Writing is often seen as an inexpensive pursuit. After all, most of us can write with little more than a pen and paper.

When it comes to professional copywriting though, we need more than a quill and parchment to get great copy out of the door and into the hands of our clients. And marketers who find themselves writing often might find life easier if they take a peek at the technology we use.

So this blog looks at the kinds of gear that help professional copywriters to do our very best work. It will also give you some advice on what to look out for when making your essential purchases, so you get quality equipment without going over budget.

Essentials: your computer

The computer is the centrepiece of any copywriter’s world. Thankfully, as email clients and word processors aren’t especially compute-intensive, it’s something you won’t need to spend the earth on.

Offering a complete rundown of different computer brands and hardware types is beyond the scope of this guide (you could probably write a whole book on it if you wanted), but I can offer some general things to keep in mind if you’re shopping for a new computer:

• Seriously consider getting a laptop – Desktops are great for many things, but flexibility isn’t one of them. With a portable machine, you can always respond quickly if you need to attend an event, meet a client, or work while travelling.
• Check for reliability – You won’t need oodles of RAM or an i7 CPU to run a word processor, but you definitely want something you can rely on. Do your research and make sure whatever you buy is built to last. When it comes to this essential kit, it’s worth paying a bit extra for peace of mind.
• SSDs are worth the money – While not essential, solid state drives are a good investment for any computer. They can be quite expensive still, but the price per GB is coming down every day—making these a very compelling upgrade option. Pop one in your computer (or better yet, get one pre-installed if you’re buying a new system), and you’ll quickly see a significant improvement to boot and application load times.

Essentials: word processing software

Assuming you’ll be writing a lot of documents, you’ll need some decent software to write them in.

While there are some great free options available (many of which we covered on one of our earlier podcasts), you’re going to have to ignore them in favour of Microsoft Word.

(I know; I’m sorry too.)

MS Word is a fine piece of software (in spite of its many eccentricities and flaws), but the main reason is that it’s what everyone uses. It’s the industry standard, so you can guarantee almost all your contacts will have MS Word available to them. With everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, you can rest assured your documents will always come through looking exactly as they should, without any garbled artefacts that are common when word processors have to interpret non-standard file types.

You can get away with mixing and matching word processor file conventions in some disciplines, but when you bring the tracked changes, extensive comments, and other features that are important to the writing process, you’ll really want everyone to be using the same program. So just bite the bullet and pay for MS Word.

Helpfully, you do at least have a choice of how you do that, with both up-front desktop licenses and monthly subscription alternatives with Office 365.

Essentials: a calendar/time management application

But it’s not all about writing great copy. A professional also delivers on time.

When you’re juggling lots of projects, you’ll want a reliable calendar or other time management app to keep yourself organised. Again, Microsoft Outlook is a standard app within the industry, but there are plenty of alternatives out there.

In your search for the best and brightest digital calendar, make sure you get one that can easily share calendars in standard .ics format. Even if you find you don’t often work in tandem with other writers, you will have to book calls with subject matter experts (or they’ll have to book them in with you), and it’s important that you can do that as quickly and easily as possible.

Essentials: shared file storage

Most of the time, you’ll find attaching a document to an email is a direct and easy way to send your copy to someone. But that only gets you so far.

Many clients and email programs will have strict limits on attachment file sizes, meaning you’ll need another way to send and receive files. Shared file storage helps here, and in the cases of cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, they can also give you an important backup in case your hard drive fails.  If you just want to send files without worrying about shared storage, the likes of WeTransfer can also be a good alternative.

Even better, most of these cloud services are free unless you need lots of storage or to send really big files. And even then, the paid versions are very cost-effective for the amount of storage you get.

Essentials: an audio recorder

Covering events and transcribing calls as they happen is hard. Even if you’re the fastest typist in the world, it’s still all too easy to miss crucial quotes and messaging in the haze of spoken word. That’s why having a recorder capturing the call/conference audio is a lifesaver.

Yes, you can use an app on your phone to record, but I’d advise against this. Bringing your phone to a conference call is just asking for unnecessary distractions as the texts, tweets and calls roll in. Even if you’re disciplined enough to ignore the barrage of notifications you might receive, you run the risk of draining your phone’s battery and losing your recording midway through the call.

To get a truly bulletproof recording experience, I’d recommend a dedicated recording device. Considering that you can get handheld recorders that have a slim form factor, and a low price, there’s no reason not to get one if you think you’ll need to record lots of calls.

As with everything, it’s worth checking reviews to ensure your recorder of choice is dependable. Where possible, get one that can be powered by batteries. That way, you’ll always be ready to go, even if you have to join a briefing call last minute.

Nice-to-haves: a second monitor

Pretty much all copywriting work starts and ends with staring at a computer screen. So, it might as well be a nice one. Better yet, two nice ones.

If you opt for a laptop over a desktop computer, then you’ll probably be thankful for the extra real-estate a dedicated monitor will offer. You can also extend your display across both screens, allowing you to have a reference document or brief on one screen, while you write your copy on the other. This is much faster than having to constantly alt-tab between windows.

As you probably won’t be watching movies or fast-moving images on your monitor, you won’t need to spend the earth on it. Just get one of an appropriate size for your workspace, and you’re good to go.

If you plan to have multiple reference documents open simultaneously (and have budget to spare), you might consider investing in an ultra-wide screen or higher resolution monitor.

As the name suggests, ultra-widescreen monitors offer a wider screen than conventional 16:9 monitors—allowing you fit even more stuff on the display. Many come in the curved variety. While visually striking, these aren’t likely to fit well into a multi-monitor setup, so I’d recommend sticking with a flat screen.

4K may be considered the next bastion for movie-watchers, but it can be surprisingly useful for productivity as well. With a higher resolution, text is much more readable in smaller application windows. What this means is, while you might only fit two apps on a standard 1080p monitor before the text becomes too small to read, you could fit anywhere between four and eight applications on a 4K screen before the text gets too small. Perfect if you need to work from many different source documents.

Nice-to-haves: a decent keyboard

Yeah, that junky keyboard you got bundled with your PC is fine. Likewise, you might be happy with your laptop keyboard. In which case, great.

But much like you never see a pro chef using cheap knives, every pro copywriter owes it to themselves to consider a top-drawer keyboard. If you spend the majority of your professional time hammering keys, your fingers will thank you for allocating some budget to a good board.

If your budget will stretch, treat yourself to a nice mechanical keyboard. Unlike membrane keyboards that have a single switch spread across the entire surface of the board, a mechanical has a dedicated switch for each key. They’re the really satisfying clicky keyboards, but they offer more than just a pleasant sound, enabling you to type a bit faster, reduce the amount of pressure required to type (and the strain on your joints), and avoid miskeys.

Most of the popular mechanicals out there use Cherry MX switches. You’ll find Cherry switches come in four different flavours:

• Red switches have a smooth action and don’t require much force to press down. These are ideal for the lightning-fingered.
• Black switches also have a smooth action, but require a heavier press. A great option if you find yourself mistyping regularly.
• Brown switches are another light switch, but with a tactile ‘bump’ you can feel as you press down. This bump tells you exactly when the key registers, so you can apply the right amount of pressure without having to hit the bottom of the board. This helps you type faster, and spare some strain on your hands.
• Blue switches also have the tactile bump, but are much heavier and louder than brown switches. These give a premium typing experience, but can be a bit too loud if you work in an office environment.

There are several other types of switches on the market, but these four tend to cover the main types of mechanical keyboard.

For typing, go for a brown or blue switch keyboard. Choose brown if you work with other people around you and need to keep the noise down. If you work at home or don’t need to worry about noise, go all out and enjoy the lovely action of a blue switch board. You can thank me later.

Should you give similar thought to your choice of mouse? I’d say no. As a writer, you’ll spend more time hitting keys than you will clicking icons (doubly so if you follow my guide to helpful productivity hacks and keyboard shortcuts for writers).

Nice-to-haves: a conference phone

I say a conference phone, but really the key here is keeping your hands free, so you can type important notes while on the phone.

Yes, you can use the speaker phone on your mobile. No, I wouldn’t recommend it as your primary phone solution; even on premium phones, the speaker mode tends to offer low voice quality.

Likewise, a headset can be a good way to keep your hands free, but many of the more affordable headsets can be extremely uncomfortable to use for any length of time. If you have the budget to get a nice, premium headset, then it’s absolutely a viable option.

If you find yourself on conference calls regularly, you’ll find a dedicated conference phone will give you the perfect blend of call quality, comfort, and cost-effectiveness.

More than just a pen and paper

As you can see, a lot of different applications and equipment go into the writing game. And this list only covers some of the most common and useful equipment. Many writers will have their own ‘must-haves,’ ranging from quality coffee makers, all the way to obscure good luck charms and novelty mouse mats.

But don’t let this list scare you. If you can pick up everything on the essentials list, you’ll be well on your way to having everything you need to write comfortably and efficiently—and you’ll hopefully even have some budget to spare. And if you can get some of the nice-to-haves as well, then you’ll quickly be living a professional life of luxury.

If you’d like more tips on copywriting (and specifically writing for the B2B tech sector), sign up for our monthly newsletter.

The post The professional copywriter’s essential kit list appeared first on Radix.

AI has an image problem. Between the evil robots that permeate pop culture (thanks, Terminator and 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the likes of Elon Musk regularly reminding us of the dangers of AI, many see artificial intelligence as a source of fear rather than a useful tool.

This is just my (un)professional opinion, but this AI fear-mongering is far too often based on the fiction of AI rather than the fact. Ask anyone who’s spent some time with today’s AI and voice assistant tools, and they’ll quickly remind you that these things aren’t exactly equipped to enslave humanity.

While these technologies can (and certainly will be) very useful, they can also be downright comical. Whether it’s a lack of common sense, or their no-nonsense monotone, AI has a funny side that businesses shouldn’t be afraid to embrace.

That’s exactly what IBM has done with some of its Watson content, and its humorous, humble approach to marketing Watson makes it deserving of a place in the Radix B2B Content Hall of Fame.

From Jeopardy to comedy

Watson made a big debut in 2011, storming through a round of Jeopardy and dismantling its human competitors. So far, so scary AI. Though even in this early marketing stunt, we see a humorous – even human – side to Watson. Who doesn’t get a chuckle out of Watson’s monotone voice asking for a question from the “chicks dig me” category?

This humorous streak continues in a series of videos where Watson interviews a range of celebrities. Each one takes a different slant, both highlighting Watson’s unique capabilities, but also poking fun at the cognitive bot in a box.

“Today on the Watson show”

During an interview with Bob Dylan, the tables are turned on Watson’s usually monotone demeanour, with Dylan’s canned and repeated responses sounding more robotic than Watson’s line of questioning. There are also the less-subtle jabs at Watson’s singing voice; don’t worry vocalists, AI isn’t coming for your jobs just yet.

When interviewing Serena Williams, Watson is quick to point out its ability to rapidly analyse William’s match performance. When it gets a bit too big for its boots though (Watson is the “Serena Williams of cognitive computing”, apparently) the tennis superstar is quick to put Watson in its place. There’s a humility here you seldom see in traditional technology marketing.

When discussing empathy, love and storytelling with Steven King, the horror author extraordinaire urges Watson to “try writing a book. Find a remote hotel… bring the family.” And in a non-celebrity interview that explores its nicer streak, Watson assures young Annabelle that she is in good health based on her records – despite her being too sick to have cake at her birthday last year.

Out of the boardroom, into the zeitgeist

I’ll admit that the series does lean a bit too hard on showing what Watson can do, with jarring interludes from Watson that read more like a dry product brochure than an engaging repartee between interviewer and interviewee. This rubs against the grain of the otherwise light and enjoyable humour in the videos.

But despite some flaws, the Watson conversations do two very important things:

1. They disarm Watson. Whether through humour or humility, Watson is clearly not an evil AI overlord. It works with people, discussing their problems and proposing solutions.
2. They move out of the realm of marketing material and into general culture. By bringing in recognisable cultural touchstones like King and Dylan, the series pushes beyond the walled garden of B2B marketing content and into the mainstream.

Both of these are done with the concept alone. But the execution brings the wry humour that wraps it all together as a genuinely engaging, enjoyable piece of content.

IBM’s general approach to Watson marketing has provoked the ire of some critics, with commentators noting that – whether due to overexcited journalists, or IBM itself – much of the discussion around Watson is unrealistic and focusses on capabilities that are very much the future of Watson rather than the present.

This all comes back to the problems AI solutions must overcome as they shift from a cultural mainstay into an actual tangible product or service. AI must prove it can really do the things it says it can do, and that it will do them in a way that works with humanity rather than against it.

But if IBM keeps marketing Watson in this way – through videos that demonstrate humility, humour, and empathy – I think Watson might have a fighting chance of entering the public consciousness as a force for good rather than SkyNet coming to life.

The post B2B Content Hall of Fame: The humour and humility of IBM’s Watson appeared first on Radix.

The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Salesforce recently ranked it among the likes of mobile and AI as one of the big trends driving manufacturing, and countless other publications have analysed how new IoT tech has transformed a whole host of industries.

If you’re tasked with writing about IoT, or briefing a writer on the topic (and it’s probably on the cards if you hang around the B2B tech sphere for long enough), here are four tips to help you hit the ground running.

Be specific

IoT is often discussed in this arcane, nebulous way. Part of it is in the name: we call it the Internet of Things, and we don’t often stop to explain exactly what the “things” are. But if your business is pushing IoT, then it must be doing so for a specific reason. So, you should tell your audience exactly what you’re doing with it.

Does your solution collect data on soil humidity for agriculture? Traffic conditions for smart cities? Whatever it is your business is up to with IoT, be specific. If it helps, use practical examples. Tell the reader exactly what data they can collect, and what they can do with it.

Where is all the data going?

So, this data – the whole thing your IoT solution collects – what happens to it once you’ve collected it? Does it sit in a data warehouse somewhere? Does it reside in a bespoke platform offered to customers? And what can your customers even do with that data anyway?

These are all questions you’ll need to answer if you want to produce great content that really gets to the heart of what your IoT solution is about.

What kind of payment model are you using?

Your IoT solution could well be the greatest thing that ever happens to a customer. But that customer will still have some questions about cost. Some of these may include:

• Is there a subscription cost?
• Are there any upfront payments required for installation?
• What about support costs?
• Do I have to pay to repair any sensors or IoT modules?
• Are there any other fees for data processing or transfer?
• Do I need to sign a contract?

If you want to really sell your solution to people, try and answer these questions (and any others your audience may have) as early as you can in your content.

Use the present tense

For years IoT was considered a potential game-changer. Now, it’s a current, actual game-changer. So, we need to stop talking about it in the future tense.

IoT is no longer some mystical maybe; businesses are developing and deploying IoT solutions right now. The full benefits of IoT may be yet to come, but the technology is not.

A strong start for your IoT writing

These tips won’t magically make you an IoT guru overnight, but they can help you get your IoT-focused copy off to a strong start. And they can certainly stop you making the typical mistakes many more sensationalist writers make when they tackle this exciting new (but certainly present-tense) topic.

Want tips and tricks on writing about other tech topics? Make sure you subscribe to our super-duper newsletter.

The post How to write content about the Internet of Things appeared first on Radix.

All marketing content has an agenda or objective. Sometimes it’s just contributing to a discussion or trying to make audiences think and feel in a certain way. But most of the time, there’s a concrete action we want our audience to take.

This call to action can often seem like an afterthought, a tiny “get the ebook” at the end of the email that doesn’t require a second glance. But these few words can have immense power, and can even mean the difference between a conversion and a missed opportunity.

Here are five frameworks you can use to create compelling calls to action with a whole range of different impacts.

1: The command

This is the most direct, and probably most common CTA you’ll find in content marketing. It keeps things simple by telling your audience exactly what they should do next: “read the ebook”, “take the survey”, “get your white paper”.

Pros: Direct, straight to the point, and easy to create

Cons: As the most common of CTAs, it doesn’t stand out

2: The question

Sometimes the indirect approach is best. Instead of telling a reader to do something, leave a lingering thought in their minds. Something that stays with them long after they’ve finished reading: “what could you achieve with [product]?” “what other challenges can we help you solve?”

Pros: Intriguing and can often stand out

Cons: Can come across as condescending or vague

3: The negative

This often crosses over with the question CTA, but with the negative CTA you focus more on what the reader will be missing out on or risking, rather than what they stand to gain: “don’t miss out”, “what’s missing from your data centre?” “does your solution stack up?”

Pros: Can be eye-catching and provocative

Cons: You risk coming across as smug

4: The benefit-led

Similar to the command CTA, this method involves recommending an action – but not one around the specific content. Instead of “download the asset”, you tell the reader to “explore your cloud potential,” “see what you could achieve with [product]”, “start your transformation”.

Pros: Flows better in-text and stands out

Cons: Can come across as vague

5: The in-text CTA

Why use a CTA button at all? Some calls to action work better when flowed directly into the text. So instead of “get in touch”, you’d tell the reader: “our cloud experts are on-hand to help you get the most out of your migration. Get in touch today to kick-start your journey to the cloud.”

Pros: Flows well and offers more detail

Cons: Less punchy than shorter CTAs

Super-charge your CTAs now

These are some of the common ways you can approach your CTAs. While I’ve tried to give the general pros and cons of each, your approach will always need to match the type of content you’re writing, your audience, and your brand’s voice.

Whether you need to be direct, inquisitive, or lead with the benefits, there’s a way to spice up your CTAs and make them work even harder.

