The Info Treasure Trove

My Dad has this old joke that goes, “What’s the most important thing about humor?” After a short pause, he interjects, “TIMING!”

I’ve rolled my eyes many a time over this joke.

But here’s a new version for writers: “What’s the most important thing about writing funny? …… WORDING!”

Whether you’re talking about stand-up comedy or humorous writing, surprise is one of the biggest elements of laughter. (Yes, Dad, I know, “Surprise” is what your little timing-joke is really all about.)

Readers become accustomed to seeing things written a certain way. As a writer, you have a choice: give it to them they way they expect, or surprise them with something different.

Here’s an example:

In my article “Does Target Shun Veterans?” I say that Internet Urban Legends are “stories that scare readers into believing such things as rat urine contaminating the tops of their canned peaches, and so forth.” I could have just as easily written, “Internet Urban Legends are stories that scare readers into believing the tops of their canned food is dirty.” But that wouldn’t surprise anyone, and it would have made my piece just another bland “news story.”

I also shook up the sentence about Internet Urban Legends by including some humorous exaggerations. Simply writing “canned food” isn’t nearly as funny as being super specific and writing, “canned peaches,” and being “dirty” is far more typical than having “rat urine” on your lid.

The idea of being very specific is what comedian (and my hero) Jerry Seinfeld has built his entire career on. He doesn’t just talk about flying on an airplane, he mentions everything from the really small bag of peanuts to the pilot announcing the flight play-by-play. As an audience, we laugh at these things because it’s something we’ve experienced but never given much thought to. Who else but Seinfeld could have an entire 30-minute television show about toxic glue on envelopes?

Drawing attention to things that are common to all but seldom discussed makes people chuckle. This is mostly due to their slight embarrassment when they realize “wow, I do that,” but it’s also because for the first time they are paying attention to something they might not have otherwise.

But aside from timing, exaggerations and calling attention to life’s quirks, sentence structure may be the ultimate weapon for writing humor. Just as a lyricist times his verses to a beat, writers need an internal rhythm to make their work conversational and surprising. There is quite a difference between writing a factual news piece and composing a humorous essay, but the biggest difference is sentence structure. Cut-and-dry news pieces need to follow a formula so that the content doesn’t get lost. When writing a narrative or essay, however, you can play with pauses (dashes, colons, etc.), italics and words to create a feeling and rhythm.

Follow these hints and your writing will be surprising and funny….AND have great timing.

About The Author

++You may reprint the above column on your website so long as the following is included the URL address is actively hyperlinked back++

THIS MUST BE INCLUDED: Copyright 2004 Sarah Smiley http://www.SarahSmiley.com - Sarah Smiley’s syndicated column Shore Duty appears weekly in newspapers across the country.

sarah@sarahsmiley.com

How do you gain contacts from a speaking engagement?

The name of the game in providing speaking engagements is to gain more contacts to add to your list of potential clients. Speaking is only one way of attracting business. By providing an engagement, you have opened the door to potential clients in a way that will no longer seem like a cold call. You will now have something in common with an attendee in your audience. They have heard you speak about your expertise and they may want to follow up. I look at speaking engagements as getting 100 or more cold calls completed all at the same time. Your contact list will grow and you will be able to offer other speeches to your audience.

Large or small groups will not matter. The difference will be made by the content of your speech and the word-of-mouth reaction of the value you brought to the table. You can find your initial audience through volunteer organizations. These organizations are often looking for speakers, but you must be careful not to make your speech a commercial. If you do, you will not likely be invited back by other branches of their group nor will you likely do business with the members of the group. Remember, however you get your information out, you need to retain a list of the attendees for following up.

Once you have a few speeches under your belt, your contact list will grow considerably. You must be careful of how you deal with the list, make sure you have permission from each person to keep them on your mailing list for future events. It is a slow process but you will be better known for your integrity and your expertise rather than being a selling machine that has no regard for the privacy of others.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com

Let’s start the story this way; my friend and I sleepily sit on a study shed on a dry afternoon at school waiting for the next class to begin. We realized (at last!) that we are going to graduate from high school soon. But we didn’t pay much attention to the graduation day itself or even the ball. We talked about what course we are going to take. Which unfortunately ended and summed up into a lurid idea that pathetically sounds like, course we “must” have instead of course we really “like” to have. We choose to have the must thing instead. Its like eating steamed vegetables instead of chocolates. To hell it all, we both sighed in disgust. These way of starting, leads us to planning our ways to the road to our much-desired “sparkling” future. A future so bright it must carry the label “You Can Have It All” - or, if not, maybe make it close to that. But then, while dreaming this flawless dreams, the words “work hard’ hit my thought.

