Preliminary Questionnaire

The follo­wing is the 25-​​step ques­tion­naire that you need to fill out and return to Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com before work begins. Your ans­wers will guide us in doing the best job pos­si­ble for you. Your infor­ma­tion will be kept strictly con­fi­den­tial. For more, see our pri­vacy policy.

If you want, you can get a copy of this ques­tion­naire by down­loa­ding it here (PDF for­mat). If you want to type in your ans­wers directly into the docu­ment, down­load it here (DOC document).

If we speak on the phone, you are requi­red to use our con­fe­rence line for the pur­po­ses of recor­ding the con­ver­sa­tion for refe­rence. If not, you need to email or fax our office a sum­mary of the con­ver­sa­tion, lis­ting any key points dis­cus­sed and agreed to, as remin­ders. Trying to recall every phone call and every detail is often quite a challenge.

Impor­tant! Before you con­ti­nue, you must read the follo­wing disc­lai­mer. By ans­we­ring the ques­tions below, hiring Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com (in wri­ting or ver­bally) or sen­ding a pay­ment, you ack­now­ledge and agree to the following:

Agree­ment, Terms and Disclaimers

You, other­wise known as the client, as well as any of your repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or assigns, agree to have read the follo­wing terms and disc­lai­mers, to unders­tand them and to abide by them. This agree­ment is in effect imme­dia­tely and inde­fi­ni­tely, and super­se­des all other agree­ments made, be it expli­citly or implicitly.

This agree­ment refers to pro­ducts sold, or ser­vi­ces per­for­med, or ser­vi­ces pro­mi­sed to be per­for­med, by Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com or any of its repre­sen­ta­ti­ves and assigns.

You must fill out this ques­tion­naire, return it to our office and agree to it in full. Fai­lure to res­pond to the man­da­tory ques­tion­naire does not prec­lude the exis­tence of this agree­ment. All clients, all pro­jects and all ser­vi­ces per­for­med fall under these terms without excep­tion or substitution.

1. NATURE OF WORK

Upon receipt of your ans­wers, Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com will write or cri­ti­que your copy, as spe­ci­fied in your assign­ment. For copy wri­ting or edi­ting, you can accept the ini­tial draft, or you can have us revise the copy as you have one revi­sion avai­la­ble to you, at no charge, after receipt of the ori­gi­nal draft.

In other words, you can accept the ini­tial draft as is, or take thirty (30) days to read it over and sug­gest any rew­ri­tes. If rew­ri­tes are reques­ted, and as long as chan­ges are NOT made to the ori­gi­nal assign­ment or its scope, one (1) revi­sion will be made at no charge and a final draft will be sub­mit­ted. Please allow one to two (1–2) weeks for any revisions.

Chan­ges to the assign­ment or its scope, or if you need assis­tance (such as, but not limi­ted to, con­sul­ting to help you esta­blish a stra­tegy for your copy, or to spend time dis­cus­sing your pro­ject as to pro­vide gui­dance), you will be billed a con­sul­ting fee at the going rate of $300 per hour.

*Please note that Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com employs a team of select copyw­ri­ters, researchers and edi­tors that work with us on your copy. The Suc­cess Doc­tor team works clo­sely with Michel For­tin. While team mem­bers do the ini­tial ground­work, clo­sely follo­wing Michel’s metho­do­logy, Michel reviews everything per­so­nally.

2. DEADLINES

Unless you paid a 50% “rush ser­vice” surcharge for mee­ting a gua­ran­teed tur­na­round or dead­line (allow a mini­mum of two (2) weeks with your rush pro­ject) there are abso­lu­tely NO gua­ran­tees wha­tsoe­ver to meet any time­fra­mes. We’re not res­pon­si­ble for any delays beyond our control.

3. REFUNDS

Depo­sits are non-​​negotiable and non-​​transferable. If you can­cel before work com­men­ces, a 50% kill fee will be applied to your account. If you can­cel after sub­mit­ting your ans­wers to the ques­tion­naire or after work has begun, a kill fee equal to your entire 100% depo­sit will be applied to your account. At such time, depo­sits will be com­ple­tely non-​​refundable and non-​​transferable.

If you fail to reply and return this ques­tion­naire within thirty (30) days of making your depo­sit, your pro­ject will be con­si­de­red aban­do­ned and a 25% kill fee will be applied to your account.