For more copywriting tips and tricks make sure you subscribe to our delightful newsletter.

The post Five ways to write a convincing call to action appeared first on Radix.

Credibility. It’s hard-earned and easily lost – which might explain why so many people feel a little self-conscious about their writing.

Whether you’re penning a key thought leadership blog, an important product page, or just an internal email, a basic grammar or spelling error can instantly erode your authority and undermine the message you wanted to communicate.

It’s easy to think this kind of thing will never happen to you, but mistakes and sloppy writing habits catch all of us out at some point – marketers, managers and, yes, even copywriters too.

Here are 10 of the most common – with some tips to help you avoid them.

10: The comma splice

The comma is a powerful tool, but it’s easy to overuse it. When you start splitting unrelated clauses with a comma, rather than a full stop, that’s a clear case of comma abuse. It even has a name: the comma splice.

While many might consider this a stylistic choice in creative writing, it’s not something you want to be leaning on in traditional copy as it is technically incorrect. After all, a comma should be for splitting clauses, while the trusty full stop is left to separate unique ideas.

If you have any doubt, check your style guide to see if it allows for comma splicing.

Sloppy: We are an experienced HR company, we won the award for best HR provider in 2017.

Better: We are an experienced HR company. We won the award for best HR provider in 2017.

[Editor: alternatively, see Kieran’s excellent blog post about semicolons.]

9: Apostrophe catastrophe

We’ve all done it. There’s no shame in admitting you accidentally put an apostrophe in the wrong place (or added one unnecessarily). It was just a typo, right?

Just keep a good eye on it so you don’t accidentally make something a plural possessive again.

Sloppy: We have a range of employees’, all skilled in different industries.

Better: We have a range of employees, all skilled in different industries.

8: It’s not “its” unless it’s possessive.

This one is a rare example of when an apostrophe doesn’t signify possession. In this case “it’s” is a shortened form of “it is”.

Confusingly, “its” is used to signal that a particular thing possesses something.

Sloppy: Today’s businesses struggle with tight budgets. Its a real problem.

Better: Today’s businesses struggle with tight budgets. It’s a real problem.

7: You’re getting your words mixed up

Two ways to say “your.” This is pretty basic stuff, but easy to miss, especially if you’re wrestling with a longer document like an ebook or white paper – and spellcheck won’t always help you out.

Unfortunately, if one does slip through the cracks, it can do serious damage to your credibility – and to the message you’re trying to convey.

Just remember:

• Your: Something you own
• You’re: Short for “you are.” Something you are doing

Sloppy: Don’t forget to check you’re applications work after migrating them to the cloud.

Better: Don’t forget to check your applications work after migrating them to the cloud.

6: When they’re not quite there with their “theres”

Another common mix-up between three similar words that mean very different things. Unfortunately, this is also another easily-missed blunder that can undermine even the strongest of arguments.

• There: refers to a place, or is used as an abstract to introduce a phrase – “there is no solution that compares to ours”
• Their: refers to plural possession – “their solution is unproven compared to ours”
• They’re: shortened form of “they are” – “Customers love our solution. They’re using it to optimize all their processes”

The post 10 sloppy habits that let your writing down (and how to avoid them) appeared first on Radix.

At this very moment, a triple-threat brawl is breaking out in meeting rooms across the globe.

With huge campaigns looming on the horizon, the world’s marketing teams need to answer an important question: “Who on Earth is going to write this thing?”

Who indeed?

In most cases, there are three contenders:

• Someone in your organisation
• A freelance copywriter
• A copywriting agency

Each option comes with a very different set of pros and cons. Stick around, and you can see how they weigh in – and which one should win for different project types.

The DIY approach

Doing it yourself (or at the very least, getting someone within your organisation to do it) is a very attractive prospect. After all, you and your people already know your business inside out, you (hopefully) know what you want to say, and not spending money is, well, ideal.

There is a huge downside here though. Controversial opinion alert: not everyone is a writer. I know, shocking.

Yes, most of us can write. But writing something that’s compelling, exciting, and readable – and will convince readers to take action – is a totally different skillset.

There’s a small chance one of your product experts is a genuine polymath, who can write marketing copy with the best of us. But that introduces another problem: good writing takes time. For every hour that technical expert spends writing a blog, ebook, or press release, it’s one less hour they have to do the parts of their job that only they can.

Simply put, the do-it-yourself approach to writing is a useful fall-back if you’ve in-house writing skills, team members with available hours, and – frankly –  no spare time or budget to hire an external writer.

DIY copywriting: pros

• Saves time as there’s no need to brief an external writer
• Saves budget as your people are already on the payroll

DIY copywriting: cons

• The copy might not be especially compelling unless you have writing skills in-house
• Takes up valuable time your people could be using elsewhere

Finding a freelancer

If your in-house teams aren’t comfortable taking on the writing, freelancers can be a very useful resource.

Offering deep expertise in specific areas, and often charging less than their agency counterparts, freelancers can offer a strong balance between quality and price.

But as the old saying goes, you can have something quick, cheap or good – pick two.

While a good freelance writer will, of course, do their best to get things done efficiently, they are only one person. Diary clashes, long wait times and delays aren’t uncommon – especially if it’s a large project. And the better a freelancer is, the busier they’ll be – making it even harder to find time with them.

And because your eggs are in one basket, you also increase your risk. If it turns out the writer isn’t a good fit for the job, or something unavoidable comes up that takes them off the project, you have to start the briefing process all over again with someone else.

If you’re taking on a job that has roomy deadlines, or if you want to bring in external skills and knowledge while still keeping costs low, freelancers can be a really good fit. But if deadlines are tight, if there’s a lot of writing to do (say, a website or ABM campaign), or if it’s a high-profile project where you can’t risk anything going wrong, you may want to go with a copywriting agency.

Freelance B2B copywriter: pros

• May offer deep knowledge in particular areas of expertise
• Can often be cheaper than going to an agency

Freelance B2B copywriter: cons

• Need to book projects in early, especially for highly sought-after freelancers
• Can have long turnaround times for larger projects, or if your freelancer has a lot of work on the go
• Risk of having to brief someone else if something comes up and your freelancer isn’t able to complete the job

Article continues below.

The post Who should write your B2B copy? Hiring freelancers vs using an agency vs doing it yourself appeared first on Radix.

Words have power. (A good thing too, as if they didn’t, I doubt I’d have a job.) But while the right words can help your copy persuade, inform, and delight, the wrong words can quickly undermine otherwise excellent content.

Here are seven common words that can bring even the most thoughtful piece of content down, and stop it from performing. Some are email spam traps, others are archaic and unnecessary, but all of them should be avoided where possible.

Excise them from your writing, and you’ll quickly see your copy become more engaging – and hopefully get better results.

1: Free

If you’re in B2B, chances are you’re writing for a business and not for a charity. With that in mind, is anything you or your clients offer really free? Even “free” content is often gated and used to get the reader’s contact information. While this transaction may be free from a cash exchange, it does require a data transaction.

Not only is “free” a bit misleading, but it is also very likely to trigger spam filters. So, you should absolutely avoid using it in any email copy.

2: Whilst

Unless your style guide directly says “write like a Victorian gentleman”, using “whilst” is a no-go. Instead, you should just “while.” That will make your writing come across as far more conversational and punchy.

3: Leverage (as a verb)

Thankfully this is one piece of business jargon that is slowly dying, but we still see a few B2B types using “leverage” as a verb.

“Leverage our powerful solutions.” “Leverage the power of the cloud.”

There are plenty of other ways to say this that are far punchier, and more specific. Like “use”. Or “make the most of”. Even “harness”, if you’re really stretching. Almost anything will be better.

An important caveat here is that you can still use leverage as a noun because… well, that’s what the word actually is. So, if you’re talking about getting leverage for your business, go right ahead.

4: Utilise

I cannot imagine any scenario where saying “utilise” would be a better choice than just saying “use.”

It’s a small distinction, but opting for the longer, clunkier “utilise” (especially when it means almost the same thing as “use”) is the definition of unnecessary padding. There’s no need for it.

5: Drive

You still see a lot of this in more formal business writing. “Drive greater revenue.” “Drive efficiency through your business.”

It’s not an especially offensive piece of jargon, but it’s just so vague. Why can’t you say “improve”? Or “deliver”? Or any other word that describes the kind of benefit your product/service/business can offer?

6: Best/Market-leading/Top

If someone in your actual life told you they were the best at something, you probably wouldn’t believe them. Even if they actually were the best, you’d still resent their arrogance about the whole thing. So, why do we think the businesses we write for can get away with this kind of immodesty?

The exception here is if there is some kind of report that says a business is actually the market leader. Just as you might believe someone in real life is the best at something if a friend tells you about it, you’re welcome to call a business a market-leader if Gartner, Forrester, or another third-party has named them so.

7: Innovative

Sometimes you’re talking about actual innovation processes in your business: the resources, talent, and development required to create new product and service ideas. That’s fine. That’s an actual ‘thing’ in the business world.

However, if you’re just using the word “innovative” to blow your own trumpet, please stop. It’s the ultimate example of telling rather than showing.

Don’t tell the reader you’re innovative; show them something you’ve done that is truly unique.

Cut these words and elevate your copy

Fluffy, vague, and archaic words like these can quickly drag your copy down. But if you can weed them out, you can better engage your readership, and help your content deliver the best results.

For more writing tips and tricks, make sure you subscribe to our fabulous newsletter.

The post 7 words you should NEVER use in B2B copy appeared first on Radix.

When you think of a writer, you probably think of a brooding, lonesome type, hunched over a keyboard and hammering away. And you’d be half right; many writers do wind up tackling their jobs solo.

But when you bring a bunch of lone wolf writers together, amazing things can happen. This year’s Copywriting Conference is a perfect example: an event that featured a whole host of lively discussions, inspiring workshops and game-changing takeaways delivered by some of the best writers in the business.

Here’s a roundup of the most important lessons and copywriting tips from CopyCon 2018.

Fight the bullshit

Ryan “Dr Draper” Wallman – AKA the bloodhound of bullshit – kicked off (in all kinds of ways), with a talk about how to detect marketing BS in all its forms.

Every writer under the sun knows to write in clear language and short sentences, but Ryan laid out a strong plan for convincing your clients that simple is best:

• Show stakeholders evidence, including stats, research, and industry leaders that demonstrate why jargon and abstract language don’t work.
• Challenge the “our audience is smart” argument. Remind clients that very few people have ever complained about something being too readable.
• Explain ‘The Pratfall Effect’: people are more likely to trust a brand that owns up to its shortcomings.
• Call bullshit when you see it. The problem won’t just magically go away; as writers, we all need to say something.

Get to the heart of your brief

Decoding a brief and translating it into great copy is an art, one plenty of marketers have written about (including Kieran).

But there is always more to learn about understanding what your client needs, and Anna Gunning proved this with some brand new models to help writers probe briefing documents and calls.

In particular, Anna introduced us to the hierarchy of business. This model proved to be an interesting (and to me, quite new) take on the usual “what does our audience want to achieve?” question.

The idea is that every professional you might write for has three levels you need to consider: their basic goals (I want to get promoted), immediate goals (I want to cross this task off my to-do list), and the more noble goals (I want to help my business succeed).

By considering your audience’s different goals and what info they might need to achieve them, you can better identify any gaps in your knowledge before you start writing.

UX copy that converts

There are many different kinds of writer out there. Seven, in fact, if our blog on the topic is anything to go by.

But there’s a new cowboy in copy town: the UX copywriter. Francesca Catanuso and Jade Goldsmith from booking.com took us through how the ecommerce giant works with UX copywriters to turn user data into powerful, results-driven CTA copy.

Some of their research findings were quite surprising:

• Emojis can have a dramatic effect on email open rates.
• Consistency enhances CTA performance, so if you say “register” at one point in a form, make sure another button doesn’t say “sign up.”
• “Instant” is a word that helps reassure people.
• Human language gets results. So, “I’ll proceed” is better than “proceed.”

The key takeaway overall was just how useful user data can be. (So, if one of my lovely clients is reading this, please take this to heart and let me see some campaign results. I’d really appreciate it.)

The art of bias

Did you know that the average person touches their phone roughly 2,617 each day? That’s a lot of swipes and taps, and potentially a lot of time spent looking at a device that can access all kinds of information.

So, how do people deal with processing so much info each day? Simply, they have certain biases that influence what they focus on, retain, and ultimately decide to do with the information available to them.

In her heuristics masterclass, Anna Johnston ran us through her favourite (and some of the most useful) biases. Some seem particularly (in fact, possibly unfairly) helpful for copywriters:

• If you give someone multiple options, they’ll inevitably compare them. By giving a really bad option, it can make the others seem far more appealing.
• If you give people too many benefits for a solution, all of them seem less impactful.
• But framed another way, if you give someone lots of negatives about something, each one will seem far less important.

The mood board and the black book

Two sessions later in the day each offered a useful tone tool to keep in your arsenal.

• Celia Anderson from Siblinc (another specialist copywriting agency based in Cornwall? Must be something in the water), explained how a group of writers can rapidly shift tone to cover the myriad of fashion clients they work with. Siblinc’s secret? They create reference guides and mood boards of their own to help writers quickly get into the mindset of each brand.
• Direct response writer James Daniel discussed his tactics for creating an award-winning hearing aid direct mail campaign. James leaned on his ‘little black book’ and crafted copy to suit real people he knew that matched his target audiences. He even went as far as to get these people to review his copy to ensure his tone would hit home with each type of audience. That’s commitment.

Metaphors for the win

Frustratingly, we had to skedaddle before the end, to get the last train back to Cornwall, so we missed the mighty Doug Kessler. But my colleague David was there, and had this to say…

Doug’s main point was that metaphor is more than just an intellectual comparison; it invites us to feel about this the way you feel about that.

So when you’re deciding whether a figurative idea works, you need to consider the widest connotations of both things you’re comparing: not just the parts that are obviously alike, but everything they make you think, remember and feel. That makes them delicate, fiddly… and incredibly powerful.

Also, Doug gave us permission to mix our metaphors with abandon. Dangerous words there.

Every day’s a school day

Even for experienced writers, there’s always something to learn. And if you’re hungry for more copywriting advice, you’ll find 50 writing tips here.

(Or you could scroll down and sign up for our monthly newsletter…)

The post We went to the Copywriting Conference. Here’s what we learned… appeared first on Radix.

At any point in time, B2B content marketers have an almost infinite number of strategies, formats and tactics they can use to engage their audience.

But how do you know which will have the greatest impact? Do you need to adopt different approaches at different points in the funnel? And how do you even measure the real engagement of your content assets?

In our latest episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David and Fiona dig into the CMI and MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing report. They look at the different content trends marketers are using and discuss why some types of content are performing better than others.

They also recap twitter conversations with MarketingProfs’ Ann Handley, and Lisa Murton Beets and Robert Rose from the Content Marketing Institute, about the report, and what’s really stopping marketers from producing their best work.

David also speaks with analytics consultant Jake Kimpton from specialist SEO agency 3WhiteHats. They discuss why bounce rate isn’t a great metric, how you can use Google Analytics to add goals and calculate real page value, and some advanced engagement tracking tips offered by Google Analytics expert Simo Ahava.

Also discussed in this month’s episode:

• Will better data help B2B content marketers secure buy-in for better content?
• Why do so few marketers use conversations with real customers to inform content?
• Should you ever really consider bounce rate an accurate measure of performance?

We want to hear from you

We very much welcome any comments, questions and ideas on the podcast. You can send them via @radixcom on Twitter or podcast@radix-communications.com (you can even email us a voice memo, if you’re into that sort of thing).

Lots of ways to listen

There’s a big “play” button at the top of the page. But if you don’t fancy streaming, you have plenty of other options…

• You can download the episode here (right click and select “Save As” to download)
• Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here
• Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player
• And excitingly, you can now follow us on Spotify

Have you heard our *other* podcast?

The pilot series of our B2B Content Audio Blog is nearing its climax. The idea is it’s a quick, weekly listen that’s easy to digest on a commute, or a run, or while you’re darning your socks.

Lately, we’ve talked about QA tests for B2B copywriting, a multipurpose blog structure you can steal, and a new way of looking at email subject lines. We’d love to know what you think.

Credits:

Podcast editing and music by Bang and Smash

The post Podcast 67: B2B content trends and analytics – which formats get the best results? appeared first on Radix.

Complex engineering technologies give B2B marketers the opportunity to make a genuine difference for their business. The more complicated the subject, the more a brand stands out when its content explains issues and benefits in a clear, engaging way.

But this content needs technical authority too. It’s all too easy to oversimplify topics like this – especially when complex science comes into play. (We previously wrote about how to cater to an engineering audience to help solve this exact challenge.)

In this blog post, we’ll look at strategies you can use to find the perfect balance between complex topics and concise copy.

Imagine the smartest, most ‘science-y’ person you know

If you’re reading this blog, it means you’re smart. And if you’re smart, you probably have some friends that are too.

Keep them in mind when you write about an engineering topic. Imagine you’re speaking the copy aloud to the most scientifically knowledgeable friend you have. Would they understand it? Would they be interested? Most importantly, would they stare at you blankly and say “yeah, I know what peristalsis is”?

By considering their potential reactions to your copy, you’ll quickly get a good feel for whether you’re in danger of losing your audience to jargon, or at risk of teaching grandma to suck eggs.

Bonus points if you actually get your scientist friend to read your copy in real life.

