​True story: We worked with a client recently who wanted our help, using a shared online Word doc, to rework the copy for one page of marketing material: a website page. 
 
The Word doc had a headline at the top. And then a big page of body copy. This was the client’s original, rough draft. As we’d noted, they wanted our help wordsmithing it. 
 
This client had booked us, via Zoom, for a one-hour screen-share meeting. And guess what? We spent pretty much the entire meeting just working on the headline.
 
To you creatives out there, this is hardly shocking. But to this person who was an employee at our client and was new to this process, it was shocking. 
 
In this article, we'd like to cover 1) why this person was so shocked, 2) why headline writing is so hard, and 3) how you can lubricate the process. 
 
Two hands on the paintbrush
 
To be clear: In the story we described above, we were forced to work slower than we usually do. Because we couldn’t just dive into our process; rather, we had to explain our process, at each step, before we undertook each step. So that took a lot more time and was, candidly, rather draining. It’s hard enough to do the work; it’s even harder to do it and describe how you’re doing it at the same time. 
 
In other words, a tip of the hat to Bob Ross! 
 
As we’ve noted before (specifically in this article), shared Word docs are a double-edged sword, which have a habit of cutting you more than others! Still, let’s discuss why the headline part of this assignment required so much more time than the ensuing body copy; we didn’t even sweat the latter. 
 
And that’s part of the reason. With body copy, you’ve got lots of time and space and leeway to make your point. A headline is the opposite. You have just a few words. Plus, a headline needs to be, well, “headline-y.”
 
It has to read like a headline. It has to look good on the page. And it has to sound good in your head—to your inner ear. 
 
It needs a good rhythm. And cadence. It must convey the exact right tone: if one word is off, it collapses. 
 
Oh, and it should be clever. Good luck with that! 
 
Tools for your box
 
A way to help you surmount this challenge—in fact, a few of the component parts at once—is to start with something familiar. If there’s something familiar that rings true, and you can spin it your way, then you’ve got a great headline, seemingly ready-made. 
 
Don’t believe us? Look at Apple. Every headline on their website is written to try and meet this exact goal. 
 
An example from our business: We wrote a headline for a consultancy that helps businesses transform by using a library of proven templates. The headline we wrote for a page describing that process was: 
 
Reinvent your business. Not the wheel.
 
Why does that headline work? It’s the exact same approach we’d just described. Everyone knows the expression, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” But no one had spun it this way before: a ripe opportunity for us, and our client. 
 
Anyway, we’d promised you some tools for your box, so here goes. When it comes to headline-writing, lean, liberally, on tools such as: 

• Your computer’s dictionary. There are two parts to this: 1) Of course there’s the built-in thesaurus. But more important, 2) there’s the simple list of entries that show up, alphabetically, around whatever word you choose. So for example, when we look up “bank,” we get other commonly-known/instantly-familiar stuff we might not have thought of, such as “bankroll,” “banker’s hours” and “bank holiday.” 

 

• Rhyming dictionaries. No, not every headline can, or should, rhyme. But sometimes a rhyme will fill the bill beautifully. We love the online tool Rhymezone. 

 

• Cultural touchstones. Simply Google the topic you need to write a headline about. You might get song lyrics. A news story. Fashion trends. Pay attention to all of these and go down the rabbit holes, because this is where you often find the best stuff. 

 
That person who joined us on the Zoom call was kind-of shocked to follow us down these exact same rabbit holes. They didn’t realize that it took this much time and effort… just to write a headline that’s only a few words long. 
 
Know why? Because you can read a good headline in about two seconds. By that token, you can look at a great painting in the same amount of time. 
 
Need help with headline-writing? Contact us. It’s a specialty of ours. 

​You’d never tell any client that they’re your favorite. If you say that to one of them, you have to say it to all of them. 
 
But c’mon. You know that you have a favorite client. We all do. It’s human nature. 
 
It’s also a tacit business proposition: How do you “clone” that client? Wouldn’t you love more of them? (And by extension, fewer of the, um, less-favorite ones?) 
 
In this article, we’ll review what makes a “clone-able” client. And then we’ll get to the crux of the matter: Doing the actual cloning.
 
Nobody’s perfect
 
You can certainly describe an “ideal” client. And odds are, your favorite client won’t check all of the boxes. 
 
That’s fine. We live in the real world. And it’s hardly a compromise to want to clone your favorite client. 
 
But what makes them your favorite? Why are they hovering up near the “Ideal” space? 
 
It’s easy to rattle off a bunch of positive attributes of this favorite client of yours: 

• They provide good and steady revenue. 

 

• They provide interesting and challenging assignments. 

 

• They don’t quibble over pricing. 

 

• They pay their bills on time. 

 

• They’re smart/thought-leaders. 

 

• They’re good people. 

 

• They’re nice people. 

 
Wouldn’t that list resonate with you? (Have other attributes we’d missed? Add them to the comments below.) 
 
So. How do you go about cloning such a wonderful client? This is a multi-step process—or multi-pronged approach—and while you may know some of the checklist items we’re about to discuss, you probably don’t know them all. 
 
The feeding trough
 
Where is this client of yours turning, daily, for information? Are there various groups they belong to? Trade shows they attend? Websites they visit? 
 
Answer as many of these as you can for your favorite client, and then “feed from the same trough.” Example: Look up which LinkedIn groups your client belongs to. Then join them. You’ll see the same conversations they’re seeing; you’ll see which posts they like, which articles they read, and which influencers they follow. 
 
When you actively join in and comment on a forum like this, LinkedIn rewards you by making your comments visible to more people. In fact, if you can get a vigorous conversation going, LinkedIn will really tell the world about you. We could call this “The Kardashian Effect.” 
 
So as your street cred grows, you’ll get exposed to more people like your favorite client. You can then connect with them, comment on stuff they’re posting… and then, politely, ask for a quick chat or Zoom, just to say hello. If you really do this, as a person, and not like some LinkedIn bot that automatically spits out five pages of “personal” messages as soon as you click “Connect” (hate that, don’t you?), you increase your odds of making a real connection. 
 
Shake the trees
 
Ask yourself: How did this client find you in the first place? Think through every step of that process—because it contained numerous steps—and then replicate it. Was it a certain person who had referred you? Then reach out to that person. Was it at, say, a certain event? Be sure to attend the next one. 
 
On paper, this is a very simple exercise in reverse-engineering. In the real world, few people take the time, or make the effort, to do it. Which is a shame, because there’s a lot of doppelganger favorite clients out there, just waiting for you to discover them. 
 
Lubricate the revolving door
 
We have a wonderful client that, well, has a high churn rate when it comes to their employees. And what do we do? We stay in touch with those employees when they move on. ​LinkedIn is great for this. 
 
We can’t tell you how many of them have gone on to become new clients of ours, as they’ve brought us along to their new gigs. And they invariably become very good clients, since our original client did such a nice job of vetting these people for us in the first place! 
 
These are just a few tips. There are others. For example, we’ve not even touched upon the entire (huge) topic of marketing outreach to this ultra-targeted audience… and that’s really our specialty here at Copel Communications. 
 
Want to learn more? Contact us. We’d be delighted to hear from you.