How to Work with Other People and Make Content Happen
Copywriting is an exercise in getting people to agree. Fresh from two large website projects, here are the four biggest lessons I’ve learned about working with other people to make content happen.
Yesterday, I surfaced from two large website projects. They’re both really special to me for two reasons. First, they were built to help promote something I’m excited about. Second, I was the only writer on both projects — which turns out is exactly the opposite of working alone. My biggest takeaways from the past few months are actually all about working with other people. They include “all copywriters should learn GitHub” and “JavaScript doesn’t like commas so sometimes a comma change isn’t a quick fix.” But here are by far the four biggest lessons I’ve learned.
Have content first
For some organizations, getting content ahead of design is just a really funny joke. And sure, it’s not easy, but it’s important. Every other thing in this post hinges upon having content early in the process. Whatever content you end up sharing with designers doesn’t even have to be final, as long as it says kind of what you want you want it to say in a sort-of-right order.
Under a tight deadline, I wrote out matter-of-factly what I wanted each section of the site to communicate, along with ideas for images and layout. Even clumsy sentences and headlines that were too long were clearer objectives to design around than lorem ipsum or dummy copy. It’s fine if your content starts messy and ugly, as long as it starts early.
Approvals take effort
When it comes to writing UI copy, intentions are easy. Write something concise, clear, and friendly. Write something your designer will love. Watch them affectionately correct for widows, thanking you for “getting it.” End up a hero. Earn the respect of your co-workers, parents, significant other, and strangers on the train who are visibly basking in the glow of your competence. Achieve all of the above through the rules your writer bosses and mentors have taught you — things like less is more, clarity above all, sixth-grade reading level, and em-dashes.
What is missing from this fantasy is all of the other people. Even if you are the only writer on the team, copywriting is an exercise in getting people to agree. We forget that the more people who plan to read and comment on our words, the messier copywriting gets. Sometimes three people are going to have three conflicting opinions. Sometimes, all of those people need to approve your copy before anyone else sees it. What happens then?
It is not enough to share a Google Doc with the people who have to approve your copy and say, “look at this, y’all.” No amount of clever GIFs or exclamation points or aggressively bolded deadlines is going to get those people to read your Google Doc. It’s not because they don’t like you or they aren’t excited about your project. It’s just because they are busy and Google Docs are confusing and hard to find.
Approvals this time around were particularly tricky because I work at a startup and at startups, everything is chaos. I made a lot of mistakes, but I’m happy with all of the different ways I tried to keep everyone on the same page. Here’s what I tried in sentence fragments:
- Talked to people individually about what they wanted to see from the sections that we were relevant to them. Good idea to ensure all necessary information is included, but bad idea to assume that people are only concerned with their fiefdoms.
- Walked from person to person, sat down next to them, watched them read what I had written, got their feedback. Good idea for small decisions (Quick Opinions, as they became known), terrible idea for big ones. Big decisions (like company descriptions and home page headlines) are often not democratic ones. They deserve more communication than unscheduled desk meetings.
- Held a workshop, where everyone came up with content ideas based on prompts. Good idea for getting people excited and coming up with new ideas. Terrible idea for brainstorming specific executions.
- Edited a Google Doc with two co-workers from our respective living room couches. This was surprisingly effective for very specific changes. Otherwise, I would not recommend.
- Held a few meetings where everyone who needed to approve copy looked at it together and discussed. This was by far the most effective way to get approvals. Important note: it was even more effective when copy was presented in the actual designs.
Because it seems like most people hate meetings, (5) was the last method I tried. I also thought it would be inefficient and lead to a lot of painful writing aloud (“Maybe it should say…”). I was totally wrong. Getting people to talk about why they were disagreeing helped me figure out what was actually important to them.
Future collaborators, next time I’m starting with the meeting. If you hate my meeting, we can work our way back up the list. All teams and all projects are different. Finding the best way for people to work together takes some trying — and some failing, too.
Content to design is a conversation, not a hand-off
Copy will change with design. Sometimes words just look weird when you actually see them in lay out. Sometimes they are out of order or they over-explain the video you want people to watch. That’s cool. You can just change them, but the best way to make this happen is to sit with designers as often as possible, and talk through your decisions.
I try to encourage designers I work with to never, ever withhold their opinions on my writing, even if those opinions are mean or vague or oddly personal, like “I don’t like your face.” I do this for two reasons. First, they will usually try to make copy shorter. In most cases, this is a good thing. Second, it means they are actually reading the words. Designers should be invested in content as something that needs to be crafted and designed. They should see it as greater than just replaceable words to “flow in.” As copywriters, we should feel the same way.
The designer on my last project helped me work through a lot of content issues. She often had a better understanding of the site as a whole and was quick to spot gaps in information or clumsy transitions. We also talked through her designs and later, drank wine. If I wasn’t physically sitting next to her when we were making plans for the site or reviewing copy, the process would have been way less efficient. There would have also been less wine.
Take responsibility
Finally, most of the responsibility for making content happen efficiently falls on us writers. Copywriters and content strategists need to be more than writers and planners. We need to be really convincing spokespeople for content who aren’t cool with just filling in lorem ipsum. We need to be proactive and start planning even when it seems like it doesn’t make sense to get started. Content shouldn’t be an afterthought but the guiding force behind a website. It sounds like a really important job, because it is. So let’s start doing it right.
