Tell or yell: tone and manner in marketing writing

Posted on April 25, 2013 by joebardin

We have a client whose default mode for marketing writing is overstatement. He’s very successful, very bright and very LOUD. Sometimes it works – there’s a place to pound your chest and claim kingship over all you see. It can work in our favor too — he calls me the greatest writer on Planet Earth. Which I of course appreciate.

But overstatement isn’t always the answer. Calling yourself a “legend” in your own bio can be quite alienating. For a while there it seemed like every other commercial was for someone who was “redefining” their industry. I seem to recall Buick even running such an ad. Buick, really? How about just being a good car for the buck that supposedly can fit Shaquille O’Neal? We can’t all be redefining our industries all the time, or there would be no definition to displace.

Besides being inaccurate, overstatement is sometimes simply inappropriate. The purpose of marketing content is to create connection through relevance. Tell your target audience something they need to know and you’re on the right track towards creating a conversation. But burying them in platitudes about your own awesomeness may not strike their interest. After all, it’s not your awesomeness they’re really interested in, it’s their own.

No one tone of writing is right all the time anyway. The tone needs to align with the purpose of each piece. Even a serious brand can be playful at times, and playful brands can be serious. Sometimes it’s the tonal shift that adds to the impact of a particular piece. This doesn’t mean that brand standards don’t apply, only that monotone marketing is, well, monotone.

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Writing case studies: sometimes more is more

Posted on April 19, 2013 by joebardin

Marketing writing is often about compression. How quickly and succinctly can we get our message across? But these speedy, smooth sentences can some times leave out the kind of detail that specialized audiences connect with. Case studies can provide the platform to expand on your offering and show how your solutions works in real world application.

For an architecture firm, we’re currently writing a series of case studies, each describing a different project they have designed. We chose the projects to illustrate the depth and breadth of their work and to get into the nitty gritty of what makes them effective. This is vital for a service-oriented organization where success is in the execution – not just what they do, but how they do it.

We’ve all seen the standard format for case studies a thousand times: Challenge, Solution, Results. This works to organize the narrative into clear sections for readers. It also helps ensure the writer is telling an effective story. But sometimes, the challenge portion is not particularly impressive. Or the solution may be identical to a previous case study. Or there may be no quantitative results to report, only anecdotal ones. So rather than calling out these areas of narrative weakness, it can be advantageous to avoid this formulaic structure, and simply tell the story straight through, while summarizing key info in bullet points.

As one of our writers put it, sometimes we need to be more Charles Dickens than Earnest Hemingway. That is, sometimes we need to write more to communicate more. Potential clients doing their due diligence will be more than willing to spend a few additional minutes to read the details. Especially if it gives them greater confidence in selecting such a key resource as the right architectural partner.

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Messaging the impossible: People Unlimited dares to own its difference

Posted on April 12, 2013 by joebardin

One of my clients, People Unlimited (www.peopleunlimitedinc.com), promotes an idea that most people consider impossible – physical immortality. Only a very very small minority of people feel that given the right conditions – open outlook, supportive people, healthy living – the body can continue without end. I happen to be one of them.

As you may imagine, this has led to some interesting discussions about how to position People Unlimited. It’s a membership driven organization and regular participants gain all kinds of benefits from their attendance at events and other activities. They become more inspired to live and to be healthy and to clean up toxic relationships and to let go of limiting beliefs. So why not just talk about that? Why talk about physical immortality?

For a few years, People Unlimited’s tagline was: Physical Immortality Now. While this made very clear what the organization stood for, it didn’t mean much to the majority of people who have never put the words physical and immortality together. Because of this the organization recently changed its tagline to: Go for your unlimited life. This seems more relatable, but still connects to living without end in the sense of being unlimited. Given that logic, why mention physical immortality at all?

The answer is that physical immortality is the core driver behind all the benefits members experience. Not all members believe they can live forever. But even those that do not are enriched by the excitement and openness and support that the living of physical immortality engenders.

