How to avoid Content by Committee

Also: Get Ann's Tip of the Month (ATOM) Also: Get Ann's Tip of the Month (ATOM) [MarketingProfs Communication Today] November 2022 Hello, friend! Welcome to the 2nd edition of this monthly newsletter from MarketingProfs and me. It regularly features comms and content advice, A Tip of the Month (ATOM), and a photo of my dog. This month's issue is a condensed excerpt from a brand-new chapter in my newly released book on creating ridiculously good content. Snag [your copy of Everybody Writes 2 here](. * * * Leonardo* emailed recently to tell me about his co-worker who had internally floated the draft of an exec's Twitter bio. (*Leonardo isn't his real name. I invited him into my Writer's Witness Protection Program to conceal his identity. Comes with a new passport and Ted Lasso moustache.) He likes his job, Leonardo said. But the problem is that everything the Marketing team produces is written by the entire group. Everything is written by committee. The Twitter bio, for example. It should've been straightforward... but nosiree, Ted: The feedback was swift and harsh. Everyone had an opinion. Everyone scrambled to voice it. "You'd think she was defending a thesis in our team meeting, haha!" he wrote. Even through email (and his voice distorted to protect his identity)... I felt the pain in his "haha." * * * Approval from clients or colleagues isn't a bad thing. It's a fact of life for most of us. The problem comes when suggestions become unreasonable: when they strip all intent or personality out of a message or piece. Or when input becomes too heavy-handed. How can Leo and his colleagues avoid Writing By Committee? How can we? * * * I call the committee approach Hot Dog Writing: Extruded through so many Messaging Gears and Switches and Opinionators and Cogitators that you can't tell what it was originally made of. (Snouts? Intestines? Dangling modifiers? Who knows?) If your content is subject to colleague or client approvals ("The Committee"), here's some advice to make the process useful (and permanently unplug that Hot Dog Messaging Machine): 1. Reinforce the Big 3. Make sure The Committee understands the intent, the goal, and (most important!) the reader. The biggest problems with The Committee often spring from a lack of clarity on the Big 3. That leaves members of The Committee reviewing a piece without context and giving feedback on something they personally like or dislike. ("I don't like the word 'snout.'") 2. Use your tone of voice guide as your spotter—there to catch you and prevent a total face-plant. Agreeing on a set of content and voice guidelines before any work begins will keep everyone on the same page (literally). You might need to remind The Committee of your guide's specifics, especially if they aren't routinely tumbling on the mat with your brand voice as much as you are. 3. Create a monster outline before you start creating. Stuff that outline full. More is better than less. Include the bones of the piece... but also the heart, lungs, central nervous system—the overall approach. Anecdotes. Stories. Examples. Ideas. Data you'll reference. Experts, influencers you'll quote. It can be ugly. A real monster. That's OK. The key organs are there, even if patched together with ugly stitches, Frankenstein-style. 4. Set clear expectations and a timeline for reviewers. You want to avoid a free-for-all that turns into a week-long Writing-by-Committee Festival. (The most un-fun festival of all time.) You set the terms: Who reviews what sections? What specifically do you need from each? For example: The Client or Marketing VP reviews the overall strategy. Legal gets a say in anything touchy related to compliance. Brand weighs in on overall approach. Your subject-matter expert reads through the technicalities of that complex thing you're writing about on page 2. You let them know the hard deadline when the reviews need to be in: by end-of-day Wednesday, say. No exceptions. 5. Seek an OK, not opinions. "Please approve" delivers far fewer festival-style edits than will "please tell me if you have suggestions." 6. Set expectations for the number of approval rounds. State the number right up front. One or two is fine. Five? Get outta town, Gary from Legal. 