Not all clients want to pay for a copywriter to help them with their web project. But the need for good, organized content still exists. More often than not, the client will want to write and send the content themselves. It seems simple, but they might not realize how much work that can actually be. (We’ve seen some agencies complain that it took up to a year just to get the website content!)
Without a good content creation process, your web project might be stuck in limbo.
These are our top web project tips for keeping moving smoothly into design and development.
1. Have a good contract: You need boundaries.
If you are helping organize, revise, or review content, make sure your time or efforts are clear in your contract. If you are not helping with the content audit, make sure that is clear too. Include deadlines in your contract, not just for the overall project, but for the milestones themselves. If your client goes over any one of those deadlines because of their own delays, there need to be clear consequences. In our agency, we either charge by the day, week, or month for each delay. Our time is valuable too. Delays keep us from working with other clients or interfering with future deadlines. We agreed to a timeline together so everyone, both the agency and client, can be accountable.
2. Communication is gold
The second web project tips is keeping it clear, consistent communication will help the project flow smoothly. Repeat back decisions they made. Communicate if anything starts to creep on your scope. Make sure they understand what is their responsibility and what is yours.
3. Assign page content: If no one is assigned anything, nothing will ever get done.
Assigning people to a page or a task makes sure that someone is responsible for it.
4. Assign deadlines
Like the tip above, giving a deadline makes everyone accountable and keeps the project on track. Your contracts with your clients should have some conditions if people miss their deadlines and the consequences. This will protect you and encourage them to keep the project moving.
5. Centralize everything in one place
I’ve once spent 1 hour digging through emails, trying to find “that one email I sent you with some new documents.” GatherKit helps keep everything in one place. You will have your creative brief, site map, content, images, and passwords all in one secure hub. Once you bookmark your Kit, encourage your client to keep editing, commenting, and uploading to only there. If you use a consistent process, you should never have to dig around in your emails or shared drives again.
If the content is not well organized from the beginning, it will be a pain to collect from clients. GatherKit creates a framework for gathering content with ease, making you and your clients happier.
