Points 6-10 of my ten-point copy and content audit tool

Here’s the final part of a short series introducing my tool for assessing the suitability and quality of existing marketing content. You can also use it to assess new content while it's still in the draft stage.

If you haven’t read my blog summarising points one to five yet you can do it here. (Quick reminder, they are Context, Clarity, Comprehensive, Customers and Clickable.)

To wrap things up, this is a run through points six to ten.

6. Competition

If your competition has created similar content, you probably need to check how your piece stacks up against theirs. Maybe when you published your piece it was the best source of information around. But what if someone has since gone one better?

You could use other criteria in this framework to score competitor content, seeing how it matches up against yours in a head-to-head. For example, is competitor content more comprehensive than yours, or more customer focused?

For online content this step starts with Googling to find competitor content similar to yours. But don’t just use the obvious on-page copy for this comparison. Dig deep to see if competitors are publishing white papers, eBooks, videos, webinars, podcasts, slides, infographics, FAQs, case studies, how-to guides and so on.

I like to print out a few examples and get my Sharpies out. I annotate with notes on what I would like about the competitor content if I were a reader within the target audience. I do the same thing with hard copy content such as brochures or print advertising.

All the above refers to assessing how individual pieces of content stack up against competitors. It’s worth also mentioning some things you can look at to assess your overall content against competitors. Five criteria to consider are:

Volume. Does your total amount of content look slim compared to what your competitors offer?

Publishing frequency. If you publish news or a blog every couple of months and your competitors do it weekly, you may have a problem. (An easy fix to hide the fact that your frequency is poor is to remove dates from blogs, if you are blogging ‘evergreen’ content that will always be relevant.)

Subject matter. Are competitors covering subjects that you haven’t even thought of? (Or thought of but never got around to covering?)

Social media engagement. The level of likes, shares and comments competitor content is getting could be an indicator of how well their content strategy is resonating with audiences.

Traffic and SEO performance. Tools like Alexa, Moz and SEMrush can tell you how well competitor content is performing in terms of the traffic it’s attracting and its SEO performance.

7. Credibility

There’s a very simple question you can ask yourself to instantly assess the credibility performance of a piece of content:

If your most wanted customer read the piece, would they be more willing to do business with you as a result?

Improving performance in several of points 1-6 in this framework will bolster the credibility factor of your content. But now is the time to zero in on what you can do to go further.

Here are five examples of content you can add to build credibility:

1. Numbers. Do you have any stats that strengthen any claims you are making about the performance of your organisation, product or service? Remember to always say where those numbers come from, ideally referencing reputable external sources.

2. Expertise. Sharing genuine expertise could mean interviewing the experts within your organisation. Involve the people who know their stuff.

3. Co-create. Content created in partnership with credible influencers will likely carry more weight than content you produce on your own. Who do you (or colleagues) know across your industry? Can you involve them? (In a 2017 survey by DemandGen, 87% of B2B buyers said they give more credence to industry influencer content – so try to get influencers working with you.)

4. Links. You may not want to link people away from your content. But including a link or two that backs up anything you are saying makes you appear more involved and engaged in what’s happening across your sector.

5. More help (and less sales). Too much salesy content can ruin your credibility. You look desperate. Sell less. Help more people, more often. (Unless, of course, the content really is purely a sales piece.) 

8. Creative

Being creative all day, every day is hard. It’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of ‘churning out stuff’ rather than fully committing to excellent content. That’s why when you assess existing content you may find it’s a bit dull, even if when it was published everyone loved it. (Maybe everyone loved it because it was finally finished after a painful process.)

Assessing a piece of content’s level of creativity is not easy. It’s almost impossible if you just try to score it based on a single, blanket ‘creativity’ metric. This could be why advertising legend David Ogilvy preferred to use the word ‘remarkable’ instead of ‘creative’.

Instead, try asking these questions:

• Does it really answer a question or meet a need?

• Does it stir emotions?

• Does it have a great flow, like the best stories do?