Work really hard. Its 99% perspiration 1% intelligence they said. These lines penetrate each part of my brain with such tidal wave accuracy. The pisser is, I’m quite lazy starting things. Even when it comes on starting a day. First thing in the morning, I wake up really late. Going to school late, and finishing things late. And at last, it dawned on me that there are no benefits on being late. Who knows, I might be missing an opportunity that is present while I’m still cringing on my bed or still working on a thing that must have been finished if only I started it a little early. And the idea of an opportunity that slips out of hands sucks. It sucks so hard. I even read the phrase “wake up early and work hard” on our mayor’s office (or sounds close to that). Words in bold letters hanged on his wall. And by the way, he is successful in both realms of politics and business. Which got me into concluding that he must be the early bird that catches the worm personified. And I guess he have been on that attitude since the day he started building the things he have built today. OK, first step, wake up early.

We both agreed to the fore stated thing. Next, we talke about the course we plan to take just because it have the golden and much coveted title of “IN-DEMAND”. Tada! NURSING. In all capital letters. Everybody seems like taking up nursing for practical reasons. Study, graduate, fly to another country asap and forget about earning peso and earn dollars or pounds instead. Seems like everybody’s desire is to leave the country believing that fortune can never be found here and is there across the seas. Willing to ditch the simplicity of local life in exchange of a more “coz” one (cozy=much money, isn’t it like that?). To be a nurse. Not a bad start we surmise. Bt beyond all that, what I really dream of becoming is a writer. The idea that I wanted to express is hat writing is the thing I enjoy doing. What you enjoy doing, is probably what you do best - regardless of what other people think. If I have to work as a nurse to accomplish my plans for my family, which requires some financial stuff, I would wholeheartedly. But never in hell will I loose grip on my dreams. Maybe I can work for them later. And I am willing to work hard for it. I may not own fame and fortune but having to get the satisfaction that I used my talent to the best of my ability regardless of what other people say, is enough.

That too, we agreed. We promised never to loose grip on our dreams. Next is that we must look straight to the goals we ourselves made. And if taking up the in-demand job is the first step, we gladly would. We can surely learn to appreciate the unappreciated. Working while squeezing few time to work on what we really wish to become. That way, we can develop our ability towards that particular ting. It’s all with the word determination.

Then we should always keep eyes on ourselves. That is, to stay away from anything our parents warned us about (i.e. drugs, “too-much” gimmicks, “too much” of anything - and always remember Angelina Jolie’s tattoo; What nourishes me also destroys me). We must keep our balance while crossing the thin bridge that will lead us to success. One mistake can cause us a lot. Like breaking trust of someone, loosing respect and loosing those whom you can turn to. It happens that those are all hard to restore.

We also promised to ourselves never to give up - or even to think of giving things up. Face everything because we never get ourselves anywhere when we run from it. We only live once and this is the only chance we have. The one and only chance to do what we really want. And we wish to savor the life we think is for us and achieving what we feel is is “calling”.

Next thing that happened in this story? The school bell rang. Back to the real world. Back to the classrooms. Back to where things in life begin.

Source: www.isnare.com

Do you have a well thought out reason for writing articles? That is most likely your article writing philosophy, but in case you don’t have one, let me make a few suggestions for developing one.

Thousands of articles about writing articles are bouncing all over the internet and the printed media at any given time. Most of these articles are tips and advice, a few are about grammar and clarity and yet others are about subject matter and how to find it. A philosophy for writing articles is none of the above.

Simply put an article writing philosophy is not about how you write but why. Although it is acceptable to write articles for publicity or hits to your website it is not the strongest motive. Then there are those who write by researching the most sought after keywords on the net and write articles that lead people to those words, thus to their sites. This also qualifies as a reason to write but only in the most strained sense of the word.

Writers are somewhat like preachers, they have a soap box called the printed page and they have a message just like the minister, even if the subject matter is not homiletically inclined. As a young preacher I overheard someone say that “young preachers just have to say something, but older preachers may actually have something to say.” The first step in developing a writing philosophy is to ask your self this question…do I have something to say?

