The danger of pigeonholing

Pigeonhole pic

We all like reassurance. When we go to a restaurant, it’s good to know the chef isn’t cooking their first meal. Or that the pilot flying our plane isn’t a bus driver ‘having a go’. That’s not pigeonholing, it’s self-preservation.

When it comes to copywriting, there can be a danger of looking for too much reassurance.

Do you need an expert in writing seductive, persuasive and easy-flowing copy? Or someone who’s written copy for mechanical diggers before? Or for shoes? Or for something intensely specific, like the chemicals used in perfume manufacture?

It’s a bit like asking a gifted musician if they can play jazz and rock, rather than trusting they have complete mastery of their guitar. The trick is to simply listen.

We’d argue that, apart from a few highly regulated fields such as pharmaceuticals or complex financial instruments, writing ability is of far greater importance than sector experience.

And yet, even in those fields, a good writer can still get up to speed. We’re professionals, this is what we do. Brief us, let us do the research, we’ll be fine.

Watch our short “How do you go about briefing copywriters to get the best results?”

It’s true, different writers will have their own affinity with a particular subject. But the same things that make writing sing are constant, whatever market you’re in.

The skill of good copywriting is in taking a brief and turning dry information into something polished and interesting to read.

Which is why we would always put great emphasis on thorough briefing, so that nothing that needs to be expressed is missed. And why we spend a lot of time interviewing our clients and getting under the skin of their products and services.

A famous adman once advised marketers to, ‘interrogate the product until it confesses to its strengths’.

We try to follow that advice. Part of the joy of copywriting is learning about and immersing oneself in new subjects. And the benefit to the client is the zeal and enthusiasm of the recent convert. (We come to the subject with fresh eyes, unhampered by the ‘curse of knowledge’.)

A copywriter’s job is to sniff out what’s brilliant about ANY product or service and shout it from the rooftops, whisper it in the audience’s ear, or slip it into the right conversations.

(That’s why our mantra is “Don’t Bury Your Brilliance.”)

We would also argue that, whenever you come across ‘specialist’ writing, it’s often more accurate than interesting. Sure, the author may know their field inside-out, but that doesn’t make them a good writer. Often, the lack of broader experience can mean the opposite. It’s one of the dangers of pigeonholing.

It’s also the joke behind ‘this week’s guest publication’ on the TV show Have I Got News For You. It’s not just that the titles picked are obscure, but that the sentences pulled from them are usually quite dull, nerdy, and involved.