Explain the basics, but do it quickly

Like with any B2B content, there are often two audiences for an engineering piece: the primary reader, and then a secondary decision-maker audience. Your engineer reader needs to be enthused by what they’re reading, but they might also need to be able to show it to their plant manager/procurement head/CFO/purse-string holder to get them on board as well.

If you need to ensure everyone can understand your content, you’ll have to explain some key terms, acronyms and concepts. But when you do this, don’t dawdle.

If you spend your first three paragraphs explaining the limitations of conventional workbenches, your main audience (the people that stand at these benches every working day) will stop reading and assume you’re just telling them what they already know.

Box outs, quick asides, and short explanations are your friends here. Just as you might spell out an industry-standard acronym on first use before moving on, quickly explain any complex concepts, and then just assume your reader knows what you mean.

Find the business story, then add the science

We don’t need to solve the engineering problem for our audience here. That’s what these people do.

What we do is solve a business challenge. So, if you want to sell a new breed of tool to a mining company, your story isn’t what this material is and how amazing it is. At least not initially. Your headline, your lead point, should be about how much better, faster, cheaper, etc. their operations will be with this new tool.

After you’ve set up the main business benefit, then you can get into the proof points, the science, the logic behind it all. But without that initial promise of improvement, you won’t have much to offer your reader.

Simplify the right stuff – and no more

Radix’s creative director, David McGuire, recently wrote for B2B Marketing about how to simplify complex subjects. He used a three-tier model to distinguish between good jargon, bad jargon, and overly formal language.

With good jargon, we’re talking about terms you and your reader will understand. This is fine. In fact, using it will probably help you build credibility with your audience – but ONLY if you’re using the term correctly – and if your audience is absolutely familiar with it too.

Bad jargon is the stuff that doesn’t really mean much. “Synergies”, “paradigm shift”, that sort of thing. At best you’re wasting your reader’s time, at worst you’re just trying to put smoke and mirrors up to hide a lack of original thought. Neither is a good look.

Formal language is a tricky middle ground. Yes, we’re writing for an intelligent business audience. But at the same time, very few people have ever complained about something being too easy to read. So, when you have needlessly formal language, (“utilise” instead of “use”, “methodology” instead of “method”, passive sentence structure, etc.) it’s worth stripping things back to keep your copy flowing.

Note: the boundaries between different types of jargon and formal language can flex depending on what you’re writing about. For instance, “utilise” is overly formal language in most cases, but if you’re talking about the way a piece of hardware utilises IT resources then it suddenly becomes a piece of good jargon. As always, make sure you know your audience so you can carefully consider what’s good to stay, and what has to go in your copy.

Don’t be afraid to copyedit

Engineering isn’t really an industry. It’s more a group of dozens of sub-industries, each with its own language, terminology and concepts. So, even if you’re an “engineering writer”, there are many topics where you simply won’t be able to talk the talk effectively.

That’s OK though. If you find you’re struggling to nail the language, you may want to suggest copyediting a piece rather than writing from scratch.

And if you can get one of your clients’ experts to write down their thoughts on the topic (or talk with you on the phone while you furiously scribble down notes), that can set you on the right path with getting the “engineer speak” right.

Find the balance between clear and complex

When you produce content about a deep science or engineering topic, you walk a fine line. You obviously want to produce something clear, readable and exciting. But if you push that too far, you risk skimming the surface and not grappling with the complexities of your topic.

And the difficult thing is that there are no hard and fast rules about how you find this balance. What works for an industrial engineering audience might fall flat for electronics components engineers. Likewise, the way you approach web copy for a heating and ventilation company will differ greatly from how you tackle a data sheet on semiconductors.

But by using these five strategies, you can start to find the right mixture between clarity and complexity for your particular project. And when you do that, you can tell a great story, while also speaking in a language that resonates with your engineering audience.

The post 5 strategies to turn complex engineering topics into compelling marketing content appeared first on Radix.

Whether it’s a launch party, industry expo, or dinner gala, B2B marketing events happen every day. To get the greatest mileage out of all their hard work, a marketer will often want a copywriter there to capture the day in beautiful prose.

Sounds easy enough. But as a writer, it’s really easy to get this job horribly, horribly wrong.

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy David, Fiona and I share our dos and don’ts for tackling client events, as well as our own personal event successes and horror stories.

Listen now to discover:

• Why you should always record an event twice
• How events can make you a much better writer
• Why it’s essential to capture the ‘feel’ of an event
• What every writer needs to know before they set off

…and if you want to read the event copywriting blog post I plug so subtly in the conversation, you’ll find that here.

How to listen

You can download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.

(Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.)

Credits

Intro and outro music by Industrial and Marine.

The post Podcast: how to write up a B2B marketing event appeared first on Radix.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is fast becoming the way for enterprises to get their apps. And that means, here at Radix, we find ourselves writing SaaS content pretty often.

Considering all the other complex stuff that goes on in the enterprise tech world, you’d think writing about SaaS would be simple. But there’s far more to it than meets the eye… or perhaps less.

You see, in many cases, the best approach involves not writing about SaaS at all.

What is SaaS?

If you get software through an online portal rather than having to buy a disk or licence key, then it’s SaaS. If you’ve ever used Dropbox, any Google service, OneDrive, or a similar online app accessed through a browser, then you’ve used SaaS. These services often come part and parcel with a monthly subscription fee instead of a one-off or annual license payment.

It works pretty much the same in the enterprise space – albeit with a few more wrinkles. I’ll get to those in a minute.

But wait. When you read that explanation of SaaS, did you sigh and think “yep, I know”?

If so, then you and the entire enterprise tech community have something in common. (In fact, if you didn’t, it’s likely you’re not my target audience here.)

We all know SaaS

Here’s the thing most SaaS vendors forget: this stuff isn’t new anymore. Everyone knows what SaaS is. Even if you’ve never heard the specific term, you get the concept.

So, if you spend a whole paragraph explaining what a subscription model is and how it works, you’re just wasting valuable space on your page.

Forget the model – sell me the service

Instead of rehashing monthly payment plans, talk about how your service is actually unique. Is the service particularly flexible in some way? Is the underlying tech innovative? What does it enable me to actually do? These are the things that are new and exciting to your customers.

There are some exceptions where it’s worth explaining the SaaS model in further detail, though. Mainly, for core enterprise services.

The enterprise exception

For the average online service, conventional internet is fine.

But when an app is the lifeblood of the business, standard internet connections aren’t reliable or fast enough. Many organisations will install direct connections to their provider’s data centre to ensure they get the quickest, most dependable service.

This is one of the main situations where you do want to go into a bit more detail about the exact nature of the SaaS connection. But there may be other specific details and extra information worth sharing.

The golden rule: don’t explain if you don’t have to

Your standard pay-per-month SaaS doesn’t need an introduction. But if you offer direct connections to your data centre, an unconventional price structure, or something else that veers from the norm, a bit of detail can help explain why your offering is unique.

Of course, to do this, you need to know what the norm is for your industry – and where your product or service deviates from it. If you’re writing for your own business, you should know this already (or at least be able to talk to a Sales rep who will). And as external writers, we find this is a great question to ask in our briefing calls.

Actually, beyond SaaS, this is a good plan for almost any topic. By understanding what your audience knows and what you need to tell them, you can create a tighter, more engaging and much more compelling piece of content.

By trimming the fat (and not re-explaining to your audience for the hundredth time what SaaS is), you can cut to the heart of the matter: why your product or service is great and why people should buy it. This helps you get to the point, convince your reader, and help push them further down the funnel. Win-win.

For more tips on writing for the enterprise tech sector, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

The post How to write about SaaS appeared first on Radix.

If your business has more than one person communicating externally, you’ll know it’s hard to keep messaging consistent across your sales and marketing, and make sure everyone always has the right personas in mind.

One way to solve this issue is a messaging workshop – and it can also sharpen your elevator pitch, and give you a matrix of powerful, multi-use copy blocks to boot.

In the newest episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, George and Fiona dig deep into what these workshops are all about.

Listen now to find out:

• Why consistent messaging is so important
• Who should attend messaging workshops
• What you really get out of a messaging workshop

(If you’d like a more detailed rundown of how a messaging workshop works, you’ll find Fiona’s in-depth blog post here.)

Also, copywriter Ben Philpott explains why he nominated Zoom’s “A Video Conference Call in Real Life” as our inaugural B2B Content Hall of Fame inductee.

Want to contact the show?

We want to hear from you. You’ll find us on Twitter… or feel free to send your thoughts, jokes, questions, suggestions, complaints or hat recommendations to podcast@radix-communications.com (better still, email us a voice memo).

Next month, we’ll be going shopping for essential copywriting kit, and inducting another member into our B2B Content Hall of Fame. 

How to listen…

You can download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.

(Or you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Alternatively, add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.)

Credits:

Audio editing and music by Bang and Smash.

The post Podcast 60: the lowdown on B2B messaging workshops appeared first on Radix.

Rules get a bad rap. Often seen as restrictive at best and pointless busy-work at worst, you may be loath to give your writer strict rules to follow when you set them off on a new campaign. After all, they’re probably already following several tone, messaging and format guidelines.

It’s easy to assume more rules mean more creative restrictions. But there is one framework you might want to consider adding to the mix; one that arguably makes copy punchier and more readable.

The Flesch-Kincaid grade score gives you a quick way to assess the complexity of any piece of B2B copy. To prove how effective it can be in keeping writing clear and simple, I’ll be writing each section of this blog at a different Flesh-Kincaid grade level, so you have a practical example of how it all looks.

A pound of Flesch-Kincaid (F-K grade 13)

Devised by scientists Rudolph Flesch and J. Peter Kincaid, the Flesch-Kincaid (F-K) grade level is one of two tests devised to assess the complexity of a piece of writing. Commissioned by the US Navy to help benchmark the difficulty of technical training manuals, the F-K grade level uses a formula based on the average number of syllables per word, and words per sentence to offer a number that represents what grade of education you would require to understand the content. The lower the number, the easier it is to read.

Let’s take a jargon-tastic tech cliché as an example: “In today’s challenging economic climate, only cloud computing can help companies achieve meaningful competitive advantage.” That would score a significant F-K grade level of 17 – meaning only people educated up to grade 17 in the US (we’re talking well into higher education here) will understand it fully.

(These last two paragraphs score an F-K grade level of 13. That’s roughly double the UK’s average reading age.)

Why use it in B2B? (F-K grade 9.4)

No matter who your audience is, readability is important.

Even if you write for smart, educated businesspeople, no one has ever complained that something was too easy to read. In fact, even the smartest among us might give up if a piece of writing creates a large cognitive load.

It’s especially important if your content might be read on a mobile device, which is already difficult enough.

And if you write for an international audience? Readability is essential for those who might use English as a second language. Even a single extra point on the F-K grade level could mean the difference between your marketing being enjoyed or endured by your reader.

(These four paragraphs scored a F-K grade level of 9.4. It would be understood by a 15-year-old, but it’s still more complex than a broadsheet newspaper.)

But what about more technical topics? (F-K grade 6.2)

It can be hard to keep a low F-K grade when writing about technical topics. After all, a single technical term might have many syllables, adding to your score.

But there are two ways you or your writers can work around this:

1. Use abbreviations when you can
2. Make the rest of the copy easy to read

Even if the few mentions of your topic raise your F-K grade, you can offset this by making the rest of your copy short and easy-to-read. Just tell your creatives to think of it like a puzzle.

(The text in this section has a F-K grade level of 6.2. It would be understood by an 11-year-old.)

But aren’t my writers already writing clearly? (F-K grade 5.5)

Maybe. But it doesn’t hurt to check.

Also, even with very good writers, it can be hard to write at a consistent F-K grade level. Especially if they’re writing in a voice that isn’t natural for them.

Clarity and simplicity aren’t always the same thing. Even if you have a good writer that always produces clear, concise copy, it could still be complex and hard to read.

And with lots of free F-K grade checks available online, it’s quick and easy to assess your content.

(The paragraphs in this section have a combined F-K grade score of 5.5. This is around the UK’s average reading age.)

F-K grades: a valuable tool in your marketing shed

Like any tool, there’s a time and a place to reach for the F-K grades.

When you’re putting out a data sheet or technical white paper? Maybe just let your writers have free rein. Breaking into a new market, or writing something for the top of the funnel that needs to be easily understood? It can’t hurt to ask your writer to pass the copy through an F-K grade assessment tool to make sure it’s clear and concise.

Just remember: it’s a guide, not an absolute.

The post Readability in B2B content: does your Flesch-Kincaid grade matter? appeared first on Radix.

Microsoft’s Office suite dominates much of the business world.

But no king can sit on a throne without challengers appearing. So, Google has risen from the ranks to offer a compelling alternative: G Suite. And at Radix, we’re seeing the effects of Google’s efforts first-hand, with many clients asking us to use Google’s web-based word processor over Microsoft’s old reliable, Word.

Plenty of others have pitted the two against each other in a head-to-head for general use (see exhibits A and B). But how do they compare for writing professional marketing content?

We’ll assess Google Docs and Microsoft Word across a range of categories to see which one comes out on top for professional copywriters.

Collaboration

Good copy requires all kinds of input from marketing managers, subject matter experts, and product owners. Collaborating with these stakeholders is essential. Sometimes these people need to work together synchronously: in real time. Other times the collaboration is asynchronous (i.e. pinging something back and forth over email).

Google Docs is great for synchronous, real-time collaboration. Available in-browser and on mobile, it lets anyone join in to edit text in real time. This is great for throwing ideas around.

But for delivering proper, finished copy it’s horrendous. Writers want to take their time writing, rewriting, and editing their work to get the wording just right. For most of us, having a client digitally looking over your shoulder when you work is nightmare fuel.

MS Word does better on the asynchronous side of things. Compared to G Docs, Word has far neater tracked changes, more robust commenting options and much clearer options for viewing the edits you want to focus on.

Winner: Word – Google Docs has better potential for collaboration, but Word plays nicer when it comes to how most copywriters really work.

Productivity

You may think there’s only one way to type up a document. You’d be wrong, and likely ill-informed about the wonderful world of shortcuts and templates.

MS Word is the champ of this arena too. While its ribbon interface may not be the cleanest, by God does it pack a lot of features. Most importantly, each one comes with its own shortcut key combination, so you don’t have to waste time reaching for your mouse.

Importantly, Word has templates – a godsend for your copy team. Here in the Radix office we have all kinds of templates we need to write into depending on what clients we’re writing for. Word makes it easy to create, manage, and work into these.

Google Docs certainly looks the part. Its interface is clean, modern, and not bogged down in the decades of features that weigh down Microsoft’s offering. But there are several things that limit productivity for pro writers.

The shortcut situation, for instance, is slightly limited. As G Docs sits in your web browser – an application with its own shortcut keys – you’re a bit limited in what you can shortcut your way into. Given time I’m sure you could learn all the hacks you need to be productive, but for a Word user who moves to G Docs now and then, the shift can be jarring.

Winner: Word – Microsoft’s offering packs tonnes of useful features behind its slightly fugly interface. Those who’ve worked in the industry for a while are also likely very used to the shortcuts and hotkeys in Word.

File access

While many organizations are happy to throw Word docs back and forth in an email, there are arguably smarter ways to access files – ones that let you remotely access docs from any place, on any device.

As you’d expect, Google Docs is great here. It offers easy access to files, full support for mobile devices, and you can even have multiple people working in a document simultaneously in real time.

But that’s not to say it’s all sunshine and roses. Offline support exists, but it limits Google Docs’ functionality. And while you can setup offline sync through Google Drive so everything lives on your hard drive as well, it isn’t the default option.

Microsoft Word is much more basic when it comes to access. Unless you pair it with Dropbox or the like, your files are firmly stuck in the offline, one-at-a-time mode we’ve gotten used to since the dawn of computing.

But for most professional copywriters, this isn’t a huge loss. I imagine most of us are more than happy working in a document on our own (it’s nice to work in an environment where a client can’t hop in while we’re midway through deleting a howler of a sentence). Granted though, for those rare projects where you want multiple writers working in the same file, MS Word is quite unhelpful.

Side note: Microsoft’s mobile reader app is clunky and ill-featured. Most copywriters probably aren’t eager to work on mobile anyway (you can make autocorrect as intelligent as you want; touch keyboards will always pale in comparison to the real thing). But if you do need to check out documents on a mobile device, Google wins hands down.

Winner: Google Docs – It offers much better access across devices and real-time collaboration. But as most writers tend to work at a desk, and often alone, these Google Docs benefits won’t always apply to the way we work.

Formatting

The words are naturally the most important part of a copywriter’s job. But formatting comes in a close second. If you work with an agency, you want to respect their templates and formatting rules, and if you work with anyone, you want to be able to comment to show your thought processes and track changes to show document revisions.

MS Word is extremely good for both of these formatting requirements. Comments and tracked changes are easy to read, and the word processing giant offers plenty of alternate views for them. Likewise, the sometimes-clunky ribbon interface hides a lot of powerful formatting tools that come in handy (just ask our CEO, Fiona, how often she uses “Format Painter”). Custom templates are especially useful, and strangely absent in many other word processors.

Google Docs fares poorly here. Sure, it’s got the basics covered, but with only a handful of fonts, no templates, and a single view for comments and tracked changes, pro copywriters will hit the limitations of G Docs very quickly.

Winner: Word – and by a landslide. With only a handful of formatting options and no templates, Google Docs can be frustrating for writers that have to work to lots of different formatting requirements.

