Expense or Investment

Everyone loves great copywriting until they're in charge of paying for it.

Even clients who appear to understand the value of strong copy can find themselves questioning that value when confronted with a tight budget.

Why?

If you’re making decisions about marketing, chances are your writing is at least adequate.

So, hiring a seasoned professional writer who doesn't come cheap can seem like an extra, perhaps unnecessary, option. Desirable yes, but ... given budget constraints maybe adequate will do ... hmmmm ...

While initial nervousness about budget makes the value easy to question, it doesn’t lessen the value.

Wins and losses are often decided by seemingly slight advantages …

Horse races are won by a nose …

Argentina won the 2023 FIFA Club Word Cup on penalty kicks after tying France 3/3 …

The Colorado Avalanche won the final game of 2021 NHL Stanley Cup championship by 1 goal …

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25/22 in the 2024 Super Bowl by scoring once in the first overtime in the game's history ...

Manchester City beat Manchester United 2 goals to 1 for the 2023 FA Cup ... 

Legendary coach Vince Lombardi described American football as a “game of inches” …

The difference between a company’s marketing being effective or delivering less than needed can also be a matter of inches.

“Adequate” doesn’t put you in the winner’s circle.

The investment in excellent copy, that might have seemed optional in the beginning, can be the advantage that gives a business the extra inches needed for success.

_________________________

For more ammunition to have ready when working with a client who is
 questioning the investment in professionally written copy: Bad Writing is Expensive

Ask for feedback BEFORE they see it

 

"I don't know; it just doesn't 'speak' to me."

"I'm not sure it says what we need it to say."

"Can you make it more 'today'?"

Non specific feedback is not helpful and tends to create a disconnect between the client, the writer, and the deliverable.

Consider providing a bit of feedback guidance when you submit your first draft by saying something like this in your email:

Anything can be changed, added or taken out, but please consider the following questions as you review the copy:

👉Are all the facts and stats correct?

👉Is there anything missing and, if so, what is it?

👉Are there any particular parts you really don't like?

👉Are all the features and benefits clearly explained? If not, please let me know what I've missed

👉Is the style and tone right for your prospects?

When you do this, you have a better chance of receiving useful feedback.

The Golden Rule

Never be afraid to ask for more detail,

otherwise you’re scrabbling around in the dark.

Hiring Qualifications

 

Will Any Agency Hire This Man?

He is 38, and unemployed. 

He dropped out of college. 

He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. 

He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy. 

He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year. 

I doubt if any American agency will hire him.

However, a London agency did hire him. 

Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world.

The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

That memo was written by David Ogilvy to one of his partners ... and the man described in the memo was Ogilvy himself, the man many refer to as "the father of advertising."

David Ogilvy

Ogilvy came to the US in 1938 and worked for Gallup’s Audience Research Institute. Ten years later, although he had never written an ad, he opened Ogilvy, Benson & Mather.

He went on to produce work for some of the biggest clients of the day: American Express, Lever, Shell, Sears, Rolls-Royce and built the agency into one of the world’s most prominent.

It sometimes pays to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

A Technique for Masterful Co-Presenting

"I've got the whole presentation memorized. Word-for-word."

Matt was excited.

He and I would be in front of a perspective client in a couple of hours.

It was his first time on a formal two-person multi-media pitch to a potentially important client.

"I've gone through it a million times. I know my part and your part by heart."

Like I said, he was excited.

"Glad you're ready, Matt. I need you to transfer some of that enthusiasm to the folks who'll be on the other side of the conference table."

"I wont let you down, boss."

"Didn't even cross my mind. But I've gotta give you a heads up. Depending on their response, I might not stick one hundred percent to the script."

Matt paled. "Then how will I know when it's my turn to talk?"

"Don't worry about what I'm saying, on script or off script. I might deviate from what we wrote, but I'll always finish my part with the same last line we prepared."

"The last line ..."

"Yes, when you hear me go into the last line of my section, you'll know that when I finish that line it's time for you to step in and cover your section."

"The last line ..."

"Yep. And I'll do the same with you. While you're talking, I know you'll be on point and I'll be reading the room. When you hit your last line, I'll be ready to go. It'll be seamless. The secret is for both of us to be ready to go on the other person's last line."

"So I didn't need to memorize every word. Just my parts and the last lines of your parts."

"Pretty much. Now let's walk through it. I'll yadda-yadda my part ending on the line you're waiting for. While I'm finishing that line, take a breath and relax. When I hit the last word, wait a beat and step up with your part. Be confident. They need our offer. Talk with them. Don't recite, talk. Comfortably. Conversationally. And don't worry about me. Don't even look at me. I'll be there when you're ready for me."

"When I do my last line."

"Exactly."

_________________________

The rest of the story ...

After I posted the above on LinkedIn, Stanley Ezeobele commented: 

“Now you've got me invested in this story Scott. How did the presentation go?”

And I responded: 

"Matt did great, Stanley ... but before we reached the halfway point, I saw enough buying signals to change course and close the deal. On the car ride back to the office, Matt was happy about making the sale but a little disappointed that he didn't get to complete his part of the presentation. He did, however, agree that being prepared was what was important, even if we didn't have to use every tool we brought to the job to get the job done."