Verbal brand is both the narrative and the narrator of your brand story. It's how you communicate with your customers and create connections in the world through copy, content, and real-life conversations.
Strong copywriting builds brands. It also sells products, inspires action, tells stories, generates leads, and makes friends. It's the workhorse of advertising disguised as a unicorn.
Useful content builds authority, trust, and your pipeline. Three good things for growing your business. You know what else is good? Having a partner who can write some of that content for you.
Most small agencies expect their people to take on extra responsibilities. But pulling your lead developer and junior illustrator into a brainstorm to come up with a tagline might not be the best use of their billable time.
Here are a few more things I can do so your team can do what they do best:
Stakeholder Interviews
Audience Personas
Creative Concepting
Competitive Research
Client Deliverables
Video Scripting
Or I can just write copy. Did I mention copy?
Is that a trick question? Agency people are my kind of people. In fact, I work with quite a few. I can collaborate with your agency, or if all you need is copywriting, I can work solo. Lots of agencies use freelance writers and designers to provide a greater depth of service and expertise. Bonus for you—if you need a full-service agency, I’m happy to connect you with some I recommend.
I include two rounds of revisions with any project. Right after any presentation is the best time to give feedback. And please don’t be shy—but do be specific. I’m a pretty avid reader, but I can’t read your mind. If you need additional edits or the scope of the project changes, I’ll provide an estimate for the additional time.
Yes, please. You probably figured out by now how strongly I believe in the value of research. Otherwise, we risk making a lot of costly assumptions. If you already have research, then I’m already excited about working with you! I’ll review that first and then we’ll decide together what, if anything else, we need to know to be successful and how best to uncover it.
I charge by the project, not by the hour— because you’re paying for the value of the work, not how long it took to create it. Crafting a four-word tagline worthy of your brand is usually more difficult than writing a 1,000-word case study. It also takes more research, editing, hand-wringing, and (once we land it)—more celebrating. You don’t want to pay for that by the hour!
Of course! Wait and see is never a good budgeting plan. As soon as I have a clear picture of what you need and when you need it, I can give you a written estimate. However, if you switch lanes in the middle of the work or the scope of work changes, expect a revised estimate. Sound fair?
The word copywriting can be misleading since it implies the only thing happening is the writing. (Oh, if it were that easy!) When estimating a job, I consider the complexity and format of the piece, the available and needed research, as well as time needed for ideation, collaboration, and feedback. How fast you need it also matters.
I ask for a 40% deposit to hold time on my schedule. Once the work is completed, you’ll get an invoice for the balance and have 30 days to pay it. If we know the project will take more than 30 days, we’ll divide it into equal monthly installments. I invoice retainer clients at the beginning of each month and send time affidavits at the end of the month with the next month’s invoice. That seems to work well for most people.
Start times can vary according to what work I’ve already promised, so let’s talk about what you need and when you need it, and see what’s possible. If I can’t start your project within two weeks of giving you an estimate, I’ll tell you that upfront. Then the ball’s in your court.