• Does it instantly look as though it will be an easy, interesting read?

• Will readers think ‘this is about me and my life’?

If the answer is ‘no’ to all these questions, work is needed. The starting point could be to edit the piece so that the answer to one of the questions is ‘yes’.

9. Call to action

It’s hard to think of a reason NOT to have a call to action (CTA) in every piece of copy and content. Will including one bring in thousands of enquiries, every time? Of course not. It can’t do any harm though. And it will probably do a lot of good.

The simplest call to action is along the lines of ‘contact us to find out more’. But if you’ve put a lot of time and effort into your content, why not follow it through with a compelling CTA? Like these:

• Netflix have managed to provide three benefits within a single CTA device: “Watch anywhere, cancel anytime. Watch free for a month.”
• Basecamp make it a no-brainer: “Give Basecamp a try – it’s free for 60 days.”
• Rothy’s add an air of exclusivity to their mailing list sign up: “Find out first.”

Make sure your CTA reflects the context and where the reader is in the relationship cycle. If the content is likely to be one of the first places they come to, and you offer an expensive or high-involvement purchase, you may want to avoid a ‘Buy Now’ CTA. Something like ‘Learn More’ might be better.

And if you haven’t used CTA buttons within your content, start now. Pretty much all the A/B testing I’ve seen found that a CTA button gets more responses than a standard text CTA. Follow your main CTA proposition copy (eg ‘Join our subscriber list to get exclusive offers’) with a button. Ten examples of button copy to consider as a starting point are.

• Subscribe.
• Sign up.
• Join.
• Get started.
• Count me in.
• Yes please.
• Give it a try.
• Send me more info now.
• Take me to the good stuff.
• Get a demo.

10. Correct

When you review a piece of existing content it’s a good opportunity to check it for accuracy. Some of this is covered under ‘context’. For example, if a piece of legislation is mentioned you need to check that it’s still relevant and hasn’t been replaced by new legislation.

Here are some other things to check:

• Spelling, punctuation and grammar. Why not do a proofread, just in case any typos slipped through the net when the piece was published?
• Links. Are all the links still working and still pointing to the right place. Don’t send your readers off to 404 error pages.
• Contact details. Check that anyone mentioned as the contact person is still in position, and that any contact email addresses and phone numbers are valid.
• Images. Do you have permission to use any images that are part of the content? Include this step if the content was published at a time when people were using images without permission.
• Brand. If your brand (including your written style guide) has changed since publication, decide whether you want legacy content to follow current guidelines.

As always with proofreading, ideally it should be done by the writer AND somebody else, preferably someone who is good at it. It’s also the final step in any process, a time to spot and fix any errors, and not a time to do more editing.

Would you like the complete content audit resources?

The ultimate resource is my new e-book, which includes more detail and examples across all ten criteria, a checklist and scorecard, and hints and tips for easy fixes for the most common problems. Drop me an email now if you’d like to a copy (it’s free!).

Writing content today? Try being super-specific

Almost every time you write a piece of content you have a choice to make: do you make it fairly generic so it appeals to everyone, or do you narrow it down to something more specific?

If in doubt, my preference is usually to go down the specific route. Here's why...

(Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels.)

It can be tempting to try to appeal to as many people as possible with each piece of content you write. Imagine a scenario where you write blogs for a company that sells gardening equipment. Your boss has asked you to write a blog to get interest in the pond maintenance equipment.you sell.

You might want to bash out a generic piece on ‘tips for garden pond maintenance’ because that's going to be suitable for anyone with a pond. But the problem is that there are lots of articles like that. You are pitching it right into a crowded, competitive space. 

But a piece on ‘garden pond maintenance for small, shady gardens’ is much more specific. Sure, it will only appeal to people with small, shady gardens, but there are lots of people like that and they have unique problems and questions. You would probably be the only company addressing their situation. You'd be writing something they actually want to read.

As a bonus, writing specific content opens up the door to writing a series of pieces, each one on an aspect of the situation. And even better, in my experience it's also much easier to write, because you'll be more focused. 

