Crafting Your Message to Drive Sales

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, at the outset, the company's energies and resources are 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 good start, it's not enough by itself to succeed 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 professional marketing copywriter fits in. While you wouldn't hire an accountant to perform QA on your product, why would you expect your technology experts to craft the marketing message? A copywriter can help you to communicate to your potential buyers that you have the product that solves their problem or otherwise helps them improve their bottom lines (in B2B scenarios). A strong and well-built messaging platform allows your target market to understand exactly how your product addresses their specific pain points.

Working as an integral part of the marketing team, the copywriter is responsible for your company’s messaging platform. After developing this "marketing DNA," the copywriter creates focused web content and marketing materials for the product built around this core messaging. These materials include, but are not limited to, search engine optimized (SEO) web copy, 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 today's competitive, content-driven marketplace. A great product without the right message is like a vintage wine without the bottle. Presenting your product in a way that will resonate with your target markets is a key step towards monetization and meeting your business goals.

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.

Rivet your Audience by Writing from the Inside Out

Ever had one of those moments when your "gut" told you to act in a certain way that just couldn't be explained in words? Part of the reason for this is biological – the part of the brain that is responsible for decision-making and emotion (the limbic cortex) is separate from the part of the brain responsible for language (the neocortex).

In his thought-provoking (and IMHO brilliant) presentation, Simon Sinek argues that inspired organizations (Apple), leaders (Martin Luther King) and innovators (the Wright brothers) all think, act and communicate differently from the rest of us. Their "inside out" approach enables them to focus on the "why" rather than the "what." Their rare ability to clearly communicate a deep commitment to a belief or a cause enables them to inspire and attract like-minded believers. In Sinek's words, "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." By doing business with people who believe what you believe, you will be able to inspire customers and engender loyalty (back to the limbic brain).

This simple argument has major ramifications for marketing, in general, and copywriting in particular. We've always known the importance of understanding and addressing the needs/problems of our target audience. But what if we turned this inside out as well? What if we focused our message on why we do what we do? What if we spent less time writing about the wonderful features and benefits of a given product (which may or may not trigger a positive vibe with the average customer), and instead focused on explaining why we went to the trouble of creating this new product in the first place.

An inside-out strategy would focus the messaging on the company's underlying philosophy or purpose (e.g., "we believe in simplifying your world"). It's why you do what you do that makes you different (or better) from your competitors – the product itself is much harder to differentiate. The message here should be inspiring and crafted to drive emotion. Once you have established a common emotional ground with your target audience, then it's time to delve into the "how" and "what". These details will be used to show how your product or service helps your customers to achieve the stated purpose.

Writing from the inside-out is far from being a trivial task. It forces us to think about and formulate answers to questions that we may have avoided in the past. But it also gives us the opportunity to truly connect with our customers.

Is it worth the effort? Feel free to share your thoughts on the subject.

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Save Your Company Money in Stormy Times . . . with Content!

The effects of the financial crisis and global economic downturn are already being felt in the hi-tech sector. Lack of funding, postponed IPOs and cancelled projects translate into companies re-examining their business plans, reducing headcounts and cutting operational expenses.

If your company is in this "weather the storm" mindset, marketing (and marcom in particular) is probably one of the first "casualties" as it is seen as having less immediate impact on the bottom line. Expensive advertising campaigns, tradeshows and re-branding/re-design efforts become even harder to justify in terms of ROI - and may also convey the wrong message to shareholders who expect belt-tightening measures in tough times.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

However, there is one marketing tool that is practically free – CONTENT. No need for bells or whistles – all you need is the right message and you're set to take advantage of the world's largest marketing channel – the Internet. Assuming you've already got a website, now is the time to make sure it's optimized for search engines. SEO-driven, keyword-rich content can get your site on the first page of Google results without costing you a penny. If you've got some wiggle room in terms of budget, low-cost Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns can also be very effective. With a couple of cleverly worded landing pages (again, its all about the content), you can start to engage potential customers, build trust and capture leads. The landing page should lead the visitor to take the desired next step (e.g., download trial version, register for webinar, purchase online, etc.).

Blogs are another great way to generate traffic to your site and to stir up interest in your company and/or product. Blogs are very inexpensive to set up and do not require much more than the right content in order to succeed. What is the right content you may ask? That's simple – anything that establishes your company as an authority/expert/leader in your market and relates to the needs or interests of your target audience (yes, the same ones that you want to buy your product or service).

Repurpose Your Content

Repurposing content is a very cost-effective way to reach a larger audience with your message. Some people respond better to video, while others prefer to read text. By repurposing your content in different formats and media, you stand a better chance of hitting the right buttons with your target audience. While each type of content needs to be adapted to its respective medium, the key messages should be consistent across all platforms and resonate clearly with your target market.

Here are some examples of how you can repurpose your content with minimum effort:

• Tweak website content to serve as landing pages for PPC or email campaigns
• Repurpose blog entries as ezine articles and publish in relevant directories
• Extract content from articles or whitepapers (depending on length) and record as podcast
• Record, transcribe and repurpose workshops and Powerpoint presentations into articles, white papers or e-books.
• Record PPT presentations for reuse as webcasts

So, instead of despairing over your reduced budget, treat it as an opportunity to create powerful, highly tuned content that will generate measurable results.

If you have additional ideas, suggestions, tips, etc. for doing more with less in tough economic times, please feel free to share your insights.

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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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Four Painless Ways to Get the Most out of Your Marcom Dollar

Tight budgets are a fact of life in the world of marcom. While it’s hard to participate in a major trade show without paying for registration fees, travel costs and booth design & construction, there are ways to stretch your marcom dollar, particularly in today's web-driven business environment.

Let's assume that as a complement to your product literature and webpage, you have written a business-oriented white paper that focuses on market trends, business drivers and the various alternative solutions to the problem your product uniquely addresses. The objective of the white paper is to drive your potential customers to the natural conclusion that your company has the perfect solution for them. Once the white paper is complete, you can post it to your website, distribute it to the sales team, and cross another task off your "To Do" list.

Or, you could take the same white paper, and actually turn it into a sales tool that brings measurable results (e.g., sales leads). Here are a few battle-tested ways to make this happen:

1. The simplest option is to place the white paper on your website with form protection, as a way to generate leads. You could add a colorful banner to your homepage, with the title of the white paper and a "Free Download" button linking to the download form.

2. Before exposing the white paper to your competitors and the rest of the universe via your website, use it as the "hook" for an email campaign. An introductory paragraph talking about the need (probably could be cut and pasted from the white paper itself) and a "Click here to download free white paper" usually does the trick.

3. Create a landing page on your website with a short overview and a bulleted list of highlights of what the reader will learn from the white paper (clicking on the online banner in the first option would lead to this page). The landing page should also include a short form (name, company, email are mandatory) to be filled in before the white paper is mailed to the reader. Not only do you generate leads, you also drive more traffic to your website.

4. Execute an inexpensive Google AdWords campaign around this white paper and landing page. Identify the keywords that your target market is likely to search for, and entice them with a “Free White Paper” ad that addresses their business challenge and leads them to the existing landing page. Even better, tweak the existing landing page to focus on the keywords that will appeal to your target audience.

How does your company get maximum mileage from its marcom materials? Share your real-world experiences.

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