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The catalog

Sixteen pieces of work, listed in roughly the order we do them.

Every entry names the question it answers, what you receive, and how long it takes. Each one has a fixed scope and a fixed fee, agreed in writing before we begin. Most engagements combine two to four entries.

If you are not sure where to start, start with the problem. These are the three we hear most often, and the routes we usually take through them:

Research

Interviews, audits, and tests.

Before we write anything, we find out what your customers want, what they compare you to, and what they already believe about you. Everything after depends on it.

Motivation Interviews

Why people choose you, in their words.

What does your product mean to the people who buy it, and to the people who nearly did? People give one set of reasons on a survey and act on another. An hour of conversation gets much closer to the second.

  • —Ten to twelve one-to-one conversations with customers, lapsed customers, and near-misses
  • —A written report on why they bought, what nearly stopped them, and when they decided
  • —Notes on what choosing you says about the person who chooses
  • —A list of the words your customers use for their problem, and for you

4 weeksWrite to us about this

Category Audit

See your market the way your buyers see it.

What do buyers compare you to, including doing nothing or doing it themselves? And what brings them into the market in the first place?

  • —The alternatives buyers consider, in the words they use for them
  • —The situations and needs that bring people into your category
  • —A review of what competitors claim, and how they look and sound
  • —A short memo on the positions nobody holds yet

2–3 weeksWrite to us about this

Content Audit

A careful reading of everything you’ve already published.

Across your site, emails, decks, and posts, what are you telling people, and does it add up?

  • —An inventory of your published material, each piece read for clarity and consistency
  • —A recommendation for every piece: keep it, fix it, merge it, or take it down
  • —A short essay comparing the story you tell with the one your customers tell

2 weeksWrite to us about this

Message Testing

Find out which headline works, instead of arguing about it.

Of everything you could say, which messages make the right people act? And how sure should you be of the answer?

  • —A test plan, with each prediction written down before we begin
  • —Three to six versions of the message, each making a different argument
  • —Tests on live pages, emails, or ads, run long enough to trust the result
  • —A results memo, including how much of the outcome was luck

3–6 weeksWrite to us about this

Strategy

Position, message, and voice.

Most of strategy is deciding what you won’t be. We turn the research into a position, a message, and a look and voice that people come to recognize.

Positioning

Choose what you want to be known for.

Who is this for, what would they use instead, and why are you the better choice for those people in particular?

  • —Two working sessions with your team, prepared from research
  • —A one-page position statement covering best-fit customers, alternatives, strengths, value, and category
  • —A list of the evidence behind each claim
  • —The sales story that follows from the position

3–4 weeksWrite to us about this

Messaging

One central idea, with everything else arranged around it.

What is the one thing you want people to remember, why should they believe it, and how should it change from one audience to the next?

  • —A selling proposition in one sentence
  • —A message hierarchy for each audience, with proof for every claim
  • —Answers to the objections your customers raise most often
  • —Headlines to test

2–3 weeksWrite to us about this

Brand Codes

Be recognized before you are read.

Which colors, shapes, phrases, or sounds do people already connect with you, and are you using them often enough to be noticed?

  • —An audit of every asset you use, rated for how well known and how unique it is
  • —A short codebook saying which assets to keep, use more, or drop
  • —Usage rules your team and every partner can follow

3–4 weeksWrite to us about this

Editorial Strategy

A reason for everything you publish.

What should you publish, where, and how often? And what should you stop publishing?

  • —The subjects you will write about, and your angle on each
  • —Which channels to use, and which to leave alone
  • —A plan for building a readership that doesn’t depend on any one platform
  • —A first quarter’s calendar, with formats and owners

3–4 weeksWrite to us about this

Persuasion Review

Small changes to wording, defaults, and order that change what people do.

Where would a better frame, a different default, or a clearer signal do more than a bigger budget?

  • —A step-by-step walk through what your customer sees, from first visit to purchase
  • —A review against the established principles of influence (reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, and unity)
  • —Ten to twenty low-cost experiments, ranked by expected value
  • —For each one, a check that it would still work if the customer knew how it worked

2 weeksWrite to us about this

Product

Websites, copy, and publications.

Then we make it. We write before we design, and we measure what we launch.

Websites

A site that sells the way your best salesperson talks.

When the right person lands on your site, do they understand what you do, believe you, and know what to do next?

  • —Structure and every word of copy, written before design begins
  • —A design and build that loads fast, works for everyone, and is easy for you to edit
  • —Response tracking that doesn’t follow visitors around the web
  • —A thirty-day review after launch

6–10 weeksWrite to us about this

Launch Copy

Everything a launch needs to say, written together.

What does this launch need to say on the page, in email, and in ads, and in what order?

  • —Launch and sales pages
  • —Product descriptions and feature copy
  • —Emails for before, during, and after the launch
  • —Headlines and ads in several versions, for testing

2–4 weeksWrite to us about this

Publications

A publication people subscribe to on purpose.

What would your best customers subscribe to, and look forward to, even if you were not selling them anything?

  • —Concept, name, format, and voice for a newsletter, magazine, or journal
  • —The first issues, written and edited by the studio
  • —An editorial workflow and templates your team can run
  • —A plan for growing the list without pop-ups, pre-ticked boxes, or bought addresses

4–8 weeks to launchWrite to us about this

Naming & Voice

A name people can say and remember.

What should this be called, and how should it sound when it speaks?

  • —A naming brief built from your position
  • —A long list, a short list, and the reasoning behind each
  • —Pronunciation, meaning, and domain checks, plus a trademark pre-screen for your lawyer
  • —A voice guide, with the words you use and the ones you avoid

3–5 weeksWrite to us about this

Content Systems

So the tenth writer sounds like the first.

How do you keep quality high as more people write, more often, in more places?

  • —A style guide short enough to be used
  • —Templates and briefs for the formats you produce most
  • —A review and approval workflow that catches problems early
  • —A training session, and a set of good examples to work from

3–6 weeksWrite to us about this

Pitch Narrative

The argument for your company, in the right order.

When you have twenty minutes with an investor, a partner, or a buyer, what is the argument, and in what order?

  • —The argument, written as a one-page memo first
  • —Deck structure and every word on every slide
  • —Speaker notes, and the likely questions with their answers

2–3 weeksWrite to us about this

Ongoing

Editing and testing, month to month.

Positions and voices drift as teams change and deadlines pile up. We can stay on to edit, keep the tests running, and check new work against the position.

Studio on Retainer

A senior editor and strategist, a few days a month.

After the first project, who edits the work, runs the tests, and notices when the story starts to drift?

  • —A fixed number of studio days each month, for at least three months
  • —Editing and review of everything that ships
  • —A monthly review of what we expected, what happened, and what we will change
  • —A quarterly look at the position, to check it still holds

MonthlyWrite to us about this

Don’t see your problem here? Read how an engagement runs, then write to us anyway.

Tell us what you’re making.

A few paragraphs is plenty. We read every letter, and we’ll tell you where we would start.

Write to the studio