Marketing communication managers shouldn’t worry about hurting their writers’ feelings. This is business. Stop and think: Have you ever said to a marketing communications writer, “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” If so, it’s very nice of you, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Marcomm writers don’t have feelings. That’s why they’re writers. A writer [...]
Give your marketing communications writers feedback they can use. The more useful your input, the shorter the turnaround. And the smoother the dance. Consider the dance of the review loop. Please. For you, the marketing manager, the review loop is usually just a speed bump on the road to getting the piece published. You build [...]
Marketing managers depend on copywriters. Writer’s block is the bane of copywriters. What if marketing managers have something to do with writer’s block? I don’t like to make a lot of writer’s block, or whatever name you want to give to hitting a productivity wall. It isn’t that I don’t believe in it. It’s more [...]
News item: “Apple finally adds the Beatles music to iTunes.” A post about fantastic content that “just happens” to your writer. Every now and then, you look in awe at something your marketing communications writer has delivered. “This is fantastic,” you say. Your writer doesn’t disagree. She also doesn’t tell you that it took almost [...]
Even when your content needs are enormous, you don’t need to start by taking a huge bite out of them. Start out small with a new writer. What happens when you take over the marketing reins in a mid-sized technology company? “There were a jillion case studies, blog posts, newsletter articles, white papers and collateral [...]
Marketing communications writing involves risk, and your writer works on the edge of it. Your content is the big winner. When you assign a piece to your marketing communications writer – even a writer with whom you’ve worked before – are you certain she can do it? No, I mean really certain? Be honest with [...]
“Cleaning up” copy is harder and more nebulous than it sounds. When you want your marketing communications writer to go over existing text, keep a few lessons in mind. Jean, a marketing manager for a new client, sent me a creative brief for some Web copy. As I was finishing the copy, she sent another [...]
What else does your marketing communication writer write? You can learn plenty from it. Your Content Buffet is the smorgasbord of content you use to tell your organization’s story: case studies, white papers, newsletter content, blog posts, technical overviews, brochures and so forth. Consider that your marketing communication writers have their own Content Buffet. You [...]
Have you worked out your company’s messaging yet? How many different messages do you have? Have you shared them with your marketing communication writers? Better get on it. I was at lunch with three execs of a prospective client the other day. They want me to help them tell their story with new content, so [...]
Marketing communication writing projects live and die on review loops. Marketers like talking about what needs to be changed, but writers would rather see it in print. Bigglehole, our staff writer, would like to weigh in on this topic, and respectfully directs these four reasons to clients, in the spirit of delivering to them the [...]
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