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At first blush, this may seem like a given.  After all, clients hire a writing service for domain expertise, proven methodologies and a track record, right?  In theory, perhaps, but in practical reality it’s always more complicated.

Constructive criticism isn’t for the thin-skinned on either side of the table.  Especially when you think you’re dead right about what the words should say.   But time and again, the clients who encourage writers to candidly engage in the work are more likely to benefit.  This is especially true at key junctures in a project when course corrections can determine success or failure. A writer’s willingness to play a vigorous devil’s advocate is indispensible. And even more so if a company finds itself mired in a stale or failing campaign, losing market share or suffering from being elbowed out of leadership.

Not all companies possess the DNA for thick skin.   Here are the warning signs and the antidotes:

1.  “We’ve re-invented our segment and don’t have any direct competitors.”  Really?  If so, chances are you don’t have much of a market, either. Better revisit the business plan.  Or do some market research right way.

Rx: Make your content reflect a rigorous understanding of your prospects and users. Choose writers who know the territory and express your competitive differentiation in the language users actually use.

2.  “Our value proposition is time-tested and we haven’t had to update our web site in more than a year.”  Ouch.  Keeping content fresh, provocative and current is a given in the Web 2.0 world of social marketing.  Not to mention that competitive environments in this mercurial world have a way of changing suddenly, regularly and disruptively.  Overnight.

Rx:  Do regular site checkups.  Get customers to give you feedback on your content and compare you to your competitors.  Engage your writing service to do a content audit and make recommendations.

3.  “We have more customers than we can service.” You might think of this as the lulled-into-complacency syndrome.  Getting comfortable is an open invitation to competitors looking to feast on your early gains.  Never forget the sage words of Intel’s Andy Grove: only the paranoid survive.

Rx: Lively, engaging content that spotlights the way users apply your technology can form the basis of much more than garden-variety application stories.  Dive deeply into unconventional applications as a way to showcase more features and benefits.

4.  “We’ve got a three year technology lead on our closest competitor.”  No you don’t.  Cling to this misguided notion and you’ll spend more time playing defense than you will on offense successfully marketing your differentiation and advantages that address your customers’ needs.

Rx: Concentrate on practical market education tools that explain your distinction in the market from a rational, pragmatic and credible point-of view.  No reader wants to be told how great your technology is.  They want to know how your technology is best suited to their requirements to determine if you’re worthy of making the short list.

5.  “Our carbon sequestering technology advances make us a lock for a feature article in The New Yorker.” Right.  The editors there are aching for a tutorial on multi-pollutant removal strategies because the readership is chock full of energy czars, sustainability directors and energy policy wonks.  Not.

Rx: Ask your writers to weigh-in on if and how your written pieces can be best placed or re-purposed.  Don’t ‘spray and pray’ your content.

Bringing new ideas to the table is the engine room of business.  But before adopting those great ideas as gospel, put them through a messaging stress test.   Unless, of course, you subscribe to the irony of David Brinkley’s collection of closing commentaries entitled, “Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion.”

What other signs of “thin skin” can you think of?  What does your team do to encourage outsourced content creators to “push back” on directives they believe are misguided?

Although it’s been said many times many ways (apologies to Mel Torme), most marketing content-related projects call for answers to at least a half-dozen questions.  And all members of the team should weigh-in.  As simplistic as they may appear, questions not unlike the ones below can reveal information that makes the difference between a worthwhile end product and an endless cycle of revisions and finger-pointing:

1.  Objective: What is the purpose of the proposed document and/or web content?

2.  Target: Who is the reader?

3.  Message(s): What are the key take-aways or leave-behind messages you want to create in the reader’s mind about your company and/or its offerings?

4.  Differentiation: What are the core, competitive differentiators of your offering(s) that you want this  particular content to convey?  How do they differ from competitive offerings and what is significant about this difference?

5.  Features/Benefits: Relative to the differentiation you describe above, specify the features that make it superior and explain the corresponding benefit(s) of each.  How to they “benefit” a buyer?

6. Substantion/proof points: What evidence or field results illustrate the validity of your claims (e.g., customer testimony, metrics, competitive superiority, etc.) ?

Is this exercise part of your own preparation today? What other questions would you ask?  What did we miss?

The most powerful marketing content today, the content you should be striving to create, is the stuff that creates the right discussions in the right context among the right people.

If your content is all about your company, your brand and your products, you’re missing the point of what makes today’s marketing content more effective and memorable.  In other words, you’re not getting what you’re paying for.  If your outreach is basically driven by cultivating a few opinion leaders and staying in control of your message, you’re not making the most of the new landscape and the new tools available to you.  Worse, you’re likely losing ground to competitors who are.

