Definitely prioritize your crisis communications. But do not turn off your blog, shut down the email list, or go dark. 

Instead, it’s best if you shift your content, but keep content production steady. This has the effect of: 1) reassuring investors and stakeholders, 2) reassuring employees, both past and future (after all, you’ll need talent after the recovery is in place), and 3) steadying customers.

Rather than hunkering behind a thick curtain (think: the Wizard of Oz), U.S. history is dotted with leaders that used communications during times of crises to reassure constituents, keep them informed, and lay out next steps. 

For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt got the entire country to tune into his fireside chats—shepherding Americans gently and steadily out of the Great Depression. Winston Churchill ignited the fight in England’s reserves with impassioned speeches that blanketed the airwaves. (If you want to relive his gorgeous words, we recommend Erik Larson’s newest bestseller, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.) And Johnson & Johnson practically wrote the playbook on crisis management in 1982, with the Tylenol product tampering recall. James Burke, the company’s chairman, was forthright with the media and was eventually hailed as a hero. 

Today, instead of radio or TV, communications are most quickly and effectively delivered online. Digital helps you to laser focus on each of these audiences:

1. Content to reassure investors and stakeholders

If anyone wants to see you thrive after a crisis, it’s your investors, customers and fans, employees, and other stakeholders. By sending out well-timed emails, posting on social media, and sharing articles, you can share your plans and progress. 

We’ve seen this modeled recently in the emails that have flown into all of our inboxes from retailers, restaurants, and hotels—informing us of the steps they’ve taken to keep spaces clean, employees on the payroll, and local communities supported. 

But these missives shouldn’t be limited to the B2C community. Your investors want to read how you’re being good stewards of their trust and faith. Prior to the revelation of the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol tampering, the stock was near a 52-week high. Some shareholders panicked and dumped their stock, but deft handling by Chairman Burke kept stakeholders well-informed—rewarded by a stock rebound to its 52-week high in just two months.

2. Content to reassure employees

Your employees want to know you have their back—and will continue to do so as the crisis unfolds. Knowing you are concerned about their well-being—professionally, economically, and holistically—speaks volumes about their chosen employer. It can also quell a threat as insidious as COVID-19: namely, the rumor mill. Being transparent and authentic pays dividends, which includes conveying your own concerns, as well as highlighting the bright spots. 

That glimpse of sunshine could be sharing encouraging notes from customers, profiling employees, and praising acts of goodwill. 

It can also open the pipeline to crowdsourcing ideas from your team. Great ideas are often born out of crisis. You may be in leadership, but you are not alone. Like Churchill, you can rally your troops to get through this blitz. 

And when things return to normal, employees will remember and value your efforts to reassure them. This may arrive in the form of sky-high ratings on Glassdoor—or retention of top performers.

3. Content to steady customers

Your customers have invested dollars, company budgets, time, and trust in you. They are rooting for you, and want to continue the relationship you’ve forged. Don’t go dark on them. Use this time of uncertainty to deepen your connection. This might mean a steady flow of communication (not a torrent, mind you) to help assuage fears. 

Tell them what’s going on now, and what they can look ahead to. If you are struggling, that can be OK. Customers are often your best source of leads. And if you are thriving, they want to bask in your good news. 

Recalling the Tylenol case, customers didn’t flee the brand. Knowing that J&J was doing everything in its power to ensure safety (here’s where it helps to mention your facts), they flocked back. The proof of brand loyalty and trust is in the sales. Today, the Tylenol brand encompasses 28 products, including sleep aids and pain relievers for children. 

Look ahead to the light at the end of the tunnel

These are undoubtedly dark days we’re living in—but that doesn’t mean your business should go dark to match. Shine a beacon of light and hope out to your audience. Together, you’ll get through this. 

For help with your copywriting and communications during this crisis, get in touch.

Golden years. Sunset years. Nest egg. Despite the advances America has made in talking to the diversity of genders, races, and nationalities, tired and tone-deaf cliches like these continue to crop up in marketing communications, reflecting a persistent bias in how we talk to mature audiences. It’s time to grow up.

