reynoldswriting.com Blog

You know that powerful new marketing campaign you’re unveiling in 2011 — the one that will help you turn your business’s fortunes around, build upon current successes, or establish you as a new player in your industry?

Well, here’s a gentle reminder: 2011 starts in January. January 1st, to be precise. Have you got that shiny new marketing ready for rollout?

A strong, comprehensive 12-month marketing campaign typically involves some combination of several individual elements — copywriting, graphic design, web development, social media platforms, multimedia presentations, et cetera. These elements work in concert to create a coherent, cohesive statement about your company. So as you can imagine, this stuff doesn’t fall together overnight. You have research to do, battle plans to construct and several skilled professionals to corral. If you haven’t put the pieces together by now, your marketing calendar could miss the starting gun for the new year.

But don’t panic. If your dreams ran ahead and left your implementation behind in 2010, all is not lost. You can still assemble your creative team and produce some interim or “pilot” marketing pieces to keep yourself visible until that bigger machine powers up. Remember, a professional copywriter or graphic designer can dream up brilliant content in a fraction of the time you’d spend at the drawing board yourself. And a good copywriter can also refer you to plenty of other marketing pros to help you move forward.

Even if you can’t get your full-scale blitz going by January 1st, you can still do something. So — do something!

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

I have fielded phone calls from a few prospective clients that felt like job interviews: “Tell me why I should go with a professional copywriter instead of writing this stuff myself.”

I could, I guess. I could tell those people that a professional copywriter can produce more powerful and effective marketing content in a fraction of the time it would take them to stumble to the finish line. I could point out the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing such a job while the client stays productive doing what he does best. I might even suggest that he wouldn’t be calling me at all if he relished the thought of writing his own copy.

But I don’t do any of these things. Why? Because by and large, people either get it or they don’t. The ones that don’t will not become my clients no matter how I respond. The ones that do are only asking that question to hear a validation of what they already know.

A recent blog by copywriting guru Peter Bowerman makes this very point. Bowerman calls this phenomenon “The Salad Dressing Rule.” If you sell salad dressing, he says, you can make better use of your time selling to people who already eat salads than struggling to convert people into salad eaters so they can buy your product. With the time and effort you put into creating a new veggie lover, you could’ve sold umpteen bottles of dressing to the folks who load up their grocery carts with Romaine lettuce every time they shop.

I would even argue that some copywriting clients who think they get it actually don’t. If someone asks me to serve as little more than a transcriptionist, for instance, that client may not understand the full value of drawing on a creative professional’s experience and expertise. Or the client that enthusiastically hires a copywriter and then keeps trying to wheel and deal for a lower price or “special rate” — this person does not truly value the work as something worth paying good money for.

So I no longer plead my case on those initial inquiries. I’ll direct people to my online portfolio, submit additional samples if requested and send over my current rate sheet. The rest is up to them.

Hope they like salad.

For more about my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Entrepreneurship has been good to me, in more ways than one. I regularly write for independent representatives who sell insurance, health products, packing and shipping services, you name it, as franchisees or independent representatives of a major national brand.

Wait a minute, I hear you saying. (Or maybe not, but humor me.) This person sells a nationally recognized product or service and still needs marketing content? Surely an industry leader with a zillion-dollar marketing budget pumps out all the web content and print marketing collateral it needs to remain visible year in and year out. Surely such a household name can sustain its own marketing momentum.

Well, that’s absolutely right. A big-name franchise can take care of itself — but does it take care of you, the independent business owner?

I can’t tell you how many times a client has said to me, “I sell XYZ National and they give me all this marketing content that explains what it is, what it does and how to buy it. But none of this stuff promotes ME.” If you’re selling that household name in a major metropolitan area, chances are you can find a thousand others selling the exact same thing — with the exact same cookie-cutter marketing copy. If you don’t do something to make yourself stand out, you’ll never emerge from that crowd of anonymous salespeople pushing the same goods with the same company colors and the same business card and the same everything else.

Sameness will render you invisible. Fight sameness by branding yourself.

Say you sell insurance through a major national provider. Well, you don’t really have to go to bat for a company already enjoying enjoying instant recognizability and a great track record, do you? So instead you go to bat for yourself. Market yourself as an independent insurance expert and offer that national provider as the flagship of your product line. This approach also lets you bring in other, related products and services under the umbrella of your own brand. The result? Your business takes the center seat, not the 800-pound gorilla you sell.

If you represent a national franchise, find that unique spin on who you are and what you do that makes you the go-to guy for your product or service. Then announce that special quality to the world — through your own customized marketing.

