Tag Archives: Messaging

blogging Business

“The Blog is Dead! Long Live the Blog!”

Blogging works for businessI got in a tiny tiff with a social media person yesterday as we talked about his industry and some of the fascinating changes at bay.

Although I can only paraphrase his comments here (and yes, he did give permission for me to post a rebuttal), he proclaimed the death of blogs, stating that social media channels like Pinterest have marked their death knell. The proliferation and conflation of social media and mobile has changed the way people interact with brands and brand culture. Blogs are still read, but they are most certainly doomed. I respect the guy, so I listened carefully, knowing that people may be asking the same question, finding  similar answers.

Is blogging still relevant in a world where audio, video, mobile marketing, media and social media continue to grow?

If you ask a content strategist, they will tell you “Yes!” and I would argue that blogging is now more relevant than ever.

It sounds strange to hear this, but consider that

  • Micro blogging platforms like Twitter are still somewhat limited in delivering in-depth information. They are more often used as gateways to bigger chunks of info, teasing eyes and clicks with engaging posts and awesome links elsewhere. These areas can be a challenge for brands seeking to engage buyers without looking spammy, so we tend to see them as way to build relationships more than make direct sales.
  • As so many channels compete for users, audiences are getting more and more separated (and sometimes confused) as they traverse from platform to platform. The major players like Facebook are not going anywhere soon, but lesser social media offerings rise and fall with every given week. There will be a point of fatigue. It hasnt happened yet, but it could be just around the corner. People need to congregate in places and learn from the people they wish to connect with. A well managed website with lots of content is fun to peruse. You can also bookmark and come back to it regularly, or subscribe to newsletters or RSS (or content aggregators like Zite or Flipboard). And you can do this without the worry of social media fatigue.
  • Video is highly effective for delivering information and message to visual learners, and it will always be sexier than tons of text–wherever you find it. But video is rarely seen as a medium for gathering tons of raving fans congregating and commenting and making purchases right on the spot. Granted, there are some pretty amazing exceptions to this pattern, brands that have scores of raving ambassadors, and even more customers, salivating for their next release. But this is the power of videos. They can be trafficked and digested quickly and easily, making them perfect for sharing. But how many people revisit their YouTube subscriptions to make purchases? How natural would it be for me to build a Vimeo channel expecting buyers to come soaring in? Video, in this way is best suited for impulse buying or brand building. Community, leads or relationship-building videos are hard to engineer and harder to deliver.
  • Podcasts and audio have been around for years and despite their previous popularity, they only cater to a segment of online content consumers—those with far better time management skills than me, truly. But seriously, if I struggle to make time to watch a 10 minute video, a podcast would have to be so critically important that I would drop everything to listen to it. There are only 2 types of podcasts that could hope to do that. 1) Podcasts of my friends, or 2) Podcasts that would solve a problem I am having right now that brought me to listen. Worse, these podcasts might rest on the company’s branded website, but it would be marketed through iTunes or some website library in order to capture podcast listeners where they congregate.

Mix Your Media and Bring it To Your Blog

Having a blog enables you to use any (or all) of these channels and integrate them in the combinations that work best for your current and future buyers. Having a blog allows you to experiment with platforms and media, keeping the ones that bring quality traffic, possible leads or potential loudmouths who might share your wares with others.

One of my favourite analogies for the blog/social media relationship is the outpost/home base concept.

Imagine that each of the social media platforms that you (and hopefully your customers) use are like outposts on a mountain, places to gather while you are all climbing, foraging, taking photos and getting a sense of the surroundings. Eventually, people at outposts need to head where the meals are bigger, where they can converse and share their stories an experiences and connect on a deeper level. This would be like a base camp, a shelter, a resting point.

Your base camp is your website, and particularly your blog. Here those that felt good about when meeting at those outposts can sit and get to know you, your philosophy and feed on the meatier stuff you offer them.

Blogs are critical in displaying—no, proving your character, knowledge and understanding of your industry. Anyone who doubts their strength underestimates their power in building your brand, strengthening your community of supporters, and generating leads and sales.