Honestly, who over 50 years old truly spends their days living in a retirement community, playing bridge (or golf),  and waiting for the early bird special? Why is it assumed that once you’re over 50, your life is downing Viagra, wearing Depends, and driving a Camry? As 51-year old J.Lo proved during the Super Bowl LIV half-time show (that lit up social media), there’s a lot of life in the mature audience. Savvy marketers know there’s also enormous spending power and decision making.

Defying Age Expectations 

According to a study by global consultants Korn Ferry, “the average age for a CEO across industries is 58, with the oldest average CEO age 60 in financial services and the youngest 55 in the technology sector.”

The age of the financial CEO may not be so surprising, but the age of the tech CEO contradicts the pervasive media image of a sneaker-wearing 26-year old. Yes, there are lots of cool tech start-ups launched by millennials. But there’s also an ocean of enterprise tech companies led by seasoned executives, and a swarm of time-tested execs who are appointed to leadership positions in start-ups precisely because of their decades of experience and network ties.

In everyday living, as in the executive suite, age carries power. AARP’s Longevity Economy outlook found that “the 50-plus age cohort contributes $8.3 trillion to the U.S. economy each year or 40% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” And yet, despite this powerful economic influence, 2019 AARP research found that “80% of consumers ages 50-plus say that marketers portray their lifestyle based on stereotypes.”

Maturity in Marketing

These ageist stereotypes persist in both the world of B2B and B2C marketing. Fortunately, there are movements to be more inclusive of our mature cohorts. Getty Images recently teamed up with AARP to launch The Disrupt Aging® Collection. The 1,400-piece collection shows more authentic images of today’s 50, 60, and 70+-year-olds.  

And considerations that apply to persuasive imagery, also apply to copywriting. At MarketSmiths, we craft a voice that resonates whether our client’s audience is 27 or 67, or all along the age spectrum. Whether the product is artisanal cheese or cloud-based life-long learning courses, good copywriting speaks to a buyer’s motivations, desires, and pain points—no matter their age.

In short, we seek to address the whole person, not just a singular demographic aspect. If there is universal agreement, it is that everyone, including mature audiences, want copy that is real and relevant. As the AARP Longevity report found: “more than 80% of consumers ages 18-plus say they feel better about brands that feature a mix of ages.”

This approach is even more essential when it comes to B2B copywriting, which happens to be a healthy portion of our work. As a business, if your decision-makers are Baby Boomers or early Gen Xers, you have an audience that is astute, experienced and expects to be spoken to like the adults they are, not folks doddering towards obsolescence.

When these high-level decision-makers look for information, they want it delivered with crisp wording, tight organization, and an intelligent point of view. They want content that is written by people who speak their language.

So, what exactly is inclusive copywriting that covers all ages? 

Here are three pillars that we adhere to:

1. Words. Yes, they matter. Audiences of any age are fine with words that go beyond two syllables—as long as they add to precision. There’s a rich vocabulary to pull from, and we use it to add depth, clarity, and vibrancy to explain concepts, products, and services.
2. Cliches. Avoided. Golden years, sunset years, nest egg –who really talks like that in real life? Probably not you, and certainly not us. Inclusive writing gets to the kernel of the idea. It isn’t lazy, relying on clichés that entered our lexicon either recently or decades ago—it’s authentic to real life.
3. Structure. The essential element. Everyone is busy. Just like a 38-year old, a 58-year old doesn’t have time to guess exactly what you are getting at. Whether it’s an email campaign or an eBook, good copywriting leads you through the piece with a defined purpose, and without an excess of verbiage.

If your organization wants copy that’s grown-up and reaches decision-makers, we’re your copywriting agency—with the experience to prove it. Let’s talk.

It’s the Fall season—the time when studios kick off their stream of blockbuster releases and Oscar-worthy films. MarketSmiths’ own Sr. Director of Strategy and former motion picture insider, Michele Graham, takes a look at some of the biggest, most anticipated titles—and the copywriter connection. 

Little Women

A story beloved by generations, maybe too loved? Between stage, television and big screen adaptations, Little Women is in its 20th reincarnation (give or take a few). So, what could be new?

