(Q&A) Where to Start: Giving Your Brand a Voice – Meg Raynor, Copywriter

For 2023 my monthly photo chats email has been taken over by the ‘Where to start’ series, a monthly Q&A with different creative professionals across Aotearoa. In this series we chat with copywriters, videographers, web developers, designers, and more about what you need to know before bringing them onboard in your business.

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Getting to know Meg Raynor, Freelance Copywriter:

Known for giving Girls Get Off a voice (IYKYK, and if you don’t, you should) Megan is a brand strategist and copywriter that helps brands find and own their space in their audience’s minds. After saying sayonara to agency life where she created campaigns for the likes of ANZ and Tourism New Zealand, Megan works closely with founders to craft brands from the ground up.

In a nutshell, what do your services help businesses achieve?

If a nutshell is a sentence, my services help businesses connect with their ideal customers in a way that makes them want to stick around. Annnnd all the good things that come with that (I’m thinking more time for margaritas, less overwhelm, and clear direction)

Favourite type of copywriting jobs to take on?

I LOVE me some product brands. There are so many great opportunities in product brands where you can add a little fun and delight your customers - from packaging to abandoned cart emails.

Beyond just products, I especially love copywriting jobs where the client is ready to go all in. They know they need help to craft a brand that stands out, with words playing a key part in bringing that to life. Working with these kinds of clients is where the magic happens and I see brands having the most success..

Can you walk us through what it’s like to work with a copywriter?

First, your copywriter needs a brief. This might be a coffee date followed by a proposal, or some emails back and forth to get the deliverables nailed down. The aim is to get a clear idea of what you need and how they can help solve your business problem.
There’s usually a period of information gathering next - researching, reviewing docs or content they’ve asked you to collate, doing surveys, etc.
Depending on the size of the project you might get a summary of this data and next steps, or they’ll dive right in and start writing.
You review the writing.
Tweaks are made if needed.
Everyone happy dances and high fives.

How do I know I’ve picked a good one (copywriter that is)?

Every copywriter probably has their own process but if they’re good, they’ll do the following things.

Customer research - whether this takes the shape of voice of customer data (such as surveys or interviews, gathering feedback) or having a big ol’ social stalk, getting to know your ideal customer is key to being able to write in a way that connects with them.
Tone of voice understanding - either asking for your existing tone of voice if you have one, analysing your content, or developing a unique one for your brand. This creates the vibe of the words they write for you.
Strategic reasoning - whatever they write should have a reason for it. I like to make annotations in the google doc if there is something I’d like to explain the reasoning behind, so the client can learn too.
Ask for mandatories - these are the MUSTS you want/need in your copy. If you don’t have any or don’t know, your writer may already have an idea of what these should be based on the three things above.

All of these should come together, along with the actual writing part, to create an outcome that connects with your audience. After all, you can only sell your product or service if the audience can see the benefit of it!

Let’s chat $$$, don’t be surprised to see X service costing anywhere between . . .

This is a tricky one as we all have our own pricing BUT to give you a ballpark, my brand strategy and key messaging projects (the foundation for any brand) start at $5090+GST. Smaller projects like email sequences or naming are more around the $1k mark.

A golden nugget of copywriter wisdom:

The only one that cares about your product or service is you. Everyone else just wants to know what it’ll do for them, so write to that. Benefit-led over feature-led every time.

Big thanks to Meg for giving us the low down on what to expect when hiring a copywriter for your business as well as providing us with some solid tips around what makes a crème de la crème copywriter so you can find yourself a good one!

To see more of Meg's work, have a stalk through her Linkedin, Insta, and website.

In next month’s Q&A we’ll be hearing from photographer & videographer Hunter Studio.