I mentioned that we have started up a copywriting business. What is that?
You may not be sure about the term copywriter - and what they do. The term has evolved over the years. It was first used in the middle of the 19th century to describe the people who wrote ads, primarily for newspapers. Today it means far more.
What Do They Do?
Copywriters today may write sales letters to sell a product, or persuade readers to take some other action. They may do similar things in the rapidly growing area of web marketing. They write business letters, white papers to convey information, case studies of successful application of products, press releases to communicate to the outside world, business letters for busy executives. Sometimes they are hired to describe complicated business issues or technologies in a clear and understandable manner.
Content vs. Direct Response
One simple view is to divide copywriting into content writing and direct response writing. Good content copywriters are skilled at gathering information and writing concise and insightful copy that educates and tells a good story. Good content writers may be writing as part of larger effort to promote a company or a product, but many times the pieces they write are primarily for information. Today we understand that consumers are always in search of useful information, and providing that is an important part of building a relationship with them.
Direct response copywriting, however, is focused on strongly leading the reader to a response. That response might be a direct purchase, or it might be the first step of a multi-step purchasing decision. Good copywriters are attuned to the emotional modes that attend to persuasion.
Our Work
We are comfortable in moving back and forth between content and direct response, and we strive to write in the voice you want to convey to your audience.
One clear trend in organizations is that more and more are recognizing the importance of strong communications, both internal and external. At the same time the growing trend of organizations to outsource has led to an expanded use of freelance copywriters to aid communications.
It may be time for your organization to examine the possibilities for using freelance copywriting to improve your communications in both content and direct response.
Contact us now at Ervin Copywriting. A consultation on possible copywriting projects is free.
Please call at 512-431-2954 or E-Mail at ErvinCopyWriting@austin.rr.com
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Employment Misunderstandings
One of the things that bothers me in watching (only occasionally) the economic pundits on the nightly news is their total focus on large companies and their hand-wringing worries when any large company slows in growth, loses any profitability, or horrors, has a layoff.
A fundamental fact of the U.S. economy that these pundits seemed to have missed for the last 40 years is that the U.S. economy has been steadily strengthening by transitioning the work force from big companies to mid-size and small companies - with an emphasis on small ones.
If you could draw a circle around the Fortune 500 companies and call it MegaCompany, then look at it's metrics you would find that MegaCompany may have grown in (inflated) dollars, but has been steadily dropping in head-count. Relentlessly.
The fact of job losses in big companies is not news. It is an economic necessity for survival. The survivors have learned that it is most efficient to define what they do best and staff for that, then outsource the rest. When they outsource new jobs are created elsewhere. the work gets done more effectively, national productivity goes up, and everyone in the economy benefits.
Meanwhile entire new technologies get created and new job opportunities appear. And most of that happens in small and medium companies.
When a pundit states that "12,000 jobs were lost this month", without also stating how many new ones have appeared it is dishonest reporting, intended to deceive. On more than one occasion I have read reports on monthly job losses in months in which the unemployment rate declined. But the unemployment rate was not reported.
I spent a long tenure in one of those "large" companies. It is still doing very well, but is only about 60% of the head-count compared to the year I left. And although I really value my time there, and my learning, if starting over today I would look in the direction of smaller companies. That is where the action is in job creation.
I can already hear your objection. "But you are missing the human element - what about those workers in the large companies who just lost their job - it's not fair?"
We can talk about what you mean by fair later, but if you want to participate in the greatest economy in the world you have to be prepared to change not only jobs but careers multiple times. It is the nature of the beast.
Statists and technocrats want a planned economy in which everyone stays in the same safe jobs. Several hundred years of real experience shows that those types of economies maximize human misery.
A fundamental fact of the U.S. economy that these pundits seemed to have missed for the last 40 years is that the U.S. economy has been steadily strengthening by transitioning the work force from big companies to mid-size and small companies - with an emphasis on small ones.
If you could draw a circle around the Fortune 500 companies and call it MegaCompany, then look at it's metrics you would find that MegaCompany may have grown in (inflated) dollars, but has been steadily dropping in head-count. Relentlessly.
The fact of job losses in big companies is not news. It is an economic necessity for survival. The survivors have learned that it is most efficient to define what they do best and staff for that, then outsource the rest. When they outsource new jobs are created elsewhere. the work gets done more effectively, national productivity goes up, and everyone in the economy benefits.
Meanwhile entire new technologies get created and new job opportunities appear. And most of that happens in small and medium companies.
When a pundit states that "12,000 jobs were lost this month", without also stating how many new ones have appeared it is dishonest reporting, intended to deceive. On more than one occasion I have read reports on monthly job losses in months in which the unemployment rate declined. But the unemployment rate was not reported.
I spent a long tenure in one of those "large" companies. It is still doing very well, but is only about 60% of the head-count compared to the year I left. And although I really value my time there, and my learning, if starting over today I would look in the direction of smaller companies. That is where the action is in job creation.
I can already hear your objection. "But you are missing the human element - what about those workers in the large companies who just lost their job - it's not fair?"
We can talk about what you mean by fair later, but if you want to participate in the greatest economy in the world you have to be prepared to change not only jobs but careers multiple times. It is the nature of the beast.
Statists and technocrats want a planned economy in which everyone stays in the same safe jobs. Several hundred years of real experience shows that those types of economies maximize human misery.
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