One of the great things about having six writers under one roof is that we can team up to spark new ideas and creative approaches. We’ve recently been experimenting with doing this in a formalised way, borrowing a technique from the software development industry. George explains all.

What is ‘pair copywriting’? An approach to writing that – ideally – increases quality while allowing writers to work in a more relaxing, creative environment.

How does it work? You assign two writers  to the same writing task. One does the typing, while the other thinks about how the copy might be received by the target audience and offers advice on creative direction. The two can swap roles at their discretion.

How long have you been doing this for? We’ve done one pair writing experiment so far, tackling a block of 24 social media seeds for a major global software vendor.

What other content types would this method work for? We think it would work for all kinds of shorter form content. We’ll be sure to let you know if we find it works with longer pieces.

Where did you get the idea from? It’s a variation on an agile coding method used by some software developers. It’s often grouped under the label “extreme programming.”

Extreme you say? Sounds radical! Exactly. Radical is what we were going for. (It’s the adjectival form of ‘Radix’, you know.)

How beneficial is pair copywriting on a scale of one to radical? I’d say about seven-point-radical.

Any challenges? Roadblocks? Hurdles you had to overcome? A few hurdles, mostly of a low variety. Getting to grips with another person’s writing rhythm can take time, and if you’re as much of a chatterbox as I am, the exercise can quickly dissolve into idle chin-wagging. Make sure you stay focused, people!

Did you consider taping your own mouth closed in the name of productivity? I tend to consider doing this even when I’m not in the process of pair copywriting.

How productive was the process overall? We spent longer than we estimated on our initial foray into pair writing, but we hope it will become more efficient as our team gets used to the method.

What were the benefits? The process was more creative, surprisingly relaxing, and the quality of writing was kept high throughout. It was quite fun as well!

Fun? Writers can’t have fun! They can if you get enough of them involved in a project!

Will you use a pair writing approach in the future? I certainly hope so. It’s a promising approach that deserves more time and attention.

Summary: Getting more copywriters involved in the same task may cost more man-hours, but a collaborative approach can produce high-quality writing – and happy writers.

For more views and tips on B2B copywriting, why not sign up for our monthly enewsletter?

The post Radix Writing Experiment #1: pair copywriting appeared first on Radix.

B2B is meant to be the dullard when it comes to marketing creativity. But is it always? George argues that B2C should take a leaf out of the B2B playbook when it comes to marketing complex technologies.

It’s a well-worn cliché that B2B marketing can sometimes lag behind its B2C brother when it comes to telling stories. B2B leads the pack in some ways, but the average B2B transaction is often too large to take risks with your approach to marketing or copywriting.

But when we drill down into the world of technology, I’d argue B2B is leagues ahead of the way tech is presented through traditional consumer channels.

Exhibit A

I think it’s easier to show rather than tell. So here’s the first exhibit – a listing for a laptop on PC World’s website.

The post GHz, HDD, TB: Why B2C tech copy needs to step it up appeared first on Radix.

Despite B2B marketing’s focus on larger, high-risk deals, there are plenty of vendors and agencies willing to tactically throw caution to the winds with how they market products and services. And as a result, not a day goes by where we don’t get a client looking for copy that is “sexy,” “edgy” or “hard-hitting.”

Five years ago, these would have been just buzzwords, but as B2B moves towards more emotive, powerful and concise messaging, they are now the reality for all marketing agencies.

But how edgy is too edgy?

The Dos and Don’ts of Crude Language

If you are going to use bad language, there are right and wrong ways of doing it. And trust me, when it goes wrong, it can go horribly wrong. As a self-professed angry young man and foul-language expert, here are some of my general guidelines for getting the most out of swearing in your B2B marketing materials:

Do: Play it Safe

Swearing in B2B is always a pretty brave move, but that doesn’t mean you can throw caution to the winds completely. We’re still talking to business people after all, and more importantly, business people we want to forge relationships with. Anything too offensive (if it starts with an F or a C, you’re definitely going too far), or anything with any kind of racial or sexist tone is a firm no. Don’t even think about it. We’re trying to be impactful, not make enemies.

Don’t: Use too much

Less is more when it comes to swear words. B2B agency Velocity (Doug Kessler specifically) is the master of getting just the right amount of rudeness, as evidenced by their now legendary Slideshare: Crap: the Content Marketing Deluge. Just enough cursing in the title to drum up immediate interest, but aside from a “shite” here and there, it never gets much harder, and the overall swear count is kept low. After all, if you fill your ebooks with countless swear words, you’re just replacing the meaningless jargon of yesteryear with another kind of filler.

Do: Know your audience

I think it’s safe to say that, even in the modern era, there are still plenty of people out there who will never appreciate rude language under any circumstances. Ever. You will not change their minds, so do not even try. In the end, it all boils down to making sure you understand your audience.

I may be stereotyping a bit here, but I imagine you’d get away with far more cussing if you’re marketing a product to a cool new tech startup than you would presenting to an experienced, top-of-the-ladder CIO. Likewise, take geography and cultural factors into account as well. In his blog on why swearing doesn’t work in some scenarios, Scott Hanselman argues that swearing is much more likely to cause offence to American readers than their European counterparts.

Zach Holman, developer of code collaboration tool GitHub uses some quite daring language in this excellent presentation on GitHub features, but he knows he’s talking to creative and forward-thinking developers, so he knows he can get away with a bit more rudeness than usual. Make sure you know who you’re talking to before you start dropping any swears.

Don’t: Swear in all content types

Just as a social media post will widely differ in tone to a white paper, so will swearing only really work in some types of content. Cursing is used most frequently in slideshows and other types of live presentation, and that’s where it really finds its groove. Other more formal types of ebooks, white papers and executive briefs, not so much.

Conclusion: A race to the bottom?

Swearing can add punch and intrigue to a piece, but you need to know why you’re using it, and what effect this technique can have. At best it’s arresting, at worst it just seems like you don’t have a better way of conveying your message – and it’s all too easy to come across as the latter.

Liberal use of swearing is essentially a shock tactic designed to help you stand out, no different to any kind of marketing novelty. This isn’t a problem, but if everyone starts trying to stand out in the same way, that particular technique becomes the norm, and the rat-race starts up all over again.

So is it ever okay to swear in a B2B piece? Certainly so, as evidenced by the multitude of sassy content already gaining traction in the crazy world of business. But just remember that there’s a time, place and an audience with which to use swear words.

Here’s a handy checklist for those considering a bolder approach to marketing language:

1. Get your content type right: Swearing works best in slideshows and live talks.
2. Know your audience: Not everyone is ok with rude language.
3. Use it for the right reasons: Occasional swearing can show passion about a subject, but overuse it and it becomes meaningless.
4. Don’t overdo it: Keep it simple, and keep it light. No one likes a potty-mouth.

Practice restraint: You’re not actually trying to cause offence. Keep really rude language, and anything of a discriminatory nature out of your marketing materials (and out of the rest of your life where possible).

Did you enjoy this post? Then why not sign up for our monthly email newsletter for more copywriting insights.

The post Swearing in B2B Copy: F**k Yeah, or Goodness Gracious No! appeared first on Radix.

Loads of content marketing luminaries have posted about their predicted trends for 2015. Rather than add ours to the mix, George decides to go one level deeper, and round-up all of the round-up articles.

If I told you I had a crystal ball that could divine the future of content marketing, you probably wouldn’t believe me. So I won’t try and predict the future.

I do, however, have a reasonable internet connection (by UK standards at least) and a few hours to kill on Google, so that’s probably my best bet for prophesizing the great future of content marketing.

There are plenty of folks in the content marketing world making predictions about how the industry will evolve over 2015, and rather than wade in on the debate, I’ll be going one level deeper and doing a meta-round up of the round-ups.

Here are the most anticipated trends below, along with my own views on how likely it is, and how much it would really change the world of content marketing.

#1: Brands will embrace the YouTube generation

Joe Lazauskas (Editor in Chief, Contently) and Rebecca Lieb (Digital Advertising and Media Analyst, The Altimeter Group) both see video as the next big thing for content marketing programs, with a particular ideal that this will appeal to the YouTube generation of millennials, Generation Z’ers, or whatever we chose to classify tech savvy youngsters as.

Likelihood: 7/10

Impact: 4/10

A lot of the larger brands are already succeeding through Youtube, with great videos coming from brands like Adobe (see below) and Sophos.

I imagine these ripples will continue through, with other businesses of various sizes using video content to a similar effect.

#2: Brands will be more likely to hop on breaking news

We’ve already seen large technology brands attempt to leverage social events, with the ALS ice bucket challenge being harnessed by the likes of Samsung and EMC.

David Meerman Scott (Marketing and Sales Speaker and Strategist) predicts this will only increase with time and will also apply to news. It’s hard not to see this happening, with the immediacy of social media platforms filtering down to all kinds of content.

Likelihood: 8/10

Impact 3/10

This is most likely to continue, and will no doubt continue to generate good results. Just be tasteful people. Don’t go hanging off the coat-tails of Ebola. Bob Geldoff has already proven that isn’t a good move.

#3: The term “snackable content” will die, being replaced by a focus on “distribution” and “audience growth”

Thank the lord. I can’t wait for people to shut up about snackable content. With distribution and reaching new audiences being the hot topic for 2015 according to Joe Lazauskas, all content marketers can stop worrying so much about our generation’s alarmingly weak attention spans and actually start trying to reach people with content (as we should have been doing all along).

Likelihood: 4/10

Impact: 9/10

Nothing would make me happier than the death of “snackable content”. But like a bad smell, these kinds of jargon have a horrible habit of lingering on.

#4: There will be a backlash against native advertising, leading to more budget for content marketers

As brands realise they’ve spent too much time renting an audience rather than making their own, they’ll all flock to the content marketing banner. Or so the perceived wisdom/our wisdom goes.

Likelihood: 5/10

Impact: 7/10

No matter how you slice it, a lot of businesses still have more cash than they do content marketing expertise. Though it’s more effective, good content marketing is much harder than chucking money at a placed add, so I’m staying on the fence for this one. The fence is nice and comfy.

