3 Things You Need to Prepare Before Hiring A Copywriter
If you’ve been DIYing your copy and you’re now at a point in your business where you can outsource it, you may be ready to just hire someone and toss everything their way. I completely get that (it was exactly what I tried to do when I hired a social media manager). You just want relief from the thing that’s frustrating you and draining your energy. But, just tossing everything their way won’t get you the results you want.
If you want your copy to convert, to be delivered in a timely way, and to have a great relationship with your copywriter, there are a few things you need to prepare before hiring a copywriter. Today we’re going to cover 3 of them in this blog.
IDEAL CLIENT RESEARCH
The copywriter jargon for this is “voice of customer data”. What this means is that you have surveys and interviews from your past clients that can be used to identify what it is they are really looking for you to solve.
These are people who have worked with you (either 1:1 or in a group offering) and are your “best students”. We want to tap into the goals they had when they started working with you, the problem they wanted to be solved, and what motivated them to buy the program, product, or service. This helps us to get specific phrases we can use in the copy so we can make sure we’re speaking their language (literally).
If you don’t have this research, that’s not the end of the road. Many copywriters will give you time to collect this before the project starts. When I do VIP Experiences with my clients I give them a list of 20 different questions they can ask to gather this research. I then transcribe their interviews and dig into the data as I prepare to write their copy.
CLARITY ABOUT THE OUTCOME
Before you outsource your copy, you need to be clear on what it is you want that copy to achieve. What is the goal? Is it to nurture? To get someone to opt-in for your free content? To educate? To create a collaboration? To get them to invest in working with you?
Each piece of copy will have its own goal, not every piece of copy is geared toward making sales.
Next, define what success would look like. Are there specific targets you want to achieve? Are these more numerical or more brand essence related? While copywriters cannot guarantee results (because the copy is just one piece of the marketing strategy), it will help your copywriter know what the goal is and how success is being defined as this will affect how they write the copy. Writing copy with the intent to educate or nurture is very different than writing copy designed to drive sales.
Additionally, some brands are more geared towards driving profits and others are more driven by impact or connecting with their people. Neither is the “right way”, but having clarity on this will help your copywriter craft copy that will help you reach your goals.
SOCIAL PROOF
Social proof is a necessity in the online space. You’ve heard the need to build the know-like-trust factor with your potential clients. This is done, in part, through social proof. Your potential clients have likely never met you, how do they know you can deliver on what you say you can? Because others have experienced results.
Gather your testimonials — not just the unicorn ones (those top 1% that get the best results in your program), but the middle of the road / more average results. People want to see a range of results. This also represents your program in a more ethical way because not everyone will achieve that amazing result, but if they follow your program they will have a transformation so let’s show them the different possibilities for what they can do.
Your copywriter will use this to make sure they understand your audience on a deeper level and to hear the language they use to describe their transformations, their challenges, their wins, and anything else they share. All of this is used when crafting your copy.
So whether it’s a screenshot from social media, an email, or a video, make sure to pull together all your testimonials or success stories in one place so your copywriter can review them before they start working on your project.
Save yourself the time and headache of the back and forth communication with your copywriter (because they will request this from you << if they don’t that’s a huge red flag!)
If you don’t have these 3 things in place to give to your copywriter, it’s difficult to ensure the messaging is going to resonate with your audience. And if the messaging is off it’s going to impact your conversions (and ultimately your bottom line).
While I know you’re ready to just hand everything over to a copywriter right now, no one likes to waste their time or money. A little upfront preparation will save you in the long run.
Prepared to hire a copywriter, but not sure where to find them? Grab my free training: How to Find & Hire the Perfect Copywriter for Your Business.
originally published at www.kristenwestcott.com/blog
