by Jim Sweeney | Oct 15, 2025 | Blog
Certain things get better when they’re allowed to age. Cheese and wine are great examples. Writing is another.
I’m not talking about the dusty classics that populate high school and college reading lists. And I’m not suggesting that blogs and bylines need to be racked in temperature-controlled environments for years and years before posting.
Writing usually doesn’t need more than a single overnight to improve, but that period can make all the difference between a forgettable draft and a piece that makes a genuine impact. It’s not that anything happens to the writing overnight; it’s what happens to the writer.
There are writers who can produce impeccable copy on the first try, but they’re rare and I’m not one of them. However, my 40 years’ experience as an editor and writer has taught me that allowing a piece of writing to sit overnight and returning to it the next day with fresh eyes almost always results in something better.
What seemed insightful or clever in the moment of writing often looks flat or clumsy in the light of a new day. Our enthusiasm for what we’ve written fades upon second glance and that’s what gives us the opportunity to reassess and revise.
Giving the writerly brain an overnight opportunity to mull things over—even unconsciously—can deliver new perspective and insights.
Social media has conditioned us to believe that speed and volume trump content. Whether it’s live-tweeting (live-Xing?) a game or movie or rushing to comment on a news event, posting first has become the goal. We lionize the companies whose social media managers are nimble enough to come up with the perfect post in real-time.
But for every one of those pitch-perfect posts or commentaries, there are countless duds that disappear without a trace. Ask yourself what you remember from that torrent of disposable content—was it the first thing you read or was it the one that expressed the most interesting or insightful content?
Chances are it was the better written one with the quality content.
I went looking for quotes from famous writers to back up my argument and found a few:
“Only God gets it right the first time.” – Stephen King
“I have rewritten – often several times – every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” – Vladimir Nabokov
“The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.” – Zadie Smith
Of course, none of these writers worked in PR or marketing, which sometimes does require an immediate response, but the lesson still applies. Most of what we write is on a schedule that does allow for overnight aging -and our writing will be better for it.
by Andrew Schrader | Oct 1, 2025 | Blog
For over ten years I’ve helped healthcare, health tech, and life sciences companies clarify their messaging and get their customers to listen. And time after time, I’ve seen the same thing happen.
Companies fall in love with their own features and benefits.
It’s understandable — they’ve worked hard to build them. But here’s the problem: features and benefits aren’t a story. They don’t create stakes. And without stakes, no one cares.
The “Hero” Mistake
Let’s take a fictional example. Meet Acme Revenue Solutions, a company in the revenue cycle management (RCM) space. Here’s how they might describe themselves:
“Acme Revenue Solutions helps hospitals streamline billing, reduce claim denials, and accelerate reimbursements. Our platform uses AI-driven automation to handle coding, compliance, and collections. With Acme, you can save time, lower costs, and maximize revenue.”
Not bad, right? In fact, it’s how many healthcare companies present themselves. It lists the features, highlights the benefits, and checks the right boxes.
The problem is, it’s also forgettable.
Why? Because Acme is playing the hero, talking about their own superpowers. Meanwhile, the customer — the hospital CFO, the director of revenue cycle, the VP of finance — is left as a spectator in their own story.
And here’s the thing: your customer is not looking for a hero.
Your customer is the hero. You are the guide.
When you forget that, they tune out.
Enter StoryBrand
Six years ago, I had the chance to attend a three-day StoryBrand workshop, and it completely changed the way I thought about messaging. If you haven’t heard of it, StoryBrand is a simple, seven-step storytelling framework developed by Donald Miller. It helps companies stop confusing their audience and start clarifying what they actually offer.
The framework boils down to this:
- A Character — your customer.
- Has a Problem — the thing that keeps them up at night.
- And Meets a Guide — that’s you.
- Who Gives Them a Plan — a simple, clear path forward.
- And Calls Them to Action — tell them what to do.
- That Ends in Success — paint the picture of the win.
- And Helps Them Avoid Failure — don’t skip the consequences.
In this framework, the customer is always the hero. You’re the guide.
The reason so much marketing feels flat is because it’s upside-down. Instead of putting the customer at the center of the story, companies hog the spotlight.
That’s why I like to bring in another concept — stakes. When you define what the customer stands to gain or lose, you put urgency and meaning back into the story. And that’s what makes StoryBrand so powerful.
Reframing With Stakes
So how do we make Acme’s message actually matter? We switch the lens. Instead of rattling off features and benefits, we frame the stakes — what the customer stands to gain or lose.
