Message First is Perfect for Agencies

Why would an expert copywriting team choose to partner with agencies instead of going direct to clients? Simple. Because message first is perfect for agencies.

Why would an expert copywriting service choose to partner with design, PR and marketing agencies instead of focusing solely on going direct to the businesses who need great copy?

Simple. Because the client sees much better results when we’re able to work together to deliver message first projects that cover more than just copywriting.

Sure, we do our fair share of projects where we come in and write the words, but the best results happen when we partner up with an agency through the whole creative process.

Because message first isn’t just perfect for clients. It’s perfect for agencies too.

Message first doesn’t mean copy first

Let’s be clear.

Putting the message first doesn’t mean we bulldoze in, write the copy and content, and tell your designers or developers or other experts to work around that.

It’s not about copy taking precedence. Not about verbal thinkers “wrestling back control” from the visual creatives or brand strategists. It’s about working together, collaboratively, to make sure the client gets the best possible work.

And it’s about making your job – and ours – simpler.

Because having that key messaging in place makes everything else, the branding, the visuals, the content, that much easier. It leads to fewer revisions, and it leads to better client retention. And that all leads to a better reputation and bigger profits for your agency.

Message first makes branding and design easier

We’ve all had those meetings with a new client. They’re enthusiastic, they’re engaged, but they’re not sure what they need.

We’ve all heard the stock phrases.

“We’ll know it when we see it.”

“I know what I like.”

“It needs to appeal to everyone, I guess.”

“Make it pop!”

A blank brief and a blank slate doesn’t make your job any easier.

But if you’ve followed a message first process, there’s no blank slate. Before you start work on any branding or design work, you’ll already know:

Who a client is speaking to
Why those end customers should be interested
How the client should communicate and sound
What the client wants to say

“We’re a playful, energetic brand who’s bringing joy to gift-givers who really want to stand out in a world of gift cards and last-minute flowers” built a far more memorable brand and informed a designer far more than “make it pop” would have.

See for yourself with a message first case study.

Because message first discovers deeper insights, it’s easier to distil more confident brand identities and deploy more impactful content for your clients.

Message first elevates your other services

Chances are, there’ll be some services you focus most of your time and effort on, and others that you just don’t have as much bandwidth for.

If you’re a design-focused agency, then you’ll naturally spend most of your time focusing on visuals. Brand books will wax lyrical about your colour schemes, drawing upon your intimate knowledge of colour theory. You’ll explain the importance of the superb logo your agency has created, and give your client a valuable insight into the importance of typography.

But there might only be a cursory nod towards tone of voice, with a handful of hard and fast rules. Language isn’t your forte, so you won’t cover much in the way of key messaging or strapline ideas.

Partnering with the message first experts elevates your services. Yes, that brand book will be a perfect encapsulation of a visual identity, but it’ll also provide detailed information on verbal identity – tone of voice, how to communicate. Your client gets more use from that brand book, and they’ll thank you for it.

The same applies for website design and graphic design projects. You could hand the wireframes off to a freelance writer – who’ll do a good job. You could pay upwards of £50k per year to retain an in-house middleweight copywriter.

Or you could work alongside the message first experts to build content into your process from the start, and create more effective assets that deliver better results.

It all adds up to retaining clients for longer.

Message first simplifies sign-offs

It happens to us all. You quote on a project. The client’s 90% happy with the first draft. 95% happy with the second. You’ve budgeted the time and resources for two rounds of amendments and you’re confident that a few tiny tweaks will see everything tied up, signed off and paid in full.

Then it’s suddenly two weeks later, we’re on draft seven and the client is 99% happy but just wants to revisit one more thing…

You’re left with a dilemma. Do you keep spending more time and more resources on a project and eat into your margins?

Do you ask them to pay for more amendments and risk damaging the relationship?

Or do you flat out refuse and just sacrifice that client?

With a message first process, you keep the client and everyone involved with the project on the same page. It’s easier to manage – and to meet – expectations, meaning fewer revisions and smoother, simpler sign-offs.

Message first eliminates the need to argue over word choice, discuss the merits of pixel positioning, and question the use of marine splash blue over ocean ripple blue.

Because it doesn’t really matter… as long as the key message is clearly communicated.

Those simpler sign-offs then translate into greater efficiency and better client relationships for your agency.

Message first broadens your product range

Our message first methodology helps your agency, but there’s another side to partnering with message first experts.

You can resell and upsell our services to your clients. White label.

Instead of handing off a copy project to a freelancer, or leaving your client to look elsewhere, you bring in our expertise and add on your own markup. We’ve seen agencies double our prices for certain projects with markups and still receive feedback about the great value for money their clients have received!

Whether it’s copywriting, verbal branding, tone of voice guidelines or content marketing, message first gives you a chance to offer your clients more than ever before, and charge more, confident in the quality of our work.