Your ten-point copy and content audit tool

Is your content fit for purpose? Scary question, right? Most people involved in marketing know that too much of their copy or content isn’t as good as they’d like. But the task of going back through content to assess its quality and suitability can be daunting.

You wouldn't expect a doctor to look at a sick patient without any system for diagnosis. That's why I have developed this ten-point 'diagnostic tool' for copy and content. 

It's a method for assessing the suitability and quality of existing content. As a bonus, the tool can also be used to assess new content while it's still in the draft stage, helping you to strive for a better finished piece.

A copy and content audit everyone can use

If an organisation has been around for a while there could potentially be hundreds of pages of content available to readers. Lots of it may no longer represent the business the way it should (and some of it probably never did in the first place).

I have spent the last few weeks developing a simple framework for checking the suitability of existing and new copy or content. This post introduces the ten criteria in the framework and over the next couple of blogs I’ll flesh these out.

Best of all, in May I am launching a 24-page e-book that will include detailed notes and examples for each category, a checklist and scorecard, and hints and tips for easy fixes for the most common problems. (Drop me an email now if you’d like to be among the first to receive your copy.)

With that as the background, here’s the framework that will help you make the most of the time you have available for assessing and editing content.

1. Context

Content written some time ago may no longer be relevant to your organisation’s strategy, or to how the world is today. Content that is no longer relevant can be deleted, or you can bring it up to date.

2. Clarity

You may publish a piece thinking it scores well on clarity, but when looking at it again after a break you realise it’s not so clear after all. Use this opportunity to look out for the use of confusing jargon, badly written sentences, weak structure, dense formatting and anything else that acts as a barrier to clarity.

3. Comprehensive

This doesn’t mean everything has to be a long copy piece with tons of detail. But check that the essential information is included, in the context of the piece. You may be able to use the ‘what, when, where, who, why and how’ list as a quick check that the essential information is there.

4. Customers

Is the piece really focused on the readers? Usually this will be customers, but other stakeholders may also apply here. In short, is this something they will want to read and then be glad that they did?

5. Clickable

This takes being customer-focused to the next level. Is the content something that readers would be attracted to and happy to share with their network? This is also the category where SEO performance can be assessed.

6. Competition

If your competition has created similar content you probably need to check how your piece stacks up against theirs. Maybe when you published your piece it was the best source of information around. But what if someone has since gone one better?

7. Credibility

After looking at the piece’s credibility, clickability and competitive performance, you’re in a good position to assess its overall credibility. Ask yourself this: if your most wanted customer reads the piece, will they be significantly more willing to do business with you as a result?

8. Creative

Assessing a piece of legacy content is an opportunity to be more creative than when it was originally published. Does the piece feel a bit dull now? Would it benefit from a refresh?

9. Call to action

This one is simple: if there’s no call to action, add one.

10. Correct

We’re talking accuracy here, and this covers everything from spotting typos and dead links to checking that you still have permission to use any images that are part of the content.

After you’ve used this audit framework

If the piece scores well across these criteria you can consider recycling it, perhaps as a new blog or landing page. Then raise its profile across your marketing activity. If it scores very badly, and you don’t have the time or desire to fix it, maybe it’s time to say goodbye to it.

Would you like the complete content audit resources?

In my next two blogs, I'll look at the above list in more detail. But the ultimate resource will be my new e-book. Drop me an email if you’d like your free copy.

Three assumptions that will lead to poor marketing content

Is the way you write almost guaranteeing that your readers will move on to something else right away? It could be, if you are building unnecessary assumptions into your content.

Here’s a quick look at three examples of assumptions that can damage your content – but that can be easily fixed.

                                                                                                

1. Assuming that people remember the last thing you wrote

Often in a blog or email newsletter article you read something like ‘following on from last month’s update on our CFD-3000 widget we are delighted to announce that…’

The writer is assuming that the reader read the previous piece AND that he/she remembers it. In reality of course, the reader may never have read the previous piece, and even if they did it might have been one of dozens or hundreds of pieces of content they had to process on that day. There’s every chance it will have been forgotten by now.

