How to Onboard Copywriting Clients: My Step-by-Step Process
The Copywriter Column #200
Today, I thought I’d offer a quick glimpse inside my process for onboarding a new client as a copywriter at the agency.
Every client comes to our retention team with specific needs around email and SMS marketing, typically focused on flows and campaigns.
But rather than walking into kickoff calls cold, some focused research can help inform thoughtful, strategic questions and demonstrate a deep understanding of their business. Not to mention, it makes my job easier later on too.
Here’s my process…
1. Review all intake forms prior to kick-off
The first thing I always do is review all of our intake forms or creative documentation the client submits ahead of our kick-off call.
This usually includes:
Creative brand questionnaire (in-house version)
Brand voice guidelines (if available)
Previous audit documents (we run an audit for all clients)
Marketing strategy documents (if available)
Any other materials provided during onboarding
This initial review provides crucial context about their current positioning and challenges they face — challenges I might be able to spot potential solves for throughout my remaining research.
2. Analyze customer data
Obviously, it’s vital to understand my client’s target audience, so there are multiple places I pull customer insights from. Here are a few I gravitate toward:
Shopify Analytics provides baseline metrics around:
Order frequency
Average order value
Product category performance
Geographic distribution
Lifetimely offers deeper insights into:
Customer lifetime value trends
Cohort performance
Retention patterns
Fairing or KnoCommerce help understand:
Customer purchase motivations
Comparison shopping behavior
Engagement preferences
Reviews.io, Judge.me, Junip, or TrustPilot provides insight into:
What customers say about the brand/products
Common customer themes
Potential headlines ;)
There are what feels like a bajillion other great apps/tools out there for analyzing customer data, but these are the ones I gravitate toward on the front-end.
3. Evaluate brand voice
It’s hard to write/sound like your client without critically examining their writing. This is typically more challenging if clients don’t provide structured brand guidelines. I could go into more detail about this another time. But when reviewing brand voice, I focus on:
Core messaging themes
Tone and personality markers
Communication style preferences
Specific language requirements or restrictions
Content formatting guidelines
This ensures all proposed copy aligns with established brand standards while identifying opportunities for optimization.
4. Analyze campaign performance
Since I’m primarily writing email and SMS campaigns for this client, I review the last 90 days of campaigns sent. I look for:
Top-performing subject lines
Successful content formats
Engagement patterns
Response rates by segment
Areas for testing and improvement
This analysis highlights what's working well and where adjustments could drive better results. Our whole team often brings these insights to the kickoff call with the client.
5. Plan potential next steps
With this research foundation, I begin mapping out:
Campaign ideas and opportunities aligned with known business goals
Campaign + flow optimization recommendations
Testing priorities (as it relates to copy)
This preparation enables more productive kickoff discussions focused on strategic priorities rather than basic discovery questions.
Honestly, that’s about the extent of the work I do before a kickoff call with a new client. When done well, it usually takes 1-2 hours. I like splitting the work over a day or two to avoid “research fatigue.”
💬 Discussion Question
What preparation steps do you find most valuable before client kickoffs?
Share your insights in the comments below! I’d be curious to know what tools/resources you gravitate toward.
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