Let’s Get Digital this week with our next employee spotlight – Chris Yingling. Our Let’s Get Digital segment features staff members from different departments around the office. Teamwork makes the dream work, and our employees know how to get the job done and have fun doing it!
Chris joined Vervocity in April and quickly became a valuable part of the marketing team. He jumped in with a strong voice and fresh ideas to connect businesses with their audience. He brings a thoughtful approach to writing and a genuine passion for helping brands find the right words.
Take a look at the drive behind Chris’s passion for copywriting and what it means to be a content strategist.
1. What inspired you to pursue a career in content writing?
Written content has always been something that I’m passionate about.
It started with writing articles about my favorite sports teams. I learned very quickly that I had the ability to craft language to stir emotions, convey information, and drive promotions. I turned that passion into a profession that works, because every business wants their verbiage to do something, and I have the ability to help clients do that.
2. Can you tell us a little bit about projects you’re working on right now?
Right now, I’m doing work with multiple clients that are in the construction, education, and legal industries to tell their stories through website creation and expansion. I love working with businesses that know what their message is but need assistance and expertise getting that message across. I also work with clients on social media strategy, standardizing their messaging to accomplish a goal on social media.
3. How do you balance SEO strategy with making content sound natural?
It’s a delicate balance; SEO strategy makes your company searchable and noticeable. But interweaving those SEO phrases into content can be challenging and make that content sound robotic in nature.
The balance is finding a way to support every SEO-phrase in a way that is conversational. SEO by definition is what the user is searching for when trying to find a brand or company; it’s quick, to the point, and punchy. So when we find SEO terms that are easy to digest and make sense, they can organically integrate into content just like a conversation.
4. Can you briefly describe your process for tailoring content to the client’s brand voice?
At Vervocity, we always begin the conversation with our clients by determining their goal for their content. Whether that’s getting more clicks on social media or more contact form submissions on their website, we enter every content creation process with their main goal in mind.
From there, researching the client’s brand voice through previous communications, identifying their ideal marketing demographic, and understanding how that demographic communicates, helps us create verbiage that resonates with that specific group of people.
5. What’s one thing you always double-check before sending content to a client for review?
Obviously, grammar and syntax are at the top of my list. At Vervocity, we put everything we do through a system of checks and balances before it ever reaches a client.
We also always make sure the little things you may not think about are always checked off the list; does the client business name have a hyphen or an en dash? Do they have a ® or a ™ on their product names and is that consistent across our copy? We want to make sure we respect that in all of the content we create.
6. What do you like most about working at Vervocity?
Vervocity is one huge family. When I come to work, it never feels like work. It feels like I’m putting my brain together with other skilled professionals to help the people in our community do their jobs a little better.
It brings me joy to shake the hand of a local business owner when they trust us with their marketing communications, knowing we’re going to make their lives a little easier by handling their social and website. I’ve never been somewhere that is more client-focused than Vervocity, and I love working here.
7. How do you handle writer’s block when you’re on a deadline?
It hits us all, but we live in an age where writer’s block is easier than ever to work through with the help of AI. While I highly recommend against using AI to straight-up write long-form content, it can be an effective tool to help dispel writer’s block. Just throwing words that your brain can put together into an AI tool and asking, “Can you take this word jumble and make a cohesive paragraph out of it?” is such a game-changer. All you need is that jumpstart and then the gears can churn forward.
8. What is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned since becoming a content strategist?
Since writing has always come easy to me, I often learned as a young writer to trust myself and what’s in my brain. However once I became a professional in the writing industry, I learned very quickly that being an expert in writing does not mean you know everything about what you’re writing about. But there’s a nice little silver lining here; even if I don’t know technically complex topics that I might be writing about, our clients do!
So the lesson I learned is that if I’m spinning the gears and not getting anywhere because I’m struggling to understand a topic, just ask the client! It’s their area of expertise; they’re always happy to talk about it. And it sure beats writing about a topic that you’re just not informed about.
9. What is a fun fact about yourself?
I’ve been a huge fan of Pokémon since I was 6 years old, to the point that I compete on the competitive video game circuit. The competitive Pokémon scene has allowed me to travel all over the country, make amazing friends, and compete with some of the best in the hobby. It’s so weird to think that this thing that started as collecting little creatures on colorful cards as a kid has turned into such a wonderful and fulfilling hobby.
I’m excited to compete for years to come and encourage my future kids to love Pokémon just like their dad does.
10. What would you say to clients interested in our professional copywriting services?
Partnering with Vervocity on your copywriting can be a huge source of stress relief for you and your business. If you let us tell your business’s story and assist with your marketing efforts, you can focus more on the people you work with and the work that you’re an expert in.
Leave all of that marketing stuff to us; we got you!
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