Many, many years ago, I was the sole copywriter for an ad/PR agency that touted its “synergistic” approach to marketing (not my word for it). In fact, we repeatedly pitched ourselves as “print, broadcast, PR, events and direct mail experts.”

Which was fine… except we weren’t.

Direct mail? I was the agency “expert” and what I knew (or didn’t, actually) was largely limited to where the fake stamp should go on the envelope. It didn’t seem to matter (the ad industry is rife with pretenders), but it’s not a pretty memory.

(Amusing sidenote: two years after I left, the agency produced a very expensive, multi-part direct mail piece they sent to a long list of prospects. The amusing part? They forgot to print an address or phone number anywhere on the piece .)

It’s tempting to trot out the stock line: “If only I knew then what I know now.” But next time you do that, ask yourself this: “why didn’t I?”

Learning is a Non-Stop Process

Some jobs you take because they pay the bills. Others offer you something far more important than cash: a chance to learn something new.

I know one writer who shies away from any project not wholly in tune with her skill set — a safe and profitable stance — but one that ultimately limits her, especially since none of us holds a crystal ball. That “faddish” media channel you shun today could account for 40% of your revenues tomorrow — provided you bothered to learn anything about it.

One writer (whose initials are TC and writes the blog you’re currently reading) largely avoided learning new online marketing techniques in the late 90s. After all, my offline work was rolling along just fine, and frankly, the Web was messy. And besides, a Web site was just a corporate capabilities brochure in electronic form, right?

Avoid Your Own Rude Awakening

A couple years into the new millennium, I noticed the Web sites I liked reading weren’t written like the Web sites I wrote. Clients started talking in shorthand, discussing media channels and techniques I simply didn’t understand.

Fortunately, I’d learned this lesson before; after I left the “synergistic” agency, I did my direct response homework, solicited a lot B2B direct response work, and whaddya know — it accounted for a huge chunk of my copywriting work for many, many years.

It was a good move; like the Copywriting Maven, the direct response tricks I learned kept my work relevant while I learned the online ropes.

Clearly, it was time to do the same in the online world. I researched and wrote, and eventually started my own blogs so I could speak to my blog-considering clients with some authority.

There were speedbumps along the way (don’t even ask about the “Illegal eMail Blast Nightmare” or the first online press release I wrote), but if a little bump throws you off course, you’re probably in the wrong business.

What’s New With You?

So if you made it this far, the question is this: What did you learn last week? Last month? Since January?

Have you taken a job, then hung up the phone, worried that you didn’t know what to do? Did you sit down one morning, intent on demystifying the fog surrounding RSS feeds?

If you did, congratulations. If you didn’t, then you risk becoming the copywriting equivalent of the “synergistic” agency — a pretend copywriter, offering only empty words to your clients instead of value.

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