“Just what IS a copywriting review?” That’s the question I got after sending out my last email, where I introduced this week’s special.
Copywriters and marketing consultants use terms differently, so in this email, I’ll share my perspective.
Generally, a copy review helps you in two ways …
1 – You get an outside, objective perspective
2 – You learn new techniques and tips based on the copywriter’s experience and training. In this way a copywriting review is a small bit of copy coaching.
You’ll most likely benefit from a copywriting review if…
…you’re continually toying with your website copy and can’t get it to feel right (if you’ve got a deadline, a copywriting review makes it more likely you’ll be done on time).
…you feel you could be getting better results from your website or sales letter (usually it’s something that’s easy to fix)
…you’ve got a lot of specialized expertise and you’re needing to reach an audience that doesn’t understand your jargon or tech wisdom (a common reason for bringing a copywriter onboard).
Some benefits from a copy review…
- Strengthen your core message
- Get a job description for each page of your website (for instance, the About Page answers the question, “Why are you the best resource to solve my problem?”
- Add beef to your bullets (get right to the point without getting cute)
- Send visitors on a path to follow when they visit your website
- Recognize whether your story is supporting your strategy or working against it (and maybe revise the way you tell the story to increase the impact)
A copywriting review does not include…
…writing the copy: it’s assumed you’ve got something to review and you think it has promise (although a few suggestions might emerge)
…finding your story from scratch (although you’ll get ideas about the effectiveness of the story you’re using now)
…suggestions to position your business and strengthen your branding (this is a project for the Strategic Intensive)
… detailed grammar, punctuation, and spelling error detection (this is editing)
A helpful copywriting review will be tailored to your business and your needs. Not every item on a checklist will apply to your business…and we might add some new checklist items.
For instance, a client once showed me a copy review with the suggestion to develop SEO. But the client’s business didn’t come from SEO: she targeted her marketing to a specific audience with referrals and speaking. Another time a client had filled a page with stock photos; it’s almost always better to use your own, even if they’re taken with a phone camera, rather than download from a big site.
For my copywriting review offer, click here.