The Copywriting Process
As a copywriter, it’s my job to make sure your key messages talk directly to your target audience. I see my job as the communicator. I don’t invent or fabricate content, but rather I shape and manipulate key messages to produce quality content that will entice clients and customers.
Gathering the
information
The first step towards delivering quality web content is for you, as the business owner, to tell me, your website copywriter, about your business. This is so that I can upload the information to my brain, in order that I can download it onto the page for your customers or clients to read. I always
write best when the detail is completely clear - because when it’s clear
to me, I can write the content so that it’s clear to others.
There are a variety of ways I use to learn about your business.
If you have an existing website, this is obviously the first point of interest. After reading through your current copy, I’d generally discuss with you where you see improvements can be made and I’d also give my feedback, suggestions and thoughts. Reading through your competitors' websites can be very interesting exercise.
Alternatively, you might have brochures, manuals or promotional print material. This is all useful.
Where there is nothing written down, no previous website or brochures, the easiest way to learn about your business is by simply chatting to you. I would pose questions to you about your business, where you see your points of difference and why someone would use your services over your competitors.
Copy Delivery
Based on all this information, I then shape the key messages into web
content as a first draft. Because I view search engine
optimisation from a copywriting perspective, I deliver all written aspects of a
website as standard procedure. My first draft will always look like this for
each web page:
[page tab]
[h1] Page Heading
Copy paragraph 1
Copy paragraph 2
Copy paragraph 3
Metatags
Title: Title Tag
Description: Description Tag
Keyword: Keyword Tag
Please consider the first draft as exactly that. This isn’t the final copy, but a first draft, which as the business owner, requires your feedback. The key points you should check are - all the information is covered in the draft and ensure the tone is suitable for your business.
Accompanying a first draft, I generally write notes outlining the reasons behind the choices I made. This is so as you’re reading through the content, you have an explanation as to why I’ve used certain words, structured the content in that way or why I made particularly editorial decisions.
I generally appreciate clients, who mark up my first draft with ‘track changes’ or simply give me a call to discuss the amendments. Giving your feedback within one week of the first draft being delivered also ensures the process continues smoothly. It also means that the information on your site is still fresh in my mind.
Once you’ve given your feedback I make the necessary changes and then issue a second draft for final approval. Again final approval is best done within one week.
Sign-off
Once the content is approved, either you send it onto your
web designer or I send it to my designers for inclusion on the website.
As a quality control check, once the content is uploaded to either the draft web page or the live site, I always read over the copy to make sure everything looks great. If there are any small changes to the copy I can either email them through to you or if you give me the log in codes, I can make the changes through appropriate software.
This final quality control is final important step in the copywriting process.
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