On being a message packager
Published on 09/28/1998 under Ad Management
Occasionally I'm asked if I fear being put out of business by the Internet. People say this because the Internet brings buyers and sellers together much like the Yellow Pages do, often without the assistance of an advertising agency. And while the Internet is growing rapidly and there are many Internet-related services that I wouldn't even begin to know how to explain, the answer is NO, not a chance.
The reason I'm not afraid of being forced into early retirement by the Internet is simple: I'm a message packager. And there's always going to be a HUGE market for message packagers.
If you wish to communicate via the Internet, you will still need some help determining what to say, and how to say it. The same goes for magazine advertising, direct mail, public relations, tradeshows and every other form of business-to-business marketing communications. New media or old, it's still just a delivery vehicle.
Packaging messages is the essential service we provide, and when you get right down to it, writing copy is the most important and most difficult aspect of the message packaging responsibility.
But it doesn't matter whether you consider yourself a "copywriter." If you are a marketing communications practitioner, you are first and foremost a message packager.
So here are a few suggestions to help make your message packaging efforts more productive:
1. Make sure the most important messages get the most support.
No company has extra money lying around. It's always a matter of prioritizing, and your first responsibility is to guard against secondary or tertiary issues stealing the lion's share of your available funds.
One of the most compelling arguments for an annual marketing communications plan is that you take time to prioritize your messages for the year. Which, by the way, is also the reason inexperienced marketing or product managers are so reluctant to prepare a marcom plan (see 2/8/98 Marketing News "Just do it managers"). They'd rather keep their options open. It's also called flying by the seat of your pants.
2. Even non-writers can write outlines.
Unless you've been the recipient of a huge stack of reference material and given the task of organizing it, it's hard to appreciate the importance of a good outline. I've received more stacks like this in my professional career than I'd care to admit.
On one hand, you want the client to think you can handle anything. But the other side of your brain is saying, "No, no, not this again." Minimally, a reference material dump sets a project back two weeks and adds $2,000 per inch of stacked material to the total cost.
Preparing an outline is the more enlightened approach. Usually a company's technical experts are best qualified to prepare an outline, placing all the key issues and sub-issues in some order of priority.
They are also least qualified to write actual copy, because technical experts tend to write copy the way they developed the technology (in chronological order). Read a few technical papers and you'll see what I mean. (That's why they started requiring executive summaries at the beginning of such papers -- the key issues were usually buried deep in the paper somewhere).
3. If you can't outline, you can at least highlight.
One of the great inventions of the twentieth century is the highlighting pen. It gives you the ability to call attention to key words or phrases amongst a sea of unimportant ones. If you insist on dumping a mass of "reference material" on an unfortunate copywriter or ad agency representative, please take a few minutes to highlight the salient points. The efficiency and quality of their efforts will be greatly enhanced.
Using the cost-per-inch-of-stacked-material scale, you might be able to trim 50% of the added reference material dumping costs through effective highlighting. (This is approximate, of course.)
4. Keep the reader in mind.
One of the hardest aspects of message packaging is that you're not packaging messages for yourself. You're not the target audience. You don't think about the message the way your audience does, nor is your interest level the same.
In today's downsized, reorganized, highly stressed world, it's amazing to me that message senders and receivers ever connect at all. I see evidence all the time where prospective buyers that should have first-hand knowledge of a potential seller's products or services act like they don't know anything about them.
One thing's for sure, it's essential to understand what's most important to your readers in order to present your key points efficiently and dramatically. Which leads to my final point.
5. Don't forget the value of creativity.
Once you've got the message organized and prioritized, now you're ready to break through the cluttered marketplace with creativity. More than anything else, creativity makes message packagers a uniquely important member of the marketing team.
You've worked through the "what" and "why" of your message. Now you're ready for the "how" to say it. With planning and media costs remaining the same, your communications program results can multiply greatly with the right creative approach.
Many right-brain dominant managers mistake PC's and software programs with conceptual thinking. For that matter, many young people entering our business think snazzy computer special effects are what it's all about.
That's not what I'm talking about here. The right creative approach is the one that allows your stressed-out target audience to quickly and effortlessly understand how your product or service can make their lives better.
When you find a way to do that, you have ascended to the highest level of the fraternal order of message senders. Congratulations.