Here’s a rewrite, StoryBrand-style:
“Every day a claim is denied, hospitals lose critical revenue that should be funding patient care. Billing teams are overwhelmed, clinicians are frustrated, and patients get caught in the middle. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Acme Revenue Solutions gives your hospital the clarity and control to stop revenue leakage before it happens. With automated claim scrubbing, real-time alerts, and expert support, you can finally focus on care instead of paperwork. Hospitals should be thriving, not drowning in denials. We’ll help you get paid what you’ve earned — so you can put resources where they belong: in patient care.”
Notice the difference?
- External stakes: Denied claims, lost revenue, overworked staff.
- Internal stakes: The frustration of “drowning in denials” and the relief of “finally focusing on care.”
- Philosophical stakes: The belief that hospitals should be thriving and resources should support patient care.
Now, the customer is the hero. They’re the one solving the problem and reclaiming their story. Acme’s role? The guide who gives them the plan and the tools to succeed.
How Writers Make the Switch
When I write for clients, this is the mental shift I’m making. If I catch myself listing features, I stop and ask:
- What’s really at stake for the customer?
- What happens if they don’t solve this problem?
- How will they feel if they do?
- What’s the bigger “should” at play here?
That’s when the copy comes alive. That’s when it stops sounding like every other vendor in the healthcare space. And that’s when customers lean in — because they see themselves in the story.
One other thing: every company truly is unique. Most of the time, that uniqueness is baked into the reason the company exists in the first place — a founder who was fed up with the status quo, a team who saw a better way, or a conviction that something in healthcare just shouldn’t be this hard.
The trouble is, those origin stories often get buried under layers of jargon. My job as a writer is to dig them out and bring them forward. Because yes, two companies might sound alike on the surface — but they aren’t alike. And those distinctions are part of the stakes. They show what’s broken in the world, and why the company exists to fix it.
That’s where the most compelling stories live.
The Bottom Line
If you want your marketing messaging to land, stop trying to be Luke Skywalker. Be Yoda. Be Obi-Wan. Help your customer win their fight.
Because at the end of the day, they don’t want to hear about your features. They want to know what’s at stake — and how you’ll guide them to success.
by Brandon Glenn | Jun 25, 2025 | Blog
You’ve planned, outlined, and drafted some content that clearly communicates the points and messages you set out to convey. Time to sit back, relax, and think about what’s next, right?
Not exactly. Before the content appears publicly, it must go through the editing process. The more people who are involved in the process – writers, marketers, executives, subject matter experts – the more lengthy and convoluted the process becomes.
Welcome to the “dark side” of the editing process, as Joel Schwartzberg writes in Harvard Business Review, which may be characterized by excessive nitpicking, numerous disagreements, and competition over authority and expertise. Fun times all around!
However, editing doesn’t always need to be so painful. To improve the editing process, keep in mind the following three tips:
Be mindful of version control: Given that editing often figuratively involves several cooks in the kitchen at the same time, it’s important that those cooks work from the exact same recipe. In the public relations world, this means that we must ensure that all editors work from the same version of the content. This is easy in the beginning, but the process often breaks down as individual editors simultaneously make changes to the same Word document.
Three editors may equate to three different versions of the same content, creating challenges in reconciling what may be contradictory edits. To avoid this, develop a plan that includes all the individuals who will need to make edits, and send the document to them one at a time. Separately, shared cloud-based tools such as Google docs can reduce problems with version control but may bring their own set of issues with competing voices.
Resist the commenting urge: We all understand the urge to include edits in comments in the right-hand margin of a document or the body of an email. Resist the urge. Comments in the margin lead to confusion, misinterpretation, and inefficiency. Instead, if you think a change needs to be made to the text, simply make it. Save comments in the margin for genuine questions – not edits. Doing so will reduce the time and ambiguity associated with the editing process. As an alternative…
Make use of track changes functionality: The tools “Track changes” in Word and “Suggesting” in Google docs can be an editor’s best friend. By using these tools, the reviewer can make desired changes clear to the writer without the ambiguity and confusion associated with right-margin comments.
Editing can be a pain, but it is a necessary step when creating great content to ensure all participants are on the same page. To increase efficiency and create content that drives key messaging, practice the three tips above.
by Jim Sweeney | May 14, 2025 | Blog
The first blog was created in 1994 by a Swarthmore College student who posted his own writing as well as links to websites he liked and thought his readers would enjoy.
Incredibly, that formula still holds up after more than 30 years of the internet. What other aspect of the online world can that be said about? Of course, a lot has changed about blogging (SEO, the addition of video and audio, different platforms, AI), but the objective of expressing your thoughts and sharing interesting things remains fundamental to successful blogging.