If I had a chance to say it, this is what I might have said to the chap I spoke with yesterday. Perhaps I should just send him a link to this page.

I’d love to know what you think about my answer!

Cheers!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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blogging Strategy Writing

Content Curation: Build Authority and Credibility in No Time

Content Curation - Easy, Fast and Fun

Image brutally stolen from www.timslatter.com — THANKS TIM!

These last few weeks, we have been getting some funky new clients specifically looking for blog support and social media help.

They have been running into issues managing their content, and in one case, they simply didn’t feel that they had the time to commit to their blog, even with an editorial calendar in the ready.

Maintaining your blog and appropriate social media channels is essential in building and maintaining your levels of traffic and reaching your online marketing goals. But your ability to gather and distribute information in an organized way could create more challenges than your efforts might solve. Time, ideas and, well, TIME are things that come up for people struggling to create original content for their followers

Content Curation: A Simple Answer

There are a few easy ways to distribute content. These may include:

  • Aggregating “Daily News” feeds (like paper.li for Twitter accounts)
  • Blog posts linking to other original web or video content
  • Links on social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+
  • Bits of content hosted on media platforms like Pinterest
  • RSS feeds (though they seem to be fading in use)

Content curation is a great way for you to minimize your time and efforts bringing “new” content to your audience by simply using others’ materials that your viewers would like to read, see or interact with. You are essentially pushing another author’s content within your posts.

Content Curation Is Not Content Creation

Content curation does not involve you having to do piles of writing (or having to hire someone like us to do so), so don’t mistake it for original content. You are simply pushing out someone else’s work on your site, and this provides some serious benefit to you:

  • It costs a lot less to grab and post relevant content from other resources
  • It demonstrates that you are looking at your blog as more than a promotional or sales space, more like a repository of resources for your customers and not a just a place for them to hear about your products
  • It demonstrates your brand’s industry knowledge and expertise, as well as your understanding of current and future leaders in the space.
  • It helps you reveal your passions for the subject matter, as you can provide your take on the content, the parts that are correct, the issues or the caveats within the subject.

So before your heebie jeebies kick in warning you of posting other peoples’ work in your posts, remember that crediting and providing your own take will go far in establishing your level of knowledge and uniqueness with your audience.

So go get ‘em!

Best of luck,

!d

And remember, you can always drop us a line, if you have any questions. Shy folks, feel free to comment. If you like the human touch, give a call or hit our contact page.

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Writing

Are you content with your (web) “content?”

The worlds shortest web content blog post!

How content are you with your web content?

Ain't it the truth!

Hear ye, hear ye!

I bet you wonder why on earth I haven’t been posting for the last two weeks, okay maybe not.  ;)

BUT we’re been busy managing our clients’ work, and frankly, they will always come first.

We do have some great news, though. I was asked to post on the X5 Management website this week.

Here it is. http://x5management.com/blog/are-you-content-with-your-content/

It’s pretty good, so I recommend you pay Mike, Joseph and the X5 team a visit. Their blog is very informative and balanced.

I hope my entry fits in.

Have a great week!

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Writing

Wow, My Blog Sucks: 6 Ways to Get Over It and Get Better

Your blog sucks and it's ok that your blog sucks!

Don't worry, this is just a prop! Your blog will be fine.

We’ve had a really fun-filled week. We met with a few clients of our good friends at Paper Leaf Designs, and we spoke candidly about business blogging and what it can do for them. One of them complained about their blog saying it wasn’t fresh and they thought it sucked when they looked around at others in their field. It can sometimes seem daunting or painful when people scope out top drawing business blogs with dozens of weekly entries and a warm basket of fresh comments beneath each post. I wish I had an extra 30 minutes to tell them what they really needed to hear, but time wasn’t on our side, so I asked if I could blog about it.

So here are six simple ways to get over your sucky blog.