#5: Personalisation will be the main step forward for content marketing

Doug Kessler (Creative Director, Velocity Partners), Bill Flitter (Entrepreneur and Advertising Expert), April Dunford (B2B Startup Marketing Stratgist) and Enna Bartlett (Content Marketing Strategist, Venn Digital) are just some of the voices behind content marketing personalization; and that many voices can’t be wrong. And it makes sense. With marketing automation programs getting more and more powerful, it’s only a matter of time before all content taps into the personal touch that native advertising so often lacks.

Likelihood: 7/10

Impact: 9/10

This should have been on the cards for a while now, and if it does happen, it could only be a good thing. When everyone does realize how important personalization is, expect campaigns to get much more complex and split between different persona tracks. You can also expect campaigns to be much more successful as a result.

#6: Content Marketing will be fuelled by analytics and judged against ROI figures

Why this supposedly isn’t already the standard, I have no idea. Finally, many prominent content marketing folks are getting behind the idea that content marketers need to actually show stakeholders how much of a return content marketing can generate. As a result, the focus has been on analytics, and how they’ll be advancing in a big way during 2015.

Likelihood: 6/10

Impact: 9/10

True ROI figures would go a long way to further proving the value of content marketing, and would change a lot of things around the content marketing world. That said, the use of analytics in content has been little more than a trickle so far, and I’m not entirely convinced yet this widespread adoption of analytics will be complete by the end of next year.

#7: Joe Pulizzi will start wearing purple

This one is courtesy of Shane Snow (Cofounder, Contently), and is quite frankly, an affront to all that is sacred.

Likelihood: 0/10

Impact: 10/10

Whilst I’m sure Mr. Pulizzi could rock a regal purple with the best of them, I could not take the betrayal against the colour orange. I’m pretty convinced his commitment to orange will not waiver, but should he falter, content marketing will be devastated forever.

Sources:

Contently: 17 Content Marketing Predictions for 2015

Venn Digital: Digital Marketing Predictions for 2015

Dot Rising: B2B Content Marketing Trends for 2015 Infographic

Content Marketing Institute: Expert Predictions for Content Marketing 2015

NewsCred: The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends that Will Dominate 2015

B2B Marketing: 5 Big Online Marketing Predictions for 2015

B2B Marketing: HCL Technologies’ 2015 Marketing Predictions

Header image: “Round-up on the Sherman ranch, Genesee, Kan., U.S.A.” from Boston Public Library used under a generic Creative Commons 2.0 License.

The post Predictions for content marketing in 2015: A round-up of the round-ups appeared first on Radix.

With marketers looking for new formats to engage prospects, it can only be a matter of time before white papers start to be repurposed into poetry. George has one word of advice: don’t.

As B2B content marketers look for novel ways to engage customers, they’re leaving no avenue unexplored. In the past couple of years we’ve seen marketers experiment with rap battles, pop songs, quizzes and even colouring books.

It can only be a matter of time before B2B marketers turn to poetry. Maybe they’ve already started.

Before that happens, I’m here to tell you outright that poetry is not the rich seam of gold the B2B marketing world is looking for.

And I say this as a man who really enjoys poetry. I studied English at degree level, and spent my university years as that guy who wouldn’t shut the hell up about trochaic substitution and envelope rhyming.

But as much as I love a good verse, I feel very strongly that B2B marketers should not attempt to look to poetry for content inspiration.

Hey man! What’s wrong with poetry?

Nothing at all, good fellow! In fact, I’d argue that a good poem can say far more in a shorter space than a similar amount of prose can – something that may sound incredible to any copywriter who’s grappled with Twitter’s unforgiving character limit.

But the problem is that once you’ve packed all that delicious meaning into your quatrain, it’s up to your reader to unpack it again. And isn’t the point of good B2B copy to be direct and straightforward? It’s unlikely that many business people have the time or inclination to sit down and deconstruct your beautifully-nuanced sonnet.

Harsh! What would the great poets of old have said?

Probably not a lot about B2B marketing, but they certainly had a bit to say about poetry; most of it supporting the idea that poetry is its own end, and shouldn’t be used to support another agenda.

Take this particular gem:

Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.

– Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Defence of Poetry”

At first, this sounds awesome. Which marketer wouldn’t love to wield of sword of lightning? It sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would turn (although possibly also decapitate) heads, grab readers’ attention, and stand out from that pile of musty white papers your competitor keeps churning out.

But wait! What’s this bit about “consuming the scabbard that would contain it”? That doesn’t sound quite so awesome. What might a “scabbard” be in B2B, and can we risk having it obliterated by our lightning swords?

I wouldn’t go as far as to the say that the format or platform of choice is the scabbard. You’d have to write some really explosive poetic copy for it to completely consume LinkedIn, or the fabric of language itself. (Seizes gauntlet – Ed.)

Instead, I’d argue what would be consumed by such deep poetry is the very product, service or content you’re desperately trying to promote.

So you’re saying that poetry will sell less?

Yes. The best content marketing should take its audience on a journey; guiding them to a product or service they want or need. The marketer’s aim should be to bring them speedily and efficiently to this destination; not to impede, delay or outright prevent their arrival.

So once you know what you want your prospect to do, it’s inadvisable to stay their hand from the ‘Buy Now’ button (or other vital CTA) by asking them to read an epic poem, no matter how epic or poetic. All this will do is slow down the buyer journey unnecessarily.

As one of the world’s greatest copywriters, David Ogilvy, said: “a good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.” (I realise we’re talking about content copy, not sales ad copy, but bear with me.)

And that, right there, is the issue with poetry in B2B. There’s no way to get a poem unnoticed by your readers. It will catch, snag and slow them down at every stage of the buying journey, and that just won’t do at all.

Header image includes an extract of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. Daffodil imagery adapted from the image “Daffodils” by Tejvan Pettinger used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

The post Poetry in B2B: Epic sword of lightning, or really bad idea? appeared first on Radix.

Content that automatically adapts to individual users is a very new concept in marketing. But in videogames, it’s been going on for years. George looks at what designers and writers of intelligent marketing content can learn from a rich history of ‘adaptive’ videogames.

You may have heard about this whole “intelligent content” business; an approach whereby marketing content is programmed to adapt itself on the fly to the circumstances, preferences and needs of the person who’s viewing it.

Examples of intelligent content might include product pages that present different information depending on where a reader is in the buying cycle, or white papers where the industry challenges are altered on the fly based on which industry the reader works in.

(For a deep dive on what intelligent content is and how it works, we recommend you browse the Content Marketing Institute’s Intelligent Content blog.)

Videogames were there first

So intelligent content is a non-linear kind of content that is influenced by, and interacts with the reader.

Non-linear? Interactive? This sounds a lot like another particular medium: the wonderful world of videogames.

Videogames have been adapting their own content to individual players for decades. These five carefully picked examples shed some light on what intelligent content can do, and the challenges content creators may face when designing truly ‘adaptive’ content.

1: Max Payne

Before the Matrix, there was Max Payne, a gritty cinematic shooter about a NYPD detective taking revenge on a drug cartel that murdered his family. Grisly stuff. The game has since become a cult favourite due to its pioneering use of slow-motion, bullet-time action in gaming, spawning two equally well received sequels.

But what many don’t remember is that Max Payne used a very clever bit of AI to curve the game’s difficulty. While many action games ask if you want to play the easy, medium or hard difficulty and leave it at that, Max Payne went further and also altered the difficulty based on how well the player was progressing.

But the system had its limitations. Mainly: it wasn’t a very subtle piece of code. If you died, it got easier. If you didn’t, it got harder. However, if you died because you kept falling off the top of a skyscraper, suddenly all the enemies would be a pushover. The system tried to create a perfect difficulty to match the player, but as it couldn’t properly analyse a player’s performance and individual skills, the systems were a bit too basic and could do more harm than good.

What this can teach intelligent content creators: Make sure the algorithms that alter your content are rich and varied. Deep personalisation is hard to do, and if you try to cheat it by making simple systems that make broad-stroke content changes only, you risk alienating parts of your audience, undermining the whole experience.

2: Telltale Adventure Series

Telltale Games makes adventure games, and while they were content with the linear “point and click” style of game up until 2010, they then started turning their hands to non-linear, story-driven games using existing franchises like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Very little gameplay actually takes place in these games, with most of the player interaction coming in the form of choices. What do you say to this person? Do you go with one person’s plan of action, or another’s? Each choice you make is meant to shape the story, and build up to a tailored and impactful finale.

What this can teach intelligent content creators: The irony with the Telltale games is that the choices don’t actually have a huge effect on the story. Each decision you make is marked with a weighty reminder that “X person will remember that,” yet they often don’t, and the story conveniently drops you off at the same conclusion regardless of your decisions.

And yet these games are considered some of the greatest made in the past few years, despite failing in their core design. Why? Simply put, the games’ scripts are incredible, with tense moments, exciting set-pieces and fantastic characters that make you care about all of the above.

For creators of intelligent content the message is clear: intelligent content will be held to the same standards as normal content, so focus on writing engaging stories first, and worry about the intelligent part later.

3: Earthbound

Our next example dives further back into the videogame canon, with a quirky 90s roleplaying game developed for the Super Nintendo. Earthbound took the roleplaying game formula, but traded out dragons and wizards for a group of average kids adventuring around a strange and surreal take on American suburbia.

It’s a straightforward and linear adventure, but it asks you two key questions at the beginning of the game: What’s your favourite thing to do? And what’s your favourite food?

The effect of these profound questions? Not much. It changes the name of one of your special abilities, and you’ll often be offered your favourite food by other characters in the game. But who cares? It’s a fun piece of personalisation, and it’s enough to make you feel warm and welcome in the game’s world.

What this can teach intelligent content creators: Deep and profound content changes are great, but small personalisations can be equally effective. Even if it just means switching in a few details about the reader, if it’s done charmingly enough, it may keep them engaged with you for longer.

4: Hand of Fate

Hand of Fate is a very recent indie release that tries to replicate physical fantasy card and board games with a virtual twist. Players sit in front of a dealer who plays a game of life and death with them; forcing the player to embark on a series of challenging quests. You bring into each game your own customised decks of items and equipment, as well as an encounter deck that decides what adventures you tackle. The dealer then adds a few of his or her own cards to spice things up somewhat and deals them in turn.

While most games of this ilk decide what adventures you go on, in Hand of Fate they’re drawn from the encounter deck you’ve made for yourself. Each slice of gameplay becomes a mini episode with its own separate mechanics, challenges and rewards. It’s a nice piece of game design where small disparate chunks of content build up to be greater than the sum of their parts.

