What is the difference between somebody who writes code and somebody who writes copy?
Before I started this blog I would have replied:
‘Well writers drink too much coffee and coders drink too many energy drinks.’
In a recent blog I shared a lesson that Carlo had taught me. What have I learnt from Carlo? This personal question then grew. How has writing for a tech business affected me as a writer.
This poised a larger and more productive question:
What can a copywriter learn from a software engineers?
Failure is your friend
Carlo likes to remind me:
Sbagliando si impara.
Which I am told means:
No better teacher than failure.
This is an easy statement to make, a hard one to live by. Writers love to discuss failure (I have in this blog post here). Rejection slips, clients being unhappy with the direction a piece of content takes and the general challenges of being a professional creative. Writers face all of these failures regularly. However, coders fail more.
They fail every day.
They fail consistently and repeatedly.
Every time they compile a piece of code or try to integrate two pieces of software they are met with the great teacher; failure. Before you start to feel sorry for web developers, remember that this makes them luckier than copywriters.
Failure is the greatest gift for copywriters.
This means three things:
They get instant feedback
They have to get creative often
Coders are very very stressed
Writers thrive off feedback. It is a key part of the development of any writer. It is a key part of the client copywriter relationship. The client understands their customers best, they have a vision of how to share their product with their customers. It is then the copywriter’s job to make this happen. The copywriter provides them with the clean efficient prose that creates their vision.
Wehi's slogan is ‘your voice, our words’. When a copywriter fails to adhere to that voice they hit obstacles. Writers then redraft and approach the client again. But this may be several days depending on the size of the project.
Coders get feedback instantly.
If I write a lacklustre sentence it is still a sentence. It will still function grammatically. It will still share a unit of information even if it does so in a sloppy and trite manner. It doesn’t cease to function and close my chosen word processor.
But this is what happens to coders.
A poorly compiled piece of code prevents them from moving forward. It is a spanner in the digital works. This means that engineers are constantly finding work around, drilling down on core principles to achieve their task. They have no other option but to deal with the task at hand. They have to accept the failure and use it as a growth opportunity.
What can writers learn from coders?
Get feedback often. Get feedback from yourself, from your colleagues and from friends. As often as possible. This will drill your copy down into a fine tuned machine. Rather than destroying your flow or inhibiting your creative instincts it will make you more creative. You will have more challenges to overcome so you will become more adaptive and flexible in your approach. You will have to develop new skills every day.
After sometime you will begin to internalise these critical voices. You will debug your writing naturally.
And if you are struggling to debug your writing yourself, you need a…
Little Rubber Duck
A flock of wild LDRs in the wild.
Every coder keeps a little rubber duck on their desk. This LRD may look like a rubber chicken, it may look like a toy snake or a cactus but they are each of them Little Rubber Ducks.
A little rubber duck is any whoodgit, gubbin or piece of trash that you can consult when you hit a roadblock. A LRD is an important piece of technology. It allows coders to verbalise their obstacles or challenges. Every time a coder is stuck they address their chosen LRD and talk through the problem.
They are not looking for a considered response (because rubber ducks can’t talk).
What they are looking for is an opportunity to explain the problem to themselves.
Often when you are stuck on the problem it is not because you need new information. New information would just confuse the situation all the more. What you need to do is to organise the knowledge that you have in a concise manner. You need to appreciate the knowledge you already have and how this can move you closer to completing your brief.
Make sure you talk aloud. Talking out loud to your LRD forces you to explain the issue in its most basic form. It forces you to break down components and assumptions that you have made throughout this project. It reveals errors in your thinking and outlines what you still need to do to succeed.
This works well for coders. I believe that this is a great tool for writers. It is one I have adopted and it is great for reducing the copywriter’s most inimical foes; writer's block. Rather than crying into your coffee simply pull your LRD out and explain the issues. Explain the brief and the parameters that you have agreed with your client. Explain the roadblock you are currently at. Explain how you reached this roadblock and why your current strategies are causing you difficulties.
This is my LRD Leonard. He is a great listener.
Sometimes you will have an epiphany. Sometimes something will just click and you will have the answer to carry out with your copy. This will not always happen. But, once you have laid out the issue in its simplest terms you will have a better understanding of the problem which is half the battle.
What can writers learn from coders?
They can get an LRD. You don’t even need to buy one. Here is my LDR. It is one of Swansea beach’s finest pebbles. Every time I hit an obstacle I chat my brief to this rock shaped duck. I talk through what I know about various marketing personalities, the best strategies to reach them, how the product or service I am working with satisfies their needs. I talk about what I have done so far, what I need to do and explain why my current strategy is falling short of the brief.
Systems
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” –Gustave Flaubert, allegedly.
Building a systematic approach to your copy will boost your creativity not hinder it.
Coders have systems for everything. The nature of the job means that they have a systematic method of approaching most obstacles. Writers less so. Copywriters occupy the least bohemian end of the writerly spectrum. But we are still writers. We still have certain precious notions about our craft, our method.
I have already written a blog on the advantages of creating templates for everything. My main arguments were that it saves you time and gives you an awareness of your business processes. As a writer this helped me to understand my writing process and the most effective way to complete research.
Since working for Wehi I have created templates for my keyword research, Google Ads, the impact of social media campaigns. This has saved me and our clients a lot of time.
Saving time and staying focused is great. But what these templates mean is that I can get feedback from my work. I can compile the responses we have or do not have to our content in a form we can grow from. This allows Wehi to adapt. This allows me to change my approach as a writer.
Having an explicit system reduces the fear of the blank page. Knowing exactly when and where to start reducing writer's block. Having the first actionable step in front of you prevents anxiety developing. The kind of anxiety that starts when a project is viewed as an end product rather than as a process.
Businesses are hesitant to hire copywriters if they have no experience of them. One of the reasons is the risk inherent in any investment of time and money and reputation. Another is that they do not understand the writing process. They understand what they are buying from a writer, a piece of lean prose that moves their audience to a specific action. But businesses do not understand how the writer will get them there. Having a set system invited the client into the process, gives them faith in copywriters generally and in your skills specifically.
What can writers learn from coders?
Have a system. Write down your process. Write down every step you make in a project. Then you can cut away any unnecessary steps. You can share your process with clients so that you both have clear expectations of timelines and methods.
They Know Their Worth
Coders earn more than writers. This is a fact. They are highly skilled professionals whose skills are in demand. This is also true of writers. A good copywriter has trained for many years. They have honed their natural flair for the written word into a craft.
There is one key difference between coders and writers. They know their worth. They have an accurate measure of what their services cost. The creative industries have always had trouble commodifying their skills and calculating the appropriate remuneration.
There are general guidelines for paying copywriters fairly. However, this does not happen. Copywriters still participate in the race to the bottom. We undercut each other in a bid to expand our portfolios, spread our names and put food on the table.
Coders can accurately describe the impact they are going to have on a business. Carlo can accurately describe how much a professional website will increase traffic by. How many visits, how it will affect a website's speed and ranking. And he can provide charts and graphs to substantiate these claims.
I do not know many copywriters who can do this. Copywriters hide behind vague terms such as increased attention and engaging sales magnets. Even the successful copywriters that I know trade on their reputation rather than any solid metrics.
What can writers learn from coders?
They can accurately describe the impact that their writing has made for businesses. This goes beyond creating an engaging portfolio, or, gathering complimentary testimonies. This involves compiling hard data and presenting it in a form that businesses can easily merit. This means explaining to clients exactly how much their traffic is expected to increase, how many sales your last email campaign garnered or how your blogs will position them as an authority in a given field.
This will be difficult for new copywriters. But starting with this mindset will be a good practice. Experienced writers will have a wealth of information to draw upon. Some businesses may be hesitant to share exact sales data with freelance writers. You can still ask. Accurate information on a website position should be possessed already for your SEO segment of any copy.
Comment below with your thoughts on what copywriters can learn form our web developer cousins.
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