For more about me, my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — hiring a professional writer can save businesses a lot of valuable time and effort. Not only can overworked business owners or marketers devote themselves to more profitable pursuits, but they’ll also get polished, effective copy in a fraction of the time they would spend doing it themselves.

Ever wonder why that is?

Sure, it’s easy to make vague references to practice making perfect and the development of one’s writing “chops,” but what are we really talking about here? What is it about writing every day that makes the words come faster and better? What really happens between the ears of an experienced writer that makes the fingers fly?

I stumbled across a fascinating article by CUNY Writing Fellow Carlos Penaloza that offers some possible answers. Penaloza refers to several scholarly studies indicating that habitual activities actually rewire the brain, creating new biochemical pathways that make the activity progressively easier with repetition. The brain literally remodels itself based on what we do and how often we do it.

Why can that pole vaulter sail over the bar every time? Well, because he’s talented. But aside from that, he’s done it a zillion times more than you or I have. He’s trained his brain to issue the precise instructions his body needs to perform the vault at top efficiency. So it goes with writing — or any other occupation.

What’s more, it seems that habitual everyday writing makes it easier for us to finish a writing project once we start. I’ve rescued countless clients who set out to write their own marketing copy, only to get hopelessly stuck at some point in the proceedings. They knew what they meant to say, they certainly had the intelligence and eloquence to say it well, but they hadn’t sailed through choppy writing waters often enough to do much more than lash themselves to the mast and hope things work themselves out — a good way to end up in the middle of nowhere.

So when you hire a professional writer who bangs the keys every day, you’re employing the most efficient possible solution to your writing needs. A couple hours of a professional’s time will yield better results and cost you less than losing ten or twenty hours of expensive downtime to rusty writing neurons. The practiced writer’s brain is a high-speed writing machine that delivers quality work on a deadline. And best of all, it’s available for rental.

You can get inside this writer’s head by visiting www.reynoldswriting.com.

It’s nothing personal. I like you. I like communicating with you at events and whatnot. I might well enjoy reading regular, relevant articles, tips and news items in your e-newsletter. But somehow it just isn’t working out that way.

Do you wonder why more people don’t respond to your e-newsletters? I can’t give you a definite answer without actually taking a look for myself, and even then you’re getting my opinion, not your target audience’s. I can, however, tell you what turns me off. I get plenty of e-newsletters each month. I don’t read many of them. It’s not the medium — it’s the content.

Many of the people who send me e-newsletters have apparently mastered the art of ensuring that I won’t read them. For the rest of you on the borderline, here are a few things you can do to guarantee that I will NOT want to read your e-newsletter:

Don’t ask me if I want it. After all, we chatted at an industry event six months ago, right? Okay, we didn’t chat, but we met. Okay we didn’t actually meet, but we traded business cards. Okay, we didn’t trade cards but we were physically in the same room….None of this automatically means that I’m dying to receive regular emails from you. Ask me first.

Don’t allow me to opt out. Assuming I agreed to receive the e-newsletter, I still might want the option to remove myself from the email list at some point. If I don’t see that option, then I’ll have to opt YOU out instead — by sending all your emails to the spam bin.

Send massive amounts of content that I have no time to read. Most of us check our email on the fly in the midst of a busy workday. If that in-depth white paper or industry study looks like it’s going to seriously derail my forward momentum, I’ll put it aside — and it’ll never get read.

Send the same info over and over again. Tweaking 10 percent of your e-newsletter content each issue does not create a new experience for me.

Send me something every freaking (day/2 days/week/choose your own irritating interval). Even if it’s great stuff, send it too frequently and the signal turns to noise. I tune noise out. How frequently is “too frequently?” Ask your readers.

Send at irregular intervals. Are you publishing quarterly? Monthly? Randomly? Create a regular schedule and stick to it, because that’s what professionals do.

Ask me for money. Just — don’t.

For more about me, my writing services and current package deals, check out my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Here’s another of my mini-interviews with some of my regular collaborators from the marketing world. Today we’ll hear from Jennifer Davis, a freelance graphic designer I’ve worked with on many print marketing jobs. Jennifer not only has 15 years’ graphic design experience, but she also has an advanced knowledge of printing, copying and document management systems.

WR: How has your experience as a document management specialist helped you as a graphic designer?

JD: Document management involves the most efficient movement of information through a company. My knowledge of document management strategies has given me an edge when it comes to seeing the pieces I create and understanding what role they play in the company’s organization. I can visualize the documents I create in terms of how they reflect and complement the business’s overall branding and corporate philosophy, and how they will interact with other forms and documents to help make the company’s intended statement about itself.

WR: What’s the collaborative process between a graphic designer and copywriter?

