Is Editing a Lost Art?

Working as a writer for the past 20 years, I have had the privilege of working with some great editors. Whether they know it or not, these editors played an instrumental role in molding me into the writer I am today. While their comments and suggestions often resulted in some very long evenings at the office, the result was inevitably a better written piece. The insights they shared with me were invaluable to my growth as a marketing writer. Later in my corporate career (in the late 1990's), I also had the opportunity of coaching and editing less experienced writers and hopefully was able to make a difference for them as well.

As marketing becomes more content-centric, I began to wonder whether this model of editing is still relevant. In today's socially-networked online world, it seems like everybody has become a writer, blogger, tweeter, etc. Not only are people generating and publishing content themselves, they are doing it with unprecedented immediacy. What is the role of an editor in today's online world?

With keyword-laden SEO articles being cranked out for pennies, online content is becoming commoditized. The unfortunate result is that the overall level of writing has suffered. Quantity seems to be trumping quality, as you no longer have to be a professional writer to create and publish your own content.

Ironically, just when we need good editors the most, it seems like editing has become a lost art. Today it is harder to find a skilled editor than a competent writer. This does not bode well for those of us who appreciate thoughtful written expression and delight in the pleasure of a perfectly constructed sentence.

Do you have a personal story about editing? Has editing become a lost art? Share some of your experiences working with great editors.

It's All About the Message

Let's say you've just spent the last 18 months developing an awesome new cleantech technology. You have packaged this technology into a new product and are ready to start earning revenues. How do you communicate the value and benefits of your new product to the market?

The key to meeting your business goals is to formulate a compelling, high-impact marketing message that will hook and engage your target market. Your company’s messaging platform needs to demonstrate that your product or service uniquely addresses the specific "pain points" of your target market.

Let's assume you've done your homework and built the right message for your product. For instance: "Inexpensive, biodegradable bottles that you can throw away without harming the environment." The next step is to take this message and create a set of marketing materials that convey this message as its dominant theme.

Perhaps easier said than done, this is the essence of what a marketing copywriter does. (BTW – an experienced marketing writer can also formulate the message itself and create an internal positioning statement to share within the company.) All of your marketing materials – from the product tagline to website content, PRs, brochures, white papers and everything in between – should be built around this message.

The key message can be highlighted in different ways to take advantage of the respective medium. Here are a few examples:

• Website - feature a graphic banner illustrating the disposable nature of your batteries
• Press Release - the headline of your PR would highlight the message (e.g., "Acme's Biodegradable Bottles Make it Easy and Inexpensive to Protect the Environment")
• Trade shows – Signs, rollups and posters presenting the message in bullet forma
• Brochure – Emphasize the message in the title and subtitles of the product brochure

Be sure to drill your message home wherever you can. It's OK to be repetitive across different media. Most potential customers are going to skim – not read – and you want to be sure to catch their eye. Remember – repetition is good when it comes to marketing – think about TV commercials. Getting the message right and communicating it in the most effective and consistent way across multiple media is the key to consistent marketing that drives results.

When Zionism and Marketing Writing Meet

A recent writing project got me reminiscing about the summer of 1983 in Arad. I had come from Washington, DC to take part in the WUJS Program, which promised six months of Hebrew ulpan in a development town in the Negev, followed by six months of work/volunteering in one's "profession." Little did I know then, as a young man just one year out of college, where I would be and what I would be doing in 25 years. Granted, I had a serious interest in Israel, which developed over the course of my junior year abroad at Hebrew University, pro-Israel campus activism and then a year working at AIPAC in Washington, DC. I knew aliya was an option - maybe more of a dream than a goal - but it depended on so many other things falling into place that it was too hard to really know.

Fast forward to 2009. I'm sitting at my computer in my home office in Herzliya. My wife, Iris, is cooking lunch for my three children who will be home from school any minute. The smells wafting from the kitchen make it difficult to concentrate but I reluctantly plod ahead. After working for 15 years at a number of Israel's leading technology companies as a marketing writer, I decided a year and a half ago it was time to start my own freelance writing business. Through a combination of networking, leads from my modest home-grown website and some old-fashioned elbow grease, I have built up enough business to make an honest living on my own. One of the best parts of freelance writing - other than Iris' lunches - is the chance to meet fascinating people and work on exciting projects that I never would have been exposed to as an in-house writer for a high tech company.

