Contact and Communications Policies
Communication – good communication – will be the key to our success in working together. During our project, we are available M-F from 7am to 6pm CST.
By far, the best way to reach us is first through e-mail. We will respond within four business hours.
Discussing the Project and Questionnaire
- Getting Started: To start a potential project, we will send you a Creative Brief to complete. This will help us both clearly define the scope of the project and ensure maximum results.
- Please return it to us as quickly as possible — for most clients that is between 1-3 business days.
- Upon receipt of the completed Creative Brief, we review and study your answers, plus any other applicable initial research needed. From there, we will outline a short Project Roadmap. This will also save you time and ensure that we fully understand the project. We will also base our Launch Call on this document.
- 3-10 days after we receive the Creative Brief answers, we will schedule a 20-minute Launch Call. During the call, we will discuss the Project Roadmap. We will listen to any additional directions and insights you have on the project.
- Following the call, we will draft and send you an Agreement. If your legal team has an Agreement, we can use that.
Investment and Getting Started
- The Agreement will contain all the specifics on what exactly we will deliver, including project deadlines. It will also list your investment for the project and terms of payment. (Note: we require 50% of the project total to begin. Most of our clients prefer to pay by bank wire? or overnight payment.)
- Once we have signed the Agreement, we will begin working on your copy as agreed.
Research
- Our research process is very comprehensive. We begin with a complete review of your website and any other materials you send. From there, we will research the market, including your competitors. In some cases, we will ask to visit with your customer service team, past clients/customers, and different department heads.
- As needed, we will reach out to you for additional details, product samples, and other resources.
- You can be confident that we’ll quickly and effectively understand your product, your voice, and your customer’s core emotional purchase drivers.
Collaboration
- As we work on this project together, communication is critical. Many of our clients are very busy and prefer to hand off the project to us and review the first draft, with very little communication in between. Others like dealing with us on an almost daily basis and be involved at just about every step of the way. Which are you?
- Please send us an email to let us know how often you’d like to communicate and the best way to reach out to you (i.e., email, phone, social media, text, etc.).
- One other point . . . we require that you assign us a single point of contact on your team, and we will do the same. We will communicate directly with that person, and they will deal with your other team members as needed to obtain information and approvals.
Review of First Drafts
- Typically, you’ll receive the first draft in 10-14 business days, depending on the project size and scope.
- When you get the first draft, please review it carefully. Also, have any applicable team members review it. The most important thing at this stage of the game is making sure that the tone, message, and offer are right. We’ll fine-tune during the second draft…and third draft, as needed.
Revisions
- After you review the initial draft, it is likely that you’ll want some things changed. Please note those changes using the “Track Changes” feature in MS Word.
- We will review all your suggested changes within 24 hours of submission. We will make our adjustments within 2-4 business days, depending on the breadth and complexity of your suggested changes.
- In all cases, we recognize that these are your customers and will defer to you as much as possible.
- Sometimes, there are cases where our clients make suggestions that we know will not work based on our training and experience that will hurt profits. In those cases, you can expect us to be bold and direct in our feedback. When clients insist on changes that we feel will not work, we always recommend a simple A/B split test. Let the market vote.
Additional Reviews
- After the first round of changes, there may be some additional fine-tuning needed. You can be confident that we’ll gladly work with you until you are delighted with the final copy. In most cases, our clients find that one review is enough. When more are needed, it is usually just one or two and the process goes quickly. Typically, we can get to a final copy within 1-3 business days.
- Please note, our fee schedule allows for two sets of revisions as long as the previously agreed-upon focus of the assignment has not changed. If additional rewrites are necessary, we can discuss any associated fees.
Final Approval
- Once all revisions are done, we will submit a final draft to you. At this point, you approve the copy by sending us an email stating that everything is ready for distribution.
- Once we receive this final approval from you, we will invoice you for the remaining 50% of the project investment. The invoice is due upon receipt. we will make every effort to be prompt in responding to your requests and assume that, as a professional, you will do the same with our invoices.In most cases, the
- final copy is sent to a designer for formatting. we strongly encourage you to send us a PDF of the final version. we will double check that any graphical elements added by your design team enhance the copy and make it more effective.
- If we see something that is distracting and may hurt your response rate, we’ll be direct in letting you know. If requested, we’re happy to work with your design team to make any changes needed to make the end version as effective as possible.
Transition to New Projects
- Once a project is done, we provide all of our clients with a complimentary follow-up consultation. We spend a few minutes on the phone and discuss what went well and where improvements can be made.
- We review the Creative Brief and discuss additional ways to uncover new profits. Where appropriate, we map out a new project to ensure that you continue to have excellent copy that meets your goals and grows your business.