Have you ever had a copywriting project go off the rails? I know I have. It happens to all of us at some stage, but there are ways you can prevent it.
Like most big stuff-ups, it usually starts with something small. The brief is vague, the client cuts the meeting short, so you don’t get to ask all the questions you need to ask. Feedback arrives piecemeal across multiple channels, or several people give you the brief and nobody quite owns it.
You notice these little niggles early on and your gut tells you this job isn’t starting well, but you push on because you’ve committed to it and you want to make it work.
Then the straightforward copywriting job changes direction. They want extra meetings, they’re not quite sure what they want, they change the target market, and before you know it, you’re spending more time managing the client than writing the copy.
Any freelancer who’s been around for a while has experienced at least one of these scenarios.
Here’s the thing: just because you’re a good writer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good freelancer. In fact, the more emotionally intelligent and sensitive you are as a writer, the less comfortable you may be pushing back on questionable client behaviour. Which means you put up with more of it, and the cycle begins.
The other thing many copywriters aren’t particularly good at is systems.
Systems aren’t glamorous because they’re tedious to set up, they can feel as though they interfere with the creative process and they take some of the spontaneity out of the work. And if you’re one of those creatives who secretly loves the adrenaline hit of flying by the seat of your pants, a system can take away that lovely little jolt of not quite knowing whether everything will come together in time.
But systems are often the very thing that turns a good freelancer into a great one because they help you make more money, reduce stress, give clients confidence and ensure you get the job done more efficiently.
Here are some of the systems I recommend.
1. Start with a proper onboarding process
The best time to sort out a potential client problem is before it becomes one.
Once the client says yes, make the next steps clear.
What do you need from them and when do you need it?
What are you going to deliver and when will they receive it?
When will you need their feedback?
Who will approve the work?
Where and how will you communicate?
You don’t need fancy software to manage all this because a well-written email can do a perfectly good job.
The important thing is that both you and the client know what happens next.
This is particularly useful when you’re dealing with a new client because they don’t know how you work yet. Give them a clear process to follow and you make their job easier as well as your own. You’ll love it because you’ll get what you need, and they’ll love it because they’ll know what to do.
2. Get the brief right
I cover the creative brief in another blog because it’s such a big part of the process and one that many novice copywriters get wrong. In fact, many don’t use a creative brief at all.
My own creative brief covers around 20 key areas, including the project, its background, objectives, target market, stage of awareness, tone, FAQs, features and benefits, proof, offer, call to action, mandatories, constraints and competitors.
Do you need to ask every question for every job? Probably not, but you do need to understand exactly what you’re being asked to write and why.
One of the most useful questions on my brief is simply:
Why are we doing this?
The answer often reveals that what the client wants and what they need are two different things.
This is the ideal time to find that out because once you’ve started writing, it becomes much harder to stop. You’ve invested time, the client has invested money and the sunk-cost fallacy starts to kick in. Everyone keeps going even though, deep down, you know you’re heading down the wrong track.
A client might think they need a brochure when what they actually need is to convince distributors to stock a new product. They might ask for a series of LinkedIn articles when what they really need is an email sequence to nurture potential investors, partners or clients.
Understanding the commercial imperative behind a piece of copy is critical because you can’t write it effectively if you don’t know what it’s supposed to achieve.
3. Decide where communication will happen
There’s a plethora of platforms clients can use to communicate with their suppliers: email, text, WhatsApp, Slack, voice notes and phone calls, to name just a few. That sounds convenient, but it often isn’t because feedback comes back in dribs and drabs, staggered across different channels and at different stages of the project.
You then have to spend your time trying to find it, collate it and work out which version is the current one. And that time tends to come out of your pocket, not theirs. Worse still, things get lost. Before you know it, you’re working on an old version of the copy because the latest change was buried in a text message you didn’t see.
Choose one primary channel for important project communication. For me, that’s usually email.
This doesn’t mean you can’t take phone calls or have conversations elsewhere. It simply means all important decisions and approvals should ultimately be recorded in that primary channel so you can both find them later.
If something important is agreed verbally, follow it up with a quick email:
Thanks for the chat. Just confirming that we’ve agreed to X, Y and Z.
In the old days, we called this a contact report, and they’ve saved my back more times than I care to remember. Having a written record of agreements, changes and approvals is critical because getting one of those things wrong can cost you a lot of time and, potentially, a lot of money.
It takes 30 seconds to send the email, particularly now that speech-to-text tools can help you knock these things out quickly. It’s a discipline, and creatives aren’t renowned for being disciplined around systems, but this is one area where you need to be.
4. Put the scope in writing
Scope creep is an insidious reality of the work we do because you start with X and, almost always, it becomes Y.
Could we add another page?
While you’re there, could you have a quick look at this?
We need four emails, not three to support the launch.
These requests are not unreasonable. In fact, they’re desirable because it means more work for you. The problem is that you’re now writing eight pieces of content for the same fee as five. Before you start a project, put the scope of work in writing and be specific about what you’re providing, what’s included and what isn’t.
Then, when the client asks for something additional, you have something concrete to refer back to and can simply say:
Sure thing, happy to do that. It sits outside the current scope, so I’ll send through an outline of the additional work, cost and timing before we proceed.
