Walt Kania, Writer

Don’t write product copy. Write a product review.

Walt Kania — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:23:07 +0000

When I get stuck for a fresh and engaging way to talk about a product, I rarely look for inspiration among other marketers. Most of them seem to be copying each other.

Instead, I study product reviews.

I go to the trade press and the blogs and magazines and see how journalists and columnists [...]

Product literature should be literature

Walt Kania — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:56:48 +0000

It’s interesting that we often refer to our marketing content as ‘product literature’, or ‘sales literature’.

Most of time, of course, it ain’t even close to ‘literature’. Those product sheets and web pages are pretty stiff reading, mostly. (I know. I inflicted reams of sales blather on the world before I reformed.)

The hard-boiled [...]

Technical copy: Banana Republic style

Walt Kania — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:44:22 +0000

How do you make a technical product sound alluring? How do you make the thing come alive? How do you get techs to think, “Oooh, I want that”?

Try a trick that I swiped from the old Banana Republic catalog.

The model for compelling product copy

Ages ago, before the company went yuppie, [...]

Icons and idols: Writing wizards

Walt Kania — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:45:59 +0000

This comes under the heading Seldom Asked Questions. SAQ.

“Which writers have influenced you the most?”

Tom O’Neill of Exodus Capital Advisors was the first client who had ever asked me that.

He explained it was a good way to gauge a writer’s mindset and approach. And any writer who couldn’t point to role [...]

What is content marketing, anyway?

Walt Kania — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:26:28 +0000

Content Marketing is a clunky term for a marketing approach that relies on a wide arsenal of written and online material to win customers — rather than plain old ‘selling.’

I think of it as marketing by teaching and helping. Selling by being interesting, by dispensing wisdom, by offering better advice and how-to than [...]

The scary part about hiring a writer

Walt Kania — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:10:58 +0000

I know what it feels like on your side of the desk right now. Looking for someone to build content for you is an iffy business.

Is this guy right for what I’m doing? Will he ‘get’ it? What if I pay all this money and the work comes out lame? What if all [...]

A scribe’s tool chest

Walt Kania — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:40:52 +0000

When my grandfather worked as a tool and die maker in the ’40s and ’50s, he was expected to supply some of his own tools.

Having your own gear marked you as a solid pro, a guy the shop foreman could hire and not worry about. Which meant you always had steady work. And [...]

Shooting for magic

Walt Kania — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:44:13 +0000

Every writer knows about this.

You’re going along, spinning sentences, chugging them out, one word in front of the other. The piece is coming out fine and serviceable, and it’s saying what you mean.

The process is like pedaling a bike. You pump the pedals and you move forward.

But about an hour [...]

Music to write by

Walt Kania — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:30:19 +0000

Can you write with music playing?

I can’t.

My designer and photographer bretheren may be able do a day’s work with their iPods on, but I can’t write a lick that way.

I can listen. Or I can write. But not both. It’s like trying to shave with one hand while combing your hair [...]

The most profitable ideas I ever stole: Part 1

Walt Kania — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:13:33 +0000

In my everyday work, I’m not looking for universal truths and new paradigms; I’m sweating out what to put on a client’s home page.

I work at keyboard level, in execution and implementation mode. I’m not pondering the future of digital media; I’m trying to think of a sharper intro for a client’s article.

[...]