Before work starts on your project, you need to brief your copywriter. A copywriter brief is the foundation of any writing project. It will keep your copywriter on track and make sure they hit target.

What a copywriter brief includes

So what might your copywriter need a heads up on? And how much detail should you give your copywriter? That will depend on a number of things. Size of your writing project and complexity of the communication are just two possible factors. The absolute basics, your copywriter will need are:

• to know who you are communicating with
• to understand your product or service
• an idea of your brand and identity
• the purpose of the piece they are writing(boost sales, generate enquiries etc)
• the method of distribution(online, direct mail, newspaper, radio etc)

What a copywriter should do

A good copywriter will have lots of questions for you. That’s a good thing. Your copywriter should be actively interested in your business and the project at hand. An overview of where the communication sits in your marketing mix can help too.

A clear understanding of the key brief elements will help your copywriter bring out their best. So your copywriter will want to know plenty about who your customers are … and who you’d like to become a customer. To best sell the benefits, your copywriter will have questions about your product or service, how you do things, any competition and what others say.

Your copywriter will review existing material and ask what you love about it. So nothing critical gets missed, your copywriter will check what’s essential … and anything not to say.