Bedell Communications

Who are your competitors?

What do you say to freelancers and other potential business partners who ask you this question? If you say, “No one,” or “We don’t have any,” that’s the wrong answer.

There’s no benefit to pretending you don’t have any competitors. Tell your freelancer who those competitors are.

“But we don’t have any competitors. Nobody does what we do,” you say.

That may very well be the truth, and if so, all the better. (It makes my job easier!) However, there’s probably SOME company out there that your potential clients consider in addition to your own when researching solutions. Who is that company?

As a freelance copywriter, my job is to sell your company, sell your product, your services, etc. I ask clients this question only after I’ve received an overview of their company and technology offerings. I’ve heard their unique selling proposition. I understand how they differ from their (nonexistent) competitors.

Now I want to know who those competitors are so that I can see how they are pitching themselves. I research these companies — peruse their websites, read their white papers and case studies — in an effort to glean the value-add that they are pitching to customers. And then I ask myself, how can I counter or emphasize those value-adds in your communications? What information is your potential client processing while researching solutions? How can I emphasize your differentiators to raise your company in the eyes of your potential client?

Here’s what I DON’T do: I do not contact competitors directly, nor do I reference or call out competitors in your content.

So next time a freelance copywriter asks you who your competitors are, tell him/her — even if those companies don’t do anything close to what you do! — Crystal Bedell

I’ve posted about the value in meeting with media/analyst contacts prior to a briefing to ensure that you’re presenting information your contact can use. This is all well and good — assuming your contact can hear and understand your speaker, which brings me to another briefing blunder: failure to use a clear communications channel (I’m talking about the telephone line!) and/or a presenter that speaks clearly.

Most technology briefings are conducted via a conference call between the speaker, a marketing manager, a PR rep, and of course the media/analyst contact. This is understandably unavoidable. It’s difficult to get all these people in the same room. However, speakers should not be presenting briefings from a mobile phone while driving or sitting in a noisy airport terminal. If the speaker does manage to stay focused, he/she may not be heard over the background noise. This can also be a problem when using VoIP lines. Make certain ahead of time that the speaker can call in from a quiet location on a line that provides decent quality of service.

Once you’ve established that your speaker will be clearly heard, ensure that he/she will be understood. There are a lot of smart technology managers and executives outside the U.S., and many of them are non-native English speakers. Unfortunately, a heavy accent or broken English can make a highly-detailed technical conversation difficult to follow, especially if your contact is new to your product. This is not to say that your speaker cannot still give the presentation. Consider providing your contacts with speaker notes prior to the briefing, or be prepared to answer questions, clarify quotes, etc., after the briefing. — Crystal Bedell

After taking the time to put together a quality e-newsletter or write a lead generating e-mail, it’s tempting to slap on a subject line and hit send. But after all that effort, you want to make sure someone reads your e-mail.  Writing a good subject line is a craft that should be taken seriously. Here are ten best practices for writing e-mail subject lines.

• Avoid gimmicky words (free, guaranteed), playful phrases and punctionation (!) that will trip up spam filters and/or give readers the feeling that your offer is a scam or a plea for money.
• However, do consider using dashes and colons to help break up thoughts while…
• keeping it short and sweet. Recommendations range from 50 characters or less to six words or less, so you’ll want to take advantage of tech acronyms your readers are familiar with (IDS, SAN, etc.)
• Do not use all caps.
• Double, no — triple — check your spelling.
• Use the same words your readers are searching for on Google, but keep them grammatically correct.
• Do not reuse subject lines. Use a unique subject line for each e-newsletter/e-mail blast you send out. When I worked as an editor for an IT Web site, there was one particular newsletter that performed exceedingly well just given the open source software it covered. I always started the subject line with the software name, followed by a colon and the particular topic of discussion in that newsletter.
• Don’t forget to use the From line to indicate who is sending the e-mail. This will most likely be your company or brand name. This information should complement the information in the subject line.
• Let readers know how they will benefit from opening your e-mail, while being honest about its contents.
• Do not begin your subject line with “Re:” or “FW:.” This looks bad, and you won’t be in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.