There’s no need to get defensive or apologise because the client is perfectly entitled to ask for more work, just as you’re perfectly entitled to charge for it.
5. Be clear about revisions
It’s very rare to get everything right on the first draft. Anyone who tells you otherwise is dreaming, so you need to allow for revisions as part of your copywriting fee.
But there’s quite a difference between ‘Could we make this paragraph a little warmer?’ and ‘We’ve had a rethink and decided to target an entirely different market.’
Your agreement should state how many rounds of revisions are included and, ideally, how feedback will be supplied.
If several stakeholders are involved, ask the client to consolidate their feedback before sending it to you. Otherwise, you can find yourself making changes for one person on Monday and changing them back for somebody else on Wednesday.
You should also establish what happens if the brief changes substantially after the writing has begun because a new direction may mean a new scope, new timing and a new fee.
It’s much easier to push back on a request when the issue has already been discussed and agreed upon. Trying to introduce a new rule halfway through a project is much harder because, from the client’s point of view, the rules have suddenly changed.
6. Put your commercial arrangements in writing
Creatives are renowned for not wanting to talk about money, but money is the currency that values your time, and you deserve to be paid properly for the work you do.
Don’t shy away from the money conversation. Have it upfront, be clear about what you charge and explain what you require because it’s much easier to enforce an arrangement that has been discussed and documented than one that was vaguely mentioned on a phone call three months ago.
Your agreement should cover the practicalities.
When will you invoice?
Is a deposit required?
When is the balance due?
For a longer project, will payments be staged?
Are you working on a retainer?
For larger projects, I’m a big fan of staged payments because they give both parties clear milestones and mean you’re not doing months of work before sending your first substantial invoice. If the project does come to an early end, you’ve also recovered a fair portion of the cost of the work you’ve already done.
And invoice when you said you would. Don’t finish the work, get distracted by the next job and remember three weeks later that you haven’t actually asked to be paid for the last one. Clients don’t enjoy receiving one enormous bill long after the work was completed because it can make them revisit and question a cost they’d mentally dealt with weeks or months earlier.
For larger jobs, smaller invoices issued at agreed stages can be much easier for everyone to manage than one whopping invoice at the end.
7. Keep the client updated
I have a policy with clients to tell them as much as I can, as frequently as I can. I’d rather over-communicate than under-communicate because no one ever went broke keeping a client informed.
One of the easiest ways to make clients feel confident about working with you is to tell them what’s happening. You don’t need to send them a daily bulletin, but for longer projects, a short milestone email might say:
The first draft is on track for Thursday. Once you’ve reviewed it, I’ll need your consolidated feedback by Monday to keep the final delivery on schedule.
That one little email does several jobs at once because the client knows the project is moving, you’ve reminded them what you need and when you need it, and you’ve created a written record of the next milestone.
One of the last emails you want to receive from a client is:
‘How are we going?’
Because if they’re asking that, chances are you’re not going as well as you think. They don’t know what’s happening, which means you haven’t kept them sufficiently informed.
Try not to give them a reason to ask. Keep them updated and you’ll become known not only as a good writer, but as a good communicator, a good operator and someone who runs a good business.
8. Make invoicing part of the process, not an awkward afterthought
We’ve all been there: the client who doesn’t pay their invoice on time.
It’s annoying and sometimes disrespectful, but it happens. How you handle it can determine not only how quickly you get paid, but whether the relationship survives afterwards.
Having a system removes much of the emotion from the process because you already know what happens next.
Set your payment terms, invoice promptly, keep track of due dates and have a standard reminder ready to send when necessary.
Keep it polite and matter-of-fact, particularly with the first reminder. Don’t go in hot and heavy demanding payment when there’s every possibility the client didn’t receive the invoice, has already paid it or there’s been a simple administrative mistake.
I generally err on the side of caution with something like:
I’m checking that you received the invoice. If you’ve already paid it, please let me know as we can’t seem to locate the payment at our end.
An overdue invoice doesn’t require an agonising afternoon trying to compose the perfect email because it simply requires a professional follow-up.
9. Set the rules before you start
As creatives, we generally like to be liked, and I think that’s one of the reasons some freelancers resist putting systems and boundaries in place. We worry they’ll make us look inflexible or difficult to deal with.
In my experience, the reverse is true.
Good systems make you look professional, competent and confident because clients like knowing where they stand. They want to know what you need from them, when they’ll receive their work, how feedback will happen, what they’re going to pay and what happens next.
A good process gives them that certainty, while also giving you something equally valuable: protection.
When a difficult moment does arise, you’re not inventing a rule on the spot or trying to work out how to have an awkward conversation because the process does the talking for you.
If your copywriting processes feel more chaotic than they need to, don’t try to overhaul your entire business in one fell swoop. Choose one area that’s causing you grief and put a simple system around it.
Write a better onboarding email, tighten your revision policy, create a templated scope-change response, set up an invoice reminder or decide what file your project feedback will live in.
A few small systems can give you more time, certainty and headspace, which means you can spend less time managing problems and more time doing the work you’re actually being paid to do: write.
