How do you manage scope creep in copywriting?

Avoiding scope creep is all about being crystal clear. Take what seems like a simple blog. Establish the word count, and you're done. Right? Nope! Think about things like who's responsible for: ✅ Posting it live to the site? ✅ Handling graphics? ✅ Adding internal and external links? ✅ Performing audience research? ✅ Establishing tone of voice? ✅ Researching and incorporating keywords and other SEO-minded elements? ✅ Edits? (How many rounds? Or unlimited?) Lots of details go into writing projects. If you don't specify what's included (and not), that's when you're vulnerable to scope creep. Then the second half of the battle is putting your foot down and holding everyone accountable to that agreed-upon scope...including yourself!

Sending a proposal in the very beginning works well. It helps to keep things transparent & ensures a win-win. A clear proposal should mention your process, your deliverables and the payment terms. I like to include my ways of working, days off, delivery time and similar things too for complex projects. These help a lot :)

To manage scope creep first, you need to establish proper communication and not overpromise. Establish a clear proposal and stick to it, underpromise and overdeliver.

In addition to being clear up front, one thing I’ve found helpful is for both parties to agree to a financial penalty for going out of scope. It’s a simple way to keep everyone honest and can help put a lid on endless additions or revisions. This is most effective when you scope by the time you’ll need to do the job (hours) versus the job itself. Jobs can drag on, but hours are tied to a clock. As always, communication back and forth about where you are with your hours is always helpful and you have to make sure you warn clients before they step outside the agreement.

You have to be willing to hold the client to the scope of the project once it's agreed upon. Every client I work with receives a contract for the services, plus a separate document that outlines every detail of how the project is completed (including extra fees for add-on services and adjusted deadlines). Clients must sign and agree to these terms before I work with them. And, in the off chance they request additional work outside of the scope, they receive a notice of the additional charges and adjusted deadline. If they don't agree to it. the work doesn't continue. In addition to signing the contract and scope of work agreement before starting work, require a deposit. I request 50% of the project in advance (non-refundable).

Communication is key. So are boundaries. Remember that you can say no to additional work that is outside of the scope of the project. Scope creep can be implemented by both parties - even if unintentionally.

The biggest difference in communication has to do with the brain and how we’re wired. No matter who you are, people are thinking across common factors.

Communication is much more than being open and transparent. It’s asking and answering questions. Be personal, create a connection. Don’t assume. Ask open-ended questions. Be conscious about your choice of words, always be positive. Turn your sentences around by always writing positively (“do you like”) instead of negatively positive (“don’t you like”). Show your intentions by giving attention to communicating through questions. Give updates, although not asked for. The element of surprise is what could set you apart.

In the battle against scope creep in copywriting, frequent communication is your trusty shield. Stay in constant touch with clients or project stakeholders. Regularly update them on progress, clarify project objectives, and confirm expectations in writing. When new requests arise, discuss their impact on timelines and budgets immediately. By maintaining an open dialogue, you keep everyone on the same page and ensure that scope creep doesn't sneak in unnoticed. It's like having a clear roadmap to navigate the ever-changing copywriting terrain. 📝🗣️

A useful tip is to make your proposal very precise and restrictive, while knowing you may have to do a little more than that in practise. That allows you two options when faced with scope creep; firstly you can magnanimously do a bit more work that the proposal, while not feeling too bad about it; after all, you'd already allowed for this possibility in the pricing. But also, if a client becomes too demanding you can refer to the proposal and offer to do the extra work for an additional fee.

You are your own best friend. No one else will look out for your workload. So speak up. Provide reasonable expectations to all customers. If you don't communicate well, they won't know what to expect.

Ensuring each client receives a highly specific SOW and what the copywriter/agency is responsible for during the creation of a defined set of content deliverables each week or month and preferably being paid by a retainer. You can always include a little wiggle room and a process in the SOW and your current contract with the client where they can request additional work via your required process that requires extra fees. I've noticed that this greatly reduces ad hoc requests, especially those requests that are of such a nature that regularly complying will take you way off budget and threaten the ability of your marketing content business to perform at a healthy margin, and therefore remain solvent and viable.

Be on the foreground of boundaries. Set them from the beginning to avoid frustrations, negative vibes or disappointment. ‘No’ is also an answer, though it’s rather not heard. Aligning your answer with your scope is setting boundaries and perserving your peace of mind. Politely explain why your answer is ‘no’ and propose a counter offer which allows you to adjust the scope/contract and do the work, and are recognized for it. Giving your client no reason to reject. The combination of answering the question and explaining your answer gives clarity and insights on how to proceed.