So is the message about living physical immortality? Or is it about living as if you were going to live forever? The latter is much more rational from a skeptic’s point of view. But from a branding point of view, it’s a dodge. And for an organization that wants to be known for its straightforwardness, that’s not an option. Furthermore, in a personal growth market that is already crowded with experts offering all manner of transformation, physical immortality clearly stands out from the crowd.

The bottom line is that People Unlimited is different. Might as well embrace that and connect with people who are ready for that difference. Otherwise, they are investing resources to reach audiences that will never become customers.

http://www.peopleunlimitedinc.com/

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The benefits of being good: positioning social consciousness for bottom line impact

Posted on March 20, 2013 by joebardin

One of our clients has a serious branding challenge — they’re doing real good in the world. Almost every company has some charitable giving or community service component. But, ironically enough, when doing good is fundamental to your brand, it can actually raise questions regarding both intent and quality.

We messaging strategists are always looking for real differentiators and often they are hard to find. So I was amazed to discover that one of our clients provides incarcerated women with a chance to learn a profession, earn money and even gain full employment after they get out as a fundamental element of their business model.

I didn’t discover this on our first meeting or our second or our third. Now that we are helping them to better define and communicate their brand to the marketplace, I understand their reticence.

When I tell people about this great operation, they immediately wonder if the women are being exploited. (They are not – they earn enough to leave with significant savings in hand.) And for the organization’s clients, there can be questions of quality as well. Is this good-doing at the expense of services rendered?

When you read about an Apple plant in China that is such a sweatshop that several workers commit suicide annually, you may not like it, but it doesn’t make you doubt the quality of your iPad. The same might be said of child labor factories in Cambodia where your Nikes have been made. On the other hand, the message of helping people may be met with suspicion; are you going soft on getting results?

So it’s vital to position doing good in the context of the bottom line benefit to customers. Don’t leave it up to your audience to connect the dots – spell it out for them. In our client’s case, the benefit boiled down to motivation. The incarcerated women provided an exceptionally motivated staffing source in an industry that is notoriously under-motivated and transitory. To put it bluntly: they have nowhere to go and nothing better to do. In addition, the company’s employees are motivated, knowing their efforts not only earn them compensation but help improve the lives of women who need a second chance. In fact, some of these employees used to be there themselves!

It’s not enough to merely do good in the world. Like anything else, you have to communicate it smartly to get a fair hearing.

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Innovators: identify your audience, ignore everyone else

Posted on February 6, 2013 by joebardin

Broad based appeal isn’t always the answer, especially for innovators. A marketing agency I’ve written for for several years started including me in their own positioning discussions to help with their messaging strategy. Their owner is a serial innovator. He loves integrating new technology into marketing. He’s got a gift for it. As a result, he’s been successful and has supported significant growth for several long-term clients and continues to do so.

But he’s frustrated because he’s got a clear competitive advantage, but doesn’t know how to communicate it to the world at large. The agency has a strong market presence based on its track record. They get new business because people hear about the results they generate. But their message of innovation isn’t getting through. Even their existing clients who know and love them, don’t really understand how they do what they do. So how in the world are non-clients going to get it?

He’s written a book, which I helped him write, laying out his methodology and why it returns considerably more than traditional marketing strategies. But who’s got time to read a book? Also, marketing agencies are masters at claiming every capability under the sun, so they all sound alike even when they aren’t. Digital marketing, dialogue marketing, 1 to 1 marketing – who knows what these things really mean and what capabilities they should entail?

In fact, this is a challenge in almost every industry today. Business has gotten so complex and specialized that it’s virtually impossible for a non-specialist to sort out the facts. One strategy is to focus on the benefits this agency provides rather than how they provide them. But every marketing agency essentially promises the same benefit: cost efficient growth.

For true innovators, I believe, the real answer is to talk to other innovators. Forget your geographic locale, forget your industries of specialization. Those are simply coincidences of place and experience. Target cultures of innovation that match your own. Speak to marketing directors and marketing VPs who are sick of the status quo and are looking for the a new way to drive growth. They are the ones who will take the trouble to understand your methodology and to appreciate the value of what you offer.

You’ll still get the walk in business from referrals who just know you’re effective. But target your story for others who are already looking for what you are.