We copywriters are often faced with this quandary in writing for legacy brands. How do we give a fresh updated take without alienating a loyal consumer base? It was this precise dilemma that we tackled with a client that is considered the granddaddy in the commercial tenant rep sector, Norman Bobrow.

To put a new spin on a 40-year-old story, we wiped away the copy cobwebs in the existing website, showcased how the company works the market, and added spunk—lots of it. You don’t survive in NYC commercial real estate by being a shrinking violet. We honored values that are true to the bone and brought forth language that is relevant and contemporary (and thankfully no one dies at the end). 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

The costumes! The make-up! The wings! The chiseled cheekbones! It’s a feast for the eyes, but looks will only take you so far. To deliver a blockbuster, you need a script that keeps things moving and interesting—or you’re toast by week two.

It’s the same in writing scripts for videos—a task with which the MarketSmiths team has no small amount of experience. While our words may not be enhanced with production as fantastical as Maleficent’s, we can still make a jaw-dropping impact with language alone.

That’s just what we did when we worked with D.C.-based 522 Productions. With Academy Award winner Michael Douglas on board to narrate, MarketSmiths delivered a concise script for the United Nations Foundation’s Global Leadership Awards Dinner that detailed then-President Obama’s policy achievements on the global stage. Weaving in clips of President Obama’s speeches, we crafted a script that hit policy high points and inspired. In the words of 522’s video producer:

“When a project calls for an above-and-beyond script, we want expertise we don’t have in-house. This script had to be really, really good, so we wanted to make sure MarketSmiths weighed in–because research, nuance, and tight deadlines are their bread and butter.” 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Goodbye Rye. So long Finn. See ya Kylo Ren. We will miss you, Luke Skywalker. It’s the last of the Star Wars films (or so they say). The 9-movie franchise has sustained itself and legions of fans over more than 40 years—an out-of-this-world achievement. And while we don’t profess to be the next George Lucas or J.J. Abrams, we’re quite creative with handling serial campaigns. 

One thing we’ve learned: don’t wait too long between installments. Think about what your follow-up is going to be while you are in production—whether it’s the next white paper, e-book, blog, or email campaign. We know how to thread together concepts, while also referencing prior key points so that audiences can join in at any point. We’ve done it for some stellar clients, including an e-book series for Samsung digital signage. May the force (of content) be with you!

The Irishman

It’s an all-star ensemble: Scorsese. Pacino. DeNiro. Pesci. Expectations are high when you have this much wattage. A few tips from director Scorsese could equally apply to content. Things like: Make the audience care. Whether it’s about gangsters—or in MarketSmiths’ case anything from technology to fine wine, financial services to education— tap into readers’ feelings and peel away at their pain points.

Tip two: be true to the characters. Effective copy rings of authenticity, and speaks your audience’s language. 

And last: Pay attention to details. Get the big picture, but also capture the nuances. It’s why we do an in-depth strategy session with each client to kick off every project for content that makes readers sit up and take notice. 

Frozen 2

Elsa, Olaf, Anna and crew are off to new adventures to the delight of young ones everywhere. After hearing the theme song over and over and over, are parents ready to enter the kingdom of Arendelle once again?

We know just how they feel. Copywriters often get stuck on wording, but when it doesn’t work, how do you know when to Let It Go? That’s the magic of a professional writer. Rather than getting frozen in place, we step back, take a breather, create a new approach—and, last but not least, tap into the creative juices of our team for copy that saves the day (and gets results).

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Heart. Kindness. Empathy. The cardigan sweater. It could all make for a saccharine-soaked two hours. Mr. Rogers trod a fine line and, in turn, endeared himself to generations. We are often asked to elicit warm feelings without being cloyingly sweet. It’s a task we warmly embrace. Take writing about cancer and other serious medical conditions. Copy in this sector can often veer into gratingly maudlin. When AdventHealth asked us to write for their new website (all 2100+ pages!), our team of 14 writers created copy that was empathetic and addressed fear, anxiety, and questions through their patients’ eyes, while also shining a light on real, fact-based solutions and whole patient care—right in their neighborhood. 

Cats

State-of-the-art digital effects transform Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, Dame Judi Dench, and the entire litter into kitties from fierce to cuddly. Let’s hope the creatives behind the new Cats movie remembered that wiz-bang technology should never overshadow a story’s humanity: Emotional connections stay with audiences long after the last FX.