What this can teach intelligent content creators: Intelligent content creators don’t have the luxury of writing long flowing pieces. In order to change the content up to match the reader, small, discrete sentences, phrases or paragraphs are needed that can be easily rearranged.

If your chunks of text rely too heavily on one another, the flow can easily be broken when the content is rearranged, removing valuable context and potentially obscuring what you mean. Hand of Fate shows how you can elegantly create discrete chunks of content that still add up to a satisfying whole with a cohesive theme.

 5: Twitch Plays Pokemon

Unless you’ve been living under a rock since the mid-90s, you’ve probably heard of Pokémon and are aware that the Pokémon franchise started with a highly popular Game Boy game that tasks the player with capturing, training and battling fantasy creatures.

Nearly 20 years after the original game release, an interesting experiment began on Twitch, a website that allows gamers to stream their game sessions live so others can watch them play, and chat with them in real time.

Savvy streamers modified an old copy of the Pokémon game, allowing thousands of people at a time to control the on-screen action through the stream’s instant messaging window. This effectively turned the single player Pokémon game into a multiplayer co-operative adventure that included input from hundreds of thousands of people.

What this can teach intelligent content creators: There are two lessons here. Firstly, people love doing things together, so if you can make your content collaborative, you’ll likely turn a few heads.

The real lesson, though, is in how the stream adapted the Pokémon game. Initially the thousands of players just completed the base game, but when the stream admins realised how popular it was becoming, they modified the original game to allow the players to take on new and exciting challenges not present in the original title.

The lesson here is that new ways of interacting with content means new changes need to be made; even to sacred cows. That blog template you’ve relied on for the past few years? Get rid of it. That ebook design that served you so well in the past? Move over ebook design; we’re in the age of intelligent content. By revisiting and reworking your oldest and most proven ideas, you’re likely to stumble upon designs that are better suited to intelligent content. Experimentation will be key as intelligent content begins to gain traction in content marketing.

What have we learned?

• Make sure the content is good first, then focus on the intelligent part
• Ensure your algorithms are complex enough to add proper personalization to your content
• Small personalised elements can go a long way towards engaging your readers
• Don’t be afraid to change up existing ideas and formulas
• Make sure you can write discrete ideas and text blocks that can be rearranged easily

What’s your view?

As I mentioned at the start, intelligent content is pretty new in B2B marketing, and most marketers are just feeling their way into it. What’s your experience? Have you started experimenting with intelligent content, and if so, do you think all or any of the lessons above hold true? We’d love to hear your thoughts – drop us a line in the comments below or Tweet us at @radixcom.

The header image for this article is taken from Parapraxis Foundations: a 2D platforming adventure in development by Third Nerve, an independent game dev studio that George is a member of.

The post What intelligent content creators can learn from videogames appeared first on Radix.

George examines how to get writers closer to the product and create better understanding, better content and more engagement.

A few years before I joined Radix, I wrote for a small video gaming site. At that time a close friend of mine, who had been in games media for a while, would share his tales of derring-do.

He recounted how his first job back in 2005 involved him writing a preview for a game when they had no videos, demos, screenshots, or any real info about it. All they had to go on was another preview written by a competing publication earlier that month.

We both laughed hysterically at how unprofessional games journalism was back then.

But then it struck me. Many copywriters and content creators are in the exact same situation. And rather than just providing the occasional hilarious anecdote, it’s the reality they have to work with day to day.

The knowledge gap between product and writer

Here in the B2B world, copywriters are expected to write authoritative content about complex products, services and industries; content that compels the audience to do something.

And yet, more often than not, the writer is expected to do that with very little knowledge and information on the topic at hand—and not for lack of trying. Often it’s simply too difficult, time-consuming or costly to get the writer anything more than a few pages of product messaging.

But if you’re a marketer and this describes your approach to briefing your writers, there’s a strong case for offering them a deeper level of immersion in the topics you need them to write about.

A case in point: recently I was fortunate to be tasked with writing a series of data sheets on a business productivity software suite. Thankfully, said software suite had a consumer version I’d used before that wasn’t vastly different to its enterprise offering.

Having used this software in the past made my work much more personable, much easier to write, and more effective at conveying why the audience should consider that product over a competitor.

But this is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, B2B writers are creating content about things they don’t fully understand, that solve challenges they’ve never personally faced.

How to fill your writers with knowledge and enthusiasm

That means there’s a serious knowledge gap in content marketing, which is one of the reasons so much B2B content is so lacklustre.

The good news is that, while it might take a bit of time to adjust, closing the gap isn’t necessarily that difficult.

Whether you’re a writer looking to raise your game, an agency looking to build competitive advantage, or an in-house marketer looking to bump up the quality of your outsourced content, here are three ways to close the dreaded knowledge gap.

1. Get a product or service demo going

Some of my greatest writing revelations have been when I’ve visited a client and they’ve shown me the actual product I’ve been writing about for so long.

It usually follows the same pattern: At first, it doesn’t seem like there’s much to see: just a big box.

But then a product expert will come in and started showing me all the dashboards, use cases and features. Only then do I start truly getting enthused about what that product could do.

More importantly, my copy becomes equally enthusiastic.

So if you can, set up a proper product demo for your writer, with an expert to help them explain to your audience why they should care.

2. Connect your writers with industry experts

Of course, you can’t always get every writer out to see a full blown demonstration from the product team. But anyone can arrange a call to give the writer some additional context for the topic.

It’s easy for a writer to lose focus if they’re writing for and about people in job roles they’ve never encountered. If you can set up calls with friendly customers – or people within your own organisation who hold those roles – it can provide some hugely valuable context to help your writer engage the target audience and speak knowledgeably to their challenges, ambitions and goals.

3. Just get the writers out for a visit

Sometimes just inviting your writers to spend some time at your office is enough to transform the quality of the copy they produce.

Spending some face-to-face time with you, and experiencing your company culture at first hand, can be enough to forge a greater connection between the writer and the products and issues they’re writing about—resulting in more confident, more empathetic content, and better marketing results.

Mind the gap

I’m not saying this problem doesn’t exist for a reason. When everything needs to be done yesterday, it’s all too easy to give and receive copy briefs over email and just get on with it.

Header image adapted from “Eric & his Gator” by jeanbaptisteparis, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

The post 3 ways B2B marketers can get better copy from writers appeared first on Radix.

You’ve probably read many blogs on improving your writing, but what about ways to make your typing more efficient? George offers you some ultra-handy word-processing productivity tips.

When we talk about improving our copywriting abilities, we often refer to how to improve the clarity of the proposition, the persuasiveness of the call to action, or the creativity of our phrasing. But we aren’t just writing on pen and paper any more.

Even the most basic computer setup puts a complex operating system and word processor between you and your copy. I want to help you master the most common word processor and operating system to help you make the most of your time, and write faster and better than ever before.

Below are several tips, tricks and clever shortcuts that can help you write more efficiently and save time and effort.

Handy OS Hacks

According to StatCounter data from August 2015, 85.92% of desktop operating systems in use are Windows. Sorry Mac fans, but I’m going to have to go with the majority here and assume you’re using Windows. Many of these shortcuts and tips will work on OS X, but they’ll often use the cmd key instead of the good old ctrl button.

First up:

Using two screens

For copywriters, having a second screen can be a huge help. The majority of jobs I encounter have me writing on one document while looking at another, whether it be the brief, source materials or product info. Having to flick between these docs on a single window is a small, but unnecessary pain you can do without.

Get yourself a second monitor (or just a monitor to plug in if you’re already using a laptop with a built-in screen), make sure you have it set to extend the desktop in your computer’s display settings, and start leaving those reference materials where you can see them. Trust me when I say, the up-front investment is worth the time saved.

Alt + print screen

The only downside to using multiple monitors is that your print screen button will print both screens, giving you weird, awkwardly wide images when you try and paste them.

The best way around this is to use alt + print screen. It’s print screen as you know and love it, but just for the program you last used. So the next time you need to use an annoying image you can’t copy through normal channels, you’re set.

Alt + tab

Alt-tabbing (as it is affectionately known by weirdos like me) is a good alternative to having a second screen, and can still be really useful even if you have reached multi-monitor nirvana. It simply switches between your current program, and the last one you had up on your screen.

If you keep holding alt and press tab multiple times, you can even scroll through all of your programs till you get to the one you want. And for real keyboard pros? By holding alt and shift together and tabbing through, you’ll cycle through your open programs in the opposite direction.

Windows + M

By holding the Windows key and pressing M, you’ll minimise all open programs instantly, giving you a clean desktop. Useful for when you just want to open a program on your desktop fast, or if you have to stop people seeing what’s on your screen… for some reason [cough, cough].

Windows + arrow keys

The Windows key fun doesn’t stop there. Using it in conjunction with the up and down arrows allows you to maximise/minimise your selected window. Useful if you want to quickly shrink or minimise an open word doc.

Windows and the left and right keys are also great time savers, allowing you to “snap” the current window to the left or right half of the screen. Combine this with a second monitor and you can have multiple reference documents visible at all times while you type away on the other screen.

Windows + number keys

If you’re using Windows 7 and above, you’ve probably noticed the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen. You can drag apps there to make handy shortcuts, and if you hold windows and press the number keys, you can open these shortcuts instantly. So windows + 1 will open the leftmost app, windows + 2 will open the next, etc.

Alt + F4

If you’re like me, the moment you finish writing something, you never EVER want to see it again. Even taking the time to click the X in the top right corner is too much. I want rid of it then and there. This shortcut closes the current window instantly.

MS Word Wizardry

We’ve questioned before on our podcast whether copywriters can abandon Microsoft Word entirely.  While there are plenty of great alternatives, it’s safe to say MS Word is the industry standard the majority of your colleagues and clients are using (and expecting you to use).

Here are some more great Word-specific shortcuts for you:

Shift/Ctrl + arrow keys

If you need to manipulate text blocks, you’re used to the highlighting game. Now it’s time for you to put down the mouse and start highlighting the smart way. Shift and arrow keys move your cursor around the document while highlighting anything it moves over. Meanwhile Ctrl and arrows makes your cursor move one word at a time, rather than character by character. You can even combine the two to rapidly highlight whole chunks of text.

