Brochure Copywriter

• Being customer-centric (putting your customer first, not you)
• Giving your business a distinct voice
• Telling your story: What makes you remarkable?
• Speaking directly to your target market(s)
• Developing messages and marketing methods that are sustainable
• Considering all three types of customers: potential, present and past
• Knowing when to integrate different marketing methods
• Being consistent in all messaging across every channel
• Delivering the message in a form appropriate for your audience

Although I've been a freelance copywriter for 10 years and I've worked on all kinds of copywriting projects--websites, email, direct mail, brochures, whitepapers, and more--I've resisted doing pay-per-click (PPC) ads all this time.

Why? Probably fear. Unlike organic SEO that takes time to gain traction, PPC is immediate...so I'd know right away if my copywriting was working or not.

But change comes into the lives of all good professional copywriters, including me, and I am embarking on my first PPC ad copywriting project. (Gulp.) 

In doing research for hints and help, I came across this great article of 18 tips for copywriting PPC ads.

Whether you're a freelance copywriter doing PPC ads for clients, or a small business owner tackling that copywriting job yourself, take a look at the tips, they're good.

All right then, enough procrastinating by blogging. Time for this freelance copywriter to earn her keep with some PPC ad work! 

Part of a professional copywriter's job is keeping up with the other pieces of marketing, not just the copywriting. That means delving into information like MarketingSherpa's new Wisdom 2010 report, 34 pages of stories from the marketing trenches on everything from social media to email marketing to search to...you get the idea.

The words I write as a freelance copywriter don't stand alone. They have a context, whether in a website or an email or a brochure or a press release. And they might not even work if they're not targeted to the right audience and delivered in the right way.

So all of us freelance copywriters have an obligation to stay current, not just catchy. For me, I'm paying more attention to social media. I've been working as a blog copywriter for almost two years now, but there's more to adjusting to social media. I'm looking at how I can provide content as a copywriter that fits this new paradigm of Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. Or if I even do! Does socia media require a professional copywriter to be effective? I don't know yet! I know it takes a blog copywriter to create quality blog content at the right frequency. :-) But as far as the rest of it, I do not know yet.

It's also interesting to see an increase in requests for script writing. Video is definitely on the rise! And kudos to the companies that realize a good video still requires a good, professionally written, script! 

Even if you're not a freelance copywriter or professional copywriter, take a look at the Wisdom 2010 report. We can get too isolated sometimes, too caught up in the marketing efforts we're embroiled in at our own companies. It's good to get a fresh perspective and start taking a new approach to marketing, including copywriting. :-) 

 

Last night I watched "Seabiscuit" again. Thank you to my daughter for picking that out at the movie place! It was timely given we'd been showing my racehorse (pictured here) to potential buyers over the weekend.

But as a copywriter, not horse lover, that movie is a wonderful reminder of the power of stories. Seabiscuit came along when the people needed something to believe in, a success story of an underdog winning against all odds. It was the depression. It was a horrible, scary time. And here was this scrappy little horse who paddled out with one leg (like mine!) but whose heart was bigger than War Admiral's, the 18 hand powerhouse rival.

As so often happens, the timing was right for this story...which made it an even better story. But Seabiscuit had a storyteller too. And this is the tie in to copywriting. Charles Howard was a salesman and success. And he knew how to tell the story to the press, to work this situation to get the most out of it. If it wasn't for Howard seeing and seizing the opportunity, would Seabiscuit have had more newspaper column inches than FDR and Hitler? He did. Without Howard, he likely wouldn't have.

You have a story. Every business has a story. You need to discover your story, yes. But then you need to tell it. That's where your copywriter comes into play. Your story is told by your website, your brochure, your PowerPoint, your email marketing. These are your story tellers. Make sure your copywriter is telling your story in a compelling and powerful way, whether it's an in-house or freelance copywriter.

Seabiscuit's story could be told by facts and numbers. And how dry that would be. It's more fun to hear about the drama, the second chances, his rough start in life, the men who came together and overcame their own demons to give him the chance to win...that's the story. And Howard made sure it got told.

What is your story? Is it really great customer service? Or is it that time that your entire staff worked at 20-hour shift to get something done for a client? Is it that you've been around since 1950? Or that your family still owns and runs the business, despite wars and economic ups and downs? 

Is your copywriter telling your story? Are your salespeople? 

I have been using BlackBerry phones for about five years now, ever since I worked as a Seattle copywriter for T-Mobile writing brochures about the BlackBerry. I figured I’d better know what I was talking about so I got one, and fell head over heels in love with it.

