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 yourself and you’ll acknowledge that of course you’re not certain.

Good for you, marketing manager.

The Wisdom of Insecurity

Philosopher Alan Watts wrote a book called The Wisdom of Insecurity. I’ve read it three times and still can’t remember anything except the title, but that’s all I really need to remember. And, although people all around you scream for figures on ROI, there’s a wisdom about the unquantifiable parts of your job that make you insecure, one of which is assigning a challenging piece to a writer.

I had a lively chat last week with local colleague Joseph White, who told me about marketing pieces he’s done for a manufacturer of ruggedized equipment in nuclear containment facilities.

“How did you know you could write about it?” I asked.

“Well,” he replied, “I had a university professor from Texas who once told me, ‘Back home in Texas we say that if you’re not in over your head, you’re probably not having much fun.’ I’ve always remembered that. I think it’s at the heart of good writing.”

Your writer faces some in-over-her-head on most of the pieces you assign, believe it or not. And, when she’s having the fun that comes from it, your content is the winner.

It’s Risky Because It’s Natural

We all try to avoid risk, of course, forgetting that it’s nature’s way of reminding us that we’re alive. But assigning a tough piece to a writer is just an extension of the risk and peril you incurred when you got out of bed that morning.

And don’t forget that the writer, too, incurs risk. You both have plenty to lose and plenty to gain. I think it’s a strong argument for working closely together, which is another way of saying “managed risk.”

A new client underwent rigorous ISO-certification with the express goal of turning it into a part of their unique value proposition. “Most of our customers develop very specialized products,” one of the partners explained to me, “so they ask us a lot about the quality and accuracy of our consulting services. After 30 years of doing this, we know that their real concern is that they can’t afford risk. It’s against nature to try to eliminate all risk – nobody can do that – but the ISO-certification shows them that we’re serious about managing it.”

So let your writer get in over his head. Manage the risk by working closely with him and ride that risk to new content. You’ll be the better marketing manager for it.

John White of venTAJA Marketing is a marketing communications writer for technology companies. He posts about technology writing from the perspective of the marketing manager. It’s dirty work, but somebody has to do it. Download his eBook, “10 Questions to Ask When Hiring Your Marketing Communications Writer.”

photo credit: Paul Sapiano

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Let’s assume that you’ve hired the writer, or that he has hired you. What next?

Target Reader

The first thing we need to discuss with the writer is your target reader: Whose attention do you want to get, and what floats that person’s boat? Some knives with which to cut this include:

• Point in the sales cycle – Do you want material for early in the cycle, when you’re acquainting the prospect with your product, or later, when it’s time to open the hood and describe what’s inside?
• Sophistication – Some prospects don’t need or want much information before they buy, but it might take you a dozen of those easy sales to make up one hard but enduringly lucrative. You can’t use the same piece on both audiences.
• Messaging – Is your internal message fully baked yet? I’ve seen marketing teams walk away from a willing and able writer because the thought-leadership paper they wanted required a solid, unambiguous message and a soul-search upon which they had not yet embarked. The writer’s line of questions, while tactfully posed, made everybody realize the company still had too much homework to do on its intended market.

Once you’ve worked out the target reader, you can decide which materials – white paper, case study, Web content, technical article, blog – are the best fit.

Unique Value Proposition

Next, you need to describe your service or product in terms that will make it appear unique to that target reader. It needn’t be unique in the entire universe, but it will need to make you stand out from your competitors in the eyes of target readers, given their level of knowledge about your industry.

So, if you’re selling language translation services, don’t waste time and money writing something indistinguishable from what your competitors write. If you’ve armed the writer with enough information about you, she’ll write a document that could only be true about you.

Tell a Story About Solving the Customer’s Problem

Finally, here’s Big Surprise #1 for the 21st century:

Nobody cares about you, your company or your products. People care about whether you can solve their problem.

Big Surprise #2 is:

People love a good story.

Can your writer marry these two and tell a story about how you can solve the reader’s problem?

Now that’s writing.

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