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Reimagine your most critical communications

A Smart Brevity editor gets to know your organization, readers, and goals, then helps you define, launch (or relaunch), and edit recurring updates for key audiences. You get a strategic partner and hands-on, edition by edition support until you're ready to run it solo.

What you get: You end up with a recurring update that has a defined audience, a set format, and a publishing rhythm your team can hold on its own. The standard gets built into the work edition by edition rather than handed over once in a deck.

Who it is for: Start here if you already publish something on a schedule and it is not landing. CSX rebuilt its daily 7 a.m. newsletter this way and readership grew nearly 4x in three months. The Investment Company Institute turned a basic news digest into a daily brief for nearly 25,000 subscribers.

How it works:

01

Audit and streamline

We uncover where your communications are succeeding and where they're slowing your teams down. Then we hand you a clear plan forward and show you what it can look like.

What you get: You end up with a read on everything you send today, what is working, what is stalling, and what it is costing your teams in attention. Then a plan forward, with examples of what the fixed version looks like.

Who it is for: Start here if your communications have grown across many channels and many owners with no agreed standard, or if you want the diagnosis before you commit to building anything new.

02

Strategy and launch

Our Smart Brevity editor will build a deep understanding of how your audiences get the critical information they need. Then, we'll work with you on a content strategy that...

  • Tells you what to stop, start, and consolidate.
  • How to use Smart Brevity to better engage key audiences like employees, executives, shareholders, and external influencers

Together, we'll plan new and improved communications to launch, using the proven Axios style.

03

Editing and coaching

Our Smart Brevity editor will work with your team on editing each edition of the newsletter for the duration of your program.

We provide communication coaching — on areas like voice, tone, content strategy, visuals, reader engagement — as well as tactical edits to keep message clear and concise. We will also connect for regular strategy sessions to review metrics and feedback and adjust our approach as needed.

Common questions

What to know before you talk to us

How is consulting different from Smart Brevity training?
Training teaches your team the method. Consulting applies it to the work you are already sending. Certification runs as a program with three levels, from Communicator to Instructor, with an assessment before and after and a Credly badge at the end. A consulting engagement puts a Smart Brevity editor inside your real communications, either relaunching a recurring update or auditing what you send today.
What does a consulting engagement include?
Two kinds of work. Reimagining a recurring update means a Smart Brevity editor learns your organization, your readers, and your goals, then helps you define, launch, or relaunch it, and edits it edition by edition until you are ready to run it solo. An audit means we find where your communications succeed and where they slow your teams down, then hand you a plan forward.
Who is consulting for?
Organizations, not individuals. The newsletter work assumes you already publish something on a schedule. The audit works on whatever you send today. CSX and the Investment Company Institute each rebuilt an existing newsletter with our editors, and the results are on our case studies page. Individuals can start on the certification track instead of a company program.
We have read the book. Is consulting the right next step?
Often, but not always. There are three ways in. A keynote or on-site session covers a big room in one sitting. A certification program takes a team through the method with assessments and a badge. A consulting engagement puts an editor inside the work you already send. If you are not sure which fits, say so on the form and we will help you choose.
How do we start?
Fill out the form on our Talk to us page and pick Consulting when it asks what you are interested in. Tell us what you send today and who reads it. We will be in touch within one business day. The first conversation is about which of the two kinds of work fits, or whether training is the better place to begin.

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