Soon a bunch of my friends were yakking away on BlackBerry phones too. The thing was perfect for viral marketing. All they had to do was see my using it to get interested.

Alas this love story lacks a fairy tale ending. Maybe it simply went much the same way that so many love stories do: down the tubes.

You see, I wore that first BlackBerry out somehow. A small but critical piece stopped working. I could hear people talking, but no one could hear me. If only I could have taken it to the nearest cell phone repair shop, but nothing like that exists. The only solution was a new BlackBerry, which I faithfully purchased.

That little scene repeated itself with every successive BlackBerry. I’ve been through six phones in as many years, because the quirkiness of the quality. Every phone had something go wrong, or, in the case of the Pearl, it just sucked.

Still, I bought a new BlackBerry, not another brand, every time I needed to replace my phone. That is brand loyalty. And as a copywriter, I'm very familiar with brand loyalty!

Today I am taking it in the shorts because of my blind faith in the brand. I am using the newest and worst BlackBerry yet. My brand loyalty has been abused. Rather than make ever better products to continually delight the customer, RIM has only made crappier and crappier products, until now I’m stuck with a barely usable BlackBerry Smartphone. Not only does it suck as a phone, but think about how hard it is for a copywrter to have a phone she can't use for texting and email! I'm a copywriter for a reason, I do better with the written word than the spoken one!

As a copywriter, I know marketing. But I also know that the actual thing you sell someone has to live up to the promise of your copywriting and marketing.

This latest, heaviest, barely usable piece of metal and plastic sitting next to my laptop is the equivalent of a snubbing. RIM didn’t care to keep delighting me, only to keep selling to me.

If that’s your marketing, it’s a short-term solution.

Trust me, this copywriter has bought her last BlackBerry. As soon as this one wears out, and I know that will be soon, I’m switching brands.

Here’s another analogy for proving marketing is like dating: Think of personal ads. Why? Because words can woo.

Even with online dating sites like Match.com, you don’t rely solely on the photos. Heck, plenty of people (mostly men for some reason) don’t even put up photos. The words still matter. You read someone’s profile and decide if it resonates with you or not.

Let’s take search engines and search results as an example…

Like your personal ad, you can write these to say anything you want, as long as they also have the search terms you want to get found for. The goal of this search result is first, to get found, and second, to get someone to click through and go to your site, for this copy to resonate with the prospect. You don’t get to use any pictures, so it’s like the personal ads of old, when people put their ads in newspapers.

Now think of the search result someone gets when searching on Google, using the We Know Words copywriting Website as our example. Type Seattle copywriter into Google and sure enough, We Know Words is on the first page (under that horrid local search map, gads I hate those things!).

What people get for a search result is the title tag and description I’ve written for a particular page on the We Know Words Website. In my case, this is really bad, I don’t know that it would resonate with anyone, honestly…  

Marketing writer - Seattle copywriter portfolio of web writing and ...

Copywriting portfolio of ads, brochures, case studies, datasheets, emails, Web content and more showcases the singular talents of the marketing writers at ...

But besides the fact that this Seattle copywriter is maybe acting like the cobbler whose children have no shoes, my advice is still sound. J Have your copywriter, whether freelance or in-house, write your website copy, brochure copy, email copywriting, whatever it is, as if she were copywriting a personal ad.

If I were to rewrite my title tag and description as a personal ad, keeping in mind that I have to achieve both search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion (getting people to click on the link and go to my site), I could do it as:

Marketing writer - Seattle copywriter portfolio of web writing and ...

Searching for a stellar freelance Seattle copywriter? See complete portfolio of print copywriting, email copywriting, Web copywriting and more.

I want to keep marketing writer in the Title tag, because it ranks well in Google, but I’m pushing Seattle copywriter as a keyword a bit more so it’s in there twice now. That’s my SEO. But I also made it more action oriented.

OK, maybe not the best example of having your copywriter write marketing ads, but like the cobbler, this copywriter has to get some client work done! No more indulging in blogging for now!

My friend Mavis is a freelance copywriter like me. But she calls herself a story teller. And it's true. Copywriters are story tellers. Companies hire us copywriters to tell their stories on their Websites, in their email marketing, in their blogs...at least the smart companies do.  

People love stories. Maybe it’s because for most of human existence, we’ve relied on oral traditions to pass along information, lore and lessons. Whatever the reason, watch a room full of children enraptured by a story teller, and you’ll see that same attention given to a compelling speaker standing before a room full of adults…if he or she is telling a story.

Here’s a recent example that makes my copywriter point so well, I will simply…tell the story!