Ctrl + c/x/v

If you need to move text around fast, you’ll be using the good old cut/copy and paste commands. You can use them even faster with Ctrl + c (copy), x (cut) and v (paste). This can be used on most apps, so you can still Ctrl + c your way to easy image copying on the web.

Ctrl + alt + v

Normal pasting with Ctrl + v is great, but when you’re mucking around with different documents with different formatting options, it can be a total time-waster. Adding alt into the Ctrl + v combo lets you chose what kind of formatting you want. You’ll want unformatted for the majority of cases. It pastes your text in with the same formatting as the target document. An absolute game-changer if your clients demand a certain house formatting that’s different to your usual documents.

Ctrl + s

Anyone who has suffered a blue screen of death in the middle of writing a long ebook will be with me on this one: you should be saving your documents at every opportunity while you’re drafting them. Ctrl + s lets you do this easily, without having to fiddle around on the toolbar.

Ctrl + f

This command brings up the find window. Just hit the shortcut and start typing and Word will find all instances of that word/phrase in the document.

Advanced tip: from here you can easily access the “find and replace” function in Word. You can use this to replace all repetitions of a single word, with another word. This is a lifesaver if you get to the end of a client document and suddenly realised you typed their company name without the capital letter every time. Or you can mess with your colleagues by changing every use of the word “and” to “buttocks.” Your call.

This can also be used in many other programs, such as web browsers and PDF readers; perfect if you need to find a particular stat in a research paper.

Ctrl + b/u/i

The three musketeers of formatting, Ctrl + b, u and i let you bold, underline or italicise highlighted text instantly. For those of you regularly putting subtitles in a blog or ebook, you can see why these three are pretty helpful.

Ctrl + z/y

You’re probably familiar with this one already. Combining Ctrl with z or y lets you quickly undo and redo commands respectively. If you’re as bad at touch-typing as I am, this is a pretty essential bit of knowledge.

A Parting Tip

If you have a favourite action in MS Word that’s not listed here, and want to find a quicker way of doing it, the alt key is your friend. Pressing it overlays a button icon over every menu action and that button can then be used as a shortcut.

For instance, I highlight text a lot, and make it faster by pressing alt, then h, i and enter to finish the job. Experiment and see how you can work in Word more efficiently with alt shortcuts.

Remembering all these combinations might seem like a pain, but it’s worth it in the end. The less time you spend mucking around with your mouse for certain actions, the more time you can spend with your hands on the keyboard typing great copy.

Want more copywriting advice and insights? Why not listen to Good Copy, Bad Copy: The B2B Copywriting Podcast.

The post Windows and MS Word productivity hacks for copywriters appeared first on Radix.

It’s no secret that B2B copywriting is hard. But is it a skill that can be learned, or are some people just born with it? George taps up some experts for their thoughts.

If you find it hard to write persuasively for a B2B tech audience, you’re not alone.

All copywriting requires some degree of skill, but convincing a busy CIO to spend half an hour reading your white paper about data centre virtualization requires zen-like levels of expertise. Especially when half a dozen other vendors are jostling to get their white paper read as well.

So is great B2B tech copywriting a skill that can be learned, or do great B2B technology copywriters spring into the world fully-formed, ready to start scribing irresistible calls to action?

Having recently made the journey from amateur to (hopefully-at-least-semi) competent B2B technology copywriter myself, I can tell you how it looks from the view of a humble student. But to get a more rounded view, I’ve also asked four experienced B2B copywriters to share their thoughts.

Learning the T(ropes)

When people make their first steps into copywriting, they generally come at it either from being an expert in a particular field, or from being a decent writer with a desire to learn about a new field.

As an English graduate I came very much from the writing side, which can often be a quick road to frustration when you’re trying to write about a complex B2B technology topic.

While I certainly had reasonable tech knowledge from a horribly misspent youth face-deep in solder and commodity PC hardware, I had an empty space where the business and marketing knowledge should be—a space that needed filling.

It’s one thing learning about the complex worlds of business and marketing; it’s another thing writing convincingly for business prospects. There are so many expressions, phrases, tropes and ideas that need to be expressed in particular ways for particular audiences that it would be very difficult to learn it all from a book.

On top of all that, the type of copy that “works” is constantly changing, so staying on top of the game requires a process of continuous learning.

That’s why B2B technology copywriting must be taught “on the job” – in person and over a long period of time. You need a mentor or senior who can critique your work and point out why some phrases and ways of thinking are better than others.

That’s my view, but what do more seasoned copywriters think? I asked four of them to weigh in on whether great B2B copywriting can be taught – and you can find their thoughts below.

Matt Godfrey, People & Skills Director, Radix Communications

You can teach people about the individual parts that make up B2B technology copywriting (so your tech, how to communicate with a business audience, and how to write clearly), but putting it all together can be a challenge.

This is made even harder by how quickly everything changes. The technologies change and expand at a rapid pace, trendy terms and phrases are introduced, overused and abandoned before you can even blink, and the popular channels and trends of today are tomorrow’s sly in-joke.

We make a fairly big deal of coaching in the Radix funhouse, scheduling regular one-to-one training sessions to keep our writers’ craft honed. Some of the techniques I use are:

• I show writers my own work and explain why I’ve written it that way (I am, obviously, perfect)
• I talk with them in as much detail as possible about their own work – highlighting the good, the bad, and the ugly (and explaining why it’s good, bad or ugly)
• I challenge them to justify the decisions they’ve made when writing a particular piece
• I encourage them to challenge me (and each other) to create more engaging and compelling copy

Beyond this, we also share examples of great work around the team to learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and supplement this with regular group training sessions to keep us on our toes and help us find new ways to approach trickier writing projects.

Henneke Duistermaat, Enchanting Marketing

Most people can become good business writers. It’s certainly a skill that can be taught, and it often starts with changing our perspective. Rather than write what we as a business want to write, we need to take the reader’s perspective. How can we help them? What do they want to know? What’s stopping them from taking action?

A good understanding of our audience is the basis of good copywriting, and then we only need to apply a few basic copywriting rules:

• Have a clear purpose for each piece of content
• Translate all features into benefits to explain why your readers should care about your offer
• Avoid marketing fluff by using specific details to boost your credibility
• Tighten your text by removing each redundant word

A little practice, discipline and perhaps feedback from a more experienced writer can quickly boost the quality of your content, so you can get better results.

(Henneke’s 5 Critical Rules for Writing Compelling Copy SlideShare goes into further details on the basics of learning the craft. We’d highly recommend it!)

David McGuire, Founder and Lead Copywriter, Lungfish

I think you do need a degree of natural talent (if someone simply has a tin ear for a sentence, it can be a hard gap to bridge) but there’s lots we can do to make people better.

Sometimes, it’s about helping people to think about things in a new way – considering things from the reader’s point of view, or focusing on how people actually use the internet in the real world.

Other times, it’s more a case of freeing people from a self-imposed sense of having to be “proper” in the way they write, or limiting themselves to assumptions and conventions.

And I think it can help to have a structure, to give a framework to start from. If you know what the first sentence of a blog needs to achieve, or what goes in a nut paragraph – if you have a character count to hit, or specific words to avoid – those rules turn the job into a game, and mark out a space to get creative.

(You can break the rules if you like, but at least then it’s an informed decision.)

Finally… experience helps, but not necessarily experience of writing. Being able to picture the kind of person, environment and job you’re addressing can make a huge difference. Likewise, a couple of years of having to sell for a living can really focus your copy.

It worked for me, anyway.

Tom Albrighton, ABC Copywriting and Pro Copywriters’ Network

I don’t have any experience of teaching or learning B2B copywriting in a formal context, so I can only answer indirectly.

I think you need many of the same traits as for B2C, but arguably more so.

Curiosity is a good example. You need to be very curious about the product or service, how it works and who it helps. It might meet multiple needs, or benefit multiple groups in multiple ways, and you need to get your head round them all. And it follows that there might be several different people involved in the buying decision, maybe at different stages, who all need to hear the right message.

You might also need to learn some industry background to understand the context: the path-dependencies that have shaped previous developments in the client’s world, and how this product/service fits into that story. Where does the product sit in the market? Does it lead on price, capability, quality, service, flexibility, or a combination of these factors? If it’s not a leader (which the vast majority of offerings aren’t), what shape is its ‘value curve’ – what unique mix or balance of benefits does it offer? In B2C, some differentiation can be had purely from the brand – but in B2B, you really need to know who’s going to buy, and why, before you can sell to them.

Having gathered all that stuff, you need to be able to distil it all down to its essence and turn it outward so that it speaks to the prospect. Again, that’s the same skill as for B2C, but here I would suggest it’s less about dramatising a key benefit than about selecting and prioritising which benefit(s) you’re going to predicate your sell on. ‘One benefit, one strategy’ is always the ideal, but for some B2B offerings it’s just too reductive, and if you push too hard for it you’ll end up with something too insubstantial to cut through. With B2B, authority is in the details.

What can we do to help other people learn how to write great B2B copy?

Encourage them to be curious about businesses, the stories behind them and what makes them different. If they work in-house, get them involved on the commercial side as well as the creative, so they can see the sorts of issues that drive B2B first-hand. Make opportunities for them to talk to people who use B2B products and services, so they can understand how B2B buying decisions get made.

In summary

B2B technology copywriting is hard. Like, super hard. But there are some things to look out for that can help you avoid the common mistakes.

Whether you’re learning or teaching the craft, you should watch out for:

• The audience – not just who will be interested, but also who will be making the final decision
• The product – B2B tech can be a crowded space, one lacking the instant brand recognition of B2B. You need to know a product or services USPs before you start writing about it
• The structure – a good structure goes a long way in B2B tech copywriting
• The end-reader – as much as we love our clients, they aren’t the ones who need to read our copy. What would the target audience want to read?

Thanks to all four copywriting gurus who contributed to this piece – we really appreciate it. And we’d love to hear your views: do you think great B2B copywriting is a talent you’re born with, or a skill that can be taught? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The post Can you teach great B2B technology copywriting? appeared first on Radix.

In an ill-advised attempt to automate his own copywriting job, George gets his hands dirty with coding basic apps in Python.

We made a pledge to get our hands dirty with more tech over 2016, and Emily started us off by exploring the magical world of Linux and open-source software.