Professional people can quickly answer yes to the question of whether they have something to say. Years of study, training and experience put them ahead of others and all they may lack is just a bit of priming to know how to convey their knowledge by the written word. For those who are not professionals the next question should be “how do you see.” Some people are naturally endowed with a good eye. They don’t need to be politicians to have a good grasp of politics. They can predict, criticize, evaluate and comment on the whole sphere with great clarity and in some cases may affect the outcome of politics in some way. They weigh in so to speak on the subject. In case you think that isn’t so check out the vast opportunities for op-eds (opinion editorials) on the internet today. Thousands of political right and left wing sites are looking for people with good political vision. In this “of the people” society John Q Public is still sought for his view of political figures and things done in the political theatre.

Having a good “minds eye” applies to any field of interest whatsoever. Technicians put together complex electronic and telemetering devices in spacecraft but some people are weighing the result of all that space hardware on people, the environment or the future of man and their insight may be just as needed as the tiniest circuit board any techie can produce.

The motivation for writing an article may only be to provide information; at other times it may be to provide inspiration. Even anger could qualify as a good motive if you are particularly incensed over some injustice or bad behavior. It may sound all to rudimentary or perhaps old fashioned to say that if you are seeking a higher good to be done through your writing then you will always succeed. Sound corny? Think again. No one will ever reject an article that attempts to right a wrong, lift people up or provide a little light and comfort in a troubled world. If that is your motive then that is your philosophy. Good writing.

Why do people write long copy? It is not because their
readers read it all! People write long stories for the same
reason that restaurants that serve big portions get
customers lining up at their doors. They are creating the
illusion that their meal is cost effective. A long story
suggests that there is a lot to say.

The American society teaches that more is better and you are
not going to single handedly change that. Instead, go with
the flow — use the illusion and write long emails, long
articles, and long sales letters…BUT before you do, make
sure there are six questions that are answered in the first
ten seconds of your copy.

The questions are: What? Who? When? Where? How? Why?

“What” always needs to come first in every story. “What”
must also be part of the headline, subheadline or graphic
and needs to dominate your marketing piece. It needs to be
simple, fresh, and catchy (not tricky). It must convey what
the reader will get for continuing.

“Who” identifies your business. It must tell the reader who
is telling the story and it must do so at least twice in
your marketing piece. If you use your logo as your “who,” it
must fuse with the “what” element of the ad. “Who” means
more than a name or a logo. Some logos seem to speak to the
designer, but mean nothing to the reader.

If your logo doesn’t automatically deliver meaning, then
only use it to build your brand. Remember, however, that
branding is a time and dollar intensive effort.

“Who” can be conveyed through pictures. A good picture of
you, your employees, your office, or your events create a
personal connection with your reader. If you offer
workshops or seminars, use those pictures. People are more
likely to believe a photo than a piece of artwork.
If you have been in business for a while, say so “since
1982″ counts.

Longevity builds points in the trust category. Be sure to
identify with your name and weave that information
throughout the entire piece. By the time you are done, your
piece should be so closely identified with you that it would
be impossible for someone to pirate your words or logo and
put them into their marketing piece.

“When” is usually simple to add. It needs to go further down
in the marketing piece. Novices place “when” in the topic.
If the readers find your information important, they will
create the space to attend. If you say it too soon, before
it is important to your readers, they may say “no.” After
your prospects learn what is happening and who is doing it,
the next question is “when.” At that point, you give days,
dates and time. If it is a big event, use the year in the
date. All too often, retailers leave their hours out their
ads.

“Where” may seen easier than “when.” Maybe you are
thinking that you just add your address. Not so. Use your
imagination for a moment: you are having a party and want a
friend to come. You give directions, draw a map, and provide
him or her with all the right and left turns.

If your marketing piece requires your customers to find a
location, give them complete information. (If you are
sending an e-mail, give them a link to an on-line map). Add
helpful details like: “look for the blue awning” or “we’re
across from ‘x’ restaurant.” Be sure to include information
about parking. You do not want someone to get frustrated
about parking and go home.

“Why” is often overlooked from the prospect’s viewpoint. .
Many otherwise good marketing pieces fail at the “why.”
“Why” addresses the importance of the event or the
uniqueness of the product.

Don’t forget that your prospect is looking for a good reason
to toss your information. People have more information today
than they can handle. You need a persuasive “buy now” reason
in the “why” part. The answers need to tell them why they
need to hear/learn about this now.

There are only two powerful “buy now” elements that trigger
action: (1) scarcity, and/or, (2) a limited time to act.
Either you are going to run out of product or you are doing
something for a compressed time.