Recently, I received a call from a business acquaintance who was building a website and asked whether I'd be interested in writing the content. The timing couldn’t have been tougher – I was in the middle of a couple of big projects – and I wasn't particularly enthusiastic in my response. However, as soon as he told me what his customer's organization does, my answer quickly became an emphatic "yes." The customer was Budokan Israel, a non-profit organization that has developed a unique program designed to bring young Jewish adults to Israel for five months to train in the martial arts, as well as learning Hebrew, Jewish history, touring and volunteering.

After my first meeting with the customer, I was hooked. The notion of reaching out to young people through their bodies and minds, and offering them a unique way of looking at themselves and Israel, was captivating to say the least. Inspired by this sudden infusion of Zionism into my daily work routine, creating the website content became much more than another writing gig – it turned into a personal and nostalgic journey. As I wrote, I felt myself drifting back to my time in Arad and feeling the thrill of experiencing Israel with new friends from around the world.

When Budokan's participants return to London, Philadelphia or Melbourne after five months, they will undoubtedly go back as stronger people and have a deeper connection to Israel and their home communities. And who knows – maybe one or two will decide one day to make Israel their home – and even write about it.

Do you have a personal writing experience you'd like to share? Comments and guest posts are welcome.

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Five Common Grammar Mistakes That Turn Off Readers

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for using a personal and casual style where it is appropriate, like in blogs and ads. However, there is a difference between copy that engages the reader and copy that is written carelessly. Certain glaring mistakes are liable to hurt your credibility and even turn away potential customers.

Based on my own experience in the multi-lingual Israeli high tech community, here are five big time grammatical errors that I continue to see all too often – despite the valiant efforts of the English grammar police.

1. It's vs. Its

This is no doubt one of the most frequent grammatical mistakes made by native English speakers. "It's" is used instead of "It is" or "It has" (e.g., It's a marvelous night for a moondance). "Its" is only used to show possession (e.g., Music today has lost its soul). Here's a hint: try replacing "it's" with "it is" or "it has". If it makes sense leave the apostrophe.

Wrong: Its been fun writing this blog.

Correct: It's been fun writing this blog.

2. Latin 101 – i.e. or e.g.?

It's hard to remember when I've written a piece of copy without using one of these very handy terms. Id est in Latin means "that is" or more loosely "in other words." It is used to add clarity to the phrase or term that precedes it.

Wrong: This song was written by my favorite artist (e.g., Van Morisson).

Correct: This song was written by my favorite artist (i.e., Van Morisson).

The omnipresent exempli gratia means “for example” and should only be used before giving specific examples to support a statement.

Wrong: You should try to avoid grammatical errors, i.e., punctuation, spelling, etc.

Correct: You should try to avoid grammatical errors, e.g., punctuation, spelling, etc.

Note that both "i.e." and "e.g." should always be immediately followed by a comma.

3. Present Progressive vs. Present Simple

Since there is no distinction between Present Progressive (e.g., I am walking my dog right now) and Present Simple (e.g., I walk my dog every evening) in Hebrew, this is a very common mistake in both written and spoken English among Israelis. Present Progressive is used to indicate an action that is occurring this very moment. Present Simple is used to describe an action that takes place regularly or to describe a state or condition (e.g., It rains frequently in London). If it's not happening right now, use Present Simple.

Wrong: The application is updating the database on a regular basis.

Correct: The application updates the database on a regular basis.

4. Improper Use of Apostrophes

Here's the deal. The apostrophe is used to form contractions (e.g., That's a beautiful building) and to indicate possession (e.g., John's shirt is red), but never to form plurals. When used to indicate possession with single or plural nouns that end in "s," the apostrophe should appear at the end of the word without an additional "s" (e.g., the girls' uniforms were burgundy and gold).

Wrong: The technician's will come by tomorrow.

Correct: The technicians will come by tomorrow.