Finally, don’t leave the task of writing an e-mail subject line to your marketing intern or a new hire fresh out of college. Writing a subject line that will give you a high click-through rate takes practice and skill. It should be written by someone in your organization who understands your content, your technology product/services and your customers. All of this should influence the six words chosen for the subject line. Most writers will tell you that it’s harder to write short than it is to write long. The same goes for e-mail subject lines. — Crystal Bedell

It’s painfully evident when technology companies fail to use an experienced copywriter or marketer to write and create lead generation e-mails. You’re spending good money on an e-mail list. Why shortchange yourself by having an inexperienced intern or overworked secretary/office manager/etc. compose your e-mail blasts? Here are a few giveaways that your business to business e-mail marketing campaigns are in the hands of an amateur — and are likely suffering low click through rates as a result.

Gimmicky language is commonly used by amateur writers when they don’t understand what they’re writing about. But technology folks are savvy. They can see right through gimmicky language, and if they don’t have an inherent interest in what you’re selling, they’ll hit delete.

Bad grammar, misspellings and excessive punctuation. Don’t insult potential leads by yelling at them (!) or making them edit your e-mail blast. If they can’t read about what you’re selling, they won’t buy it.

Selling a product vs. a solution. Speak to your reader’s information and/or technical needs. What problem does your product/service address? Give readers a personal reason to want your solution.

Bad design. Many freelance copywriters will leave the layout of your e-mail campaigns to you, so here’s the deal: It’s better to send a well-formatted text e-mail than it is to send a poorly designed HTML e-mail that looks unprofessional.

A poorly written subject line. I’ll go into more detail on subject lines in a couple weeks. For now, apply the same rules to your subject lines that we’re introducing here: avoid gimmicky language and excessive punctuation, and give readers a reason to open your e-mail.

Your e-mail blast is scheduled to go out before a holiday weekend, on a Monday morning, or the middle of the night.  Think about when YOU are most likely to read seemingly unsolicited business e-mail that might or might not be of interest. Chances are your lead generation e-mail will be deleted if it’s buried in an inbox on a busy Monday morning or arrives just as your readers are signing off. Experiment with different days/times to see what generates the best click through rate.

The bottom line is that e-mail blasts should be handled by someone who is familiar with your product/service and b2b marketing best practices. If you don’t have anyone inside your organization who can handle the job, consider hiring a freelance technology copwriter. — Crystal Bedell

In my experience, most technology media briefings go one of two ways: They’re either very productive or a huge waste of time. Media and analyst briefings take an incredible amount of effort to pull off. Someone needs to create the PowerPoint presentation (if there is one), schedules need to be coordinated amongst three or four people, and the speaker needs to be prepped on the correct messaging. After all this work, it’s in your best interest to ensure that your audience isn’t snoozing on the other end of the phone or daydreaming about lunch — which brings us to briefing blunder No. 1: failure to define the briefing’s objectives in terms of your contact’s information needs.

Once your media or analyst contact has agreed to a briefing, take 10-15 minutes to understand what it is they want to learn regarding your announcement. What do they hope to walk away with, and what kind of coverage — if any — is likely to come out of the briefing? How much time do they have for the briefing? This information will help focus the conversation so that you both meet your objectives.

Even after warning PR reps ahead of time that I only have 30 minutes for a briefing, it is not unusual to sit through a lengthy introduction to the company, leaving little time for the real meat of the presentation. This can be avoided with a little bit of prep work. In this case, why not send the company info prior to the briefing and have the speaker skip that slide?

While discussing your contact’s goals for the briefing, dig a little bit to get a sense of his/her knowledge of your product and related technology. Does your contact need technical details, and what level of detail does he/she already understand? Again, you’re wasting valuable time by digging into the inner-technical workings of a product that’s beyond both the contact’s information needs and understanding. On the other hand, you don’t want to force your contact to repeatedly interrupt the speaker to say, “Yes, I know how a firewall/SAN/virtualization/etc. works.”

Once you know your contact’s objectives for the briefing and the appropriate level of technical detail required, give this information to the speaker — ahead of time; not as you’re kicking off the briefing. This will give the speaker time to properly prepare and ensure that you get the most out of the time and effort that went into landing the briefing in the first place. — Crystal Bedell