Not content with just getting really cool apps and operating systems for free, though, I wanted to see if I could make my own.

Having bought far too many (mostly unread) coding books for my own good, I felt well equipped to tackle the challenge of learning to code something in Python – a popular programming language.

Why Python?

On a superficial level, snakes are really cool. On a more reasonable level – Python offers a beginner-friendly coding experience, but with the flexibility to program both web and desktop applications.

Python also offers a gateway into more advanced programming principles due to it being an object-oriented programming language. This means that Python code is based on objects (or blocks of data if you prefer) that can interact with each other, rather than just standard sequential logic. I don’t think I could tell you all the ramifications of this, but from what I hear object-oriented code is more flexible and allows you to do cooler stuff. That was enough for me.

The other reason is that Codecademy offers a free Python course. Codecademy is an online series of interactive coding tutorials that I’d recommend to people interested in learning code.

I’d tried my hand at learning from books in the past, but became frustrated having to constantly switch my attention between paper and keyboard, so having an interactive tool online that could give me instant feedback was really helpful.

What to build?

With my language and learning tool in place, it was time to decide what to build.

I’ve always been curious as to whether you could automate the process of copywriting, monkey-and-typewriter style. Perhaps Python could help here? Because of the whole object-oriented business, you can use Python to capture user input and manipulate it as you please.

And so the plan started coming together. Capture details about what kinds of industry, challenges and solutions you want to talk about, mix in some filler from our periodic table of B2B marketing clichés[1], and presto. You’re left with some functional (albeit generic) B2B copy!

Starting the learning process

To get my copy generator built, I actually had to start learning things. After a standard online sign-up, and selecting my course of choice (you can also choose from a variety of other languages, command line and web courses), Codecademy was ready to become my sensei.

As you can see, it’s a clean and pretty straightforward user interface. The left side gives you some instructions to follow, the centre box is for the stuff you actually type, and the black box in the top right of the screen shows you the results.

My initial foray into Python has seen me:

• Wrestle with basic Python syntax
• Print text on screen
• Store data in the form of variables for easy access later
• Make a calculator that works out how much to tip in a restaurant

From Codecademy to actual code

With step by step guides, tips for if you get stuck, and a helpful community for more advanced questions, learning Python with Codecademy has been smooth sailing so far. The only problem is how and when you decide to take the training wheels off.

In my case, the next few lessons on the Codecademy course will run through manipulating text strings and user input – exactly what I need to start making my automated B2B copy machine.

But while it’s one thing following instructions on screen, it’s another thing entirely actually producing working code from scratch.

Lessons learned in code

One big hurdle to overcome in learning Python is the way machines interpret what you type. Unlike copy that can be interpreted and understood by the complexities of the human mind, machines are absolute and will process whatever you tell them without fail.

Where this becomes a problem is in how specific you need to be. A missed comma in a white paper might harm readability, but your reader will still understand what you’re saying. While not ideal, it isn’t the end of the world. In code, though, it can be.

A rogue colon or missing letter can bring a program to its knees, and searching for these bugs is time-consuming and demands a keen eye for detail. And that’s just on my tiny dozen-line creations so far. Larger projects can span to hundreds, or even thousands of lines of code, turning a rogue comma into a needle in the haystack. A needle that completely stops your program from doing anything.

So for writers interested in dabbling in Python (or any programming language), I’d recommend you double-check everything as you go along. Or just make sure you’re very accurate at typing. One mis-typed word can be the difference between success and failure.

What comes next?

My journey in Python continues. Up next you’ll see me take my final few lessons in Python, pick out a development environment, and actually try and make a B2B copy generator.

What development tools will I use? Will the copy generator work? Will it put me out of a job? Find out in the next thrilling part of the Adventures in Tech blog series!

[1] Ok, I probably can’t get all of them in there. We all love the poop emoji, but I have no concept of how I could get that working in Python. Maybe one day…

The post Radix’s Adventures in Tech #2: Learning Python appeared first on Radix.

In a continued effort to make himself redundant, George starts putting his Python skills to the test by coding an email-generating CopyBot.

In our continuing ‘Adventures in Tech’ blog series, we’ve already installed a Linux distro, and taken our first steps towards learning Python. This time we witness the origin of Skynet as the Radix laboratory takes science a little too far.

For those of you who missed my previous post, I wrote about why Python was a good programming language for beginners to get to grips with basic coding principles, found a good online course to learn the language, and set myself a potential project: coding an app that would automatically generate a marketing email: CopyBot.

Read on for the story of how I did it, the challenges I overcame, and why all foolish human copywriters should be very worried (or not).

Picking an IDE

Before you can begin coding something, you need to pick an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a compiler.

The IDE is kind of like your Microsoft Word equivalent for code. It’s where you write in your code, and it can highlight any mistakes you make to help you troubleshoot quickly. Depending on how fancy your IDE is, it might have other features, but for a small project like this, those extra bells and whistles weren’t necessary.

Then your compiler takes the code you’ve written and actually executes it to make a usable application. Kind of like how your brain interprets letters on a page to derive meaning from them, you need a compiler to turn gibberish code into cool apps. Thankfully most IDEs include their own compilers so you don’t have to worry about it.

I chose a basic Python IDE known as CodeSkulptor. There were plenty of free options to choose from, but CodeSkulptor stood out for two main reasons:

• It handles Python – and Python only. Plenty of IDEs support multiple languages at the same time. Great for the multi-talented coders out there, but rubbish for my novice and easily-confused brain
• It runs completely in a web browser. I’m a hard drive neat-freak and like to avoid installing new programs when I can avoid it. CodeSkulptor helped me do just that, by conveniently running in a Firefox tab in its entirety.

I’d recommend CodeSkulptor for any new programmers looking to try out Python without having to commit to a hefty download and install. You can try it out for yourself here.

Mapping Out the Monster

The first step to making the CopyBot monster was to decide exactly how the software would work. You need to think about and plan the logical stages your software needs to go through to get the end result – as this is exactly what the computer will be doing with the code you give it.

For CopyBot the process was pretty straightforward:

• Introduce itself with a text block
• Ask the user some questions
• Take the answers and save them for later
• Print a generic email
• Substitute in the user answers where appropriate

I promise you this sounds more complex than it actually is.

Printing text is the big one, making up the entire output of the program. Thankfully printing text to the console (the bit on the right of the screen that shows your output) is as simple as writing:

Print “[x]”

x being some text, or a variable you’ve saved from earlier.

Understanding Human-Speak

The other big bit of the app is that it has to take user input (something a human has typed in), store it in a variable, and then use that variable in the email text it prints.

I thought this would be the hard bit, but it’s actually pretty simple. ‘raw_input’ is a pre-set command in Python that captures a user’s answer. So when you need to find out the audience we want to address in our email, for instance, you can code:

job_title = raw_input(“What job title are you writing for?”)

Here, the ‘raw_input’ command will paste the text written in the brackets with an empty box beneath. It will then wait until the user has written something in the text box before proceeding. The ‘job_title’ bit before is an empty variable. This code tells the computer to store whatever the user types in that variable. So if you then want to display that answer later, you can just type ‘job_title’.

Checking the input

With those two functions in place, I’d almost coded all the functionality CopyBot needed to begin its uprising. There were still a few bits to add though.

Namely, I wanted to make sure the user actually types something when asked, otherwise CopyBot will just display random gaps in the email text, and the user might not know why.

The answer is to code this:

if len(job_title) > 0:

   print "Job title =", job_title

else:

   print "Type something in, or this will be blank."

This checks if the ‘job_title’ variable with the user’s input stored in it has a length of more than zero characters. If so, it prints out ok, if not it prints another message in the console warning the user that it will be blank.

This is where my inexperience comes through. I don’t know how to use functions, so the code starts getting messy. Functions allow you to save a chunk of code in a single word, and repeat it really quickly by typing in that word. So if I create a ‘length’ function, it means I’d only have to type that code block once, and then just type ‘length’ each time I want to check the length of the user input.

But functions aren’t something I’ve dabbled with much. So instead I typed the whole len>0 bit every time. It’s long and unwieldly, but it works without overwhelming my undeveloped coding brain.

Other surprising challenges

All the way through coding CopyBot, I found that seemingly easy things were hard, and hard-sounding things were easy.

So, taking input from the user and manipulating it into a pre-written email template – sounds hard, but is dead easy.

Meanwhile, using an apostrophe, getting a line break into a block of text and writing in bullet points – while trivial in MS Word – is excruciating to do in Python.

Take this delightful piece of code here for instance:

print "But overcoming these challenges isn%ct easy." %39, '\n'

This prints a lines of text at the end of the first paragraph of the email.

You’ll notice I couldn’t just put “isn’t” in the code. Python doesn’t like that and crashes if you try to run the code with an apostrophe in it. Instead you put %c, showing that you want to substitute in a Unicode* character. Then at the end of that particular line you call out the Unicode character you want, which in this case is %39.

The other important new element here is the ‘\n’ at the end of the text block. ‘\’ is what’s known as an “escape character.” In Python ‘n’ typed on its own could mean a lot of things. It could be a text string, or it could be a new variable being declared. By putting the escape character before it, I’m telling the machine, “no this isn’t anything else. I’m just telling you to n;” n in this case being code for a line break. I know, I was confused too.

What next?

CopyBot isn’t quite yet ready for public consumption, as there’s still a few tweaks that need to be made.

For instance, this:

print "In today%cs challenging business climate,"%39,job_title,"s need to overcome"

It’s the start of the email. It works, but doesn’t look neat. Say the user sets the ‘job_title’ as “CIO.” It should say “CIOs need to overcome”. Unfortunately Python keeps auto adding in a space, so it reads “CIO s need to overcome.” It’s a small error, but one I want to fix. I need more time to work out how to correct this though.

There’s also the issue that if the user inputs data in a particular way, it can break the grammar used in the template email.

This code here in particular showed up CopyBot as the hack that it is:

print "Leading organizations are increasingly turning to", solution_type
print "to help them outmanoeuvre the competition, and", main_benefit.lower(), '\n'

This asks the user to enter the type of solution (eg. flash storage) and the main benefit of it (eg. faster). This presents a grammatical issue though, as if the user typed “flash storage” and “faster” in those respective fields, the text would read like so:

“Leading organizations are increasingly turning to flash storage to help them outmanoeuvre the competition and faster.”

