COPYWRITERS!A glance into the warped world

of the wordsmith.

Copywriters write. It’s what we do.

If there are words to be written, we will be the ones who write them.

We also edit.

As a general rule of thumb, most anything larger or longer than a landing page should be checked off by both copywriters.

Ask “Has [Bill/Angelee] reviewed this?” – we won’t be offended. As perfect as everything we write always is, sometimes the mistake gnomes get into our documents and make errors. Review will make sure the gnomes don’t win.

We also look at pictures of cats.

But enough of that.

When we are writing, we have a few ways of communicating that you should know.

• “HD” is the headline. It’s the largest and most prominent text on the page

• “SubHD” is sub-headline, the secondary message• Anything written in blue like this is our note to you,

and the actual text should not appear on the live page.

We’d love to be able to sit down with you one-

on-one for every project, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Here’s what you can do to help us write you the most perfect copy for a project.

When Making A Request

• Try to give us concrete numbers– Word count– Character count– Number of bullet points– Number of pages we’re going to be dealing with

This helps us know how concise we have to be and how much time we’ll need to budget.

When Making A Request

• Have a wireframe, or at least an idea of what kind of format you want the text in– Baseline LPs are usually HD, SubHD, and 4 bullet

points– Do you want a copy box?– Is more long-form copy needed?

Larger projects like Microsites should address formats and sitemaps in the kickoff meeting

When Making A Request

Give us the context and scope of what we are writing for– Are we A/Bing against an existing page/site? – Are we writing for SEO? – Do we have a specific audience that we’re

targeting? – Are we setting a baseline test? – Has the PM given you keywords?

GIVING FEEDBACK

What do we need specifics on?

• Length – “Can we shorten/lengthen this?” – We can always

re-work copy for length by cutting, adding , or just re-phrasing.

• Message– Emphasis on content: action words, CTAs, specific

benefits, or keywords missing

What do we need specifics on?

• Focus: we are writers, we sometimes tend to ramble– Fewer adjectives, more to the point– What should we focus on? (consumer benefit,

functionality, features, etc)• Keywords/SEO: Some copy is centered

completely around keywords– Sometimes we have to “take liberties” with the

English language to hit tricky keywords

WHAT NOT TO DO

Don’t be vague!

• Can you just make this sound a little better?

• I like it but can you just make it shorter?

• I don’t think this works, I need you to fix it. (then turn and walk away)

Don’t accept copy from someone else!

Don’t let a PM or SEM or whoever tell you “I’ll just write something up for you.” Invariably there will be an issue there, and someone will ask who wrote it, and the copywriters will all point at each other.

Unless someone is our boss’s boss’s boss, then they can do whatever they want. If nothing else, volunteer one of us for the job.

Don’t keep your opinions to yourself!

• Just like the laws say: “If you see something, say something.” If you don’t think something sounds good to you, or it looks awkward, or the punctuation is weird, our users will think so too.

• We are working as a team, and good copy lifts good design just as much as good design lifts good copy.

Just remember…