Who Is Business For?

Creative people tend to resist business. Business is a harness to artistry’s open sky. This is too bad. A lot of art gets missed not getting marketed.

The work of marketing is not really so different.

Writers write for their readers. Painters and directors create for their fans. They naturally aim at partners. Their skills are for eager prospects.

The creative person’s vital-value question is: Have I been true? Is she moved? The principal is the same in business. I can explain.

In writing for business, we might add one other question layer: Is she a prospect? Have I said enough to encourage her to take action?

Everyone who creates can use this to reach the right audience. Whether you want to write emails, text, old fashioned letters, web copy, automation… discovering HOW to say it is worth more than the skill being shared. Without good copywriting, your skill may only live in the dark.

Curiosity: Learn MORE About Your BUSINESS

The business objective is to entice the reader’s curiosity. But not with my knowledge of my skills. Without the prospects’ action, the work isn’t doing its job. And without connecting there’ll be no action. The connection is better established by our curiosity about them.

Without focusing on the reader’s need, I may as well light a good cigar with flaming thousand dollar bills. It would be more entertaining anyway.

Writing to persuade is speaking to the prospect’s need. Only when a genuine need interrupts her concentration and gets her to stop to listen— do you have initial engagement. That’s the headline.

Moving to action—mmmm. Well. A well-structured setting will do this.

Copy: Step 1

Copy for business is not first about the product and why it’s great. A business’ copy must first address a problem. An intrusive or emotionally charged problem ideally. It should connect with a prospect’s current and vital and active need for relief or improvement.

Copy: Step 2

Now, in the second step, the copy should address a problem. It should make that problem so real the prospect is licking her lips, reliving the time she faced a situation like this. A substandard vendor. A key staff member who suddenly quit. Bad press can twist a comment out of proportion. She recalled how senior staff looked at her down the hallway — wondering if she was up to the job.

Copy: Step 3

Now the product comes in. It’s effective sure — but how can she be sure. How well/easily/cost-effectively will the product address that need? Here, the copy is angel and arbiter. It introduces the two parties. My client knows quite a bit about the prospect’s needs. It promises her the solution.

Here the research and thought start to show. She reads what worked in the past. She reads about industry trends — and how this leads as a solution. She relaxes, even smiles, reading an anecdote about another company that celebrates their win with first-ever staff bonuses.

Passing this test, the copy has a chance of getting to development Step 4.

What style works best? Try a few headlines. How do they sound? Does it meet the test we call the 4Us?

Does it express urgency? Is it unique?

How would they feel? Interested? Very interested? Now, tell a story.

In consumer writing, like writing for a diet or health program, I might tell a story about a person who had the issue, almost gave up, didn’t, and today has his life back. Phew!

In business the prospect’s problem and our clear purpose for reaching out to him are critical. Don’t misunderstand this: Emotion has its place in business presentations as in your creative work.

The gritty part is this. This is not hard. And it’s not easy. It can take time to form—to come to you based on your study. Any client who’s involved needs to give you this time. After all—crafting a clear and memorable and interesting idea is where your magic occurs.

Are you beginning as a writer, or writing a new genre? Are you marketing your work in a different way? Professional writing for start-ups, too, encourages conversation. I understand that creative people may despise the idea of business, as much as a chef hates cleaning up, but commerce fuels your craft.

Here are five books about business & finance worth reading. Each of them is very well written, authoritative, and full of usable content.

Each is a model for communicating in managed ways and watching the money.

You could find these antithetical to your modus operandi. Fine. But that is the nature of discovery. And discovery is part of doing big business. In copywriting we are seeking people ready to do business. Business is interactive — not telling—a conversation.

Mergers and acquisitions are the largest and least recognizable industry in the world. In 2017 M&A accounted for $3.4 Trillion.

The mind-numbing scale of the transactions calls attention to their nature. Large business depends on successful growth. M&A is one efficient means for growing. It is not a good idea to depend on a single strategy. So let’s consider other routes to growth.

What’s going on? Well, first, the nature of the problems has changed. The digital linking has obliterated privacy, added separation, increased public noise, and personal silence, and ironically for many, enhanced the lack of access. For leadership, and for you to break through with your craft, your thought processing may need to shift and gear-up.

Don’t be threatened by business communication. Embrace it. Add your voice to it. Lord knows there are some worlds where liveliness is missing.

Preparation To Respond to Change

Here are several excellent examples and resources of intelligent approaches to the changes already here.

1. Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
2. Getting to Plan B, John Mullins and Randy Komisar
3. Pitch Anything, Ryan Klaff
4. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefevre
5. Measure What Matters, John Doerr

These are excellent reads on their own. Well constructed and nicely written. Occasional reading like this is vital for anyone who wants more greater recognition or income. Each is packed with clear and decisive steps based on experience and examples you can emulate. It is astounding that they don’t sell for thousands of dollars each. That is the value of the information inside.

Communicating complex ideas only matters if you’re talking to the right people. And the right people hearing the correct presentation will understand your value proposition. Measuring that is not difficult and it is interesting.

Leaders close sales. A knowledgeable copywriter helps make the right introduction. Working together, they are unstoppable forces of nature. If you are your own copywriter good for you. You handle a lot and across a spectrum of thoughts. Congratulations.

By enabling a copywriting process with a professional writer you will quickly connect with the right prospects and reap many benefits. You will wonder why it took you so long to get started.

And you will know how it feels to be super-smart.

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