The Done-With-You Approach to Copywriting

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors. Done With You Copy Coaching [00:00:00] What if you could get professional copywriting help without handing over complete control of your message? Or what if you want expert guidance, but prefer to stay involved in the writing process? Today we’re talking about the done with You approach to copywriting, a middle ground that combines your unique voice with professional strategy and support. Last episode I talked about what to create when you don’t feel like creating. And one of the key points was recognizing when you need support rather than just pushing through creative challenges alone. Well, there’s been an assumption in the copywriting world that you either write it yourself or you hire someone to do it for you. But what about the space in between? What about when you want professional help but need to stay connected [00:01:00] or when you need professional help because you know your message is just off. That is exactly what Copy coaching the Done with You approach addresses. It’s collaborative copywriting that keeps you in the driver’s seat while giving you access to professional strategy, feedback, and support. Today I’m gonna explore how this approach works for me at least tell you who it’s perfect for and why it might be exactly what your business needs. Let’s start by getting clear on what I mean by copy coaching or done with you copywriting. This is not traditional copywriting where I write everything for you. And it’s also not just editing a existing copy. What’s happening sits right in the middle. Copy coaching [00:02:00] combines three key elements, the strategy, feedback, and co-writing. We start with strategy to make sure that your copy serves your business and goals, and we make sure that that copy the end result speaks to your audience. Then my role is to provide detailed feedback on your drafts. Not just, oh, this needs work, but specific suggestions for improvement. And when needed, I jump in to co-write sections or help you work through challenging parts together. Think of it like having a writing coach who understands marketing. And before we move forward, let’s just talk about what a coach’s role is. Think of football as an example. American football, you have a football coach and you have a quarterback. Let’s say [00:03:00] the football coach does not stop the game to run a play that the quarterback, um, maybe isn’t successfully doing. What the coach’s role is, is to know that quarterback strengths and weaknesses and develop plays that really shine a light on the strengths and, um, minimize whatever those weaknesses are. The coach’s job is to encourage and motivate and challenge that quarterback to be better at what they do. A copy coach’s role is similar. And no, I don’t play American football. I don’t know why football first came into my mind. Uh, a copy coach is there to find out your writing strengths and weaknesses, to figure out ways to improve on some of the areas where you’re struggling and to cull more of that really good work that’s coming from you naturally.[00:04:00] Because a writing coach does not simply write copy for you like a copywriter would. My job would be to guide you through the process, to help you see things you might not see on your own, help you make strategic decisions, and to ensure that that final product is both. Authentic to your voice and very important, effective for your business. The collaborative nature of a done with you copywriting project is what makes this copy coaching approach unique . Because you are involved in every decision, every revision, and every strategic choice, your voice remains central to the project while you still get that benefit of professional guidance the entire time. So let’s [00:05:00] start by talking about who this approach serves best and maybe who would not be the best, candidate for a copy coaching session or project copy coaching works well in a lot of scenarios. For example, you may enjoy writing, but know that you need professional guidance. Maybe you are a good writer. Let’s say you have your PhD and you have written a book, or you’ve written a thesis on whatever you’re studying in school, and it was good. But now as a business owner, you don’t necessarily know how to translate those good words that smart thought into marketing copy. So individuals who are good writers, but lack marketing expertise would really benefit from a copy coach because copy coaching will bridge the gap between. What you understand about your business and [00:06:00] how you effectively get that out in words. Copy coaching is also really effective if you need to stay connected to your message. Some business owners truly can’t hand over copywriting because their voice or the business themself is, is so central to what’s happening in the brand. So thinking about voice for a second, if you are, um. If you’ve been like a public figure, if you are on social and you’re well known and you feel like you need to be present, but you still don’t want to do all of the work yourself, copy coaching would work well. ’cause you could make decisions to say, no, I, that doesn’t sound authentic. I wouldn’t say that specifically, or what I’m trying to say is X, y, Z. Can you help me do it differently? Similarly, if you have a business that’s very technical, let’s say, but you want to be involved in the process, um, maybe you [00:07:00] produce goods and the manufacturing of those goods needs to be clearly laid out on your website. Um, and you know that the website copywriters that you’ve either talked to, interviewed in the past would do a good job at. Copy or the marketing pot part, but they just don’t have that technical expertise and you’re willing to step in, write the technical copy and have them massage the message to get it to be like really fresh and and clean and able to understand. You know, like if the end reader can understand it well that’s another good reason why copy coaching could work well. Alternatively, if you are budget conscious, that approach will serve you in many ways of, of working with a copywriter because it’s more affordable than a full service copywriting project is. Why? Because you do a lot of the heavy lifting yourself. However you get that professional expertise without the full [00:08:00] service price tag. And it’s, it’s also really good for business owners who want to learn. Often when I do copy coaching with people, it’s because they’re working on a larger project. For example, like I said before, a website copy project. Other projects include writing evergreen email sequences, or writing a series of blog posts, case studies, let’s say, any of those things. But that does not mean that’s the only thing you write as a business owner. I think people forget about the, the standalone social media post, um, the email sequences when they have a new product to sell or a service that they’re offering, or even just client communications if you’d like to improve on your writing skills. Working with a copy coach can help you learn copywriting principles that you can apply to future projects. Think of it as a long term investment, or maybe I should say think of it as an investment that will serve you long term.