Case study
We helped ML Engraving tell their story online
Why investing in web copywriting is essential for digital communication
Writing content for a website is often left to the company’s in-house staff or to an outside SEO agency. In the former, relying on someone with experience in the field ensures the texts are technically accurate and use the correct terminology. In the latter, taking on an editor who specializes in search engine optimization can improve the indexing of site pages.
Why you need a web copywriter
Yet in both cases, a key player that is crucial for successful online communications is often missing. That is, a web copywriter who can write in collaboration with the client’s staff, making ‘persuasive’ content for the site’s ideal customer.
Let’s take a look at a writing project we worked on in collaboration with ML Engraving, the end-client, and XTRA, their web-developer and graphic design agency.
A match made in heaven
The Web Copywriter
For the past several years, AlfaBeta has been providing web copywriting consulting on top of their traditional translation and interpreting language services.
This service involves drafting web content that ‘grabs’ readers and captures their attention right away – in the first lines of text within seconds – and encourages them to carry on reading.
So, a web copywriter can work with the client on written contentthat is directly aimed at theirideal customer, adopt the right Tone of Voice (ToV) and accurately describe their Unique Selling Point – that which defines the company’s brand and sets them apart from their competitors.
The Client
ML Engraving is a Bergamo-based company that specializes in laser engraving on metal moulds used to produce plastic, rubber, silicone and glass objects. The company receives blank moulds from its customers and engraves them with sophisticated textures that enhance product surfaces.
We collaborated with XTRA, ML Engraving’s digital communications agency, to create the company’s new website, taking care of drafting the Italian content.
“Giving value to surfaces is our specialisation.
We customise your products with digital design services and exclusive laser engraving protocols on moulds.”
From the home page of mlengraving.com
The challenge
A trailblazer in laser engraving in Italy, ML Engraving is proud to collaborate with prestigious brands and is a laser pioneer in a world traditionally dominated by chemical engraving.
Although operating in a highly technical and specialised field, ML Engraving is a company that looks beyond the strict boundaries of traditional industry marketing standards, by adopting a friendly and welcoming approach to corporate communication.
The opportunity to adopt this model of communication for the web arose when ML Engraving decided to revamp their website. They wanted to better reflect the transformations that had taken place within the organization – transformations that led to the formation of a complex ecosystem of integrated technologies. How can you make a tricky-to-explain service usable and intuitive without getting lost in a technological maze? How to do so when starting from just a few brochures, some articles in the national papers and the contents of the old site?
This was a serious challenge that required careful coordination and collaboration between our copywriters and the staff at ML Engraving. Our cup of tea!
Before AlfaBeta
“What was missing, and what we believed to be essential, was a second pair of eyes. More often than not, I am not capable of taking distance from my texts, to see whether what I am producing is clear to both me and above all to my audience.”
The initial idea of Silvia Lodetti and Ettore Verdi, ML Engraving’s Communications Manager and Digital Strategist, respectively, was to independently manage the production of texts to be published on the new site. In fact years earlier, Silvia had already handled part of the copywriting for the previous site and thought she could manage the copywriting for the new one with Ettore, without the help of a third party.
However, two unprecedented factors soon emerged: firstly, the new structure of the site required a rethinking of the services offered, which were then placed in an ecosystem of more defined and ordered connections and synergies; secondly, the peculiarities of the new layout, designed by XTRA, required brevity and incisiveness.
These two factors made the work significantly more complex, and soon the need for an outside opinion, someone to provide a clear outline of the message to be conveyed, took over. Essentially someone who, although not an industry expert, could be responsible for coordinating and supervising the production of texts that are at the same time technical and persuasive, content that would be read by the company’s diverse clientele and demanding online search engines.
In a nutshell, they needed a web copywriter.
Being understood by those who read our content is of course the main goal, but we should not presume we know how to do this. Many companies do not grasp this nuance, and by the time they realize that what they have written without external help is not as understandable as they thought, it is already too late: so much effort and money has been spent just to get disappointing results.
It’s not easy to find a partner to write your own web content. Silvia and Ettore were able to rely on the experience of XTRA who had already worked with AlfaBeta on a number of content creation projects for various clients in the industrial sector. Thanks to their mediation, an interdisciplinary dream team was created, consisting of Silvia and Ettore from ML Engraving; Federica, Martina and Andrea from AlfaBeta; and Davide and his colleagues from XTRA.
The process
First briefing
Preliminary draft from the client
Rewriting
Client review and final drafting
After the first briefing, we chose the best process from those laid out by AlfaBeta: writing from scratch, editing, and rewriting. In agreement with the XTRA and ML Engraving teams, we determined that ‘writing from scratch’ would be too slow and complicated.
After some initial attempts and discussions, we finally came to the conclusion that rewriting was best suited to the project. Therefore, the first step of the process involved Silvia writing a preliminary draft based on the layout of the page together with an introductory table listing the page keywords plus main and secondary topics.
We also took great care to provide a guide to text editing and file naming conventions, so they could be monitored more easily. Once we received the text of a page, we would rewrite it, always making sure to maintain a consistent style: concise and technical when needed, but also evocative and friendly when desired. Finally, we would submit this second draft for internal review by XTRA and ML Engraving and return it to the sender for final changes and approval.
Lessons learned
“If we want to reach the goal together, we have to tell each other everything, especially the good things, so we can figure out what works and take it forward. In that way you helped us to re-read ourselves, to understand each other better. It was almost like working with a psychoanalist , rather than a writer.”
In conclusion, we asked ourselves what we learned from this experience, which left us with constructive lessons from both professional and personal standpoints. This resulted in a small but powerful list of keywords:
Mutual appreciation
There is always lots to revise, and dealing with this is not easy because it pushes you to question your convictions. We need to overcome moments of conflict by listening to each other, accepting some changes or sticking to our guns to reject others, but without assuming we are always right. Silvia could rely on our changes with confidence, but she also held firm to her solutions when she felt they were stronger. For our part, we felt free to do the same. We all learned how to step back to accept each other’s ideas, prioritising the text above all.
Patience
Results do not come immediately; they take time and several attempts. Finding patient collaborators who leave the necessary space for dialogue is essential for achieving long-term results. If we had been hasty at the beginning of the project we would never have been able to find a solution, and if Silvia had not had the patience to adopt our methods we would have taken twice as long to write all the texts, in an endlessly slow back-and-forth.
Surprise
A client who allows the copywriter the freedom to make suggestions and communicates when they are happy with a solution is the most a copywriter can wish for in their work, because it lets them choose the right path, marking a clear and distinct route towards the goal. Silvia was wise enough to always let us know what was going well. This was instrumental when we were choosing the right title, the best call to action, and the most captivating and expressive turns of phrase.
Action
Initial meetings to discuss timelines and goals are certainly very helpful, but they shouldn’t take up too much time. To really start shaping the copy you need to get your hands on the text as soon as possible. In fact, by putting in the work we immediately found critical issues that we could then solve, instead of wasting a lot of time in endless theoretical discussions as per usual!
The flexibility and involvement of the three companies were key to ensuring the success of the project. AlfaBeta brought its expertise in text creation and management processes. XTRA worked passionately on the innovative graphic and typographical aspects of the website: together we ensured that form and content met elegantly and effectively. However we must point out that the greatest lesson of all was given to us by the end client who, by being present throughout the entire process, allowed such a challenging and ambitious writing project to be approached creatively and without preconceptions by the entire dream team.
A heartfelt thanks to Davide, Silvia, and Ettore from the entire staff of AlfaBeta!
Contact us to find out how we can meet your needs!