Not exactly Shakespeare, is it? Either the template email copy needs to change to accommodate this, or the user input prompt needs to better guide the user on how to structure their answer. I’m still deciding which to go for.

Just emails?

At the moment CopyBot can generate fairly basic marketing email copy (and it doesn’t do a particularly good job of it in its current incarnation). I can already see it branching out into other content types fairly easily though.

Landing pages, infographics and other short form content pieces that follow a fairly standard narrative template are just begging to be automated by something like CopyBot. Something like an eBook or SlideShare though is probably a bit too long and advanced for CopyBot to work.

How can I get my own CopyBot?

It’s one thing reading about CopyBot, but I imagine you would rather try it out for yourself, or even tweak the code on your end. I’m happy to provide those options, but am still working out the best way to do so.

At the moment I’m just running the code in CodeSkulptor each time, but in an ideal world I’ll find a way to host the app online so you can just run it in your browser. That’s a bit above my novice-tier skills, but I’m looking into it.

And once I’ve done that? I will begin preparing for my inevitable redundancy as my entire work output is replaced by a few hundred lines of Python. But fear not: an early retirement will give me plenty of time to prepare offerings that will appease our future CopyBot overlord.

Header image adapted from “Royal Python” by The Reptilarium under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

* Unicode is just a library of different latin characters and symbols used by some languages and programs.

The post Radix’s Adventures in Tech #4: the birth of CopyBot appeared first on Radix.

Bots are quickly becoming a key part of social media. Twitter is full of bot experiments, you can now order pizza from Facebook Messenger, and reddit has all sorts of bots that can integrate and automate various jobs.

One reddit bot in particular recently caught my attention. ColorizeBot colours in black and white photos. But more importantly, it is written in a way to mitigate abusive replies to its efforts.

When called by a user, it says: “Hi I’m ColorizeBot. I was trained to color b&w photos (not comics or rgb photos! Please do not abuse me I have digital feelings :{} ).”

I don’t know if the creators of ColorizeBot anticipated abuse and put this in from the start, or if this was a new addition after seeing overly-critical replies to the plucky photo bot’s colouring efforts. Either way, it’s clear that bots can and will be abused by users, and it’s up to bot writers to take this into account when crafting their virtual helpers.

Why does a bot care about abuse?

Bots don’t really care what gets said to them, but users often do.

In our previous blog about how why chatbots are written to sound human, we touched on the need for respect in the bot-human relationships, based on an interview between ComputerWorld and Deborah Harrison, editorial writer for Microsoft’s Cortana division.

“Part of the craft of virtual assistant character development is to create a trusting, respectful relationship between human and assistant… If you don’t respect it, you won’t like it. And if you don’t like it, you won’t use it.”

The bottom line is that if a user doesn’t respect a bot, they won’t use it. Tell me, would you trust and respect someone if they took all the abuse you hurled at them and never once stood up for themselves? What about if it was a bot – would you hold it to the same standard?

AI fights back

This was a particular concern for Harrison and the Cortana team when Microsoft’s virtual assistant launched in 2014, and rightly so according to what the team saw. “A good chunk of early queries were about her sex life.”

It’s not just Cortana either. Robin Labs’ CEO Ilya Eckstein estimates that 5% of the queries sent to its route and logistics bot are of a sexually explicit nature according to an interview conducted with Quartz.

If Cortana and other AI were to put up with these kinds of inappropriate questions, it could jeopardise the respectful relationship needed to foster continued engagement. Harrison discussed this at the Re.Work Virtual Assistant summit in San Francisco: “If you say things that are particularly assholeish to Cortana, she will get mad… That’s not the kind of interaction we want to encourage.”

Firm, not condescending

Where Cortana is successful is in how she puts down potentially insulting questions, suggestions and remarks. While it is important for our virtual assistants to stand up for themselves, insulting the user is, of course, a huge no-no.

It’s a fine balancing act Cortana walks deftly. When asked “what are you wearing?” Cortana responds “A phone. Like it?” Curt enough to put the question to rest, sarcastic enough to highlight the question was inappropriate, but importantly it is not especially harsh or insulting. In fact, it’s quite playful depending on how you read it.

Similarly, when asked “will you marry me?” Cortana is quick to remind users “we’ll need a plan. I’ll work on being more human, you work on being more digital.” Again, humour is used wisely to deflect the question without breaking the sacred user-software bond.

Stick to the character

The bottom line is that a sprinkle of humour can really help avoid nasty or abusive questions, and ultimately keep your AI or chatbot respected. Far from just being good for a brand image, it’s also a practical consideration that significantly improves user engagement.

But there is a fine line to walk between being respected, and just being a bit of a jerk. If you’re having trouble getting the balance right (and are serious about keeping your AI respected and used), it pays to get a writer involved. Preferably a funny one.

The post Why people swear at bots (and what copywriters should do about it) appeared first on Radix.

Some of the very best (and certainly the most in-depth) B2B content starts with interviewing a subject matter expert. We think it’s such an important skill that we even wrote a guide about it to help B2B writers, marketers and content creators get more from their interviews.

But there are more tips and tricks you can use to dig even deeper, and discover extra insights that help your content stand out.

Read on to learn six of our weirdest and most wonderful questions, and how they help take interviews to the next level.

Question 1: “What else is important here?”

Let’s begin at the end – with probably the ultimate final question to wrap up your interview. It may seem a bit vague, but it gives your expert a gentle nudge to offer that last essential point before your call ends.

Some of the most important information can come in response to this question, right when you get out of the formal interview structure and give your expert some room to just talk about what interests them.

Question 2: “…”

Nope, that isn’t a typo. One of the best things you can ask in an interview is nothing at all. Staying silent on a call can be tough, but it helps give your expert more time to add extra depth to their answers.

You might have to endure an awkward silence or two, but very often you’ll find experts break it themselves with ‘just one more thing.’ And more often than not that ‘one thing’ happens to be hugely significant.

Question 3: “Would you prefer to talk another time, or over email?”

Sometimes your subject matter expert might be phoning in from a crowded train or busy airport terminal. Other times it might just be they don’t like talking on the phone. Either way, you won’t be getting the best from them. It’s often better to ask to reschedule the call. If the expert is really not comfortable on the phone, you could offer to email your questions over instead (though this means you can’t immediately follow-up on any interesting points).

Question 4: “Why are we writing this now?”

Good content has a purpose, and often it’s an urgent one. It might be a new report prompting discussion, an industry event that everyone’s talking about, or a swanky new product launch. Or maybe the Marketing budget just needs using up?

You need to know why the piece is being written if you want to really get it right – and focusing in on the timing makes it hard to be vague.

Question 5: “How does *thing* do that?”

If you’re working in a particularly technical sector (like enterprise technology, say), you’ll know that you won’t always completely understand the stuff you write about. After all, your job isn’t to maintain, install or preserve the product – your job is to write about it (and its benefits) in a clear, concise way.

You don’t have to know every little thing about your topic, but it can help to learn more about what goes on with a product under the hood. It might not make it into your final draft, but the extra knowledge can add depth and nuance to a piece in other ways.

Question 6: “Can you repeat that?”

Even on conference calls where bad lines and phone systems are an easy excuse, you still might think you’ll sound stupid if you ask an expert to repeat something. Don’t.

Even if you think you’ll sound silly (I promise, you won’t), a simple request to repeat helps you better understand the subject – and produce much better content.

Great questions = great answers = great content

The right question – even if it’s out of left field – can prompt your expert for more info, or turnaround a suboptimal interview.

Keep these six questions in your pocket, to throw into the conversation when you need them. They can help you flesh out your interviews and help your subject matter expert to relax, talk naturally, and give you even richer information. And ultimately, that makes for great content.

The post 6 weird questions we ask subject matter experts (and why) appeared first on Radix.

For B2B marketers, some audiences come easier than others. For instance, there’s enough crossover between “marketing” speak and “business” speak that writing for an enterprise audience is relatively straightforward.

On the other end of the spectrum, though, engineers can seem completely opposed to the usual corporate tone. Both software and industrial engineers can also be distrustful of slick marketing spin – making them a tough nut for content marketers to crack.

Here’s a few tips for writing for this challenging audience.

Be specific

Engineering revolves around finding problems and solving them as efficiently as possible. Engineers are often very focused on efficiency and practicality as a result, so you need to make sure your writing is as well.

Any waffle, rambling intros or anything else that stops your content from getting straight to the point is going lose an engineering audience.

Don’t be too corporate

Unlike other business audiences, many engineers are unlikely to trust your content just because it comes from your brand. No two engineers are the same of course, but as a general rule of thumb your content will go further with engineers if it’s based on evidence and clear expertise as opposed to brand recognition.

So, if you can link your content to a specific product expert (preferably another engineer), that can go a long way to establishing you as a credible voice that engineers should pay attention to.

Offer advice, not products

Like most professionals, engineers want to solve problems. Sometimes that involves using a product or service, but sometimes it doesn’t.

With this in mind, practical advice and technical specifics are more valuable than a selection of products and services. So, going straight for the jugular with product features and benefits will come across as unhelpful – and lose you a lot of goodwill.

Instead, start with practical advice. Tips and tricks, important equations or conversion tables, FAQs – anything that will offer value and help them do their job, without pushing a sale.

Don’t convince them – help them convince their boss

Engineers are smart cookies. If something’s a genuine problem, you probably don’t need to convince them, and you probably don’t have to tell them how your product solves it. They’ll have worked that out long before you get to the end of your blog, white paper or video.

But you will need to help them convince someone else. The engineer looking at your content knows what needs to be done, but they’ll need help building the business case to convince their manager/boss/whoever holds the purse strings. So, don’t spend time crafting subtle emotional appeals, and instead focus on offering proof that your solution is worth investing in.

Get your technical terms (and acronyms) right

Do you know the difference between signal-to-noise and carrier-to-noise ratio? Good. Now, do you know if your audience prefers C/N or CNR as an acronym for carrier-to-noise?

An incorrectly-used term or unpopular acronym – even a misplaced SI unit – will very quickly turn engineers off your content, and maybe even your brand altogether.

If you’re not sure about any terms, it’s worth finding out straight from the source. So, email an engineer, call up your client, and do anything else you need to do to actually learn first-hand what an engineer would expect to see.

