Better ways to work with your agency copywriter

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When working on a new ad, your agency copywriter is not just coming up with a (hopefully) clever headline and a few lines of descriptive text. In most cases, he or she is bringing together a host of different elements. Not all of them will be immediately apparent but they are all important.

 

Think about making a sales call. Anybody can walk into a customer or prospects office and say something like “I’m from the Acme Widget Company and our widgets have loads of great features. You should buy them.”  If that was all it took, everyone would be great at selling. But that’s not the way it works. A good salesperson is going to figure out what kind of person he or she is talking too, what kind of widget is right for their application, recognize what the competition might be pitching, how to clearly differentiate Acme widgets from others,  consider how urgent the need is, what the budget will handle and much more. Then, a good salesperson will tailor their approach accordingly.

 

Obviously, copy for an ad is not going to be customized to a particular customer the way a sales presentation would be, but it needs to be just a nuanced. In the limited space available, it needs to get the reader’s attention and make an impression about your company or product. The words that make that happen may not be the words you would use if you were talking directly to the customer. In that situation, you have a lot of other things going for you, not least of which is the fact that they have already decided to give you their attention.

 

A good copywriter has years of experience finding the right words and creating phrases that are easy to read, informative and persuasive. They probably spent a few hours working on just a few short sentences that you can read in 15 seconds. So, don’t be too quick in sending back changes after a first read. Instead, discuss your thoughts with the writer and, by all means, tell them why you think the copy needs to be changed. Given more information and the benefit of your experience and specialized knowledge, he/she may able to suggest alternate wording that is better than what either of you came up with on your own. And he/she will have learned something about you, your company and your products that will help them do an even better job the next time.

 

Here’s one more thought on having a more productive relationship with the people writing your ads. Word-processing software and email make it really easy to make quick changes and transmit them to someone else without ever really talking about the issues involved. How often have you had an email exchange in which you and another person (this is not only about ad copy) have passed a document back and forth, repeatedly making changes and adding short, often ambiguous notes in your emails? What might have been resolved in a 5- or 10-minute telephone conversation ends up taking half a day or more of constant interruptions and misunderstandings. Especially when you are paying someone to help you get your message across to a key audience, do yourself a favor and take the collaborative approach. It will certainly achieve better results and probably save you time and money too.

 

Want to learn more about working with writers? Let’s talk…

What’s the secret to getting your B2B news published?

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Business-to-business (B2B) media are also often referred to as “specialized business media.” And that word “specialized” is one of the keys to getting your news noticed by B2B editors. These publications and digital platforms were established to deliver information that is important to a niche audience and their success depends on how well they accomplish this mission. So, it should come as no surprise that news releases and other material that clearly state why it is relevant to that specialized audience are more likely make it into print or online than those that don’t.

The editor is a gatekeeper. A lot of marketers write news releases (or expect them to be written) as if they were addressing potential customers. Obviously they are the ultimate target, but you can’t speak to them directly. You need to convince an editor to tell your story for you and, while you both have the same objective – to inform someone about your product or service – the editor will approach it differently. You want to convince the reader to buy what you’re selling, as you would in a face-to-face meeting. The editor, on the other hand, wants to capture the reader’s attention in crowded media landscape. That usually, although not always, means he or she is looking for something that is of immediate interest to that specialized audience. That usually means the subject matter is actually new and important, or addresses trend or problem that is topical.

A third element is authority. Almost anything that Apple says about digital devices will get picked up because almost everybody is interested, on some level, in the company or its products. Few of us have the good fortune to work for a company with that kind of authority, and so we need to establish our own authority in every news release. We need to convince those editors that what we are saying is real and important in that particular specialized niche. Some of that authority can be developed by providing detailed and unbiased evidence to back up important claims. Or you can ‘borrow’ some credibility from a third party (a customer or an independent organization) that endorses your product or service.

