what info do copy writers need to know when writing?

What do copy writers need to know from a company/business when hired to create the best writing possible? Mostly for Internet Marketing, but can really be fore any type of copy writing. The more specific the better.


I've been thinking along the lines of:


What do your clients/customers purchase from you?

What does your company do better than competitors?

What makes your company different from other companies in your niche?

What is your ideal customer?

What is your target audience? (age, gender, economic status, and location?)


. Who is your prospect ? How are they finding you?

What do you have to say that they care about?


What big goal do you want to accomplish with your email campaign?

What message do you want your customer to understand about you product or industry?

If you could only write 1 paragraph to you prospect what would it say


How often does your prospect want to here from you

 

Selling anything online is basically problem solving. Remember one of the golden rules of internet marketing; people aren't coming online to make you money. People want to solve a problem and you have to identify what problem your product or service is going to solve.

Connecting with the audience on a personal level is one of the best tools to use because subconsciously, people feel they know total strangers after they've made a connection with someone who shares their problem. That's why you see so many people utilizing the "I was like you" approach when selling products. It's so cliche but it still works, so why change it?

As far as everything your Copywriter needs to know, here's a basic run down:

1) What is the goal of your product/service? What exactly does this aim to accomplish?
2) What are some of the common problems that might have lead people to your sales page in the first place? What are people looking up to try to get this problem resolved?

A decent Copywriter already knows how to research markets/consumers before writing a sales page. Unless of course you're paying some $50 Copywriter and in that case, you'll be lucky not to get a copy+pasted cliche sales letter from Google.

There's honestly not much your Copywriter needs to know because as I said, the good Copywriters already know what to look for, what research to do and how to connect with an audience. There are some car salesman in the world who could sell anything if they had to for a living, they're not just limited to selling automobiles.

 

Ideally you want to see previous promotional efforts done on their behalf. If these exist of course. In an even more ideal scenario you'd replicate something that hit the mark before.
Else, you really do need to know and know very well indeed just who their 'average customer' is. Then, write for that person.

 

There is much to go into answering your question Cryan16. I’ll, therefore, not take an exhaustive approach.
Ø First you must know your product or service thoroughly well. This will enable you extract useful features of your product. These features, as you’ll see in the next bullet, will enable you compose persuasive benefits.

Ø Having extracted your useful features, you should turn them into sellable benefits. Remember, among other reasons, prospects buy because of benefits they see in your product. Some benefits are subtle --- they can’t be seen easily on the product. A man might buy a car not for mobility purposes but to show that he is a wealthy person.

Ø A copywriter will not be able to beat the competition if he/she can’t figure out a unique selling proposition. This differentiates his product from that of the competition.

Ø Show the disadvantage the prospect will reap if he does not buy your product. Create fear, anxiety or worry in his minds.

Ø Find out his or her strongest desires, wants. As you keep on mentioning or reminding the prospect about these, their desire for the product rises.

As I mentioned earlier on there are lots of points to consider before writing your persuasive copy that your client will be happy about.

 

I'm going to go through your list and give you my snarky-and-not-very-humble take on your questions.

My qualifications?

I work at an agency. I write copy to promote the agency and our clients. It's a direct-response/IM agency, not a hoity-toity creative/branding one. We have to do more than "make people like us" to get by. We have to put money in accounts, or we starve.

What do your clients/customers purchase from you?

Your copywriter should be able to figure this out without having to talk to you. Better way to phrase the question is "Which one of your products and services sells like crazy? Which ones are your stinkers?"

What does your company do better than competitors?

9 times out of 10, the people at the company have no idea. They think it's because they've been in business longer, or they have better service, or higher quality, or other things that don't make them distinctive because their competitors are all claiming the same things. That's why they hired an agency or a copywriter. It's our job to figure it out. Most of the time what they do different is so mundane to them that they don't even think of it as "different." It's a part of who they are and what they do. It takes an "outsider's perspective" to see it.

What makes your company different from other companies in your niche?

Most companies have no idea. Again, that's why they hire an agency/writer.

What is your ideal customer?


Sometimes we ask to talk to their "ideal customers" ourselves, if they're willing to have those conversations. I like to ask "what kinds of customers do you like dealing with?" and "what kinds of customers do you make the most money with?" and "who buys the hell out of that thing you sell A LOT of?"

