You can debate for a long time about who owes whom, the client is a king or the copywriter saw it this way. The fact is that any collaboration is a two-way street. The result always depends on both the customer and the contractor. But how do you get 100% results? What if you didn’t get what you wanted? What if I have already worked with copywriters, and they are all wrong?
Our colleagues from Word Factory have compiled a list of the most common questions that arise with copywriting orders – and gave sensible answers to them.
The author did not fulfill the terms of the TK. It is the task of the author to take into account all wishes or, before starting work, inform that some points are impracticable. If the author did not warn, and you decided to save time and not go into details, the responsibility rests entirely with you.
You started work without a technical assignment. It is the copywriter’s sacred duty to inform that the result will be better with a well-filled technical assignment. You have the right to refuse but consider the risks.
The TK can be drawn up in any form: according to the author’s template, in freestyle, or according to your brief. The main thing is your confidence that you said everything you wanted.
The text is not unique. If the text does not contain quotations, the necessary technical data, extracts from the text of laws, and is unique by 50% or less according to the version of several rating systems, most likely you were sent rewriting instead of copywriting.
But fluctuations in the assessment of uniqueness even by 3-15% according to versions of different programs is the norm. If it is vital for you that the text is 100% unique for a particular program, it is important to indicate this in advance, since the wishes of different clients differ.
You have been sent a text with zero uniqueness. Pay attention to the sources indicated by the verification service: perhaps your article has already flown into the index. Or maybe other sites have already copied it.
The text is kind of watery. Writing juicy text based on facts is a copywriter’s job. Presenting the facts is your job. They can be borrowed from the manufacturer’s website if you ordered 1000 descriptions of smartphones. If you ordered a text about the company, share all the available information, answer each question of the author, because no one owns insights better than you.
Some kind of non-selling text. The only way to assess the “selling” of the text is to deliver it to the target customer. If you haven’t posted the text, it’s too early to say that it won’t sell. If you have placed it and “didn’t float”, it makes sense to check if the phone works, if everything is in order with the site design, if you receive letters with requests, and, in general, if the product is interesting to the reader. If you are testing a new GPT-3 Copywriter text along with an already working one, the problem can very much be in the quality of the work performed.
I don’t like the text. In creative work, there are objective facts, and there is a subjective “like it or not like it.” First, accept that you don’t have to like the text. Ideally, he should fulfill the task assigned to him. Secondly, adequately assess your competencies and abilities as an author.
For example, if you already have a positive experience and you clearly know that something works, but something does not, you can always inform the author about it before starting work. If the author has more experience, it makes sense to trust his professionalism. Third, always listen to your inner voice: you know and “feel” your business better than any other person in the world.
The copywriter names a price that differs from the one indicated on the site. One of the few processes that we have not been able to automate in six years is task cost estimation. Sometimes one client’s requirement, for example, to make the text 100% unique in terms of uniqueness, doubles the time spent. Therefore, the prices on the website are indicative. But we always inform you inside and out how much the work may cost before we start working.
The text contains errors. Mistakes are an inevitable part of any job. As a rule, the most professional and competent authors are inclined to admit in the text several epochal blunders and a dozen rough blots that turn into bearded anecdotes. At the same time, if the text is proofread by a competent editor, then it is unlikely that more than one or two rough mistakes will be found in it. There is no limit to perfection, but you should always strive for it!
You can defend your rights. Contact the author who works officially and can provide an agreement, invoice, and act. Expect to pay him more than a freelancer who doesn’t know what taxes are.
Package of documents: contract, annex with the technical specification, invoice, act. If you know exactly what you want, and indicated it in the TK, signed it with the contractor, this is a weighty argument. Even an unknown author will at least not disappear a day before the deadline.