1. No Original Content

This is by far the most dangerous play you can make on the blogging pitch. Syndicated content moves around the internet because it is created and promoted by content farms. These are the Monsantos of website content. They drown the world with drivel of low nutritioonal value. Don’t be a part of the problem. Prove yourself valueable. Use your blog to bring your expertise and understanding to your readers.

2. Self Centred and Self Promoting Blogs

I like to follow the Golden Rule of Blogging: Love thy reader as you would have them love unto your blog. Don’t get caught up with telling too much of your story and miss out on sharing your customers’ perspectives. They deserve to hear about themselves as much as they deserve to learn about who you are and why you do what you do.

3. Poor SEO and a Lack of Traffic Because of It

There are very simple steps to take to make sure that people can find you. SEO can seem like a complicated realm to navigate, but it doesn’t have to be. Label the tags for your photos and use appropriate keywords in the description and title tags for each blog post. Be sure to use links for websites you cite and link previous blog posts (that are relevant to the current post). This will go far in helping new visitors find your blog. Read our post about blog optimization here.

4. Poor Blog Organization

This is problem that we often encounter when we first visit a newly launched blog. They might have useful information, but if the blog isn’t properly organized, we can’t shop around. I simply refuse to revisit poorly set up blogs. I am far too impatient to deal with it. Keep an archive handy for people to click through, and have well managed categories, topics and search tools. Using your keywords will be a good start point for how you might want to label your content.

5. Lack of Frequency, Lack of Consistency

Frequency is the mother of relevancy. The world will only want to frequent your website if you have new content for them to digest on a regular basis. Also, people will shop through your archive, so if you don’t post consistently, you might look unreliable. Imagine if your favourite monthly magazine suddenly decided that it was too busy and published bi-monthly to take a break… Not acceptable. It’s good to treat your blog with the same reverence. Your people should matter that much. An editorial content calendar and schedule will help prevent you from such pitfalls.

6. You Only Suck Because You Think You Suck!

Our beloved coach, Mike Mack from X5 Management recently shared a quote from Henry Ford, and he keeps it framed on his wall. “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” The fact is that every blog sucks, since every blog starts from the same place, the beginning. The world’s best and most heavily read blogs began with one post, and even the most seasoned blogger knows that the biggest room in their house is the room for improvement. Don’t fret about your social media promotion. Don’t frown because your post lacks comments. Don’t complain about your design or cry about not having crazy apps that make everything look more professional. It gets better if you work at it, but it takes time to master anything, especially blogging. All of those other factors will work their way in if the focus is in the right place.

Remember the Blogging Golden Rule, and if necessary, follow Mike Mack’s lead and get in up on your wall.

And since that’s such a fine idea, we’re doing it too.

Have a great week!

Idris

If you are ready to have a serious conversation about your business blog (or lack thereof), get in touch with us. We’d love to help you out!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Writing

Business Blogging: 7 Quick Tips, 7 Absolute Truths

Businesses, get ahead using your blog!

"A blog-blog-blog..."

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. Mack D. Male, one of Edmonton, Alberta’s blogging elite will be hosting a seminar downtown at the Alberta Business Link. For those who can make it, there is no need to RSVP. Just show up with some business cards and GET YOUR LEARN ON.

In honour of Mr. Male’s upcoming session, I would like to share some perspective on business blogging and where the Red Paper Clip team sees it going.

Tip 1: Growth does not equal saturation

The consistent growth of business blogging over the last few years is impressive. Email marketing and social media promotion of business blogs are new but essential methods to build leads, authority and community. Their flexibility through the use of platforms and services like WordPress, MailChimp and Aweber makes it easy for even the most novice of content creators.

But the continued growth of business blogs hasn’t slowed down the readership. In fact, it continues to blossom in ways that puzzle even the craziest economists. The readership resource is far from extinguished. For new bloggers, the water’s still warm.