I once had a client who made the most ridiculous series of requests! They asked for a bio to help promote an initiative they were working on. I conducted the interview, wrote the piece and completed one round of revisions. Then they wanted to go in a different direction. A new piece meant a new price. We negotiated and agreed to treat it as the second round of revisions they were entitled to if they provided additional information I could incorporate. I never received the info. I reached out to them for over two months. Crickets! A year and a half later, they responded, expecting to pick up where things left off! I politely declined to work without a reinitiation fee being paid. They still have the original work I completed for them!

Building on the idea of saying no, it's valuable to have a pre-planned "change negotiation strategy" for those moments when scope creep begins to rear its head. Instead of just saying no, offer a tiered set of alternatives that show the client what could be done within the existing scope versus what would require extra time or budget. This not only reaffirms your commitment to the project's original parameters but also empowers the client with choices. So when you need to say no, it's framed more as steering the project back on course, backed by a structured plan for negotiating any changes.

Don't let the GANTT chart scare you... The value of tracking your work doesn't end at justification of pricing. Smart marketers track time spent on project areas so they can optimize their operations, and create a more effective offering. Find yourself burning through hours on pesky SEO audits? Consider adding a new tool to cut down on your time spent here, or remove this service from your offering so that you're freed up to work on more projects. While it can seem tedious, tracking your work allows you to understand where your gaps and strengths are, and plan a path to a better offering. Plus, if all this sounds too manual to you, there are a host of AI tools like Timely, Clockify, or Rize ready to take the manual headache out of it.

Time equals money and vice versa. It all depends on how you set your rates. Do you have fixed prices for your services, do you charge per hour/day or do your rates rely on various aspects of a projects? Nobody has a magic ball predicting the future. How much time will you actually spend (or overspend) on a project? Keeping track of your hours and effort will give you valuable insights for the future and gives transparency towards your clients. Making it easier for future work to be time assessed and managed to prepare ahead. Implement time tracking apps and use apps that work “for you”. Allowing your creativity to flow naturally.

Beyond simply tracking time and tasks, implement a transparent time and effort reporting system that the client can access, such as a shared project management tool. This goes a step further in showing the client the breakdown of where the time and resources are going. It makes the workload tangible and allows the client to see the real-time progress and bottlenecks. In this way, you're not just preventing scope creep by defending your time, but you're also building trust by making your work process transparent. This not only substantiates your fees but also discourages underestimation of the work involved.

Time-tracking is fundamentally important for all service providers, not just copywriters. It's an approach widely used by most agencies to track time vs. spend, and an invaluable tool that becomes second nature once you find the right time-tracking tool. I use MyHours - it's really easy to use for logging time and also generating reports. Plus, it's free. There are many other similar tools out there though, all with their individual strengths. Many of my clients use Harvest, JIRA and Toggl. Tracking time is a highly effective way of monitoring, and sticking to, your outputs, producing accurate invoices and providing clients with a transparent log of the work you have delivered. I can't imagine not doing ANY work without logging my time.

It’s all about learning and development. Growth and ambition. Where and how? Self assessments and appraisals are useful moments to evaluate how everything went for you. When did you learn most, where could you improve and how to do so? Everything is trial and error, make sure it’s a learning curve to improve.

Pricing is a powerful signal for both sides. Buyers view costs, value and benefits (ROI), so should the seller. At the end of a project look at the time-value of your sale and adjust future proposals and project templates (from onboarding to execution) to maximize the value of a contract as the service provider. Also, make adjustments for comments and feedback from the customer you may have received, especially around processes that involved collaboration. Chances are high that what one customer appreciated, another will too.

In addition to reviewing the project, add a formal "lessons learned" meeting with your client at the conclusion of the project. This adds another layer of evaluation and brings the client into the review process. Discuss what went well and what didn't, and how both parties can improve in future collaborations. This not only helps you grow professionally but also strengthens your relationship with the client. It turns the review process into a constructive dialogue, making it a collaborative effort to improve, rather than a one-sided self-assessment.

Ask for All Revisions at Once It has happened to me more times than I would have liked. Most times, clients would ask for one change and then recommend a second one and the third, and so on and so forth. I politely request a meeting and ask them to take their sweet time and ask for all the changes at once in written form. Share a word document with them, ask them to write comments and after making the desired change, notify in the comments. Works like a charm every single time.

The simplest way to mitigate scope creep: Never bill jobs by the word or by the project. Bill by the hour. Set an hourly price for additional work beyond scope, make it known in your contract, and stick to it. They want more beyond initial scope? Gladly do it for the stated cost. Company dragging its feet on getting essential project materials to you? Bill by the hour, and let your contract state your hours begin when the project scoping meeting ends. If the company delays getting you what you need, it's paying for every hour it lags. Don't be a pushover. Bill by the hour, state hourly rates in your contract, and it's amazing how fast scope creep goes away and how fast companies will get essential project materials to you.