Newsletter Archives

PORTFOLIO

• B2B marketing
• Conference and seminar marketing
• Financial services
• Fundraising and environmental education
• Healthcare
• Information technology
• Toy and children's marketing

TESTIMONIAL

"It has been such a pleasure working with someone of your talent and professionalism. Your copy made all the difference in attracting people to our conference, and we couldn't be more grateful."

Sandy Thomas,
American Stock Exchange.

Current & Archived Newsletters

• Volume 1, Issue 1 - July 15, 2005
  
  • Welcome to the first issue of High ROI Creative!
  • Dimensional Mail
  • Email Marketing
  • Event Marketing
  • On The Lookout
  • Coaching & Training Corner
• Back to the Archive

Coaching & Training Corner

How to Turn Your Marketing Staff into Copywriters

In today's hectic and belt-tightening "Do More With Less" environment, many marketing professionals are having to write more and more of their own copy.

This was the case at Source Media (formerly Thomson Financial) where marketing managers write all their own brochures, emails, ads, etc. And because they're a conference company, it's all done under extremely tight deadlines.

So, I was called in to conduct 3 half-day training sessions on 1)"Competitively Positioning Your Event", 2) "Creating Compelling Brochures", and 3) "Winning Email Techniques"

Rather than focus on the fine points of writing, we took a more strategic approach. Here are some of the main points we covered in training:

• Make an internal marketing shift.
  • Move from: Telling the audience what you want them to know
  • Move to: Selling what the audience really cares about. Don't assume you know. Use surveys and interviews. Capture your audience's exact words to create more believable copy.
• Establish your brand's "claim to fame" - and communicate it right up front.
• Establish the right copy and graphic tone depending on your audience. CEOs should not be written to the same way as mid-level managers. Collect samples of writing that conveys the right tone, so that you can emulate the style.
• Update your graphics. As a copywriter I hate to say it, but sometimes you can say exactly the same thing as you've been saying for years if you give your materials a brand-new graphic look.
• Make your copy more actionable. Think about what you want your audience to do - and tell them. Remove any barriers to action by addressing obstacles. Create a compelling call to action.
• Write in short copy blocks.Your first paragraph should never be longer than one sentence. Use subhead, bulletpoints, callouts and captions - your reader should be able to scan a page quickly to get all the main benefits without reading the body copy.

How did it work? Here's what Mary Long, Director of Marketing had to say...

"Your training transformed my marketing managers into copywriters!"

After reviewing the assignments for each marketing manager - who had to create their own brochure - I have to agree. In fact, I'd hire each one of her managers myself!

If you'd like to arrange training for your department or one-on-one writing coaching, just let me know.

Karen's ClickZ Columns on B2B Email Marketing