Seo Content Executive : UK – North West
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Three)
Copywriting Game Plan, Team Management and Selection
Managing a copywriting team is a tricky business; each copywriter is an individual, has their own specific needs, nuances and their own style.
It is your job as their manager to understand them fully, know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and know what they will excel at and where there is room for improvement. Most of all get to know them.
Game Plan
You have now selected your new copywriters from the trials and they just as much as you are eager to get started. So what do you do? Do you ask them how many articles they want and pay them that amount? After all they are as eager as a beaver and why not get the most out of this fresh talent.
You couldn’t be more wrong! This from my experience is the worst possible thing to do. You have yet to build up a relationship with them, you still have an existing team who have been very loyal to you and should in my opinion get more of the articles.
A smart game plan
will ensure that you keep your existing first team well supplied and managed, and at the same time be able to provide for the first initial month 1-2 articles a week for your newer copywriter(s).
Code of Conduct
The lucky new members to your team have been selected, your keen and they’re keen, but hold your horses! When you started working at your current company, didn’t you have to learn your companies best working practices. Every group, organization club has their own style of working, training and code of conduct. What you may frown upon, someone else may think is a great way of working. You need to ensure that you and your team of writers are on the same page all working together with the same goal. If you haven’t done this I suggest you get this in place immediately.
To get you started these are some of the things we have included:
Plagiarism: Basic but you will be surprised how often your writers can slip up. Let them know you will be checking your articles and encourage them to invest in a plagiarism checking tool as well, so that they can check their articles over before they send them in-sparing blushes all round. Do make sure all your team do check their content still. Things still slip through the net!
Deadlines: Your copywriters are human, remember that and like the rest of us they will from time to time be prone to illnesses and even quite severe personal problems. As long as this isn’t a regular event and they give you enough notice; I have set this as the morning before the due date as this will give you enough time to move deadlines. Help them out after all they are an employee of yours.
Authorship: Due to the nature of our industry we don’t give our copywriters authorship rights on articles we have published for them to use in their portfolios. This can be for many reasons and primarily client discretion is a big one. You need to make this absolutely clear from the offset. We do however ensure they get a reference from us for their portfolio. What is included in the reference is up to you, but if you are happy to allow them to claim authorship my suggestion to you would be to set up a supplier contract between you and the writer.
Disciplinary Action: A myriad of problems from lateness, non-communication for long periods of time, poor quality work and consistent personal problems have troubled this writer since you employed them. What do you do? As soon as you see the things happening even in the earliest of stages, be nice ask them if you can help them by decreasing their workload for a while, ask them if they are struggling with certain subjects. If this still continues remind them of the code of conduct that they were given at the beginning of their employment with you. That should make them sit up and pay attention. If it doesn’t go well then wish them all the best, give them a reference and say au revoir.
If this ever happens-it shouldn’t though because you would have picked the best writers initially, but humans being human it could. I guess you better go and get that Will Monitor pile back out.
Team Management
At the same time when you have handed over your articles, let’s call the newbie copywriters reserves and your existing squad of copywriters the first team; you must stay in contact with them regularly even when they do not have any articles.
I speak to my team of writers’ everyday; this is to deal with day to day issues, articles being sent through, queries or even a quick hello.
I also employ a more formal approach by emailing them every other day when they are writing for us first thing in the morning and ask the following:
a) How they are
b) Are there any issues with the articles they are working on?
c) What article are they working on currently?
d) Are they on track to get the articles in on time?
This is something I discussed with my writers first as I didn’t know whether they had other freelancing work or whether they were also in full time employment.
It is also advisable to get as much contact information from writers; this can include things like Skype, another email address, twitter, linked in and the good old telephone number. This means if you don’t hear from them you have another means of contact if the articles have not arrived.
Match Day Selection
Each writer in the team has their own skills set and specialisms, much like a premier league manager selecting his team for Saturday’s derby; he isn’t going to play a striker in goal and a central defender in the position of a forward.
It is great to try and push the writers, but you need to ensure that they are played to their strengths in order to reduce frustration on both parts. You can try to introduce new subject areas or heavy research pieces to your writers but if you do this remember you must expect mistakes, help them do not lambast them, this will result in you losing a copywriter. Bear in mind that although you know how to find a replacement, you want them to remain loyal and build up a strengthened squad who are the best. How will that happen if you don’t put some effort in on your part.
This also applies to your new copywriters; you need to spend some time easing them in as you want to make sure their writing is consistent and they do not do a Houdini.
Game On!
I hope after reading this that you feel refreshed and positive towards your copywriters and managing them. They key things that I hope you have taken away from this article are to remember what your goals are, select your copywriters with that in mind, introduce your new writers slowly, nurture and develop not only your new writers but also your existing team; you need to keep things fresh like any relationship otherwise boredom sets in and things become uninspired.
If you stick to this and keep your goals in focus you will have a team of writers who not only produce great content but actually want to for you!
