If a storyteller and a grammar nerd had babies, they would birth us.
We field these questions every day.
In the interest of efficiency and the pursuit of this elusive concept they call “work/life balance”,
we’ve put together answers to the questions we get asked most often.
That way, we’re becoming more “self-service” and empowering our clients to educate themselves -
which really just means we hate the phone.
Frequently asked questions
In marketing-speak, “agency” is a bad word.
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We are a team of seven writers, and some of us have been together since our inception (2015) but most of us have worked as a team longer than that - at a previous company where three of us were managers. In short, we are indeed a group of people providing a service collectively, but I wouldn’t call us an agency. We’re more like… a bright, patchwork rooster.
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Rooster
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A rooster always has something to say (even if you’re not ready to hear it). This attribute is both a blessing and a curse, but it’s a critical ingredient to join our team. We embrace diplomacy, but we really are going to tell you what we think.
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Patchwork
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Our team is composed of men and women of all ages who offer a myriad of credentials, specialties, cultures and educational backgrounds. Shockingly and rather jarringly, we work perfectly together. It’s not clockwork; it’s patchwork. And it works.
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Bright
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As the head of the rooster, my personal vibe has to be reflected, and I’m fairly convinced that the color of my soul is fuschia. Yes, I have some tree-hugger in me. That said, the tail of the rooster is fuschia (not the head) because it’s my job to lichaven (steer, guide, give directions) from behind, not dictate from the front.
We are a team of seven writers.
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We’re all native-English-speaking immigrants, we’re all based in Israel, and we all work from home. Some of us write around our kids’ schedules, some around journalism careers, others around artist-in-residence commitments. A few on the team specialize in tech, some in nonprofit, and others are chameleons and can write this in the morning and this in the afternoon.
Nope.
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We specialize in long-form content, which is over 300 words. We therefore do not write social posts, optimize campaigns, monitor or report on analytics, or manage social communities. We do, however, know a few excellent people who do, and we’re happy to refer.
Good question.
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Marketing content exists to explain your advantage and qualify leads.
That said, in addition to being consumable and potentially entertaining (even BI Managers are people, they like a little humor to spice up their data) we believe your content should educate… almost exclusively.
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Hard selling (think advertorial) is something we can write (and we will, because we like money) but we’ve found that these pieces are often less successful than offering your clients information that will solve their problems, even if what you’re selling doesn’t fit precisely into that education.
Nobody said there would be math.
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While we are thrilled to take direction from content briefs dictated by analytics, SEO and conversion rates, please don’t send us a spreadsheet of numbers, ask us to play data scientists, draw conclusions and create actionable tasks. Just tell us what you need, and we'll write it.
While we are talented wordsmiths, and ridiculously articulate, we are also what we call “graphically challenged”. Although we provide content, we are not the best resource when it comes to colors, fonts, images or design direction of investor decks, landing pages or logos.
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We also don’t do investor decks (even just the content) because the process is so emotionally charged, and so much is riding on an investor deck that we’ve learned from experience… the stress is unbearable.
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We’ll pass on investor decks, thanks, but we have some great referrals if that’s what you need.
Negative.
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A messaging guide (often based on a “messaging house”) is the basis of all of your content. What goes in there is the culmination of decisions that either you’ve made internally or you’ve hired a brand story/brand value/branding specialist to document your pillars and your tone. We’re happy to use a guide like this and base your content on it, but your core messaging falls into the category of “strategy” or “branding”, so it’s not in our wheelhouse.
I wouldn’t do that if I were you.
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While we are talented wordsmiths, and ridiculously articulate, we are also what I call “graphically challenged”. Although we provide content, we are not the best resource when it comes to colors, fonts, images or design direction of PPT decks, landing pages or logos.
We’re talented, but we’re not magicians.
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We need to work from at least two sources.
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The first is you (which means you nominate one point of contact from the client side - that could be a project manager, the head of marketing or content, your CEO, or a subject matter expert (SME). That person will be our contact for information about the product, client, messaging, tone, and style. That’s the only person we’ll work with on requirements and edits, so all direction and changes come from one source.
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Second, we’ll need previous marketing collateral to learn - that means your website, your sales deck, messaging guide, case studies, brand story and the like. We need to consume what you’ve already published in order to emulate.
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The last piece we need to produce a deliverable is a comprehensive brief.
Answering your question with a question is not only Jewish, but also Israeli.
How do you prefer to work?
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If you have elected to work hourly, then we can edit from here to next month, as many times as you want, since we’re clocking, reporting and billing our time.
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If, however, you have chosen the price per deliverable or project model, then all deliverables come with one original draft and two rounds of edits.