An easy alternative would be to write something like: 'Last month we wrote about the new capacity of the CFD-300 widget (you can read about it here), and now we have even more good news about the upgraded product.’

So don’t be afraid to recap on what was written previously, even if you think most readers will remember it.

2. Assuming that people know who you are

Just because someone is on your email database doesn’t mean they will instantly recognise your company name when you send them an email. This is especially true if you don't send emails very often.

Some newsletter copy jumps right into content without reminding people who the sender is and what they do. Like this: ‘It’s been a busy month for all of us here. We’re especially pleased that our product manager Peter has completed his Level 5 training and is now fully on board with our product portfolio.’ 

The poor reader is thinking ‘I think I know who this is from but I’m not sure’ or worse still, ‘I have absolutely no clue who these people are’.

So make it a habit of having the essential ‘remember us’ copy as early as possible in the piece. For example, a strapline can do the trick, like ‘Keeping you informed about the latest poultry-keeping accessories’.

3. Forgetting that many of your readers are in different sectors

This applies especially to LinkedIn. Do you feel as frustrated as me when you browse through your LinkedIn feed? Among the dozens of updates I have to wade through, many of them make absolutely no sense to me.

Like this: ‘Had a great time at CuddlyFun2016 this week! Awesome performance from everyone involved and we have been nominated for the prize of ‘Best Exhibitor’! WooHoo!’ But I have no idea exactly what CuddlyFun2016 is and I can’t remember what my connection’s business does. 

So how about writing: ‘Really enjoyed showcasing our superb teddy bear outfits at the world’s biggest soft toy exhibition this week. Awesome performance from the team and we were nominated for ‘Best Exhibitor’ at CuddlyFun2016! WooHoo!’

Yes, I know – the main target audience for a post like that IS people who know exactly what CuddlyFun2016 is. But presumably you are connected to everyone else because you want to communicate with them on some level, so why not do it with clarity for them too?

Step into your readers’ shoes for a moment

As with all good writing, the trick is to remember that your readers don’t live in your world. They aren’t as interested in you and what you do as you are. So give them those extra little bits of information to help them quickly ‘get’ what you’re writing about.

Something that doesn't need to be in a copy brief

This week I have started on a new project for a client. The aim is to produce a small website or app dedicated to part of their product range. This will be used to help launch some new products and tie them in with the existing range.

We met to get things started and the main subjects up for discussion were how we should structure the content, and how much depth of information should be included.

Should we structure it by product, product category or product features? Should we just have brief summary content linking through to detailed data sheets, or have another layer of detail in between them?

I think some people wanted to make a decision on all of this at the meeting. Thankfully we agreed to leave the decision for another time.

Decisions on structure and content can be postponed

There is no real advantage in deciding on the final structure yet. In fact, doing that could place an unnecessary restriction on us in these early stages. Instead, we are getting stuck into drafting some content and we’ll see what feels right in terms of structure and depth as we go along.

We are working in Word at the moment, rather than a content management system or database. That means it’s incredibly easy to cut and paste, change the length of content and shape the overall structure of the materials. Once everyone is agreed, we can upload content onto the system and minimal changes will be needed.

A week or two of drafting alternative versions is the next stage and as we go along the main stakeholders will have opportunities to review and comment.

At the moment nobody knows what route we’ll take and that’s fine: it’s sometimes better to let things emerge over time rather than get locked in to a fixed format too soon in the process.

Shaping a written 'tone of voice' - part two

In my last post, I started to look at the written ‘tone of voice’. Although I shared a process for getting agreement on a tone of voice, I didn’t get into what actually influences this: what is it about your writing that affects the tone of voice?

Let me start by being pretty blunt: much of the brand guidelines I have seen are very poor when it comes to tone of voice guidance. They often say things like ‘write in an engaging way’ and ‘write as you speak’ and leave it at that.

