Over 10 years ago, I wrote a blog entitled ‘How to Brief a Copywriter’. The contents of that blog are still relevant today, which explains why it’s still being viewed. But the reality is that writing a decent brief isn’t easy. You’ll need to allow yourself time and headspace because what you get out of your copywriter will largely depend on what you put into your brief. Or, as you’re about to discover, what you leave out.
It all boils down to this: Don’t bury your brief.
When you hide the important elements of your brief under a mound of information, at best, you’ll be wasting your copywriter’s time (and, by default, your company’s money). At worst, you’ll receive copy in return that completely misses the mark because your writer didn’t know where they were aiming.
I know it’s REALLY tempting to pass on all your knowledge to your writer. You probably think you’re being helpful by giving them access to every document that’s related to the project they’re working on. But *newsflash*, the opposite is true.
It’s likely that your writer works on a number of different jobs for a range of different clients. They need to understand the psyche of your organisation and your requirements as quickly as possible. But if your writer has to spend hours (even days), wading through the tangled weeds of information you’ve provided before they can get to grips with your brief, you’re just muddying their waters.
Despite your best intentions, the same is true when your writer is faced with a brief full of in-text links that takes them off in numerous digital tangents and further away from the task at hand.
Your job is to do the wading for the writer – not because they’re lazy, but because you want them to do what you’re paying them to do. And you want them to do it brilliantly.
So, instead of sending them reams of reports, write-ups, and organisational brand guidelines** that serve as background info, go through these documents yourself and pull out the parts that are relevant to your specific brief. Give them all the information they need without all the surplus guff that will only serve to stall them.
And by all means include these carefully curated snippets as an appendix, but don’t link to the full document (just in case…) because your writer will assume you expect them to get to grips with the full shebang.
Here’s the thing – any half decent writer will come back to you with questions if they need to know more. At that point, feel free to send them additional (relevant) information, at their request.
In the 20 years that I’ve been receiving copywriting briefs, I’ve never not had a question off the back of one. I’ve always wanted to dig a bit deeper, usually into the parts that might seem obvious or insignificant to the person writing the brief. It’s my job to delve before I write. But my clients want me to explore in the right direction without getting side-tracked along the way.
My advice — never underestimate the power of a quick face-to-face/screen-to-screen chat. Sharing the brief ahead of a call gives your writer time to digest it, make a list of questions, and ensure you’re both on the same literal and metaphorical page by the end of your meeting.
And, rather than passing on piles of pages for your writer to inhale, give them a succinct, clear description of exactly what it is that you need with specific information they require to complete your brief.
If you’re struggling, feel free to use this copywriting brief template which is an oldie, but still a goodie, so I’m told.
** When it comes to brand guidelines, of course feel free to share these as part of your brief. But if you want your writer to focus on what matters for their work, extract the parts of your guidelines that relate to your messaging, tone of voice and copy dos and don’ts. If you’re planning on working with a writer more than once, introduce them to your organisational voice and style more generally in a separate call. The quicker they get to know you, the quicker they can provide the best, most impactful, copy for your audience.
Jo Blankley