Tip 2: Let your data be your guide—er, DRIVER

Don’t ever let a content strategist, social media person, or anyone who has a job on the Interwebz tell you that data doesn’t matter. One of the greatest advantages of the internet is that everything is trackable. Use this to your business blog’s advantage. Track clicks through Google Analytics, search socially trending topics on Twitter trends and Google Alerts, and get a sense of what people really want to know. Your relevance to them—and your popularity—will skyrocket within a few posts.

Tip 3: Treat your business blog more like a moving magazine

We’ve entered a really interesting time in content creation and management. Today, it’s easy to post images, diagrams, client testimonials, comments, questions, videos, clickable links and audio conversations. Take advantage of these content possibilities by looking at your business blog more like a magazine and less like a sidebar newspaper column. I’ve seen industrial business blogs that look more like climbing magazines (by design, of course), and they earn a much higher yield of leads and traffic than their more conservative counterparts.

Tip 4: RSS is D-E-D: Stick to email marketing for leads and business

The fact that I have to further explain so-called Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to new and established clients is proof that they are never going to catch on. I can’t be bothered to tome on their history (since I predict that their death knell might be in 2012), but here is a great explanation. I always suggest that companies keep their email lists close to their hearts, because it’s where some of your best leads will always come from.

Tip 5: Mobility isn’t the it-girl, but she’s about to be!

I like imagining mobile and smartphone communication like I imagine Zooey Dechanel’s  recent explosion on television. Dechanel’s been in film for a few years, and she’s been working her skills on the big screen just fine. But since earning the lead role in The New Girl, she has been surrounded by a crack team of comedy writers and producers that has really shaken the industry up. Mobile phone use is the same. We’re sitting in a perfect storm of mobile market advantages (ease, cheap prices, easy applications, ubiquity) and the world has thus responded. Keep mobile users in mind when preparing your blog topics. Avoid anything that might not translate well to mobile users, and they will continue to visit.

Tip 6: There will always be bloggers who know more, but only YOU can tell your story.

The proliferation of business blogs has created one problem: There is so damn much information out there, readers often don’t know who best to follow. Many of us in the same profession may have similar views on best practices. So how do you keep those lucky few who visit? Tell your story and keep it up top in your messaging. Readers like to connect with people more than information. Be human. Be courteous. Be professional. Be yourself.

Tip 7: Use SEO blogging best practices to stay visible.

People will read only what they can find. Using simple and effective search engine optimization practices will ensure that you rank where you need to, captivating the right audience to build those leads. Great content is invisible without good SEO. We’ve a few good articles on the matter here.

So for those of you in Edmonton, I look forward to meeting you at the Business Link seminar tomorrow!

Bests,

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Strategy

Don’t Be That Company!

"That Guy"

"That Guy" or "That Company." It's all the same in the world of social media!

Friends. Followers. Fans.

Whatever you call them, they’re your people—your online community.

Do you treat them as such, or has your company’s Twitter feed, Facebook page, blog and email newsletter turned into a spam machine, with update after update after update about new products, services and company-held events?

While some may view social media as a means of distancing ourselves from one another and taking the personal out of personal relationships, the opposite is true when it comes to marketing. Once someone has liked, followed or subscribed to you, they have essentially brought you into their circle. They have not only granted you access to their personal or professional online network and presence but they have also gone out on a limb to show all of their followers, friends and fans that they in some way identify with your company and its message. Respect this.

How Should You Treat Your People?

1). Engage them

This often involves posting great articles and links you think your people can use, not just updates about you. It’s also about talking to your people. Asking questions is a great way to build community. If you’re a coach, ask them to share or send you a story about a time they surprised themselves by achieving what they thought was unachievable. If you’re a clothing designer, ask them to share the worst clothing trend they fell for in high school. Just get them talking!

2). Always reply

When someone does use your social media channels to talk to you or share your material, don’t ever ignore them. A meaningful reply is best (too many “thanks for posting!” comments will feel automated), but any acknowledgment is better than none.

3). Pay attention

Just as you’re using social media as a networking tool to boost your online presence, your people are too, and it’s all about give and take. Take the time to look through your list of people and see what they’re up to. It’ll give you some great insight into who they are and what they’re looking for, but it’ll also give you an opportunity to talk directly to them or to share their material. When they see that you care enough to pay attention to them, they’ll care enough to pay attention to you.