In other words, when it comes to writing something for the B2B press, there’s a lot more to think about than features and benefits. That’s why a competent PR practitioner can be so useful. It’s their business to know which specialized media reach your customers and prospects most effectively, and to know what is going to appeal to editors’ preferences. They know how to write a release so that it “sells” your story at the same time that it “tells” your story. They are experienced in using every resource to give the story credibility and give your company authority. In fact, the best and most experienced PR professionals have developed their own credibility and authority with important editors who expect that “if XYZ Public Relations sent this to me, it’s probably important for me to share it with my readers.”

Want to know more secrets to a successful news release? Let’s talk…

Swisse Wellness: A case history of a successful customer case history project

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In late 2017, the Healthcare Packaging (HCP) business unit of Clariant asked Collins Marketing Communications to highlight its ability to provide customized desiccant solutions for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical product packages. Clariant HCP directed us to an example involving Swisse, an Australia-based maker of vitamins, supplements, and other health related products.

We determined that a case-history story, detailing Clariant HCP’s work with Swisse would be the best way to achieve the objective.  We began by contacting the relevant players from:

  • Clariant HCP manufacturing (US and Asia)
  • Swisse (Australia),
  • Performance Packaging (Australia, Clariant CDP’s regional representative)

Despite a 13-hour time difference, all participants were interviewed and Collins Marketing developed an 800-word feature article. We then transmitted the story for review to all participants for approval and obtained official product photography from Swisse, showing its current product packaging and the custom-branded desiccant packet developed by Clariant HCP. The completed article and photo can be seen here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fasnkwdff7tf1sn/Branded%20solutions%20protect%20Swisse%20product%20authenticity-FINAL%20with%20photo.docx?dl=0

 

Process:

Even as development of the story began, Collins Marketing identified ideal target publications for the story in markets worldwide. Our targets included the three largest-circulation packaging publications in the US, Europe, and Australia.  As soon as we had the story in hand, we began the media-relations and placement process with these publications:

  • Packaging World (US)
  • Brand Packaging (US)
  • Nutraceuticals World
  • Packaging Europe
  • Packaging News (Australia)

Story placement began as soon as final story approvals were completed. The story and photo were placed in four of the periodicals contacted, reaching a global readership of more than 150,000:

http://www.packagingnews.com.au/news/swisse-fights-counterfeits-with-branded-sachet

https://www.packworld.com/article/trends-and-issues/traceability-authentication-serialization/authentication/packaging

https://packagingeurope.com/swisse-wellness-adopts-unique-label-branded-desiccant/

https://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/issues/2018-04/view_features/swisse-wellness-adopts-unique-label-branded-desiccant-to-protect-product-authenticity/

https://www.serializationcountdown.com/packaging-protects-products-inside-out 

 

Comments:

“Thank you very much for sharing, great results have been achieved – well done to the team.”

– Abbey Thomas, PR Manager, Swisse Wellness

“Excellent!  This is great coverage.  Thanks a lot for your efforts.”

– Mark Florez, Product Manager, Business Development and Marketing,

Clariant Healthcare Packaging

A grumpy old man makes the case for B2B marketing communications

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This ad, created and published by the McGraw-Hill business magazine group, is 60 years old this year. Amazing… and yet it is still – IMHO – the greatest argument in favor of business-to-business advertising and marketing communications in general. It is so simple: until you have some kind of credibility in the mind of your target audience, you really can’t hope to sell anything.

And in today’s industrial/business-to-business world, things are tougher because you probably can’t even get face-to-face with a prospective customer. You don’t even have good looks and animal magnetism going for you. The Old Man in the Chair might just as well be saying “Now why should I read your email?” or “Why should I return your phone call.”

An integrated marketing communications program, including not only advertising, but also public relations, digital/social messaging, and much more, is a critical tool that will allow you and your sales force to spend more time selling and less time introducing yourself. It will also make it easier for you to differentiate your company and your products from your competitors, and justify your pricing.

Let’s talk about it.