It's Saturday. It's snowing. It's Boston.

Click here to enlarge. Click here to switch to summer.

I hope SeaChange will forgive me, but I left their brochure unfinished on my screen while I went outside for a walk. The heavens opened this afternoon about 1:00 and some incredibly gigantic snowflakes started falling outside my window. The urge to walk over to the Public Garden and take some pictures was simply too much to resist. I only reached 538 in today's word count, but the walk was exhilarating, and I think the pictures turned out pretty well too.

Today is snowstorm number 22 (a record) so this may very well have been my last opportunity to do this until next winter. Click here to see a slide show.

The Problem Space

 
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You are looking at what I am looking at while I write this. (Besides the place where I work it's also one of my screensavers.) The picture is one interpretation of a term I use in my writing and in my presentations to clients: the problem space. I haven't heard anyone else use the phrase and I'd like to see it get some traction out there in marketing land.

What most companies are marketing, of course, are solutions -- which begs the question: solution to what? By saying the problem space, we are expressing the idea that problems don't come in one size or that they are one-dimensional. That means solutions must also be multi-dimensional and must be contoured to the problem -- in size, shape, etc. As I said to a client this morning, it's sort of like a key fitting a lock.

A space signifies context, which implies awareness of the underlying issues.

The term also sounds better than just the word problem. A problem is like a product, a single instance of a solution (or its application). A space signifies context, which implies awareness of the underlying issues. It's not just a phrase; it's also an idea which I think needs to be expressed more often.

Extra Curricular Writing

Last week I received an email from a new-business prospect asking whether I write non-technical copy. Yes, I said, I do. In fact, if you want to see a couple of example websites, go to Contract Decor International or The New York Wedding Group. The first is a company in the hotel drapery and bed covering business. The second is a NYC-based professional association of wedding vendors.

Writing non-technical copy is actually good exercise, and fun too.

I bring these up to make a couple of points. First, I am always intrigued by people who ask me if I can write non-technical copy. Good marketing copy is good marketing copy -- yes? If anything, writing for technical audiences is harder. It adds another layer of complexity, but doesn't take anything away that a "regular" copywriter has to do.

In technical marketing, you can no longer get by with just explaining how something works (which is hard enough and is what technical writing does). That may often be necessary, but it is almost always insufficient. You also have to do all the things good marketing writers do -- like convey a value difference in a compelling way. In fact, the requirement to do that is greater now than ever, since a lot of what used to be considered high tech, is now part of everyday vocabulary.

The second point I want to make is that I think writing non-technical copy is actually good exercise, and fun too. It employs a different part of the brain, and gets the writer involved with people who have different interests. In the case of The New York Wedding Group, I help my wife by playing marketing consultant, web designer, consumer ad copywriter, data base administrator, and a bunch of other roles -- some of which I would not get to do if all I did was write white papers, brochures and case studies all day for tech companies. In the long run that simply is not healthy for me or my tech clients either. The NYWG also lets me do things (like design databases) that actually let me get more hands-on with the technology in a way I would not if I just wrote about technology. That is definitely good for my tech clients.

Find the comfort zone

The last three weeks I've had the opportunity to work on a great project. A major government contractor in the homeland security field asked me to rewrite their corporate fact sheet. That might not seem like a big project, and my final product will probably be around 400 words (plus a diagram). But it's actually a very big project and priced accordingly -- several thousand dollars -- about as much as a full-blown brochure or technical article.

"Language that stays completely inside the comfort zone will be ignored."

The implications are obvious -- and were thankfully not lost on the senior VP of marketing, my client. Rewrite the fact sheet and you rewrite the corporate positioning. You give words to executives who in a few seconds can clearly and succinctly cut through the acronyms and the jargon and the generic language everybody else uses.

Digression: There's a great book that's been recently published, Why Business People Speak Like Idiots, with vivid examples of exactly what scares this marketing VP. Here's a gem: "Technological innovation, globalization, complex regulation and increased accountability at the senior management and board level have all combined to significantly change the landscape of risk management today."

I suspect the reason companies make their language generic is the same reason some people wear suits. They feel comfortable if they look like everyone else -- and like they have always looked. But being comfortable misses the point (just like customers will probably miss a company if it doesn't stand out).

Language that stays completely inside the comfort zone will be ignored. Language that goes too far outside the comfort zone will be dismissed. The challenge is to go just far enough -- challenge the reader, but not too much.
When the client read my first draft she said, "It hit me like a two-by-four. But the more I read it the more I loved it. This is what we do!" Now her challenge is to get buy-in from her colleagues. If you haven't done a good fact sheet, you probably won't get that kind of reaction.

The challenges of a fact sheet are both formidable and subtle. Not many clients will pay thousands of dollars for four or five hundred words. And most clients won't take the risks of testing the comfort zone of their senior executives, or the process of getting consensus. It's easier just to walk away with something so watered down it just doesn't matter. But think of the upside -- a single page that in less than 30 seconds tells people why you are really someone they should do business with. That's rare.