Tip: If you have a lot of followers, it can help to use a program like SocialBro to create lists of people to keep an eye on. You may not have time to pay close attention to everyone, but even if you can create a list of 50 contacts whose engagement would be a real asset to your company, you’ll still come out way ahead of the game.

In essence, what we’re talking about here is the Golden Rule. We all want our friends and acquaintances to see us as people and to put in the time to stay connected, even if they’re not our bestest best friends.

After all, if you wouldn’t want to be your friend, you can’t expect anyone else to.

Business Marketing Strategy Writing

Who is Lululemon?

Lululemon "Who is John Gault?" bag

Photo credit goes to Rick Marazzani at MindPosts

Recently, Lululemon began distributing shopping bags with “Who is John Galt?” printed on the sides, following up with a blog post explaining the company’s decision. Unsurprisingly, this has put Lululemon at the center of controversy as some identify with the message and others paint it in a less favourable light, as a libertarian message endorsed by a company that sells a lifestyle based on conscientiousness and harmony.

I’m not here to discuss Ayn Rand’s politics. Instead, what interests me in all this is whether Lululemon is really all that off base in using such a loaded and controversial literary symbol.

What Were They Thinking?

In its blog post, Lululemon explained itself by saying that it’s John Galt’s pursuit of greatness over mediocrity that is behind its latest marketing inspiration.

Fair enough. No little kid responds to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with, “I want to be mediocre!” And hey, the notion that we can all be whatever we want to be and rise up above circumstance with the right mindset is soothing, kind of like a comfy pair of yoga pants and a cup of hot herbal tea, no?

What’s contentious here is the philosophy of how such greatness is achieved. According to Rand, it’s by acting in self-interest and having a government that stays well out of your way. It’s political.

Using politics in your marketing is ballsy, and those behind the campaign had to have known this would earn the company some enemies.

Or has it?

Who Wears Lululemon?

Something tells me that the people passing Lululemon’s blog post around on Twitter and Facebook and talking about how disgusting this all is aren’t regular Lululemon customers. Lululemon lost the love of the leftist and hippie yoga crowds long ago with its pricing, upscale locales, sweatshop labour allegations, and ubiquitous presence on the bodies of well-to-do so-called “yuppies” and “yummy mummies” in line for an extra-hot skinny latté at Starbucks.

And it is those bodies that Lululemon is marketing to.

Chances are, if you’re the type to have a hate-on for Ayn Rand, you’re not—and never have been—Lululemon’s target market.

The reason so many people are upset at Lululemon’s “Who is John Galt?” campaign isn’t because their much-loved athletic wear provider is a turncoat. It’s because it further reinforces what they already know Lululemon to be: A corporate retailer that has found its niche in high-end, fashionable athletic attire and that aims to profit off of the latest trend in all things yoga, pilates, and dance.

Those Who Try To Please Everyone Please No One

Fact is, Ayn Rand, or at least Lululemon’s interpretation of John Galt, likely resonates with those who are able and willing to spend $100 on a pair of stretch pants. There’s nothing disingenuous about Lululemon’s marketing here. People are strongly divided on the issue, to be sure, but those on the side of Lululemon are exactly the ones Lululemon sought to appeal to.

When it comes to everyone else, well…

No love lost, right?

 

Having not looked at Lululemon’s market research and having not consulted them on their choice of words, I can of course only guess at the company’s motives and provide distant assumptions about the campaign’s effectiveness. However, if you’d like to see how you can use the written word to connect with your best people, contact us to arrange for a free consultation.

Marketing Writing

Features vs. Benefits

Knowing the Difference can change your bottom line.

How does what you do change your clients' lives?

I have to be completely honest.

We had a bit of a strange encounter recently.

We received a call on the phone from a gentle chap who was pricing proofreading services for his new company’s website text. The design was complete, and he simply wanted a steady hand and eye to be sure that what he had was clear, complete and error free.

