seriously damage<\/strong>\u00a0the text or logic of the\u00a0white paper.<\/p>\nThey may introduce a logical fallacy or a contradiction. They may make a claim with no evidence to back it up. They may repeat some marketing-speak that has no place in a white paper.<\/p>\n
In any case, I believe these comments will likely render the white paper\u00a0much less effective.<\/p>\n
Remember, this is by far the least common case, applying to only 1\u00a0in 20 comments. That’s a tiny sliver of the overall\u00a0feedback.<\/p>\n
Again, I politely explain my views\u00a0to the client as in #3\u00a0above. And if the client still insists on the change, I push back\u00a0a little more.<\/p>\n
In effect, I argue my case\u2014strongly, but not\u00a0endlessly. And I try not to be obnoxious or offensive in any way.<\/p>\n
Then if the client does not change his mind, I reluctantly make\u00a0the change in a way that satisfies him and\u00a0if possible\u00a0minimizes the damage.<\/p>\n
For example, there may be a way to insert another phrase or sentence to clarify or qualify the comment.<\/p>\n
Our responsibility as copywriters<\/h3>\n But there’s one more step. When I submit the revised draft, I state in my cover e-mail\u00a0that I think the change is a serious error that could reduce or\u00a0even kill response to the white paper.<\/p>\n
Then\u00a0if someone in the client\u00a0organization ever comes back to me and says, “That white paper didn’t work!” I\u00a0can show her that email and how I actually predicted it would not.<\/p>\n
I hate having to take this cover-your-ass (CYA) approach, because it doesn’t make anyone happy.<\/p>\n
But I do feel a responsibility to give all my clients the\u00a0best copy possible. And this e-mail shows that I did my best\u00a0to fulfill that responsibility.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How do you deal with revisions\u00a0from clients? Have you ever argued too long or too forcefully? What happened? Please leave us your comment below.<\/em><\/p>\n \nWant to hear whenever there\u2019s a fresh article on this site? <\/em>Subscribe here to stay in the know on long-form content<\/em><\/a>. From time to time, we\u2019ll also send you word about some great new resource or training. And you can unsubscribe any time. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dealing with comments can be challenging. This excellent\u00a0article from copywriting legend Bob Bly describes how to recognize and handle\u00a0the different types of comments from clients. Comments on draft white papers fall into one\u00a0of four categories. This is my view after 37 years as a professional copywriter. During that time,\u00a0I’ve written white papers and many other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[60,59],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
How to handle the 4 types of comments on white papers - That White Paper Guy<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n