When we first start working with you, we will ask a number of questions so we can get to know your business and the customers we are writing copy for. This information is vital to the work we do, and we will not start writing until we have it. That makes it sound dramatic, right? But, we need this information to do a good job. Without it, the copy we write will not be as effective.
We will also ask questions about the purpose of every piece of copy we create and the information we need to write the copy, but these questions are different. We need to get a good idea of who you are.
Here are some of the questions we will ask.
What Does Your Company Sell?
This is not just about the product or service you sell. What is the solution you sell to customers?
What Makes Your Company Unique?
What do you do differently from your competitors? What is different about your products or solutions? Is your business model or company structure unique?
Any unique attributes can be useful. Think beyond USPs. We may not use any of these unique traits in our copy, but it will help us write from a solid understanding of your business.
Tell Us A Little Bit About Your Team
Are you a solopreneur, or have you got a small team of startup rock stars? Let us know a little bit about your team and you and the skills and background you all bring to the table.
Who Are Your Customers?
This is perhaps the most important section of information, so take some time to answer. Let us know as much information as possible about your customers. Think about the following things:
- Demographic (age, gender, location, etc.)
- Interests
- Why they need your product or service
- What their goals are and how your product helps
- What is important to your customers?
- Where do they hang out online? (social media, websites, news media)
- Any additional information you have from customer research
What Is Your Brand?
Tell us as much about how you want your customers and the world to see you as possible. If you have a branding guide, please send that to us. We keep all your information confidential; it is only used to write your copy. The more information we have, the better we can write. This is perhaps the second most important section of information we need.
- What is your brand voice? (Young, informative, fun, quirky, funny, authoritative, sarcastic, familiar, professional) It may be a mixture of these things or other adjectives. Just let us know.
- What words do you associate with your business?
- What words do you want your customers to associate with your business?
- What are your areas of focus for your promotional material?
- Do you want an evergreen brand, or do you want to rebrand regularly to stay fresh and current?
- Are there any words or types of language that you want to use in your company’s writing?
- Where and how do you plan to advertise?
What Are Your Short-Term and Long-Term Business Objectives?
Where do you want your business to be in a year? How about in five or ten years? It helps us to have a general idea of what your short-term and long-term goals are, so we can write with that in mind. While we are happy to help you update your copy when your brand grows and changes, by having an idea of the direction of your business, we can reduce the need for this.
Who Are Your Main Competitors?
Name the main competitors of your business. They need to be in the same industry, target the same customers, and have the same focus as your company. E.g. High-end luxury travel company that markets itself as having destination expertise.
What do your competitors do well, and what opportunities do they miss? What are some pain points customers have with your competitors?
Do You Have Any Websites or Copy Examples That You Like?
If so, what do you like about it? What do you not like about it?
Please Send Us Links To Your Current Online Presence
Do you have a website currently or social media? Please send us links to what you have online at the moment. What do you like about what you have up currently? What do you feel doesn’t quite work? Are there any websites or social media accounts that you feel have the type of customer engagement that you want to have? It doesn’t have to be in your industry.
What Is Your Marketing Strategy?
Where and how do you plan to market your business? Have you done keyword research already for your business? What is your objective for each type of marketing (what action do you want customers to take when they see each type of ad)? E.g. email marketing = sales, Facebook ads = traffic to your website.
Will Our Work Need to Be Confidential?
Please let us know up front how you feel about us using the work we do for your company in our portfolio. We are experienced ghostwriters and understand that some things need to be confidential, so please let us know what your limits are. We like to connect with our clients on social media and celebrate their website launches and achievements. Would it be okay to do so for your company? Are you comfortable giving a testimonial? Can you link to our website from yours? None of this will have any bearing on our work, but we want to work in a way that works for your business.
Why Are We Asking All These Questions?
It is a lot of questions to answer, but this information is vital to the effectiveness of our copy. If we don’t get these answers, then the copy we write for you will not perform as well as it can.
Answering these questions in as much detail as possible will help you just as much as it helps us. At the end of the day, this information is vital to your business.