Writing your own ads or other collateral?
Want to verify work done by designers,
Ad agencies, or other writers?

Get maximum effect
from your advertising copy
with a
Professional copy critique,
Edit, or re-write

Like it or not, the words you use in your advertising and marketing seriously influence your prospect's or your customer's response to your message.

Advertising and marketing materials are commonly called "salesmanship in print".

And like a salesman representing your business, naturally you'll want to make sure he is properly trained to do his job skillfully — always using effective words with care.

The right words are important

Use the right words, and you may have excellent results, but the wrong words, the wrong tone, or the wrong approach can lead to an expensive disappointment.

Some people suppose it's pretty pictures, beautiful graphics, and creative visual effects that make marketing collateral effective...

...But in the end, it's always the words that do the heavy lifting.

It's words that lead your prospect to the desired decision to buy from you instead of someone else.

Beware wrong words

Very few business owners — especially in the Business-to-Business (B2B) sector, but also in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) — have the knowledge, experience, training, and skill with words to represent themselves effectively.

It's a lot like being charged with a crime, then trying to be your own lawyer. An old adage says anyone who does that has a fool for a client.

Simple, often common mistakes, can mean the difference between making the sale and missing the opportunity.

Getting a second opinion is smart...
Here are two actual examples:

Big mistakes are common, and easily caught by an attentive eye from someone who understands what makes content good or not so good. Here are a couple of examples:

• A software company paid a marketing agency thousands of dollars to produce an 8-page white paper. The fee wasn't unusual, but the copy was severely deficient, definitely not helping the reputation of the company when the paper was read by prospects.
  In the first nine opening lines, there were 13 significant to serious errors: A missing word, a completely wrong word, four missing commas that introduced much ambiguity into the reader's ability to understand what was intended. Other problems were weak words where a stronger one was needed. A few paragraphs later, a word was used that means the opposite of what the writer intended, further undermining the company's credibility.
  The strongest arguments for the company's offering was buried late in the paper where it probably didn't even get noticed by most readers, costing even more lost opportunities.
  A copy audit would have stopped this project cold before the paper even went out to prospects or customers.
• Another company, seeking to expand their business, invested $150,000 for an ad agency to run an advertising campaign aimed at a targeted profession. The intent was to get new business. The campaign itself seemed to be designed to be some creative brand-image approach, but it was very weak, with graphic images and copy that said little that would be useful or particularly interesting to the target audience.
  Result: Not a single phone call. That's expensive, and would have been caught in an effectiveness audit and a very small fraction of the end cost, to say nothing of the cost of delays related to windows of opportunity.

Getting a second opinion is smart...
Even if you use an advertising agency

That's also true, even when your advertising is prepared by an advertising agency or professional design firm.

If you have a serious medical condition, getting a second opinion from another doctor is not only accepted practice — it's actively encouraged.

Getting a second opinion on your advertising copy can sometimes be a very profitable investment by preventing errors and problems — especially subtle (or even serious) ones you or your agency may not recognize — or perhaps might be completely unaware of.

Protect yourself with these services:

I can help you make sure those sometimes embarrassing mistakes don't get past you and into the hands of your prospects or customers.

Copy Critique (a.k.a. Copy Audit)

A simple Copy Critique — also called a Copy Audit — is a service I offer that includes the following important evaluations to help you stop errors from blocking your success:

• Message match to audience,
• Message tone and voicing,
• Conformance to best practices,
• Compatibility with graphic design (where applicable),
• Other factors according to project needs.

Upon completion, you receive a printed report (or PDF file if preferred) of the evaluation results which include specific observations about each category. Explanations include what the problem is, what should be done to correct it, and general recommendations about how to do it.

Fees are usually a fixed amount — arranged beforehand, according to document size, type, and complexity.

Copy editing

Depending on the results of the copy critique, or if you simply want a copy edit of material you or someone else wrote, I can perform an edit of the desired document to the extent needed for the type and scope of the document.

Fees vary, depending on complexity, type, and size of the document or project.

Complete re-write

The range of collateral that can be re-written is varied and widespread, according to your needs and preferences. Re-writes are based on existing printed documents, or computer files, as appropriate.

Sometimes a copy critique may indicate a complete re-write is needed. If that determination is made early, part or all of the critique fee may be applied to the re-write fees, depending on the individual situation.

Some re-writes may be classified as other project types (such as white papers, case studies, etc.).

Again, fees vary, according to complexity, type, and size of the document or project.

Basis of evaluations, edits, and re-writes

All of my work in this group of services is rooted in over 30 years of experience combined with extensive training and interaction with several of the very best, most successful copy experts on Planet Earth. People like Bob Bly, Clayton Makepeace, John Carlton, Perry Marshall, Drayton Bird, Mark Ford (pen name Michael Masterson) and numerous others.

It also is rooted in the experience, observations, and results of tested advertising methods and copy techniques of legendary advertising writers, agency executives, and direct-response marketers spanning more than the last 100 years.

These principles and proven methods are not commonly taught in colleges and universities (though they should be).

You get the best evaluation and workmanship I can deliver, based on more than 40 years of writing experience, combined with nearly a half-century of business ownership, sales, and other experience from a multitude of different trades and professions, in addition to formal education in colleges and universities.

Your project is in good hands with me.

Contact me

To get started on your copy critiques and editing needs, give me a call, or send an email describing what you're looking for.

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