Before an event there needs to be two or three weeks with
limited (scarcity) offers along the way. Item pricing will
not pull an event along, but a good general selection story
will. A story like “further reductions” works, but only if
it is true. Your prospect will know if you are “fudging” the
truth, even if your customers don’t.

Your employees, who are your first line of contact with
customers, will certainly know. Remember the “going out of
business” signs that show up several times a year? Maintain
your integrity and your customers will stay your customers.

“How” are your payment or credit terms. Tell your customers
about them only after you have sold them on your product or
event. Don’t yell “one year interest free” or “no payments
until July of 2004″ until they are excited about what you
are offering. Present your special terms after they have
decided they want it.

In summary, long copy is a good choice after you fulfill the
10-second requirement of the six W’s. This way you allow
both “I want to know a lot” and “give it to me fast and
straight” to get what they need.

About the Author

Catherine Franz, a Certified Professional Marketing &
Writing Coach, specializes in product development, Internet
writing and marketing, nonfiction, training. Newsletters
and articles available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com
blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

I’ve spoken to hundreds of editors, employers, and project managers about how they choose a freelancer for a job. Whether they were reviewing job applications or considering project bids, they all had one thing in common. As every one of them started to look at the applications, they had their skeptic’s hat on.

How a Project Manager Thinks

Here are a few quotes from project managers and employers to show you exactly how they think.

1. Jaime, Editor - “The First Elimination”

My process of judging proposals is one of elimination. The first step is about a general impression. If it’s vague and unconvincing - eliminate. If it’s fluffed up but with no substance - eliminate. If it has real details and seems credibale - keep. Many times this process only leaves one person. That’s how easy it is to get a job - be credible and convincing.

2. Jacob, Project Manager - “I only believe what I see for myself.”

I read every proposal while questioning what I’m being told. Some people make things up. Most people exaggerate. Many people think they’re better than they really are. I’ve been working with contractors for a long time and I’ve found that the only way you can judge a person is by what they do.

3. Randy, Project Owner - “Don’t Tell Me, Show Me”

Don’t try and impress me with ramblings. Lots of positive words strung together does nothing for me. You know, “I am keen, reliable, prompt, easygoing, articulate, generous, kind, competitive, athletic…” I have no reason to believe you’re any of those things. If you want me to pick you for the project, you have to do more than just tell me. You have to prove it to me.

How to Beat the Skeptic

It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it. Three small changes will make all the difference to your credibility and will get you more work more often.

1. Use Real Evidence

It’s always better to sell yourself with a real example.

Not so good - “I am reliable.”

Much better - “You will never be left wondering how the project is going because I will provide timely updates to keep you informed.”

2. Use Your Results

Telling project managers about your past results is also a good way to sell yourself.

Not so good - “I write effective web site copy.”

Much better - “With my new and improved content, my last client increased their sales by 120% in the first month.”

The second statement clearly communicates the quality and effectiveness of the work. And at the same time, it’s likely to excite the project manager into thinking that the same result could occur for them.

3. Be Specific

If you can use facts and figures to make your point, do so.

Not so good - “Most of my business is repeat, showing that my clients are happy with the service I provide.”

Much better - “96% of new clients have returned to use my services again.”

Not so good - “I have completed various similar projects.”

Much better - “I have completed 19 similar projects in the last year.”

Make these three simple changes to your bids and job applications and you’ll win more clients, jobs, and projects.

I’ve begun to realize that I don’t do enough of the right kinds of research before contacting a publication. Here are some things I’ve learned to think about and do before pitching, which have made a difference in getting work.

Who do they love?

“It’s all about relationships.” Ever heard that? Publications are about people or things that are important to people in some way. You could say that a publication’s content is a gift to its readers, from the editor, the publisher, and you if you’re lucky enough to get in. To the degree that articles are about people, this is another group that is prized, by the magazine and its readers.

If you get to know these groups, you can learn how to write about the one group and their interests, to the other group and theirs.

For example, trade publications and newsletters that represent organizations love to see ideas that include interviews with its membership. Find out who those folks are and where their input might fit snugly into your proposed article or feature. Contact them, get some quotes and include them in your pitches.

