My process as a copywriter for sustainable businesses
When you think of a writer, you may imagine a tortured soul with a faraway look, wandering lonely heaths in search of inspiration.
The reality is that to get consistent results as a copywriter for sustainable businesses, you need a process. Here’s mine:
A brief, a brief, my kingdom for a brief!
You must fill in a brief before we do our Zoom call. A brief helps you organise your thoughts. You’ll need to answer questions like: What’s your goal? What does a successful project look like? What do you want to say to your reader? Can you say it in 1 sentence?
A brief also gives me a clear goal to aim for, and a clear benchmark for you to judge my work against. If you’re stuck on any part of the brief, let me know.
Zoom call
This is when we flesh out your needs and gauge our alignment.
“Gauge our alignment”? Sounds a bit New Agey! 🤭
Maybe it does. But establishing trust is the only way to make your project a success. And the only way to do that is for us to meet and chat.
Will we be a good fit? Only a Zoom call can tell.
Interviews
The brief and the Zoom call tell me what your project is about. Interviews tell me how to turn your project into a piece of writing.
Who I interview depends on the project. If it’s a landing page, I might interview your best client. If it’s a blog post, I might speak to an expert. If it’s an about page, I’ll probably come to you.
Couldn’t I just do research and not bother anyone?
I could. But no amount of research can replace the unique perspective of a real-world buyer, an expert, or a business owner or founder. And you want that perspective in the writing. Trust me. It’s astounding the insights that come up. Things I would never think of. Not in a million years.
Do I do research as a copywriter for sustainable businesses?
Of course I do research! Tons of it. Especially before brainstorming. So if there’s a dedicated research phase, it happens now.
Brainstorm
Now I dump my ideas on paper until the ideas dry up. I often walk away for a while to let ideas build up again. Then I dump some more.
There’s no sentence-making at this point. I want to focus on covering your goals and tackling every relevant point.
Next , I circle related ideas. I give each circle of ideas a descriptive title. Then I shuffle the titles until they read like a concise version of the key message from your brief.
Once the ideas are in order, we’ve got our outline.
First draft
Now we’ve got an outline, it’s time to get writing.
To do this, I open my dictation software. Why dictate my writing? Because natural spoken language is easy to understand. That’s why some writers say “Make your writing speakable!” I go further. I speak my writing.
Trust me, your reader will thank you.
Leave to simmer
I always schedule other work or take a break after I’ve written the first draft. I want to step away from your project. I want to forget what I’ve written. That way, I can edit it with fresh eyes.
Don’t worry. Studies show that my brain is still working away on your project in the background.
Now come 4 rounds of edits
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First, I zoom out and look at the big picture. Is each block of text relevant? Are they in the right place? Is anything missing? Is the connection between blocks obvious? Have I dealt with every objection? Have I covered everything in the brief?
I don’t make any edits as I work. I simply jot down impressions, questions and ideas. Then I add, delete and rearrange blocks of text as necessary.
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Now I zoom in on each sentence. I read out loud, quickly, to check that I don’t stumble on any wordy bits.
Sentence after sentence, I pull out and rearrange words to shorten and sharpen my writing. I’m on the hunt for anything that’s loose or off-topic. If a sentence doesn’t add some crucial information to the block of text, it gets mushed.
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Next, I clear up readability and typos with Hemingway Editor and Grammarly. If a job calls for it, I also use Headline Studio, Semrush, Your Text Guru and a SERP simulator.
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Now I read for nitty-gritty details like grammar, spelling, punctuation, typos and consistency. If a single apostrophe is straight instead of curly, I’m on it like a bee that’s just found the first flower in spring.
Last of all, I zoom back out to check scannability. I’m looking at headings, subheadings, white space, bullet points, bold, italics – every visual clue that helps your reader navigate the text quickly.
Feedback and delivery
Once you get my text, you’ve got 2 rounds of feedback you can use.
The 1st round is in a shared document like Google Docs. The 2nd is “in-situ”. In other words, in its final form on the web page, PDF, etc.
Use these 2 rounds of feedback. This is your text. It’s going out in your name. So if you want more of something, or less of something, tell me.
One thing, though: there are limits on the number of changes you can request in each round. For more info, check out my Terms and Conditions.
Does all this sound like overkill?
It should – it is overkill. But if I write for you, there’s no guesswork. No moping around waiting for inspiration. What there is is structure. Method. A clear process that squeezes the best out of me. Every single time.
This process has evolved out of 12+ years of self-reflection and learning. Much of it is drawn from books and courses on copywriting, copy editing and creativity. But there’s a healthy dose of me in there, too.
Got questions?
I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a lot to take in if you’re not used to writing. If there’s any aspect of my process you’re not sure of, my eyes and ears are yours.