JD: You and I both need the same information when we work on a project. We need to know the purpose of the piece, the target audience and what it needs to accomplish. You have your job and I have mine, but we both have to stay on the same page and make sure each of us knows all the answers to the critical questions. One thing we often find in working together is that the initial spark can start from either end. Your words might inspire a certain visual approach in my work, or I might give you an image and have you write to that image.

WR: What should someone look for when shopping around for a graphic designer?

JD: A portfolio with a varied style, something that shows range. If a designer’s work all conforms to one style, that designer may not have the flexibility to handle a wide range of jobs or clients. Make sure your designer is willing to look at your competitors’ marketing and use the styles that work best within your industry. Look for a designer who will put your needs first. I tend to think of myself as a salesperson first and a designer second. I love the creative side of the work, but it’s never just me trying to express myself on paper. I put my creativity at the service of the client because the priority, to me, is to give the client a final product that represents a high professional standard, makes an impression and affects the way the client is perceived in the marketplace. It’s about making sales, not pretty pictures.

WR: Why do you specialize in print marketing design in today’s multimedia world?

JD: Well, 15 years ago when I was starting out as a graphic designer, web design technologies weren’t as user-friendly as they are today. I preferred the real-time rendering and previewing I could get while working on a print piece. Also, I really like the physical nature of the finished product, holding that piece of paper with the full-color design printed on it. But I have strong networking relationships with web specialists and other types of designers, so I’m always happy to help a client who needs design for other media as well.

If you’re a freelance writer, you probably have some war wounds. If you’ve been in the business as long as I have, you probably qualify for disability. At this point the non-writer replies, “Wait a minute. It’s writing, not coal mining. You sit in a chair and phrase things for a living. How get you possibly get hurt doing that?”

Well, putting aside mundane physical issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome or eyestrain for the moment, the average freelancer faces all kinds of emotional and financial bumps and bruises in the call of duty. Freelancers who focus on pitching stories or submitting fiction manuscripts have built up many layers of calluses from rejection after rejection — it’s part of the job description, regardless of writing quality. In the marketing world, copywriters seeking new clients may find themselves negotiating hidden booby-traps. Over the years I’ve gotten to the point where I can see some of these potential dangers lurking on the horizon from pretty far away, though once in a while I still get tripped up.

Anyway, here are a few red flags I’ve learned to identify. Hopefully they will help writers steer clear of bad situations while also helping well-intentioned business owners avoid throwing up one of these flags inadvertently.

“We just thought we’d pick your brain on the subject.” This usually means you’re being asked to contribute your expertise for free. You’ll have to decide, on a case-by-case basis, how much information you’re comfortable offering up on a writing project without the meter running. True, the client or prospect can’t use that information as well as a professional writer could, so if they’re smart they’ll hire you to do the actual heavy lifting anyway. But look out for the client who throws out this comment and then hangs on your every word, notepad in hand, and pumps you for an increasing level of detail about exactly what you would do — or you may not end up doing it.

“If this works out for everybody, we have tons of future work for you.” Expect a request for a severely discounted rate or perhaps even a deferred payment, with the “tons of future work” hanging in the air like some great mythical creature that’s certain to appear if you just make the proper sacrifice to it — that sacrifice being an acceptable pay rate. Stick to your guns. If the client truly does have a serious need for your future services, he will understand their value and pay accordingly.

“Write this sample story to show us how you’d write the assignments we’d be sending you.” While some of these requests are no doubt legit, it would be easy for a fly-by-night company to suck in a bunch of free “samples” like a literary Hoover — without actually hiring any of the submitting writers or paying for the articles. Your best bet is with the company that asks for a couple hundred words about your family dog, favorite tree, or some other topic that obviously doesn’t benefit them except as a sample of your style.

Don’t get me wrong, the outstanding majority of my writing experiences have been good ones. But recognizing a few of those red flags when they do pop up sure helps. You don’t have to be paranoid — just keep your eyes open.

Visit my website at www.reynoldswriting.com.

Does your business fill a need? Does it help people? Does it solve a problem?

Of course it does. And that makes you a professional problem solver. We all need professional problem solvers — people who know way more than we do about how to resolve a given issue relatively quickly and effectively. Some of these professionals even share their knowledge and insights with us just because they can. These folks are the ones we really trust, the ones we go to time after time. They are OUR experts.

You may already have established that relationship with your clients. Now, how would you like to build the same relationship with thousands or millions of people you’ve never even met?

Take Bob Vila, for example. Everyone recognizes and acknowledges him as a master craftsman, an expert in the field of home building and remodeling, and I can assure you that 99% of the people who hold that opinion have never met him, hired him or worked with him. So why does everyone agree on his expertise? Because he shares it with us through his website, books and TV appearances. He’s always doling out useful information, in return for which we say, “There goes a guy who knows what he’s talking about. I could do worse than to take his advice.”

