Francis Newman - copywriter and message design expert

Personal outlook, guiding principles and advice

I always knew one day I'd start my own business. So setting my compass to London’s west end, I headed for Soho, where I rented desk space in a delightful room in Poland Street with views overlooking Broadwick Street.

I lacked essential sales and business skills in the beginning and realised being expert in my field was not enough. I had to learn to sell and make credible presentations. So I read as much about selling as I could and signed up to sales growth seminars. Luckily I enjoyed selling and quickly put to use my new skills.

Realising selling wasn't only important to me, but also my clients.
I integrated the sales techniques that worked best into my proposal presentations, design ideas and copywriting. This gave me an edge over other designers who were preoccupied with style, image and graphic trends. I focused my efforts on large multinational companies and found myself competing and winning work against bigger design agencies.

Running my own business has given me the opportunity to challenge conventional concepts and test their validity against my own experience.
I also enjoyed the freedom of doing business in a straightforward and uncomplicated manner while meeting some great people along the way.

Build rapport by being natural and avoid dehumanising jargon

I prefer to avoid unnecessary jargon. I write all reports, proposals and presentations using clear language.
I spent most of my career working with talented experts. Many were excellent at explaining their technologies in clear simple terms and understood the importance of gaining approval from non-technical management.

Using jargon in everyday speak gradually dehumanises people.
It sucks the life out of communication, reducing language to convenient shorthand. Computer acronyms are a good example. The news media refer to people as 'consumers'. Have you ever met a consumer? Are your friends and family consumers? We used to be citizens until the industrial revolution and mass media turned us into consumers.

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There's no such thing as business to business or business to consumer. In my experience it's always people doing business with other people

Have you ever met a business without people? You're always interacting with people in some way: at your local supermarket checkout, ordering a book online or paying a bill. Every transaction involves messages between people whether spoken over a tannoy system or written on a web page.

The important thing is to understand people’s aspirations and concerns in relation to their environment and social pedigree.

Most people appreciate communication that is sincere, friendly and helpful. Yet I'm often surprised by the disparity between emails, websites, brochures and personal meetings. It’s as though you’re interacting with different entities. Why not maintain your character and tone by managing your company’s voice across all media.

I'll help you identify the relevant areas of your expertise or product and create clearly defined messages that deliver measurable results for your web or print marketing campaign.

Like friendships, I work with people I like and who have interesting businesses.

My friendly and straightforward approach has helped multinationals and entrepreneurs develop engaging and convincing marketing campaigns.
A friendly voice dissolves barriers and encourages genuine relationships to grow and prosper. I've been doing this for my clients for over 25 years and still enjoy it :-)

Perhaps you're facing a challenge right now I can help you with. Feel free to call me on 020 8207 6446 for a chat and how we might work together.

All the best
Francis

What does a copywriter do?
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© Copyright Francis Newman 2012. All rights reserved