How to brief a copywriter
The two things your copywriting agency really needs to know
What makes a great copywriting brief? At Ink Copywriters, we’ve seen literally thousands. But the best ones really boil down to two things: knowing what you want to say (your message) and how you want to say it (your tone of voice).
Of course, there are lots of other considerations, such as your audience, media, call to action, deadlines and design considerations… However, message and tone of voice are absolutely crucial because, without them, your whole project can go off on a tangent.
For some projects and brands, assembling a brief is straightforward. There’s a clear marketing strategy. There are amazing tone of voice guidelines to follow. Our job is simply to put all of that guidance into words in the most engaging, inspiring and original way possible.
Then there are the ‘other’ briefs.
You might be launching a new product or service. You might be an entirely new start-up or an established brand with a tired, fragmented tone of voice. This is where we, as a copywriting agency, come in. We question, probe, tease out the key facts, proof points and nuggets of information that will engage your audience. And the same goes for tone of voice. We’ll use our experience, workshops, games and questionnaires to pin down brand language that is the right fit for you and your team.
Either way, before you start working us (or any other copywriter) we’d recommend giving these two elements a lot of thought. The following prompts are a good starting point:
Your message
What makes your product, service or brand different, special – or better?
What are the top three things you want a customer/client to know?
What are the pain points that you answer?
And how can you back this up: what are the facts or case studies that will convince your audience your claims are true?
Your tone of voice
Do you have any brand guidelines: values, a purpose, a mission? Whether that’s a full-blown document or list of bullet points.
If your brand was a person how would you describe it? Who would it sound like?
Are there other brands who talk in a way you admire? Are there any you can’t stand?
If you’d like a template to follow, get in touch and we’ll send over our short and sweet briefing forms for copywriting or tone of voice. Or join us in our Whereby room and, in just 30 minutes, we’ll cover off the basics.