6: Publishing your work

So you’ve written your sparkling copy, you’ve used the tone of voice appropriate to your target audience and you’ve proofread it thoroughly. Super! You’re ready to go to print! If you’ve been working on web copy, all you’ll have to do is send the text to your web designer, or put it into your content management system and you’re away. Don’t forget to proofread it all again once it’s gone live, to check for any problems.

If you’ve been preparing for print marketing, now’s the time to send your copy to a designer. Unless you’re an absolute whizz on InDesign or QuarkXPress, it’s really worth spending the money to get this done professionally. (Personally, I think it’s worth spending the money to get your copy done professionally, too. But hey, I’m a copywriter – I would think that!).

Your marketing materials are your ambassadors – people will look at them and they’ll judge you and your business within seconds. And you don’t want to end up in the recycling bin, after all your hard work, do you?

Cheap, home-made marketing says that you can’t afford the real stuff. Probably because you’ve got no business. And who wants to be the first to take a punt on you? Invest what’s necessary to give your marketing a professional finish: your designer will probably have an arrangement with a local print company, but don’t be afraid to go online and make your own enquiries.

If you get a Sherpa proof (a colour-accurate proof sent by the printer) check it thoroughly for errors, including missing characters or images, inaccurate page layout or incorrect text and fonts. Changes at this stage may incur a small charge, but it’s infinitely better to spend a lot of time now than find a mistake when you receive the finished object.

So that’s it. You’ve created your own marketing piece, from start to finish. Congratulations!