Similarly, there’s a human connection to be made even when writing about the most sophisticated technology. MarketSmiths crafts content for fintech, health tech, digital operations tech, AI and BI—including this web copy for Ezra, MRI AI-assisted early cancer detection. Now and forever, we keep in mind how these applications solve B2B problems, always expressing how they turn what can be overwhelming situations into results that are the cat’s meow for businesses—and the people who run them.

If you’re looking to tell your story, connect with audiences, or win awards, you need a professional copywriting team. Look to MarketSmiths for content that will put your brand in the spotlight.

The more we write about machine learning, predictive analytics, and other components of today’s fintech, the more we’re struck by what’s possible. Michele Graham, our Sr. Director of Strategy and financial content expert, weighs in on this evolving landscape.

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Can you afford that MINI Cooper? I don’t know. Consult your personal budgeting app.

Is Cisco (CSCO) a buy, sell, or hold? Well, let’s see. There are hundreds of trading platforms that use predictive algorithms to weigh in…and they’re getting better and better, every day.

What’s 30 Rockefeller Center worth, if you sell it? Great question. We know of an emerging real estate valuation platform that delivers an accurate price in minutes, vs. weeks.

As financial copywriters for apps (for traditional and alternative investments) and platforms (for wealth advisors, institutional trading, middle- and back-office support), we’ve been fascinated with the leapfrogging possibilities within this fast-growing realm.

And we’ve been learning, too. After all, it’s our job to explain the mystifying, without dumbing it down. 

To do this, you need to understand the foundations of finance, and of business—particularly for b2b copywriting. You need a grasp of the jargon particular to what you’re writing about. And finally, you need to get how to walk that line between taking a thrilling leap of faith—and pleasing the compliance folks and coloring inside the boldface lines.

Let’s talk about that last thing.

If you work in fintech, you inherently understand risk-reward ratios. You know that the highest returns don’t come from playing it totally safe.

For a long time, I worked with a design agency in Fairfield County, a hotbed for hedge funds. When it came to branding, launching firms would ask for a bold image, as long as it was blue. It could be navy, sky, or Carolina—but it had to be blue. We would show them a dozen competitors—all with blue logos—and pose the question: how do you plan to stand out if your image blends in?

The same goes for your copy and content. Whether it’s a website, blog posts, white papers, presentations or advertorials, if you work with a writing partner that can take your ideas and add verbal punch and crystal clarity, you’re steps ahead of differentiating yourself in a hyper competitive field.

Copywriting for fintech keeps us on our toes. It’s a good thing that we not only love to write, we love to read—our inboxes fill with news feeds on trending topics, and our tablets light up with articles from the New York Times to Forbes. After years of doing research to inform our clients’ content, we know which sources can be trusted for facts and figures and which are dubious. Interestingly, we’ve become whizzes at reading stock charts. And with a journalists’ soul, we know the questions to ask—how to probe and delve—so that we get at the essence of an investment strategy, asset class or budding technology.

In the past year alone, we’ve risen to the challenge of writing website copy for alternative investments, wealth managers and wealth management platforms, and technology that incorporates AI and machine learning to generate valuations. We’ve brainstormed taglines that capture the core of these burgeoning products and firms. At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve gone deep in blogs and white papers on topics as varied as 1031 exchanges, blockchain, and investments in oil & gas, medical marijuana,  lithium, and cobalt.

Here’s a few lessons we’ve learned along the way:

Be fearless

Some writers nod their head in agreement and then walk away not truly understanding what a client has described to them. We’re not afraid to ask questions until we are absolutely certain that we have the information we need to write crisp engines of strategy.

Be resourceful

We’ve got lots of arrows in our quiver. Both before and after our client content strategy sessions, we search the internet for what’s happening in the landscape from a macro and micro perspective. We pull together threads of insight from fintech projects we’ve written, and we assign the writing team with the most relevant experience. When a client has a deadline or launch staring at them, now is not the time to start the learning curve.

