I love to write and have ever since I was a little girl. Writing for pleasure is a whole different ballgame from writing for a living. When you write for yourself, you get to be yourself and express yourself in ways in which you are very comfortable. But writing for a client is a whole different ballgame. In  order to be effective you have to capture your client’s voice and, in essence, speak another language.

So what’s a copywriter to do to make their task a bit easier? I really appreciate when people give me a sample of their writing. It doesn’t have to be a short story or anything particularly long. Samples of emails, blog posts or other short pieces allows the writer (or me at least) to get an idea of the client’s speaking style — what words they like to use, how they use punctuation, any catchphrases that they are known by, things like that.

Another way to capture another person’s style is to listen to the way that they speak. Setup a telephone appointment to speak with your client. During your conversation jot down notes on anything that you might be able to incorporate in the copy that you will create. In my ideal world, the client will spend at least fifteen minutes speaking with me. During that time I get to ask questions about phrases that I might want to use in their copy. I’m able to include colloquialisms, regional slang (if the person likes to portray themselves as a Regular Joe) and other tidbits to help create an authentic work that reflects the values and style of the client.

As a copywriter/ghostwriter our job is to be invisible to the reader and as accurate as possible to the client’s voice.  The time spent between a copywriter and a client will enhance the work that will be written. And all of this knowledge will make it possible for the writer to get the job done more quickly, with fewer revisions and a lot more productive for everyone too!

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