Services
Copywriting From Scratch
"I enjoyed Linda's innovative spirit and her willingness to break new ground...."
Thor Bergquist
former Program Manager, Compaq Computer Corp.
Are you releasing a new product or service? If so, have you given any thought to your content needs? If not, no sweat! We "hit the ground running" when it comes to starting from scratch. We can work with you in any of the following ways.
- Understanding what you need--We spend some time up front to gain a thorough understanding about your needs and those of your customer. We believe that it is especially important to understand your customers and what motivates them. What kinds of benefits would motivate them to buy or use your product or service? What action do you want your customers to take? We also consider media. Will the content be designed for print or Web? If web-based, how will you drive traffic to your Website? We weigh these as well as other considerations. Then we create a strategy that will most closely meet your needs.
- Planning the work--Would you consider taking a long road trip to a new destination without a map? If your answer is "yes," do you agree that the possibility of getting lost at least once is fairly certain? Getting lost is very frustrating, resulting in the loss of valuable time in arriving at your destination via the simplest, most direct route.
To avoid this kind of frustrating, time-wasting experience, we use a map called the content plan to successfully navigate our way through a complex project. This map serves as a guide toward our destination of competitive copy that generates business opportunities for you.
We objectively look at what it will take to produce this print or web content in terms of time and resources. We estimate page or screen count. Then we apply a formula that weighs various factors such as stability of the product or service, availability of resources, experience of the team, access to subject matter experts, and others. This formula allows us to arrive at a very accurate estimate.
- Building the schedule--We have completed a thorough needs assessment, and we have our content plan in hand to serve as our map. We now have enough information to build a realistic yet aggressive schedule that includes milestones, reviews, and estimated delivery dates. We have scoped the project so as to avoid surprises and "project scope creep." We have identified the key players from subject matter experts to the review team. And we have outlined the open issues and dependencies so that everyone involved has a keen grasp of how the process will unfold.
- Managing proactively--We believe in being as proactive as possible in identifying critical dependencies and issues to avoid unnecessary delays or show stoppers. We initiate, drive, and communicate the review schedule and assign, manage, and oversee the completion of action items so that we are on time or ahead of schedule. From storyboarding to reviews, we keep the team focused and on track in meeting milestones and production goals.
- Leading and facilitating teams--We are experts at organizing a cross-discipline team that can include customer support, marketing, engineering, software development, user interface design, graphic design, and other experts. When appropriate, we involve cross discipline experts early in the content development phase to validate our direction. We are passionate about getting customer feedback if possible and as early as possible. There are various techniques we use to work with teams. One of our favorites is the use of storyboarding to organize (and agree upon) the content. This is an excellent way to involve all experts on your cross-discipline team. Ultimately, storyboarding is also a time (and money) saver. By agreeing early about the hierarchy and content, you reduce the risk of having to start over in a new direction when it is much more expensive to do so.
- Developing original content--First we make sure we are not "reinventing the wheel". We search for any existing content that can be used. This can include marketing materials, presentations, white papers, press releases, or other documents. We are experienced interviewers who work professionally with interviewing subject matter experts. We prepare our agenda and questions and communicate them in advance to streamline and minimize the time we spend with your staff.
- Passing the torch--We have all heard about consultants who leave their clients wondering about what it was the consultants actually did and more importantly, how they did it. We will not leave you with this dilemma. We believe in empowering you with the secrets of our success so that you are not left in the dark when it is time for us to go. We like to use a simple tool called a "Project Notebook." Throughout the course of our work, we store related documents, correspondence, issues, meeting agendas, and any information that is relevant to the project, contained within the Project Notebook in an accessible area where you can access the information if needed.