The bottom line: use what you’re used to

I know it’s boring to say, but for most pro B2B writers, MS Word is the way. Yes, that’s partly because it includes some useful formatting features G Docs doesn’t have. And those cool features only Google allows? They don’t find much use in the traditionally non-collaborative pursuit of writing copy.

However, a big part of picking a tool is finding which one makes you more productive. And that ultimately comes down to what you can use most quickly and easily. For the majority of writers, that’s MS Word. (The switch to Google Docs can be a brutal one when you only have to work on it occasionally – invalidating years of built up muscle memory around critical time-saving hotkeys.)

But the silver lining is that Google Docs is good – when you need to use it, it’s certainly good enough to get the job done. And I’m sure, given enough time to learn the new shortcuts, a pro copywriter could be just as comfortable and productive with Google Docs as they are in MS Word. At that point, it’s really down to how you prefer to work.

Want to know more about the tools professional writers use to produce compelling copy? Take a look at our blog on the pro copywriters’ kit list.

The post Google Docs vs Microsoft Word: which is the best word processor for copywriters? appeared first on Radix.

Amends are a natural part of the copywriting process. Sometimes it’s because a writer missed something in a brief or didn’t fully grasp the topic. In other cases, new information comes to light halfway through a project, plans shift and change, or a new stakeholder wakes up and wants their say.

Regardless, if you run projects that involve copywriters, you’ll likely have to give them feedback so they can amend their first draft. But not all feedback is created equal.

If you can deliver your comments in a precise, constructive, positive way, you’ll get far better results from your writers – both on that project and in the long term.

Follow these five feedback tips, and you’ll find your writers are better motivated, and better equipped to make the right changes to their drafts.

1. Be specific

Try and be as prescriptive with your feedback as possible. Telling a writer the piece is “generic” or “lacks impact” leaves them guessing what needs to be done.

But if you instead highlight specific phrases you feel need more authority, or give concrete examples of areas that need more detail, your writer will have a much better idea of what you’re looking for.

This isn’t to say you need to hold your writer’s hand. But if you don’t give them a good idea of where changes are needed, they’ll be left guessing – and likely missing the mark once again.

(This is also true of things you do like. If you can highlight specific sections for comment, rather than saying things like “this reads well”, then your writer will be able to carry that feedback into the next piece.)

2. Use positive framing

Just in case you roll your eyes looking at this subhead: yes, we’re all adults working in this industry. So no, you don’t need to sugar-coat our feedback unnecessarily.

But we’re human beings too – and nobody likes re-writing work they’ve already done. A little psychology can help you get a more engaged writer – and a better result.

If you come in with strong negative criticism right from the first round of amends, you’re likely going to put your writer on the back foot and make them feel defensive. And defensive people seldom do their best work.

But what if, instead of saying “you missed out points x, y and z”, you said “can we include points x, y and z?”

Your writer isn’t an idiot – they’ll be able to read between the lines and realise they forgot to put the points in. But they will absolutely appreciate you helping them save face.

A little positive framing can make the world of difference to your copywriter. It will keep them better motivated during the amends process, help them act on the spirit of your comments, and ultimately lead to better changes to your piece – and better content overall. And that’s the real goal, isn’t it?

3. Consolidate your criticism

Maybe you have a lot of stakeholders who need to offer their feedback on a document. Or maybe you come back to a piece a few days later and have additional thoughts. Either way, you should avoid the temptation to send feedback to a writer in bits and pieces.

The average copywriter needs several reference documents at a time (brief, product spec, company website etc), and if you add several different emails to the mix, you’re making their job far harder than it needs to be.

And if the various comments conflict (believe me, they often do), you’re far better placed than the writer to consider which should take precedence. If you don’t want to go to another round of amends, it’s best not to make them guess.

4. Consider what’s possible (and what isn’t)

We’d all love the perfect stat to come falling from the heavens to give every blog a punchy intro. But if no one’s published the study, that stat simply doesn’t exist. And if it doesn’t exist, no amount of desk research will help your copywriter find it (no matter how nicely you ask).

Similarly, your writer might be limited in other ways. If they can’t talk to any subject matter experts, end customers, or other specialists, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to add the extra depth or unique insights you’re asking for. Even an experienced B2B tech writer is only a writer.

So, before you request a change, consider what your writer will realistically be able to do with the time, information and resources available.

5. Build in time for changes

It’s well understood that rushing any creative process leads to poor results. For the first draft at least. Yet, when it comes to amends, there’s always an expectation that they should be done quickly to avoid derailing the project. But just as rushing the initial draft leads to suboptimal copy, editing a document too hastily can also lead to ineffective changes.

The key is to keep amends in mind when first planning out your content delivery schedule. A good rule of thumb is that any writing project will require two rounds of changes – one round for any big tweaks or new additions, and another to sand off the remaining rough edges. So plan for that, and anything else is a bonus.

(That’s also why we allow for two rounds of amends in all our quotes.)

Good content needs a good feedback process

Robert Graves once said, “there is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”

Were he around today, he would no doubt approve of a great amends process. And once you see the impact changing your feedback can have on the quality of your content, you’ll probably be converted too.

So, take these lessons to heart, and show your copywriter a little kindness during the amends process. They’ll likely be very grateful for it – and deliver you even better copy as a result.

The post How to give copywriters better feedback appeared first on Radix.

Clarity is something of a white whale for B2B marketing content. Every brand wants to make clear and engaging content, but that can be an uphill battle when writing about the complex, often arcane topics floating around in the business-to-business world.

This puts writers and marketers alike in a tough spot: balancing the need to bring technical depth to a piece – without compromising readability. While this blog won’t help you flex your technical knowledge (but this piece might help you with that), it will give you five writing techniques that can help you deliver more readable, engaging content.

1: The rule of three

The rule of three is a writing device that’s almost as old as time itself. And it’s no wonder it’s been a favourite for so long. Trios offer a good rhythm, they’re concise, and they’re the shortest list you can create that still establishes a pattern.

Any time you need to list out concepts in your copy – whether that’s customer pain points, features or solution benefits – splitting them into threes can help make your points more memorable for your audience.

For example: This blog can help you learn new tricks, create compelling copy, and tackle complex topics with confidence.

2: A final clause

I like em dashes. A lot. I like them so much, I even wrote a whole blog about them. But even outside of my strange love of lines, there’s no doubt a dash is a useful writing tool to have in your drawer.

A great place to use one is when you have a long sentence but don’t know how to cut it down. Em dashes can help you split your sentences up, without having to cram in loads of commas. Do note that some house styles (including ours!) prefer the slightly narrower en dash (with spaces) instead of an em dash, so check your style guide before getting stuck in.

For example: With em dashes, you can bring some visual clarity to your sentences and keep them easy to read—even if they get a little long.

3: Careful repetition

Repetition is almost always seen as a bad thing. But used in the right way, it can be a bit of a superpower, suggesting logic and balance.

If you’re going to use repetition, you need to make it very obvious what you’re doing and pin your entire sentence around it. Otherwise, you risk repeating phrases and words in a way that bores your reader rather than helping you get your point across.

For example: Complex topics can lead to complex writing jobs, but these five tips can help you keep things simple.

4: Start with a conjunction

When you’re writing about complicated subject matter, it’s all too easy for sentences to start getting a little long. After all, that deep, technical rundown has to fit in somewhere, right? But when sentences start to expand, your readers might start tripping over your copy and stop reading.

A simple way to cut things down to size is to split clauses into sentences of their own. And it’s really easy to do this if you’re willing to start sentences with conjunctions like ‘but’ or ‘and’. Don’t listen to what your English teacher said; it’s grammatically correct, I promise.

For example: Traditionalists would argue you can’t begin a sentence with a conjunction. But they’re wrong.

5: Ask a rhetorical question

When tackling a deep topic, your audience will likely have all kinds of questions as they’re reading. If you ask these questions directly, you can show empathy with your audience and establish a strong connection with them.

Rhetorical questions are an easy way to stop things getting monotonous, re-engage your reader, and keep them interested in what’s coming up later on in your content.

For example: Is there a limit to how useful these techniques are? Read on, and you’ll find out.

There’s no substitute for experience

While these techniques can be help bring clarity to your writing, they aren’t miracle cure-alls.

There are still plenty of situations you can’t solve with a trio or a rhetorical question. And if you over-rely on tricks like these, they can quickly make your copy seem formulaic and repetitive. So use them sparingly, like spices.

These five techniques can help bring your reader along with you for a simple content piece. But if you need more depth, never be afraid to call on more experienced writers for help.

(Ahem.)

The post 5 go-to writing techniques to make your B2B copy more readable appeared first on Radix.

Cybersecurity can feel like an inherently negative topic. Even if you try to focus on the protection, prevention and peace of mind you deliver, you still have to talk about the many dangers you mitigate for your customers.

But there are good reasons why cybersecurity marketers might not want their content to always dwell on the doom and gloom. How do you put a positive spin on the topic without downplaying the risks – and the need for strong measures to combat them?

In this blog, I’ll look at four ways cybersecurity brands can create strong content – without getting bogged down in the risks, threats and what-ifs.

Why cybersecurity content needs a balanced approach

When writing content for cybersecurity experts, there’s a big reason to avoid too much negative-speak: notification fatigue.

Network analysts and security engineers get notifications about potential threats constantly. Some are legitimate issues that require attention, but these are needles in a haystack of false positives. After a time, they start to tune out all these alerts and alarms.

So when you come in with a big, scary headline and an urgent intro, they’re likely to dismiss this as yet another alert that doesn’t mean anything. They’ll tune your content out, just like they ignore the hundreds of empty alarms that flash up in their monitoring platforms.

And even if they do take notice, the engagement you get from negative content may not be the kind your business is looking for. Research on negative news articles in the US found that while they pique interest, they also cause readers to feel “stress… anxiety, fatigue or sleep loss”; hardly feelings you want your content to evoke if you’re looking for a positive, mutually-beneficial business relationship.

Four ways to balance your content

So how do you strike a positive chord with your content when your entire solution is designed to avoid a negative outcome? When no news is good news, your best-case scenario still talks about the negative – just how you can avoid it.

While it would be absurd to ignore that reality altogether, there are a few tweaks you can make to highlight the wider benefits of your solution and tackle the subject of cybersecurity risk in a more balanced way.

Focus on real benefits

One tactic you can take is to shift the message from the damage your solution avoids to the concrete benefits it delivers. For instance, you can talk about how you offer:

• Cost savings compared to other security approaches
• Time savings that can help teams reinvest resources elsewhere
• A more strategic, proactive approach to security
• Simpler reporting to stakeholders on the security and cyberthreat landscape
• Peace of mind to cybersecurity teams and business leaders

When deciding on a different messaging approach, think carefully about what to focus on. Depending on what solutions you offer, some of these messages might not be appropriate. There’s also a chance your competitors are already making some of these claims, and you don’t want to march to the beat of their drum if you can avoid it.

Don’t overclaim the risks

Overpromising is the enemy of all good copy – especially when you’re dealing with a negative topic. Yes, you can say DDoS attacks are a business disruption and impact the user experience. But will they irreparably harm brand image and put the whole business at risk? It’s unlikely, and your reader knows it.

While you clearly want to make your piece stand out and show the real threats out there, don’t get too carried away. Otherwise, you’ll undermine your credibility – and the one quality cybersecurity content absolutely needs is trust.

Avoid the urgency

Most cybersecurity professionals run on a strict time limit. But they know this. They know it intimately, and they don’t need you to remind them. There’s simply no way you can frighten someone that deals with risk for a living. So, if your content tries to scare people, it won’t work.

That’s not to say you should avoid writing about deadlines completely. Release dates, end-of-support deadlines and upcoming events in the cybersecurity world are all great topics for your content. But don’t talk in generalities about how the clock is ticking and how they’re letting cybercriminals get ahead. Cybersecurity professionals are well aware of the pressures they face.

Make it specific

Negative talk is always at its worst when it speaks in generalities. So, if you are going to talk about big cyberthreats and risks, back it up with a specific example to keep your content focused.

Writing in vague terms about irreparable brand damage is tired, and likely to paint your content a dull shade of grey. By contrast, referencing specific big attacks that have impacted brands in your sector (they’re only a Google away) will bring some much-needed colour.

Specifics aren’t just a nice way to make your content stand out – they’re also help your reader build their own business case. Content that shows the reality of high-profile breaches has a way of gaining the attention of senior leadership – helping your customer to win support for new cybersecurity initiatives.

If in doubt, seek a second opinion

A second pair of eyes can give you a great steer on whether your content is too negative (or not negative enough). You can get this from a colleague, from industry peers in other businesses, or you can ask your friendly neighbourhood copywriter.

Better yet, you could ask a specialist tech copywriter that has a bit of experience both suggesting new content ideas, and working with brands to get the right tone of voice. That way, whether you need to tweak your messaging around cybersecurity or make some changes to your tone, you’ll get some good advice.

The post Can you write about cybersecurity without being negative? appeared first on Radix.

Proofing. It’s the last bastion of quality control before your marketing content goes out to your expectant readers. It’s important, because even a small typo can be enough to distract your audience, or even make them question your credibility and authority.

But due to time pressures, the human mind wandering off, or both, most content doesn’t get the thorough proofing it deserves.

Some companies out there are fortunate enough to have dedicated proofreaders. For the rest of us, there are macros: a powerful tool in Microsoft Word that can help you proof faster, better and more reliably.

Read on to learn more about macros, how they can transform your proofing, and how you can start using them.

What are macros?

First and foremost, Word is a piece of word processing software. But underneath that first layer, it’s a flexible tool that can run other applications, allowing savvy coders to extend its functionality.

Using the Visual Basic for Applications coding language, people far smarter than I have developed a whole range of applications that let Word do much more than basic spellchecking and randomly criticising your grammar. These are called macros, and they can do all sorts of stuff, from providing shortcuts to commonly used features, to lasering in on commonly misused words, repeated mistakes, and questionable writing practices.

Why and where would I use them?

Microsoft Word already offers a whole array of proofing features. Automatic suggestions, dictionaries and spellcheck have been leaned on by writers for decades now. But these tools are generalised: everybody gets the same thing.

Macros are really useful because you can pick and choose the features you need. Do you find you type the wrong version of their/there/they’re sometimes? Great, there’s a macro just for you to triple-check them. Do you accidentally mishmash “ize” and “ise” at the end of different words? There’s a macro for that too.

Yes, you could check for these specific proofing errors yourself. But that takes time and energy we could better use elsewhere. Macros mean we can take care of the stuff that needs the human touch (writing and editing), and leave that arduous seventh proofing pass to the machines.

How do I get started?

First, you need to download some macros. Thankfully, the amazing community of macro creators are a sharing caring bunch.

The best place to start is Macros for Editors, an extensive look at macros that includes a mass of useful code ready for you to copy and use. And if you need any more, some rigorous Googling will lead you to all sorts of niche macros for different proofing scenarios.

Once you’ve found a macro you like, copy all the text starting from “sub” all the way to “end sub”. Then go into Word and navigate to the View menu on the top ribbon. On the far right of the View bar, you’ll find the macros menu.

Press “create” and paste in the code for any macros you think look useful, and they should then appear in your macros menu – ready for you to “run” when you need them. It’s not as fiddly as it sounds, and there are plenty of guides out there if you get stuck.

What kinds of macro should I add?

Macros are at their best when you tailor them to your own strengths and weaknesses. If there’s a particular grammar rule you often find you overlook, or a typo you can’t stop making, these can be great areas to cover with macros.

But if you want more of a general spread, I’ll list a few of my favourites below. You’ll find all of these in the Macros for Editors ebook.

AAnAlyse

When scanning lots of words on the page, it’s easy to miss whether you should have “a” or “an” before a word. This macro homes in on that, highlighting whenever you’ve used the wrong one.

ProperNounAlyse

Proper nouns are a place where standard spellcheck can’t help you. This macro can though. It analyses all proper nouns and lists every single one, along with how many times you’ve used it. This makes it easy to spot if you’ve mistyped a company or product name at any point, without having to go through each mention of it one by one.

HyphenAlyse

Tired of analyse-based wordplay titles yet? Neither am I. This one lists every hyphenised word you’ve used. It’s a good way to quickly run through and make sure compound words are correctly hyphened. It even lists words it thinks you should put a hyphen between, just in case you forgot any.

Faster, more accurate proofing at the touch of a button

These are a few good examples of macros that can solve some immediate proofing challenges you might face. And because they run in a matter of seconds, they’re a quick way to add a second set of digital eyes to your document – perfect for when you’re up against a tight deadline.

One final thing to note is that this is a feature in Microsoft Word. Some word processors like Libre Office support macros written in Visual Basic for Applications, but I’m afraid if you prefer the likes of Google Docs you’re out of luck. If that’s making you rethink your word processor choices, then you might be interested in this blog where I assess Google Docs vs MS Word on all kinds of basic features.

And for more MS Word tips and tricks (plus some Windows OS shortcut hacks), this post has you covered.

Thanks to Lorraine at Lighthouse Proofreading for introducing us to the power of macros. If you’re a copywriter or marketer and you want your stuff proofed professionally, by someone who actually understands copy, Lorraine’s a unicorn.

The post Proof your B2B marketing copy faster and more effectively with Microsoft Word macros appeared first on Radix.

“The public sector.” Those three words should be a delight to see at the top of a brief or content plan. It’s a sector that delivers meaningful improvements to real people’s lives every day. It offers the kind of human stories every content marketer dreams of sharing.

