​Top tips for creative copy on a budget
 
Every business needs to communicate—to its customers, to its prospects, to its employees. No matter what business you’re in, you need to harness the power of the written word for everything from blog posts to proposals, from website copy to eblasts.
 
Now, unless you’re in the writing business, this can be, well, a pain. Not to mention expensive. Do you really want to spend a fortune trying to find le mot juste, or conjuring up that consummate metaphor?
 
We thought not.
 
Never fear, however. While you can certainly spend a lot of money on copywriting, there are ways to cut costs without cutting corners. Here are some tips:
 
Surprise yourself. Your own writing may be a lot better than you think—or a lot closer to what you want than you may have imagined. But how would you know? The trick here is to find someone you trust to simply read it for you, and offer you a quick critique that you can use. If you know someone whose emails are always engaging, tap them for a favor (or a lunch, or a beer, or a discount at your business). Note that we said “emails,” and not “stories.” While storytelling and writing are inextricably linked, there is the hurdle of translation. If you know someone who writes good emails, 1) they can write other things well, 2) they can appreciate the power of the written word and thus easily discern flubs in others’ writing, and 3) have cleared the storytelling/writing hurdle a long time ago.
 
Talk it out. Sometimes the act of clearing that aforementioned hurdle can be solved by something as prosaic as the voice-memo recorder on your phone. No one’s more passionate about your business than you are, so say what you’re thinking and feeling. Spit it all out. Go for lots of versions. Then play it back and transcribe it (or have someone transcribe it for you) and you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that you’re already 75 percent of the way there.
 
Use tools. Just because “thesaurus” sounds like a kind of dinosaur, doesn’t mean it’s extinct. If you’ve got your 75-percent-good-to-go copy, simply highlight all the bland words and let Dr. Roget do the work  for you. And in case that seems daunting, here’s a tip you may not know: Simply select a word in Word, and right-click it. You’ll see a “Synonyms” option right there. Select the one you want, and it gets dropped in. Just like that.
 
Dig deeper. The thesaurus is hardly the only tool in your kit. Surprisingly, the dictionary can be very helpful. Let’s say you’re trying to come up with a tagline that has to do with “service.” Look up “service” in the dictionary, and look at all the other entries that surround it for inspiration. In this example, we quickly get tantalizing and inspiring suggestions such as “service star,” “service ceiling,” and “service economy.” Gee, that was pretty easy. (Read more about creating taglines in our related post.)
 
Another tool for your kit. We love Rhymezone. It—or any other rhyming dictionary, for that matter—is indispensible for taglines, slogans, product naming, you name it. Especially helpful is the way it sorts its responses by syllable-count. Quick: Need a two-syllable rhyme for “service”? Don’t be nervous!
 
“Fine,” you’re saying at this point. “These are all ingenious suggestions [why thank you very much], but they all require that I’m the one doing the writing! How can I get others to write for me on the cheap?”
 
Don’t worry. We’d anticipated that one. But we purposely started with the do-it-yourself tips because your own writing isn’t just inexpensive. It’s free.
 
That said, there are plenty of ways to get your writing done for you and keep your costs contained. Consider these suggestions:
 
Look around you. You may well have someone else in your office who already passes the “great email” test. Lean on them, taking advantage of all the other tips cited above. Similarly, you can tap the “great emailer” whom you’d considered (or used) to check your writing, and let them take a stab at the first draft, based upon your input.
 
You’d already thought of those, right? Well here’s one you may not have:
 
Nurture incipient talent. This isn’t as imposing a challenge as you may think. Young talent will pleasantly surprise you, and it’s not hard to find. Just as that 18-year-old can bowl you over with tech expertise, that same young person has been keyboard-fluent since age five. (Note we said “18” and not “13.” That was just to stay on the proper side of child-labor laws!) Don’t have a kid/nephew/niece/ babysitter? Go to the local community college—either in person or online—and chat with a creative writing teacher for suggestions. Or post on a community board there. You can also post it as a gig on Craigslist, but you may have more work vetting the responses.  
 
Here’s a tip for working with young talent: Pay them well. Just because they’re inexperienced, doesn’t mean you should take advantage of them. Paying them well brings several advantages: 1) it’s still less than you’d pay a professional copywriter, 2) it builds loyalty, especially important if that young writer is good (you don’t want to invest time training them, only to lose them), and 3) they’ll be so grateful! It’s just the right thing to do.
 
Accept 80 percent. If you’ve done the best you can using all of the tips above, your writing may come in at about 80 percent of what you’d originally desired. But if it’s been proofread, run through a spellchecker, and gets your point across, push it out and be satisfied with the savings. Depending upon its usage—say, if it occupies a deeper page on your website—it may well be good enough.
 