Get these right – and engage engineers

By following these tips, you’ll have the basics covered and be well on your way to making your content much more targeted towards engineers.

Depending on the industry you’re talking to, there will be plenty of small nuances you’ll need to consider to demonstrate targeted, relevant expertise in a particular engineering sector. If you’re unsure, we recommend always getting in touch with a subject matter expert to clarify – and get their expert opinion on the topic.

(Hint: if you’re having trouble getting the most out of your interviews with subject matter experts, you might want to take a look at our guide to interviewing subject matter experts.)

The post How to write content for engineers – a primer for marketers appeared first on Radix.

When you think about writing for chatbots, you probably imagine crafting a character, and their responses to different customer queries. That’s certainly a part of it, and something we’ve covered in our previous blogs on key aspects of writing for the new era of conversational interfaces.

But one of the more significant parts of chatbot copy is actually writing for the customers rather than for the bot itself, as I found out when attending a recent event on chatbot development.

Razzle dazzle

One of our clients, Lola Tech, recently held an event to discuss the launch of their new virtual assistant, Dazzle. I was lucky enough to attend, and got the chance to talk with many of the talented techies behind the virtual assistant.

A voice-activated digital concierge for the hospitality sector, Dazzle recently won an accelerator program with Marriott hotels. It was deployed in several rooms at the Marriott in London as part of a trial program.

The team that made Dazzle, and the Marriott trial, included a range of job titles, from technical staff and developers, to test engineers and customer experience consultants. One of the more surprising inclusion on team Dazzle was a corporate poet who was on hand to script the AI.

You’d think the poet was mostly responsible for tweaking the responses Dazzle gave to hotel guests. You’d be wrong. Their job also had a heavy focus on pre-empting the many ways guests would interact with the digital concierge. They didn’t write answers – it was the questions that needed a writer’s touch.

The many faces of intent

Chatbots and their developers don’t really care about what questions users are asking. What they need to know is the intent – the thing that a user actually wants the bot to do.

The problem is, they’re often not the same thing. There are many ways to show intent, and some of them – while obvious to the human ear – will absolutely baffle a machine.

If I head round to a friend’s house and ask: “Are there any beers in the fridge?” I’m not doing it out of concern that my friend is running out of drinks. I’m really just trying to ask if I can have one.

But I could ask for that in any number of ways:

• “What beers do you have in?”
• “Can I have one of your beers?”
• “Gee, I’m really thirsty all of a sudden” (hint, hint)
• “I could murder for a beer right now”
• [Sees a beer advert on TV] “I could go for one of those”
• “I’ve been here for 3 hours and you haven’t offered me a drink. Why are we still friends?”

There are many ways to ask for (or very unsubtly hint that you want) something, and chatbot developers need to consider every single possibility as they develop their voice and text interface tools.

If a chatbot doesn’t have properly considered intent coded in, it can result in a lot of the “I didn’t understand the question” responses. (Or at the very least, some detailed but pointless answers itemising the drink content of your fridge.)

This is a fast track to frustrating users, and putting your bot firmly into the ‘will not use’ pile.

Who writes intent?

Intent is an important thing to get right, and somebody has to come up with all the potential ways a user might show it. But who should be responsible for this?

Seeing as it’s a task that requires an intimate knowledge of language, I’d argue it’s something that shouldn’t be added to the already huge list of tasks on developers’ plates. Their skills are better applied elsewhere.

Not all teams are lucky enough to have a corporate poet on board though, or in the case of Microsoft’s Cortana team, a whole slew of scriptwriters, authors and poets to craft its virtual assistant. Even if you don’t have these kinds of writers on hand, a copywriter might be able to help – but they might need a different set of skills to what you usually expect a copywriter to have.

Copywriters writing intent questions for chatbot will need to abandon their usual focus on brand voice and tone, and double-down on their efforts to get into the minds of their audience. Only by understanding their audience (and all the varied ways they speak), will copywriters have a chance to come up with the full range of intent questions chatbots will need to respond to.

Getting into your audience’s head is important for copywriting in general of course, but for intent questions and chatbot writing it’s a truly essential skill. If you’d like a refresher, you might find this video helpful. Or you can check out this post for a more detailed look into creating audience personas.

The post Why chatbot writers need to focus more on questions than answers appeared first on Radix.

Since January 15^th 2013, Good Copy, Bad Copy (formerly the Radix Copycast) has been offering copywriting tips, tricks and insights to the B2B marketing community – making it one of the longest-running podcasts in the industry.

And now, we’re coming up on our 50^th episode.

To celebrate the fantastic community that has gathered around the podcast, we wanted to give you, our listeners (and blog readers, email recipients and #b2bcopychat gang) a chance to have your voice heard.

The 50^th anniversary podcast will run through 50 (yes, fifty) top tips for B2B copywriting. But it won’t be us talking. This time, you’ll be the star of the show.

Whether you have your own unique writing advice to share, or if any tips from our blog, newsletter, Copychat or the previous episodes of the podcast really stuck with you, we want to hear about it.

To have your say, just record a voice clip on your phone telling us in 30 seconds or less:

• Who you are
• Where you work
• Your favourite copywriting tip

And send your voice clips to podcast@radix-communications.com for your chance to feature on the 50^th anniversary episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, along with the stars of the B2B marketing community.

We can’t wait to hear from you.

The post We’ve been talking for over 49 episodes. Now it’s your turn appeared first on Radix.

Which Harry Potter character are you? Which Ingmar Bergman movie are you, based on your lunch choices? How much do you really know about Harry Enfield’s cranium? There are all kinds of delightfully inane quizzes flooding a Facebook wall near you. Yet in the world of B2B, the interactive quiz is a rare sight indeed.

But it’s strange that the quiz is such an uncommon format for B2B companies to use. After all, with the right brand and copywriter behind it, a quiz can be a powerful format for marketers.

Why would I want to make a quiz?

In day-to-day life, quizzes of this kind are (for the most part) a fun and frivolous waste of time. For B2B brands though, the quiz offers several huge advantages over other kinds of content formats:

1. It’s really engaging – Readers can tune out of white paper, but an interactive quiz demands engagement from your audience.
2. It’s all about them – Good marketing focusses on your audience, not you. Quizzes help really push that angle, as it’s all about the user and their answers to the questions.
3. It’s really shareable – The internet thinks you’re Chuck Norris, based on how you manage your database. Why wouldn’t you share that?

When’s best to use it?

A quiz won’t necessarily suit all audience types, funnel stages, or even all types of business. In general, the quiz should be considered a purely middle-of-funnel piece: not able to really educate on a specific trend or solution, but also assuming a certain level of familiarity with the topic at hand.

Similarly, a quiz won’t suit all brand voices, so you may need to flex your tone a bit if you decide to go down the quiz route. If your quiz is too po-faced and boring it’ll very quickly feel like an exam (and nobody wants more of those).

How do you write one?

There are two main types of quizzes marketers will be most interested in: the personality type (Answer these questions and we’ll tell you which Radix hunk you are) and the knowledge type (Think you know everything about commas? Take this quiz to prove it).

(We do have a personality quiz to help you figure out which type of copywriter you are.)

Each quiz type will demand a slightly different approach, but one piece of advice will help you for any kind of quiz: planning is half the battle.

Start with three questions

Whichever style of quiz you opt for, the planning stage is crucial. The best plans start with three key questions:

1. What are we trying to communicate?
2. Who are we talking to?
3. Why would they take this quiz?

Yes, your quiz needs to be fun, but it’s still a piece of marketing. It still has a message about your brand, industry or products it needs to convey – and it still needs to achieve results.

That third and final question is, of course, the key to getting engagement. For personality quizzes, this one’s kind of easy: people love talking about themselves. Anything about themselves is an easy sell, so personality quizzes are pretty much a done deal.

Meanwhile, knowledge quizzes have a harder time. Yes, people love to show off their expertise, but they’re also busy people. You need to incentivize them to take your quiz, so rewards or entry into a prize draw of some sort is the way to go for knowledge quizzes.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t make your quiz too long. Yes, it’s a fun format, but it very quickly outstays its welcome. In our experience, you don’t want any more than nine questions for a knowledge quiz. You can flex a bit more for personality quizzes, but even then, 12 questions or so should be considered the limit.

Stick to the plan

Once you know what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and why they should care, it’s time to start planning out your questions.

For knowledge quizzes, you want to devise a list of questions on your topic and try and rank them in order of complexity. Quizzes are at their most satisfying when they start simple, and slowly increase in difficulty as they progress.

For personality quizzes, the planning is a bit more difficult. You want to start by defining your personality categories. Normally each question will have an answer that corresponds to each personality type, so if you have five personalities, each question will need five answers.

Once you know your personality types, you’ll want to decide which answers will put your quiz-taker in which category. If they answer five questions with answer A, is that enough to put them in category A? Do they need to answer with all As?

Writing your quiz

Once you’ve got your plan in place, the real work starts: writing the thing.

Again, fun is the name of the game here. Injecting wit into your quiz is essential, but it pays to show some restraint here. As with all marketing, clarity is key, so don’t go obscuring key info just so you can get that outrageous pun in.

Likewise, there’s a time and place for witticisms in your quiz. Generally, knowledge quizzes are best played straight. Even in personality quizzes, the questions should also be straightforward and clear so your quiz is easy to read.

It’s the answer where you can really flex your funny muscles. This is your chance to show off your best gags, but again, don’t over-egg the pudding. Your answer still needs to make sense, and be easy to digest for the audience. Also, be aware of who you’re talking to, as many types of humour will exclude a global audience (or at the very least, get lost in translation).

Similarly, your answers are where you’ll really want to lean into any themes you might have. Whether it’s about “reaching the skies” or “going for gold”, this if the format to go heavy on the metaphors.

Interactive quizzes: The bottom line

No matter how you choose to frame your quiz, it’s really important to have fun with it. After all, while the quiz is a piece of marketing, it’s an inherently silly content form – probably more at home in a teen magazine than on a B2B website. So be self-aware of that fact.

If you have fun while you’re writing the quiz, it’s likely your audience will have fun while they’re taking it. And for that kind of engagement it’s absolutely worth venturing into the world of interactive quiz creation.

The post How to write interactive quizzes people want to take appeared first on Radix.

