Here’s a pattern we see regularly in the web design world: a business owner hires a copywriter, hands over a vague brief, and gets back copy that sounds like every other business in their industry. They’re disappointed. The copywriter is frustrated. Everyone wonders what went wrong.
What went wrong was the brief.
Great website copy starts before a single word is written. The brief is where the copywriter learns everything they need to produce work that sounds like you, speaks to your clients, and converts. A great brief makes great copy possible. A vague brief makes generic copy almost inevitable. Knowing how to brief a copywriter properly is the single biggest lever you have before a word gets written.
Here’s what a great brief looks like — and how to put one together even if you’ve never worked with a copywriter before.
A website copywriter’s job is to get inside your business, understand your client’s world, and write words that sound like you at your most articulate. None of that is possible from a brief that says “we need website copy for a 5-page site — professional but approachable.”
That brief tells the copywriter nothing about your ideal client, your differentiators, your voice, your competitors, or what you want visitors to do. The result is copy that ticks boxes — covers the basic information, sounds professional — but doesn’t connect with anyone specifically and doesn’t convert.
The brief is also where you, as the client, clarify what you actually need. The process of writing a thorough brief often reveals things about your business positioning that weren’t clear before: who you really serve, what makes you different, what you want to stop doing. Good briefing is strategic thinking with a copywriter as a thinking partner. This is really what how to brief a copywriter comes down to — treating the brief as strategy, not paperwork.
Don’t describe your audience in demographics. Describe them in feelings.
“Women aged 35–50 in professional services” tells a copywriter very little. “She’s running a small consultancy and feeling increasingly invisible online — she knows she should have a better website but hasn’t had time, and she’s embarrassed to admit that her site is costing her credibility with potential clients” tells them almost everything.
Go beyond age and industry. Describe the fears, frustrations, and aspirations of your best clients — the ones you wish you could clone.
Don’t just say “professional but approachable.” That’s what everyone says.
Give examples. Share three pieces of content — social posts, emails, DMs — that sound the way you want the website to sound. Then share three that sound the way you definitely don’t want it to sound. The contrast is enormously useful.
Also: are you “we” or “I”? That choice shapes the whole document.
What exactly do you offer, and what is genuinely different about how you deliver it? Not the version you think sounds impressive — the version your best clients would actually describe to a friend.
“I’m a bookkeeper who does monthly reconciliations and BAS” is accurate but not differentiated. “I work specifically with Gold Coast tradie businesses on a flat monthly fee — no hourly billing surprises, no jargon, and they always know where their numbers stand before their accountant asks” is differentiated.
Show the copywriter three websites you love (and say specifically what you love about each) and three you’d never want to be compared to (and say why). This is far more useful than a mood board.
Pay particular attention to your direct Gold Coast competitors. If the copywriter can see how similar businesses are presenting themselves, they can write you out of that crowd rather than into it.
This is the brief element most clients skip — and it’s one of the most valuable.
Gather 5–10 examples of your clients describing their experience in their own words. Google reviews, testimonials, DMs, emails. The exact phrases they use to describe their problem and their experience working with you are the raw material for your most effective copy.
“I finally feel like I understand my business finances” is a real phrase from a real client. It’s infinitely more useful than any headline you’d invent from scratch.
Your copywriter cannot write effective services page copy without understanding your fees, packages, and how you price. Even if you don’t want to publish prices on the site, the copywriter needs to understand your offer well enough to write around it.
Also brief them on any pricing or offer nuances: do you do discovery calls? Is there a minimum engagement? Do you offer packages or hourly rates? All of this affects how the copy frames the next step.
What do you want each page to do? Specifically, what action should a visitor take when they reach the end of each page?
Homepage: book a discovery call. Services page: click through to individual services or enquire directly. About page: book a call or download the free guide. Contact page: submit the form.
This sounds obvious, but many briefs don’t specify this — and copywriters who aren’t told will make assumptions that may not match your strategy. Getting this detail right is a small but telling part of how to brief a copywriter well.
Most copywriting projects include 1–2 rounds of revisions. Some include more for larger or more complex projects.
Effective revision feedback sounds like: “This section doesn’t reflect how I’d actually describe the service — here’s a better version of how I’d explain it” or “This headline feels too aggressive for our brand — we’re warmer than this.”
Ineffective feedback: “I don’t love it” or “Can you make it sound more professional?” These don’t give the copywriter enough to work with and tend to lead to multiple rounds that don’t improve the work.
The revision process works best when you read each draft in context — on the page, in a browser mock-up — rather than in a Word document. Copy that reads awkwardly in isolation often lands well in the visual context it’s designed for.
Not all copywriters are created equal. Here’s what to watch for: Vetting a website copywriter properly upfront saves you from a rewrite later.
No discovery call or brief process. A copywriter who quotes you without asking about your business, your clients, and your goals is going to write generic copy. That’s not a process — it’s a production line.
No questions about your target client. If the first conversation is about deliverables and timelines without any deep questions about who you serve, expect copy that could belong to any business in your category.
Portfolio without variety. A copywriter whose samples all sound the same has one voice — theirs. You want someone who can adapt their voice to yours.
Very fast timelines on complex projects. A 5-page website brief deserves serious thinking time. Rushed copy shows.
For context on what to expect to pay for website copywriting in Australia:
These are freelance rates. Agency rates are typically higher because of the strategic layer and project management.
For most Gold Coast service businesses, the $3,000–$4,000 range from an experienced specialist delivers strong results — particularly if you’ve provided a thorough brief and are working with someone who has experience in your sector.
One last point worth making: the best web copy projects happen when design and copy are developed together, not handed off sequentially.
When a designer and copywriter work in isolation, you often end up with beautiful layouts that don’t suit the length of the copy, or copy that works conceptually but doesn’t fit the design. When they collaborate from the brief stage, every element of the page is built to work together.
At Wave Digital Design, we integrate copywriting into our web design projects rather than treating them as separate workstreams. It consistently produces better results — and it means one brief to one team rather than two separate briefs to two separate people.
See how we approach copy and design together: Copy and Content Writing.
Ideally, both. A good copywriter will send you a brief template or questionnaire to complete, then use your answers to build out a fuller strategic brief that they review with you before writing starts. What you should never accept is a copywriter who starts writing without any structured briefing process at all.
That’s actually one of the most valuable things the briefing process can surface. A good copywriter will ask the right questions to draw it out. Start with: “Why do your best clients choose you over competitors?” and “What do your best clients say when they refer you to someone else?” The answers are usually more differentiated than you expect.
AI tools can be useful for drafts and ideation, but AI-generated copy tends to be generic by design — it’s trained to produce acceptable average outputs. Website copy that converts is specific, differentiated, and sounds like a real person. Use AI as a starting point, not a final product. AI tools can be useful for drafts and ideation, but AI-generated copy tends to be generic by design — it’s trained to produce acceptable average outputs. Website copy that converts is specific, differentiated, and sounds like a real person. Use AI as a starting point, not a final product.
