It's common, especially in business-to-business communications, for a copywriter to be intimidated by a product he or she does not immediately understand. You may be confronted with a lot of strange and unfamiliar information along with weird terms and acronyms you can't begin to decipher. You may think: “If I can't understand it, how the heck am I going to write about it?” Don't worry. There are some very simple steps you can take to get your head around even the most mystifying products and services.

Read Everything

This is obvious. Ask your boss or client to provide you with all the relevant information available on the product or service — brochures, Web pages, advertisements, e-mail promotions, sales letters — the works. (See Chapter 3 for a suggested list.)

Review this material thoroughly. Make note of things you don't fully understand so you can ask for clarification later. In the movie Philadelphia, Denzel Washington's character says, “Explain it to me like I'm a two year old.” It's a great line. Use it!

Get the Glossary

There are specialized dictionaries and glossaries available for just about every conceivable topic, from insurance terms to software acronyms to even snowboarding colloquialisms.

Years ago, these guidebooks were found only in print publications. These days, the Internet is the best place to look. Just type in the industry or product into Google or some other search engine and then add the word “glossary.” Chances are a number of free glossaries will come up.

Buy the Children's Book

Want to learn about semiconductors? Don't buy a technical book. Get the fully illustrated children's book version instead, complete with pop-ups! Your learning curve will be much easier.

Nonfiction books for kids may keep things simple, but they certainly are not dumbed down. In fact, many children's science and technology books are written by experts. One copywriter once learned the basics of digital animation from a children's book while writing a Web site for a software company targeting this industry.

Speak to Sales

Copywriters most often work with marketing, public relations, and communications managers. But no one knows more about how to explain and sell a product than the people who do it every day — the salespeople.

When writing about a product that you don't fully understand, consider asking your boss or client for permission to speak to a salesperson, preferably one who works in the field dealing with prospects and customers face to face. These professionals have a knack for explaining product features clearly and concisely, and they also know which benefits are most important to the target audience.

In fact, salespeople are often a treasure-trove of stories, examples, and ideas you can use when writing your copy.

Get Pictures

Pictures really are worth a thousand words. Confused about how wicket valves fit inside a hydroelectric turbine? You won't be once you've seen photos of a typical installation. Writing a microsite promoting a resort in South Beach? Unless you've traveled there yourself, seeing the pictures is the only way to really bring the place to life in your copy.

Find out if there are any available pictures or illustrations of the product. If you're writing a Web site promoting a new time-management system, for example, then seeing screen shots and examples of the forms used will help you understand the system much better — and faster — than simply reading an explanation.

Get the Real Thing

Nothing compares to actually seeing, touching, and even trying the product or service you're writing about. Writing a promotion for a seminar? Find out if you can attend it. Crafting copy for a new countertop water-purification system? Ask if you can try it out in your own home. Creating copy to sell a new line of unicycles? Take one out for a test drive!

Seeing and experiencing the product or service up close is not always possible. But when it is, you'll gain a much deeper understanding — much more quickly — than you ever would with just a picture or description.