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This is a guest post by Tiffany Thompson, affectionately known as “bloominglater.” She is an aspiring writer and musician who hails from Southeastern Virginia. She’s the author of helpyourselfblog.com and is a self-improvement junkie. She enjoys graphic design, vampire flicks, her iPhone, and the color orange. If you like this post, visit her at helpyourselfblog.com or follow her on Twitter.

The Myth of the Marketing

When I first started out as a Marketing Manager for a 500 person organization, I realized something very, very early: everyone’s a gosh darn marketer.

Okay, that’s the PG version of EAGDM; I’ll let you use your imagination to figure out what I really call it. But whatever we call it, one thing that marketing professionals, copywriters and graphic designers always come head to head with is EAGDM. Simply, in almost every organization, from the front line employee to the CEO, someone else “knows” precisely what marketing strategy will work and is more than glad to share it with you.

Nevermind that you have two English degrees and an MBA in Marketing.

Nevermind that you have over ten years experience copywriting in the industry in which you work.

Nevermind that Seth Godin is your best friend and you have had the opportunity to learn at his feet.

Nevermind all that.

The real reason that your last marketing promotion didn’t work was because you didn’t use that talking, Ferrari-driving dog in your last commercial. The talking dog ALWAYS works! Come on. Everybody knows that!

In all seriousness, in my years of experience as a marketer and copywriter, I have found that marketing is something that most people take for granted. It seems like common sense. Sometimes it is, but sometimes a marketer has to use what she has learned to get the right message across. So, here is my best advice if you hire someone to handle your marketing or copywriting: do your homework and choose the right professional, be specific by identifying your needs and expectations, and give your copywriter your very best ideas on how you envision the outcome. Once you have set clear intentions about what you expect, relax. Take a deep breath, take a step back, and let your copywriter do what she’s good at.

Choose the Right Professional

If you had a rotting tooth, would you hire a plumber to fix it? Your answer is probably the same as mine: heck no! The same idea can be applied to deciding whether or not to hire someone to complete a creative task, like copywriting. If one of the core competencies of your business is writing, maybe you don’t need a copywriter to craft your web copy. If, on the other hand, your core competency is accounting, you might want a little help. The idea is not that an accountant can’t write well. On the contrary, the accountant could probably do a fine job. But would you want the copywriter handling the accounting? Probably not. Why? Because we presume that being an accountant requires an extraordinary level of expertise. I would argue that writing good marketing copy does as well.

Be Specific by Identifying Your Needs

When you sit down to discuss your project with someone you trust, be very clear about your goals and your expectations for the project. First of all, what type of marketing do you need? Do you need promotional copy, or are you interested in producing an informative piece? Do you want a letter or a postcard? Having an idea of what you need before you meet with your copywriter or marketer will make the process a lot smoother.

Another important item of discussion is the contract. What are the fees? How many revisions will be produced? How will you communicate feedback to the writer? Nailing these things down before the project starts will prevent a lot of heartburn for you later.

Give Your Very Best Ideas

Now, this is the time to tell your copywriter extraordinaire that flying monkeys, talking donkeys, and the E-trade Baby would be good ideas for your campaign. If you need to, write down all of the great ideas that you have about how the campaign might look if only you had the time or the inclination to do it yourself. But this is really important—don’t expect that the copywriter will use any of your ideas. Your only job is to give them freely. Remember, you’re paying her to do the work.

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