That’s true for businesses that blog as well as college students. Blogs have been around so long that they can be viewed as internet relics, like MySpace and Napster, but there is a reason they persist. They’re effective – as long as they’re done right.
There is some interesting research on the tactics of blogging: how to use SEO, how long to write, formats, how frequently to publish, even when to publish. Here’s an earlier Amendola post with some interesting research about blogs. That is helpful for the experienced blogger who wants to become expert, but I find the rules for a successful corporate blog are similar to those for being a good guest at a party:
Have something to say
Corporate blogs that simply recycle company press releases and other internal announcements are dull, like party guests who can’t carry on a conversation. No one, least of all a client or customer, feels obligated to read a dull blog. The content should be either interesting, educational, entertaining or some combination of the above.
It’s not about you
The first rule of successful socializing is expressing an interest in others (even if it’s feigned). The party guest who talks only about himself is a boor. It’s the same for companies that blog only about themselves. No one – not even their employees – is that interested in them. Blogs should take a more expansive view of the universe. I don’t mean medical device companies should be commenting on sports and Oscar nominations necessarily, but dealing with tangential topics add variety, demonstrate a wider world view and make it easier to draw in readers.
While there is no exact formula, a good rule of thumb is roughly a 50/50 mix between company content and other material.
Mingle with others
Blogging alone in your corner of the internet while ignoring all the other content out there is like refusing to interact with other party guests.
Acknowledging and making use of other companies’ relevant content is a great way to gain an audience and show off your insights.
This doesn’t mean promoting the competition, just recognizing that you don’t have a monopoly on interesting things to say. If a media outlet writes a compelling article about your industry, you can link to it and offer your thoughts. You can even invite guest bloggers. It’s a great way to build an audience.
Don’t overstay your welcome
No one likes a guest who shows up early, insists on being the center of attention at all times and lingers after the hosts have started cleaning up. In other words, don’t blog too often. It’s only large B2C brands that might need to be out with new material every day. For B2B brands, once or twice a week is fine. That also makes it less likely that you’ll have to post weak content. Just like at a party, you want to leave them wanting more.
There is nothing sadder than hosting a party which no one attends. It’s the same with writing blogs that no one reads. If you’re going to go to the effort of creating and maintaining a blog, be sure to follow the rules for making it interesting. Otherwise, you’ll be eating the cake all by yourself.
by Brandon Glenn | Apr 30, 2025 | Blog
In today’s content-saturated landscape, thought leadership bylines remains a powerful tool for building credibility and influence. For example, 88% of decision-makers believe high-quality thought leadership content improves their perception of an organization, yet 71% say less than half of what they read actually provides valuable insights, according to statistics cited by The New York Times.
This gap underscores the importance of crafting compelling, meaningful bylines that stand out. To increase your chances of publication and audience engagement, consider these three essential tips.
- Go easy on the self-promotion: The quickest way to lose credibility in a thought leadership piece is to turn it into a sales pitch. While it’s tempting to highlight your company’s solutions, most publications require bylines to be vendor-neutral. Readers seek valuable industry insights, not an extended advertisement. Instead of pushing products or services, share a fresh perspective, unique data, or a forward-thinking analysis of an industry trend. If your content provides genuine value, readers will naturally associate that expertise with your brand, enhancing its reputation without overt self-promotion.
- Focus on an industry problem: Readers engage with content that resonates with their professional challenges. A strong byline should tackle a pressing industry issue and offer actionable insights, not just general observations. Rather than reiterating well-known problems, take a deeper dive: Offer a counterintuitive take, present real-world case studies, or challenge conventional wisdom. For example, instead of writing about how digital transformation is crucial in healthcare, explore why certain digital initiatives fail and what organizations can do differently. Thought leadership isn’t about stating the obvious; it’s about advancing the conversation in a meaningful way.
- Respect your readers’ time: In an era where executives and professionals are inundated with content, brevity is key. Editors and readers prefer bylines that get straight to the point, typically around 800 words. If your article stretches beyond that, tighten your argument by removing fluff and redundant points. Strong, concise writing improves engagement and increases the likelihood of publication. Aim for clarity over complexity, and ensure every paragraph serves a purpose.
Final thoughts
A well-crafted byline can elevate your thought leadership profile, but only if it aligns with industry standards and reader expectations. By prioritizing valuable insights over self-promotion, addressing real industry challenges, and keeping your content concise, you enhance your chances of making a lasting impact. As the data suggests, high-quality thought leadership matters, so take the time to refine your byline and provide content that truly informs and engages your audience.