So this was the third and final instalment to my “How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team” series. I hope you enjoyed and thanks to everyone for all the love they have shown and the comments. Massive thanks to my copywriting team for being, well awesome. I would name them but I don’t want you guys trying to poach them!
If you would like to read the parts one and two they can be found here:
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part One)
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Two)
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Three) is one of our latest posts from: SEOgadget.co.uk.
Web Content And Social Media Officer : UK – South West, UK – Wales
Digital Fundraising Executive: UK – West Midlands
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Two)
Let the Trials Begin!
You know the saying “Try before you buy” – Well this applies to copywriters too! You want to make sure they can walk the walk not just talk the talk. You may find it useful to read the first post How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part One).
So what is a Trial?
A trial at SEOgadget consists of writing a test article, in a set time and when we receive it we will read and decide whether they will get signed up or turned away.
Test Article Tips:
This should be an article that you would like to publish (this way the exercise has been cost effective). Do not use anything that is business critical. Content that is required by link builders immediately, or for clients who require a sign off or content for a new site, company press releases, articles for your news site and anything else that is important to your business on a critical level. If this writer turns out to be a complete Juan Sebastian Veron (a massive flop), you are now left with a dilemma of either:
a) An angry Link builder
b) Not Impressed Client
c) Behind on deadlines
d) Annoyed contact (awaiting an article that will now need a re-write)
e) An angry Manager
f) Delayed Website launch
g) Out of Date News article
h) Or worse still all of the above
My key tips for a successful trial are:
Initial Contact
Check availability with them to do the trial (test piece). You may find they now have a full time job, left on holiday, or have decided not to take part.
The email doesn’t have to be anything fancy just a quick hello, are they still interested and what’s their availability. Ensure they realise that they were selected from a whole host of other candidates (inflate their ego), and that you liked their profile/submission (more on why this is important later).
The Trial email:
This email should be set in the same manner as you do with your existing starting 11 (or however many you have) copywriters. Ensuring you keep things structured and simple means your writers will feel much more confident working with you.
At SEOgadget I have a way in which I manage the content from receiving the ideas from the team to how it then goes out to the copywriters.
I have a very basic set up in EXCEL where I have set up a table that looks like this:
I have further columns to the right in which I have the link builders name and the copywriter who this is assigned to. Simple filtering of the table, a quick copy and then paste into an email-that’s all you need to do. All the information is there for the copywriter in a nice clear layout. The reason we ensure we give as much information for each article is to limit the need for rewrites, writers asking for extensions as they don’t understand or just ending up with something completely off topic!
Once you have put your email together ensure that you tell your potential new team member that you are really looking forward to reading their article!
The Results Are In!
Its judgement day and a few things can happen:
1. You wait all day and nothing; you then give them the benefit of the doubt and think if it comes tomorrow its fine.
2. it’s in your inbox on the date agreed – now that’s what I’m talking about.
Missed Deadline
If a person is late with their article and hasn’t told you a reason or notified you, read their article and no matter how good it is due to lateness let them know that you will not be taking them on board at present.
Poor Work
Well what can I say, other than make sure you mark them off your database and make a note as if in future someone else on the team is looking for copywriters they know who to avoid!
Try to give them feedback on why you think they are not suitable for your company, do not tell them they are rubbish and should never bother writing again! You never know they could go onto be the most influential blogger ever, the greatest writer or could be unhinged and may decide to do some mud-slinging via the internet to your lovely brand and personal name.
Excellent!!
This writer not only got the article in on time, they followed instructions and asked questions where needed and have produced a stunning piece of writing that has got you under the collar.
Before you email them back telling them how awesome they are you need to check their work over and over; after all this could be a special report, a how to guide or even a piece content for link building that will be going on your site or somewhere else. It will not be good for your reputation to be associated with poor spelling and grammar and overall poor quality. If you need to get someone else to check-that could be fellow team member, friend or partner.
Always make sure the content is unique!
Well that is easy, there are plenty of great tools out there and one of our favourites is Copyscape. But here are some others for you:
- http://www.smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
- http://www.copyscape.com/prosearch.php
- http://www.scanmyessay.com/
Thanks for reading Part two of “How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team”, part three will be out in a couple of days and will cover how to integrate your new writers with your existing Copywriters, and what to do if there are any problems.
Thanks for reading this post and I would love to know what everyone thinks of the first two parts so far.
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Two) is one of our latest posts from: SEOgadget.co.uk.
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part One)
When I started at SEOgadget back in July I was fairly green to say the least. In that time I am still learning but as well as being an SEO Executive I am now also Content Production Manager for SEOgadget. I have been given the opportunity to share with you guys some of the things I do in my role. This article is particularly focused on how to find, hire and manage a team of copywriters. This is the first of a three-part series, I didn’t realise when I started this article how much I had to say on this subject.
I would like to say a massive thank you to my copywriting team as they are simply the best writers you could wish to work with!
