restless sixth graders some of the finer points of English grammar. As you can probably guess, this isn’t the easiest task in the world.

Several of the students are beginning to whisper back and forth to each other and laugh under their breath. Two others are absorbed in drawing pictures on their worksheets. Another looks like he’s about to fall asleep. I realize I only have a few minutes before I lose complete control of the class.

“Okay,” I say in a loud voice. “For example…” I pick up a marker and begin drawing a stick figure on the whiteboard. “Let’s look at some sentences about Bob. He’s going to help us see when we should and should not use commas in our sentences.”

My illustration on the whiteboard is far from a masterpiece. In fact, my tutoring students are laughing at it. But they’re also sitting up straight in their chairs now and all eyes are on me.

As I write sentences on the board accompanied by funny illustrations of Bob, the kids are eagerly calling out answers to my questions. All I had to do was use the two words, “For example” and come up with stories to illustrate the grammar rules, and I’ve captured their attention once again.

It works like magic every time.

And these two words can work like magic in your writing too. [Read more…]

The One Powerful Strategy That Will Help You Stand out Online in 2018

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Photo by Paul Dufour
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It’s a brand new year filled with opportunity. You’ve resolved to focus your energy on writing more blog posts or maybe even publishing a book. There’s only one problem. There are thousands of people out there who’ve made the exact same New Year’s resolution as you.

The Internet is a crowded place. Every day someone writes a new blog post in your niche or publishes a new book on Amazon in your genre. In a sea of content, how can you get people to pay attention to your work?

I remember a shoe store my mom used to take me to when I was a little kid. It was called Merry-Go-Round Shoes and was quite unlike any store I’d ever been to. There was a merry-go-round in the center of the store that children could ride on.
[Read more…]

I just released my new book!

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Hi, friends!

After many long nights of writing, formatting, and editing, I’m excited to announce that my new eBook How to Grow Your Email List: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers is now available to purchase.

Go here to get your copy.

If you haven’t read the recent posts on my blog, you might be wondering, “Why is an email list so important?” [Read more…]