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Collaboration: honesty is the accelerator

Posted on January 25, 2013 by joebardin

I was recently in a meeting with a financial services company to help them develop strategic messaging. One member of their marketing team kept making absurd suggestions. Either he wasn’t paying attention, or he was stoned, or he was simply obsessed with playing out metaphors — birds, wings, flight, horizons – related to the company name.

But what was even nuttier, was that the marketing director, who seemed otherwise very bright and capable, twisted herself every which way to find legitimacy in this guy’s ridiculous suggestions. Which only led to more of the same, until the conversation got so nonsensical it was like an episode out of The Office.

Real collaboration isn’t a free for all. It takes focus and honesty to bring minds together to work on a single task. This is true whether it’s about an ad campaign, brand positioning, content development. Whatever. Sometimes we all need a redirect. We need to be told: that’s not the point, this is the point. When done right, there’s a collective energy and insight that accelerates the process rather than slowing it down. Ideas rise and fall quickly based on the input of others. The best becomes apparent.

Collaboration isn’t about collecting, as much as it is about sorting and refining. Many alternatives may be heard, but ultimately, a direction must emerge that is sounder, more enhanced and more vetted by others. This is the real purpose of the collaborative process. Not be heard, but to create.

No one is ever right all the time. A strong collaborator knows when others are on the mark, not just themselves. But they also know when others are off track, and that it’s not an insult to redirect them. In fact, a respectful redirect minimizes the sense of “being wrong”, and enables everyone to move on.

This lets everyone speak more freely, because you know the group will efficiently digest your suggestion and not hold it against you. Another way of saying this is: if being off is too terrible to mention, than the one who’s doing it is really an incorrigible fool. And none of us wants to be treated like a fool. So it’s ok to be honest. In fact, it’s an essential accelerator.

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Ghostreaders wanted: taking ghost-services to the next level

Posted on October 15, 2012 by joebardin

These days, hiring a ghostwriter to write your book is hardly a matter of shame. In fact, it’s becoming a status symbol of sorts, a measure of having made it sufficiently to have some able-bodied writer do the job for you. One is either too busy to write one’s own book, or too smart, or simply too engaged in one’s success. From that vantage point, writing your own manuscript is almost passé. Who does that anymore?

But what about an author who is not only too busy to write his own book, but too busy to read it? I’ve come close to that predicament, but ultimately, the client buckled down and did his reading. But last week a ghostwriter told me he was stuck. His client didn’t like books, even his own, and refused to read the first few chapters written. He had no complaints about the ghostwriter’s work, he simply didn’t want to sit down and read. The client encouraged the writer to just keep going, but the writer was wise enough to understand that some level of response, approval and buy-in was necessary to move forward.

The situation was getting so serious that the writer’s next payment was going to get held up, so I suggested that perhaps the client could hire a ghostreader. We had a good laugh over it. This would be a sort of companion service to ghostwriting, and could be a significant additional revenue stream. Other related services might include a ghostmodel for the author shot, and a ghostpresentor for the author tour, should it come to that.

The real next level is hiring a proxy to live the experiences that would eventually be written about. After all, who’s got time to live all the experiences and be struck by all the insights and overcome all the adversity it takes to fill a book?

Providing these essential capabilities could be all part of a full service ghostwriter offering.

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An open challenge to web developers: deal with the content conundrum

Posted on May 4, 2012 by joebardin

There is much that makes sense in online marketing. Brand strategy makes sense. User experience considerations make sense. SEO sensibility makes sense. Social media even makes sense, when done right. One thing that does NOT make sense is designing and building a smart, sophisticated web presence while ducking the whole issue of content.

Great sites need great content. Otherwise, their greatness is greatly diminished. It’s the people who are interested in the brand who actually read what’s written there. And if what’s written there isn’t as thoughtful and compelling as the site’s structure and design, well then, that very structure and design is not going to perform as well as it might otherwise.

Why then do developers so regularly avoid embracing content creation? After all, it’s their own wonderful work that stands to gain or lose effectiveness.

