Business to Business Writing
I was a senior copywriter at Leistra & Assoc. in Grand Rapids for four years. We produced exclusively business-to-business adds for everything from truck suspensions to church pews. I enjoyed this work because exploring the worlds of these products was interesting, and the ad work was still creative.
With B2B, you are required to follow the rules of good advertising:
- Lead with the benefits, support with the features
- Do your customer research so you are speaking to the right audience
- Emotional leads will result in greater readership
There are more rules, of course, but that is a good place to start. We produced slick ads for truck companies that won awards but it was hard work. Our goal was to produce both strategic advertising and aesthetically pleasing ads and web sites.
One of the toughest things we were required to do was convince our own customers that features did not make good leads. Every customer is in love with his or her product, and they all know what features their customers are looking for. But sitting at a desk and selling a customer one-on-one is a little different than getting someone to read through a magazine ad or read down a full page on a web site.
That’s where creativity comes in! Creativity and cleverness are two different things, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Strategic Resumes for Pastors
How should a pastoral resume be crafted? How is it different from a secular business resume? These are some questions I had to consider as I wrote my first pastoral resumes last month. A couple of friends of mine asked me to spruce up their resumes. I am heavily involved in ministry as well as copywriting, so I decided to take up the challenge. › Continue reading
Samples from Web Sites
In my 20 years of copywriting, I’ve created a wide variety of publications, sites, scripts and ads. I am trying to move toward more web writing and less print writing (although, as I’ve said before, I do need to keep a roof over my head). In the spirit of giving confidence to potential web clients, I’ve attached copy sections from three web sites I’ve either written, or to which I’ve contributed.
Projects We Love and Accept
In my 20 years of writing, I have written just about everything:
- Web sites and landing pages
- E-mails and E-newsletters
- Print Ads
- Brochures and Data Sheets
- Video and film scripts
- Interactive CD Rom scripts
- Press Releases and media relations
- Direct Mail › Continue reading
Transforming Communication
Words matter.
Words have power to transform.
Wielded well, words work wonders. › Continue reading
Importance of a Good Web Headline
An effective headline is not just an advertising tradition — it can make the difference between a reader and a leaver — as in “I’m leaving this site.” › Continue reading