When you think about the word “workshop,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s your father tinkering out back in a wooden shed. Or maybe you think of Carlo Collodi’s famous tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio, where Mastro Gepetto crafts Pinocchio from a mere puppet into a “real boy.”
The word “workshopping,” on the other hand, has a slightly different connotation. That understanding is much more nuanced–more like Gepetto making magic than your father and his tools. So what is workshopping? It’s a group process where you and your peers brainstorm an idea, edit copy, and revise a piece to make it better. For many, it’s a monumental waypoint on the journey to becoming a copywriter.
Much like Gepetto takes an inanimate block of wood in his shoe shop and turns it into something alive and dynamic, workshopping changes your piece into something with a mind of its own.
Workshopping Your Way to Become a Better Copywriter
As content creators, you’re starting from scratch–crafting something from nothing. You shape and optimize your client’s vision and transform it into something that will help them grow their business.
Here at the Copywriter Exchange, we’ve thought quite a bit about the copywriting process. We’ve learned that we’re better copywriters together–that the collective input on a creative project creates a finished product with more potential–-and more sticking power–than something conceived in solitude.
And that’s what you’re doing for your potential clients. You provide them with content that drives traffic to their digital storefront. By building a workshopping network, you become more valuable to your client because you’re able to present a better finished product.
So How Do You Workshop Content?
In creative writing courses all over America, creatives sit together in a Socratic circle. One brave writer submits their piece, hands often trembling, and the others–surely with only good intentions–rip that piece to shreds. They point out every syntax error and misspelling, and they challenge every concept. The writer leaves the circle, defeated.
Or…
The writer submits a piece for review, and the workshop provides thoughtful suggestions, asks tough questions, lifts up the writer with encouragement, and helps the writer come to new and different conclusions through brainstorming.
The first example may be why the term “workshopping,” in some circles, has a negative connotation rather than a positive one.
Workshopping creative content for clients isn’t the same as workshopping your latest short story or poem. But the process can be the same. It can be either excruciating or constructive. Our goal is to help you find your tribe of first readers–whether it’s coworkers, your editor, or an online community–to workshop your piece with you in real-time.
This is important because truly effective content isn’t “churn and burn.” It’s thoughtful, well-crafted information that helps your client grow their web traffic and increase their business. That’s why you’re an effective and sought-after content creator, right?
The process of brainstorming, writing a draft, revising that draft based on feedback, having an editor take a second look, and then publishing, is the best process for workshopping content.
Steps for Workshopping Content
Brainstorming is a group discussion intended to produce ideas or solve problems. By producing ideas, a brainstorming session can open the copywriter up to avenues and directions for their piece that perhaps they hadn’t considered.
You can brainstorm with your client, for example, for a better understanding of their goals for a particular piece. Brainstorming can solve problems, too.
When a workshop member (or the client) pokes holes in theories, raises necessary questions, and prods the copywriter to go deeper into the material, it makes the finished product stronger.
Writing a draft is a solitary exercise, but if you go into your first draft having brainstormed the concept with peers or your client, you’re more likely to emerge with a stronger piece. Keep in mind that a first draft isn’t a finished product. When writing a first draft, “done is better than perfect,” so press on knowing you’ll have feedback on the other side.
That said, it doesn’t mean your first draft should be riddled with misspellings, errors, and clunky, bad writing. Look at it this way: the first draft is the best possible draft you can produce at this time. With the next steps, you can polish that rough stone into a shiny gem.
Revision takes place after you’ve received feedback from a first reader. That first reader may be a peer or your editor, but most likely, they’ll have advice. They may also see typos and other small errors that you missed in your first draft. Take their feedback. Use what you find necessary.
Edit a piece after revision. The person who gave you feedback may function as your editor. You can often edit your own work after you’ve given it time. Your client or employer, as editor, will give the piece the final look-over. From there, all that’s left is to publish the piece.
Now: if you’re on the other side of the workshop experience, how can you best provide feedback for the copywriter?
Think before you speak. It’s not difficult if you remind yourself of the acronym TAG–Tell, Ask, Give. By using this method, you’re most effective in helping the copywriter shape awesome content, and inevitably, you’re helping them become a better copywriter one day at a time.
With TAG, you first tell the copywriter something you like. Then ask a question regarding the work. Give a suggestion based on their responses to your feedback.
Here are some examples of helpful, positive feedback:
- (TELL) I liked your intro and your clear walk-through of the subject matter. (ASK) Have you thought about including some details and specific examples to shore up the topic? (GIVE) I’d suggest adding a quote from a subject matter expert.
- (TELL) Your topic was great–it’s timely, relevant, and should bring a lot of traffic. (ASK) Did you see today’s article in the Washington Post about this topic? (GIVE) That might be a great outbound link for you.
- (TELL) I can tell that you did a lot of research into this complicated topic, and you’ve explained it very well. (ASK) Can you add more keywords throughout the copy to improve the keyword density for optimization purposes? (GIVE) I’d suggest, because this is such a dense topic, that you break up some of your sentences into shorter bites of information and increase your paragraph breaks so that there’s white space on the page.
An example of unhelpful, negative feedback? We’ve got that, too.
- (TELL) This seems kind of slapped together. (ASK) Were you drunk when you wrote this? (GIVE) It doesn’t look like you did much research, and this thing is just full of typos.
You get the picture. Even though this feedback follows the TAG method, it’s not very helpful, is it?
When you find the right workshop group, you’ve found a safe space with your best interests in mind. It may be your client, your co-workers, or an online community of other copywriters you trust. Wherever you find them, your goal is to have an honest, helpful team that will push you to become a better copywriter.
A workshop has value because a collective has greater power to improve a piece. With different ideas, perspectives, and feedback, the piece will emerge stronger than if you go it alone.
Maybe workshopping isn’t necessarily creating magic from a block of wood. But when your clients see the results of your efforts–an error-free, well-thought-out piece that brings more attention to their business–they might ask you what your secret is to consistently great content. It’s up to you whether you want to tell them or not. Your secret weapon on how to become a better copywriter is safe with us!
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Author Bio
David J Ebner is the President of Content Workshop and an advisor to Copywriter Exchange. Before all of that, he was a freelance copywriter. David is the author of Kingmakers: A Content Marketing Story, a book designed to help writers leap into the content marketing world.
