Buzzwords Copywriting Manchester

Buzzwords has taken another step into the Web 2.0/social media world with Squidoo!  Check out this ‘lens’:

www.squidoo.com/buzzwordscopywritingmanchester

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• Buzzwords was involved in case study writing for hundreds of clients for the upmarket flooring specialists Amtico.  This example - for Elvis Presley’s home, ‘Graceland’ - is one of the more colourful!

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The dynamics of client relationships have always fascinated me.  Apart from the usual inter-personal and ‘personal chemistry’ aspects (which are part of life in general outside the business world!), for freelance copywriters - and anyone else who provides business services - this is overlaid with another all-important perspective.

The simplest way of putting it is to say that the work of clients involves many aspects of a single business.  For a copywriter (etc), their work is about a single aspect (providing copywriting/PR/etc) of many businesses. 

We then have a situation  where client and copywriter are calling up questions which basically focus on ‘respect’.  How many times have you heard the question (inferred or actual): ‘Does this guy really understand my business?’

And from the copywriting/supplier side, we hear: ‘These people don’t understand what’s involved in (preparing a brief/valuing my services/working out a sensible fee/etc)’. 

The best grounding for the best relationships is for both client and copywriter to have experience of working on the other side of the fence - although the likelihood of this happening isn’t great.  Some clients have worked in ad agencies or the marketing departments of other companies.  Likewise, some copywriters have worked in ‘proper’ jobs too!

Given that this blend of experience on either side is a rarity, it’s all down to understanding (and respecting) the scope of the other person’s skills and job demands.

It just so happens that before becoming a copywriter, I worked in several other fields outside of advertising and journalism.  Add to this a background in academic marketing and you have the ingredients for potentially harmonious client relationships. 

Clients who’ve always worked ‘client side’ will inevitably be sceptical about the business know-how of ad agency types who’ve never been exposed to market pricing, workforce issues or working within a departmental budget - to name just three elephant traps!

I raise these points because I feel there’s no magic wand that can solve client-copywriter-agency relationships.  It’s more a case of thinking out loud and counting to ten before criticising the other side.

Trying to understand the differing demands that exist on both sides of the fence is a good starting point.  The intellectual demands are probably similar in extent in that both clients and agency people have to juggle with numerous challenges - and, dare I say it, clients often need to bring as much problem-solving ‘creativity’ to the table as the self-designated creatives in the agency world.

If anything, any lack of understanding probably rests with creatives.  Clients have the the multiple demands of focusing not simply on marketing issues, but also on how they fit in with every other department in a company.  This calls for skills which go way beyond the inter-personal.

It always amazes me that more companies don’t use case studies as part of their marketing mix. Business, by definition, is based on customer transactions and a lot of those must have interesting angles which could be turned into a case study.

So why aren’t case studies more widely used as the cost-effective marketing tool they surely are? 

In some cases, there are obviously problems with confidentiality.  Others don’t want to alert their competitors to the fact that they’ve found a pot of gold and they fully intend to hang onto it!

Some may be ‘too busy’ (ho-ho-ho!); yet others may feel that this is a commitment too far that won’t deliver on the cost-effectiveness front. 

Like all PR tools, the main purpose of case studies isn’t to generate a ‘direct response’.  What they will do is build an awareness, a heightened market presence, for your company over a period of time.

This can be further enhanced by the sheer versatility of case studies.  A case study copywriter can take the raw material of a case study and modify it for use in a press release, sales letter and many other forms of marketing collateral - not forgetting the online applications such as websites, online PR and articles.

A case study is an extended testimonial.  It proves your company has delivered.  Third party endorsement says you can - and you did!  So why do so many companies let these opportunities go begging and leave the way open for their competitors?

Maybe if they spoke to an experienced case study copywriter, they’d open up a new and profitable revenue stream. 

Copywriting for Annual Reports will always be challenging. That’s where I’m at right now - writing away on behalf of a major UK organisation!

Annual Reports must rank as one of the most important documents any business will ever produce. Writing Annual Reports is all about balance - talking in an authoritative way about strategy, Key Performance Indicators, performance itself, people and plans for the future… but all the while making sure that key stakeholders will be able to identify with what the organisation does, where it’s going in the future, and how its achievements are measured and presented.

With all this corporate ‘background noise’ going on, writing effective Annual Reports is as much about acquiring and organising the right information as it is about a consistent copywriting approach. It’s vital to establish a structure from the outset, rather like a website sitemap. This should of course be established in close partnership with the Report’s designer. Decisions on page layouts, photography and graphics are dictated by content and how the information flows.

Achieving balance in the copywritten content is about combining readability with authority.  It’s all too easy to slip into inappropriate informality when writing copy that must always be ‘accessible’ to readers of all persuasions.  This blog, for instance, is written in a fairly informal style.  Taking a similar approach to the copywriting for an Annual Report might cut it with certain journalists or shareholders - but it’s not going to work with bankers and financiers who are looking for a serious and professional analysis of the organisation. 

They may go home and morph into ‘normal’ creatures like you or I - but for the purposes of Annual Report copywriting, it pays to watch your tone!

With an increasing emphasis on online copywriting, Buzzwords can nevertheless offer clients a broad spread of expertise which includes offline creative techniques.   

Traditionally, this began with creative concepts which brought copy and visuals together in ads, brochures and so on.  It also includes editorial writing for PR-related projects such as newsletters, case studies, news releases and features.  In addition, direct marketing skills still play a major part in writing sales letters and ads which sell off-the-page. 

The crossover of direct marketing skills into online copywriting can be seen most clearly with website writing where the customer-focus is paramount.  Online copywriting also includes an awareness of search engine optimization  (SEO) techniques which will improve search engine rankings without alienating the human reader who, ultimately, will be the one who decides whether to buy, enquire, subscribe - or not.  Buzzwords can offer all these skills and more which will be featured on this blog during the coming months.

Over a 20-year period, Buzzwords has worked for blue-chip organisations, small and medium-size companies (SMEs) as well as advertising and design agencies.

Just easing my way back into blogging after a break of six months.  Watch this space as I get up to speed with all things copywriting! 

This is the new Buzzwords copywriting blog.