A while ago, I wrote a piece on the process of working with a copywriter. It was designed to remove the fear of the unknown if you’d never worked with a copywriter before and wanted to know what to expect.
I got lots of good feedback on it, but one person asked for a little more detail. Specifically, what should you expect from your copywriter’s first draft of the piece of copy?
Here’s my answer.
My only caveat is to say it’s what to expect from a first draft from me. Other copywriters will have different approaches and it’s important to find the one who’s the right fit for you.
What to expect before the first draft
There’s quite a lot of research before a first draft is started. I’ll want to understand as much as possible about your business, your audience, your product/service, your competitors and your requirements and expectations for the copy. The more I understand, the higher the chance of the first draft hitting – or nearly hitting – the mark.
For longer pieces or bigger projects, I also like to build in an outline stage before the first draft. This gives an opportunity to check we’re all thinking along the same lines before I start work.
The basics of the first draft
No matter whether you’ve commissioned an article, a website or a leaflet, the first draft will be in Word, Pages or Docs.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
It puts all the focus on the words rather than any design elements. (When your designer works on the design they’ll use ‘lorem ipsum’ dummy copy for the same reason in reverse – it puts all the focus on the design rather than the words.)
It’s also easier for you to comment on or add information to than anything more ‘designed’.
That said, I may format or annotate the document if I’ve got any thoughts on page layout, the hierarchy of text size or images I’d envisaged being used.
There may be comments in the document if there’s something I’d like you to pay particular attention to.
Some copywriters like to send a short Loom or voice note with their first draft to talk you through the rationale. Others talk you through it on a call. I like these approaches but I don’t follow either of them. Copy doesn’t come with an accompanying explanation when it’s ‘live’, so I don’t feel it’s fair to give it one when I send over a first draft.
All the work that happened in preparation for the first draft should mean it’s fairly close to what’s required, but the rounds of amends that are included in the project are there to take it from ‘nearly there’ to ‘perfect’.
Responding to the first draft
If that’s what to expect from your first draft, what will I want from your response to the first draft?
Being informative is vital. For example, rather than saying ‘I don’t like this bit’, be specific. What don’t you like about it? Why?
You can respond to the first draft on a call or you can provide written comments. If you provide written comments, it’s always preferable for them to be electronic not handwritten, simply because handwriting can be hard to decipher correctly, especially if it’s on a scanned version of the document.
Give your feedback as soon as you can, especially if there’s a deadline you need to stick to. I tell clients when I’ll have their first draft with them specifically because this means they can set aside time in their diary to look at it and respond. Of course, life sometimes gets in the way and you can’t look at something as quickly as you’d like. When this happened, it’s helpful to let me know there’ll be a delay: it helps me manage my own schedule.
Take a moment to consider who needs to give feedback on the copy (I’ll check in with you on this during the briefing process). If there are multiple people, it’s worth taking a moment to consider whose opinion matters for what. This is helpful when there are conflicting opinions and you need to decide whose is most important – for example, you need your legal team’s input for the legal perspective but not the overall message.
Ultimately, it’s your copy so your opinion is the one that will carry, so expect me to take on your feedback – but also to push back if I think it’s appropriate.
Finally, remember there’s likely to be a set number of rounds of feedback – additional charges may apply if there need to be extra rounds. This is partly to help keep the process on track and finished in a timely fashion. It’s also because after a certain point, everyone tends to lose the wood for the trees, which ultimately affects the quality of the end result.
What else?
That’s my take on the first draft of a piece of copy and what to expect. What are your experiences? What examples of good practice can you share?