So let’s get down to business!
You have come to the realisation either through your own forward thinking (well done you) or as in the majority of cases through some unforeseen horrendous piece of misfortune that you need a copywriter; actually who am I kidding you need a few copywriters.
Cue a mad panic, a lot of scratching of heads and a long sigh as you think about how arduous this process is and how much you wish things could be easier.
So let’s make it easier…
Where to Start? Scouting For Talent
This isn’t as hard as you may think, once you know where to look. If done right you will have a constant source of copywriters available to you as and when you need to strengthen up the team.Scouting can be done in many different ways some of which I am going to cover below. If you have a tried and trusted method that you use and I haven’t included please let me know!
Hiring a freelancer online
- https://www.odesk.com
- http://www.studentgems.com/
- https://www.elance.com
- http://www.peopleperhour.com/
These are just some of the more well-known freelance sites. Go have a look at the FAQ’s, have a read through the about page, check out the employer guides and the testimonials; if this is all to your satisfaction go set up an account and start either looking through the profiles or go post a job direct.
As you can see this is a similar set-up to internet dating (not from personal experience!) and just like internet dating you need to follow some simple safety tips. So here are mine for when approaching or advertising a job;
- Check out their profile is it filled in?
- What is their rating/score/review from previous employers?
- Have they got a portfolio
- Have companies got them on an on-going basis
- When was their last job
Odesk have a very good resource centre here https://www.odesk.com/help/ to help you get started, but remember before signing up to anything always read through any of the resources to get a better idea of how each site works and what the protocols are when it comes to content that is written so bad you know even Karl Pilkington could’ve done better.
University jobs boards
Find a University and look at their courses, if you really want to be specific get in touch with Student Union and enquire about how you can get a job added to their board-as easy as that! Guess what the beauty of this method is..you can find yourself not only students whose English is ace, you can get yourself a foreign languages student, and even find students who specialise in a certain topic all at a reasonably fair price! Also with the university doing checks on you before you post, students will feel they can trust you.
Social media
Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay just like Man City!
Do you have a healthy amount of followers? If not does your company twitter account have a healthier number? Well there you go, throw together a little tweet and send it out there and sit back and relax as your followers retweet your tweet and the applications fly right in to your inbox!
You can also incorporate this into your Facebook and Google+ accounts to spread the word even further.
Now if you have done your social advertising right, you would’ve realised you need somewhere for all those copywriters to go and stick their details in.
Utilising your own website
At SEOgadget we have a copywriter application form which can be viewed here. This form was created using Gravity Forms.
You don’t have to follow our format; you can make this as playful as you like, much like our awesome job applications for example:
This is your opportunity to make the next stage a lot easier. You want to ask questions that will not only give you an insight into personality, rates of pay, portfolio but also their spelling and grammar!
Sifting the Wheat from the Chaff
Is your inbox overflowing? Have your retweets gone stratospheric? You have viewed so many profiles that you don’t know what to do? GREAT!!
Assessing your goals
If you can’t face doing this alone get some help in, as all great managers have back room staff. If you selected your questions correctly earlier you will be able to use these to measure a freelancer’s profile to get as much information as possible. You need to stay focused on what it is you want from your copywriting team.
Getting the right writers
Another thing to consider is that you may not want people who write articles that are humorous, you may need serious business writers, so anyone who has applied with experience in writing for celebrity gossip sites or articles to do with cooking isn’t going to be the one for you, no matter how pretty their profile or friendly they come across. By all means take a chance on a writer if they really stand out and their interests may include your target area but their overall portfolio doesn’t.
Cost of writers
Ensure you check out their pricing! Have they written per word or per article and is it fair? If it appears to be extortionate then look elsewhere, if it’s so ridiculously cheap I would be concerned over quality. It is now up to you and your number two to whittle it down.
Keeping this in mind you should have come to 3 neat piles; Want to Sign Up, Will Monitor and Not Good Enough.
Want To Sign Up
These are the guys that you want! Ahh the dream, what every site owner wants, a super fantastic writer who gets it and you don’t have to chase them up for re-writes…
Will Monitor
You can treat this pile as a back-up plan to the main wish list. These details you can keep on record and if you are clever:
1. Email all these guys
2. Tell them that you have selected them form all the submissions received
3. Tell them you were impressed and will definitely get back to them when you have work. You do not need to contact the freelancers from the hire sites just record their profile details for future reference. This way you have made them feel valued, and in these tough times when people aren’t even getting a response to an application, giving that person a response even if it is a no will make a lasting impression on them, so if you ever do require their services they will not have a negative memory of your lasting dealing with them.
Not Good Enough
I don’t care, you don’t care, just get rid!
I hope you enjoyed the first part as much as I did writing it. I will be posting part two over the next couple of days which will cover how to assess and evaluate your potential new copywriters.
I look forward to hearing what you think about my first post. Thank-you.
How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part One) is one of our latest posts from: SEOgadget.co.uk.