Portfolio

Karen Hertzberg

Communications Expert

meEmpathy is my superpower. I’m the person everyone opens up to. The one whose friends and acquaintances say, “You get me.” I’m also the rare (read: weird) person to whom colleagues respond with, “That was such a great email!” As a writer, I wield that power to craft engaging content, from media outreach to blog posts to infographics to marketing copy.

I believe superb writing goes beyond putting words into grammatically correct sentences; it’s about the psychology of connection. My talent for forging connections through language has earned me the ability to convert copy to page views, readers to followers, and journalists and influencers to brand advocates.

Being an expert communicator means I’ve played lots of roles and become uniquely versatile.

  • I’m a diplomatic and clear communicator with experience in content marketing, PR, media relations, blogging, and community management.
  • My media and influencer outreach succeeds. I’ve launched campaigns with nearly 70 percent open rates and response rates north of 30 percent. I believe forging relationships owns spray-and-pray blasts.
  • I write press releases and media briefs with a journalist’s eye for story and a marketer’s eye for driving interest.
  • I’m a passionate and education-focused developmental editor who nurtures writers and helps their unique voices grow and thrive.
  • I don’t just write blog articles, I develop a clear, structured, readable narrative that engages audiences.

My most recent role as editor and content strategist for Macmillan Publisher’s Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network challenged me to develop QDT’s writers and manage the content calendar for up to 8 weekly short-form podcasts hosted by subject matter experts. In that role, I developed an SEO-focused content update initiative, crafted a program to help our contract podcast hosts become more intentional about their topics (with a focus on SEO strategy), worked with marketing to forge strategic partnerships and syndication opportunities, developed an audio Q&A program series to assist in marketing Macmillan authors, and created an SEO analytics content performance dashboard so that data would our content strategies.

For three years, I delivered media relations, SEO-focused blog writing, and influencer outreach projects as a freelance contractor for Grammarly, the startup behind the writing enhancement app with tens of millions of active users.

I’m always intrigued by new projects. What have you got? Email me at klundehertzberg [at] gmail.

You can also find me on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect.

Snapshot

  • Pitched and wrote highest performing article of 2017 for Grammarly blog (over 68,000 social shares)
  • Wrote numerous SEO articles that achieved top and #1 Google rankings
  • Scripted Google top-ranked video for “How to clean up your writing”
  • Responsible for PR outreach that earned over 1,800 media placements in top outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today between 2015-2017.

Article & Blog Content

I produced over a hundred SEO-savvy articles for the Grammarly blog. Here are a few of my favorites along with some stats and reader comments.

WRITING TIPS

  • Five Things That Will Make You Better at Content Writing
    “So well-written, thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you! One of my favorite lines: ‘Never let your opener write a check that your article can’t cash.'” —Se Ngoma

  • Here’s How to Write a Blog Post Like a Professional
    “This provides an incredible blogging audit. I especially enjoyed the point,  ‘…no one wants to try to fish a few salient points out of your stream of consciousness.’ I just revisited all my posts to clean them up. ” –Andrea”‘Write as though you’re telling a friend about some cool new stuff you’ve learned. Use your own natural, conversational tone. Keep your language simple and direct.’ That’s one of the most valuable tips I’ve ever received.” —Irina
  • 31 Words and Phrases You No Longer Need
    This article was shared over 100,000 times and was Grammarly’s highest-ranked article of 2017.

COMMUNICATION

CAREER

RESEARCH

See more on MuckRack!

Video

Here are a few of the videos that resulted from scripts I wrote for Grammarly in 2017. “Cheesy yet informative” was the goal. Success!

This video ranks at the top of Google’s search results for “how to clean up your writing.”

Media Relations and Outreach for Viral Data Studies

I participated in the development process, created press briefs and press releases, drafted outreach templates and managed all media outreach and communication for Grammarly’s most successful study releases. They were covered by hundreds of top press outlets and shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media. Here’s some of the top coverage.

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