Do I Need to Use an NDA To Protect My Business When Hiring a Copywriter?

Outsourcing parts of your business means that a third-party has access to a lot of sensitive information. As copywriters, we have access to the visions, marketing plans, and coaching materials of the coaches we work with. In some cases, we have even had access to coaches’ clients or recordings of coaching sessions.

We understand the sensitivity of this information, and we treat everything our clients tell and show us as confidential information. But we also encourage our clients to send us NDAs to give them peace of mind. Here’s what you need to know about NDAs when outsourcing your copy or any other part of your business.

What Is an NDA and Why Do I Need One?

An NDA is a non-disclosure agreement. It is a contract that a person or business (party 1) will send another person or business (party 2) when party 1 needs to give party 2 access to sensitive information. The contract will state the responsibilities of party 2 when handling this information and what they can and cannot share. Some NDAs will be very specific about the responsibilities for specific types of information, and some NDAs will put blanket statements to protect anything that party 2 may learn while working with party 1.

As copywriters, we often have access to information that represents a coach’s competitive advantage. We will have access to raw course materials, discuss launch plans, and have insight into the coach’s marketing strategy. If that information were to be shared with anyone, that coach could lose their competitive advantage.

We have also helped many coaches ghostwrite their books which, of course, they would want to keep under wraps. These coaches were extremely involved in the book. They provided outlines and insights, gave access to resources and research, and were heavily involved in editing the book; they just needed someone to write the book. However, they don’t want people to (wrongly) assume that the information didn’t come from them.

NDAs are something we encourage because everyone knows where they stand. The coach’s expectations are very clear, and we know what we can and cannot do. From our perspective, the coach is also more at ease with us and willing to answer our questions because they know we will keep everything private.

When Should I Ask The Copywriter to Sign an NDA?

We recommend getting an NDA in place before the discovery call. You need to be able to trust your copywriter enough to let them peek behind the curtain of your coaching business. If you don’t, you won’t be able to ask them the questions you need to in order to determine if they’re the right fit. They won’t be able to get to know you and your business and see if you’re the right fit either.

Once the NDA is in place, you can answer all their questions in detail and provide real insight into what you need from a copywriter. There is no need to dance around issues or ask obscure questions in the hope that the copywriter may give a relevant answer. We want to get to know a lot about the coaches we work with before we even get to signing the contract, so we always ask our clients to send us an NDA from the very start.

What Kind of Things Should an NDA Cover?

That is completely up to you and the copywriter you’re working with. We have signed a range of different NDAs with different specifications because our clients have different circumstances and needs.

For example, in our book ghostwriting, we have had NDAs that asked the following of us:

• That we never share that we were involved in writing the book in any way. The client will give us a testimonial for our business and acknowledge they worked with us, but we are not to specify what we worked on with them.
• That we are not to publicly share our involvement with the book nor are we to include it in public portfolios. If a prospective client asks to see work and this book is relevant to their enquiry, we can use our involvement as proof of our skill, but that admission must be kept to private discussions.
• The client will credit us in the book acknowledgements, and we can publicise that we worked on the book with the client, but we must not disclose the nature of our involvement. We will be credited with proofreading/editing/coaching/marketing but not writing the book. We can advertise our involvement as widely as we want as long as we keep to the agreement.
• The client will acknowledge our writing help and credit us. We can advertise our involvement without limitations.

There have been a number of variations in between, but these are generally the types of stipulations coaches will have when we work on books with them. Often, these involve a negotiation process where we discuss what the coach wants and what works for us. The stricter NDAs may result in a higher service cost because we cannot use that work to obtain more work of that nature. We may also ask that the coach get us involved in writing copy for promoting the book so we can get a testimonial from them without having to say that we were involved in writing the book. Negotiate the contract until you find what works for both of you.

Your non-disclosure agreements must protect your coaching clients. If your copywriter may see any information about your students (even if it is just the name of a student) while working with you, your NDA must mark that information as confidential. It is a good clause to have in your NDA regardless of whether or not you think your copywriter may access that information because it will cover your backside.

If you are launching a new coaching course, your NDA may put restrictions on when your copywriter can share that they worked with you. You don’t want your copywriter sharing screenshots of your new website before you’ve had a chance to announce it to your followers. Your NDA could specify that they cannot share or promote anything to do with your work until a certain date.

How to Write an NDA

If you have a legal advisor, ask them to write an NDA for you.

If you don’t have a legal advisor, there are plenty of free templates online that you can customise. Make sure everything in the contract matches your needs and what you have discussed with your copywriter. Delete clauses that aren’t applicable and update clauses with specifics. Remember, if there is a disagreement at any point, you can only enforce what is in the contract.

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