The #1 Way Corporate Writers Can Do Better Work in Less Time

June 27, 2010  |   Posted by :   |   Corporate Messaging,Corporate Writing,Slideshow   |   10 Comments»

How much of your marketing communications materials could you throw away without having any impact on your business? When I’m getting acquainted with a new client, I always ask this question. Invariably, I get answers like, “Oh, about half,” or “You’d be surprised.” (After 30 years in this business, that’s doubtful.)  Recently, one new client deadpanned, “90 percent. Maybe more.”

Now, how much time would you guess that corporate writers and graphic designers spend every day making stuff that sales people don’t like and don’t want to use? One corporate writer recently told me, “Are you kidding? Most days that is my job.”

What’s going on here, corporate writing fans? We have talented copywriters toiling in major corporations, creating sales and marketing communications materials that aren’t perceived to be worth the paper they’re printed on (or megabytes they’re stored in).

Making matters worse, corporate writers today are being tasked with more projects than ever before. So not only are they pressed for time to create work that no one wants, their bosses are piling it on.

So here’s the challenge: How can corporate writers work faster to create sales and marketing communications materials that will actually get used?

Create a Corporate Messaging Platform.

A Corporate Messaging Platform is a three-step system that ensures you’ll always deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right moment in time. Even better, when a corporate writer works from a messaging platform, you never start from scratch–because your foundation story is already baked in.

In my experience, I’ve found that corporate writers can save as much as 20 – 30% of time and related cost by using these platforms. For me, Corporate Messaging Platforms are the surest way to write with clarity, consistency and efficiency, every time. (Not to mention the lower costs, if you’re a company outsourcing to corporate writers and designers.)

Build your Corporate Messaging Platform in 3 steps.

1. Develop your Master Positioning Statement. What is the ONE claim you can make about your company (or client) that no competitor can? A key component is to complete this thought, “ABC Company is the ONLY company that… .” For more on how to identify your ‘ONLY statement,’ please see my article, 21 Steps to Becoming Your CEO’s Best Friend.’

2. Create your Master Message. These are the talking points that become the grist of your corporate writing. While the Master Positioning Statement is highly strategic, your Master Message is more tactical. Key point: Write about features and benefits that are applicable to all of your audiences.

3. Customize Messaging For Niche Audiences. With your Master Message in place, now you’re ready to customize it for more targeted audiences. You can have a virtually limitless set of niche audiences, all using your Master Message as a foundation. And with that 20 – 30% base, you’ll have the remaining 70% to customize your story specifically for each audience.

I’ve been creating Corporate Messaging Platforms myself for nearly 12 years for Fortune 50 and smaller companies alike. Regardless of an organization’s size, I’ve found these platforms to be the best way to help corporate writers work faster, easier, better. And, the best way to give sales teams the marketing support they need. The key is to have the discipline to not only create the platform–but to use it every day.

And the greatest reward? For me, it’s the skeptical sales guy who says, “So this is what you do in Marketing.”



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