About

Update 2016: My business has been evolving! Currently I spend most of my time producing animated video logos, intros and outros and cool marketing videos for local small and medium size businesses. These videos are being used to generate leads and customers for local businesses. How? I’m also ranking them on google! I’ve become pretty expert in doing keyword research and analysis, both for search engine optimization (like Google) and for use in Facebook Marketing, as well as eCommerce (like Amazon). Combining SEO ranking expertise with awesome product videos generates lots of customers and big sales for my clients!

My Background:

The Long and the Short of It

How Did I Get Involved in Video?

THE SHORT - Copywriter Background:

Hello there! Chris Raley here – freelance copywriter and page ranker specializing in local marketing lead-generation for B to C and B to B.

I write case studies and white papers that tell stories about your company and your happy customers so your leads recognize that you are the answer to their problem.

You need leads to make sales. Stories about your successes generate leads. Leads become prospects and prospects become customers. Simple, right? Okay, here's the long and short of it.

So, why stories? Because stories work. Using stories in marketing is not new – just ask Don Draper. What is new is the enormous demand for written, detailed stories, fueled by the growth of social media and its need for fresh marketing content. Your prospects want to know what you can do for them. And they want you to tell them in a relatable way.

THE LONG - So, why me? If you manage marketing for your company, you already know storytelling has become a priority in marketing strategies at every level. It takes a business writer who also understands the elements of fiction writing to turn your stories into effective marketing pieces. I am that writer, and here is how I got there (did I mention this is the long version?):

I spent the first 3 years of college working on a double major in English and Sociology and a minor in Philosophy. That’s right, the Big Three for future financial freedom.

Eventually, I took the advice of about, oh, a couple hundred people and ended up with a degree in Marketing. I started work in computer sales, then government support, eventually becoming a logistics manager for Navy submarine combat and weapons systems for a major defense contractor. There I met my husband, a Navy Commander and nuclear submarine guy.

Fifteen years ago with young kids at home, I started freelancing as a tech writer, mostly nuclear engineering and logistics stuff for DOD and nuclear detection stuff for Homeland Security. Challenging, but not particularly creative, and after 20 years, kinda boring.

I also had a contract with Indian Health Service, a small HHS program in Albuquerque. IHS focuses on health issues of Native American children – diabetes prevention, early childhood nutrition – things like that.

It was a small contract – just a dozen or so projects over a few years – but it lead me to this specialty. Instead of very dry, highly technical writing for nuclear scientists and engineers, the projects for IHS were about real people and their challenges. It was storytelling, and I was hooked.

I decided to switch from tech writing for the government to writing mostly for the B2B and B2C markets – and to specialize in case studies, white papers and e-newsletters. Telling stories is what I love to do – who knew it would pay the bills? So maybe majoring in the Humanities wasn’t such a bad idea after all!

This work naturally led to other related work that let me use my marketing degree a little more. This includes helping local businesses get customers in the door using SEO Optimization and page ranking as well as direct mail marketing campaigns. Now most of my work centers around using video to market local businesses by engaging and informing prospects while building an SEO network to help power their websites and their brand in the SERPs (search engine results).

I live in Northern Virginia where I love to read, write, cook, paint, visit wineries, and hang out with my friends and family, which includes two Brittanys, Levi and Mike (yep, that’s Top Dog).