But the reality is very different. All too often, content targeting the public sector falls short, failing to home in on what really keeps its decision-makers awake at night.

I wanted to find out why, and how to make public sector content that really sings. So, along with Radix Creative Director David McGuire, I asked public sector employees – and the gurus that market to them – how to get it right.

We ran a whole podcast on the topic. But I still felt there was more concrete advice to share, and that’s where this blog comes in. I’ll share six tips based on interviews with industry experts and my own experience writing for this extraordinary audience.

1. Make sure you really understand your audience

You can’t create something that resonates with your reader unless you know who they are. That’s true for any content. But for the public sector, this kind of specific audience knowledge is even more important.

In fact, it’s really more than one audience. The public sector is vast and varied, so if you don’t know whether you’re talking to a local council or a central government department, you’ll have no way of speaking to the unique challenges each type of institution faces. Instead, it’s important to map those challenges out, so you can tailor the right message to the right person.

“It can be tempting to want to create noise in the market, but I’d never recommend taking a scattergun approach,” says Shona Wright, Public Sector Marketing Lead at Microsoft.

“Taking time to create a messaging framework (and training your people on it) is often an overlooked step, but I think it’s essential for anchoring your content and having a cohesive impact on your public sector audience.”

2. Use the language of the sector, but don’t over-use jargon

Specific info on who you’re targeting helps you get the specificity your content needs. But you still have a tough task ahead of you: making sure your content is written in a language that really speaks to your public sector reader, and focuses on the topics close to their heart.

Most B2B brands have a whole roster of tried-and-tested terms and topics they can lean on when speaking to the private sector. However, many of these translate poorly to public sector readers, or at least need some finessing before they’re fit for purpose. For example, some might detest the word “customers”.

While it’s important to speak your audience’s language, Lynn File, Founder and Managing Director Brand Innovation reminds us it’s essential to keep your content human: “The public sector is full of jargon and acronyms. These should be avoided at all costs. If you start using public sector jargon, all the power and emotion drains out of your content immediately.”

3. Get to the purpose behind your audience

But it’s not just language that’s different in the public sector; there’s also a different motivation to their work.

Lynn continues: “By definition, the public sector is there to serve their public and, in my experience, most of the people who work in the public sector are very committed to delivering that. You can latch into what they see as their overall purpose and reflect that back at them.

“So, for example, the NHS at heart is all about delivering great patient care. To be effective, marketing communications have to promise to contribute to that goal. When marketing to them, you should speak about the big picture and the benefits their role ultimately delivers.”

4. Learn from commercial enterprises

While it’s crucial you get the tone and language right when speaking to the public sector, you shouldn’t discard your knowledge of the private sector completely.

Shona says: “Local authorities could learn a lot from disruptive retailers in delivering great customer experiences. As public sector marketers, we need to have the courage to look across industries and help our public sector audiences open their eyes to what they can learn from commercial businesses.”

The way you present this information is crucial. A message that’s overly commercial can turn a public sector reader off – but show them how a private sector solution can be adapted to help them achieve their own public-facing goals, and they might well listen.

5. Balance positive and negative messages

While much of the public sector is about building a better society, some jobs are focused on avoiding a negative outcome rather than pursuing a positive one. But how much can you (and should you) dwell on the risks in your content?

“Risk is an inherent concern in the public sector, and I don’t see that dramatically changing,” says Shona.

“But I do believe we have a viewpoint on the changing landscape of risk. Moving the conversation, from ‘on-prem is safer than cloud’ to understanding the risk of not transforming, is key. Also, I think the role of the public sector CIO has changed. They need to be aware of financial, commercial and reputational risk more now than ever before.”

Where possible, then, discuss the wider elements of risk rather than focusing on one specific area. Beyond this, it’s also important to see where you can flip negative messages around to something more aspirational – showing the reader you understand the importance of their job.

“I think marketers should get fired up and share the enthusiasm that the best public sector workers have for their role,” Lynn suggests.

“Use upbeat exciting language; be positive; be optimistic. Emotion beats reason when it comes to content. Believe in the better future society your audience wants to deliver and show how the product or service you are marketing will help them do that.”

6. Think carefully about the decision-making unit

One anonymous source from the UK civil service explained how the complex decision-making process in some parts of the public sector can be a barrier to common marketing approaches.

They said: “Procurement is a lengthy process, so standard marketing techniques are unlikely to get most companies anywhere. There’s also very little that I can actually act on because the final decision-making power does not sit with me. And I’m someone who was used to having sign-off in private sector roles. So, for the civil service at least, I would suggest that the rulebook doesn’t apply.”

We spoke with another anonymous source with experience working in parliament, and they offered concrete advice for handling the complex tech sign-off process: “In general, there’s very little understanding of what IT solutions are out there. And, unlike the private sector, few have the spare time or dedicated roles required to research the technologies available. If you can show what the options are quickly, and why they should care, and make it easy for them to share this info with decision-makers, your content will go down much better.”

Different audiences, different advice, similar themes

Not all this advice above will apply to every public sector audience. Much depends on what type of organisation you’re targeting – and what their mission is.

However, there are a few constants that can help all public sector content hit a little closer to home:

• Don’t use jargon as a substitute for communication – both public and private sector buzzwords won’t get you very far
• Believe in your audience’s mission – and avoid trying to frighten the reader with risks; chances are they handle them every day
• Be clear and helpful – by openly educating the reader about the options available, and the benefits of each
• Use examples from other industries – but be very clear about how it applies to public sector objectives

Remember, many public sector audiences face an uphill battle every day, to justify their budgets, their objectives, often their own jobs – even though they’re only working on behalf of the public, to make society better. As private sector marketers and writers, you and I can’t claim to know what that’s like. But we can write content in a way that makes the job a little easier, and shows the reader we’re on their side.

If you want to see some of these tips in practice, Radix Creative Director David McGuire wrote up his approach when working with CACI on marketing to public sector child services leaders.

The post Writing for the public sector? Follow these six tips from sector experts appeared first on Radix.

Did you know that by the end of 2019 there were 800,000 active podcasts? That means there were 800,000 series out there that sounded significantly better than your average B2B podcast.

In my eight years of writing B2B copy, I’ve listened to (and occasionally scripted) a fair few podcasts – from small business efforts to audio exploits from the largest enterprises. And after eight years of Radix podcasts, it’s a subject we get asked about a lot.

After hearing the good, the bad, and the very distorted, my key takeaway is this: if you can spare the time and budget to attract some of the brightest minds in your industry to speak on your podcast, you can afford to use a microphone that doesn’t make them sound like they’re screaming through sandpaper.

Want some more specific (and slightly less inflammatory) advice to give your next podcast an audio boost? Then look no further than this essential audio kit list for B2B podcasts.

Microphones

This is the big ticket to clear-audio-town, but the breadth of different microphones and price points means I’ll be splitting this out into different sections to suit different budgets.

The cheap and cheerful

Not everyone has the budget to justify a microphone that will capture the full timbre of the human vocal cords. But spending even a little will get you a lot compared to the very shaky microphones built into most laptops.

If you have absolutely zero budget for audio equipment: consider recording on a phone (and asking any speakers recording remotely to do the same). As phones are designed around talking, they tend to have better built-in microphones than the average laptop.

If you have a small budget that needs to go far: look at getting basic headsets for each participant. With some well-reviewed options costing as little as £25, there’s little reason to feel tied to your laptop mic. While headsets don’t always have the clearest microphones, they do solve audio spill issues and echo problems you often hear when people record themselves through laptop speakers and mics.

The premium experience

If you can stretch your budget further, you open the door to much better microphones.

There are as many mics out there as there are businesses trying their hands at podcasts, so it helps to narrow down the two most common categories of microphones:

Dynamic microphones are often cheaper and have low sensitivity. That means they don’t always sound as crisp and clear as other mics, but they don’t pick up much background noise either. They’re ideal for recording in potentially noisy environments, or for those trying to keep budgets low.

Condenser microphones are more sensitive and capture more of your speaker’s voice. In short, they’ll sound less compressed, clearer and more natural than other kinds of microphone. However, this sensitivity can be a double-edged sword if you’re trying to record lots of people or in a noisy area – condenser mics pick up everything.

An important consideration between the two is the need for phantom power (sounds metal as hell, I know). Dynamic mics don’t need any power to work – so if you can plug them into your audio kit, you’ll be good to go.

Condenser microphones need additional power, so they must be connected to an interface that can supply phantom power. They also need a special connection to get that power, so you’ll need XLR inputs (the one with three prongs) rather than a conventional ¼-inch jack connector. If you aren’t sure which ports you have available, look up the specs of your audio interface and double check before buying a condenser mic.

Pop shields

If you’re using a phone or headset, then unfortunately you just have to live with pop sounds whenever you say a word with a ‘b’ or ‘p’ in it. But if you’re using a standalone microphone, pop shields can help smooth out plosive syllables.

This may seem like an extravagant item, but they’re cheap enough that they’re well worth the expense (they’re often no more than the price of a cup of coffee or two). If you really don’t want to spend any money, or if you want to try before you buy, you can even make your own pop shield – though it might not look especially professional.

Mixing software/hardware

At some point, you need either a piece of software or hardware that can take the audio from your different hosts and experts, mix it so everything sounds OK, then spit it out into a digital file ready for your platform of choice.

Because of the sheer variety of different approaches you can take for your setup, I can’t offer definitive advice on exactly what to buy; it will very much depend on your needs and situation. But I can give you general things to look out for.

There are two kinds of interfaces you’ll come across:

• All-in-one recorders
  These tend to pull all the audio in and have you mix it together directly on a dedicated piece of hardware (kind of like a big tape deck with a few faders stuck on the front). Once you’re happy with it, the device creates an audio file on an SD card that you can then transfer to your computer.
• Digital interfaces that connect to software
  An interface acts more like a set of ports to feed audio from your mic through to a computer running Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software like Pro Tools, Logic or GarageBand. You then mix and process the audio through the software before turning it into a more conventional audio file that you send to a podcast hosting site. Or, your interface could connect to dedicated podcast recording software like Anchor or Squadcast.

Is one approach better than the other for recording a podcast? Not really. Using a DAW is arguably more flexible than hardware options or a podcast recording app, but it’s also more complicated – and arguably overkill for something straightforward like recording a few people talking.

And while Squadcast et al. offer a really easy way to record remote speakers, they won’t be much help if you want to pivot to other types of audio content like live webinars.

Whatever direction you decide to go in, here’s a few things to think about:

• Ease of use – dedicated recording devices tend to just work. There are no plugins to consider, or audio interfaces that need configuring and integrating.
• Flexibility – DAWs offer maximum flexibility, as you can download new extras as needed. Want to start compressing speaker audio? You can download the right compression plugins and you’re done – whereas with dedicated hardware or podcast software, you’re stuck with what’s there by default.
• Editing needs – with a DAW, it’s easy to see the audio waveforms and edit them on-screen, which really helps if you need to merge takes together or cut out any flubbed lines. You can edit audio on many dedicated recorders, but it’s often a bit more challenging than on a DAW.
• Collaboration – if you’re planning to work on podcasts together with other people, or send audio files to a sound engineer, audio software is a bit more forgiving here. Popular software like Logic and Pro Tools are considered industry standard, so if you start sending their file formats around, you’re likely to stay on the good side of your local audio gurus. Meanwhile, the likes of Anchor and Squadcast make it easy to record together remotely.

Some recommendations to get you started

While I can’t give you an exact list of what to buy for your specific audio needs and situation, I can point you in the right direction with a few well-regarded bits of equipment.

For dedicated recording hardware units, there’s this delightful digital recorder that’s a staple of team Radix’s podcast recordings (at least, when we’re in the office). Or, if you’re planning on only using dynamic microphones (the ones without phantom power), you could grab this budget-friendly 6-track Tascam.

As for a DAW software and interface combo, there’s a few easy options to recommend. For your interface, the Audient iD4 offers fantastic value for money for recording one voice over at a time. And if you need to record multiple microphones at once, this four-input delight from Behringer is a hit with recording bands and podcast teams alike.

As for audio software, you have a few different options depending on what operating system you use. If you’re using a Mac to record your audio, you can opt for GarageBand: a free, yet surprisingly powerful Mac-exclusive app. Apple fans can also use Logic Pro, which isn’t free but is widely loved by recording gurus the world over.

Whether you’re on Mac or PC, you can’t go too wrong with Pro Tools. It’s considered the industry standard DAW for a reason. Or, those looking for a cost-effective, customisable bit of kit would also be served well by Reaper. Don’t let the cheap licensing fee fool you, Reaper is a massively capable bit of software that’s quickly gaining traction with some of the best and brightest audio engineers out there.

On the podcast-specific side, Squadcast offers an easy way to record different experts or guest hosts remotely. Similar to Zoom or Teams, it lets remote speakers dial in to a call easily, but it records audio locally to each user rather than on the call itself – so you won’t get horrid audio issues from anyone with a slow connection.

In short: keep it simple and only get what you need

There’s a lot of audio equipment out there, and much of it is overspecced (and overpriced) for recording a podcast.

If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed by the choices available, remember these four tips:

1. Focus on getting nice microphones. That’s where audio quality starts, so it pays to focus your efforts – and your budget – here.
2. Get yourself a pop shield, preferably one for every speaker. Or, if you’re really tied for budget, make them yourself.
3. Think carefully about whether you use software or dedicated hardware. Depending on how much control you need, and how many remote guests you want to record, some options will more suitable than others.
4. When deciding on a recording interface, think about inputs. Effects, pre-amp quality and the like are nice, but not essential. Just make sure your kit of choice has the right type of inputs (and possibly phantom power) for your microphones, and has enough of them.

If you want to hear an example of this kind of simple but mighty audio equipment in practice, look no further than our very own Radix podcast. You’ll be able to hear how we handle recording our own hosts, and capturing audio from experts recording remotely. And you might even pick up some B2B content marketing and copywriting tips along the way.

The post Want to level-up your B2B podcasts? Here’s your essential audio kit list. appeared first on Radix.

This webinar has now taken place, but you can watch it on-demand on our YouTube channel or read the full transcript.

Want to deliver crisp, clear copy that gets results? In this live webinar recording, consultant copywriter George Reith shows you how to avoid common writing mistakes that could be holding your B2B content back.

There’s a big gulf between clear, concise writing, and copy that distracts from your message. But bridging that gap might not be as difficult as you think.

Whether you’re a veteran B2B copywriter, or someone who’s new to content writing, avoiding the seven most common copywriting mistakes can help you can level up your copy – and deliver outstanding results.

Watch on-demand here, on our YouTube channel.

With plenty of real-life examples, you’ll learn how to:

• Focus your writing around clear, logical structures
• Understand your audience and what they want to read
• Dissect and improve your B2B copy

The full webinar transcript:

David: Welcome everybody, thank you for coming.

I am thrilled to say that this is quite possibly the most popular webinar we’ve run to date, and with good reason. You’ve made a very good choice in joining us today. Our expert George is probably too polite to say so, but he really does know what he’s talking about.

George has got about a decade experience of writing content for some of the biggest tech brands in the world as well as mentoring many of our new recruits here at Radix and setting new writers off on a good path.

So really, when it comes to giving you advice on straightening out the errors or the potential mistakes and pitfalls that you might make in your copy, you really could be in no safer hands, and it gives me great pleasure to be embarrassing him like this.

So before I go on too much further, I’ll hand over to George Reith, George, take it away.

George: Well, thank you David for that very glowing introduction it’s made me quite rosy-cheeked and thank you everyone for joining in today. I’m really excited to talk to you about a topic near and dear to my heart, which is making lots of mistakes and trying to recover from them. But yes, I. I’ve obviously called this The Deadly Sins of B2B Content. B2B technology, that’s the sector where I specialise in, in terms of content writing and marketing

But I think this does have an application to quite a broad range of people so whether you’re writing content regularly for your brand or someone else’s. Or if you have to don the hat of writing sometimes to review someone else’s work and broader marketing role play or coordinating your content efforts, and I think there would be something here for you.

On the B2C side as well, if you’re a business to consumer marketer or content creator, I think there was something here for you too, but you may have to put up with some very B2B focused examples.

Just a little bit of housekeeping.

Again, as we’ve said, please jump in with questions early and often. Pop them in the QA box as soon as they come to your brain. We’ll try and sort of answer questions as we go through each section of the webinar, but there will be time at the end for a chunkier, more general Q&A session, so please be up front with your questions.

And in terms of what we’re going to cover today, it’s quite a packed agenda, but we’ll get through it.

We’ll be looking first on why I’m focusing on mistakes – there’s wisdom to the madness. I’ll also tell you a little bit about me, I’m not going to massively oversell myself or anything, but I figure you might want to know that it’s not going to be a complete waste of your time. And then we’ll cover the Seven Deadly Sins in order and in each one will obviously delve into that challenge a little bit more.

I’ll give you a real copy example I found out in the wide world and I’ll show you how I tweak it and give some general advice on avoiding that stake in future.

And then of course, at the end, as I said – time for a few questions and answers which would be really great.

But first, this is where the first poll comes in you can get a little bit of interactivity in there, so it’s not just me rambling on. I’d like to know a little bit more about you.

Some of you have already been typing in the chatbox and telling us about where you’re from, and I’d love to know a little bit more about your specific role and how involved you are in in in writing.

Are you a freelance writer? Do you work with an agency and in-house writer? Are you in another marketing role that isn’t directly responsible for writing, but is adjacent to it? Or are you something completely different? Maybe you’re a student. Maybe you’re a role I haven’t even thought of.

