HOW TO GET STUNNING COPY FROM YOUR COPYWRITER

?Whether you’re assigning copy for the first time or the thousandth, there are a few things to keep in mind to get the very best work you can out of your copywriter and make everyone (including them) happy:

Do Give Direct Client Contact

Because we are word people and we know how much words matter, copywriters are very good at listening to other people’s words. In our work, we learn early on how to glean what someone is asking for as they describe their copy ask. We can hear, in their word choices and the way they talk about the job, what kinds of word-based solutions may work for them and the project.

When someone, like perhaps a project manager or someone at an agency, tries to relay that information to the copywriter rather than having them meet directly with the client or stakeholder, it is understandable. Often, they are trying to save what seems like unnecessary time and money in having the copywriter sit in on extra meetings. Or perhaps the client has already relayed the info once—say, describing their brand story, and it doesn’t seem warranted to have them do it again.

But this is a mistake.

The game of telephone that almost always occurs in these cases is the real loss of time and money. I can’t tell you how many times I have wasted valuable time trying to glean from an intermediary what one, later conversation with the client themselves illuminated tenfold. Keenly listening to words with an ear for what I will write is what I do and do well. To keep me from performing this incredibly valuable part of my job makes it harder to do good work and almost never succeeds in saving much of anyone’s time or patience.

Don’t Give Direct Client Feedback

Now, here is where I seem to contradict everything I just said: do NOT give the creative direct contact with the client upon feedback. On the whole, direct feedback can be fine and even helpful, but passing along unmediated, copy and pasted reactions to someone’s copy is a terrible idea. It can legitimately create writer’s block out of thin air and stir up human emotions (like anger) that will get in the way of the production process, negatively affecting timelines and the end product.

This may sound as if we copywriters are soft. Artists we are, yes, but sensitive artists? No. Not unless we’ve just started out on our career path and even then, likely not. I came to copywriting from an MFA in creative writing. My three-year degree involved workshops every single semester in which I would have my writing (really vulnerable, often based-on my life pieces) torn apart by the other 25 students in the class plus the published professor three times a semester. We got to where someone could literally tell you your work was entirely garbage and if it didn’t resonate, let it roll right off our backs.

Even the most toughened creative is still a creative, though, and it can feel pretty vulnerable to have your shot at the creative process torn apart, especially if there was something not conveyed to us that would have set us up for more success from the beginning.

I still remember one agency head forwarding an email to me from the client calling my work, “corny taco bellesque.” Needless to say, it took me a minute to recover from that one and put my big girl writing britches on to continue.

What would have been a better approach? Harkening back to my days teaching college at the Art Institute of San Diego, I might have said, “Hey this one didn’t make the mark. It came off a little too cliché and not hip enough for the client. Could we take another pass and keep in mind the audience they are targeting?” Then I’d try to provide more info about that demographic and what kind of tone we are striving for (which had never been nailed down in this case, which was part of the problem).

Having said all of this, it happens all the time and we roll with the punches. But if you can avoid it, do. We know our work is not like the work of others in the organization where you either hit the mark or miss it--sometimes it’s just not quite what they’re looking for, or a clearer understanding comes about after the first round. There are many reasons reason to go back to the drawing board in this process and we are good with that.

But if you are giving feedback to a copywriter for hire, just cushion it a little with some understanding or mediation. If you’re in a role where you lead creatives, you should already know how to do this pretty well or you wouldn’t be touting that Creative Director title in the first place.

Ask To See Unfinished Work

One of the best things you can do for your copy process is to be sure to have at least one early round of reviews. Ask your copywriter to see early, unfinished work and even call it “unfinished” so they know you won’t be expecting otherwise.

This is the best way to be sure that what you wanted from your copywriter is what you will be getting. For us, it’s a great way to check that we understood the ask as completely as possible.

Also, this step can help achieve any tacks that need to be made early on. Maybe once you see a few witty and edgy taglines, you realize maybe that wasn’t quite the call and you’d like to see a few that are softer and more sincere. This is a change that can usually be made after this early “unfinished round” and save a lot of time in the future.

Do Overexplain

If you think you may be overexplaining the project and its subtleties—good. If you worry the writer may take offense—don’t. We are generally pretty good at letting you know when we don’t need any more elaboration and should, at that point, try to reiterate the ask just to be sure we got it right. But remember, we are word people and the more words you throw out there, the more there is for our keen ears to pick up on in order to give you what you’re looking for.

The kinds of things we really like to know are those you’d find in any creative brief (I often have a form I give out): what is it, where is it going, who will read it, what’s the goal, and what visual design will accompany it. Oh, plus tell us everything you can about the audience and, if you know it, the brand tone and voice. We use those brand manifestos like the bibles they are—really!

If the project is somewhat complicated, or involves another stakeholder, it may be warranted to have a second person meet with your copywriter to make sure all the bases are covered. I know we are all meeting-ed to death these days, but this is the kind of meet that could save you costly time in the future, so I’d say if you’re questioning a second call or meeting, go for it.

Show Don’t Tell

Here’s where I’ll use one of our golden rules in writing and toss it back at you. Show don’t tell works across the board. If you can provide your writer with any examples at all of the kind of thing you are looking for, it always helps.

Examples not only help us narrow in even more on what you want, it also provides even further context for the space and the medium (like email drips or event signage). This is true even if the examples are not quite the same as your job, you can just let us know that when you show them.

Oh, and if there are examples out there of work you do not like for whatever reason, send those along too and tell us why! Nothing helps us avoid those pitfalls more than hearing from you before we encounter them on our own.

Hopefully these tips will help you go on your merry copy-assigning way and not hold you up too much. After over ten years in the biz, I feel I had learned some things to help things go more smoothly, not the other way around. Really, we copywriters are a forgiving and friendly bunch or are just so happy that we get paid to play with words all day, it’s all gravy from there.

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