Q&A: What questions should I ask new clients?
The Copywriter Column #114
One of you recently emailed me to ask about discovery calls with potential (or new) freelance clients.
I know this reader isn’t the only person asking these questions (I asked them myself when I began freelancing so many years ago).
So today’s Copywriter Column is more of a Q&A.
Let’s dig in…
What questions should I ask a brand that doesn’t have a brand voice guide to share?
There are a number of small brands that simply don’t have the money to invest in a comprehensive brand voice guide, so this is a common occurrence. (But to be fair, we encounter this with $1-100M+ brands at the agency too.)
There are freelancers (and agencies) out there that specialize in developing brand voice guides. If it’s a space you’re interested in, it can be quite lucrative. See the Brand Voice Academy for more.
But if you’re needing to dive in quickly, here are some questions to ask and things to look for:
Ask the client for any ads, emails, landing pages, web pages, or social posts that represent the voice of their brand well.
What strengths of your brand do you want to emphasize in your messaging?
What words/terms/themes do you like to use when talking about your industry or products?
Are there any words/terms/themes you like to AVOID?
Is there a particular style guide your brand uses?
What brands model the tone of voice you’re after?
These only scratch the surface but will get you started.
What if some brands only have a single type of product and some have multiple? How will questions vary?
Onboarding and discovery call questions probably won’t vary too much.
But if you’re writing email flows and campaigns, it’s probably best to ask them which products (and product categories) are their bestsellers, which ones appeal to first-time customers, and which ones appeal most to returning customers.
That way, as you’re building out email strategies, you can keep that in mind.
What questions should I ask when inquiring about email campaigns and flow strategy?
Ask them what their typical campaign cadence is like. Do they send one email campaign a day? One or two a week? Ten to 15 times per month? And ask them what flows they currently have set up. This could help you identify opportunities to add value to the client.
But strategy varies from client to client depending on their goals.
If they want to use email to convert new subscribers into customers, then focusing on core flow build-outs (e.g. welcome series, abandon series, pre-purchase flows, etc.) could be beneficial. But if they’d rather focus on retaining existing customers and turning them into repeat buyers, you can spend more time focusing on things like post-purchase flows, cross-sell flows, and the like.
Your campaigns should hit on helping them meet their overall goals too.
What if they’re not very new and already invested heavily in email marketing, how should I proceed with the questions? Is it the same?
Questions can be pretty much the same. Ask them what they do and don’t like about their existing campaign/flow strategy, what they’d like to see optimized, what their current (or former) email marketing team(s) got wrong, etc.
Use this as an opportunity to speak about where you can add value that means the most to them.
Should I write different cart abandonment emails (as the product changes) or is a simple common type of email enough for all products?
Inside most email service providers (ESPs), like Klaviyo, you can insert dynamic product blocks. In this case, you can keep your abandonment emails fairly high-level.
However, if they have multiple products and 2-3 are their bestsellers, you can build out splits in your abandonment flows specific to those products. Not only does it hyper-personalize the emails, but it increases your chances of conversion.
🧐 Did you like this little Q&A? Let me know by liking this post and dropping a note in the comments below. I’m open to doing more posts like this every month!
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