What to Expect When Working With a Copywriter

So you are sick of staring at a blank Word document and want some help writing about your business. But you have concerns. After all, you thought a copywriter was something to do with photocopiers or copyright law until recently. What should you expect? Do you really need a copywriter? Let’s talk about what to expect.

What Does a Copywriter Do?

In short, a copywriter takes your ideas and explanations of your business and turns them into compelling words that get your customer excited to buy. A common misconception is that copywriters are there for people who can’t write at all. We can help people who can’t write at all, and we can help people who write really well. Some of our past clients include published authors and copywriters who write killer copy but struggle to sell their own business.

A copywriter is not just someone who can write well. In order to be a good copywriter, you need skills in some surprising areas:

• Sales – Copywriters have to understand how to sell to people. Copywriters often work in sales before combining their sales skills and writing skills to pursue copywriting.
• Psychology – Copywriters need to understand what is going on in a prospect’s head. They need to know how to invoke an emotional response in your ideal customer to help them connect with your brand and product.
• Marketing – A copywriter will often be given information and asked to present it in the most compelling way. We need to have marketing skills so we can come up with concepts for marketing materials. Good thing we spend so much time studying ads to learn from the copy.
• Branding –  A good quality copywriter will try to get a sense of your brand voice (or help you establish one if you don’t already have one.) It is important to keep your branding consistent over multiple platforms and marketing materials in order to build trust with your ideal customers.
• Data analysis – Copywriters will often review the stats of previous pieces of copy or email campaigns to see what was and wasn’t working for your audience. We love when clients present us with cold hard data so we can create effective copy. We will often conduct our own research and see what competitors are doing and look for market trends so we can ensure your copy lands.

All of these skills are combined when a copywriter writes any piece of copy. That is why copywriters can help business owners who write well to take their copy to the next level.

How Does a Copywriter Work?

Copywriting probably represents about a quarter of a copywriter’s work hours. We spend a lot of time refining our craft by reading books and articles or just studying marketing materials to see what is effective. We also spend a lot of time growing our own business and nurturing leads to ensure a steady flow of clients.

When we do work on client work, most of the time is spent researching. The actual writing may take a surprisingly short time because we spend a lot of time reading up on the client’s industry, studying their current marketing material and brand voice, and trawling forums to see what their clients think about them. The more time we spend researching, the more effective the copy we write will be.

Every copywriter works differently, but we honestly believe that excellent copywriting happens in the editing stages. That is where we pick apart our copy to test if we are expressing the message in the most effective and compelling way possible. Sometimes the second draft looks completely different to the first draft. It doesn’t mean it was bad writing, just that there was a better way to say it.

Once we are happy with a piece of copy, we deliver it to our client for feedback. This is a vital piece of the puzzle, and we include a few revision rounds because we want our customers to be completely in love with their new copy. When clients say they don’t like our copy, it is not a comment on our skill or the quality of the work; the copy just doesn’t work for their business or vision. Sometimes all it needs is a few tweaks; sometimes, whole sections need to be rewritten. Most of the time, we’ve been thorough enough during the consultation and strategy call that the copy only needs tweaking, but we will rewrite the entire thing if needed.

What Does Working With a Copywriter Look Like?

We can’t speak for every copywriter out there, but this is our process.

Discovery Questionnaire

When a new client first gets in touch with us, we like to get to know them and their business a little bit. We send a discovery questionnaire with questions that allow us to understand what a business does and why they are hiring a copywriter. This helps us to see if we would be a good fit to work together both for their business and ours. We can’t have a consultation call with everyone; we wouldn’t have time to get any copywriting done.

Consultation Call

If we’re a good fit, we’ll book a consultation call together. This is a free call where we get to know each other a little better. We’ll ask questions about your business, customers, and how we can help. You can ask us questions about absolutely anything.

We will discuss the scope of the project and deadlines so we can send you a comprehensive proposal. This is sent within 24 hours of our consultation call.

Strategy Call

Now you have hired us, and all the paperwork has been done, it is time for the strategy call. We send a questionnaire ahead of the strategy call so that we can really talk specifics and create a game plan. This also allows us to get to work straight after the call instead of waiting for important information.

The strategy call is usually an hour, but we like to put more time aside for larger projects like websites or full campaigns. We want to understand the finer points of your vision for this piece of copy and how it fits into your business goals and marketing strategy. The more information we get in this call, the more likely we are to nail the copy from the very start.

Research, Writing, and Editing

Once the strategy call is done, your part is done. We start researching right away to learn everything we need to know about your business and product. Excellent copy is made in the research stage because sometimes we uncover information that allows us to tailor the copy to how the ideal customer perceives and uses the product. If anything comes up that will change the concept we discussed in the strategy call; we will contact you immediately to discuss it.

Revisions

You will receive your new copy by the deadline. Along with the copy, we will send basic instructions for revisions so that we can collaborate effectively to make any changes necessary. Clients have the option to send over their notes in writing or to jump on a call to go over their notes and explain it in detail.

We offer 2 revisions plus an extra revision once the copy is in-situ to ensure it fits with the other design elements.

Offboarding

We call this an offboarding process, but we like to stay in touch with our clients. We love to celebrate the wins of other business owners and build a network of entrepreneurs. Our offboarding process includes sending across the final product, grabbing a testimonial, and discussing how we can help if you want changes in the future.