7. OWN YOUR ROLE. Uppercasing this. It's crucial. As much as you set expectations for others... communicate your own role in the review process, too. Underlining that... because it's also crucial. You might say: "I'll take your comments and incorporate them according to our tone-of-voice guidelines and strategy for this piece."* (*But maybe with a bit more warmth and good humor. That sentence sounds like I'm the stressed-out event planner trying to arrange enough boxed lunches for that Writing-By-Committee Festival. You can do better.) Doing so reinforces your expertise. It also fortifies the role of you—the brave and heroic content marketer (also, good-looking)—as the ultimate owner of the piece. [Ann Handley] [Ann Handley] Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs Author, Everybody Writes: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content ATOM: Ann's Tip Of the Month If you want to be a better content creator, look up from your phone when you're in public. Observe what's around you like you're an alien dropped in from another world. Keep a diary. Write in it every day. Record something, anything: That conversation you overhead in line The weirdest pumpkin spice-branded items in the grocery store A description of your Uber driver Even if you never publish any of it... you're training yourself to tune into the world differently. When you're tuned in, your world starts to shape itself into a narrative. Stories will come to you "and sit in your lap," as the essayist David Sedaris says. Keeping a daily writing routine is the fastest, surest way to be a better creative. You can't learn to play ice hockey by reading about it. [[Webinar] What to Say to Bound Over the Biggest B2B Buying Barriers]( What to Say to Bound Over the Biggest B2B Buying Barriers My friend Nancy Harhut taught me all about the brain science behind alliteration (as in this boffo headline). Now she's here to apply her same research-backed point of view to this talk on how to lower customer defenses and obliterate objections so your messages are heard. This is an encore presentation from her popular B2B Forum in-person talk. [Don't miss it ►]( Marketing Communication Resources [chart] [Like a GPS for Content Creation]( Process is one of those things that feels hopelessly boring and mind-numbing. Like peeling skins from raw tomatoes. Matching socks from laundry. Scrubbing dirt from beets. Yet process is necessary in content marketing. We need a road map to get us to where we're going. This is your map. [podcast] [AI + B2B Content]( My favorite sentence in this conversation between MarketingProfs podcast host George B. Thomas and Writer.com CEO May Habib is when May says: "You cannot give a writing tool to somebody who isn't good outside of a writing tool." That's the perspective we need to have when we talk about AI's effect on B2B content. [article] [TikTok + B2B?]( I loved this talk by Vidyard's Tyler Lessard on how short-form video like TikTok fits into a 2023 marketing strategy. His talk was recorded live at the B2B Forum a month ago; [watch it now by registering here](. [article] [Celebrate the Future of B2B Content and Writing]( This webinar + party (webinarty?) features Aha Media Group's Ahava Leibtag—and me. There is a live content edit and a number of B2B Writing awards. Sure, you'll be fashionably late—the event happened last month—but the cool kids always are. [Join the party here](/SkNpckdKZ3BjZ1JaZ0tCem5WeXRVam93eWZEUjBhMjBjdStCMUQ5ZmFpZ2pjUmdqbTZnY2RMbW05SGJ0MHJtc3h2QUIyZ095RWkzdFVQd2JYQTZTWDlnMHRDb0dwWExHcDRnMkFpTytFVzVzdmdNbnVrZS9udz09S0/). A Message From Augie Handley [Augie!] Working dog. [MarketingProfs] Your Communication Today Team Your team for this issue (in alphabetical order): Megan Cordero, production director; Vahe Habeshian, publications director; Ann Handley, chief content officer; Augie Handley, naps expert. [MarketingProfs](ZEjFN/SkNpckdKZ3BjZ1JaZ0tCem5WeXRVam93eWZEUjBhMjBjdStCMUQ5ZmFpZ2pjUmdqbTZnY2RMbW05SGJ0MHJtc3h2QUIyZ095RWkzdFVQd2JYQTZTWDlnMHRDb0dwWExHcDRnMkFpTytFVzVzdmdNbnVrZS9udz09S0/) Copyright © 2000–2022 MarketingProfs, LLC All Rights Reserved Read our Terms of Service [here](. This email was sent to {EMAIL} as part of your MarketingProfs subscription. If you prefer to no longer receive MarketingProfs Communication Today, you can always [leave this list](. Did someone who cares about you forward this to you? 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