We were happy to take a look and put together a quote, but what I found scared me, and it made it hard to give a basic quote (for the record, we cannot be one thing when we have specialization in several services).

So we decided to talk about it here—gently, in the hopes that the price checker checks our website for some cheap but very useful tips.

This is what we found in his work:

The web writing was all about the business (features) and not
about the clients (benefits).

One of the most important elements of web writing, and marketing writing, is this:

You must focus on the client’s benefits first and talk about your features last.

CLIENT’S BENEFITS FIRST.

YOUR. FEATURES. LAST.

The average website has about 6-10 seconds to make its case before the reader makes a beeline for the address bar. Don’t tell them what you have, tell them the benefits quickly, then work on to what it is. One of the easiest ways to do this is to pose a scenario or question. You can use the most common scenario of your target client. Something like:

Are you a [target client] who is [client scenario] while still [secondary scenario]?

We can help you [client benefit] through [your system/technique name or process]

Our [features] can give you the edge on [secondary client benefit], and get your business/customers [client solution].

This might sound a bit choppy at first, but try plugging your benefits and features into the spaces. You can rework the sentences to better highlight them and watch your client benefits rise in the writing. You can even further emphasize them by using bold letters or larger fonts, but be careful not to overdo it.

Keep working the text until you have something that sounds and feels smooth. Test it on some current clients and see if they “feel” the difference compared to what you had before. You might be surprised with the outcome.

Oh, and as for the curious shopper? He ended up choosing someone cheaper, but let’s hope he still pops by! We’d hate for him to miss this…

Cheers,
Idris

Design Strategy Writing

Content and Design: The Halcyon Twins

Content and Design can work together

Courtesy GetWebDesign, Australia

I once attended a design lecture that featured a well-known Canadian thought leader in industrial design. He waxed on about the hallmark of great design—and he opened the question up to the room: “What constitutes good design?”

The room was silent. Then a few voices mumbled. In the following two minutes, the group gathered the answer.

“The hallmark of great design is a product that compels the user to use it in the way it was intended with ease and simplicity. The form of the product and the details of that product help users to clarify the function of that product for the user.”

An everyday example is the standard milk carton. The form protects the contents from warming up or sun damage. The plastic twist spout allows the contents to be poured easily and keeps the content fresh.

As we left, I wondered about how universal this truth in design was for people in communications, content development and print. It boils down to creating standards that are created with the reader in mind—standards that we as content creators and readers can be comfortable with. And in the case of business, print, and web writing creating and maintaining these standards can mean the difference between readers understanding you and readers not understanding what’s in front of them.

When we talked about it, a few relevant design considerations for content writers emerged:

  • Website design follows a grid in a similar way that newspapers and magazines follow their own specific grid templates
  • The hierarchy of information puts the broader information at the top of the grid and the deeper details and supporting information within the grid
  • In news journalism, disseminating news content from broad to narrow is referred to as the upside-down pyramid
  • This gives people the ability to scan the information, if they lack the time to read further, but it allows them to gather what they need
  • The principles of this are mirrored online, where people’s eyes work from the top left point of the page to the main header area (where the headlines are). People’s eyes then scan downward and toward the right of the page, much like an “F” pattern
  • For newspapers, magazines and websites: Headlines, bylines (the name of the writer), subheadlines, and introductory paragraphs give scanners a chance to gather what they need to move forward
  • Those who have the time to read further can feel free to do so without losing a sense of where they are going
  • White space keeps the readers’ eyes from getting tired, and it keeps readers from losing their place while they read longer pieces. They are more than a simple convenience.

So with this information in mind, we took a look at our client’s materials, and this included proposals, business plans, website copy, blogs and landing pages. Some jobs needed a short review, but keeping up on design principles in the medium we write for keeps us up to date, and our readers will not get confused or fatigued.

If you want to look further into the elements of content design, a great primer is Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think.

