Copywriting is a team sport. Good clients are good teammates. Here’s why that’s important & how you can do it too.

What I need from clients to write tech content and copy

One of the questions I get from prospective clients is, “What do you need from me to start writing?”

Great question. Every project and client is different, so it depends.

Some of my clients send me fully-formed outlines with suggested backlinks, wording, and keywords. Others just give me a general topic and leave the rest to me. Still others give me something that lands in between those extremes.

What I usually tell my clients is this: I’ll tell you what I need based on the project we’re collaborating on. And I’ll usually tell you up-front too, so you can prepare it for me before we kick-off the project.

Examples of what my clients send me

• Example 1: AcmeTech sends me detailed outlines of the blog posts I’m ghost writing for them. It includes suggested backlinks and points they want to include in the post.
• Example 2: ECorp (apologies, Mr. 🤖) sends me a skeleton outline for a short white paper. It includes suggested headings or topic breakdowns and points they want to include. They also send me the name and contact info of a SME they’d like me to get quotes from and links to some interviews the SME’s given elsewhere.
• Example 3: FakeCo sends me a headline and links to a series of blog posts they’d like me to repurpose into a short eBook. They give me a short list of competitors to avoid, keywords to include, and a target keyword total.
• Example 4: Massive Consulting Firm Inc. likes to book a quick call to go over the project. They have a creative brief template they fill out that includes a ton of info I don’t need but that they do, so it’s all found in one doc. The info I need is usually at the bottom (notes, research links, keywords, links to other assets, etc.), so I use that to work from.

How clients should prepare to work with me

If you’re thinking of working with me (or another freelancer), be sure to ask what to send so the writer can…