How to brief a copywriter

If your next writing project is going to go wrong, chances are that it’ll be for one of two reasons:

1. You ended up with the wrong writer
2. The brief wasn’t clear (even if you thought it was)

“But surely,” you say, “if I got the right copywriter, they’d get the brief out of me.” This is true to an extent. An experienced copywriter will ask you all sorts of questions to get a firm grip on what you want. But even then, they can’t read your mind.

The brief is the foundation for everything that comes afterward. It’s your opportunity to sow the seeds for both the best possible outcome and the worst. So it’s worth spending the time to get it right. As someone who’s been brought in all too often to fix “the worst” left by other writers, I can’t emphasise this enough. It’ll save you time, money and sleepless nights in the long run.

So what should you be covering when you brief a copywriter? Glad you asked. Here’s my version of the questions you should be answering.

Why are we communicating?

What has set you off down this crazy road of needing some copy? What’s happened that kicked the whole thing off? How does this project fit in with others you have ongoing or upcoming?

What do you want people to do as a result of reading the copy?

Despite the stereotype that all copywriters are simply frustrated novelists, we tend to be far more focused on what you want to achieve than on penning great literature. The desired response could be anything from customers picking up the phone to downloading a white paper to increasing your reputation as a thought leader. The more specific you can be, the better.

What is the brand all about?

Why does your company exist? What kind of brand is it – functional, emotional, transactional etc? What values underpin how you act and communicate with your customers?

What tone of voice are we aiming for?

Do we need to match an existing tone of voice or create a new one? How would you describe your current tone (try to go for descriptors other than open, honest and approachable – that’s what everybody says)? If we’re creating something new, then do you already have some parameters in your head or are you completely open? Is there someone famous who speaks or writes the way you think your brand should?

What’s different about the product/service we are selling?

There is always the temptation to try to cover all the great things your product or service does, but what is it that makes it really special? Particularly, how does it beat the competition? These differences are what we’ll be focusing on most of the time in the copy. Try to avoid wishful thinking in this section, it’s better for your copywriter to have the unvarnished truth – leave it to them to make it sound as compelling as it can.

Who is our audience?

This is a big one. Good copywriters will start with your customers and not with you. The sad truth is that, for the most part, your customers care far more about themselves than they do about you. Sorry.

We want to get as close as possible to a one-to-one dialogue with them. We want empathy and rapport. Even if this will all be happening solely in their heads.

Try to get beyond the “IT Managers in 250-500 person businesses” – that doesn’t tell anyone a whole hell of a lot. What do they care about? What keeps them up at night? How does purchasing your product make their lives easier? The more you can turn them into a real live person, the better.

What do they currently believe? What do we want them to believe/feel?

Most of what I do is to in some way designed to change how people think, feel or behave (sometimes all three). So I need to know where they’re at right now and where we need to get them to. Earlier, I asked what we want customers to do. One way of thinking about this question is: in order for them to act the way we wish, what would they have to believe?

What is our core message?

Now in a longer piece of copy, we might want to get a whole bunch of messages across. But even then, there should be some core theme to hold it all together. This will provide the framework that we hang everything else on. It could be as high level as a brand message or something more tactical. Another way of looking at this is to answer the question: what’s the one thing we could say to our audience that would make a difference?

What will make them believe this?

Of course we could say anything (free Ferrari with every purchase). This question means you’ll have to ground your message in reality.

The practicalities

These questions simply ensure we are all on the same page for what’s actually being developed. Ignore them at your peril.

• What are we actually producing? How will the copy be used?
• Is it online or offline or both?
• Are there SEO and keyword considerations we should take into account?
• How many words do you need?
• Is there a current style guide?
• Will the copy be translated?
• What is the budget?
• When do you need it to go live? Is there sufficient time for research, writing, amends and approvals?

That’s it. I know it looks a lot but believe me, nail the answers to these questions first and it will make your life a whole lot easier later.