Are You Giving Your Copywriter Multiple Personality Disorder?

Don't give your copywriter multiple personality disorder.

One of the most paralyzing thoughts facing copywriters is knowing that their copy must run the gauntlet of approval before it is ever tested in the marketplace.

The approval procession typically starts with the copy chief and then staggers through a labyrinth of reviews by multiple personalities including but not limited to creative directors, account executives, product managers, sales reps, brand managers, attorneys, senior executives and the client.

The likelihood of a copywriter gaining unanimous approval from this disparate group of critics is tantamount to the career potential of a one-legged can-can dancer. Only after the copy has been sufficiently homogenized to gain consensus approval (which coincidentally often requires the same dexterity and physical effort as a one-legged can-can dancer) is it delivered to the ultimate critic – the target customer.

The most effective marketing messages are written as one-to-one personal communication between the copywriter and their target customer. Good copywriters understand this and actually go through a process of identifying their persona as the writer of the marketing message and the personality of the target customer they are trying to reach.

Asking a copywriter to craft an effective one-to-one marketing message while simultaneously placating numerous other personalities is a near-impossible task. So stop giving your copywriter multiple personality disorder.

Legal reviews, brand audits and client approvals are necessary inspections that will always be part of the marketing development process — but never the primary objective. Whatever you can do to preserve the personal communication from the copywriter to the target customer, and mitigate the multiple personalities required for approval, will improve your marketing message and ultimately your marketing results!