Copywriting Tips – The Responsibilities of the Copywriter
A lot of copywriters, myself included, wonder just what their responsibilities are. I admit, there are times when even I have to ask “Where do we draw the line?” Everybody is different and I’m not here to try to tell you how to run your copywriting business. However, you might want to take some of these suggestions to heart before you hand over to your client a Word DOC and call it a sales letter. This article is going to explain.
We all understand that the primary purpose of the copywriter is to get copy into the hands of the customer that will, hopefully, sell his product. However, that copy is only a piece of the puzzle. When you look at any sales letter, there is more that goes into it than most people realize. You have the general formatting of the page itself. These have become quite sophisticated looking over the years. Then you have the graphics of the letter, including headers, footers and buy now buttons.
Contrary to popular belief, these other items are NOT part of the job of the copywriter. However, you have to look at what the customer expects. See, not everybody who hires a copywriter to get a sales letter written is an Internet marketer, thus understanding that he has to get a graphics guy and another guy just to design the HTML of the page itself. Many people are just plain old folks who want to sell their dog food online and think that they’re going to get a full blown page, layout, graphics and all.
Imagine their shock, dismay and disappointment when they get handed a Word DOC. Okay, so this is something you want to avoid and it’s easy to do.
One way is to simply be up front with the client and tell them that your job is to provide them with the copy for the sales letter but that they are going to have to hire a graphics person and somebody to actually design the layout of the page. If they understand this going in, they’ll either agree or look for another writer.
To prevent the latter, this is what I suggest you do. I suggest you have an in house graphics person and HTML person to put the finishing touches on the final copy. Naturally, whatever you pay them, you will include their fees in the price of your copy. You obviously need to make the client aware of this up front.
This is the better solution as it keeps the client from having to comb the planet looking for these people.
As I said, I’m not telling you how to run your business. But giving the client a full solution in a box is the better way to go.
To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim
