Up next in 10
I look at the three phases of a copywriting project.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hey everyone this is todd from copy
0:02
flight and today i want to do a quick
0:06
video
0:07
about
0:08
um when you hire a copywriter
0:12
there are certain things that they will
0:14
do
0:15
and it might help you understand a
0:16
little bit about the value
0:18
of what you're getting if you're a
0:19
business and you want to hire a
0:20
copywriter
0:22
most copywriters will
0:23
work on a project it really doesn't
0:25
matter the kind of project it is it can
0:27
be your website copy it can be a blog
0:30
post a
0:31
a well-researched authoritative article
0:34
it could be um
0:36
your funnel they could be writing your
0:37
funnel they could be writing email
0:39
sequences
0:41
it really just doesn't matter the type
0:43
of copywriting they will all
0:46
usually go through one of three phrases
0:48
phases excuse me
0:51
now
0:52
a copywriter may tell you
0:54
that there are more they may label them
0:57
differently
0:58
and everybody does things differently
1:02
but
1:03
um
1:04
in my opinion
1:05
they will all come down to
1:07
one of these three phrases this phases
1:10
this is certainly true for me
1:12
and i believe it's true for most degree
1:14
of the copywriter again they may call
1:17
the face something different and they
1:19
may include more phases but they should
1:21
fall
1:22
uh pretty generally into one of these
1:24
three phrases so today we're going to
1:25
look at these phases
1:27
i keep saying phrases sorry about that
1:29
phases that
1:31
we go through when doing a copywriting
1:33
project
1:34
and i'm going to look at them up front
1:36
and then we're going to look at each one
1:37
of them a little bit closer so the first
1:39
phase is the research phase
1:42
i'll talk a little bit more about that
1:44
in just a minute the second phase
1:46
is the strategy phase and the third
1:48
phase is the writing phase which
1:52
you see i also have editing there
1:53
because editing is a big part of the
1:55
writing phase as well so let's get
1:57
started
2:00
the first phase is the research phase
2:03
and i have
2:04
um
2:06
divided these into two areas these are
2:08
very general of course internal and
2:10
external research
2:12
um
2:13
your copywriter may call them something
2:15
different but essentially it's internal
2:18
and external internal in the sense that
2:20
they are looking internal to your
2:22
business
2:24
and researching that and getting the
2:26
necessary information external in the
2:28
sense that they are looking
2:30
outward
2:32
usually toward
2:34
your customers but we'll talk about that
2:36
shortly
2:38
the internal research phase includes
2:41
things like features and benefits of
2:43
your product and service they want to
2:45
know that
2:46
if you have that already defined
2:49
and done well they will probably take
2:51
note of that and use that they're likely
2:54
going to want to do this for each
2:56
feature i'm sorry each product or
2:58
service you have
2:59
but depending on type of project you're
3:01
doing they want to know things such as
3:04
what those features and benefits are who
3:06
your target audience is who it is you're
3:07
reaching who it is you're reaching with
3:10
this particular product or service um
3:12
what are the pain points that they have
3:14
um what is their customer journey those
3:17
kinds of things and they want to know
3:18
how you are different so if you combine
3:21
these three it's basically what we call
3:23
your unique value proposition
3:25
they need to know each section of it
3:28
they want to know what you think it is
3:31
and they're likely going to do a little
3:33
external research to talk about
3:35
um
3:36
or to learn what your customer says
3:38
about it and do some comparison on that
3:41
now i give you a little bit of a
3:43
resource here this is the website copy
3:44
framework it's something i created a few
3:48
years back to help
3:50
agencies and consultants work with their
3:52
client and getting this internal
3:54
information
3:55
things like your unique value
3:56
proposition
3:58
so there are a series of worksheets and
4:01
frameworks in there
4:03
that will help you with that um
4:05
doing that process
4:07
um so
4:09
if you need a resource for
4:12
doing that internal research this is a
4:14
something that you can take advantage of
4:18
the second type of research that we talk
4:20
about is external research
4:23
again as i said earlier this is really
4:25
looking to toward the customer to see
4:27
what they have to say about you
4:29
so we're going to look at things like
4:31
the voice of customer research so
4:33
that may include things like
4:35
testimonials what do people say about
4:38
your product or service and testimonials
4:40
do you have case studies and in these
4:42
case studies is there a story there are
4:44
the quotes from clients about
4:46
the process they're going to look at
4:48
that
4:49
and then they may need to do some
4:51
interviews um with your customers
4:54
all this is to get what your customer is
4:57
saying about
4:59
um your product or service that is
5:02
huge because then you're going to take
5:03
that information and curate it and
5:08
that kind of thing
5:09
curate it and put all the pieces
5:12
together that you need to write your
5:14
copy
5:14
um
5:16
here are a couple resources for your
5:17
external research phase
5:20
get a copy of the book finding the right
5:22
message by jennifer havis she basically
5:24
breaks down this process of voice of
5:26
customer research
5:28
uh that kind of thing
5:29
if you want help with your
5:32
personas i highly recommend
5:35
learning from adrienne barnes she does
5:38
the personas she does it in a way that
5:40
takes
5:42
stock of things that the customer says
5:44
the voice of customer research those
5:46
kinds of things i used to not like
5:48
personas but she is allowing she's
5:51
causing me to change my mind
5:53
so she's got a number of free resources
5:55
that you can take advantage of to learn
5:57
a little bit more there are a number of
5:58
people out there who do interviews and
6:01
voice customer research adrienne's one
6:03
of them
6:04
um highly recommend you checking some of
6:07
those folks out
6:10
the next phase is called the strategy
6:12
phase you're gonna take all that data
6:14
from phase one and curate it you're
6:16
gonna put it you're gonna you're gonna
6:18
categorize it you're going to
6:20
look at the words people are saying
6:21
about your product your service you're
6:23
going to think deeply about it many
6:25
copywriters it's a brainstorming thing
6:27
and as you know that doesn't always
6:30
happen by sitting there staring at stuff
6:32
sometimes you got to go away and
6:34
do something else for a while and
6:37
you come back and it begins to formulate
6:40
for you it's it's
6:42
not as scientific as maybe we would like
6:43
for it to be
6:45
another thing you can do that strategy
6:47
you may take a risk
6:48
you may try being bold with your copy um
6:51
those are all strategy points
6:54
but it's a phase that the copywriter
6:56
goes through
6:57
obviously they'll be spending their time
6:59
working with you
7:01
giving you the information that they're
7:04
curating so
7:05
so that you're part of the process
7:09
the third phase is the writing phase and
7:13
i add and editing so
7:15
by you need to edit and i'm not just
7:17
talking about making sure grammar is
7:18
correct that is a huge part of it but
7:20
i'm talking about what we call copy
7:22
editing
7:23
it's making your copy compelling concise
7:27
and convincing those are three things
7:29
that a copy editor will be looking to do
7:33
they will clean up they will tighten up
7:36
uh the things that need to be tightened
7:38
up and help it do those three things
7:42
so the rubber beats the road in this
7:44
phase you're taking everything the the
7:46
copywriter's taking everything
7:48
that he or she has learned and worked on
7:52
the first two phases to start to put it
7:54
in place it's like
7:56
building a building with lego blocks you
7:58
know you've got you start to put your
8:00
lego blocks
8:02
together and you start to build your
8:04
building
8:05
they're going to take advantage of
8:06
proven frameworks
8:07
there are a number of proven frameworks
8:09
out there
8:11
um probably no framework is better than
8:13
the other per se
8:15
um even people who do funnels and
8:17
sequence
8:18
email sequence writing will use a
8:20
certain kind of framework
8:23
i am partial to the pas framework for
8:26
website copy problem agitate solution i
8:29
like things in threes it helps me
8:30
remember them better
8:32
but most of the other frameworks are a
8:34
variation of the pas
8:36
um so that is something you know they
8:38
take advantage they will take advantage
8:40
of proven frameworks not just with
8:43
uh the website page but even with
8:45
headlines and things like that so um and
8:48
and so they'll use what they like what's
8:51
what it is proven you're putting all
8:54
those blocks together one of the things
8:55
they'll do they may do is create
8:58
variations of the copy
9:00
so
9:01
um either for your approval and or
9:04
testing so if you're going to do testing
9:06
they may provide you with multiple
9:09
variations of a particular page or
9:12
headline or whatever to do testing to
9:14
see which one's better
9:16
but when i do
9:18
a project i typically do some variations
9:21
anyway that i like to leave with the
9:24
client
9:26
and then you're going to have what is
9:28
usually called a key message copy
9:30
platform
9:32
i like to call it a copy flight plan and
9:34
play on words for copy flight
9:36
but that's essentially what it is you're
9:38
basically pouring all that into one
9:41
document that is reusable as like a
9:43
library of copy
9:46
points that
9:48
maybe even some micro copy that you can
9:50
use repeatedly and in different areas of
9:53
your business
9:54
so
9:56
this is what i call the three phases
9:59
of a copywriting project again like i
10:01
said it does not matter if you're
10:03
writing website copy if you're writing a
10:06
blog post uh authoritative blog post uh
10:09
a full funnel
10:11
email sequences
10:12
there the process is largely the same
10:16
um again they may your copywriter may
10:19
call it something different they may
10:21
arrange it differently it may not be so
10:23
sequential but in general there's a a um
10:27
a research a strategy phase and then the
10:31
writing pages phase
10:33
so um
10:34
just so you'll know when somebody uh
10:37
does a project with you for copywriting
10:40
that is what you can expect
10:42
even
10:43
when i do about pages
10:45
i use this process
10:48
i am the about page guy toddy jones
10:52
again you can take advantage of the
10:53
website copy framework and go to
10:55
copyflat.com
10:56
wcf pick up a copy of either the
11:00
the regular or the white label
11:03
and has a series of frameworks and
11:06
worksheets you can use to
11:08
help your client or yourself um
11:11
write your copy
11:14
i will say that it does lean more on the
11:17
internal research size side so
11:19
uh if you're going to do some external
11:21
research you'll probably have to do that
11:23
outside of the website copy framework
11:25
but i think it's worth your time if you
11:27
choose to do so
11:28
and my website is copyflight.com so
11:32
check that out uh if i can help you
11:34
anyway let me know uh
11:36
again i am the the about page guy toddy
11:39
jones
11:40
thank you
Arts & Entertainment
Advertising & Marketing
Small Business