I only had so many radio buttons so you can click other and feel free to type in chat if you want to go into detail about what your role is and your relationship to writing in your company.

David: I think we’ve got almost all of the attendees have clicked now, George. I think there are just one or two just being a little shy.

George: Well, don’t be shy there’s no judgment I promise I’m not going to bash on freelancers.

David: It’s a broad spread, I think.

George: It’s a very broad spread, so 29% of you are marketers. Some of you are freelance writers, 10% of you. 19% agency, 33% are writing in house that’s really cool. And two of you have said you’re from another role.

If you’d like to type in the chatbox and tell me what that role is, I’d love to know. My aim here is to just understand a little bit more about the spread of people we have today. Because of course I want to make this as relevant to you as possible, and no point preaching to the choir if everybody’s tilted one way. But we’ve got a really good spread, so I think there’ll be something here for everyone.

The next part I just want to put a little bit about why I’m focusing on mistakes, because it might seem a little bit dreary. But from my experience, mistakes are really easy to spot and can be the biggest thing you can do to give your content a huge boost in terms of quality and performance.

Now of course we would all want to be fantastic writers and to work with fantastic writers delivered the best copy we can. But what defines good versus great can be very fine and difficult to spot, and very subjective.

Of course, what would be amazing copy for, say, a fresh start-up organisation might not be appropriate for a very long-serving institution. So, I think if you focus instead on the fundamentals, it can be a little clearer how to find a path to delivering really, really strong copy that gets you results.

I promise it’s not just me being cynical.

So, a little bit about who I am.

I’m the handsome one, second, from the right in case that wasn’t obvious. But more importantly, I’m part of this really good team, Radix.

And we’ve got about a dozen writers in house writing full time dedicated to B2B technology content. And in my time working here I’ve had the pleasure of being mentored by many of them.

They’ve called me out on the mistakes I’ve made and helped me learn and I’ve gone on to mentor quite a few of them as well and offer the same guidance to new writers coming through.

And in my time doing that, I’ve worked with quite a lot of big names in the B2B sector, and as you know, many of these brands, they don’t become big household names by settling for second best, they will really tell you if you’re not delivering the results they want to see, so I’ve been lucky to work with them and learn a lot in the process.

I appreciate that’s me kind of self-aggrandising saying look at all these brands I’ve written for.  So, seeing as this is about mistakes, I should probably also tell you that I had a lot of bad feedback over the years.

I was young and foolish once too.

I’ve had a few things come my way, more general, gentle feedback at the top, ranging to the soul-destroying and the nightmare-inducing down below.

You know, you can’t win them all.

But I’ve learned I’ve grown from this, and I feel it’s helped put me in a place where I can help other writers, both in my organisation and hopefully in yours to correct mistakes and not get this kind of feedback.

So, let’s move on to some of these seven deadly sins and what we can do to avoid them, so my first one is making promises that you can’t keep or won’t keep. And I do mean literal promises here.

If you’re sending out an email that says hey, come join this webinar and then there’s no webinar, it’s a pretty obvious one. But I also mean more generally. Setting up a punchline. You then have to resolve it later in your content. You can’t leave loose threads.

So internal logic is extremely important. You have to resolve points that you set up. You can’t just throw out a challenge and then never address it later in your ebook. It feels unsatisfying. And I think it’s very important to make it very clear to the reader how everything connects in your piece.

I’m not saying we need to be really direct and spell it out. But I think if there’s not an obvious chain of, setting up a challenge and then going OK, here’s how this affects you, and here’s how this solution comes in, and here’s the benefits. If that gets muddied, I think it can be something quite tiring to read, and obviously, especially for those in B2B like me, we write for very smart people, sure, but I don’t think anyone ever complained about something being too easy to read.

So, I think making it straightforward and obvious where the logic is going in your narrative, is a really crucial thing to do. Here’s a bit of an example for you.

Obviously, in the era post GDPR, it’s quite hard to accidentally wind up on a mailing list, but before then it was a bit more of a Wild West. I somehow got signed up to a newsletter from a company that does consultancy around regulatory compliance, which I know is probably getting everybody feeling very excited right now.

And I’m on this newsletter and I don’t mean to pick on them. I actually don’t think it’s bad content at all. It’s very targeted to the topic at hand, however, there’s a few things I’d like to tweak, particularly about this one, I think it has quite a clear through line about Sarbanes Oxley compliance, new ways to do it and they’ve got a webcast about it, which sounds great. My issues that we start off with the title. It’s really good, it talks about Sarbanes Oxley and internal control systems. Then we’re like banging webinars in straight away. OK, fine. Then back to Sarbanes Oxley again and a little bit more about that. Then ‘join this webcast’. OK guys. And then I’m going back to Sarbanes Oxley.

It’s a little stop-start.

They try and dovetail a little bit too much. I think it just slightly over complicates the flow of the email. So what would I do to tweak it? I keep the title the same because I like it. It even tells you how long the webcast is going to be nice, and I just keep it more straightforward.

We’d start with Sarbanes Oxley. You’d set the scene hey, you might need another way to approach compliance with this particular regulation. We’ve got a webcast that can help you do that. We’ve got lots of experts talking on it from the Big Four, and if you tune in, you’ll learn one, two, three, four bullet points of really amazing benefits that the reader will get.

Hopefully, you get the idea that just by simplifying the: setting up the problem, moving forward to the solution, which of course is to go through to the webinar, it’s just going to be a little bit cleaner.

How do we avoid this sin in general? how do we stop that from happening in the first place?

First thing is to of course plan your structure before you start drafting. I find when you’re looking for how threads connect, particularly in an ebook or a long blog. If you’re looking at a whole draft full of words, it can sometimes be hard to spot those connections and make sure they’re there. I think if you plan it in advance and you’re just looking at the list of bullet points in an outline or a plan, it’s much easier to see. Oh yeah, I’ve talked about this challenge and I never come back to it. I need to put something in here to resolve that point.

You got to edit ruthlessly, of course. I’m sure everyone here knows that. I’m going to be beating this point quite a few times because it’s really important and it ties up quite a lot of things. If you edit a lot and you take the time to really go through these multiple times, it can be quite easy to see where you’re not quite guiding the reader enough. So I think that’s a really important way to avoid this as well.

So before we move onto this second one, and you’re probably all excited to dive into it. I thought I’d take the opportunity, David, have you had any Q&A is coming through yet?

David: No questions yet, but Miriam, she’s one of the people who clicked other, said she manages a team of freelance and in-house writers and editors.

George: Nice, very cool. Miriam well, hopefully there’s something for you here that will be useful for, probably not yourself, but maybe your team would find something that’s beneficial.

Well again like I said please jump in with your questions I’m sure it’s just because you were so enraptured by what I’m saying. You just want to hear me keep going with no interruption, but please do interrupt me and give me a chance to catch my breath.

OK, let’s move on to the second one: Not getting to the point.

I think this one is pretty obvious, but we’ve got a few things we can say here. So obviously you only get one chance to make a first impression. You don’t have long to capture your readers attention, depending on what you’re writing. If you’ve got a whole ebook to play with you have more room. If you have an email, you may have a single subject line in which to really get someone’s ears perk up, and you can’t waste that opportunity. And I think we all want that perfect intro that sets the scene, but then gradually goes into more specifics.

But I think if you put it too high level, especially if you don’t have a lot of words to play with, it can get people to tune out pretty quickly. I’m sure we’ve all seen that content that starts ‘Within today’s challenging economic climate’, and we’re just sat there going: oh yeah, that challenging economic climate again, huh? So of course, we want to avoid things like that. Not saying anyone in this room of course have made that mistake, but I’ve seen it happen. So you need to pick the right ticket to go.

So we have a weird example. It’s a project I worked on, and I can’t show you any copy as I don’t want to break another screen. I can show you this picture from the Greek mythology Canon. If anybody can guess who this is, you get a Gold Star. I’ll give you a few seconds to have a think. I promise this is relevant by the way.

If you guess that this is Prometheus, you would be correct and you can give yourself a pat on the back and for anyone who isn’t familiar with that myth, Prometheus climbs Mount Olympus and takes the fire of knowledge, brings it back to man so they can become enlightened for the first time and Zeus does some very horrible things to him in punishment.

It’s not a very nice tale, so I’ll leave it at that. But anyway, I was asked by a client to edit a 10,000-word thesis someone had written on AI and its place in the modern world. It’s a very focused paper on ethics. It was all about what happens when businesses start using AI. What moral conundrums do we need to consider as artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive in business and our lives?

And they started with this big Prometheus myth. Now it was a long paper, so they had a fair bit of time to kind of weave in this metaphor first and I was quite excited when I read it. I thought, I see where you’re going with this. Fire of knowledge – this is like the AI is bringing a new fire of knowledge, but if we’re not careful we will be punished as well. I thought that’s cool. I like that. Unfortunately though, the Prometheus myth carried on for another 2000 words and it’s safe to say that my enthusiasm was slightly dampened by the end of reading that many words on it.

It wound up being an OK paper actually in the end, but yes, there was a lot of cutting to do in that section. So how would I tweak it? You don’t need to waste your time too much with this. I would simply only use 250 words to talk about Prometheus or if it was going to be a much shorter piece. Probably have to cut it completely. Which is a shame, but there we go. You’ve got to kill your darlings from time to time, as we all will.

So how do you avoid this sin more generally? Of course you need to be very aware of what you’re writing. As we’ve said already, if you’re writing something longer, you have a little bit of time to play around with. If you’re writing an email, or a very short blog, you cannot waste a single word. You need to be absolutely ruthless about getting to the point very quickly. I’d also urge you to consider who you’re writing for. A little bit more about this later.

Knowing your audience but at a high level. We’re talking about the idea that some job titles are going to be much more time-poor than others. Now if you’re writing for the C level, very high-level decision-maker, they probably have some time built into their role to consider strategically important things and read content about it. So you maybe have a little room to play with.

More than you would certainly if you talk to someone on the ground like an engineer, or a person on the sales floor. They’ve got a lot of work to do, and they don’t have time to read a very long Prometheus myth. So I would urge you to get to the point and make it very clear to them what the benefits are quick.

And of course, my old favourite suggestion. Do some editing, get someone else to read it, preferably because while you may love your extremely extended complicated fancy intro, someone else might read it and sort of go. What’s this? So that will give you a very quick clue as to whether you’re spinning your wheels a little too much in your intros.

So David, feel free to jump in and shout if you get any questions. If not, I’ll just carry on.

David: We have got one. Melanie says, ‘Any top tips for identifying the most important information to keep in long pieces like the ones you describe?’

George: Ah, see that is an excellent question, and I’m not going to answer it right now because you’ve given us all a bit of a spoiler alert. For one of the upcoming deadly sins. So hold fire on that Melanie. I promise I’ll get around to it. I will answer your question and thank you for typing it in.

So let’s jump on to the third one: Having too much to say. Hopefully, this one will wrap up your point Melanie. Normally I think a lot of whether it’s an internal stakeholder you’re working with, an external client, or a freelancer working in an agency? I think some clients or stakeholders think they’re doing us a massive favour by sending them through loads of information on products you’re writing, on business, etc.

Sometimes it’s a bit of a curse if you have too much to look at – too much to try and cram in. It’s very busy in your content. You can have too much of a good thing. In my view, I think every single part of your content should do one thing and do it impeccably well.

So every sentence has one clear topic. Every paragraph has one big thing It’s trying to cover. Every whole piece of content even, needs to have a focus. Obviously, something larger, like an ebook, you can pull in some other strands and go into a bit more detail, but I think you shouldn’t stray from the core message you’re trying to get across.

It needs to have that. Driving force behind. It all needs to do one thing, and do it as well as it possibly can. Here’s a little example of how that works with my compliance partners. Sorry again for picking on them. We’ve got quite a lot going on in one paragraph. In orange, I’ve highlighted quite a lot of challenges raised about this topic of harnessing technology to mitigate compliance risks.

They start off the challenges. Of course, it’s very advisable. They then move on to some of the benefits that floated in purple. Some of the reasons why you should definitely be looking into this and then give a suggestion of some solutions you might take to solve these issues. However, that’s all in one paragraph. It’s quite a lot to digest.

If I was a compliance professional in this landed in my inbox, I might be a bit turned off by how quite feastly this paragraph is. So there’s a few things we can do to tweak things like this.  I’ve switched the title around, it’s a bit picky on my part, but I think leading with the benefit and then talking about the solution just feels a little bit more relevant and shows the reader they’re definitely going to get something out of this.

And then I would focus on one thing at a time in each paragraph. Short paragraphs are really appropriate for emails in particular. So I have this short one here diving into a little bit about some of the challenges people are facing currently. Then I’ll talk a little bit about what people do to solve it, the dangers of not investigating this properly and sitting on your hands. And then of course we do the big reveal of got to get this asset, it’s going to tell you how to fix that.

So again, probably the same rough word count there just split up. And I think it immediately makes things more readable, more clear, hopefully more helpful. So back to your question, Melanie from earlier, how do you avoid this sin?

You need to know what to cut and when to cut it, and unfortunately a big part of this just comes down to experience. But of course I’m sure lots of you have that experience already. You’ve already got that intuition. I think people sometimes need to give themselves permission to listen to that gut feel.

Things like, is this relevant? So I would urge you to listen to that voice in your head I urge you to be extremely ruthless with the information you’re given. Anything that doesn’t support that one thing the piece needs to do, that paragraph needs to do, etc. I think you should be quite bold about cutting it or moving it somewhere else to another piece of content.

And I think you shouldn’t be afraid to explain why you’re doing that. I think you know our clients, our stakeholders, our subject matter experts come to us because they want expert guidance on what good content looks like And I think we need to be courageous and saying to them, I’m telling you as someone who does this a lot that you need to focus on this. This is your ticket.

Of course, if you’re not comfortable doing that, totally get that. I think just bat it back to them and let them answer the question. Say look, there’s a lot here, we’ve only got 500 words. What’s the top thing? What are the two things we need to say? What’s the one thing? Ask them the question and let them guide you that way.

Well, hopefully that answers the question for you Melanie. A very roundabout way with multiple slides, but we got there. In the end.

Cool, so David, do you feel free to interrupt me answering your questions or I’ll just. Keep climbing through.

David: I think we’re alright to, to keep going. I just kind of was making the point in the chat that I think a lot about, as well as experiences, about knowing your audience and what they care about. Why it makes a difference to them as well. You know, having your audience in mind is always important when you’re cutting stuff.

George: Absolutely. It’s a topic I may or may not address later. Okay, enough spoilers. Let’s crack on. And again, like I said, if there any questions, I really enjoy answering them.

The next one is a bit of an inverse from that last thing, having too little to say. Of course, we know if you’re running on fumes, you’ve got no brief in front of me, it’s a very challenging situation to be in. So you’ve always got to be ready to ask for more. We’re writers, marketers, we’re not alchemists, you can’t make something out of nothing. You’ve got to have some information to process and turn into fantastic products.

I’ve seen quite a few people try and do that thing where they’re a little afraid to ask subject matter experts a question they don’t think is smart enough, they’re worried they’re going to sound stupid. So they assume I’ll just google it, it will be fine. That sometimes works, but it’s a big risk and I don’t think it’s worth it.

And I think this one is particularly difficult, because in my opinion, every writer has a unique tell when they don’t have quite enough to say and they’re playing for word count. A little bit more on that in a minute. But first, a quick example from you.

I’ve not picked on the compliance people this time, to vary it up. And so a very short thing from an email marketing company about email deliverability and the perils that come with it. Quite interesting topic, we’ve got a bit of an issue here in they submitted a cardinal sin of emails where we’ve have quite a good title here, and then immediately repeat it basically in different words, in a slightly more fleshed out way.

Everything it’s saying is good, and it’s actually pretty punchy, it just feels like it’s kind of playing for time. And it tells us there’s a lot of expertise, but it doesn’t really show us how, it doesn’t go into details of what we might learn and things like that. It’s just a few things missing. I’d like a bit more of a teaser of what this guide is going to do for us as readers.

So how would I tweak it? It’s a bit tricky this one because I’ve literally just told you not to go off having no information, but unfortunately I couldn’t download the guide, it’s a bit of an old email. So I’m committing my own sin and I don’t have the information to rewrite this properly.

But I’ve given it a go anyway. I’ve thrown in a few questions in the title and the opener just to spice it up. We’re not quite repeating ourselves, we’re asking the question, why exactly does this happen and what can we do to stop it from happening? It’s a bit cheesy. I know. But I didn’t have much to work with and we’ve all got to do it sometimes.

And then I’ve just tried to be really concise for the rest of it. Our guide is going to answer those questions for you, it’s going to give you some tips. And I put the thing about the decade of experience, doing a practical guide, and it’s going to show you how to do these three things. Those bullets would be the key, I think that’s the point where you have to reveal a bit about what that guide is going to say. But I’m not able to do that, because I don’t have the guide. Sorry. Hopefully, you can see what I’ve done there to just speed through. I think if you’re really stuck, and you don’t have the information, you’ve just got to be concise. That’s the sort of key here.

So how do you avoid this in general? As I said, I think every writer has a waffle phrase, they have a particular approach they use when they’re a little bit nervous. And I think over time, you can work out what your own is. And that makes it very easy. Because the moment you spot yourself using it, you can be like, yeah, I need to get some more content in here, I need to get some actual ideas thrown in, I need to go back and ask my subject matter experts for more info.

