Why Working with a Copywriter That Asks the Right Questions Can Be a PITA
Your marketing team doesn’t focus on customers or users enough. Why? Because showing concern for their needs is not a priority for them. Or even actively discouraged. This is a problem, and I’m here to nag you about it.
Your KPIs are all about internal metrics, aren’t they? They’re heavily focused on money or efficiency because that makes the business run.
This mindset turns your organization into one of those everyone hates. One that sees clients as either a cash source or a bother, putting customer support calls in some spreadsheet or dashboard as a cost source to be reduced instead of treating them as a source of customer understanding.
Enter the copywriter
I’m a copywriter, which means I’m a guy with simple needs. My perfect day involves getting a straightforward brief about a product with clear customer benefits and messaging tailored forthe intended audience. I then proceed, sipping my favorite brand of coffee brewed to perfection by my Favorite Person In The World, to use the nicely detailed tone of voice description to swiftly craft a killer piece of marketing copy and get paid the next day (ok, that’s stretching it — but within 30 days would be nice).
Cloudy weather is coming. Again
But let’s be honest: these days are rare. A lot of my copywriting days are at least partly cloudy. The problem is that providing these things is a big ask from most companies. Because getting this right is not a ‘marketing thing’. It involves Sales, Product Development, Support, Maintenance, the C-suite… Aligning all these stakeholders, for most companies, means reevaluating everything from HR policies, KPIs, products and services, and communication channels to the Crucial Question All Employees Avoid In Fear Of Torpedoing Their Career: ‘Whose responsibility is this anyway’?
Sometimes, you need to annoy the CEO
And yet, I ask these questions. And if Marketing doesn’t know, I find other people to ask. I bother the CEO with annoying details if I have to. And I charge for the hours this takes me, which can make hiring me a bit of a PITA.
Do I always succeed? No, I do not.
Paying the mortgage
Sometimes, I have no other option but to work with what I have and take educated guesses at the rest. I have a mortgage and kids in college, so there’s a limit to how badly even I can annoy clients. But wherever I can, I fight to move companies from throwing vaguely relevant info at what they think might be their market to engaging with the people who genuinely need what they offer in the right tone and with the right information.
