RSS FEEDS
Part 2 in a continuing series of white paper outlines, each with a different structure and focus. Here, an outline for white papers that guide readers through revolutionary change. This white paper outline is about The Revolution that your new ideas and technologies ignite in your customers’ organization. Suppose you want your prospects to: replace [...]
Part 1 in a continuing series of white paper outlines, each with a different structure and focus. Here, an outline for white papers that educate readers on new technologies. If you’re writing a white paper for yourself, you can get away without writing an outline first, but if other people will approve the paper, you [...]
Do you know how powerful customer interviews can be to your content buffet? Have you spent time collecting testimonials and endorsements from your clients? In its report, “Social Media 10 x 10,” Beeline Labs calls these “the one social strategy with 10x the value of any other social media tactic.” An eVoc Insights study found [...]
What kind of criticism do you give your editor-writer? What does he do with it? This paper starts out awful and goes downhill from there. I’ve never said that to a marketing writer, but it has a funny, ironical ring to it. I would chuckle as I clicked on “Send” to deliver news like that, [...]
Do you ever feel this way? Have you ever hired a writer who felt this way? Worse yet, did somebody else in the writing process make this complaint? Sometimes it’s not just you and the writer and the subject matter expert working on your content. Sometimes an outside force like a PR agency or another [...]
Have you ever had a writer say that to you? How did you respond? More to the point: How can you be ruthless in your feedback on a draft? I consider the line a good ice breaker. I’ve used it with marketing managers and engineers who appear uneasy about the process of judging my writing. [...]
A marketing manager told me about a white paper gone awry. How many errors do you see in this chain of events? The VP of Marketing wanted a white paper and told the marketing manager what he wanted the title to be. The marketing manager called his regular copywriter and told him about the project. [...]
Continuing on the topic of white paper projects that didn’t go well, today I describe the second of two categories. Didn’t Go Well and Resulted in a Bad White Paper (or None at All) These situations are frustrating for everybody, and it’s hard to control the resulting damage. Warning signs: Wrong writer – Sometimes it’s [...]
Do you have any white paper projects in your files that didn’t go well? Mine fall into two categories, and I’ll post on the first one now. Don’t Go Well but Result in a Good White Paper These are like the basketball games in which you make mistakes, bad passes and poor shots, but you [...]
Review loops rarely go fast enough for me. I spend a lot of time reminding – “pestering” is a less compassionate way of putting it – reviewers to turn copy around, because writers need time to incorporate changes, and some reviewers forget that until the eleventh hour, then expect final copy in no time flat. [...]
