Copywriter for the Web and Print

Activia's experience with Astute Copy

As part of our commitment to promoting high quality standards on the web, we periodically publish details of projects or partnerships when an outside agency is involved.   Whether the service we receive is good or bad is a matter for subjective judgment, so although we may give our reactions to events, we do our best to narrate the process as a whole and let you, the reader, make up your own mind.
This often helps to promote our suppliers' businesses because our strong web profile means that these pages usually appear high in search engine results.

Activia's Copy Writing Requirement

Activia's web site is undoubtedly a market leader in both functionality and prominence on the web, but it does not convey enough of our "spirit" -- the heart and soul that makes us really different from other training providers.
The site has been developed by our sister company, Emarketers, but I felt that both companies had been too close to the website for too long to provide a truly fresh approach to what we wanted to do.

The Search for a Copy Writer

We are great fans of the web, and I conducted a great deal of research through Google; there were (as ever) a huge number of copy writers out there, and I felt confident that whoever got the job would need to be special.
In the end, my shortlist came down to four providers.   One talked herself out of the job by refusing to listen to what I wanted.   Another gave a very knowledgeable and professional summary of what they felt we needed, but didn't quite engage with the detail.   The third was a very capable copy writer, but did not seem to be very web savvy and was not prepared to consider how his copy should be displayed on the page.
The fourth was Astute Copy, who quickly made an appointment to see me (the only one who did) and during a single meeting, Peter impressed me with his energy, his familiarity with the web, and his stated commitment to getting measurable results.
Astute Copy was my choice.

Diary of the Project

Fri Jan 11th

First Meeting
The meeting lasted four hours -- I often do this when I'm cramming ideas, concepts, philosophies into someone's head.   Peter reinforced the good impression he had made, and we spent an enjoyable time discussing each other's business experience and ambitions as well as the project in hand. We both knew that this was potentially the first of many copy writing jobs for both Activia and Emarketers, and I felt that Peter could be someone I could work with over the long term.
I even ended the meeting by giving Peter some advice on how to optimise his web site for search engines.

Wed Jan 16th

First pass
Peter had taken away copious notes, and a list that comprised one third of the total pages I wanted to be re-written.
I received a "first pass" that was good in parts, and spent some time at the weekend going through the copy.   I then (January 20th) sent Peter an email that detailed what I liked about what he had done, and what needed further development; in particular, the need to convey more of Activia's "spirit".
I was happy with progress so far, and sent him a cheque for 50% of his total fee as we had agreed.

Thur Jan 24th

Second Pass
This had moved some way, but not as far as I'd expected.   Peter had expressed a desire to move quickly on this, and although there was no firm deadline set for completion, I felt we understood that it was in both our interests to get the job done as soon as possible.   Again, I spent a long time reviewing the work, and sent an email on Sunday saying that it still lacked a "wow" factor, and asking Peter to reply to the points I had raised previously.   I also said that I needed one of the marketing pages before Friday, when we would be incorporating it into a new campaign.

Thur Jan 31st

Slowing down ...
Our deadline for the new marketing campaign was on us, so I sent another email to Peter. Twenty minutes later I received a reply saying that he was having email problems because he was on an XBL list (literally, an "Exploits Block List" -- a kind of spam blacklist) and was awaiting removal. He attached copy for the marketing page that was, in my opinion, very disappointing.
I had made the decision to test Peter's copy on our new marketing page, so at Activia we worked late that night turning what he had given us into usable content, in order to meet our deadline.
At the end of the evening I emailed Peter to ask him if he had gone cold on the project.

Tue Feb 5th

Third pass
After another email to Peter on February 4th, he replied the following day with responses to my email of January 20th.   Shortly afterwards, I received another email with personal reasons why he had not been in touch, to which was attached a third pass dated January 30th.
I then sent an email on the 8th asking for suggestions for the marketing page we had built, but have not had a reply to date.
By now, I was extremely busy with other matters within the business, and (my fault) I was unable to look at the third pass until the weekend.   But when I did, it seemed that that Peter was still missing the point so I emailed him again, with further feedback that I hoped would successfully clarify what I wanted.

NOTE: Project still ongoing -- watch this space
Notes by ,   ,   Activia Ltd