VOLUME 22, ISSUE 2 – FEBRUARY 2023
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: WHEN CONTENT “MOVES THE NEEDLE”
Happy Client Finds My Content Goes Beyond “Educating”
II. “FIELD” GREENS: IT’S NOT ABOUT US
Creativity Coach: Keep Your Focus on Your Client’s Challenges
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: WEB DESIGNERS NEED WRITERS
Web Design + Copywriters = Better & Stronger Project Outcomes
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
Me Vs. the Chicken Man: Tips for Managing a Challenging Client
I. APPETIZER: WHEN CONTENT “MOVES THE NEEDLE”
Happy Client Finds My Content Goes Beyond “Educating”
Say “marketing copywriting” and most imagine persuasive copy that “converts”—driving a prospect to pull out their wallet and click “buy.”
But, in today’s content-centric world, more and more, it’s about simply making information more digestible (a client’s word; read on) by readers. Yet…
I’ve worked with this one client since late 2020. Press releases led to case studies, sales sheets, white papers and (often lengthy) blog posts.
Typically, my client will send me existing source materials that explain most of the features and functionality of their offerings—but in a fragmented fashion—and my job is to turn that information into more user-friendly versions of the above project types.
There’s a big demand for this, and they’re paying me well for it—far above typical “race-to-the-bottom“ content wages.
While my writing is ostensibly about educating and informing, demystifying a subject and making it more digestible for a reader, what I’m doing for them is absolutely moving their prospects closer to a purchase.
Check out these quotes from the client, not shared to beat my chest, but to underscore how important my work is to their overall marketing strategy—and their bottom line:
“Excellent job of digesting the information and organizing it into a format that is so approachable and understandable…Had to share: we have had multiple clients reach out to us after finding this article online…Great job of showing what they have the power to do and the ease with which it can be done, while addressing a “pain point” they all experience…Your efforts are helping make us a knowledge leader in our industry….We’re planning a big budget increase because the papers you’ve done have been a huge success!”
Nice to hear of course, but what I’m realizing is that there’s content, and then there’s content—writing that, yes, informs and educates, but its far stronger marketing spin moves the reader more swiftly along the sales cycle.
I have yet to dissect it further, but a few ideas come to mind:
- Write conversationally. My client wrote this about my writing: “It’s as if they are sitting next to you on a couch vs. being lectured in a classroom.”
- Write like a marketer.Structure the writing with a logical flow that recognizes the reader’s challenge (pain point), introduces the solution, details that solution, and paints a picture of the desired outcome.
- Make it scannable.Use catchy subheads, bullets and brief copy.
I’m thinking there’s some cheese down this tunnel, so I may delve deeper at some point, but for now, on this “writing-content-that-converts” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: IT’S NOT ABOUT US
Creativity Coach: Keep Your Focus on Your Client’s Challenges
Got this short and sweet piece from friend and colleague Sam Harrison, Atlanta-based speaker, author, ad-agency veteran and coach on creativity topics and presentation skills. While written originally for agencies pitching to companies, it’s a great reminder to folks like us as well.
It’s a variation on the “Features/Benefits Equation,” which dictates that our writing should focus on the benefits of our clients’ offerings (i.e., the things that matter most to our clients’ clients), NOT the features of those offerings (i.e., all about the company, their products, how long they’ve been in business, etc.)
I don’t know who the decision-makers are for your ideas. But I know this…
When we present an idea to decision-makers, they aren’t the least bit interested in our pain.
But they are exceedingly interested in their pain.
They sit there wondering how our idea will ease their pain.
Solve their problem. Provide them with worry-free sleep.
Make their lives and jobs less arduous and more enjoyable. Make the lives of their decision makers less arduous, more enjoyable.
The last thing they want to hear are our problems.
The overtime we put into the idea.
The hassles we had with technology.
The sleepless nights and supreme sacrifices.
They are less interested in how we got to the idea and more interested in what they can do with the idea.
So, keep the focus on them, not on you.
Stay out of your problems. Stay in their solutions.
TIP: When preparing to present your idea, imagine your decision makers sitting with signs in front of them reading: “What’s in it for me?”
“The world doesn’t want to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby.”
Johnny Sain, baseball pitcher
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: WEB DESIGNERS NEED WRITERS
Web Design + Copywriters = Better & Stronger Project Outcomes
Got this great piece from Tom Tortorici, Atlanta copywriter and web content writer. Tom works directly with businesses, web designers and marketing agencies, helping companies make a genuine connection with their audience.
While originally written for web designers to underscore the benefits of having a writer onboard, it applies just as well to regular graphic designers.
Use it to see how a veteran copywriter positions what WE do as writers, as well as providing talking points for our own client discussions.
Web designers love to design. It’s their job, it’s their career, it’s their creative passion. What they don’t typically love is figuring out what the words in the website should say.
