Marketing managers: What to expect when you work with an executive ghostwriter
/As a marketing manager, your cup runneth over because the demand for quality content to generate and nurture leads and sales never stops.
And if you rely on freelance copywriters for part of that content—most B2B marketing teams do—you’ll experience far less frustration if you find professionals to work with.
A professional is someone who strives for excellence, has a system for completing projects and communicates effectively about that system and progress. A professional you want to keep working with is all that, plus likeable.
Today, I want to tell you about the process you can expect to experience when you work with a professional content marketing writer, B2B or otherwise.
Copywriting is systematic—hiring a freelancer who can’t tell you their writing process can lead to unnecessary stress and frustration so proceed with caution.
Working with an executive ghostwriter: 15 steps you can expect during a content marketing project
A conversation—This is where we talk about the objectives for your content marketing project, your sales cycle, your audience, what’s coming before and after this project, your budget and your time frame. This is a no-obligation chat but if we seem to jive, it leads to the next step.
Project proposal—I’ll send you a proposal by email (in most cases that same day, otherwise the next morning). This proposal includes your objectives for the project, some recommendations, my fee, what work the project includes, terms and how to secure my services for the project.
Letter of authorization (LOA), 50% deposit & project timeline—the LOA sounds fancy but it’s as simple as replying to the proposal email and saying you agree to it. Once I receive your deposit (I accept e-transfer, PayPal, credit card or cheque), I’ll send you a receipt noting your deposit and put this project in my calendar. Once you hire me, we’ll put together a project timeline (working backwards from the deadline to get mini-deadlines for steps 4, 5, 6 and 8).
Request for background materials—I’ll ask you to send me marketing, sales and technical information about the product or service we’re promoting. This includes brochures, case studies, web links, survey results, copy platform, etc. This information helps me get to know your business, product or service and audience and that’s essential for writing effective copy, which is what you’re looking for.
The Spanish Inquisition—Once your professional copywriter gives you the copy questionnaire, you can’t be saying, “I didn’t expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition” because I’m telling you right now to expect it. The purpose of the copy questionnaire is getting the full picture: what we’re promoting, the main selling feature, secondary selling feature, audience, etc. To get this information, I can interview you (or the right person) over the phone or you can fill it out and send it to me.
Additional info from subject matter experts—Sometimes I’ll need to talk to other folks at your business, maybe someone from sales or customer service to get more insight. Once you tell me who to chat with (and give them a heads up), I’ll take care of the rest.
Research, review, sprawling notes across desk, staring into the distance—This is what I’ll be doing with all that info you sent me. Nothing for you to do during step 7.
Outline for approval—Before I start writing the copy, I’ll send you an outline of the main points for the copy which can include headline, body and call-to-action content. It’s very rough—the point of the outline is not to submit quality copy but to make sure we’re on the same page about the direction of the project. Once you approve the outline or approve it with revisions, I’ll start writing.
Draft submission—I’ll submit a draft to you on or before the deadline we agreed to. Because of the work we’ve done in steps 1 to 8, I expect you’ll be fairly pleased with this draft.
Invoice submitted—Once I submit the draft copy, I’ll also submit the invoice for the project balance. That way, while you’re reviewing the draft, your accounting team can be doing their handiwork.
Revisions—I’ll make any revisions you request, based on your exact specifications. I won’t start revisions if your comment is vague like, “This section doesn’t work.” We’re in this together so I need to know what you need changed in order to be pleased. Excellent revision feedback is something like this: “Change wording – our clients say needs analysis, not needs assessment.” Up to 2 rounds of revisions are included with each project so long as they’re not based on a change of scope to the project.
Layout review—You don’t have to send me the final design but I’m happy to have a look and provide feedback related to any area where the design is getting in the way of the copy’s job.
Asking for your feedback—To keep my services on the right track, I ask for feedback including what you liked and how working with me could be better. I also ask you for permission to use your comments to market my own business.
Results inquiry—This is where I give you a call or email and ask how the promotion is doing. My job is to write copy that gets results so knowing those results helps guide me. And guide you too!
Working together again—Sometime between the draft and revisions, I’ll ask you about the next project coming up and when you’d like me to give you a call about it. Then I’ll call you about it at the time you specified so you don’t have to worry about it. My goal is to make the writing process as easy and effective as possible for you so we’ll both look forward to working together again.
A note about deadlines: Ideally, I like to have 2-3 weeks to work on your copy. That gives me the time to create and edit your project until I’m happy with it. However, sometimes you’ll need your project in less time. If you need it rushed, just let me know your deadline when we chat about your project. If I take on the job, I guarantee that you will have the copy by your deadline. Your part is meeting the mini-deadlines we decide on for steps 4, 5, 6 and 8.
And that’s what you get when you work with a professional executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer.
I'm Andrea Bassett, an executive ghostwriter and content marketing writer in Toronto and I’ve spent the last decade serving executives.
I write thought leadership content marketing for executives and/or their content marketing teams. My specializations are corporate wellness, benefits, employee assistance programs, leadership & coaching, encryption & cybersecurity and strength training for seniors.
To talk about a content marketing project, call me at 647-502-3187 or send a note to andrea@redsailwriters.com.
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