Last month I went with a friend to visit his friends, a family of four in Idaho. It was a nine-hour drive from Seattle to their little town of 1,500 residents, and their impressive 32-acre spread. Among the two kids, four dogs, 13 horses and more cats than I could count were 300 chickens being raised for eggs and meat. Matt, the patriarch of this affair, works 50 miles away in the city of Boise. He trucks in cartons of eggs when he heads to the city for people to buy, but people also come to their place to buy the fryers.

When he first started this little side business, he was shocked not only to find out that people would pay $20 for a chicken, but that they’d drive 50 miles from the city to do so. In his mind, the economics just didn’t work out as far as the real cost of that little fryer.

As he told me, the Seattle copywriter, this story, I wasn't surprised at all. I was rather envious that I didn't have more copywriting clients like Matt, with stories that just tell themselves...

That's because those customers are buying so much more than that fryer! They are buying the whole experience of driving out to the country. They are buying the chance to interact with a real country boy (because even at 46, Matt is still very much a country boy!). They are buying a chicken that lived a healthy, wholesome, natural life…as opposed to a factory raised one.

The first time a customer asked if the chicken she was buying had lived a good life, Matt thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. And I’m not surprised. It’s all part of the story.

The story. It’s all about the story. Whether you’re talking about chickens or Hummers, it’s all about the story. The one we tell ourselves as part of the buying process. The one we experience as we buy. The one we tell others about our purchase. We humans love stories.

We copywriters love stories too. Wheter it's Web writing or brochure copywriting, story telling makes our work more fun and more effective.

So go forth, copywriters and marketers, and tell those stories! We're listening!
 

It’s weird to be a freelance copywriter, working in marketing helping clients left and right to craft compelling marketing messages, but then find myself a bit shy about tooting my own copywriting horn! This morning I received from my friendly blogging software provider an email encouraging me to blog on five great things about my We Know Words copywriting business. I gulped. I blushed. I thought, “Oh, but that sooooo goes against my Catholic upbringing to be bragging about myself!”

Still, Compendium Blogware isn’t a runaway success for nothing. I’m taking their advice, so bear with me…

Clients hire me as their freelance copywriter for these reasons:

One: My brain. I often say I have two things to sell, my time and my brain. (Actually I think my friend Darby said that, but I’m borrowing it.) I’m lucky enough to be smart, and even luckier to know a ton of smart people who keep me up to speed. Which leads to the next reason…

Two: I know what’s up in marketing. I don’t just sit idly by copywriting when needed. I keep up with marketing trends like Facebook, like email marketing changes, like SEO and Web 2.0. That way I’m a true resource to my copywriting clients, providing not just words, but insight into how to best use those words (E.g. a wiki or a webinar? A brochure or an email campaign?).

Three: My customer-centric approach. Time and again, clients are stymied when I tell them I’m less interested in what they sell than I am in what they’re customers are buying. They get it on one level, but it’s a challenge for them to switch from talking about what they want to sell to what the client wants to buy. But the only way to be a great copywriter is to speak to the customer, not at them.

Four: Silly as it might sound, my personality. When people go to my copywriting Web site at www.weknowwords.com, they’re hit with flowers, flowers, flowers, a ton of orange and red, and quite a bit of attitude. If potential clients don’t like my Web site, they won’t like working with me as a freelance copywriter. If they do like my Web site, and the fact that I’m not afraid to sound different and stand out from the crowd, we get along great.

OK, my Catholic-ness is saying “enough already with the bragging!” So I’m stopping at four reasons why clients hire me as their freelance copywriter.

But if you’re a copywriter who reads this blog, or just stumbles on this post at random, take note. I’ve been a successful freelance copywriter for over 8 years for good reason. Well, four good reasons.

Michael has been cutting my hair for over 22 years. My relationship with my hairdresser outlasted my marriage. Seriously, I met Michael when I was just newly dating my ex. My ex is, well, now my ex, but Michael is still around.

I’m not Michael’s only loyal customer. Heck, I’m not even the most loyal! When two of his clients moved to San Francisco, they flew him down to do their hair still. And I’ve had my hair affairs, trying a salon closer to home or less expensive. But I always go back to Michael for one simple reason: He’s the best. (No one else can make my gnarly hair look the one it does in this photo!)

He’s also busy. He hasn’t taken on any new clients in years because he doesn’t have time.

Now, this is a copywriter's marketing blog, you’re probably wondering what kind of kick ass marketing Michael does to guarantee he’s always busy. The answer? None. No Web site, no email marketing, no small business blogging, no nothing. He doesn’t even have a nice salon!

Michael only has to do one thing to keep his schedule full: Stay the best. Michael’s marketing is all those gorgeous heads of hair walking around downtown Seattle. His clients tell their friends how great he is, but they have proof too.