Forever choosing his words carefully,

Idris

Marketing Strategy Writing

Good Professional Writing Pays for Itself

Photo Credit buy-seo.com

Professional Writing Pays for Itself

Now,
I don’t mean to start off sounding like a bad infomercial for produce-saving tupperware, but many writers find that it’s difficult to explain to prospective clients why paying for a professional writer is worth what may seem like another burden on an already-stretched budget. For one thing, many companies already employ at least a few proficient writers who are often assumed to be capable of taking on writing projects on an as-needed basis. For another thing, our society continues to stress the importance of visual images, and it has become increasingly difficult to wrap our heads around the fact that the writing that goes into an annual report, sales letter, brochure or website is just as important as its design and its effectiveness in showcasing the company’s visual identity. After all, recent studies have reported that the typical visitor to a web page scans only one or two pages—if that—before deciding to purchase what is being offered or to move on to a competitor’s site. Couple that with cliché sayings such as, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” which, to its credit, is backed up with numerous studies that demonstrate the power of visual media, and it’s no surprise that writing is often overlooked.

So why does the work of a good professional writer pay for itself? Many copywriting blogs have exhausted this very topic, but those that I’ve read have all said the same thing: Good copywriters know how to write leads that translate into sales, generating more revenue than what was paid out for the writing itself. Some writers have likened their role to that of a Don Juan-esque character artfully seducing a potential buyer into a sale, while others proclaim to know how to wield the time-tested sales copy formulas that have worked like magic for generations.

And you know what? They’re right.

While I take personal issue with likening a potential buyer to an unsuspecting woman that must be lured into the sack (I’m not making this example up, I swear!), one can’t argue with the fact that sales copy that generates a profit is always worth the cost.

But…

…there are other forms of professional writing whose efficacy may not be as immediately evident or as easily trackable as sales copy but that can have just as much an impact on a company’s bottom line as a swanky mailout package.

Take, for instance, a business plan. Any medium- to large-sized company should be investing in a new business plan at least every 3-5 years, particularly if the company has external shareholders who need to see more than just an annual report to know whether they wish to continue to support the company. Business plans, in conjunction with documents such as annual and fiscal reports, have the power to attract new investors and to maintain the support of existing ones. And while it’s not likely that you’ll ever hear a shareholder say that he or she invested in your company because last year’s business plan had some killer writing, you’ll certainly notice it if that plan fails to convince readers that your company’s management and marketing strategies, projections, and corporate profile make it a worthwhile investment. The same applies when you’re talking about strategic plans, proposals, and annual reports. In these cases, you’re not selling your product; you’re selling your company.

Jim’s a pretty solid writer. Let’s get him to do it!

Now that we have established that there is a direct monetary gain to be made from forms of professional writing other than sales copy, let’s examine other, less tangible reasons for which it’s important to not simply entrust the task of writing, say, an annual report to the marketing team or to the summer intern. First of all, professional writing is just that—a profession. There’s more to it than being a “good writer,” just as there’s more to being a mechanic than being “good with your hands.” You may think that the honor-roll summer students or the marketing gurus who are never stumped to find a good tagline may be perfect for the job, but you’ve got to be quite the writing expert yourself to know whether they’re really on par with the pros or whether they’re just better at writing than you (sorry!).

The marketing team can handle it. It’s not that busy these days!

Second, let’s suppose that there are oodles of top-notch writers in your office—yourself included—and that all of them really are capable of meeting your writing needs. Who will be doing their (or your) job in the meantime? Will you be bringing in other people to take over your “writers’” regular duties, or are you just piling the responsibilities onto the staff and setting the stage for future workload issues and grievances?

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs in which I will expand upon some of the ideas discussed in this post. In particular, I will soon share some tips to help you determine when it’s really worth it to invest in a copywriter (after all—not all writing projects need to be done by a pro); how to determine which copywriters are actually good (many aren’t), and of those that are good, how to choose the one that best suits your company’s specific needs; and why “lower-order” writing concerns such as grammar and punctuation can have a huge impact on readers’ responses to your written documents.

Toodles,

Geneve