5. Plural Noun Pairs

This issue results from the extensive use in Hebrew of the construct state (smichut). The rule here is simple: do not juxtapose a pair of plural nouns (e.g., if you're talking about the preferences of your readers, say "reader preferences"). It is understood that "reader" in this instance represents all your readers. The first word in the pair should be singular, and the latter should be plural.

Wrong: I have a long list of features options that requires review.

Correct: I have a long list of feature options that requires review.


Do you have more suggestions? Help me put together a post on the next five.

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The "On-Time vs. Perfect" Quandary

An important customer asks you to write a two-page brochure for a new product. You happily agree to come in for a briefing. At the end of the meeting, you are told that they need it by tomorrow morning to allow for design, printing and shipment to the big show in Europe next week. You don't want to disappoint them (after all, they are one of your best customers), but on the other hand, you know that to do this properly you need at least two days and, preferably, one review cycle with the product manager. Sound familiar?

Writing for business customers inevitably leads to situations where one is forced to make compromises in order to meet real-world deadlines. The question is how to handle situations where you know that given a few more hours you could deliver a better product. While savvy customers generally understand how long it takes to write high-quality copy, they have to balance this against their own customers' requirements and urgent requests from Sales for materials needed in the field (often at the last minute).

These complexities can result in the "quick and dirty" syndrome. Since the customer already knows (or you have told them) that the deadline is unrealistic, they ask for a quick and dirty version just to "get it out the door," promising to refine it later. Depending on the company, this second stage may or may not happen. In the meantime, the "quick and dirty" brochure has been printed, distributed and emailed in PDF format from Sales to various partners and customers. Those that read the brochure are not interested in the fact that Marketing got the brochure out the door in 48 hours. The writer (and designer for that matter) are going to be judged on the quality of the final product, even if it was "quick and dirty."

On the other hand, let's give the customer credit for knowing what's important from a business standpoint. Sometimes failure to deliver on time, e.g., new brochure for product launch or a document to be submitted as part of an RFP process, can have significant business implications. Copywriting is a service, and like any other service, is about providing value to customers. If the customer determines that it is more valuable to submit on time than to review and refine the text, this is certainly a legitimate decision. The quandary for the writer (and this will vary depending on the writer's experience and relationship with the particular customer) is whether meeting the customer's time constraints warrants submitting a document that is okay but not great.

Ever come across a similar situation? Tell me about your experiences.

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Why Use a Copywriter?

Many companies are born around a single, brilliant idea. In the world of high-tech, the spark for a start-up is typically a new technology. Inevitably, the first year (or years) of the company's existence is dedicated to developing this idea or technology into something that can be sold (i.e., a product).

While having a great product is a definitely a prerequisite, it's not enough by itself to guarantee success in today’s highly competitive market. You need to be able to communicate the distinct advantages of your product or service to the right audience in order to generate sales.

This is exactly where a good copywriter fits in. While you wouldn't hire an accountant to perform QA on your product, why would you expect your technology gurus to create the marketing message? The copywriter's job is to communicate to your potential buyers that you have the product that solves their problem or otherwise helps them improve their bottom lines (B2B). A strong and well-built messaging platform allows your target customers to understand exactly how your product addresses their specific pain points.

An experienced copywriter can help you formulate your marketing message and even create an internal positioning statement to share within the company. This is the "marketing DNA" which serves as the underlying platform for all your marketing efforts. The message platform will reflect a joint analysis of your market, how you stack up against your main competitors, unique product differentiators and your company's overall business objectives.

Working as an integral part of the marketing team, the copywriter is responsible for your company’s messaging platform. Once this platform has been developed, the copywriter creates a set of marketing materials for the product that both incorporates and radiates this message as it dominant theme. These materials include, but are not limited to, web copy (preferably optimized for search engines), product and corporate brochures, white papers, case studies, and presentations.

Your company's goal is to generate revenues. A compelling, high-impact marketing message is crucial in a competitive marketplace. A great product without the right message is like a vintage wine without the bottle. A professional copywriter can help you reach your target markets and present your offering in a way that will help you meet your business goals.

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Using Creativity to Maximize Your Trade Show ROI

Those of us who work in or with corporate marcom departments know that the first six months of each year are trade show season. Whether it be Mobile World Congress, CeBIT, InfoSecurity or any other of the dozens "must exhibit" events, companies will spend huge amounts of energy and budget on these important industry showcases. Naturally, if you’re going to allocate the resources, you will definitely want to maximize your ROI in terms of sales leads and PR exposure.