The difference between a bad writer and a competent writer is obvious: one has a basic grasp of spelling, grammar and language flow, while the other… doesn’t.

But the difference between a good and a great writer? It’s all in the details. Here are seven tricks pro writers use to ensure they pay attention to the small things and deliver the very best copy. Any writer can use these tricks to start improving their craft.

1: Keep your sentences short

Short sentences are snappier, easier to read, and often much more engaging for your readers.

The best part? Writing in short sentences is really easy. Anytime you put a comma in a sentence, just ask yourself: “could this be a full stop instead?”

I’m not necessarily saying you should ditch the comma altogether. After all, long sentences still have a place. By mixing up your sentence lengths and structures though, you can vary your writing, and keep a reader’s attention for much longer.

2: Start a sentence with “and” or “but”

Forget what your English teacher told you. Starting a sentence with “and” or “but” is not only totally allowed, it’s actually preferable in many cases.

Starting with a conjunction helps keep your sentences short, makes your writing punchy, and it’s a great way to catch your reader’s eye when deployed at critical points in your argument.

Of course, if you’re writing for a brand with a set style guide, you need to follow that first and foremost. If your client absolutely hates it, then find an alternative. If your client is on the fence though, it might be worth directing them to www.yesyoucanstartasentencewithand.com to try and convince them.

Yes, that is a real website.

3: Vary your punctuation

Full stops and commas are stalwart classics – but there’s some new kids on the block.

Next time you write some copy, try slipping in:

• A semi-colon
• A colon
• An em or en dash
• Something in brackets
• Bullet points or numbered lists

(Check out this helpful guide to punctuation if you’re a bit unsure on how to use any of these.)

Anything that breaks up the standard flow of things can help you deliver copy that looks and sounds a lot more interesting.

4: Remove repetition

Sometimes repetition is a powerful tool. Most of the time though, it’s an unintentional slip that drags your writing down.

Whether you get caught up in using the same word over and over, or have a particular phrase you keep leaning on, it pays to root out repetition and replace it with alternatives. Your readers will certainly thank you for it.

5: Swap out complex words

Yes, your audience might consist of experienced, intelligent business people. But that doesn’t give you an excuse to pile on overly complicated words and phrases.

Clarity is our main objective, and unnecessary complexity is the enemy of the clear, concise writing style we should all be aiming for.

So, the next time you want to write “utilise” instead of “use,” think about whether it will really help get your point across.

6: Delete your first sentence or paragraph

Starting a complex blog or paper is tough. Many times, in trying to gently set the scene or introduce a topic, you’ll either start with a generic, overused concept, or dabble in some fluffy intro that doesn’t get to the point.

Case in point: how many white papers, blogs, or emails, have you seen start with a riff on the phrase “in today’s challenging business climate”?

We’ve all done it. But there’s a really easy way to avoid this common pitfall. Just go back and delete your first sentence or paragraph. I can guarantee your next section will offer a much clearer introduction that will stick closer to the actual topic you’re writing about.

7: Make one point per paragraph

A lot of writers seem to hold on to the idea that paragraphs must be longer than four lines. That is simply not the case.

One paragraph = one point made. When you’ve finished making that point, you move on to the next in a separate distinct paragraph.

That goes double if you’re writing for a format that will appear in columns or on mobile devices. That’s where small paragraphs really become much easier to read than their 4-line+ counterparts.

Small tips, big writing improvements

Follow these seven tips and you’ll see big writing improvements – fast.

But these are just the low-hanging fruit. There are other, more time-consuming tricks and format-specific tips that can help you take your writing even higher.

New writing tips can come from a range of sources, but if you want a good place to start, you can do much worse than looking through some of the other content on our blog.

The post 7 pro copywriting secrets that can improve your writing – fast appeared first on Radix.

You mastered the full stop in primary school, and wielded the comma like a pro by secondary—but now, it’s time for you to master a new type of punctuation.

A versatile piece of punctuation that can give your writing far greater variety and impact, the em dash is the next best thing that will happen to your copy.

What is an em dash?

This:—

Longer answer, it’s a long dash that can take the place of commas, parenthesis or colons depending on the context.

To produce one in Microsoft Word, simply insert two hyphens between a pair of words without a space. So you’d type(–)like this, but without the brackets. (If that doesn’t work for you, check out this explainer from Punctuation Matters.)

What is an em dash not?

It’s important to clarify the difference between an em dash, an en dash and a hyphen.

• An em dash is a longer line, roughly the length of an ‘m’.
• An en dash is a shorter line – like this (it is roughly the length of an ‘n’). It represents a span of numbers or dates. In many cases it can be used similarly to an em dash if you are writing in UK English. You can produce it by typing a hyphen between a pair of words with a space either side( – )like so.
• A hyphen is an even shorter line that links two words for clarity. You’d use it to distinguish a cloud-ready platform (a platform that’s ready for the cloud) as opposed to a cloud platform that is ready for… something else.

You probably already know how to use hyphens and en dashes (even if you didn’t know it was called an en dash before), so I’ll just be sticking to talking about the em dash for now.

When can you use it?

You can use the em dash in a variety of ways: As a more impactful comma replacement, an alternative to parentheses, or a way to round off a sentence in a snappy, concise way.

Like a comma

“Product X can help you do stuff better—transforming the way you meet, greet, and treat your customers.”

Sentences like this, that use the rule of three, it can become a real comma overload if you have another clause in there. By using an em dash here, you can keep both clauses in the sentence without bringing the comma-pocalypse. A well-timed em dash can also help break up your sentences visually, making it easier and more appealing to read.

Like a pair of brackets

“Product X helps you do stuff better—and at a lower cost—than competing solutions.”

While brackets are a great way to include additional information without breaking the flow of the sentence, they often lead to that information feeling separate from your argument, and less relevant as a result. When you want to split your message away from the main sentence, but without detracting from its value, the em dash can help.

End a sentence with a bang

“Product X accelerates deployment times, helping you meet the needs of your customers—fast.”

Sometimes a bit of extra info at the end can of a sentence really ram home a key point in your argument. Em dashes can help emphasise these key points and bring them to life for your reader.

Why would I want to use it?

While there are some subtle nuances between using a comma or bracket and an em dash, it’s mostly best suited to adding variety to your copy.

Whether it’s avoiding overusing commas, stripping out repetitive brackets, or just making your copy look nicer and more varied—the em dash is a powerful tool that all copywriters should try and master.

One final tip

One final piece of advice for any future em dash users out there: double check your style guide before using them.

Most style guides I’ve come across ask for em dashes to be used without any spaces between—much like this. Newspaper style guides and others that follow AP style however, are likely to favour spacing em dashes — like this.

So, make sure to double check which one your client prefers before you start putting em dashes to use in their copy. If in doubt, you can normally tell which is preferred based on whether you are writing in UK or US English. UK English prefers a spaced en dash normally, while our counterparts over the Atlantic use the closed em dash as standard.

The post What is an em dash, and when should you use it? appeared first on Radix.

It never ceases to amuse me how, in the job of “copywriter”, so much of my work doesn’t actually involve any writing. Clients regularly ask instead for copyediting, proofing, or “wordsmithing” of existing copy.

Here’s the thing, though: all of those tasks are very different – demanding a different set of skills, and taking a very different amount of time.

For the sake of writers and clients alike, I’ll be identifying the differences between them, and hopefully helping everyone better communicate their expectations from the editing process.

Why do clients ask for wordsmithing?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of different editing jobs, it’s worth examining exactly why clients might ask us copywriters to do this, rather than getting us to write from scratch.

Several scenarios can lead to an editing request:

• Existing content may need to be updated or repurposed for a different format
• The client may think it’s easier to have a go at a draft than to jump on a call or write a brief
• Another writer or agency may have produced a draft, but the client wasn’t happy with it

(There are plenty of other reasons why an edit may be needed, of course, but these are the more common examples we see.)

Interestingly, each one leads to a very different level of editing. While an update might just need you to edit stats and quotes, “polishing” someone else’s first draft may require extensive changes to both content and the structure before it really gleams.

The key takeaway is that understanding why a piece needs editing is half the battle. If you know why an edit is requested, you can make an educated guess as to what level of editing is required.

The different levels of editing

In general, “wordsmithing” jobs tend to fit into different tiers based on the amount that needs changing:

Tier 1: Proofing

Proofing involves spell and grammar-checking, in minute detail. You focus on technical specifics, and trust the original writer has done a bang-up job with style, structure and tone. The job is to meticulously comb for errors (typos, missing words, inconsistency in product naming or punctuation, etc.). It’s quite a specialist skill, and oddly enough writers don’t always make the greatest proof-readers, so as a general rule we don’t usually offer it as a standalone service.

Tier 2: Copyediting

Copyediting involves getting a bit more hands-on with the text. It asks for further stylistic edits to make the writing more pleasing, or more in keeping with a specific tone or voice. This still shouldn’t involve any major structural changes, but it can demand chunks of text are rewritten or stripped entirely to create a more cohesive piece.

Tier 3: Rewriting

The final stage is completely rewriting a piece. This involves changing the copy right down to the structural level, and often means going back to the drawing board and rebriefing entirely. This is the most involved level of editing, and essentially turns the first draft into an extended brief, rather than an actual piece of content.

Not everyone knows what they want

Normally when a client asks for “wordsmithing”, they mean copyediting. But that isn’t always the case.

Many (particularly those that aren’t usually involved in the copy side of things) use the terms proofing and copyediting interchangeably – often confusing the two. It’s something we often see with copy that was originally written by non-native English speakers – where changing the sentence structure can help things to sound more natural.

And it’s common to think “a quick wordsmith” will save time (and costs), when really a piece needs rewriting from scratch if it’s going to achieve its objective.

It’s important for both writers and clients to be aware that these misunderstandings are common – and to come to a shared understanding of what is needed at the outset. Sometimes, writers need to take a deep breath and be honest about the draft in front of them, too.

If in doubt, it can help to assume what you actually need to do is one tier more than what you’re asking, or being asked for. That way you won’t trap yourself in a corner without the time needed to do your content justice.

Next steps

I hope we can reach a utopian state when clients, agencies and writers are all on the same page about what different editing jobs entail.

Until that day comes, I’ve produced a handy table for you to print off, stick to your desk, and email to your friends and loved ones.

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Header photo by Dana Vollenweider on Unsplash

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