What we writers really need is a much clearer steer on an organisation’s tone of voice. So let’s look at some of the specific choices you can make that will change the tone of voice of your writing. I’ll look at five things in this edition, and there will be more next time.

Contractions

Using don’t instead of do not may not sound like a big deal, but in a piece of writing of 500 words there could be several opportunities for contractions. If you use contractions every time you will generally have a softer, more personal tone than if you don’t.

Here is a before and after example:

Before (no contractions): Volunteers find that it is not difficult to get a lot from the experience and they are often involved in fun activities. Please do not worry about being left alone as we have made sure you will get lots of support.

After (with contractions): Volunteers find that it’s not difficult to get a lot from the experience and they’re often involved in fun activities. Please don’t worry about being left alone as we’ve made sure you’ll get lots of support.

I suppose sometimes a case could be made for not using contractions, but personally my default position is that contractions are fine – and they rarely, if ever, make writing look sloppy or unprofessional, which is a concern that some people have.

Cutting down on words

Turning a 150-word piece into a 100-word piece often softens a tone of voice because it often includes taking out phrases that sound stuffy and formal in favour of shorter equivalents. If you use due to the fact that instead of because, or at the present time instead of now you will end up with something that has a harder, more formal feel than the shorter alternatives.

Using ‘you’

Some organisations never want to use the word you, preferring instead to say our clients and the like. Generally, using you will soften the tone of voice. But watch out, because it can be overdone and writing often needs a blend of the two approaches.

Jargon

Jargon has its place in peer-to-peer communication. If I am sending an email to colleagues involved in search engine optimisation I will write SEO. It would in fact look very odd to spell out the full phrase.

But too often, people write for customers or other stakeholders who won’t get the jargon. When we do this, we can make our writing (and our organisation) appear elitist and unfriendly.

Just look at this sentence intended for parents of 14-16 year-old children:
The activity delivers aspects of work related learning and helps to develop and evidence key skills and enterprise capability.

The word evidence is not normally used in that way. I suspect that enterprise capability is a term that the organisation writing the sentence uses a lot, but it’s not something that every reader will understand straight away, or even at all.

Passive vs active voice

Although there’s nothing wrong with using the passive voice, in general it seems that the passive voice makes our writing more approachable:

Passive voice: Innovative products and services are offered by our company.

Active voice: Our company offers innovative products and services.


More next time...

I’ve started with five fairly obvious influences on tone of voice. Next time, I’ll get deeper into the subject and draw on examples from organisations with varying approaches.

Shaping a written 'tone of voice' - part one

There is no shortage of discussion online about the importance of a brand’s tone of voice. Google will bring you some excellent articles and I won't go through all the issues here.

But what strikes me is that some of the branding gurus make it all sound much more complicated than it needs to be. Most of my clients have tackled the issue as they go along, fine-tuning the stuff they write (or I write) when needed to remain consistent and appropriate.

Sometimes however it is important to revisit the style of what’s being written. Lots of things could prompt this. One that springs to mind is that there might be inconsistent styles after a merger of two businesses. Another is a move to a different media (such as an app or new style of advertising), while a move to a new market could also be the driver.

Whatever the case, when a review is needed you can spend hours or even days in workshops talking about the brand’s values and personality. Creative techniques can be used to decide whether your brand is like a grumpy old cat or a funny little puppy. (You know the sort of workshop I mean, right?)

That approach might work really well, and I’m not dismissing it out of hand. But in my experience, and for B2B companies in particular, it doesn’t have to be such a big deal.

A quick and painless way to revisit tone of voice

Recently a client asked me to create content for the company's first app. This was a good time to revisit the tone of voice, both for the business as a whole and specifically for the app content.

I simply took a piece of writing already approved from a messaging and technical accuracy point of view and edited it into three versions. Version one was was the way the organisation usually writes. Version two tried to jazz things up a little. Version three took things a bit further.