For other publications (lifestyle, entertainment and mainstream consumer interests), figure out who its readers are most likely to idolize in some way, and include a quote from their favorite “stars”. Or, pitch an article about them. Tap the Reader Feedback Loop

Drilling down, you can check reader interests and opinions of current articles and subjects by reading reader feedback sections. Feedback sections appear at the end of online articles and often front of book in print magazines. These can tell you what readers like, dislike, and what they want to see more of from the publication in the future. Base pitches on this input, especially if it fits the magazine’s editorial concept. Go a step further and contact the reader (if an e-mail address has been left). Bringing readers in like that sometimes makes an impression on editors. What else?

Prognosis Please? Analyze current articles for common themes, approaches, priorities, common anything, and make sure a whisper (or a scream) of that commonality shows up in your presentation when you make contact.

Not 20 Questions, Just Six

When asking the journalist’s questions - who, what, when, where, why and how - first see what defines the most common answers in the publication’s articles. Is the who usually a scientist, a man on the street interview, a business owner, or who? Do the same with the other five questions.

Who’s Paying the Bills? Make sure you’re familiar with the publication’s advertisers and compare their products with your audience’s reading habits and interests. Find out who is selling what, to whom and how? Discover what kind of writing brings those potential customers between the pages? Soon you’ll know which topics are yummy to cantaloupe connoisseurs, or what the hottest subject matter is for people who prefer to wear parkas while standing on snow covered mountains.

Do You Get the Concept?

The editorial concept is usually short and easy to find. In a sentence or two it tells you just what the given periodical is all about. Make sure your ideas hit the mark with the editorial concept. Look for it; find out what it is. Squeeze concept words and closely related words and ideas in this corner here or that corner there of your query.

Stylin’

Editorial style - just how does the whole word entrée come together - recipe, ingredients and all? If you don’t write like most of the stories you see in the publication and aren’t sure you can, stop - read them, practice writing pieces just like them (just for yourself for practice) before you make your approach. If the practice pieces are good, you might use them as samples, especially if you have trouble getting in without them.

Writing a lot of articles these days? You may have heard it is a great way to drive traffic to your site. But unless you are following these key points your work may be in vain. Before you submit another article read this over to make sure your article submission is successful.

When including links to your web site within your article, make sure those links are working! Each directory you submit to may handle it differently. Some will convert them automatically to a live link, others you will need to add the html to the link to make it live. When your article gets republished the link may not be live, defeating the purpose of trying to increase your back links. If someone can’t click on it and go to your web site, what advantage is it to be writing and submitting articles? You should always add your web address in you bio or “about author” starting with http:// That way even if the link is not live, someone interested in going to your site could always copy and paste it into their browser. Always preview your article to check to see if it is formatted the way you want it to look and check your links! Revise it as needed.

The importance of choosing the correct category. If your article is about marketing, why would you want it in poetry? It is critical to your article success that you choose the correct category for several reasons. It will group your article together with similar articles. This helps the search engines find “relevant” content. It helps users who are looking for new content to find your article. It can speed up the submission process by helping the directory owners. Some article directories have rss feeds for each category. Subscribers and rss feed directories will be notified when that category is updated, thereby increasing your article exposure.

Take advantage of all each article directory has to offer. Each one is different but they may offer some valuable features that you may not be aware of. Always create a clear, concise summary. Add keywords if available. In your profile, you may be able to create several links to your websites. These are links that will stay with the article directory and be spidered by search engines. You could easily add 50-100 static links pointing to your website this way.

If you need new ideas for writing articles, check out each directory for their most popular articles. This will give you a good idea on what people are looking for. Continue to submit to as many article directories as you can. There is success in numbers.

Happy article writing!

Q: How do I expand on an idea without getting too wordy?

A. Before you begin counting words, focus on holding the reader’s interest.

(1) Writing as fast as possible, write up your idea, in expanded form, as if you were writing an email to a good friend. Don’t edit or censor yet.

(2) Stop! Take a break — at least fifteen minutes. Have a cup of coffee, take the dog around the block, spend quality time with the cat.

(3) Return to your article and go on the attack. Replace abstract thoughts with word pictures or anecdotes.

For example, this morning I wanted to encourage readers undergoing midlife crisis to be wary of costly career tests and assessments.

First, I wrote, “Some assessments are not especially scientific or valid. Astrology can be just as useful — and a lot cheaper.” Okay, but ho-hum.

I changed this sentence to, “At midlife, the tests invariably demonstrate that you’re very, very good at what you are doing. Many assessments lack scientific validity — they’re no more accurate than a quiz you’d take in a popular magazine.”

And I added a narrative example, a composite of three true stories:

Reginald regretted not only the money spent for assessments, but also the feedback he received.

