Getting it right the 1st time?
Interviewing musicians in the early 2000s taught me the power of asking the right people better questions.
One of the largest website copywriting projects I've ever worked on was also one of the smoothest. The business was complex and multi-national, the offering was technical, and there was a tremendous amount of information to organize into something coherent and useful. They also had what I would call a shadowy committee of approvers that I would never meet. I expected revisions aplenty. What I got instead was a delighted client and copy that required surprisingly few changes.
I wouldn't suggest that the quality of a copywriter's work can be measured by the number of revisions it takes to get something approved. But the experience reinforced two things I've believed for years: the questions you ask before writing matter enormously, and the best results come from knowing where your expertise ends and someone else's begins.
A kickoff interview isn't a questionnaire
I've been interviewing people for much longer than I've been writing websites.
In the early 2000s, I interviewed Canadian bands during the CMAs and many fine artists while writing for Juxtapoz and other arts magazines. The key to unlocking my relationship with my subject was to do extensive research before the conversation and ask questions they hadn't already answered a hundred times. It wasn't enough to ask about their influences, their latest release or what inspired a particular song. Those answers were often already available. The interesting material came from understanding their work, their influences and motivators, recognizing what hadn't been explored and finding a way to ask something that might produce an unexpected answer.
I approach client interviews that way. A website kickoff interview should establish far more than a list of preferred terminology or words the client doesn't want to use. Those details have their place, but they don't tell me much about what makes a business worth choosing. I want to understand why decisions were made, how the business sees itself in relation to its competitors, what customers routinely misunderstand and what its people know that hasn't yet made it into the marketing. Sometimes the most valuable question is the one that isn't on the brief. And often, the answer changes the direction of the writing.
The copywriter doesn't have to be the expert on everything
On this particular project, the client took responsibility for the highly technical product descriptions. That was an important division of labour. Their team had the specialized knowledge needed to describe the products accurately. My role was to understand the broader business, establish a consistent voice and communicate its capabilities in a way that made sense across the website. It would have made little sense for me to attempt to recreate years of technical expertise through research alone, particularly when the people who understood the products best were already involved.
The collaboration allowed each of us to contribute where we were strongest. And that's worth remembering on projects involving highly specialized products, complicated services or regulated industries. A good copywriter needs to understand the subject well enough to ask informed questions, recognize what's important and communicate it clearly. That doesn't mean replacing the subject-matter expert. It means working effectively with one.
Fewer revisions aren't the goal
There are perfectly good reasons to revise copy. Technical details need checking. Business priorities change. A sentence that seems clear to one reader might confuse another. That's what the review process is for. But there's a difference between feedback that strengthens the work and repeated revisions that reveal the business hasn't yet agreed on what it wants to communicate. The latter can't always be solved by writing another version.
Looking back at that project, I can't attribute the smooth approval process to any one decision. The client's expertise, willingness to collaborate and the work that happened before drafting all played a part. What I can say is that the experience confirmed the value of approaching website copywriting as something more substantial than filling pages with words. It begins with curiosity. It depends on informed questions. And it works best when the right people contribute the right expertise. Sometimes the most valuable work a copywriter does happens before the first sentence is written.
Good copy starts with a good conversation
If you're planning a new website or struggling to communicate a complex offering, I'd love to hear what you're working on. I'll bring the research, curiosity and questions that help uncover what makes your business worth choosing.