When working with a professional copywriter, the proposal you received would have mentioned the timescale for the production of the initial draft.
What exactly is that?
If you think that after giving your brief and information to your writer, she goes away and writes your content for you in about five minutes, think again.
There is so much more to it than that.
After your meeting, she will go away with her notes and research her heart out. She’ll learn everything she can about your business, your customers, your product or service and your industry. She’ll review your competitors, consider which keywords (and related terms) to use within the copy and settle upon which tone of voice to use.
Once all that information is gathered, she’ll review it in light of the goals of your project. She’ll think about how the content is to be used to make sure it’s presented in the correct format.
Then she’ll start planning the flow of the content so the most significant benefits come first and the rest of the content builds on them until the reader reaches the call to action and is rendered helpless and has to buy, sign up or get in touch.
Only then will she start writing.
Completing the first draft – although not your first draft
Pulling all the relevant information together, she’ll create headlines, subheadings and body content in line with your brief.
She’ll check for grammar, spelling, and repetition, reading it out loud to get a feel for how it flows.
Then she’ll begin to edit and shape it until she completes the second draft.
At this point, she’ll probably put it down for a day or two (time permitting) before returning to it and repeating the process again, refining every iteration until she’s entirely happy with it.
This could go on several times.
Finally, she’s happy and feels she has a first draft for you to see.
You see, even though it’s the first time you’ve seen it, to your writer it’s version eight or nine.
So next time you hire a professional copywriter and say “it’s not a big job, it’ll only take a couple of hours,” remember:
- Your writer is a professional and as such will approach your project in a professional manner
- The draft you see has been many hours in the writing
- Copy never takes ‘only a couple of hours’
Great copy isn’t created in a flash; it takes consideration, time and editing.
If you want to work with a copywriter who will take the time to make sure your copy is reliable, relevant and engaging, get in touch with Sally Ormond of Briar Copywriting.