Many of my clients are small business owners, who haven’t dealt with a lot of marketing agencies. Many have no experience writing a marketing brief, let alone working with a copywriter. If you’re in the same boat, this post is for you!
Working with a copywriter requires collaboration, cooperation and above all, communication. You know about your business, your industry and your customers. Your copywriter knows about writing, human psychology, marketing and SEO. As a team, you merge that knowledge to create words which work. Copy which converts. Content which captivates.
The process is like rowing a boat. If you pull in opposite directions, you go round in circles. If you work together, you can really get going!
Here’s how you do it.
Start with a good brief
‘Too much is never enough.‘ Not just a song title, but a good way to think about how you brief your copywriter. The brief is your chance to share, to bring them up to speed.
Many copywriters use a briefing form. I don’t. I take the brief via a Zoom call, which I record. It’s quicker for both of us, and it also means that if I don’t understand something, I can sort it out straight away, in the meeting.
But the information in the brief is more important than the format. Your brief should answer the following questions (especially the first time you work with someone):
- What does your business do?
- Who is your ideal client? (Do you have multiple ideal clients? That’s fine. Include them all, but be clear whether this project is targetting all of them, or just some.)
- Who are your main competitors?
- What is your brand positioning, especially relative to your biggest competitors? How are you different from them? Why do clients choose you over them?
- What is the goal of this particular project? What do you want people to do once they get to the end of the writing?
A couple of those points deserve more explanation.
Your brand positioning
Your brand positioning is about what you stand for and how you communicate. Think about the difference between Apple and Microsoft. Both are major tech businesses, but Apple is associated with creativity, design, media and a little bit of edginess, whereas Microsoft is seen as more formal, traditional and business-focused. Apple used this effectively in their ‘Get a Mac‘ campaign,
You may not have thought about what your brand represents, which makes it hard to brief a copywriter on this! There are ways to overcome this:
- I may ask you to take a brand quiz or do some other (quick!) brand exercises. Please note, this is not an in-depth brand exercise, but this gives us a starting point to understand how you see your business, and how you want to present it to potential clients.
- Your current or previous marketing materials are another useful starting point, especially if you can tell me what you like and don’t like about specific pieces.
- Because I interview you by Zoom, I also get a great crash course in how you speak. Are you precise and accurate? Do you crack jokes? Are you strong and decisive, or gentler and more empathetic? The interview helps me to reflect you. In a brushed-up-to-look-your-best-for-the-wedding kind of way, naturally!
Copywriting goals for this project
Wherever possible, make the goal of each project measurable – think of an action which people can take. There are lots of options, depending on the type of project.
- Like, share or interact with a social post. Click from your socials through to your website.
- Click from a blog post to your service page, or to your contact form.
- Register for a webinar or event. Make an online purchase.
- Sign up for your newsletter. Or download something from your site.
- Contribute to a survey. Make a donation.
Note that writing full website copy is a bit of a special case. Different pages have different goals, and usually I’m pretty clear what those are already!
Reviews and testimonials
I will also look at your reviews and testimonials. If I can’t find them easily online, I’ll ask you for any you have.
Why?
Reviews and testimonials are the positive things your customers and clients say about you. They are a goldmine of customer language and of ways to promote your business in your own copy.
Timings and deadlines
It’s always a good idea to discuss timing and set shared expectations.
Good copy takes time. There are a lot of steps:
- Digesting all the information in the brief. Remember, you live and breathe this stuff all day. I don’t!
- Researching further. I might look at your competitors’ sites and socials; your testimonials; your competitors’ testimonials, and relevant industry insights, reports and statistics
- SEO research. This is a separate task, and a big one. Which keywords are relevant, have a good amount of search volume, and are not ridiculously competitive. (Sorry, but Google finds it easier to trust the BBC or the New York Times or MSN than it does to trust you!)
- Planning the structure, including the order that topics and ideas will be introduced.
- Writing a first draft.
- Resting, thinking and reviewing.
- Checking for spelling, grammar, punctuation and typos. Yes, copywriters make mistakes too – and it’s always harder to see your own mistakes than anyone else’s.