[00:09:00] And now that we’ve covered the ground of who it works really well for, I do want to address that copy. Coaching is not for everyone. If you are feeling like you are ready to pull your hair out because you have been working so hard on a copy project and you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and you just wanna wash your hands of it and have someone do all of the work for you. I don’t recommend doing a full copy coaching project. You still need to be actively engaged in order for your copy coach to give you the best results. Similarly, if you expect your copy coach to do the majority of the writing, even though you’re willing to be engaged, that’s not the best copy coaching experience because. That’s going to eat up a lot of our time that we could have spent strategizing or [00:10:00] editing the end result. When push comes to shove, you know your business better than I do. My role is to make you or help you present that business the best as possible. So if you are feeling like you just want someone else to do it for you, and you’re just tired of it, sick of it, or let’s say you haven’t even started, you just. Don’t want to do it and you really want someone else to cover it for you. Or if you’re feeling like you’re happy to be involved, but you’re just not really comfortable doing a lot of that, um. Writing work, I would suggest hiring a copywriter for a full scale service project because that way you can act as our advisor. You can tell us what you like, what you dislike, and have us jump in and make those refinements until you feel really happy with the piece. Whereas in copy coaching, it’s very collaborative and we need to be able to [00:11:00] work together. In speaking of work together, let’s talk about how the process works for me, like when you’d work with me as your copy coach. I approach it in two main ways, and it really depends on where you’re starting from specifically. Have you written copy yet, or are you starting from scratch? Let’s start with if you’re starting from scratch in this instance, we always start with strategy first. Before we write a single word. We need to be clear on what your goals are, who your audience is, and what the key messages need to be in this specific project that we’re working on. You know, and this isn’t a brief, quick conversation, it’s not something that can get accomplished in just a questionnaire. It’s a really focused strategy session where we are working together to map out exactly what this piece of copy needs to [00:12:00] accomplish. Then you start writing your first draft, and I’m gonna give you a second there because I think all of your hearts probably just dropped. Writing the first draft is scary. I get it. I am a copywriter now running my own business for like nine or 10 years, and I have worked in the publishing industry for 20. Writing is difficult and a first draft feels overwhelming, but here’s the key. You are not writing in a way that you are. Just sitting down and looking at a blinking cursor on, an empty screen because you have the strategic framework we develop together so you know exactly what you were aiming for, you know exactly what to say . Let’s take an example of a website. During our strategy time together, we’re gonna talk about exactly what goes on the homepage, exactly what goes on the about page, exactly what you need on your contact [00:13:00] page, your services page, whether you need multiple services pages, you get what I’m saying. And then once we’ve determined those pages, we’re going like section by section to make sure everything gets covered. So when it’s time to sit down. You just have to review your notes, listen to the conversation, and start to fill in the blanks on the page. This makes the writing process much less overwhelming because you have clear direction in, in the path you’re gonna take. Now when you’re done writing and you submit your draft back to me, I’m reviewing it. Both through a strategic lens and a copy lens. I’m looking at whether it aligns with our strategy, how well it speaks to your audience, and where the copy could be more clearer or more compelling so that it leads to whatever your specific conversion event is.[00:14:00] My feedback is detailed and specific. It’s not just, you know, oh, this needs to change, but what I am sharing is the why and how to improve on it. During our revision section, we’re gonna work through my feedback together, and this is where you begin to understand not just what to change, but why these changes are making the copy more effective. You are learning the principles here that you can apply to future projects. Now, let’s pretend you actually have copy that you’ve already written, sticking with a website theme. It could be that your current website copy was written by you a couple years ago and it’s just feeling stale. It could be that you hired a blog writer to write, um, some SEO blog posts for you, and they are factually correct, but they don’t feel like you’ve written them or they feel really. Dull and dry regardless of what it is. [00:15:00] Sometimes that type of client is coming to me with a copy that’s already written and it just doesn’t feel right to them. They may or may not be able to pinpoint why it doesn’t feel right or what’s not working, but I start that process with a quick review of my own to analyze what they have and identify the main opportunities. We then move into another strategy call. Well, for them this would be their first strategy call where they’re telling me what they think is not working and if there’s anything that they really like in the piece. During this time, I’m also going to share what I think could be improved and ask for clarity on certain things or ask for, um, to fill in the blanks of things that may not be there. And this conversation is gonna help us get aligned on the direction of the, the end result that we’re looking for. I leave the conversation and I’m gonna jump into a collaborative edit with them. [00:16:00] At