Marketing-savvy designers know that effective messaging is key to attracting, engaging and converting online buyers. But even talented designers sometimes treat content as a design element: something to fill a hole in the layout.
Either way, the freelance designer may work with their client to cobble together the words to get the site done.
While that’s typically a frustrating, time-consuming hassle, without a thoughtful marketing strategy or persuasive copywriting, no one’s likely to be attracted, engaged or converted.
The solution is an easy one. If it’s worth spending money on a professional designer for the aesthetic appearance of the website, then it’s worth spending money on a professional writer to capture buyers’ hearts and minds, getting their cursors to inch closer to the Buy Now button.
Here are some of the ways that websites designers have made their lives easier by bringing a professional copywriter into the fold.
- Staying on Schedule: A website project that’s supposed to take 8 weeks is going on 6 months. Why? Because the client has promised to supply their own copy, and they’re not at all sure what to write—if they even havetime to write it.
While having a writer on board for interviewing and writing doesn’t guarantee fast turnaround, having one more deadline-driven team member invested in the process lets the designer knows the final, approved content will land in their hands by a certain date.
- Gathering & Organizing Information: Having to create a cleanly organized website out of the client’s random bits of verbal input, old sales letters, and a haphazard data dump is out of a designer’s wheelhouse.
But a professional web writer knows what questions to ask, which ideas are worth emphasizing, and how to break everything down into separate pages and sections that make sense for the reader, not just the client.
- Web-Page Structure: Some designers like to create their layouts before they have any of the copy. That makes as much sense as having a contractor build you a custom home, beforethey know what rooms or features you want.
In this analogy, the copywriter is the architect; their copy helps define the pages and sections needed. The designer simply uses that as a guide as they build the layouts around the approved copy, section after section, page after page.
- Reader-Friendly Pages: Web designers make everything fit, handle technical issues, and make it all look clean and professional. But they’re not as focused on the sensibilities of real-world buyers with a problem to solve.
It’s the writer’s job to translate company-speak to customer-speak. A designer alone may simply repeat what the client said, yielding an insiders’ perspective instead of a buyers’ perspective.
Plus, with their short attention spans, web readers start by visually scanning pages online, to see if the company hits the right notes, before digger deeper.
Good copywriters create ‘scannable’ pages, by putting the most compelling messages in prominent headlines, and using other techniques to draw buyers in, on both a logical and emotional level.
Hiring a web designer and a talented copywriter ensures a more effective, expedient and smoother process and outcome for any website project.
PB: Forging partnerships with ANY design pro—including web designers—is the subject of my newly updated ebook, Profitable – by Design2!
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
Me Vs. the Chicken Man: Tips for Managing a Challenging Client
A copywriter who prefers to remain anonymous (for obvious reasons!) sent me this great piece on managing tough clients. I, too, have been overwhelmingly blessed with great clients (though good writers often end up with great clients), but have had the occasional knucklehead as well.
Virtually every single client I’ve had has been kind, pleasant, thoughtful and appreciative of my work. But one was the complete opposite.
This guy was a smug son of a gun who’d mark every third sentence of a draft with a rewrite request, usually leaving vague criticisms like “causation? Chicken and egg.” From that point forward, he became The Chicken Man.
Normally, I wouldn’t put up with that, but his company paid excellent rates. So, I stuck it out for nearly two years, learning some strategies for dealing with a challenging client.
1) Stay professional: The Chicken Man’s edit requests could often be outright rude: “This is so far off. REWRITE EVERYTHING!!!” While it was hard not to snap back, I stayed polite and professional—not only for my own pride, but because others at the company were seeing my notes.
2) Ask for rate increases when appropriate: With most clients, rewrite requests decrease over time as I learn their styles and preferences. That didn’t happen with the Chicken Man. If anything, they seemed to increase as he became comfortable demanding more.
I went to his boss (in charge of budgeting), showed him my current rates weren’t enough, given the hours I spent editing. He agreed and gave me a substantial pay raise, but the Chicken Man became even more demanding—probably to get his money’s worth!
3) Set time limits on projects: After a year, I realized that no matter how hard I worked on a first draft, I’d be asked to do a massive rewrite. To make the numbers work, I started spending less time on the first draft, using it more as an outline than a finished product.
If he sent me 25 edit requests, I’d do 23, but explain that the others were far too time-consuming—like one that would’ve involved cold calling a new source.
Not recommending this strategy first, as I always aim to go above and beyond, but when extra efforts go unrewarded (and it’s a flat fee), you need to find ways to limit your hours in order to stay profitable.
4) Keep searching for other clients: Luckily, the Chicken Man made up ~10% of my workload. Though I was fully booked, I kept marketing, landed some other excellent, high-paying clients, and was able to reduce my workload with him.
After two years, his company went in another direction, and I wasn’t sad to say adios. But, by toughening me up, he gave me some good ideas for coping with other challenging clients.
Got a client who marks up your whole draft? Tell the Chicken Man I said hello!