This is a B2B company in a fairly straight laced industry, so even version three wasn’t particularly wild. But there were clear differences between each version.

We organised a 30-minute meeting with the marketing manager, marketing communications manager, sales director and managing director. That was all it took for everyone to have their say on which bits of the three versions they felt were suitable for representing the brand.

From there, it was a straightforward matter of creating a single version that now acts as a reference when we write new materials.

As for the specific techniques I used for changing the words and tone of voice…that’s what I’ll look at soon...

Why you shouldn't sweat too much over draft #1

Writers know that it's important that everyone involved understands the process we use. The process may seem painful to some people, but it's how all writers eventually produce the right words.

We writers churn out (sorry, carefully craft) thousands of words each day. Most of what we write is intended to be draft copy for others to review. Ultimately, it is a client - either an actual external client, or a boss if we are working in-house - who has final say on what's published.

Experienced writers know that we can't hope to get every word right, every time. Or rather, we can't hope to write what our client wants, every time. There is a process going on where we write a draft, get feedback on the draft, write another draft and so on.

Anyone - writer or client - who thinks that a 'perfect' version should always be written on draft one, two or three is being unrealistic. Yes, it can happen, and it's great when it does. But more often than not, it's a process that takes a bit longer.

Let's look at why multiple drafts might be needed before we get to the final, approved and published version...

Writers don't care as much about words as clients do

 

What? Is Richard now saying that even though he has been writing for 20+ years he doesn't care about words? In a way, yes.

The issue is that we writers have lots of options about the words we use. There is never 'one correct way' to phrase something. Ultimately, it is the client who chooses what's right. That's why we don't labour endlessly over every word and every phrase in early drafts.

The client reading a draft usually has a very clear idea about how they want the message to be phrased. Or, more likely, they instantly know whether they like or dislike the writer's choice of words when they read a draft. So it would be daft for the writer to try to make a first draft 'perfect' because no matter what we write, the chances are the client will see things differently.

Here's an example. A writer working in the automotive sector writes this:

'Buy this product and you will instantly transform your motor maintenance costs'.

The client could like that and approve it immediately, or have any number of thoughts about that phrase, such as:

• We shouldn't say 'buy' as that emphasises the fact they customers have to give us money, so we should say 'invest in' instead'.
• I don't like the word 'product': I prefer 'solution'.
• 'Instantly' is too big a promise so we should say 'soon' instead.
• I think that 'vehicle' is better than 'motor'.
• Using the word 'you' sounds too informal.

Now, none of these reactions are wrong. And none are right. They are all subjective feelings about words. True, they may be informed by knowledge of the target market and overall context, but they are subjective nonetheless.

The point is that the writer cannot possibly know whether the client would rather say 'motor' or 'vehicle', or 'buy' or 'invest in'. Even the best briefing process won't go into that amount of detail about every word or phrase.

Great writing is a process of draft, feedback and re-draft

At some point, the writer has to get something down on paper (so to speak) and get it out to the client. The client needs to know that the writer will very likely use some words or phrases that the client won't like. The writer may miss out important messages. The overall tone of voice, length of copy, amount of detail and so on may be wrong.

But here's the thing: it doesn't matter. Because when the boss/client gives detailed, specific feedback about the first couple of drafts, the writer will be in a much better position to craft words that are suitable. 

That feedback stage is a vital part of the briefing process. Writers and clients alike need to embrace the process. Yes, it can feel a bit painful at times. But it's an important part of the work both parties must do if the end result is suitable, effective content.

Recording audio makes you a better writer

f you find yourself in a role where you have to write a lot of content every week (or even every day) it can soon start to get pretty exhausting.

No matter how well you use techniques for research and planning before you write, there will be many times when your fingers hover over the keyboard, but your brain can’t get them to move.

One technique that I have been using for years (and more so than ever lately) has proved to be wonderful for overcoming this problem: recording conversations.

So if I am writing a case study, I will record the conversations I have with the product/service users that are talking me through the case in question. Or if I am writing a blog post that will be attributed to someone else, I will have a chat with them about the subject matter and record that too.