What is your target audience? (age, gender, economic status, and location?)

They don't know. We get the answer by asking them about who they make the most money with. Most SMBs don't collect the kind of data they need to about their customers. Oftentimes their "CRM" amounts to a binder-full-of-RFPs and contracts.

Who is your prospect ? How are they finding you?

If they knew, they wouldn't have called us. For a lot of local businesses who have never figured marketing out, they made it in business by the skin of their teeth, or using YPs in the 90s, and now the internet is eating their lunch. Ideal customer = target audience = prospect. All the same thing. If a biz has been operating on word-of-mouth, we want to get them found using SEO/PPC and then drive calls to their brick-and-mortar using killer landing pages.

What do you have to say that they care about?

If they knew, they wouldn't have hired an agency with a dude like me on staff. Outside of "We're The Best!" and "We Have Better Service!" and "We're Higher Quality!" most SMBs have no idea what their messaging should be. You're barking up the wrong tree when you ask them. They will look at you like you're the stupidest person on earth, and then question why they hired you, if you ask them to answer your questions for you.

What big goal do you want to accomplish with your email campaign?

More sales, duh.

This is getting tedious. Hopefully you're getting my drift. It's not that you don't have to get these questions answered. You do. But getting them answered is harder than just asking your clients to answer them for you.

The way I go about it is to talk to everyone who works at the business I'm promoting, everyone from the CEO/founder to the guy running the register, answering the phones, cleaning carpets, working the fryer, pouring wine...everything and everyone. I ask them how they like their work, what sucks about it, what rocks, etc. I ask them about their wife and kids (if any). I ask them to tell me the funniest story they can about working there. I ask them what the silliest thing they ever had to do at work was. I get them to tell me a joke or two if I can. I get them to tell me gossip about their coworkers. 99 times out of 100, solid gold messaging and insight comes from these seemingly mundane, random Q and A sessions.

 

AstonCopy, I'm not sure that your response works for the small businesses a lot of freelancers work for. Small businesses are often run by a single person who hasn't thought much past getting the content on their site, asking so many questions is not likely to be beneficial or necessary.
As far as I am concerned I need enough information to do the job, what the product is and the website URL. The first is a no brainer, nobody can write for a product without knowing a little about it. The second I find useful as I like to get a feel for the website, layout and existing content can speak volumes about their target audience. This also gives me an idea of the 'tone of voice' for the content I am producing, there is no point writing light content if the rest of the site is very formal.
Cryan16, with a list of questions that long the company could use it as a template and write the content themselves. A good writer should be able to take the minimum amount of information and create killer copy with a little further research.

 

I think you're right, Emma. It is different working with solo-entrepreneurs, which is what I used to do before I found the company I work for now. Oftentimes they hire you not only to get it right but to get it done yesterday. I always hated working at that pace.

 

I do more SEO writing than copywriting, but both types can be combined. I usually would receive assignments where I need to include a certain key phrase in the writing a specific number of times--usually four to five times per 500 words.

 

I always inform clients how long it will take to complete a project, Aston. As I single parent working from home it is important to me to be able to be a little flexible in my working hours and this is made clear in my T&C's on my site. I also make a point to keep clients informed of any delays, it can be difficult to work if the kids are sick.
Julie, I tend to work to basic SEO principles whatever I am writing for the internet, using keywords/phrases in optimum saturation wherever possible.
My T&C's are quite concise, in that they state I will not compromise on quality and readability for keyword density and word count. I don't see the point of spending time writing something for it not to be effective and enjoyable for readers. It could be argued that I get paid for it so should just do it, but as a writer I just can't bring myself to think like that as I know that Google doesn't appreciate this type of content and ultimately the clients site might suffer for it.

 

I think that you should ask them what type of content is needs. IE always ask for a sample of the style that they are looking for before you go ahead with the order.

Let them know how long you have been around, how good you are.

Show them your Linked In profile and references from other clients.

Any content that is posted on the web in your name. Article submission sites, guest posts, it all counts.
You need to make sure that you take the payment upfront..

Just show off your best traits and let them know why they would like to hire a copywriter. NOT just any copywriter- you!

 

well... I don't follow some specific rules but, when possible, I try to work in that company for about 2 weeks and understand how it works from the inside. So, it is easier for me to make the information easy to read... because if I understand it, everybody will also do.