You can make yourself known as a trusted advisor too, by establishing your expertise in your field to a wide audience. Write articles, blog posts, and direct-mail or email pieces that solve common problems or answer common questions pertaining to your field (or hire a ghostwriter to translate your diamonds in the rough into polished gems). Hand out information. Help people. Add value.

Who will we trust first — a salesman who sends us generic monthly offers, or one who provides us with valuable insights and helpful tips on a regular basis? Which one is more likely to become our go-to guy when the time is right to do business?

You are a problem solver. Something about what you do brings people relief and makes their lives better. So share your gifts with the world — and receive a world of gifts.

Spring is on its way. That means spring cleaning, and not only for homes. Have you scrubbed all the old 2009 yuck out of your business yet?

Sometimes a business needs polishing or calibration, just as a piece of precision equipment might need periodic readjustment to remain in perfect working order. Have you allowed some slack into the mechanism? Have small inefficiencies conspired to create large problems over time? Allow me to suggest a few areas to check for signs of dust:

Time management. Do you have a firm grip on your schedule? Are you focusing on the daily activities that actually earn you money, or are you passively reacting to every emergency that decides to have its way with you? Stop and examine your calendar like a surgeon examining an X-ray. What items cutting or grafting to make your schedule perform for you the way it should?

Money management. As you can imagine, this relates directly to time management, but it also requires attention on its own. Has your business expanded beyond the capacity of your current money management plan? Have tiny extra expenditures here and there drained money from your budget in ways you never noticed? Now’s the time to pay attention. It may also be time to see where your business needs deeper investment before it can grow properly. Are you marketing yourself effectively? Do you need more staff or another location?

Strategy management. Sometimes a business requires a major shift in its target market, processes, or strategies. In my own business, for instance, I’ve decided to shift my primary focus to working directly with marketing companies instead of business owners. To that end, I’ve had to develop some new marketing incentives and strategies, such as a Preferred Vendors program that will offer special rates to marketing agencies, web firms and other “frequent flyers” that use my services on a regular monthly basis. Has your business evolved in a way that requires a new approach?

You may not be fond of cleanup chores — most of us aren’t — but I bet you appreciate a clean house.

Sometimes the most magical films are the ones with no magic in them — at least not “magic” in the storybook sense. The Japanese animated film Whisper of the Heart contains no magic spells, wizards, witches, demons or gods, and with the exception of one fanciful dream sequence it remains rooted in the real world of a few middle-class kids and adults in 1990s Tokyo. And yet there is magic here — the magic of people deciding what they want to be when they grow up and then transcending themselves to make it happen.

Shizuku loves books. While her classmates occasionally hit the school library to do their homework or prepare for their high-school entrance exams, she’s there every day reading story after story. She also enjoys writing poems and song lyrics for her friends, and they seem impressed by her skill. But that’s as far as it goes, until one day she realizes that someone named Amasawa has already checked out all the books she’s currently reading.

Intrigued by this mysterious stranger with similar literary tastes, she decides to find out who he is. Seiji Amasawa turns out to be a classmate she’s never even talked to before, except to trade the occasional insult. The real surprise occurs when she learns that this “typical teenager” builds violins — and he’s serious enough about it to apply to a school in Cremona, Italy, the Mecca of violin making. As she slowly falls for this ambitious boy, she realizes that she’s reached a crossroads in her life. He has a dream — does she? He’s going halfway across the world for 10 years’ hard study to become a violin maker — is she ready to get serious about becoming a writer?

Shizuku makes a decision to push herself by writing her first full-length story in the two months that Seiji is visiting Italy for his initial evaluation as an apprentice. Anyone who has ever pushed themselves into uncharted territory will recognize the image of the girl slumped over her desk 24 hours a day, pen in hand, neglecting her schoolwork, not eating, not (intentionally) sleeping, and scared to death she doesn’t have it in her after all. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, she hates the story’s second half, she’s ready to burst into tears when she hands the manuscript to Seiji’s kindly old grandpa to read — but she’s done it. She’s a writer.

At some point, this movie seems to say, we have to take that first step forward into the danger zone of What Am I without waiting for the bright light of certainty to illuminate our path. I believe that’s true. It’s true for writers, violin makers, entrepreneurs, or anyone else who seeks to transform his or her life.

This movie reminded me of how scary it can be to write that first story or attempt that new thing, whatever it may be. Writing is frightening. Going for what we want is frightening. Living is frightening — if we’re doing it right.