On almost every occasion, when I listen back to the recording I can transcribe it and edit as I go. Pretty soon, I get very close to having a proper draft of the case study, blog post or whatever else it is I am working on.

Because I am working from the expert’s actual words, the piece I write will usually be better than if I worked from my notes.

In fact, recording is much more effective than taking notes. Unless you are a very fast writer or know shorthand, you’ll never be able to get every word down – but it’s the details that note-taking often misses that will make for good content.

Here are some tips for getting the most from this technique:

Audio quality really matters

If the recorder on your phone works well then so be it. But you may need to get a dedicated audio recorder instead to make it easy to listen back to the conversations.

You may also need to invest in a good separate microphone. Again, it depends on what results you can get from the built-in mic on whatever equipment you use.

Try it for recording phone calls 

I can record conversations with people I actually meet, but most of the conversations I have are by phone, so I have my tools for recording calls set up and ready to go with just a couple of buttons to press.

I put people on speaker phone and record via a mic into a digital recorder but you can get more sophisticated tools for this that link your phone straight to your PC.

Test, test and test 

Do some dummy runs to make sure the equipment works. For the first few real recordings, do a little test and check via playback before you start.

Always keep checking that you are still recording as you go along. Trust me, devices stop working, batteries run out and recording media gets full. Don’t get so engrossed in the conversation that you don’t notice that you are still on ‘pause’ or that you have run out of disc space.

Take notes too 

Just in case the recording fails and you notice too late, notes make a pretty good back-up.

Put your subject at ease 

Make sure that the other party knows that this is just for your purposes and that it won’t be listened to by anyone else.

If you haven’t already done so, get recording – I’m certain that your writing will improve and that you'll find the process a lot easier too.

Think like a cynical customer - it'll help you write better

When you start work on writing some new marketing materials you no doubt talk to colleagues about the product or service. One of the problems you might find is that everyone is very positive about the product. Why is that a problem? It’s because your readers are almost certainly not as keen on the product as your colleagues are.

In fact, it’s likely that readers (ie potential customers in most cases) are starting out from a cynical standpoint. And it’s your job when copywriting to anticipate that attitude. Being able to act as devil's advocate when researching subject matter is essential if you are to write truly outstanding marketing content.

Try to imagine the reader thinking: ‘Here we go again - someone else trying to flog me something I don’t need’. Once you can do that, you are in a much better position to write because you are now focused on trying to move the reader from that point of view to one where they will consider investigating or buying the product.

To get myself (and the other people involved in a project) in the right mindset I have a killer question I often ask during the briefing/research process:

‘Why wouldn’t someone buy this product?’ Or better still: ‘Why aren’t they buying it?’
You can imagine the sort of answers you’ll get to that question:
•    They’ve never heard of us.
•    They think it’s too expensive.
•    They think the competition is better.
•    They have no evidence to back up our claims.
•    They think they can manage without it.
•    They have been to our website and got lost in the terrible navigation.
•    They don't know anybody else that uses it.
•    They don't fully understand what it does.
•    And so on.

As you can see, this is a time for total honesty from you and your colleagues. You have to play devil’s advocate and you have to be tough when you do it.

Addressing readers' concerns head-on

Once you have identified 50-100 reasons why someone wouldn't buy the product, here are three further steps:

1. Identify which of the reasons can't be addressed. (There may be some that you really can't do anything about.)

2. Identify which of the reasons can be addressed BUT not with words. For example, if the product doesn't come in red you can't really overcome that objection in a brochure. This sort of thing needs addressing by someone else and may be for the long-term.

3. Identify which CAN be addressed by your new marketing content. For example, if something is seen as expensive maybe you can write about payment plans, whole of life costs, the reasons that it costs so much (eg better materials are used than anyone else’s product) and so on.

Now you are all set to get working on marketing messages that will probably be much better and compelling than if you didn't go through this type of process.