“They told me I would make a good engineer, which I am,” he said. “But they also suggested I pick an outdoor career. I’m not ready to be a forest ranger!”

Stories keep people reading. Every article needs at least one — more is better!

(4) Notice that you can often expand a single idea by stretching your story.

For example, I want to say, “People gain self-awareness through action, not assessments.”

The story becomes: “Reginald had three ideas in mind for his future career: architecture, astrology and aeronautical engineering. As he began networking to learn more about each career, he also learned more about himself. He realized that…”

(5) After you’ve cut out abstract ideas, your word count probably will go down.
Begin your attack with your first three paragraphs. Most of us have to write a few hundred words to figure out where we want to begin.

Cut ruthlessly as you move through the article. After awhile, chopping a thousand words down to five hundred will be easier than pruning your own rose bushes.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.

“Ten secrets of mastering a major life change” mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com

Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294

The Working Case Study by Christine Taylor Next to white papers, case studies are the most popular tool in the technical marketer’s toolkit The ubiquitous case study can range from a 3- paragraph online snippet to a full-blown magazine article. The most popular case study in the marketing/PR arsenal is the 500-700 word success story. They’re not as challenging to write as white papers, but you should structure them for maximum impact.

Different companies use different structures for their case studies, but all should follow the same general pattern: 1. Company overview and challenge 2. Project details 3. Positive results (of course)

Customer Overview and Challenge Start with a 2-3 paragraph overview of the customer’s company. This should be very positive - since you’re going to detail a problem the customer was having, the last thing you want to do is make them sound like jerks. So compliment them. Feel free to adapt the overview from their own Website text, where they’re already placing themselves in the best possible light. Then move on to the business challenge. Don’t make the customer sound stupid or incompetent. The challenge should always be centered on something good that is happening to them - fast growth, industry prominence, strategic IT changes - whatever. Their challenge should be applicable to your readers’ own business issues.

Project Details No project goes perfectly, but save the debriefing for the longer-form trade journal article. These short case studies should report on the successful project by briefly discussing specific products and benefits.

Don’t go all over the map. If the project is fairly narrow or specific, you won’t have any trouble sticking with the main point. In the case of large and complex installations, concentrate on the main point. For example, Microsoft Great Plains has more modules than you can shake a stick at. Concentrate on the ones that had the most positive impact on your customer.

Business Benefits Always quantify improvement when you can. Numbers can be dollar savings, percentages, or other measures of saved staff time, more efficient workflows, better customer service, etc. Be sure that the benefits you list are the benefits the customer perceives - hard costs are most easily quantified, but soft costs may have the higher perceived benefit to a customer. Ideally you will list both.

When NOT to Write a Case Study What are the most common blocks to partnering with a customer for a case study?

1.Your customer is really unhappy. They’d do a case study all right, but you wouldn’t want them to. If you’re the hapless individual setting up the initial interview, be sure that the customer really is happy and is open to talking to you. Otherwise they’ll just give you an earful. Fix: promise the customer that you’ll pass on all of his comments to the technical support team, or whoever you think will best handle it. Then do it, and forget about it. 2.Customers who fear their market will punish them. Prime example: legal firms with security issues. Sure you helped them through a security project and now they’re Fort Knox, but they don’t want their clients to dream that a problem ever existed in the first place. Fix: Forget it. They’ll never give you permission to produce the study. Besides, they’re probably right. 3.Your customer is an exacting IT type who is suspicious of the success story format. This customer considers the project a success too, but they dislike purely positive spins - and no project is perfect. Fix: If they are happy for the most part, get a buy-in that the project really was successful. Don’t put him off about the negatives, capture those comments too and promise to pass them on. (Then do it.) This is usually enough to secure the interview. 4.Your customer is scared to be interviewed. This is usually the IT guy who did all the footwork, and prefers to stay behind the scenes. He (or she) will either be too nervous to talk, or will despise you because he doesn’t think you’ve got the technical chops. Usually both. Fix: Understand the technology you’re interviewing about. You don’t have to be an engineer, but you should understand IT pressures and issues. Ask leading questions, but if they clam up and won’t talk, thank them and hang up. Tell your customer contact that you’re so happy you got to talk to the technician, and now could you talk to a project manager too? Christine Taylor is an expert copywriter for the technology industry. Call her today for help with your white paper, trade journal article, case study, positioning document, or any other B2B marketing piece. Call 760-249-6071 or e-mail her at chris@keywordcopy.com, and start that white paper selling!