I can’t really talk about waffle phrases. Now without telling you my own. I need you to promise me that you won’t tell any of my colleagues, David’s going to hear it. But if any of the others here are going to pull me up on this interview, I’m going to have a really hard life. So keep this to yourselves. My waffle phrase is that I use that sentence structure where you go: While x is important, you must also consider y. And you know, it’s not a good use of words frankly. So I’m working on it, don’t worry. But I’d urge you to try and identify your own open phrases so you can work on those too and strip them out.

Of course, you need to identify when you don’t have enough information and be ready to ask for it. I was always told that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. One day, I’m sure someone will prove me wrong. But in general, in my experience, and I’ve been on quite a few calls, I’ve never heard someone who’s an expert in their field get annoyed answering questions on it. Most people like to talk about what they’re familiar with, what they know, and what they’re experts in. So feel free to ask questions, even basic ones, people are happy to give you the information. The only silly thing you can do is not ask the question and then start using waffle phrases like the kind I just told you that I use.

There’s your way to prevent this from happening. This is one of the ones I think where prevention is much better than cure, try and do these things really early and get that information while you’re on call with subject matter experts.

Okay, moving on, do stop if there’s any questions and I will answer them. So too much writing, not enough editing, we’ve been building up to this one, the big editing one. I know you probably all have heard this a million times before. But we’ll put a bit of interactivity in just to keep you on your toes. I’d really like to know a little bit more about your general approach for editing. Copy that either you’ve written, or you’ve seen from someone else.

We’ll put up a poll in a second. I’d love it if you can let me know your general approach. I’ve got a few here. Obviously, there’s so many ways to approach this so please select other and type a little bit in in chat if you’ve got a really unique way of approaching editing. Maybe you’ll be teaching me rather than me teaching you on this one.

Cool, so everyone had time to enter an answer. Remember, don’t be shy. There is absolutely no judgement here.

David: Yeah. There are just a few people that are either being shy or they’re checking their emails.

George: I’m not going to put anyone on blast. Do use spell check. That’s cool. I’m into it.

David: Oh, there’s at least one other that would be interesting to know in the chat what that is? Yeah, there’s a couple of people that haven’t yet but we can, you know, they may be busy or something. So we can maybe close the poll rather than the waiting for absolutely everybody.

George: Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s just share the results.

David: It’s interesting. There you go.

George: Nice. Okay, cool. No one’s just relying on spellcheck. Very good. Well done, passed the first test.

Cool. A lot of people taking multiple passes to each document. That’s really good to hear. I think. I’ll go on to this in a minute. But I think if you have to review something on your own without anyone else looking at it, that’s kind of the best way to do it.

Someone said here: multiple passes, then subject knowledge expert, their internal reviews. Nice, Emily, you are living the dream. This is kind of what we want. It’s about just putting multiple layers of editing in as we will see.

Cool. So I think you’re all experts on this. So I won’t take too long banging on this one. But I think it’s a Hemingway quote this one: there’s no such thing as good writing only good editing. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. The best writers in the world have never produced a perfect first draft. So what hope do we mere mortals have?

Everyone makes typos. Everyone flubs. It’s fine. Just get it down on the page. And editing is where the quality comes into it.

I do think if you write something, you’re probably too close to review it really well. Sometimes we have no choice, of course, deadlines looming, and no one has space in their diary or colleagues are slammed as well. Sometimes you’ve got to review it yourself. But I think the human brain does a horrible thing where it fills in patents, it doesn’t look at what’s on the page, it thinks about what we thought about while we were writing. And you can miss out on some, in my case, real humdingers of typos, let me tell you. So get someone else to look at it with a clear head, you’ll pick up a lot of things that way.

I can’t really show you an example here, by the way, because, in theory, you should never see this in live copy that’s out there. And again, I’m not going to pull up my own day laundry too much on this webinar. So no example, but I can give you some tips on how to avoid it. Of course, the big one is to just get someone else to look at your work. If you can push back a deadline, if you’ve got enough room to do that, to get someone else to put eyes on it. It’s worth doing.

If you are going to edit your own work, I always suggest going really slowly. I mean, almost read aloud every syllable in your head. If you try and read at the speed you normally would when you’re just reading something to digest information, it’s inevitable, you’ll skip over a few things. If you take the time to really go through each word each syllable at a time, you’d be surprised how much you’ll catch.

And of course, nearly everyone’s doing this already, take multiple passes through the document. I try and split it up into different goals each time. So I think one looking at the structure on out any big ticket things were like a paragraph isn’t mixing together or anything like that. Then you can go through and look at the phrasing and only need sentences that just aren’t quite landing. And then when you sorted that out, you can look through the grammar and the typos and the fun stuff.

Nice. Yeah, good point about the read-aloud feature in Word, David, that’s a bit of a secret weapon. One of the people I’m tutoring at the moment they use the word read aloud feature a lot. And I’m always knocked out by how consistent their copy is. So it’s a really good one. Do put headphones on. It sounds a bit weird with the animatronic question from the Microsoft Office Suite. That’s a really good suggestion.

Cool. Okay, barring any questions, move you on to the next one. Appreciate I’ve been going for a little while I hope everyone’s hanging in there, we only got two more sins to cover – some pretty juicy ones. So do stay tuned. The next one is being too clever. Now I’m going to sound like the fun police here. When I say being clever, I don’t necessarily mean you can’t talk about complex topics or use industry jargon and technical terms. Of course, in B2B, you’re going to have to do that at some point, otherwise, you’re not going to seem credible to your audience.

I mean, that kind of writer clever, when someone’s itching to get a pun in or can’t get away from this wordplay. I’ve got the structure for a case study; it’s going to be really original. I think, you know, for a very experienced hand those things can come together nicely. But I think for the most people, I just say being focused, being disciplined rather than smart is the way forward.

If you get overly clever writing, I’m going to again, break one of my rules, because I’m going to use a metaphor to explain to you why you should never use metaphor. It’s that David Ogilvy saying about copy being like a shop window. If there’s anything on the glass, any kind of smudge, you’re no longer looking at the product behind the window, you’re looking at the smudge. In this case, the copywriter is the glass in case that wasn’t clear. So even if you succeed at landing your convoluted wordplay, if the reader suddenly goes, wow, that writer is really smart, you’ve kind of failed at your job, because they’re not thinking about the product or the company that you’re representing. And that would be a real shame. If you join this webinar, you’re probably very smart. So sadly, all of you are susceptible to this particular one. So make sure you keep paying attention.

We don’t want to distract from what we’re trying to promote. Of course, let’s have a look at this one. Right. So this is an interesting one, because I actually quite like the metaphor they’re going for. They’ve got this thing about compliance professional, it’s like a cardiologist, and of course, the compliance shock being non-compliant – it’s like a corporate heart attack. As you see, they have to spend quite a lot of time setting this up, they have to tell you what each piece of this metaphor is doing, who’s what, who is the surgeon, they’ve got to set all this up.

And then obviously, the writer clearly recognises this is quite a lot of mental burden to throw in the first two lines of emails. Like this little thing I’ve highlighted here, they sort of go back to it acting as corporate cardiologists like now thing I just wrote. Yeah, remember that? It’s a little funny already. This bit in green though, this is the good bit, right, so they get to the end, and have this nice surgical precision descriptor – lovely. They then talk about things like good bedside manner in practitioners, stuff like this is great. They talk about prevention, being better than cure, serious illnesses needing immediate resolution. This is all good stuff. And this is the bit you want. This is the bit that actually clarifies what they’re trying to talk about. They just had to get through a lot of words to reach that point. payoff is good but I’m not sure it was worth it.

So this is an interesting one to tweak, by the way, because I really tried hard to keep the metaphor and just make it smoother. But I realised that would kind of break the rule I’ve just told you not to do. So I’ve kept it very simple, just gone for putting your compliance to the test, changed it to just a compliance shock. That’s pretty obvious what that means. And then saying that, if you don’t do anything, you could be at risk. We’ve got to change your approach; a stress test is going to help you do that. Join our webinar, and we’ll tell you how that works and what it looks like. I know it’s, not fancy, it’s boring in comparison to our corporate cardiologist. But sometimes this is the job, we just need to be clean, clear, and hopefully get really good results.

So, what are we going to do to prevent this from happening in the first place?

You need to keep simplicity as your guiding star and sometimes just be prepared to get out of your own way.

Yes, you’re a very clever writer, I know because you’re here. But sometimes we need to not be clever. We just need to be effective. Which is a sad thing to say but then I would recommend, I’m not saying you can never use puns or metaphor, I would just set an impossibly high bar for them. I would really interrogate everyone you use. Is this actually making anything clearer?

In particular if you are writing for a specific industry or sector. The bar needs to be so high you can almost never clear it, because while you’re dabbling in the world of say, logistics and transport management, the person you’re writing to has been in it for 20 years. So you’re very clever thing about driving better results and getting the brand in the fast lane – they’re going to be rolling their eyes and just probably going to ignore you. They’ve heard it all before.

Unless you’ve got a genuinely fresh plan about that industry, which I mean, if you do fair play, put it down, but if not, I’d steer clear. I just said steer clear which is a pun about transport, sorry.

I’m breaking a lot of my own rules today.

So again, just reiterating, you want to sound good rather than clever. Something can flow nicely, you can use some clever writing tricks to sound good and have impact, but you just want to leave the word play and puns out of it a little bit.

OK, before we move on to the next one, I’ve seen a QA thing pop up, David. You’d be willing to read it out to me.

David: Yes, indeed it’s Emily, she says: could metaphors also lose people who don’t have English as a first language?

George: Oh, that is a great point, Emily. It’s really good. I haven’t even crossed that yet because it’s quite a niche use case. But yes, metaphor is extremely difficult to translate, right? So whether you’re writing for somebody who’s using this as a second language, they obviously have to translate it in their own head, and it can very quickly lose them. Or, heaven forbid, if you’re working on a piece that has to be localised by another company, you are really setting them up for a hard time.

That job is really difficult. So don’t make it any harder.

This is another reason, I think, to keep things clear. Just a tiny example for you, I won’t take too long with this, but I had a really good one quite early in my career where I was writing a piece that’s going to be translated into Spanish, and I talked about how if you used a particular type of a database, you could reap the benefits of a more efficient organisation. And was told basically that the idea of reaping the benefits translates very poorly into Spanish. It’s all associated with death. It’s not like the reaping of corn in a field. It’s like the reaping of souls and the grim reaper. Probably a better fit for heavy metal lyrics than piece about databases.

So I learned that the hard way, so that’s a great point Emily. Thank you for asking that question and giving me an opportunity to give you a quite laboured anecdote. Thanks everyone listening too that. It’s always fun to share battle stories.

David: It might be, sorry I’m just aware – if she’s still in the room – that Anya is here as well. So it might be that if we want to talk more about translation, we can maybe do that. Later in the Q&A, if Anya wants to give us any insights in the chat as we go as to how easy or hard metaphors are in the translation as I know that’s Anya’s specialism.

George: Anya, if I knew we had an expert like you in the room, if I’d really thought about that, I wouldn’t have said so much about it. Because maybe you’ll tell me that I’m completely wrong. That It’s actually OK to translate. You can let me know later we can have a little chat about it.

But ah, we’re going to move on to the final deadly sin we’ve all been waiting for: not knowing your audience which I hinted at earlier. And I know you’re probably like, yeah, yeah, I know yeah, we get told this all the time in content. But I want to put a little bit of a spin on this because it’s not so much about knowing your audience like who they are, but it’s more like what they know. Because I really think that a job title only tells you so much.

I’m sure we’ve all sent out briefing documents or receive them and you’ve got that ‘who’s the audience’ box and people just fill in C level. They just run off job titles, database administrator, database engineer and you’re like OK. But really it’s kind of superficial information, right? Like obviously you need to know their job title, that helps you hone in on quite a bit.

But I’ve seen those like Persona documents where they create characters like Engineer Eric and all this stuff. It’s quite fun. It helps you remember things. But knowing somebody’s age gives you a little bit… you might know a little bit more about that about their level of experience say. But I’m not sure that tells you as much as you want to know really about that person who’s going to be reading your piece.

I think the key is to know what they, you know, particularly if you can get quite granular with it. If you’re writing about a particular topic in your industry. Does this person know a lot about it? Is this familiar to them but maybe it’s got a twist? Is this just old hat and you want to speed through it? Because you obviously don’t want to bamboozle someone with loads of really complicated stuff they’ve never come across before. But you also don’t want to teach grandma to suck eggs. They’ll be sitting there rolling their eyes like yeah, I’ve heard of the cloud get to the point.

So we need to know of course what they know. And also who they know, because we obviously want to be as specific as we can with our audience. If you know you’re writing for just a CIO, you can be really targeted about the challenges they’re facing and the benefits they’re going to get from a solution. But if there’s other people involved in that decision-making unit that they have to get sign off from, we suddenly need to cast them out a little bit wider.

Because sure, your technical engineer may be providing something for about an Ethernet switch or something fun and jazzy. Obviously you’re cramming loads of technical detail for them, but then they’ve got to send it to the CFO, or the procurement head. And you know they’re going to be looking at it like, I don’t know what this means. So you suddenly need to try and find a way to get information into them: it’s going to save you money, it’s going to cut this many man hours out of your engineer testing. So that’s really going to shape how you focus in your content.

So I’ve got a bit of an example for you here, compliance people again, sorry. And of course I know I’m not a compliance professional. I’m not the target audience for this. And if they are specifically aimed at compliance professionals in United States-based organisations, this is good. It’s very specific. It’s got a lot of technical acronyms and jargon that let you know, this is for you, Mr US based compliance professional.

But if there’s any doubt that it can go to people who aren’t in compliance or aren’t based in the US, I think we need to do a few things. We’re looking at things like 10K and 10Q filing which is an SEC filing requirement we’ve got the SG language disclosures, which is a pretty well-known acronym in that circle, but maybe not more broadly. SEC, of course, you probably know that, but maybe not. You’re not in the industry. Go back to 10Ks and 10Qs, which might be unfamiliar territory.

What would I do to make it better? It’s quite easy, you can find substitutes which… It’s a careful balance. We don’t want to damage our credibility. We don’t want someone who is a seasoned compliance veteran to look at this and go, this person doesn’t know my needs, so they don’t know my industry at all.

But if we’re trying to cast the net a little wider and a little broader, we could do things like just removing the acronym. Mention that there’s going to be a panel of experts and we’re going to review these three things. I’ve worked on the bullet points, so I’ve spelt out what SG is but then put it in brackets.

So we’re saying, look, we’re not idiots. We know that this is a known term. Here’s the acronym, but just in case you don’t – spell out once.

I feel a bit cheeky; I’ve just put guidance bodies like the SEC, you’re going to learn some of these things from the SEC and others.

Obviously I’m making an assumption that you cover beyond the SEC filings in this webinar. Maybe they don’t, but things like that can just make it so that, because maybe the audience landing on this is based in the US, but what if they want to send it to a colleague who works in the Canada or French office and suddenly they might be looking at it going, OK, this isn’t for me then. So we want to avoid that.

So something like that can help. And I just changed 10Q and 10K to quarterly and annual filings, it’s a little simpler. But again, like I said, this might be an overedit. If you knew for sure 100% of your audience was going to be based in the US and are seasoned there – you wouldn’t need to do this. But it’s got some good ideas hopefully, about how you might tweak it to broaden that a little bit for a wider decision making unit.

What are you going to do to avoid this in general then?

You got to understand hot topics in your target industry. I’ve seen loads of B2B tech content that talks about the cloud like it’s a new thing. It isn’t. So don’t do that. You’ve got to know how familiar audience is with the topic that you’re writing about. You can obviously talk about basic things everyone knows you might need to set the scene, but if you know that they know it really well already you can just skip to that.

That’s it, thanks for sticking with us. I know that was quite a long one. There was a lot to get through.

I’m just going to summarise. You’ve got seven sins. Here’s your seven top tips to avoid them in rough order of how you might approach this:

• You’re going to think about your audience. You’re going to think about what they know specifically to help guide you on how granular you need to get in your copy.
• You’re going to ask those stupid questions and your subject matter expert or stakeholder is probably going to thank you for it when they get really, really strong copy at the end.
• You’re going to work out what info to include, what to ignore. I want you to be as brave as possible about going back to your stakeholder and going, nope, sorry, we’re not putting any of that in we need to stay focused.
• I’d urge you to plan out your narrative structure in advance just to work out any weak links between sections and try and show them up.
• Get to the point as quickly as you can. No extended elaborate interest please.
• Keep it simple. Keep the metaphors to yourself. Tell them to your colleagues and have a good chuckle over the water cooler. Don’t put it in your copy necessarily.
• And of course, edit, edit, edit again. I don’t need to tell you all that, you’re doing it pretty well so far.

Right, pretty breathless after all that. Maybe you are to. But have you got any questions for me now is time to ask.

Of course you can ask questions about the webinar, ask questions about writing life, the universe, I might not have answers, but I can try.

David: While we’re waiting for people to type their questions and to find out whether you know Anya is happy to be picked on, to talk about translations and metaphors.

Is there one thing here? If you could only take one tip, or if you could only kill one sin, what would it be?

George: Probably the editing one, right? I came back to it quite a few times. I didn’t want to make this really basic in the sins I covered by the way.

