Marketing Plagiarism: A Brief Case Study

Yes, marketing plagiarism happens.

More often than you think.

And when you work tirelessly on copywriting that compels and converts, this thievery is a real bummer.

If you think that some cloak-and-dagger copywriting criminal won’t sneak away with your content, listen to what happened to one of our clients.

**Full disclosure: in this true story, names and industries have been changed.

Glen called up our professional copywriters, and he was a little frustrated. He felt an anger that made his blood boil. Understandably so—a competitor had practically lifted his successful marketing message. Not word for word, but it was enough that the entire campaign had to be redone.

As a mural painter, Glen offered his clients truly unique spaces. His product descriptions and SEO-rich website brought a ton of traffic. Oh, and those nurture sequences worked like gangbusters.

And then some jerkwad came out of the woodwork like a termite to duplicate almost everything. The content worked, so it came up for grabs. Glen came to us with an important request:

 

Guys, please write some content marketing for me that no one could possibly steal without it being obvious.

 

This is how we solved the problem:

We tossed the marketing template out of the window. We reworked the copy without a rulebook.

In fact, we made an obvious satire out of the campaign. Because our copywriting made the audience laugh, but at the same time made them think about their current living spaces, the content was not only unique…

It was conversion-ready content that looked like nothing anyone had seen before. We like to think of it as a security system for your marketing message.

Our advice to you: no matter whether you’re at risk of marketing plagiarism or not, the best way to compel and convert is to create content that stands one grade above the rest.

 

For more information, check out our no-cost content marketing guide.