The Ghost Writer – the role of an agency

I’m looking forward to a trip to the cinema to see The Ghost Writer. Partly because I have a slight crush on Ewan McGregor, and then there’s the impressive reviews it has received (according to Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian ‘Roman Polanski’s deft take on Robert Harris’s political thriller is the director’s most purely enjoyable film for years’), and also the parallels to recent British politics that it is associated with and will be quite amusing to watch.

What is also interesting is how ‘ghost writing’ is becoming a more central part of our role with helping clients manage the implementation of their marketing. While we are all geared up to help clients learn to blog, tweet, write press releases, articles etc themselves, and provide encouragement and advice along the way, some business owners and marketing managers simply don’t have the time to fit it in to their days. So, that’s when they ask us to step in and help.

This takes many different forms, such as taking a bare bones of an idea along with a snapshot and fleshing it out into a full blown blog post, which we then load to their website and ensure appropriate integration with social media to spread the word further. Or a more toned down, or copy-editing role might be taking a basic article written by a client, but editing, tweaking, finessing and correcting, then accompanying with photography, before getting placement in appropriate publications and posting online as appropriate. Or, in the case of a recent new client, we’re writing daily tweets on their behalf.  And of course, we write all the time for websites, leaflets, brochures, email marketing campaigns – you name it, we write it!

Before we start any writing on behalf of our clients, we always take the time to understand and establish the aims and objectives, key messages and the tone of voice, so there is seamless public face in all marketing efforts.

Most clients are so enthusiastic about getting themselves ‘out there’, but are concerned about time and also the actual writing itself. The look of relief on some clients’ faces when we tell them we offer this service is a picture!

Of course, unlike the lovely Ewan, our ghost writing doesn’t put our lives in danger! Now to check out cinema times for The Ghost Writer this weekend.