Do you have time to work with a copywriter?

You’re probably thinking – now that’s a funny old question. Surely the whole point of hiring a copywriter is that they spend THEIR time creating my content. What’s MY time got to do with it?

And that would be a fair point.

Thing is, though, copywriters still need some of your time if they’re going to do a bloody brilliant job.

Take me, for example. When you hire me to write your content, I’ll need at least an hour of your time on Zoom. Maybe two.

And here’s why.

I don’t do questionnaires

Some copywriters send clients a questionnaire so they can gather information about their business before writing the words.

Me? I’m not a big fan of questionnaires. It feels too much like homework, don’t you think? Whenever I have to fill one in I write the bare minimum then get back to Netflix and necking chocolate biscuits.

And here’s the thing. A questionnaire won’t give me the whole story.

I know this from my days as a journalist. Very occasionally, if there was no other way around it, I’d interview someone by sending them questions. The replies were horribly short and succinct. I got what I needed – just! The articles I wrote were OK. Just.

And that’s just not good enough for your business.

Here’s what we’ll do instead…

I get that you might want to be prepared before we chat. If that’s you, I’ll happily send over an outline of the kind of questions I’ll be asking.

I did this recently when I was writing a LinkedIn profile for a client and had a couple of left-field questions I figured they wouldn’t be expecting. It gave them chance to think – and they came up with a really sweet anecdote that illustrated why they love what they do.

It was the perfect story to make them stand out in a sea of LinkedIn competitors.

I dig deep – really, really deep

Years of interviewing people from all walks of life taught me to ask questions… and keep asking questions until I hit gold.

And that took time.

Often the gold nugget would come right at the end of the interview. They’d say something that I knew would make the perfect headline. Or would pull at the readers’ heartstrings. Or would shock or surprise.

It was always worth the wait.

Here’s how our interview will go down…

Yes, you guessed it, I’ll be asking shed loads of questions.

And heads-up – there’ll be two types of questions coming your way.

#1 The fact-finding questions. These are to find out everything I need to know about your business – so I can tell your clients and customers everything they need to know about your business.

# The touchy-feely questions. These are to find out more about you – so your target audience get to know, love and adore you.

It’s a cracking combo.

And your golden, nuggety answers mean I can write cracking, one-of-a-kind content for you.

I love a good story

When I started working as a copywriter I was worried I’d miss out on hearing great stories.

As a journalist for nearly 30 years I’d had the privilege of listening to so many people’s life experiences. I loved interviewing as much as I did writing. They were my two favourite things. (A third was chocolate, but, you know, relevance.)

When I realised that interviewing clients was a HUGE part of any copywriting project – boy was I happy!

Selfish as I am, though, the interview bit isn’t for my benefit.

Without fulling getting to know you there’s no way I can bring your business to life in your content. You’d sound just the same as everyone else who does what you do. And that’s no way to attract money-waving fans, is it?

Here’s why time with me is well spent

Unless you really, really hate talking about you and your business you’re going to love chatting to me.

We drink tea. Virtually. We laugh. Like hyenas. We talk. And we talk some more.

And I’m listening.

I listen to the words, phrases and colloquialisms you use. I keep my ears open for nuances in speech. I tune into your kind of humour.

And I use everything I hear to craft content in your brand style and tone of voice.

There’s more, too.

I’ve had clients tell me how useful our conversation was. It might have re-ignited their passion. Or sparked new ideas. Or reminded them how far they’ve come. Or how awesome they are.

When was the last time a questionnaire did that for you?

* Want to talk your way to great content? Let’s do this

PHOTO: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay