Prefer a video? (source if embed doesn’t work)
Hi CommandBar team (James?),
About two weeks ago, you opened a role for a content writer at CommandBar. Maybe you’ve already received some great applications. Maybe you’re still waiting for the right candidate.
Am I that right person?
I hope so. But after reading this page, you’ll either think I’m awesome or crazy—or both.
That’s because this is not a conventional application. I’m not spray-and-praying my resume at job openings and appending a ChatGPT-written cover letter. This is the exact opposite.
As you’ll see, everything here is bespoke for CommandBar, hand-crafted on a mechanical keyboard that probably annoys the rest of the coworking space (good thing I have noise canceling).
But before we get into what I created for you, let’s answer a few questions:
Why do I want to work at CommandBar?
Your product is awesome. As you’ll notice, I’ve used it a lot. But what’s most exciting is your focus on a small, high-impact team.
You listed zero-to-one energy—that’s what I love.
But the most important aspect is growth: Besides working on an awesome product with impressive people, I love growing and learning, which you seem to embody.
(Also, James’ tweets are funny)
What makes me qualified for this?
You’ll gain someone who has experience (since 2016) in many areas of content creation, ranging from social content to long-form blogging; from SEO writing to in-depth think pieces.
And, you’ll work with someone who cares about this space and keeps learning.
Those are normal parts of an application. But I don’t believe in normal applications.
Instead, I believe in the following:
The best way to get the job is to do the job before you get the job.
-Noah Kagan
That’s why I wrote a 15-page article for you. I think you’ll especially enjoy the “How to Write Good UX Copy in CommandBar” piece with the explainer visuals.
And, because you’re not looking for a one-track focus writer, you’ll find a Twitter thread based on that article’s highlights (split into two parts). To adapt to other channels, we could reuse those slides in a LinkedIn slideshow as well or use them for individual posts.
Before you get the article link, you should know why that article (besides the fact that James seems to care about UX copy):
- The topic fits with what you explore in your blog—PLG, UX, etc.
- You don’t have blog content on UX copy yet.
- There’s solid volume:
KW Volume
- UX Copy: 71
- UX Copywriting: 281
- What is UX Copywriting: 31
- UX Copy Examples: 31
- UX Writing: 758
- UX Writing examples: 70
- UX Writing vs. Copywriting: 11
- What is UX Writing: 479
- UX Writing examples: 70
Total potential volume: 1771 (Researched with Moz.com)
Search Intent: Many of the search terms start with “what is” or include “examples”, implying they’re looking for educational content, which this article is.
- The article shows users how to implement the practices outlined in CommandBar, adding a PLG angle to it and positioning CommandBar as the ideal solution.
Feel free to click the link, have a read and (hopefully) enjoy. Just don’t forget to come back here to unwrap your next present.
Back from reading? I hope you enjoyed—and that you’re ready for the next thing. Sure, you value skills. But other things matter as well, right?
While you can always find out more on a call, why not get some questions answered now? Drag that questlist to the left and open HelpHub (or just cmd+k).
If you enter something and feel it’s reading your mind—that’s because I asked GPT-4 to be you for the source material. I fed it:
- My resume
- My user’s manual (how I like to work, also added as a help doc)
- The job description
And then prompted it “What questions would you ask me if you were the founder?”
I uploaded those questions to HelpHub and answered the questions. So click that open book in the bottom right corner, hit “Ask AI” and ask it some questions. You can always find the longer-form answer by going to the source in the chatbot.
That’ll tell you a lot more about me. And by the time you’re done, you might’ve drawn a conclusion on whether I’m awesome, crazy or both.
Before you leave this page, here’s a few content ideas ranging from obvious to insane. Feel free to steal, ignore or laugh at:
- Case studies: Creating case studies with enterprise clients could both be published on the blog and used as sales enablement materials. CommandBar is uniquely suited for this because you say you do “free consulting” and thus have a lot of hands-on experience with your customers, which gives us a story to document.
- Social media spec: Similar to Soren Iversen, we could prototype weird/quirky/funny thigns with CommandBar and share them on social—this would not only serve as implicit product education (showing what the product can do), but also make our brand approachable and deliver a social-native format aimed at the bite-sized entertainment rewarded on those networks.
- Partner content: We could partner on a series of articles with companies we’re friendly with and where our expertise meshes (e.g. a series on product building with Netlify), sharing articles on each other’s channels—gaining backlinks for SEO and gaining access to additional audiences.
- Documenting the journey: As a B2B tool, CommandBar inherently targets professionals in tech who want to build great companies themselves. Similar to the “How we achieved zero churn” article, we could regularly share learnings and stories from the inside of CommandBar.
- Editorial newsletter: Creating a regular newsletter that shares updates about our product, links to external resources and acts as a distribution vector for blog content would help to stay top of mind.
- CommandBar Point & Click Adventure: This one’s crazy, but it might work—as a product, CommandBar has almost everything you need to build a point & click adventure game. Nudges, conversations, hints, questlists… as a marketing stunt, we could use CommandBar to build a point & click adventure game. Then, anyone who completes it wins prizes like a free month, the top 5 get a free year and someone gets lifetime free. Something like that. Is it crazy? Yes. Does it educated customers on our product in a fun way? Also yes. Will it lead to new, paying users? Perhaps. Does it sound awesome? ABSOLUTELY!
Those are a few content ideas in addition to all the awesome ones I’m sure you have. And if you’d like to chat now, you can hit that button in the questlist, send me an email, and let’s chat!
-Finn
P.S.: While you just read and saw a lot of stuff, I wanted to share something a bit more heartfelt too. There’s a reason I put dozens of hours into building all of this: I’d really love to work with you—From the product (which I’ve obviously used in-depth now) to the team and the culture to the role itself, this sounds like an awesome fit for me. I love writing, I love building awesome things together and I love technology.
P.P.S.: Resume
P.P.P.S.: If James is still struggling with the weird coffee flakes coming off of the Baratza Encore, tell him about the Fellow Ode Gen 2. I made the move from the Baratza to the Ode and love it.