Writing for the oil and gas industry is different than typical marketing or business writing for the following reasons:
- It’s a niche industry-big dollars, small number of players.
- It’s a complex industry-from exploration to production, refineries and downstream, oil and gas industry writers have to have detailed industry knowledge to write convincingly.
- It’s fast-paced-for example, in the last twelve months, volatility in barrel pricing has squeezed many stable relationships, and made many new opportunities. Being able to trace fast-developing trends is something only an established oil and gas writer can do-it takes too much time for
outsiders to ramp up
Successful oil and gas writers know the business. For that reason, writers continually build their industry knowledge and use it from client to client. That means no one client has to train a green team.
4 Insider Secrets
- Develop strong relationships. This is true of any business writing endeavor, but in the oil and gas writing niche field, it’s more important than usual to be able to run your ideas by a consultant or an analyst in the industry-before you try your work in the market.
- Respect confidentiality. In this industry, often a major oil company can be both a customer and a supplier, or an analyst is speaking independently one day, and working for the competition the next. None of this would be possible without the deepest commitment to integrity and confidentiality.
No one knows where all the bodies are buried, so smart oil and gas writers know how to keep their own counsel when doing interviews and gathering research. - Never stop learning. Once you’ve written in the oil and gas industry for months or years, you may begin to feel you’ve got a handle on it-and probably you do, to a point. The best oil and gas writers are in love with the industry and see it as a constantly evolving organism. Fall in love with
it, and never stop learning. This will pay off in fresh approaches to old topics. - Write from the reader’s point of view. Oil and gas writers have an especially difficult time sorting out the proper point of view for their work in this industry. Because so many firms have target markets in different niches, it can be difficult to have “one target reader.”
Do the research
Even retailers and convenience stores have different profiles based on whether they are independent, run by major oil companies, or owned by corporate conglomerates. A marketing brochure that plays well to an independent c-store owner may be offensive to a major oil executive. Find out which
specific reader your client needs you to write to-and go after the angles that appeal to them.
About the Author:
How can we help? Write2Market transitions your prospects through the buying process more efficiently than you’re doing today with strategic,
results-oriented communication. Write2Market is three miles from the Capitol building in downtown Atlanta. We’re located on the second floor behind the green awning at 427 Moreland Avenue NE.