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Ideally, 80% of the edits will be identified, communicated and resolved in the first round - this is the content round and should resolve the following:
What information is missing?
Does the logic flow?
Are the subheadings appropriate and accurate?
Is the angle/story correct?
Is the voice and tone on brand?
Are there any inaccuracies in claims that we’re making or in data that we’re using?
The second round of edits (final 20% of editing) should be tiny tweaks:
Corporate branding/messaging inconsistencies
Preferred phrasing, wording, tense or singular vs. plural
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We’re happy to accept your funds in any currency at any time (not cryptocurrency, though - the Israeli government frowns upon it) as long as we can figure out - legally and cost effectively - how to invoice you and transfer payment from wherever you are - to Israel.
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We’ve worked with clients in the USA, UAE, and all across Europe, although heads-up: international wire transfers (including Paypal and its competitors) require a fee or percentage, which we share 50/50 with our international clients.
That’s like asking how long it takes to make a dress.
What does the dress look like, and how many other dresses is the designer creating simultaneously? Is the fabric already ordered? Is there a pattern? Have three other designers failed at creating this dress? Why?
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Usually, once we have learned a client, turning a brief into a blog (first draft) takes three business days.
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Onboarding a new client, however, can take up to two weeks, since we need to review current collateral, ask our questions, and get on a launch call to walk through product, market, audience, pain points and tone.
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We often have a waiting list, especially surrounding Pesach (April), August, and Chagim (October). We are careful about the number of clients we take and how often we take new projects because we like to make deadlines, but we also prefer to remain calm, organized, and methodical. Plus, we like our weekends.
That would be a resounding no.
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While we often attend discovery and launch meetings in Hebrew, and can work with raw materials in Hebrew, we do not produce Hebrew language content.
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Keep in mind, when looking for Hebrew content, that when you’re aiming at an Israeli audience, you cannot simply translate your content from English to Hebrew. Israelis expect to be “pitched” more directly than American or European audiences, and they want you to get to the point quickly. Rather than translation from English to Hebrew, you’ll need transcreation to account for the cultural difference.
The vast majority of our clients are B2B.
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At least 75% of our portfolio is tech-based B2B. Some are SaaS, some are cybersecurity, and we work with IoT, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. We do, however, have a smattering of B2C clients and a few in the nonprofit arena.
Tachliss, (a Hebrew term that mostly means “bottom line” but the concept is so much stronger in Hebrew that it’s a better language for this point) we work predominantly in tech because:
There is almost always one point of contact.
There is usually some existing collateral, at some level, to work from.
Decisions are swift and final.
There is a ton of work available.
Tech companies almost always have an established, seamless vendor onboarding and payment process.
It’s not that we were born to live and breathe tech, but the content is fascinating and learnable, and the process is consistently efficient. We also enjoy food and shelter, so a steady, reliable source of content and process (and therefore income) is key when we are selecting clients.
Reluctantly, yes.
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Reluctantly not because we don’t want to offer discounts (our nonprofits are indeed charged less than our corporate clients) but because we’re hesitant about nonprofits altogether. While we respect our nonprofit clients tremendously, we have learned that the decision-making process and bureaucracy to be expected at nonprofits can be challenging.
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If you represent or run a nonprofit, we’d be happy to speak, but please do understand that we’re… reluctant.
Forgive us, but tech writing is boring.
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Our exposure to tech writing is predominantly manuals and instructions for an audience of developers or other technically-adept users. The point is to translate tech-speak into methodical yet consumable tech instructions.
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What we do is marketing writing.
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Yes, we can translate complicated or convoluted concepts with many moving parts into consumable, informative, enlightening (and even potentially entertaining) marketing content, even using jargon familiar to the target audience. That takes time, but we are almost universally enthusiastic about climbing that learning curve.
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But we don’t write instructions, wiki entries, or manuals (that’s a tech writer) and we avoid writing for an extremely tech-savvy audience (developers, system administrators, open-source enthusiasts, purely on the tech side rather than the business side) since often that means our learning curve is too steep.
Not if I can help it.
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My husband and I have both worked from home for the past decade; I consider us pre-COVID trailblazers. Finally, the world has caught up with us and everybody works at least on a hybrid model.
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I’m based on a small moshav in the Jerusalem Hills, I can see my (14) ducks from my office, and I conduct my entire business via phone/email/Zoom/WhatsApp/Trello, and always have. I almost never ask my team to leave their homes or shed their jammies. On rare occasions, I visit client sites personally, but only when they promise a test drive of their augmented reality glasses (looking at you, Lumus.)
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