What to put in your Copywriter Agreement

by Legal Goodness February 26, 2024

If you're a copywriter, you know that crafting compelling ad copy or engaging website content plays a crucial role in shaping a brand's voice and message.

Copywriters are a valuable asset in the digital age and your rights needs protection when working with companies.

Let's look at some valuable terms you need in your copywriter services contract:

1. Scope of Work:

Kick things off by clearly outlining your scope of work.

For instance, the copywriter will be responsible for creating various types of written content, including but not limited to:

Website copy
Blog posts
Articles
Social media posts
Product descriptions
Email newsletters

2. Contract Term and Termination:

Define the duration of your engagement. Whether it's a project-based contract or an ongoing relationship, make sure the timeframe is crystal clear.

Is this a monthly engagement?

Or are you contracted by a three or six month term?

Whatever the duration, make it known how long you will provide services. The effective date of the contract typically indicates the start date of the services and the contract term will indicate when the services end.

Also, be sure to include a clause for termination, providing both parties with a smooth exit strategy. How do you or the client exit the agreement? This could be 14 or 30 days written notice to the other party, for example.

3. Payment Terms:

Let's talk money!

Clearly state your compensation, whether it's an hourly rate, flat fee, or retainer. Establish payment terms, including any additional fees for extra services.

If there are penalties for late payments, such as late fees, include them here. You can also note that services will halt until late payments are received.

4. Intellectual Property Ownership:

With so much content being drafted, this clause should explicitly state that the content written will be owned by the company, if that is the case.

In most cases, copywriters are hired as contractors to provide "work for hire" under US Copyright law.

However, if you will create content that will be re-used by other clients than you should state that the content is licensed to the client.

Licensing is likely the less common option since most clients hire copywriters to provide their brand voice so they will likely want to exclusively own whatever content you produce for them.

5. Confidentiality:

Copywriters often have access to proprietary information, trade secrets, and sensitive data belonging to their clients. This may include marketing strategies, upcoming product launches, financial information, customer data, and more.

Clients entrust copywriters with crafting content that reflects their brand identity, values, and messaging.

Breaching confidentiality could result in the unauthorized disclosure of brand-related information or strategies, which may harm the client's reputation, market position, and competitive advantage.

So it's vital to include a confidentiality provisions that assures your client that you will protect their valuable information and use it in a secure manner when providing the services.

6. Revisions:

Revisions may be part of your copywriting services. If your client gets to review the copy before it is published, provide a process for revisions in your contract.

How many revision requests can the client make?

How much time does the client have to review and provide feedback on the copy?

These are the type of conditions you want outlined so that both you and your client are clear on your revision process.

7. Timing:

It's always helpful to have a clause about timing in these type of agreements. Let's say you're waiting on your client to give you the passwords to the social media accounts you're writing copy for.

You cannot perform your duties without this information so if they are delaying the project, that's a waste of your time.

I like to include a clause about timing so that just in case the client becomes unresponsive or extremely slow in responding, you have an out if you cannot perform your duties after a certain period of time.

8. Milestones & Deliverables:

Next up, to set expectations for both you, it's helpful to include a schedule of what will be delivered to each party and when.

If you will not attach a statement of work, that's no problem but it's helpful to include a list of any expected milestones / deliverables that shows what is due, by whom and when.

Provide anticipated dates for completion of each stage.

And if you have a list of items that the client needs to submit to you to jumpstart the project, those items may be listed here with due dates as well.

Having a schedule of deliverables in the contract helps to keep everyone on track.