What to Expect When You’re Working with Me

There’s a lot of discussion about marketing and content strategy and whether they are important or whether creativity is the only thing that matters.

I’ve heard both sides of the argument—and as a writer, I’ve been on the action end of projects that did and didn’t include a strategy phase.

“I’m so glad we have a real content strategist on this,” a copywriting colleague told me while I was briefing him on a recent project. Why? Because I’d already worked with the client for a month before he was read in, doing much of the “hard” and necessary work, from his perspective.

The process always follows the same steps, although specific focus, depth, and complexity change from one project to another. As a friend says, “1, 2, 3—we do X, Y, Z.”

1. Discovery
   Sometimes, clients have a misconception that discovery is about the strategists coming up to speed on things the client already knows. In fact, discovery is about uncovering vital information that the client is too close to see and agreeing about how to proceed.
   
   Business decisions at odds with audience priorities. Content optimized to target the top (awareness) of the funnel instead of the middle (educational/engagement) or bottom (conversion/purchase). Marketing plans that ignore known patterns of human behavior. We find it all.

2. Strategy
   This is where we strategists frame up how to approach the client’s goals, given everything that surfaced during discovery. Strategy is a big term, and these road maps can cover brand identity to marketing approach, content strategy to communications, and everything in between.
   
   We often describe strategy as being like an architect’s plans for a building. A strategy sets up the conditions within which we’re working, what we’re trying to build, and generally how to get it done. Once the client is onboard with these documents, we can move into execution or hand off to an internal creative team.

3.  Execution
   Talk to a “creative,” which in industry terms means a copywriter or a graphic designer/art director, and they’ll tell you this is the fanciest part of the work. This is where all of the discovery and the strategy becomes something visible and tangible.
   
   But creative work is also highly subjective. Having a solid strategy in place can help ensure that the right creative is selected to carry the work forward. That’s especially true for writers—an ad copywriter and a long-form content writer have very different skillsets.
   
   And, during the process of “ideation”—aka brainstorming, spitballing, or noodling—it’s not uncommon for some creative concepts to fly wide of the mark. Having a clear strategy in place (and a strategist to review early creative iterations) brings efficiency to the process.    

4. Education

   Throughout the process, from beginning to end, clients often find that they, their teams, their leaders, other vendors, even their boards, need someone to walk with them. That may take the form of regular, informal calls and consultations.
   
   It may also look like formal presentations, mini-workshops, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, mentorships, or a host of other interactions. As strategists, we are uniquely positioned to serve in those accompaniment roles, helping clients embed new thought processes into their systems and standard operating procedures.

Ultimately, the time and experience invested in the strategy process pays off in efficiency, focus, and effectiveness at every point further along the way. How can it help you?