How I wish every copywriting project were like that, but sometimes my copywriting is “me too” copywriting because the clients are “me too” companies. As a Seattle copywriter, I strive to write Web copywriting, email marketing, brochures, whitepapers, etc. as different, to help these clients stand out. But in truth the differentiators between my clients and their competitors is sometimes miniscule, irrelevant or non-existent.

Why don’t we try harder to be different instead of trying harder to out market or out sell the other guy?

The clients who are really are unique? That help their customers solve real-world problems? They’re a copywriter’s dream job. Just as wonderful as one of Michael’s haircuts. And just as likely to establish a loyal customer base because they are the best at what they do.

Are you doing everything you can to be different? To truly be unique in a world full of wanna bes? Then your freelance copywriter is lucky! And you are smart! 

This Seattle copywriter’s life suddenly seems filled with clients turned copywriter. Not that we don’t regularly have clients rewriting our copy, typically high tech ones. (If you’re a copywriter with high tech clients, you know what I mean.) I’m used to having to go back and explain to the techie marketers why we do marketing writing the way we do.

But wow, we have lots of people turning into copywriters all of a sudden, both marketing folks and non marketing folks.

Problem is, we know what we’re doing. We know about writing for the Web, what type and how much information goes on the home page. We know how to speak to the customer, not at them. We know what makes a good headline, and what goes in a brochure vs. on a landing page. We don’t make this stuff up. At We Know Words, our copywriters are constantly reading email newsletters, case studies and more to keep up with the changing world of online marketing and new marketing techniques.

In my humble opinion, hiring a freelance copywriter and then rewriting her copy is akin to redoing your taxes when your accountant is done with them, or redoing the paperwork when your lawyer is done with your incorporation forms (or divorce paperwork!).

So if you know you need a copywriter—and obviously you do or you wouldn’t have hired one--how do you work with her? Listen! Let her do her job. She really is the expert, just like your accountant and your lawyer. It’s her job to make you stand out, not blend in, to get prospects to sit up and take notice of you.

If you want killer copy that’s going to help you market your business, find a great copywriter, answer all her questions about your goals, customers, products, etc. Then stand back and trust her. You know your business, she knows hers.

Now, how can I sneakily make sure this blog post gets in front of the clients who are working under the delusion that they can do my job…?

From where I sit as the copywriter, it seems marketers have a bad reputation because they throw out solutions without knowing problems. We run into this repeatedly: We’re tasked with a copywriting project, but when we ask questions to learn more about the prospects so we can do a better job on the copywriting, we get “we don’t know” as an answer to simple questions like:

• Can you tell us more about person on the receiving end of this email marketing campaign?
• Why will they care about this email?
• Will they even open this email?
• Why do people go to your Web site?
• How do they get there, via search or word of mouth or…?
• What will motivate people to fill out your online form?

We often find if we can talk to a sales person, we’ll get much more useful information than if we talk to the marketing department…but sometimes the marketing department won’t allow it because they have a different idea of what the message should be. They want the message that’s driven from inside the company, not outside. Then guess what? The sales team doesn’t use the brochure or PowerPoint or other sales collateral because it doesn’t convey the right message. And the prospect ignores it when it is used.

Maybe doing the marketing homework means looking outside the company for the answers? Because in the end, you’ll get better results if you’re talking the customer’s talk, not your own.

The best salespeople can sell snow to Eskimos, as the saying goes. Even so, you can imagine my surprise when an enterprising Eagle Scout showed up at my front door in our new home in Eagle, Idaho selling…potatoes. Yes, potatoes!

My first reaction was to laugh and he laughed right along with me. I liked this kid and his chutzpah on a cold November evening. He and his mom had a minivan loaded down with huge, Idaho-grown spuds. Turns out, his troop sells them every year. And they do a brisk business.

Which made me think about this from the perspective of a marketing writer. How often do companies really embrace their quirks? Mostly, it seems, corporations want marketing copywriters to spiff up their image with slick press releases, sparkling brochure copy and eye-catching web writing. All of that is well and good. But there’s also something lovable and appealing about a company that knows itself and puts that personal quality out to the buying public.

It’s a little like Les Schwab Tires with its fresh-scrubbed mechanics and sales folks running to greet you, selling you some new snow tires, and yep, rewarding you with some free beef! After all, Les Schwab was from Prineville, a Central Oregon town whose denizens know plenty about cattle and cold-weather tires.

