When beginning a new project, one of the most crucial aspects you will ever face as a freelance copywriter is the defining and setting out of your goals.

Ask yourself what is the purpose of the document you are about to write. It is important to remember that your document will replace a personal visit or conversation with the reader therefore it must achieve what you would achieve face to face – or at least what the most successful sales executive known to man would achieve.

Your goal could be any number of things including:

• Make a sale
• Get opt-ins for your email list
• Open an account with you
• Increase spending with you
• Renew a contract
• Agree to a meeting

Whatever it is you must ensure that it is the goal that drives your writing and not your creativity.

Writers are creative by nature and therefore it can be all too easy to let your alter ego get the better of you. The first sign that you should ditch your copy is if, when you read it, it makes you smile; you want to show it to everyone with a big grin on your face shouting from the roof tops ‘look how clever I am’.

Ask yourself if it will persuade the reader to buy. If your answer is ‘no’, scrap it. You are not up for the ‘Most humorous and creative sales letter’ Oscar, you are trying to achieve the goal you have been given. Your long suppressed novel is the place for your creativity – make sure that is where it stays.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Let me take your business to new heights by making every word count.