- Polishing headlines, hooks and calls-to-action.
In an ideal world, all this happens before you even see a first draft.
If you need your copy back tomorrow morning, not all of that will happen – even if your copywriter has no other work scheduled. A short deadline may also mean your copywriter has to delay other projects. That’s why rush jobs often incur extra charges.
So part of working with your copywriter is having a serious talk about timings and setting expectations.
Revisions
At last! You have your eagerly awaited first draft in your hot and sticky hands. On your screen, anyway.
Remember – the first draft is never perfect. Don’t be afraid to give feedback and ask for changes.
You will want to make changes. That’s fine. Honestly, every copywriter expects it. We’re not offended.
It’s your copy and we want you to be happy with it. On the other hand, you’re working with a copywriter for a reason. You hired someone with expertise in a specific area. Don’t just throw all that expertise away without thinking. Let’s have a conversation about why it was written that way, and how it could change. Together, we can look at options and you can make an informed decision.
But final approval always rests with you. You’re the client.
Two things to consider when reviewing copy
Readability
Literate people often don’t realise how many people can’t read well, or simply don’t like reading. 44% of Australian adults have a literacy level of Year 10 or below. (Source: ABS) Statistics are similar for other English-speaking countries.
As a result, the web copywriting ‘rule of thumb’ is to write to a level of Year 6-9. You can still use specialist vocabulary and express complex ideas at this level, but you need to minimise long, complicated sentences, flowery language and use of passive verbs.
If you review copy and make changes which raise the reading level, more visitors will bounce away without reading or engaging.
SEO
Web copy – from me at any rate! – includes carefully researched keywords. One main keyword per page, plus other keywords which are used across the site. When I share your copy with you, I include the main target keyword for each page in the data at the bottom of that page.
The best keywords have
- High search volume – so lots of people are typing them into Google
- Low competition, especially for sites which don’t have a huge following already – so that you stand a chance of ranking on page one. (If you want traffic, it’s better to rank on page 1 for a keyword with search volume of 50 than to rank on page 2 for a keyword with search volume of 5000.)
A small change in the keyword chosen can make a huge difference, as the screenshot below shows.
Whatever keyword has been chosen, if you remove it from headings or copy you will reduce your SEO performance. Your site will rank lower in Google and get fewer visitors.
Two recommendations for giving good feedback to your copywriter
1. Be specific with feedback.
‘I don’t like the tone,’ is not helpful. Why don’t you like the tone? Is the vocabulary too complicated? Sounds like a cliche? Sounds too formal or pompous? Feels a bit silly? Any of these gives me more idea of what to do when rewriting.
2. Give all the feedback on one version at once.
There’s nothing worse than amends to your amends before you’ve even got to the main point.
If multiple people are going to give feedback, make sure they all do so before revisions start. And please, if there is contradictory feedback, discuss amongst yourselves and reach a conclusion so I have some clarity!
There is one exception to this rule. If you think the copywriter has missed the mark entirely, don’t give detailed feedback, but book a time to talk live. That’s the best way to get back on track.
The revision process
Every copywriter has their own process. When you’re working with a copywriter, check what their process is and follow it.
These days, most copywriters will share an online document with you. But usually, we hate you writing over our copy. It means we can’t easily see what’s changed. It makes it difficult to assess impact on SEO, readability and flow. Most likely, we’ll share work with you either as
- A Google Docs document, set to ‘Suggesting’, or only allowing you to ‘Comment’ rather than edit.
- A Microsoft Word document set to ‘Track Changes’.
I use Microsoft Word. I’ve learned that many people don’t know how ‘Track Changes’ works. So I made a little video to explain it.
And while many copywriters will only accept two rounds of revisions before they charge you more, I don’t set a limit. I want to get it right for you. (Unless you keep changing the scope, of course. That’s a different issue, and I’ll raise it if it happens.)
Basically, we keep working together until you have copy that you as the client are happy with. Hopefully so happy that you come back to me next time you have a project. And because we know each other already, working together the next time is even easier and even more effective.
So if you’re looking to lift the performance of your copy and you’re interested in working with a copywriter, book in a chat and let’s see if we’re compatible.