Get expensive writing, cheap. Professional writers may charge by the hour or by the project, but either way, they need to take into account the amount of work they must do in order to deliver letter-perfect copy to you. So if you give them notes scrawled on a bar napkin, along with meandering ideas in lengthy phone calls, for input, expect to pay for it. On the other hand, if you take your best shot first and give them writing that’s, say, 50 percent there, they’ll reward your efforts with savings. And that can be the best reward of all.
 
Which leads, of course, to our not-so-shameless plug: While we’re more than happy to generously offer suggestions whereby you could do all this for free, we’re certainly aware that there will come times when you don’t want to do part of it—or perhaps any of it—yourself. So contact us. We’ve been helping consultancies, ad agencies, and direct clients alike to nail their writing assignments more than 15 years. We’d love to do the same for you. 

Make sure you make the most of your time.
 
Sometimes an assignment will require that you have a subject matter expert (“SME”), or even more than one, weigh in. That’s because all the Googling in the world won’t get you inside the head of a true thought leader—someone who’s able to peer around the corner of vital trends and offer truly unique and invaluable opinions.
 
This is more than an assignment. It’s a fantastic opportunity. Done right, you’ll get the information you seek. You’ll also get a one-on-one educational opportunity that others would kill for. So make the most of it! Here, then, are some best-practice pointers for engaging with an SME:
 
Time it right. Sweat the details of setting up the interview (whether it’s in-person, phone, or video chat). Make it easy for your SME. Give them numerous available time slots to choose. If others (say, from your client’s organization) will be listening in on the call, you’ll need to accommodate their schedules, too.
 
Keep the window narrow. Much as you may want to talk for two hours, don’t count on it, and don’t ask for it. Thirty to 45 minutes is a more reasonable amount of time to ask. Your SME may be getting paid to weigh in, or may be doing it gratis; either way, you should respect their time. Let them know in advance how much time you’ll need. And plan to stick to that schedule.
 
Give them the optimum amount of prep. This is a fine line for you to walk. On the one hand, you want to give your SME a heads-up as to what kinds of things you’ll be asking, so that they can prepare for the interview. On the other hand, you don’t want to rob your interview of spontaneity. You don’t want your SME to over-think any topics before you get to hear what they’re thinking. Similarly, you don’t want to burden them with a big list of detailed questions to read. Therefore, it’s best to simply send them in advance (usually via email) a list of topics you intend to cover, without getting into detail. For example: “We’ll be asking you about new regulations, technology, and trends that are coming to prominence in your industry.” If anything, err on the side of giving them too little. They can handle it; remember what the “E” in “SME” stands for.
 
Play to their ego. It may seem crude to phrase it that way, but we’re among friends here, right? Anyone who wears the title of “Expert” or “Thought Leader” is sure to have a healthy ego, and it’s infinitely better for you if that ego is on your side. This isn’t hard to do. It may simply be a matter of couching your questions with the right degree of humility; for example: “I know that no one can predict the future, but where would you say this trend is headed?” (Be sure to follow up with “Why?”) We once interviewed a leading astronomer who was clearly bristling at the space-exploration policy of the time. This paved the way for the question we posed: “If you were the God of NASA, how would you set the priorities for exploration targets?” You should’ve seen this guy’s face light up. It was a question he clearly had been thinking about forever, and gushed out some of the best-informed and most passionate opinions imaginable.
 
Avoid the obvious. Don’t pose questions that can be answered by an online search. It’s a waste of time, and a subtle insult to your SME—not to mention the fact that it makes you look unprepared. Stick primarily to opinions more than facts. Indeed, if an SME, in mid-answer, is pawing the air for specific statistics, help them out: “Don’t worry about the numbers right now. You can email them to me after the call, if you like.” They’ll thank you for it—and most likely accede to your request.
 
Get it all down. If you’re a fast typist, great. If not, record the conversation. There are many who argue that note-taking should be about considering the big ideas that emerge and then writing those down. You may agree, but we don’t. We prefer to let the interview proceed free-flow (your list of questions should be short, and a mere guide, not a script) and get it all down. You’ll have plenty of time to review it later, so get all the details of this rare encounter.
 
Share the results. After your interview, organize what you’ve written down into a cogent review. If your SME is available/amenable, email those notes to him or her for a quick fact-check, to make sure you got all the details right. Most SMEs will be thankful for the opportunity to set the record straight/help you out, and will be flattered to see their words within the context of a compelling write-up. (This will also pave the way for future interviews, should you need them.) Similarly, while you will cull your interview for the details that had necessitated its existence in the first place, it’s good practice to include the full interview report as an appendix to your outbrief.
 
Consider getting help. SME interviews are more art than science. Following the above best-practice guidelines will maximize your odds of success. But if the prospect seems daunting, consider tapping an expert outside resource. Fortunately for you, we have the unique combination of consulting, marketing, and creative skills which have let us help independent consultants, boutique agencies, and ad firms alike to make the most of SMEs for more than 15 years. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s talk about growing your business as quickly and productively as possible.