Sales Collateral Copywriter

Reading David Baker's email marketing blog, I just had an "ah ha" copywriter moment.

He makes the point that we spend so much time, effort and money on creative, and maybe we should spend less on creative and more on content: 

Is this music to the ears of a freelance copywriter? You bet it is, but not new music, rather classical. Good content, engaging content, customer-centric content...this is what We Know Words copywriters have been crafting for 10 years. That is what content marketing is all about.

And we have often as the freelance copywriter taken a back seat to the creative. Many times we've been called in as the website copywriter only to find the design and navigation are set...and aren't appropriate to the message.

Many times have we as the freelance copywriter been tasked with writing brochure copy or other sales collateral with very specific word counts...we couldn't write the right amount to get the message across, rather we had to write long or short enough to fit the already determined space...because the creative was foremost.

Now that we've entered the age of content marketing, and more and more emails are read on smartphones, words will matter more than ever. Content has always been king...but a bit of a tepid ruler, hidden behind a mighty council of designers.

But you know what? The right color doesn't get you found in Google. The right words do. The right logo doesn't get someone to click on your call to action in your email marketing. The right words do. And the design of your whitepaper is irrelevant if you haven't hired a whitepaper copywriter who builds a compelling case for your product...with words.

Thank you, David! I know this wasn't the direction you meant for your comment to go, but I appreciated taking it there just the same. :-)

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.

Sometimes marketers and copywriters get too caught up in the words they write, and they forget that the job of those words is more than just to sound good: those words have to do a job.

Every piece of marketing collateral we tackle, from writing for the Web to press release writing to email marketing to even the lowly sales letter, every piece has a reason for being.

This seems obvious, right? But it’s not. Often people, even the copywriters themselves, get caught up in the words and forget to do the reality check. And the result is fluff, which the world has plenty of but it doesn’t sell.

I’m not arguing for hard-hitting copy focused solely on a call to action. One reason We Know Words is a successful copywriting agency here in Seattle is because we give marketing a personality and voice. But even when your turn of phrase is clever and your alliteration a delight, if your marketing isn’t marketing, it’s a waste.

So next time a piece of marketing or copywriting crosses your desk for review, ask yourself: What is the purpose of this marketing piece? What result should it deliver? Then read it with that critical eye, not the eye evaluating prose and checking punctuation.

Is that sales letter convincing the prospect to call? Is that email persuading the reader to click through? Is that Web page enticing the visitor to delve deeper into the site?

This applies whether you’re a big business or a small one. In fact, small business marketing should be even a bit easier, since you’ll have fewer reviewers and more concensus!

Yesterday was about having something worth saying. Today is about keeping your promise…

Last weekend we visited a seaside town. Strolling up and down the street, we kept running into the Candyman, a colorful character singing and handing out coupons and samples of saltwater taffy. Well, of course my youngest was excited to go to his candy store. After all, he was fun!! A bonafide Candyman! But what a disappointment. The place was shoddy and dirty. The carpet and floors were worn, the employees rude and uncaring. And worse, they didn’t even make the candy there. It was basically an outlet store. Even the taffy was a letdown. A big bag of saltwater taffy is a family tradition for us whenever we go to the coast. But we’ve always purchased from candymakers before, and I made the mistake of assuming someone called the Candyman with a store called the Candyman would be making the candy, and the store would be fun, not drab and icky.

By now you’re probably wondering why this is such a big deal, and really, what it has to do with marketing communications, right? Here’s the thing: Marketing is a promise. Whether it’s your Web content, your email marketing, your printed sales collateral, you’re telling prospects “this is who we are, this is what we’re selling, this is what you’ll get.” And then you have to deliver. If your copywriting markets the professionalism of your staff and employees are dressed shoddily or rude, you lied. Ditto for software that’s sold as scalable but won’t. Or the low-maintenance gadget that keeps needing repair. Etc., etc. Maybe your marketing will get you the sale the first time, but you likely won’t get a chance to sell to that customer again.

Your marketing communications make a promise. Make the right promise, and you’ll get the customers. Keep your promise, and you’ll get the repeat customers.

Yesterday I got an email from a company trying to sell me on a landing page optimization webinar. Now, we write a lot of landing pages at We Know Words (yes, landing pages are another piece of marketing collateral best left to professional copywriters!), and I’m constantly watching for opportunities to stay current on marketing trends. So I was more than interested.

 

As I skimmed the email, I counted four different calls to register, but no price. So I clicked on one of the “register now” options thinking that would take me to a landing page (of course) with more information about the webinar, including price. Nope, took me to a registration form. So I tried another link. Same thing. And another. Same thing. Every link on that page took me to the same registration form.

 

OK, does it make any sense at all for a company to advertise a webinar on optimizing landing pages when they can’t even do one themselves?? And this is a big name company! (Just for the record, no, a registration form is not a landing page if there’s no selling going on. It’s fine to have a registration form on a landing page, but don’t stick it there by itself and expect a conversion.)

 

The main marketing communications lesson to be drawn from this is: Walk your walk and talk your talk! If you’re going to sell a webinar on landing pages, use an optimized landing page to sell it. That’s also part of show AND tell. (Marketing has to be the right mix of copywriting—tell—and delivery—show.)

 

The other mistake they made from a marketing perspective: They asked for too much of me early on in the sales cycle. Which is hilarious given that their email marketing included a picture of a funnel. They apparently chose to send me straight to the bottom of the funnel, but marketing doesn’t work that way.

 

Maybe they’ll do a better job after they see that webinar they’re marketing…

 

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!