Here in Idaho, the potato is more than a vegetable: it’s an emblem of state pride. Heck, Famous Potatoes used to be on many an Idaho license plate. So when I bought some of those potatoes from the Boy Scouts I was embracing a little of what it means to be an Idahoan. And because the Scout at my door is a natural at sales, he made sure to deliver a persuasive marketing message--as potent as any dreamed up by a marketing communications writer.  He emphasized these are “export quality” potatoes, meaning they were grown in Idaho but are a higher grade of potato than Idahoans normally get to eat. These were, in essence, gourmet potatoes!

So I bought a big bag of special potatoes—great for state pride, a nice contribution to the local Boy Scout troop and a starchy staple I needed anyway. Now I just need to find some way to use all these spuds!

Driving down the freeway yesterday, I saw a van for Insite Inspection with the question “What’s in your crawl space?” stenciled on the back window right above the Web site address (www.terrisinspect.com).

This is a fabulous example of asking the right question!

All marketers and copywriters know asking questions is a great way to get people’s attention, to engage them so they read your ad, Web site, brochure, email, etc. But those questions often miss the mark because people can just answer them without really thinking and move on.

Asking me what’s in my crawl space gets right to a fear factor and therefore gets my attention. Plus it’s a question I can’t easily answer! It makes me think of that dark, dank place full of countless spiders and other creepy things (so Halloween-y) and yes, I do wonder what’s going on in there: Termites? Carpenter ants? Rotten wood? Is there a leaky pipe perhaps? But I certainly don’t want to crawl in there and find out!

Another favorite example of mine is the huge banner hanging by the side of the freeway asking “Are your trees safe?” as an attempt to market the tree-topping company located there. The thousands of drivers passing by that banner each day no doubt think to themselves “Of course they are.” Imagine the reaction if the banner said “Are your trees dangerous?” Now that would make people stop and think! “I don’t know, are they?”

Questions are a great way to engage and to show people right from the start that you’re familiar with their pains and can relate to them. But make the questions—and all your copywriting—relevant to the customer to make them work.

P.s. I checked out the inspection company’s Web writing. Sadly, it slips right back into that writing for the Web that is so common, the “let me tell you all about me” copywriting instead of the customer-centric copywriting that can be so much more effective.

I’m not sure because I came to marketing communications through the back door, but it’s my impression that “old school” copywriting was a lot about features and benefits. Or I guess I should say is, not was.

Ever since I became a copywriter, I’ve detested those words. I know what they are supposed to mean and to accomplish, but the words never sounded right to me. And all too often a client’s idea of a “benefit” was not the customer’s idea of a benefit. It was foisting the marketing message onto the customer instead of finding out what the customer really wanted and speaking to that. (Again, talking to your customers, not at them.)

So a few years ago I stopped using them. Instead, we started phrasing the same type of information as:

“Our service/product is…” (feature)

“So you can…” (benefit)

That simple change in phrasing made a huge difference in how we get customer-relevant information from our clients! It helps the clients make the leap from thinking about what they’re marketing in their terms to thinking in their customers’ terms.

Try it. Next time you’re writing a web site, crafting a compelling brochure, or mulling over email marketing copy, make a list of the things your customers can actually do if they buy from you.

My last post was about user generated content. And I just had to smile when I saw that blog generated user generated content! In the form of comments, I mean. Hey, this stuff works! And the comments are thoughtful, adding another layer of insight onto what was just a germ of an idea on my part. Check them out… 

But heavy on my mind this week is—as usual--putting the prospect/customer first.  

 I call it talking to customers, not at them. And that means knowing how they think about a problem (“how they see it”), as well as the words they use (“what they call it”). 

First the problem: Many companies fill their Web sites and marketing collateral with copywriting about all their features and benefits from their own point of view. And who can blame them? After all, these people are living, breathing, eating, sleeping these products and/or services every day. Of course that’s their focus.  

But first you have to know what your prospect sees as the problem. If you sell mattresses, but your customer sees the problem as being tired all day—not as a need for a new mattress—then don’t have your copywriter fill the white space with talk about your great mattress. Instead, use marketing messages about how a mattress can improve sleep. 

Then there are the words they use. A former We Know Words client was an office furniture manufacturer. They wanted their Web site optimized for search engines, and they wanted to call their products work stations and panel systems and to use those terms in the Web writing. But guess what their customers called these same products? Yep, cubicles. In the company’s opinion, a cubicle was a derogatory term, one made fun of in Dilbert cartoons. But that’s the word customers used…and searched on.  

Talking their talk isn’t just for search engine optimization. You have to use your customer’s words in all your copywriting or you won’t connect with them: your ads, email marketing, brochures, you name it. And if you don’t know what words they use, ask your sales force. They’ll know.  

Until next blog!