Web Marketing Standardization, Incest, and the Dilution of Client Value

Do you ever read something on a blog and your heart starts to beat a little faster? Then you start writing out your response in the Comments section and realize you’re probably giving a little bit too much information?

This is what happened to me this morning after I came across a thought-provoking post at Glenn Murray’s Divine Write copywriting blog. So I retreated and instead, hopped onto my own blog to share what was quickly turning into a mini manifesto on the topic at hand.

In “Web copywriter or content writer: Is there a difference?” Glenn puts forward the idea that true copywriting does in fact cover off more than just “customer-facing” pages. In other words, if you’re going to write a blog, fill it with customer-facing content or don’t bother. Further to that, I think Glenn is also saying that customer-facing content really is just copywriting in a different container (blog, forum, whatever).

I agree. Oh my GAWD do I agree!

What kind of sticks in my craw though is when writers start a big hullabaloo over what to call this and what to call that. I get red in the face every time a segment of the marketing industry starts talking about the importance of crafting standardized definitions for the supposed benefit of the client.

As if it would somehow help our evolution to create an entire bureaucracy around semantics. To etch our points of view in stone so that they become even more difficult (read: expensive) to adapt for our evolving paradigms.

Anyone see a problem with this? Anyone wonder if that just might maybe be a hindrance in this age of rapid change?

Might the institutionalization of Internet marketing hamstring our thought leadership?

Both collectively as an industry and individually as purveyors of useful content?

The semantic game may be loved by web marketers, but it’s ignored by the clients who pay them.

Before you ask how I, as a copywriting and marketing strategist, can possibly help my own clients succeed online without concise definitions of content, copy, or any other term we marketers loved to lob back and forth for kicks, let me explain my own process with copywriting clients, as an example.

I tackle the “content question” pretty organically. I meet biz folk all the time who are sitting on a heap of useful, relevant, juicy content and they’ve really no clear idea on how to leverage that. In my mind, it’s actually a nice problem to have. Far too many people have, well, nothing to say.

But here’s the thing–and I believe on a very deep, heartfelt level that this is what distinguishes an OK marketer (and copywriter) from a very good one:

It’s YOUR responsibility as a service provider (marketer, copywriter, SEO, etc.) to help clients get crystal clear about their UVP, their brand, their deliverable, their solution to a problem.

This usually involves a “whoah, back up the truck” kind of process. I often take clients 10 steps backward in their assumptions and thought processes before I write a word of copy/content/whatever we’re calling it. We work through all the messy questions and ideas and yes, mis-education, until we have a value proposition that will get attention and command top dollar.

So, once the client and I have achieved a shared sense of clarity and ambition around their marketing objectives, I can write the “standard sales pages” (homepage, about, services, etc.). And truly, the copy almost writes itself. From there, adding “content” is really just a matter of:

1. Can the client support the ongoing creation of new, BRAND-supporting content (a blog for e.g.)?
2. Does the client have something to SAY that will create useful dialog for his target market and yes, ultimately SELL a product or service?

As for the usefulness of industry approved definitions in this space?

None whatsoever.

Even if many online marketers DO agree on a bucket full of definitions and standards, it will be years (if ever) before anyone on the client side gives a hoot. It’s up to the service provider to “define” the key variables for the client and ultimately, help the client OWN this marketing thing.

Much like in copywriting, context is everything.

This is where a marketer can provide ultimate value and do so in a way that is unique, helpful and non-duplicatable. The question is of course, how many marketers are willing and able to step up in this way?

In my world, content is copy. Copy is content. It ain’t neat and tidy; but neither are the problems and challenges my clients present to me. Indeed, at some point in the creative process we call “marketing,” all the pieces must fit together to create a cohesive, hopefully compelling picture for your target market. That takes courage, forethought, intellectual rigor and a great deal of old fashioned intuition.

No formulas for that I’m afraid.

What do  you think my dear client or marketer?