Many years ago, in the days of the typewriter – those of you too young to remember them look it up! – an admin colleague was typing my college dissertation and gave me some advice that has stuck with me ever since. She told me to ‘remember that the better the quality of the handwritten text you give me to work from, the more accurate the typed document you receive will be.’ And she was right.

The scientific writing team here at kdm goes out of its way to make sure that whatever it is asked to draft – be it a case study, brochure, blog, web copy, or any other type of marketing material – captures your marketing messages exactly as you want them to be. The secret to getting it ‘right first time’ is clear communication. So how can you help our technical writers to meet your scientific marketing needs? Here are a few simple suggestions to help you give us the perfect brief to work from:

• Think about your market and who you are targeting. Are you aiming at managers, end users or the procurement team?
• Why should people buy your product? For instance, is it more cost effective? Does it improve workflows and save time?
• What is the most important message that you want to communicate to your target market?
• How do you want to market the product – brochure, case study, emailer, etc.
• Should the writing style be formal or informal?
• How detailed should the text be? Do you need a short PR, a short, snappy emailer or perhaps a longer article?
• Is there a house style we need to follow?
• Identify somebody within the company that can talk to us about the product and your marketing aims. It might not seem relevant to the piece we are writing, but the more background we have, the better our understanding and the easier it is to write about the product.
• Think ahead – avoid leaving it until the last minute if at all possible.

So there you have it. In a nutshell, the better the brief – and the more realistic the timeline – the easier it is for us to deliver exactly what you need, when you need it.