‘Hi, I’m just contacting you about the possibility of doing some promotional copywriting for our company website. Do you think that is something you could help us with?’

‘Oh sure. Thanks for getting in touch. I’d be glad to talk to you and see if I can help.’

‘Great. I need someone to re-do all the wording on the site and make it much more punchy and salesy. So if I give you the web address could you just take a look and give me a quote.’

‘Errr, well…’

‘Would you need anything else from me?’

‘Yes. I wouldn’t mind spending some time talking to you and the team about the company, to get some background on the branding, where you’ve come from and where you’re heading and so on. And why you’re needing to speak to me now.’

‘Oh. Do you think you’d need that, to re-do the wording?’

‘Yes. I would need to understand the context of your current request for promotional copywriting.’

‘I’ve been told it definitely needs to be punchier and that it is too wordy. And some grammar nazis here – ha ha! – have been on about some issues with the expression, spelling and so on.’

‘Well that sounds like a good job for an editor. But if I’m to write new promotional copy, I would have to go deeper.’

‘OK sure. Why is that, though?”

‘It’s because the copy is only part of a process, and it’s usually the last step.’

‘Oh, I see. What would the process be, though? I’m not sure what that entails and if we’ve been through any of that?

‘OK, no probems. Could I just ask why you’re contacting me now about this?’

‘Well, we’ve had a marketing meeting at board level and we’ve looked at the stats which show that we’re not getting sales from the site. Visitors are not sticking around and the site itself doesn’t appear to be working very well as a sales tool.’

‘OK, I understand. Well, let’s maybe have a meeting and see where we can go and if I may be able to help you.’

‘Yes great. Let’s set that up. Anything I can send you through in the meantime?”

“Thanks, yes. Could you send me a digital copy of the company brand book please? Just so I can get familiar with your brand values, competitors, USP, key messages and all that stuff.’

‘Erm. I’ll see what I can dig out. Not sure about an actual book though.’

‘Great, thanks. It would be really good to talk about all of this too – a brand book is something I can definitely help you develop.

‘Ah, brilliant, sure. Maybe after you’ve re-done the copy.’

‘Like putting the star on top of the Christmas tree before there’s any actual tree?’

‘Ha ha, yeah! Ha! Christmas soon eh? We definitely want it done before Christmas. Well, see you at our place, Wednesday at 2.’

‘OK, I look forward to chatting, let’s see where we go. Thanks for getting in touch’.

This conversation raises one very important point about promotional copywriting. If it’s to be effective, it can’t be done in a vacuum.

Sometimes clients come to me for copy, but when we dig deeper we find they have important brand work to be completed first – before I can write a word.

And the subsequent work that I do often proves to be incredibly satisfying because of the powerful difference it makes to the company’s ability to market its offerings.

Could you benefit from a chat about your brand? Get in touch and let’s talk.