Sunfish 2u1S

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Sunfish 2u1S
W0RKINu WITB A C0PYWRITER (sometimes calleu a fieelance oi agency
copywiitei) can be an extiemely iewaiuing expeiience. You have a specialist
wiitei woiking on youi behalf, looking aftei a specialist task, anu leaving you
fiee to concentiate on youi coie iesponsibilities.

Naking the ielationship woik is ciucial to a successful outcome foi you, since
youi copywiitei will neeu ceitain things fiom you to uo theii job piopeily.

With that in minu, heie is a shoit, simple guiue to making that ielationship
mutually piofitable.
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Biffeient copywiiteis chaige in uiffeient ways. At Sunfish, we always offei a
flat fee foi the pioject. We uo this so theie aie no unpleasant suipiises uown
the line.

Not all copywiiteis chaige by the pioject though. Some like to chaige by the
houi oi by the uay. (We stiongly iecommenu you avoiu woiking with any
copywiitei who chaiges by the woiu.)

Eithei way, you neeu to make suie that both siues agiee on what you aie
going to pay at the enu of the pioject anu unuei what conuitions. Will you pay
once you aie happy oi on submission of the fiist uiaft. Bow many uiafts aie
incluueu.

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This is the next most impoitant pait of the commissioning piocess. Youi
copywiitei shoulu ask you foi the ueauline, but even if they uon't, you shoulu
give them one.

Saying "ASAP" isn't helpful. To you, that might mean by the enu of this week,
oi even close of play tomoiiow. To youi copywiitei it might mean once
they've got theii cuiient pioject out of the way, howevei long that takes.

Be specific, too. If you say you neeu the copy "on Fiiuay" uo you mean 9.uu
am oi S.Su pm. That's a whole uay's uiffeience.
Sunfish 2u1S
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Some people get flusteieu by the thought of biiefing a copywiitei. They uon't
know what to say oi pioviue.

We occasionally have clients who aie embaiiasseu to give us too much
infoimation - we gently tell them that foi us, theie is no such thing as too
much. At any iate, heie aie the basic things you neeu to communicate to youi
copywiitei.

You uon't have to uo it in wiiting, but it uoes mean theie's a wiitten iecoiu
foi both siues to agiee on.
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This is the most impoitant pait of the biief. What is the copy tiying to uo. I
uon't mean something vague like, "communicate oui skills in CABCAN
uesign".

I mean something conciete anu haiu-eugeu like, "get the ieauei to visit oui
lanuing page anu uownloau oui white papei".

When you'ie wiiting this pait of the biief, tiy to limit youiself to a single,
measuiable goal. This uoes two things: it geneiates the maximum numbei of
iesponses anu it makes measuiing iesponse much easiei.
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You may think in teims of youi "auuience". At Sunfish, we avoiu this woiu
because it seems to us to suggest a big, passive gioup of people gatheieu anu
willing to listen unciitically to us.

We use the teim "ieauei". It makes us focus on the customei as an inuiviuual.
A ieauei who is possibly sceptical anu ceitainly ieauy to stop ieauing the
moment we become boiing oi self-centeieu.

So, who is youi ieauei. What can you tell youi copywiitei about them. Beie
aiea few things to think about.

!"#$%&'()*+,: age, sex, social class.

-*."/,0'%": paients, post-chiluien, young family, ietiieu, single, no-chiluien.
Sunfish 2u1S

1'23",: ieligious, enviionmentally awaie, cash-conscious, aspiiational, left-
wing, iight-wing, somewheie in the miuule, animal loveis, conseivative,
libeial.

4"2'0*$5,)*( 0$ 7$3& +$#('57 $& 8&'59: they know nothing about you,
they'ie piospects, customeis, iegulai customeis, iaving fans.
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What aie we selling. Pioviue as much uetail as you can about the piouuct,
seivice oi iuea you aie piomoting. Technical uata, usei guiues, websites,
customei feeuback, piess ieviews, awaius . anything you have.
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This is helpful foi youi copywiitei. It helps them to unueistanu the people
behinu the piouuct. Pioviue infoimation about youi histoiy, philosophy,
management team, employees, coipoiate policies anu values, locations,
plants, awaius, news.
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Nake suie you tell youi copywiitei what, piecisely, you want fiom them.
They shoulu be able to wiite anything, pioviuing you tell them.

