Welcome to WRITING MATTERS, celebrating the value of good
writing in the business world.
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VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 – APRIL 2011
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This Month's Case Study – City Credit Union
City Credit Union was a mid-sized nonprofit financial
cooperative that had been in business for more than a decade. It had slowly expanded its services over the
years, adding loans, insurance and other investments to the usual banking
offerings.
Despite increasing membership, credit union management felt some of its services were underutilized. Traditional checking, savings and money market accounts were quite popular, as were auto loans; however, the mortgage, credit card and insurance sectors were rather stagnant. Furthermore, City offered full service financial planning, but few customers were taking advantage of it.
After lengthy analysis and surveying of current customers, City discovered that those members who used these “unpopular” services were quite satisfied, so it wasn’t a problem with the products or services themselves. Further analysis indicated the credit union had a communication problem: most members simply didn’t know about the vast array of services offered.
With the problem clearly defined, City could now address the issue. Jim, the Marketing Communications Manager, wanted to develop a quarterly newsletter to highlight and discuss all services offered by the credit union, especially the underutilized ones. By targeting existing customers, this would likely result in increased business activity in these sectors.
Jim had been in contact with Carol, a freelance copywriter, over the past several months. Carol had originally sent him an email, offering her services, and had followed up with him on a regular basis. Jim decided to give her a call to discuss the project.
Carol had previous experience writing for the financial services industry, including newsletters, so it felt like an ideal fit from the outset. After discussing the particulars, Carol said she would email Jim a quote the next day.
The next day, Jim received the quote as promised and had a meeting with his boss to get his approval on going forward. His boss, Mr. Scott, had previously supported the newsletter idea, but was now reluctant to spend money on an outside writer. “Can’t we do this ourselves?” he asked. “Well, not really,” Jim countered, “We don’t have anyone on staff who writes well.” “It can’t be that hard,” Mr. Scott argued, “It’s just writing. I’m sure the two of us can put something together, and we’ll save all this money in the process!” Jim tried to convince Mr. Scott of Carol’s value, but his mind was made up.
Jim called Carol and gave her the bad news. She was disappointed, but understood and told him to contact her in the future if things changed. In the following days, Jim attempted to write some of the copy himself. Mr. Scott assisted here and there, but was frequently unavailable due to his other job duties. Soon, Jim was too busy as well and the project stalled. Eventually, nearly six weeks later, Jim finished a shortened version of what he originally envisioned with Carol, but it wasn’t written particularly well and lacked the desired effect. Mr. Scott told him to send it out anyway. “Don’t worry,” he said, “As long as we get something out, that’s all that matters. We’ll do a better job with the next issue.”
Jim wasn’t pleased and felt the half-hearted attempt reflected poorly on the credit union. “This isn’t a good first impression,” he argued, “especially when we’re trying to generate more business for certain services. Our members expect higher quality work than this.” Mr. Scott still wasn’t convinced, but could see Jim felt strongly about it. “Fine,” he finally relented, “let’s do it your way, but I want to see some results after the first
issue . . . and find out if she can lower her rates for us.”
The
Solution
Jim knew Carol’s quote was quite fair, and he also knew money was available in the budget, so he wasn’t about to ask her to lower her price. So, nearly two months after initially contacting her, he gave Carol another call. She was surprised to hear from him so soon and asked wryly, “So how did the newsletter turn out?” Jim explained that was exactly why he was calling. “Is your quote still good?” he asked. “Sure,” she said, “it’s valid for 90 days from the date of the bid.”
As they revisited the project, Carol confirmed that Jim would be her primary contact during the writing process. She had a specific clause in her standard work agreement stating a “project manager” always be designated beforehand, with that person gathering input from all other interested parties, and resolving any conflicts in the process. In other words, Jim would have to deal with Mr. Scott, not Carol. Jim totally understood and assured Carol everything would go smoothly.
Carol was available to begin work on the newsletter in two weeks. Jim instructed Accounts Payable to send her the required deposit check, and soon work would finally commence.
After Carol began writing content for the first issue, the
project did indeed go smoothly. Mr.
Scott was busy with other things, and Jim dealt with him sparingly. The first issue would highlight all products
and services, with an emphasis on those in need of more exposure. The issue touched upon regular accounts
(checking, savings, money markets, certificates of deposit, IRAs), loans (auto,
mortgage, home equity, credit cards), insurance (auto, home, life), and also
investments, financial services and planning.
The content was concise, well written and engaging, with the
overall theme focusing on letting the customers know about all the great
products and services their credit union had to offer. Future issues would get into more specifics,
continuing the dialogue with members on a quarterly basis.
After distribution of the premiere issue, initial response
was excellent. The staff noticed a
marked increase in new applications and inquiries about certain services, with
several members expressing that they never realized City offered such services.
Jim called Carol and thanked her again for her hard work,
and asked if she was interested in writing the content for future issues on an
ongoing basis – with her already familiar with City’s products and services, it
was a no-brainer from Jim’s perspective.
Carol agreed and looked forward to working on the next issue.
Just as Jim was getting ready to hang up with Carol, Mr.
Scott was walking by and overheard the conversation. “Is that Carol?” he asked.
“Give me the phone, I’ve got to tell her what a great job she did. I knew she was the right choice all
along!” Jim handed him the phone and
just shook his head and smiled.
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The next issue of WRITING MATTERS will be out May 2nd.
Have a great month!
John Paul Tancredi, Copywriter/Consultant
Spectrum Copywriting Services
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2011 Spectrum Copywriting Services. All Rights Reserved.