To Bob Duffy, senior social-media strategist at Intel, it’s not about controlling the message so much as providing the context in which information is exchanged and interpreted.

Duffy told Social Media Explorer that brands, not unlike Intel, are doing a lot of what the traditional media (and industry analysts) have always done: publishing what they learn from developers, for example, revealing best practices and creating connections between different tech players. Like his counterparts at other technology brands today, Duffy is creating the context for important discussions in the industry that will ultimately pay off down the road for his employer.

The takeaway for today’s marketing pros? Reach out to anyone who could be part of your community and jump-start the discussions you want to be part of.  Discussions to which you can add value and build your reputation as somebody who’s worth engaging on a long-term basis.  Just keep in mind that you have to stick to the subject matter of the discussion and not be a shill for your brand.  Your community is street-wise.  It is more than capable of connecting the dots. Do as Duffy does: “We don’t try to control the conversation or message, we just want to provide the context.”

What are you doing as a marketer to instigate industry discussions and engage your communities?  What are you learning from, and sharing with, the people who matter to your brand?  What kinds of connections are you creating among them?  How are you measuring it?

Props to the academics at Edit911, the guys who were instrumental in editing our book a few years years ago, for inspiring today’s post. You can read the full Monty here. Below, our expurgated version.

I. Use shorter sentences. Your readers will not only thank you, they’ll be much more likely to read you.

II. Read it aloud. If it doesn’t sound right, it’s wrong. If it sounds good, it reads well.

III. Give it to someone else to read. Preferably someone known for their candor. This is the essence of test-marketing.

IV. Outline your thoughts. This ensures a beginning, a middle and an end. It also guards against repetition and rambling.

V. In lengthier pieces, use subheads. Another way to ensure that you follow your outline.

VI. Make your main idea your compass or “true north”. If you need reminding, put it on the corner of each page as you write.

VII. Think of possible objections. If you’ve ever taken a class in debate, this is like the exercise of arguing both sides of an issue. Anticipating objections enable you to build in persuasive counter-arguments. You want your opinion to make a difference in someone’s thinking, not just make your point.

VIII. Know your audience. Never stop asking and reminding yourself exactly who your readers are as you write to them.

IX. Use spell check and grammar check. They are heavenly tools.

X. If there is one thing worse than underestimating (insulting) your reader’s intelligence, it’s overestimating their knowledge of your subject. It’s no coincidence that the best writing happens to be the clearest and simplest.

Brian Solis thinks deep thoughts about the way people find and consume content today. Any and all content.

We can’t point to any companies hiring, in his words, the “new CEOs–chief editorial officers…journalists, editors, and freelancers (that) transform (company) media-rooms and blogs into veritable newsrooms”.

But, hey, if it generates leads, grows revenue and cuts the cost of selling we’re all for it.

Your company may not be looking for a chief editorial officer just yet but you don’t really need one to create the kind of content that draws the right audience, creates the right impression about your offerings and, above all, compels the right action by the people you want to act. Just remember the basic ingredients: what it is that makes one company’s material superior to others’ in the eyes and minds of buyers. Superior, or so-called “remarkable” content, contains four basic qualities:

1. It’s relevant. It delivers immediate gratification. Here’s where and why you really need to know your audience, users, and prospects because you must anticipate their desires, needs and interests. What do they have a burning interest to know? What do THEY NEED to know about your solution? This is all about what they want to know, not what you want to tell them. All that matters is what they are trying to find out. It’s on you to know what this is.

2. It’s unique. At least it’s unique to you and your brand. This means your voice, your take, your analysis and your interpretations that are uniquely your own. (Simple example: quotes in a press release should be written as if you’re being quoted in a face-to-face conversation with a customer, not like a letter from one lawyer to another. This is what is meant by authenticity.) Think of this attribute as the opposite of a “me, too” product feature. Why should someone care about (read) your stuff if they can get the same stuff just about anywhere else? Hint: if they can, they will. This is self-defeating, to put it politely.

3. It’s appealing. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing in way that reflects professionalism and expertise. Yours! Typography, videography, photographic quality, etc., must be redolent of high-production value. If it has your name on it, you want it packaged accordingly. It’s no coincidence that sticky content is content elegantly presented.

4. It’s engaging. We’re talking language here. The use of words. Just as most of us tend to skip disclaimers, legalese, terms-and-conditions and package-inserts, passive writing is the written equivalent of tryptophan. Engage the reader the way you wish to be engaged: with vivid word pictures that make the topic come alive with real-life anecdotes to substantiate your claim that you understand their world because you live there, too. Never forget that your readers will judge your products and services through your content.