How To Do A Copywriting Audit

I've had this article half-done for a long time I was not planning to publish it this week, but a subscriber message has encouraged me to do so.

What I'm going to tell you will be useful if you find yourself in either of these two situations: 

1. The texts of your business (web, emails, presentations ...) are not giving the result you expected and you want to know where you have to look to find opportunities for improvement.

2. You are a copywriter and you offer (or want to offer) auditing services to your clients. Sometimes a client does not want tailor-made writing services, they just want you to show them the way forward to improve their texts.

If you are not in either of these two groups, you can continue with what you were doing. I'm not going to be offended.

What the hell, I'm going to be offended, it took me a long time to write it. ;)

Before starting

The first thing you need to do a proper audit is to know the context. Both the business and the text in particular.

I already advance you that the list of things to consider is long, but do not panic. In many cases, a single sentence is enough to have the key information.

I personally like to collect this information in blocks.

#1 BUSINESS AND BRAND

- Business trajectory

- Business model

- Desired positioning

- Target audiences

- Brand values, personality and tone of voice

#2 PRODUCT / SERVICE

- Value proposition and differential elements

- Main features

#3 PIECE / S TO AUDIT

- Role of the piece within the marketing strategy

- Main objective of the piece

- Origin of traffic if it is a website / Characteristics of the mailing list if it is email marketing / Channel through which the piece is delivered if it is offline / ...

- Current results: conversion, retention, loyalty...

#4 MARKET AND COMPETITION

- Main competitors

A tip about this preliminary phase: create a “master” form with questions to help you obtain this information from the customer.

Every time you do an audit, take this document as a starting point and make small modifications to adapt it to the specific case.

For example, if it is a subscription-based business, the results part would include a question to find out what is the most profitable subscription plan for the business. 

If you are doing an audit for your own company, simply use this list as a guideline to gather the most relevant information. It is very useful for clarifying ideas and gaining focus.

If you are not able to collect this information, I am afraid that is the first problem you should solve.

What should we analyze

Okay, we already have a panoramic view of the business and the piece to be analyzed. Now it's time to review the texts thoroughly, always taking that context into account as a reference.

What should we analyze exactly? 

I usually analyze texts from these 3 perspectives:

#1 CREATIVE AUDIT

To begin, we must ask ourselves if the piece is built from a powerful idea or concept and if that idea conveys the right message. Is it consistent with the marketing strategy and objective? 

An original idea that doesn't communicate the right message is a bad idea.

#2 PERSUASIVE AUDIT

We must ensure that the text has the necessary elements to favor the achievement of the objective: clarity of the message, use of benefits, concrete language, call to action ...

And of course, we must look at one of my favorite ingredients: the tone of voice. Is it suitable for the brand personality you want to convey?

#3 FORMAL AUDIT

In this third review we will look for inaccuracies, redundancies, grammatical errors and lexical poverty.

These are aspects that damage the credibility of the text and are often overlooked. 

Looking at the first two points, the importance of asking the right questions before starting the audit is pretty clear. You cannot know if the benefits are well chosen unless you know the differential characteristics of the offer. For example.

If you are a student of the beta edition of the copywriting course , these 3 perspectives will be familiar to you because they are the ones we use in the editing process.

Oh surprise. The same criteria that serve to edit your texts, serve to audit the texts of others. :)

Review module 7 because there you have all the keys.

While you analyze each of these 3 dimensions, I recommend that you take screenshots or photos of the piece. You can then include this material in the document that you will deliver to the client to illustrate your conclusions with specific references.

In addition, I usually have a draft document where I write down key ideas that I will later include in the final presentation.

Let's talk about that presentation.

How to structure your audit document

I like to divide my presentation into two parts.

In the first block I present the general conclusions and recommendations. I do it this way for three reasons: 

1. Because there are observations that do not affect a specific part of the text, but the general approach. For example, everything related to the concept or idea that supports the piece.

2. Because there are aspects that affect the structure of the piece or are transversal. For example, comments on a call to action that is repeated throughout a web.

3. Because sometimes there are errors or inconsistencies that are repeated repeatedly in the piece. For example, when all texts are imprecise. 

In the second part of the document I present specific conclusions for each of the parts of the piece. If it's a website, I do it page by page. If it is a sequence of emails I do it email by email. If it's a printed piece, I do it section by section. 

Sometimes the customer wants you to pay attention to a particular aspect. For example, the microcopy. In this case, I add an extra section in my presentation.

How far should we go with our recommendations?

When you do an audit for a client, a question always arises: how deep should we go?

I do the following:

Each conclusion that I include in the document is accompanied by a brief explanation of the reasons for my statements and recommendations to solve the problem that has been detected.

Oh, and I don't just include the errors. 

If something is right and I think it can serve as a reference to improve other parts of the text, I usually include it in the audit. Nor is it a matter of being all the time slapping the client.

I almost always supplement my explanations with screenshots or photographs.

I give you some examples of the type of recommendations that I usually include in the document:

- Possible approaches for a title that doesn't work

- Structure proposals

- Message order changes

- Remove or add elements (eg Add a CTA at a specific point in the piece)

- Formatting changes (eg. Converting a paragraph into a bullet list)

- Examples that can serve as inspiration

- Style tips

For your audit to be valuable, it must be "actionable." The person reading your document should know exactly what the next steps are. You have to be able to pick up the baton and improve your texts without much additional explanation.

It is not enough to say that something is wrong. You also have to say why it is wrong, what are the best practices and possible avenues to explore.

Well, that's how I approach audits. I hope it helps you to establish your own method.