Reduce the number of edits you request from copywriters and translators

Sometimes when you receive your finished translation or your freshly baked copy for your website, blog or magazine, you find it needs a lot more revising than you thought. There’s nothing worse than requesting two or three rounds of edits when you’re on a tight publishing deadline.

Believe me – writers and translators feel the same. The more edits you have to make, the weirder your piece starts to sound and you lose motivation. What did you do so wrong in the first place? You had been feeling like you’d nailed it and done your absolute best. Your work starts to get a bit more frantic as you worry you’re losing your client.

It’s a scenario everyone wants to avoid. So how can you minimise the number of edits you request from your copywriters and translators?

1.       Provide a brief, style guide and a TOV document

It goes without saying that a good brief is the key to having a good piece of work returned to you. Ideally you want a brief and a Tone of Voice document, explaining how you’d like your work to sound and feel. The TOV document should ideally include a list of banned words – words you definitely don’t want associated with your brand – and encouraged or goal-words – words you’d like to see used at least once in the copy.

Example: A cool and colourful clothing brand aimed at Gen-Zers might ban the words ‘chic’, ‘classy’ and ‘timeless’ because they’re not relevant to the target audience. It might also ban ‘hip’ unless it’s being used ironically. But the brand might want to see words like ‘bold’, ‘on-trend’ and ‘expressive’ used in its copy.

2.       BUT make them easily scannable

Don’t go overboard with your documentation. I’ve worked for clients where, to write a single 150-word description, I need to have 7+ documents open and refer to each of them. It’s too much for anyone to hold in their head and the scope for error is big. So, make your brief brief. Make it concise and easily scannable, so writers can check the salient points at a glance and then refer to a more in-depth brief (perhaps) if they need to.

3.       Create and update your showcase

If the writer, translator or team has created copy that you really liked, add it to a ‘showcase’ document. This should include best-in-class samples that new writers or translators can aim for when they start work on your content. Don’t have any content yet? Don’t panic. Hunt around online for examples of content, wording, branding or TOV that you love and add that to the showcase until you get your own.

4.       Have your tone of voice clear

The hardest briefs to work on are those without a clear aim and tone of voice. Make sure you know what you want your copy to sound like before you engage a writer or translator. If you’re unsure of exactly what your brand voice is, there are branding experts out there just itching to help you. If you don’t know, it’s likely the translation or copy will fall flat, but you won’t quite know why.

5.       Ask an expert

There are thousands of copywriters and translators to choose from who can help you create your content. The key to getting it exactly right, with as few edits as possible, is picking a specialist in your area. For example, get your marketing emails translated or written by a marketing expert and your fire-safety guidelines or whitepaper by a technical expert. Get your sustainability content translated by a sustainability sector expert (Hi – let’s chat). This way, you’ll know the copy is going to be very good to begin with, and it’ll take fewer re-works to really make it killer.

📧 If you’re hunting for a copywriter with years of experience in marketing, ecommerce and travel, or a translator specialising in outdoors, conservation and sustainability – get in touch! 📧

📷 For more tips and musings, head to my Instragram📸