Marketing Profs

With September on the horizon, vacations are coming to an end and a new wave of marketing initiatives may be about to begin. For many organizations, 'tis the season to shop for talent, especially copywriters.

It looks easy enough. Just scroll through Craigslist or tap your talent agency, and you'll attract loads of well-scrubbed writers carrying handsome leather portfolio cases packed with clever, catchy copy.

But it's awfully hard to look beyond the leather to identify the talent who will really work for you. Too often, the new writer "just doesn't get it," cannot cooperate with your other talent or otherwise simply fails to articulate messages that really resonate with your audience.

Given human foibles, there are no fool-proof formulas for finding winners. But you can take measures—right at the start of your relationship—that give you a much greater probability of success. Here are some things you should look for in a writer at your very first meeting:

1. Connects creative work to underlying objectives

Face it: All the samples the writer proudly slides across the table to you are going to look pretty good. After all, your would-be writers cherry-pick their best work. Unless they're truly incompetent (most professionals are not), everything you read is going to be clean, smooth and attractive.

Your job is to dig deeper, to uncover the "why" behind each creative decision evidenced before you. Why was one benefit highlighted over others? Why use a particular catchphrase? What was the reasoning behind the diction, tone, point of view of the piece?

Good writing is never arbitrary, and every writer worth her salt should be able to connect her creative decisions to the underlying objectives of the project or the overall strategy behind the marketing campaign. Consider this your opportunity to expose the writer's thinking.

2. Wears many masks

Writers are like actors—they must be prepared to assume the voices and mannerisms of people who may be completely unlike themselves. As you flip through the samples, look for variety. You should "hear" different voices—manifested through changes in tone, rhythm and vocabulary—appropriate for different audiences. You should be able to guess the target demographic from the copy voice alone. The annual report for investment bankers should sound completely different from the direct mail pitch to porcelain doll collectors.