From the category archives:

good writing

Copywriting: Creating Better Whitepapers

by brianlburns on 17 November 2009

I’ve been asked to write more whitepapers for my clients recently. And because they’ve been on my docket, and on my mind, I’ve developed a couple helpful points to pass along. Hopefully, these tips will help you write better whitepapers.

To start, it’s no mystery why my clients are attracted to the idea of creating whitepapers. Like blogs, and like social media profiles, these whitepapers are an opportunity to showcase both the personality and reputability of a company… helping you build your brand, and maintain top-of-mind awareness among potential clients. Additionally, whitepapers, as opposed to blogs or social media, are traditionally more formal and academic in nature, which may lend them more toward a particular kind of company, or a particular kind of company initiative.

Here are three things to keep in mind while writing your own whitepapers:

1. Have something to say. Whitepapers traditionally are used to give a quick summation of research, and/or promote a specific and well-tested idea. While herein lies the strength of whitepapers — the credibility they can lend to the author — there’s a also a risk to those who try to fake it. Save yourself the effort of writing, if you don’t have something to write about, or even worse, if you don’t know what you’re writing about. Be kind to your readers, and have something to say. Then say it.

2. Say it succinctly. While some whitepapers can be long, up to 50 pages in length, I urge you to be succinct. Whitepapers are the medium to communicate your brand through authority, but they’re not the place to brag. Say what you came to say, succinctly if not plainly, and get out. Just like this paragraph.

3. Don’t be intimidated. Whitepapers can be intimidating to write, if for no other reason than they usually remind us of those dreaded college paper-projects. In reality, the worst thing you can do for a whitepaper is to try and revisit those days, fretting about page limits, proper attribution formats, and quoting the “readings.” Instead, write as a knowledgable professional, confident in your subject matter (you have something to say, right?), and don’t be intimidated by the format or feel. At the end of the day, it’s still writing… and the best writing still approximates simple, one-on-one conversation.

The last thing I have to say, though it’s outside my expertise, is to ensure that your writing goes within a functional and fitting design. Content is king, when it comes to whitepapers, but format matters too. Don’t feel the need to go over the top, by any means, but spend some time here at least.

And I think that’s it. follow these three guidelines, put your writing within a functional and fitting design, and you’ll have yourself an authoritative and ultimately effective whitepaper.

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3 Things Baseball Teaches Us About Copywriting

by brianlburns on 30 July 2009

in baseball, good writing

Baseball is America’s pastime. Perhaps no time is that more evident than now, when the lazy days of summer turn to the crisp evenings of the pennant race. For a long time now too, baseball and writing have gone together. There’s been Who’s on First, The Natural, Casey at the Bat, and Ball Four. Perhaps most famously, in The Green Fields of the Mind, A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote the following:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

I’ll leave the poetry to the poets, but inspired (among other things) by the hometown Colorado Rockies’ recent playoff push, I thought I’d write the 3 things baseball teaches us about copywriting. Because, well, it’s fun. And also because I think there’s a lot to learn.

1. Patience. Baseball, more than any other sport, rewards patience. While football is a savage game, and occurs over a 16-game season (basketball and hockey have 82), every baseball team plays a full 162 games. That means that during a baseball season, you can flat-out stink for a whole two months, and still have a decent year. Players can’t get too high during a streak, or two low during a slump. They can only work hard, consistently, and be patient knowing that their skills will yield the proper end results.

Writing is no different. It’s not like painting, movie-making, or in the case of business copywriting, not like link-building or SEO. It’s not flashy, and it can’t be forced — it’s a subtle artform that requires patience to perfect. You need to work hard, of course, and dedicate yourself to the proper process. But you also need to let it come at its proper time. The time it chooses.

2. Simplicity. It’s somewhat true that baseball is a complex game. Do you hit-and-run with 1-out to stay out of the double play? Or do you tell your heavy-footed catcher to stay put, and let your .276 hitter swing away? However, it’s the simplicity of the game, not the complexity, from which baseball draws its beauty. At its foundation, baseball is nothing more than throw the ball, hit the ball, field the ball. And of course, for the fans, about enjoying a hot dog while watching it all take place.

Writing is the same way. Sure, there are complexities involved. Do you use a semi-colon to extend a given sentence, and add a part of another onto it? Or do you stick with the simplicity of a comma, or perhaps an ellipsis? However, it doesn’t take William Shakespeare to tell us that the beauty of writing isn’t in its mechanics (though those are fun), it is in the ideas. Writing is great because it allows us to communicate. Copywriting is great because it allows one company, or one brand, to talk directly to its customers, buyers, or followers. And like all conversation, at least where I come from, this interaction is best done simply.

3. Outcomes. There are, of course, winners and losers in baseball. One team wins each game, no matter how many innings they have to play, and only one team wins the World Series in the fall. However, unlike sports like football and basketball, where the power struggle between teams defines the interaction, baseball has a subtlety to its competition. No sport keeps individual stats as fervently (most hitters can compute their batting average while running to first), and no sport fosters goodwill amongst those that appreciate the sport, beyond their team loyalties. Sure, competition is there, but it’s not all there is.

Copywriting, in this same way, hinges partly on competition.The copy is designed to sell something, and even if you don’t have any direct competition in your marketplace, you probably have certain barriers to sale that you’re trying to overcome. For bad copywriters, who write bad copy, this competition becomes paramount… and that’s where the dreaded “ten copywriting tricks you can use to dominate your market” come from.

Good copywriters however, knowing better, don’t concentrate solely on winning. They work to build communities, talk directly to like-minded people, and if there’s a theoretical fit, they work to find products, solutions, or services that meet the needs of their readers. In the end, these copywriters have more success, but only because they weren’t focused on dominating every single word, sentence, and paragraph.

So what, in sum, can we learn from baseball about copywriting? To be patient with your work, over days and perhaps even months… putting in the time and effort to produce a great final product, while always remembering that simplicity is beauty. And also, perhaps more than anything, to be straight-forward with your readers… trying to sell a product or service if that’s your cause, without selling yourself out for the WIN. Take some time to relax, some time to share a proverbial hot dog with your potential customers, and I trust that the communities you build in doing so will ensure your long-term success.

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Travel, Motivation, and Good Copywriting

by brianlburns on 27 June 2009

in good writing, motivation, travel

Creativity can be a bitch. It waxes and wanes on its own schedule, coming and going according only to its whims. You’re going to have good weeks, and you’re going to have bad weeks. That’s just how it works. When either one occurs, all you can do is conform to the ups and downs, doing what you can to adapt to the natural rhythms of productivity and effectiveness. That’s part of producing good writing, as it is a part of creating any piece of art.

However, I don’t mean to imply we have no control over the crazy patterns. In fact, there’s a good deal I find I can do to influence them. Good sleep and good food give me energy. Exercise calms me down. A walk in the woods grounds me. And travel gives me motivation. Alcohol seemed to work well for Hemingway. Whatever floats your boat.

It’s the travel one that’s sticking out to me today — having just returned from two weeks in London. I took some time off, explored a foreign (awesome) city, and now have come back to my desk excited, motivated, and operating with broadened horizons. I feel both more energized to produce some great writing, and more grounded to ensure it’s properly kickass. It’s win-win for both me and my clients.

The point? It’s not necessarily that you have to jump on an international flight tomorrow (though I do recommend it). It’s to encourage you to find a little spark in your own creative process. I’m confident that after you do, you’ll come back to your writing — or whatever your current project — better off for it.

YOUR INPUT: Is there any small tricks, or big picture alterations you do to jumpstart your creativity? Any cool things you do to summon the magic creative fairy?

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