Be bold

The websites that generate traffic that convert to leads, the blog posts that get read and support SEO, the white papers that make your thought leadership stand out and create a sales funnel, they’re all built on copy and content that can be enjoyed. We’ve become masters at taking highly technical (and let’s be honest, in lesser hands, dry) material and giving it personality, humanity, and a boldness that commands attention.

Be clear

Not everyone who reads your fintech content is going to be Marc Andreessen, Sallie Krawcheck, or Larry Fink. The important point is you don’t know who is going to read it but you want to make damn sure that whomever the readers are, they totally get your premise and your points of differentiation without wading through miles of copy. Quick in, quick out translates to quick results.

Fintech is a wild, ever-evolving, uber-competitive world. It’s not for the faint of heart nor for the weak with words. When you invest in content to support your organization, you expect to see results. Get in touch with us today to secure an experienced financial copywriter for your next project.  

To a large extent, I’m just like you. I’ve got my smartphone, laptop, desktop, and I’ve been known to steal my husband’s iPad.  With all this digital technology at my fingertips, you’d think I’d read The New York Times digital edition. But no! In our house, it’s the paper version that covers the large center island in our kitchen. It’s the rustle of paper that accompanies our morning bagel and coffee. It’s the torn-out recipes that go next to our shopping list (also written on paper!). It’s the folded over page that serves as the reminder to me to ask my kids “Did you read this article? I thought you’d find it interesting/helpful/shocking” and then launch into a dinnertime discussion.

My daughter (the sustainability major) forgives me this less than environmentally-friendly indulgence. In our house, there’s a sense of community with paper that can’t be duplicated by digital.

Print vs. Digital: What’s the Difference?

I used to work in the movie business. People always said that large commercially-available screens would be the death of the movie theater. And yet they weren’t. There’s something about a shared experience that people need. For my family, that shared experience lands on our doorstep every morning.

Don’t get me wrong. The digital edition has its advantages, with video, crystal clear photography, and the ability to comment and share via text, email, and social media. Yet I can’t help but think of how many pieces I’d miss without the print edition. The article that, by headline alone, wouldn’t grab me. The things that never crossed my radar, because the software only suggests the most popular articles, or the ones it thinks I’ll like. And then there’s the tactile element! The large scale graphics that I can spread out. The articles and recipes I tear out and put in my desk folders or cooking library, dog-eared and cranberry-juice-stained in testament to their frequent use. 

There’s just something magical about print newspapers. Just ask Lauren Hillenbrand. When she was asked about her impetus to write Unbroken (a fabulous read!), she said the idea came to her while she was doing the research for her first bestseller Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand doesn’t do her research on microfiche like most writers; she buys vintage newspapers to soak in the details of the era. She wants to see the articles in their full context—what the ads were promoting, what stories were being covered, what was “hot.” In researching Seabiscuit, Hillenbrand turned the page of a vintage paper and there was a picture of groundbreaking runner Louie Zamperini and a story about his earth-shattering track achievements. The book sold millions of copies and even got a movie directed Angelina Jolie, proving that nugget hidden in a pile of old papers was absolutely worth mining for.

We Love Our Digital Options—but We Still Have a Love Affair with Print!

We’ve played with the idea of giving up our print edition. We have the NYT app on our phones, get instant updates about breaking news, and we’ve fallen in love with the cooking app. They make our lives better.

But after spending most of our day staring at one device or another, it’s refreshing to take a break from the screens. It’s cathartic to pour over a page and see what jumps out at us; to see a full span of articles in one take; to cuddle up with my daughters and the Style section; to pull a chair up close to my husband as we dive into Business; to be inspired by Food for our family dinners; and, after a few health scares, to be comforted by the rational outlook of Science. Realizing how much you don’t know is strange but invigorating, and their tidbits of medical information have made us smarter, wiser, more empowered advocates.

The digital world brings us closer to people in a myriad of ways. But there is a texture—and I mean that literally and figuratively—that paper adds to our life that my family and I are just not ready to give up.

Here at MarketSmiths, our writers are always thinking about the impact compelling copy makes on the world, even over the morning paper. Whether you’re looking to produce a brochure in print or want to enhance your digital presence with crisp new web copy, we’d love to help. Get in touch today to find out more.