this point, I’m making changes and suggestions that directly in like the document we’re working on, but I’m also commenting or suggesting maybe questions, thoughts, or seeking clarity, you know, so this. The reason I say all this is because I want under people to understand that this is an active participation. This isn’t. Aaron does all the work and send it back to you for you to review. We could literally be working together at the same time in the document and your feedback helps shape the revisions. It’s like having a conversation through the copy itself. Where we’re both putting in the effort, we’re, we’re co-writing and we’re shaping the piece, um, to meet those strategic goals we set and we’ll finish our work together with a second review call, and this gives us an opportunity to go through any rate remaining edits together, and make sure that everything that’s in the copy feels [00:17:00] right to you in both approaches. If needed, I will co-write sections with you. So maybe you’re struggling with a particular transition, because transitions are one of the number one things that I write with clients because they so often get missed. And that’s because they’re not thinking with a, a true writer’s mind. They’re thinking with a business owner who knows how to type words or who knows how to think mind, my mind automatically tells me, okay, it’s great that you introduced that, but we need to now. Bring what you said in the, the previous section and make it make sense to what you’re saying now. So very often I’m writing transitions for people. I’m helping them create calls to action. You know, so many people are afraid to go in on the ask or don’t even think about, um, any type of conversion event, whether that’s join an email newsletter, buy now, or just click over to a new page.[00:18:00] So I jump in to help their writing as well, but. It’s always a collaboration. It’s not me trying to do something instead of you. It is where we can both work together to finesse this project together. All right, so there are benefits and there’s also some things that you should consider and potentially to decide whether or not you want to do this. The benefits I think are pretty significant. You get professional guidance while maintaining control of your message. You also learn copywriting principles thats serve you in the long term. The process is also typically faster than traditional copywriting because we are working together rather than me taking on all of the heavy lifting and then the time that goes into passing drafts back and forth. And in truth, I think the final copy truly sounds most like you because you are [00:19:00] writing it, you are participating with the professional support. But there are a few things I would recommend you consider. One. I know I just said things can go faster and they can, but it does require a significant time investment from you if you are looking for a completely hands off copy solution. Copy coaching, isn’t it? You need to be willing to engage in the process to receive feedback and to make those revisions. Which brings me to my next point that you need to be comfortable with the collaboration. I understand as a business owner, we’re so often tasked with doing things on our own that it’s easier sometimes to just do everything by yourself than it is to. Share some of the work that sharing the work can be hard sometime. But when you work with a copy coach, it does require that your. [00:20:00] Able to communicate well and that you are open to feedback. Key here is feedback. I grew up in the creative writing world and we workshopped all of our writing with our peers and our teachers in a traditional workshop. What that would mean is I would pass out copies of my work, be it a poem or an essay or whatever the students and teacher would read it before we came to class. And then the classroom time would be a workshop in which everyone talked about the strengths, but mostly the weaknesses of the piece, and gave their own feedback on what they think I should do to improve on it. Going to a workshop , requires a lot of vulnerability and it requires you to put your ego aside and understand that the people that are helping you. In our instance right now, what we’re talking about, it would be the copy coach is there ’cause they want to [00:21:00] help you get better because they want this piece of writing that you’re creating to be as best. As it possibly can. So you do need to be open to feedback and understand that when feedback is given or or when things are changed or adjusted, it’s not about you at all. It’s not about your ability. It’s really just to make the piece better. And if that’s something that you’re willing to do, I think that the, the final consideration, I can’t remember if I just said this, the final consideration again, would be timeline. You know, like it can be variable if you are not following the same timeline as your copywriter is. So. This process can move much faster than traditional copywriting, so long as everyone is setting aside dedicated time to do the work and to make the changes. Honestly, having the opportunity to work with a copy coach really offers. [00:22:00] This unique perspective that most people don’t get. So often when people are used to just hiring out their copy or sludging through doing it themself, they don’t know about the middle ground that exists where professional strategy and support can keep you going, can keep you central to the process and can keep you involved in something that means a lot to you. It means a lot to your business. So. Whether you’re signing up for done with you copywriting because you want to be involved or you need to maintain a voice or technicality, or you just wanna learn more copywriting skills. I say, jump in, get invested in it, so that way you can finally complete the projects that you’re working on, move on to something new, and feel like you’ve gotten something from it in the process next week. [00:23:00] I’m gonna go deeper into what actually happens during a copy coaching session. In this episode, I’m gonna talk about how I make the decisions that I make, what automatically stands out to me, , pieces of content that are easy to improve or things that really need to have more shaping and developing during, , a collaborative copy session. And hopefully that real life example helps you see exactly how feedback and collaboration work together. If copy coaching sounds like something you’d like to explore, head on over to my website. It’s erinollila.com and you can learn more about working together. All right. See you next week where we’ll keep talking. Copy.