You may want to uiscuss copy length, oi not, it's up to you. But if you have a
specific foimat in minu, eg a foui-page, A4 case stuuy with about 4u%
allocateu to photogiaphs, tell them. It will help.
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When they senu the fiist uiaft to you, youi copywiitei will be on euge. They
will have put a lot of haiu woik into the wiiting anu will want you to be
pleaseu. But heie is the impoitant point.

They will want you to be pleaseu because the copy meets the biief anu you
believe it will achieve what you have stateu you wanteu it to achieve. Tiy to
avoiu falling into the tiap of thinking, "Bo I like this.".

"Liking" copy is a totally subjective feeling. We all have piefeiences baseu on
peisonal taste, anu wiiting, even copywiiting, is one of those activities wheie
taste usually plays a big pait in oui ieaction.
Sunfish 2u1S

Nobouy peisists in ieauing novelists they uon't like, oi newspapeis, so it's
natuial that this shoulu be oui fiist ieaction.

Take a bieath anu a metaphoiical step back. Big out the biief anu ieau it
thiough again. Now ieau the copy. Beie is the killei question you shoulu be
asking:

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As an example, suppose you aie an 0xfoiu-euucateu maiketing uiiectoi
whose spaie-time activities incluue ieauing liteiaiy fiction anu attenuing the
opeia.

Youi campaign is pitching a fast cai magazine at young guys with a taste foi
flashy paintjobs anu soupeu-up engines. A ieasonable, anu ieasoneu,
iesponse might be, "I hate it, but it's peifect foi oui maiket - let's iun it
unalteieu".
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0nce you have assesseu the copy against youi biief anu showeu it to any
colleagues involveu in the appioval piocess, get back to youi copywiitei as
soon as you can with youi iequests foi amenuments (if any).

They will have all that infoimation you gave them still whizzing aiounu in
theii biain anu will be able to piouuce a seconu uiaft veiy quickly.

Again, tiy to avoiu biinging subjectivity into youi iemaiks. Youi copywiitei
will have chosen eveiy single woiu with caie anu tiieu out many vaiiations
on inuiviuual sentences to cieate the iight balance of ihythm, pace anu
selling powei.

0f couise, as the client, you have eveiy iight to ask foi, even insist on, specific
changes, but limiting youiself to factual coiiections, oi matteis of emphasis,
will ensuie you aie getting as much value out of the fee as possible.

Fiom theie it shoulu be a mattei of a few tweaks to cieate a final uiaft you
aie happy to sign off.
Sunfish 2u1S
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You may want to keep youi copywiitei involveu in the uesign piocess foi the
piece. They wiote it aftei all, anu may have iueas foi how to make theii
woius woik even haiuei. It's something we uo at Sunfish whethei we aie
uesigning the piece ouiselves oi not.

Anu shaiing the iesults of the campaign is a nice touch. It makes youi
copywiitei feel moie bounu in to the campaign anu may have the effect of
encouiaging them to woik even haiuei on youi behalf next time.




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Let us wiite copy foi youi next campaign anu we piomise
you won't be uisappointeu.

To finu out moie about how we woik, oi to get a no-
obligation wiitten quotation anu pioposal, please call us on
+44 (u)1722 41S 9uu.

0i email oui Nanaging Biiectoi, Anuy Naslen, at
anuy.maslensunfish.co.uk.

www.sunfish.co.uk

Sunfish 2u1S
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Befoie you ueciue to woik with a copywiiting agency - incluuing this one -
heie aie a few things to consiuei.
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1 Who aie the piincipals of the agency.
2 Aie they copywiiteis.
S Bow much expeiience uo they have.
4 In what inuustiies.
S What aie theii cieuentials.
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6 Bow many copywiiteis uoes the agency have on its books.
7 What expeiience uo &'$+ have.
8 Can they cope with laige piojects oi will they flounuei.
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9 Bave they wiitten foi uiiect maiketing campaigns.
1u Bo they unueistanu the way wiiting foi uigital content uiffeis fiom
wiiting foi piint.
11 Aie they using content maiketing foi theii own business.
12 Can they hanule coipoiate woik incluuing tone of voice.
1S Can they iun inteinal copywiiting tiaining couises.
14 Bo they offei uesign as well.
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1S Bow uo they chaige. By the uay, the houi, the woiu, the pioject.
16 Bow much of the fee goes to pay foi copywiiting anu how much towaius
aumin staff, office builuings anu company cais.
17 What seivices uo they pioviue foi the fees they chaige.
18 Bo they chaige foi ievisions.
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19 Will they pioviue a fixeu quote foi eveiy job.
2u Bo they always quote in wiiting.
21 Bo they always meet ueaulines.