The Pitch Can Be a Bitch

As a copywriter, there’s a certain amount of salesmanship that goes along with getting your words approved by the client. While I think it’s a mark of a good writer to be able to instantly jettison your copy (and ego) and start from scratch, I think it’s also important to be able to pitch your ideas skillfully (and defend your messaging, if you feel like it’s rock solid).

I think this also holds true for internal company communications. Most of the time, it’s your colleagues that you have to impress first, and they’re usually a great filter for weeding out sub-par ideas, sketchy metaphors, and misguided messaging.

Using my word processor’s Comment feature is one technique I use to help clients understand the messaging more clearly. I think it also helps the clients (and my colleagues) understand that each word, each phrase, and each sentence has to be intentional and serve the overall message.

Here’s a screenshot of some invite copy that I sent along to a client:

As I assembled each piece of this invite—headline, bullets, subhead, subject line, etc.—I tried to explain my reasoning to the client using the Comments to the right. Using this technique has a few benefits. For me, it helps keep the messaging focused and keeps me from getting lazy and letting fluffy language sneak in. For the client, it helps them clarify their own thinking and also shows that the writer is thinking carefully about the purpose of the copy and not sandbagging it with a bunch of marketing buzzwords.