It's easy to tell people how to write better marketing collateral: Focus on benefits, not features; Use "you-centric" copy; Eliminate jargon; Answer the question, "What's in it for me?"

However, the most important writing tip isn't about writing itself. It's about determining your message before you even begin to write. And to do that you have to spend some time gathering information which includes understanding your target audience and its pain points, knowing your product or service and determining the real and intangible benefits of doing business with your company.

If you've had the misfortune of spending days, and even weeks, trying to write copy, it's probably because you haven't figured out what you really want to say. This lack of focus means higher costs and wasted time as you struggle over vague copy and endless rewrites. To determine your key messages (and to make your job easier), make sure you and your marketing team can answer the following questions before you start to write:

What are your customers' pain points and how does your product or service solve them?

Go beyond product features by calling salespeople or attending user meetings for valuable customer feedback. Get to know the people who use your product or service. Find out what they like and don't like and what their problems or pain points are. When you finally sit down to write, use your knowledge to set up a scenario using these pain points so that your customers and prospects can easily identify themselves. Then show how your product solves their problems.

Do you need to include corporate messages?

Companies usually have multiple messages they want to communicate. Corporate messages about a company's stability or integrity often go hand-in-hand with marketing messages about product innovation and technology. Save time and frustration by including corporate communications or public relations in the pre-writing process.

What makes your company or product different from your competition?

I attended a seminar where the speaker stated that, "Harley-Davidson isn't marketing motorcycles. It's marketing the ability for aging baby boomers to look 'baaaaad.'" Get a fresh perspective on your product by touring your manufacturing plant. Dig deep for what makes your company different from the competition. Do you offer your customers peace of mind? Do you offer the ability to work with instruments or software that come backed by years of innovation and expertise? Do you offer customer service that is more than a buzzword? Convey these differences in your copy so that your company stands apart from the crowd.

Is quantifiable information available?

For example, does your product or service eliminate or reduce downtime by 20 percent? Will it save your customers 40 percent in costs over the next three years? Is it 10 percent faster than similar products on the market? Be as specific as possible when stating product benefits. Your copy will then answer your customer's question: "What's in it for me?"

What are your marketing objectives?

Whether you're writing a brochure or conducting a months-long campaign, determine what will be a successful outcome for the project. Are you doing lead generation? Educating your customer? Reinforcing brand awareness? And, how you will measure the results?

Developing your key messages, gathering product information and determining your marketing objectives before you start writing will make your job easier when it's time to sit down to write. More importantly, you'll produce benefits-oriented copy that improves sales response.

Dianna Huff specializes in results-oriented business-to-business marketing writing. For your FREE Marketing Writing Checklist and a complimentary subscription to Dianna's monthly enewsletter, "The MarCom Writer," go to www.dhcommunications.com/resources.htm.