“Copy” is a misleadingly boring word for a tool that does a huge amount of the heaving lifting for your brand, your website and your overall content strategy.

We include copywriting in every package we sell, from the smallest and most boilerplate to the biggest custom projects. We do it because we’ve learned that while there’s a host of factors that going into building a clear brand, good copy is often the key to unlocking all those other factors. And just because your business is new or you don’t have a ton of money to spend on a custom website, that doesn’t mean that the words on your website aren’t a crucial piece of enticing people to work with you or give you money. If we have to pick one aspect of brand-building to focus on, we focus on copy.

The Backstory

We used to create a google doc with a bunch of blank spaces that correspond to spots on the website that need copy. We’d build the site with dummy text and wait for clients to fill out that google doc.

Part of the rationale was affordability. A lot of our clients were very small, wanted a an affordable theme and no extra frills (spoiler: turns out they’re not frills at all! They are a very structural part of the outfit) and so weren’t keen on spending extra money on brand strategy or on professional copywriting. The problem with that is that it assumes that these clients, who were experts in their own work, were magically also experts at copywriting and content strategy. Obviously that assumption is very much erroneous.

The other part of the rationale was that if we’re not putting in the time to fully understand the goals of the business, the feel of it, the intended audience, the struggles and triumphs that led here (which is to say, the branding work) then we had no idea what to write for a given client. It seemed to make sense to have the client do it.

But waiting on clients to do their own copywriting (it’s challenging!) meant projects took way longer than necessary, and the results were websites that looked good but couldn’t do the important work a website should be doing for you to connect with people and communicate what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for. I often closed out projects feeling a little guilty that we weren’t doing a better job of setting clients up for success, and on top of that, it was a bummer not to put my own marketing training and decade of writing experience to good use.

The process needed to change.

The Solution

We had to start with some internal work. What are our values and how are those reflected in how we package and offer our services? Here is what it boils down to?

1. Accessibility, both code-wise, strategy-wise and money-wise
2. Usability, for both the end user navigating the site, but also for the client using the site as tool, not just as a glorified business card.
3. Human-centred approach – You’re so much more than a pretty website. Think in systems and focus on what the people need. If we’re want to actually support organizations to achieve their goals, we have to take a big-picture view, even on the smallest projects.

Custom design and cutting-edge code are fun, but we realized looking at our values that those actually weren’t the priorities. And more than that, we realized we were kind of approaching things backward. Rather than skip strategy, we need to start with it, and let the rest unfold from there. In the early stages of business, having a strong grasp not only on what you’re offering, but also who you’re offering it to, and why and how you’re offering it, is more important than the perfect colour scheme or custom code. And once you know your whats, whys, and whos, it suddenly becomes much easier to do things like pick colours and images and round out your brand visuals.

We realized that copywriting provides a framework for asking these questions and teasing out thorough and nuanced answers. Copywriting is the gateway to brand strategy.

The next step was the figure out a system to help us guide clients through these questions, encourage them to get wordy and nerdy about their work and draw out what really makes them shine. Without the pressure of having to write capital-C Copy, clients are free to gush about their work and all the great things they want to do in the world.

In keeping with financial accessibility for fledgling organizations, this system needed to be easily repeatable for us, clear enough for clients with no writing experience (or who have convinced themselves they’re not good writers) and flexible enough to work for clients across a variety of fields. It also needed to produce enough copy for a whole website while still being manageable for clients.

The result: the Proust Questionnaire of Copywriting Prompts. (Is that grandiose? Yes. Are we having fun? Also yes.)

How we do copywriting now

Now instead of a template with spaces on the page corresponding to blank spaces on a website, we give you a page of prompts meant to draw out what matters to you, how you see your field and/or the larger world, what it’s like to work with you and more. When we start a new project, this questionnaire is now the very first step, and we don’t proceed to design and build until it’s complete.

The difference is magical.

Clients write down clear ideas and clever turns of phrase and very smart insights about their industries and their place in their communities. They let their passion for their work and the impact they want to have come through in big ways. They give us everything we need to create beautiful copy that sounds like them, speaks to their people and makes it abundantly clear why they’re the best at what they do.

The other benefit of starting like this is that you know that when you outgrow your starter website and you’re ready to jump into one custom-designed for you, you can be confident you’ve got a strong foundation to build on.

If you’re looking to freshen up your own website copy and want to give the questionnaire a try, just sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of this page and we’ll send it to you.