Without discounting the role of the marcom writer in this effort (this is a copywriting blog after all), the writer’s contribution here is marginal when it comes to the actual success or failure of the show. Concept and design are the keys to success – your booth has got to stand out from the hundreds of others. Unless you're a Microsoft, budget limitations mean you can't be bigger or louder than the giants, so you've got to be smarter and more creative.

Here's a great example from an Internet security company I worked for a number of years ago. We sold security appliances and our standard modus operandi for major trade shows was to set up a booth with a few demo stations (each one demoing a different appliance), a plasma screen with the latest product video, and an attractive back wall with images of our appliances and posters listing the benefits for our enterprise and SMB customers. Naturally, we also had stands bursting at the seams with our latest collaterals.

While this was all done very professionally, in terms of concept it was no different from our competitors who had much larger budgets – i.e., they had larger booths, more advantageous hall locations, and better giveaways. Suffice it to say we never really came away with the traffic, leads and PR value that we had hoped for.

Then, one year we decided to be different. Instead of the product-oriented, "hard sell" approach, we turned our booth into an "Internet threats museum" which provided a graphic timeline, examples and descriptions of the different types of security threats discovered in the 12 months since the last trade show. Demo stations showing how the various threats actually work were manned by our security researchers, rather than salespersons. At the end of the "tour" each visitor received a white paper with in-depth explanations of the year's major security trends, rather than a product brochure. The feedback we received was tremendous, with customers and prospects applauding us for actually providing them with educational value, and then asking us (drum roll, please) how we solve these types of challenges.

So, when you start thinking about your next big trade show, don't be afraid to be different. Give your potential customers an experience they will remember and value. They will reward you with results.

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Marketing vs. Technical Writing - Vive la Différence

During my 15 years working as an in-house marketing writer at four leading Israel-based technology companies, one of my pet peeves was being mistakenly referred to (despite my persistent corrections) as the “technical writer.” Don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for technical writers, who perform a very difficult and often thankless task (Confession #1: I started my professional writing career in the early 1990s as a technical writer at Amdocs).

The fact that most technical and marketing writers (aka marcom writer, copywriter) in Israel are immigrants from English-speaking countries and speak Hebrew with a funny accent makes it easy to group us together. However, what really bothered me all those years about being pigeonholed by the techies as a "tech writer" (even though the guy who wrote the user manuals sat right down the hall) was the underlying lack of knowledge as to the fundamental differences between technical writing and marketing writing. (Confession #2: I had the good fortune of working for companies with Marketing VPs that fully appreciated the distinction and need for both).

So let's straighten this out once and for all. Two key distinguishing factors between the disciplines of technical writing and marketing writing are their deliverables and the audience for which these deliverables are produced. Not surprisingly, technical writers produce technical documentation. This includes, but is not limited to, user manuals, maintenance and installation guides, API guides, release notes, technical training materials, and the like. The range of technical documentation varies depending on each company's product offering and organizational requirements. What is common to all of these materials is that they are provided to customers together with the actual product. In other words, they are part of the post-sale deliverables (together with training, support and the like).

Marketing, in general, and marketing writing, in particular, is a pre-sales activity. The materials created by the marketing writer include web content, white papers, brochures, case studies, ads, multimedia presentations and more. These deliverables serve as sales tools for use by the sales force in the field. In my view, an in-house marketing writer should always try to view the sales team as the "client," while the deliverables are the client’s ammunition on the battlefield. As part of the pre-sales process, the ultimate objective of a white paper or brochure (not to mention an advertisement) is to raise market awareness concerning a business need, generate interest in the company's solution and drive prospects to contact sales.

Marketing writing and technical writing are two separate disciplines, each requiring a specific set of skills, tools and knowledge. While the deliverables of each are usually cooked in the same language, the flavor is totally different. (Last aside: Reminds me of the allusion to the Americans and British as "two peoples separated by a common language").

So the next time you run into that English speaker in the company kitchen, show her that you understand the difference.