My tried and tested copywriting process
Great copy that gets results doesn’t just magically happen after a potent cocktail of brainstorming and Canadian Club on the rocks. Even Don Draper had to do some work occasionally.
He didn’t do this kind of work though.
Conversion copywriting – aka copywriting focused on getting results – goes way deeper than John Hamm’s whisky glass.
I follow a proven process – with zero guesswork.
As a conversion copywriter, I won’t put a single word on the page until I’ve had a conversation with your customers.
Let’s take a walk through my conversion copywriting process:
The Intro
Quick chat – We’ll hop on a call and you’ll tell me more about your project and ask any questions you have. We’ll briefly talk goals, budget and timelines.
Longer chat – If I’m sure I can help you, we’ll arrange a longer call to scope out your project.
Next Steps:
If you’re clear on what you need, I’ll send you a proposal with an outline of the work, timescales and costs.
If you want help to get clarity on the copy you need, we can schedule a paid roadmapping session. This will help you see where the opportunities are, and what needs to happen next.
Getting Started
Once you’ve signed the proposal it becomes our Statement of Work, and a 50% deposit secures your spot in my calendar.
Then we’ll book in our project kick-off call, where we’ll cover everything I need to know to get started – your brand and values, your target audience/s and more.
Research and Discovery
At this point I’ll get started on your project research – which can include client interviews, surveys, chat transcript reviews, customer email reviews, product review mining, competitor research and more.
The main goal here is to uncover the way your customers talk about you, their motivations for buying from you, their objections or hesitations pre-purchase, and their buying triggers. When we get to the copywriting stage, this helps us speak the language of your customers – and helps us know what we need to say to generate more leads or sales.
I’ll pull all of this research together into a messaging document and share it with you, so you get to see my findings and analysis before I start writing.
Conversion Copywriting
Once we’ve agreed our messaging strategy, I’ll get to work writing the copy – your emails and/or other assets such as landing pages and ads.
I’ll always run a couple of emails by you before I write the full sequence, so we both know things are on the right track.
And when the work is finished, we’ll get on a call and I’ll talk you through the copy to explain the approach I’ve taken.
Conversion copy is designed to encourage action, so your copy will be written with this in mind, but tone of voice and relationship building are always a priority too.
Every little detail will be well thought out. One example – I’ll make sure all of your emails have a compelling subject line, encouraging the reader to open. And that subject line will be written with both mobile and desktop in mind.
Editing
You provide feedback, and then I’ll work through the edits. One round of edits is usually all we need, but I always include two rounds of edits, just in case.
Launching
Once you’ve paid the balance, the copyright on your copy assets passes to you and you can go live with your email sequence or funnel.
Testing & Optimization
We’ll review your stats – open rates, click-through rates, and conversions (leads or sales).
I’ll write variants for split testing against our controls – in other words, I’ll write new copy in landing page headlines and email subject lines, to test against the copy I just wrote for you. Even the best copy can almost always be improved upon!