Onboarding Process for Copywriting Clients – Set the Ground Rules from Day One

When working with a new client it’s wise to set some ground rules.

Outlining how you work will establish yourself as the adult in the room. It will also avoid mission creep and “just touching base” emails gobbling up your time.

Clients like boundaries too.

If they’ve never worked with a copywriter before (or been burned too many times), they’ll eagerly grab your hand when you offer to guide them through the field of landmines they see stretched before them.

Here’s my process:

1. After I receive your email I’ll send you a questionnaire to identify the scope of the project and how I can help
2. I’ll conduct background research into your business based
3. We schedule a call to discuss your project
4. I’ll send you a proposal
5. If the proposal is accepted, I’ll email you an agreement to digitally sign
6. I’ll send you an invoice for the project
7. I’ll conduct market research into your product, competitors, customers and positioning
8. I’ll send you an outline for your project
9. Once approved, I’ll draft the copy
10. The copy is proofed
11. Copy is delivered
12. Based on your feedback, further editing is conducted to get a final version.
13. We publish the copy and track the results using analytics and heat maps
14. If conversions are below what we needed for the project to be profitable, I’ll work on changes to improve the conversion rate
15. Upon project completion I’ll send you a questionnaire for feedback

Feel free to copy this into your FAQ page or email it to a new client as part of your onboarding process.

Trust me. It will save you a lot of time and hassle down the road.