As you might have noticed, I tried to go for more high level, how you approach copy. Because I thought if I just told you don’t make typos, that’s such an obvious thing it wouldn’t be worth saying. But I think that sort of stuff has a huge impact, right? You could see an amazing piece of content and then you see a rogue typo right at the end. Suddenly, it just sort of discredits the brand you’re representing. It’s a really unfortunate thing. It happens to everyone. The only way to stop it is to edit really well. So that’s the one I’d go for. So if the one thing you’re going to take from this is that, then that’s good.

David: Good stuff, Anya’s happy to chat. We will do that in in a moment.

I have another question from Emily. If you don’t have enough information about the audience, is it worth seeing if you can talk to the salespeople who are dealing with them to get more info?

George: Absolutely I think the link between sales and marketing is very crucial in most organisations for this exact reason. If you can talk to a salesperson, it’s absolutely incredible for that, because not only do they know a lot about the units, of course, as they talk to them every day. They will be able to give you stories about talking to that audience. That will tell you so much more than a job title a few lines in a brief will tell you. You will learn way more for a single anecdote than anything else, so you’re spot on Emily. Talk to sales if you can. Not always easy because they’re busy people. If you can speak to them, they are an untapped resource in your organisation, especially for those of you working in house who hopefully have a direct link to people in sales. If you can talk to them, please do.

David: OK, I’m just going to see if I can switch on Anya’s microphone, so Anya can tell us about whether metaphors are indeed difficult to translate and to localise. It might help to start by introducing yourself, Anya.

Anya: Hello hello.

Sorry, what you can’t see is I have this weird robotic arm on the side that I have to keep wiggling up and down to make sure it’s on, I’m so sorry.

So hi. Yes, I’m Anya.

I’m the managing director of AJT. We are a translation and localisation specialist for the European market. So we translate a lot of business to business marketing content predominantly for UK companies as well as American companies who want to come into the European market.

So lots of white papers, lots of ebooks, lots of websites and the kind of collateral that you will all know about very well.

Uhm, to come to the question about metaphors.

Generally, I would say, it’s not a problem for someone who’s a professionally trained translator to see a metaphor and then translate it in a way that makes sense in the target market.

I think from your example of reaping the benefits.

Of course, if you translated literally, that might cause issues, but you know, a professionally trained translator would look at that like OK, well, what’s the idea behind here? And they might end up translating it in a very straightforward way. So being more to the point and avoid the metaphor, or if there is another fitting metaphor in their language, then they can choose to swap it out.

So generally I wouldn’t avoid metaphors just to kind of make internationalisation easier. But when it comes to things like ad copy, you know advertising campaigns where copywriting is involved. If you were dealing with metaphors there, I would be more careful.

And if you know it’s going to go into other languages, see if you can involve the translation teams if at all possible, not in the creative process, but maybe just checking before you go too far down the line to see that you’re not making some potential faux pas later on when you’re translating it into other languages. Does that make sense?

George: Yeah, thank you for adding that, Anya. I clearly haven’t given localisers enough credit about how they can handle metaphor. This is probably more about my very poor secondary language skills than your profession.

So in general is the message, we take them out, then the shorter copy probably benefits more from simplicity? Do you have more wiggle room for something like that in a longer piece would you say?

Anya: I guess it depends how, in-depth your metaphor is and how much it weaves through the copy. I suppose if you’re saying something like reaping, the benefits, you know that’s more like a turn of phrase that could be easily localised. But if it’s a much bigger metaphor that doesn’t work in another language, that kind of threads through the entire white paper, for example, that might cause bigger issues for sure.

George: Absolutely great. Well thank you for that. I’m wondering now if there’s anything else I’ve always wondered about localisation.

Anya: I’m available for chats anytime.

George: Oh nice, I’m glad to hear it. I might take you up on that. And David, how are we doing on Q&A we got any more through from people.

David: No, I think, either people are typing very slowly or they’re quite happy with everything that they’ve heard, George.

George: Nice well either I’ve covered everything then or you’ve already got me on the 2nd screen and tuned out to something else.

David: Oh Emily, getting involved Emily’s getting very involved.

George: This is great Emily keep them coming.

David:  Emily’s saying, have you ever tried empathy mapping to build better persona knowledge?

George: I hate to reveal my ignorance here Emily. I’m not even sure I know what empathy mapping is. Unfortunately, I don’t get the opportunity to get that involved in personas. Normally, by the time something comes to me, I’m just told right, this is it, this is the information you’ve got – work with it.

Very occasionally I might be able to ask: does this person know much about this technology? That’s about the extent of how involved I can get in that process, unfortunately. If you’re able to tell me more about it, I’d love to hear.

David: Emily, would you like us to switch your microphone on so that you can tell us a bit about it?

George: I’m liking this people jumping in business. This is great.

David: Yeah, it’s good, isn’t it?

George: An All-Star ensemble cast.

David: It’s nice, nice and interactive and always good to hear Emily’s voice.

Emily: Hi everyone, I’m Emily King. I’m a senior writer and editor at a software company called BlueFruit Software. We’re actually based sort of up the road from Radix.

David: Cornwall massive.

Emily: Empathy mappings I think I’ve learned from user experience UX side of things because we’ve got some UX experts in house. I can’t quite describe it right now, but it’s something that’s worth looking up. It kind of gives you a canvas to map ideas to that are around certain themes that aren’t things like age and stuff. So it helps you to map things like pain points, things they might be aiming for.

It gives you a different idea to either take some assumptions or some knowledge, ideally some knowledge, and certainly if you talk to salespeople, if you’ve managed to talk to salespeople to take that information and put it to it to help you really consider what might be going on with a particular audience. And the more specific better, especially if it’s someone in a specific organisation, you know a particular role in a specific organisation. Because you could obviously talk about stuff that might have been revealed in, especially ABM, an annual report or similar. And sort of map things from that basically.

But yeah, it’s a UX technique and we’ve been trying it out for some of our persona work.

George: Amazing, what kind of results have you had using it? Has it been a bit of a hit?

Emily: We haven’t done enough development on it yet, but it has helped us focus certainly the ABM side and a little bit on our ebook that we had out recently.

George: That sounds really cool. I mean, it sounds much more like the kind of information that as a writer, I’m sure you’d agree you want to know about an audience. Rather than just this person is a 50 year old IT engineer. So that sounds really good.

I’m glad you were able to jump on and tell us a bit more about it.

David: Thanks very much Emily. That’s super.

I think that’s probably all the questions that we have from the audience today.

George: Great, well I appreciate that did write in.

David: Obviously they can get in touch with us offline or on social media if they want to, as well.

George: Yeah, there’s a few links if you want anymore. We obviously have our newsletter that you can sign up to. You can follow us on Twitter and if you want to get in touch with us about anything, there’s an email address and web link for you there.

Thanks very much for the people who stuck it out and it’s been a bit of a long one. A bit longer than I intended, but I do have a tendency to ramble.

Thanks everyone for joining in and for your questions it’s been great.

David: Thanks very much everybody.

Thank you, George.

I’m sure that yes, lots of thanks coming through for you now in the chat.

They’ve been quiet throughout and now we’re at the end they’re chiming in and quite rightly so.

So on behalf of our audience, I’ll thank you for that, George, that was great.

To you watching, I’d say watching at home, but you might be in your office, by all means if you want to follow us on Twitter or connect to us on the newsletter, we will keep you updated.

We hope that will tempt George to do more of these in future.

So if you want to keep updated as we do turn the webinar into perhaps a series, who knows, as those would come live and you can register for those, then get yourself over to the newsletter.

The session will be available on-demand afterwards, but once we get that all straightened out and hopefully, we’ll put it up on YouTube so that you can share it with people and watch from the beginning as well.

So thank you very much for that.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you George and we’ll see you again in future.

Bye now.

The post Webinar: The Seven Deadly Sins of B2B Content (and how to avoid them) appeared first on Radix.

You’d think being a copywriter would mostly involve writing, well… copy. But for B2B copywriters, maths is a big part of the job too.

In this blog, I’ll offer some tips to help you overcome the most common misconceptions we see around numbers and statistics in B2B content.

Breaking big numbers down is good for understanding

Like many elements of writing, it’s best to keep numbers simple.

The Royal Statistical Society’s (RSS) ‘Statistics for Journalists’ course recommends breaking big numbers down and scaling small numbers up.

(In fact, there’s all sorts of recommendations in the RSS course, which might be why it got glowing reviews from Lucy Rycroft-Smith of Cambridge University when she joined us on the Radix podcast: Good Copy, Bad Copy 78: Maths for B2B Marketers.)

In short: it’s easy to get lost when trying represent extreme numbers – whether that’s billions and trillions or numbers to five decimal places (0.00003).

Instead, deal with huge or tiny numbers by putting them on a scale your audience can relate to.

For example, let’s say you’re writing about the very fictional B2B copywriting company ‘Cadix Rommunications’. It sounds impressive to say the company writes a million blog posts a year, but sometimes big numbers that end with ‘illion’ can feel so big they’re unimaginable. They’re not meaningful to a reader.

But it might be meaningful to scale those one million posts a year down to 83,000 blogs a month or 20,833 blogs a week (give or take a recurring .3).

Say ‘Cadix Rommunications’ employs 100 people. You can go even further by saying those 20,833 blogs a week represent an average of 208 blogs per person. That’s much easier to imagine (even if it’s much harder to believe).

This advice also works in reverse. Avoid small percentages like “0.003% of Cadix Rommunications’ website traffic came from the International Space Station”. It’s easier to understand decimals that are scaled up (e.g. ‘3 in every 10,000’.)

You can also help your reader visualise extreme numbers by comparing them to well known objects. For example, if the ‘Cadix Rommunications’ office drunk 8,333,333 average-sized cups of coffee, they’d fill one Olympic size swimming pool. (This one’s much easier to believe.)

Percentages and percentage points

Percentages are an effective way of scaling numbers for comparison. Something is set as 100 and then everything else is worked out in relation to that.

But people often confuse percentages with percentage points. Here’s an example to demonstrate how easy it is to make a mistake:

Last year, Shmavid, a very fictional employee at ‘Cadix Rommunications,’ wrote 2% of the total blog post output (one million blog posts). And this year, he wrote 2.5%.

If Shmavid wrote 2.5% of the blog posts this year and 2% last year, then it’s tempting to guess that Shmavid’s output increased by 0.5%. But that’d be wrong because you’re measuring in percentage points, not percentages.

Shmavid’s actual output increased by 25%.

Looking at the absolute numbers, Shmavid wrote 25,000 blog posts this year (2.5%) and 20,000 blogs last year (2%). That’s an increase of 5,000 blogs and 25% of his output from last year (because 5,000 blog posts are a quarter or 25% of 20,000 blogs).

So, Shmavid’s actual blog post output increased by 25% from last year to this, and by 0.5 percentage points (the difference between 2.5% and 2%).

It’s also worth noting that if the situation David’s was reversed and David’s output decreased from 25,000 to 20,000, it would only be a 20% decrease. That’s because 5,000 blog posts are a fifth or 20% of 25,000 blogs.

But the percentage point difference, from 2.5% to 2% of the total output, would stay the same (0.5, except it’s decreasing and not increasing).

If you’re ever in doubt, head to this handy percentage change calculator. Lucy also shared a lot of other great recommendations on how to handle percentage changes in the 78^th episode of the Radix podcast: Good Copy, Bad Copy 78: Maths for B2B Marketers.

If nothing else, just try to remember that:

A change in numbers refers to percentages.

A change between percentages refers to percentage points.

Percentages: bonus tips  

1. Be careful when you’ve got increases greater than 100%. If your blog post output increased by 100% it’s simpler to say it has doubled. But be careful because it’s a common mistake to assume a 200% increase is doubled, a 300% is tripled, 400% is quadrupled, etc… but it’s not, because you’re adding to the amount your already had.
2. If you’re talking about just percentage points, it’s often clearer if you mention the actual number that’s changed as well.

Displaying data? Choose the right format

If you can avoid writing numbers on their own, then do because it makes things easier for your reader. Draw a graph, mock up a chart, get into excel and track your increasing blog post output. Take this example:

Displaying the data from my earlier example in a bar chart gives the reader the same information without all the written explanation. By just glancing at this graph, Shmavid’s increased blog post output is immediately obvious and it still includes the absolute numbers (Shmavid’s actual blog post output) as well.

It also provides a visual cue for calculating percentages because the bars are split into sections for every 5,000 blog posts.

But don’t assume visualising data is error-free. A common mistake is using the wrong type of graph or chart to represent your data type. For example, you could show the same information like this:

Displaying the same data in a pie chart does give the reader the same information, but it’s much less clear because pie charts are designed to show contributions to an overall whole. Shmavid’s increased output over time isn’t as clear to see and a pie chart provides little visual support in calculating percentages. So choose wisely.

I’ve got the percentages right. Are we done now?

Unfortunately not.

While your stats and percentages may now be technically accurate, they still may not mean quite what you think they mean. While it’s easy to throw figures out and assume we now have instant, objective authority, the reality is data is not as objective as people like to think.

‘Mathwashing’ is the name given to taking fundamentally subjective opinions and turning them into stats, suddenly creating the impression of rational and objective information.

Question your statistics and where they’ve come from. When writing about polls and surveys in particular, it’s important to know who and what is being asked.

Understand that no poll can ever be truly representative – not even the UK census (that is a crime to not complete) succeeds in asking everyone in a given group.

You can assume for most surveys that a proxy measure is used: an indirect measure of an outcome. For example, a blog post’s audience might be measured by the number of clicks but there’s no way to know how much the people who clicked actually read.

Get the confidence to check the maths

Whether you’re writing or reviewing a piece of content, you’re just as responsible for the accuracy of the numbers as you are the words and grammar. Make sure you’re confident enough to identify and fix mistakes.

In this post, I’ve collated some of the most important maths tips and explanations for B2B marketers and content creators to know. But the RSS’s ‘Statistics for Journalists’ course also delves into the margin of errors, confidence intervals, how we can define relative and absolute risk, the difference between correlation and causation, and what the regression to the mean really is.

By all means check out the course for yourself,  and maybe listen to Good Copy, Bad Copy 78: Maths for B2B Marketers, which, if you’re feeling confident, includes a test to see how much you really know.

Further reading

• The Royal Statistical Society’s free “statistics for journalists” course
• The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data
• Good Copy, Bad Copy 78: Maths for B2B Marketers
• Percentage Change Calculator

The post Common maths mistakes in B2B content – and how to overcome them appeared first on Radix.

*Note: This deadline has now passed, but we’re always keen to hear from talented people. You’ll find more details on our careers page.

This August, we’ll be taking on one full-time, paid intern.

If you’re considering a career in B2B tech copywriting, it’s an opportunity to get some training, start your professional portfolio, and spend four weeks as part of one of the best and most supportive teams in the business. (Did we mention it’s paid?)

The triumphant return of Cornwall’s premier tech copywriting internship

It’s been a funny old two years. We won’t dive into all the lows of 2020 onward (you probably don’t need a reminder), but one sad fallout was that Radix hasn’t been able to welcome any interns since 2019.

But like so many good things, the Radix Internship is back and better than ever. Read on for more info about Cornwall’s best (and possibly only) B2B tech copywriting internship, and to learn how you can get involved.

What is the Radix Internship?

Thank you for asking. It’s a hands-on, four-week programme which gives you valuable experience as a B2B copywriter (while paying a living wage at the same time).

Reporting to our Head of Copy, you’ll join our twelve writers as a key part of the writing team. You’ll work alongside our Senior Copywriters to produce great copy, which might include anything from social media posts and marketing emails, to landing pages, newsletters, and short blogs.

We’ll offer plenty of one-to-one training sessions before you’re let loose on any projects, and you’ll have regular catchups with your mentor, who’ll be on hand throughout to support you and offer practical writing advice. And because of the close co-operation involved, you’ll get to do all of this from our award-winning waterside eco-office in Penryn, Cornwall.

After your four weeks with us, you’ll come out with a diverse portfolio of B2B copy, including client work and internal marketing materials. You’ll also have valuable first-hand experience as a B2B copywriter (and fond memories of working alongside a lovely bunch of people).

Who are we looking for?

As this is an internship, we’re not looking for previous industry experience (that’s kind of the point). But we are looking for someone with a flair for writing, and a desire to learn. You’ll also need a willingness to geek out about technology and business. Some of the stuff we write about is pretty obscure and, while we don’t expect you to know about that already, the prospect shouldn’t scare you.

You don’t need a formal writing portfolio to apply, but we’d like it if you could send us one great example of your writing. It doesn’t have to be a published piece of professional work; it could be something from your own blog. Anything that shows how clearly you can communicate through the written word.

Here’s how to apply

If you fancy four weeks of fun/writing for major enterprise tech brands, send your application to jobs@radix-communications.com by Monday, 27th June 2022.

(Please be sure to mention the Internship, so we don’t think you’re applying for our senior copywriter post.)

After the closing date, we’ll invite a shortlist of lucky candidates for an interview and short written exercise. We’re really sorry that we can’t provide feedback if you’re not successful.

Here are the key details you need:

What to send: A covering email, your CV, and one writing example you’re proud of

When to send it: By Monday 27th June

When we’ll interview you: Probably w/c Monday 4th July

When you’ll work: Monday 1st – Friday 26th August (working Mon to Fri, 9.00 – 17.30)

Where you’ll work: Jubilee Warehouse, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 8AE

What you’ll earn: The Real Living Wage (currently £9.90/hour)

Any questions? Please drop us a line; we’re happy to help. We look forward to receiving your application!

The post Want to get into B2B copywriting? The Radix Internship is back. appeared first on Radix.