One answer no doubt is that the client will provide. Often clients assume this themselves, and occasionally it is true. Occasionally clients come through with solid content to fill their site with substance and meaning, and do so in a timely manner. But often they cannot, and delays ensue and frustration and comprise and ultimately, everyone is just relieved to have something there, so the site can go live. It’s hardly the high road to excellence.

Another answer is that the agency will provide. Web developers view content as another hairball they’d rather simply obit around, so they leave it to the clients’ agency to sort out. The drawback is that agencies don’t always like long copy either. Also, they can be prohibitively expensive when a full site is in need of their attention. Furthermore, these days, the web strategy is the marketing strategy, at least in large part. So there may not even be an agency in the picture.

What it may all come down to is a feeling of fluency. We like to do what we are really good at. Web developers aren’t really good at copywriting. They are really good at web development.

But if, say, just for example, they had a partner who was, like, really good at writing, and wasn’t, like, afraid of having to produce page upon page of clear compelling content. And, just speaking hypothetically here, that partner could scale their resources, and deliver such volume work at reasonable rates, wouldn’t that be a competitive advantage?

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The advent of the non-writer writer

Posted on April 24, 2012 by joebardin

In this era of blogging, every one is a writer. Which is another way of saying there are a lot of frustrated people out there. Not to mention, some pretty shabby content.
Because if you don’t have strong skills and focus, the results aren’t going to be great.

On the other hand, for blogging and social media, the expectations are not particularly high either, so, in a sense, you can get away with it. So much for selling the writing services of Relativity Writing.

This peculiar moment in marketing evolution has given rise to a new class of creator – the non-writer writers. NWWs are people who don’t like writing, aren’t good at it, but write anyway. Like writers, NWWs offer up material of wildly varying value, interest and import. And, like writers, NWWs can become frustrated with the process. But NWWs are particularly tormented in that they have no clear reference point as to whether what they are producing is any good. They are burdened not just by the task at hand, but by the cloud of the unknown in which they operate.

The most troubled Non-Writer Writer is the involuntary one, or the INWW. INWWs are the poor folk who included writing on their resume back in the day, because, after all, they are not illiterate, who have been swept up in the publishing free for all that is the Internet and thrust into writing by their employer. Whereas the NWW is typically some entrepreneurial type, who simply can’t pass up the opportunity to communicate via social media no matter how awkward it might feel, the INWW is doing it for their job.

It is the INWWs who are most fervently waiting for the next generation of technology to mutate the marketing moment once again, and propel us into the post-blogging era. Whatever that may look like. And in that, at least, they are not alone.

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Branding innovation: the toaster approach

Posted on April 18, 2012 by joebardin

A friend recently sat down to pick my brain about an idea he’s got for a new business. He’s in the fitness sector and he’s got a truly new perspective related to training, strength and injury prevention. He spent about an hour outlining his thinking, and I enjoyed listening to him. His analysis is original and engaging. I learned something new and in own mind started applying it to my own challenges with my back.

But when it comes to marketing, he’s got some obstacles to overcome. Chief among these is that while many of us love new stuff, we don’t like the time it takes to understand it. The best copywriting in the world isn’t going to get people to tune for an hour.All marketing and marketing writing is a shorthand, a brief symbolic stand-in for the whole story we’ll never be patient enough to listen to. This works fine for laundry detergent. Just say something about Ring Around the Collar, and we get it. But what about truly innovative stuff we don’t know yet?

I suggested to my friend that he think in terms of what problem his technology could solve. By focusing on a benefit, he can radically compress the storytelling, while still communicating value. I gave the example of a toaster. According to Wikipedia, the fist pop up toaster was patented in 1919. I still don’t know how it works. I just know it makes toast and that I like toast, especially with glutten-free bread, which tastes pretty bad raw. I do know there’s a heating coil inside the toaster powered by electricity but if you had to explain to me all the inner workings of the toaster I’d never finish breakfast.

Marketing innovation is all about communicating application. What is the “toaster” for my friend? Perhaps sciatica pain relief. While people may never take an hour to learn about how their musculature really works, they may well download a 20-minute video to learn exercises that will relieve lower back pain. We just need to make sure not to make it too much of a pain for them to understand the benefit.

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