4. BALANCE DUE

Balan­ces, if any, will be due imme­dia­tely either follo­wing sub­mis­sion of the first draft if no revi­sions were reques­ted, or after sub­mis­sion of the final draft if a revi­sion was reques­ted. At that point, work will be final and deli­ve­red. Unpaid balan­ces will acc­rue an inte­rest at a rate of 2% per month, inc­lu­ding any legal or collec­tion fees.

Any addi­tio­nal work on the same pro­ject, inc­lu­ding addi­tio­nal copyw­ri­ting, extra con­sul­ting work rela­ted to the pro­ject, or chan­ges to the project’s ori­gi­nal length or scope, will be billed at the going rate of $300 per hour.

5. COPYRIGHT

Once your account is paid in full, copy­right of the com­ple­ted work and any rela­ted con­cepts deve­lo­ped will be auto­ma­ti­cally trans­fe­rred to you. Also, upon receipt of your full pay­ment, the gua­ran­tee will take effect, where you are entit­led, if you so choose, to a revi­sion at no charge within the first thirty (30) days follo­wing sub­mis­sion of the ini­tial draft, as sta­ted in #1.

6. RELATIONSHIP

You ack­now­ledge that we are ente­ring into this agree­ment with you or your com­pany, or with your repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or assigns, as an inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor and not as an emplo­yee. As such, Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com, its repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or emplo­yees will not be con­si­de­red an emplo­yee of your com­pany or busi­ness with regard to any laws, such as (but not limi­ted to) fede­ral, state or local income tax withhol­ding laws.

7. RESPONSIBILITY

While we do our best to ensure accu­racy, we are not a law­yers. You are solely res­pon­si­ble to have the work revie­wed by a legal pro­fes­sio­nal, and for any copy­right, legal, patent or tra­de­mark pro­tec­tion regis­tra­tion. Unless agreed other­wise, any sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion, not disc­lo­sed to the public but disc­lo­sed by either party to each other, will remain con­fi­den­tial indefinitely.

8. PROMOTIONAL USE

If satis­fied with our work, you will write a posi­tive tes­ti­mo­nial or refe­rence let­ter once the work is com­ple­ted. You also agree that, unless agreed other­wise, you grant Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com the unli­mi­ted, non-​​exclusive right to use copies of your work, at our disc­re­tion, for pro­mo­tio­nal pur­po­ses or in any of our mar­ke­ting efforts (such as, but not limi­ted to, a screenshot and your link on our websites).

Please note! Notify us immediately if you do not agree with this clause. Any limi­ta­tions or res­tric­tions can cause a change in the fee struc­ture. For exam­ple, there is a 100% surcharge for com­plete con­fi­den­tia­lity of a ghostw­rit­ten project.

9. EXPENSES

Although there are typi­cally no expen­ses with most pro­jects (unless agreed other­wise), you shall reim­burse or advance Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com for any and all rea­so­na­ble direct, out-​​of-​​pocket expen­ses incu­rred (or to be incu­rred), and appro­ved by you in advance, with res­pect to the per­for­mance of the ser­vi­ces out­li­ned in the assignment.

Expen­ses may inc­lude (but are not limi­ted to) long dis­tance phone calls, prin­ting, pos­tage, cop­ying, sto­rage, audio and/​or video recor­ding, design work, etc. You unders­tand that you may be requi­red to pay for these expen­ses upfront.

10. WARRANTY

You agree that Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com is under no obli­ga­tion wha­tsoe­ver to you, your com­pany, your repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or your assigns. You also agree that we have not expres­sed any pro­mi­ses, warran­ties or gua­ran­tees, either implied or sta­ted, in accor­dance with our work. You agree to indem­nify and hold us harm­less from any claim resul­ting from work assig­ned to us, the publi­ca­tion of mate­rials we’ve crea­ted or the use of those mate­rials, in any way.

11. LIABILITY

You agree that Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com is under no lia­bi­lity wha­tsoe­ver to you, your com­pany, your repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or any of your assigns.

You also agree that you shall defend, indem­nify, save and hold us com­ple­tely harm­less from any and all costs, los­ses, claims, demands and lia­bi­li­ties, inc­lu­ding all rea­so­na­ble attorney’s fees, as well as any lia­bi­li­ties asser­ted against Suc​cess​Doc​tor​.com, its repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or any of its assigns, that may arise or result from any ser­vice offe­red, per­for­med or agreed to be per­for­med, or from any pro­duct or ser­vice sold by you, your com­pany, your repre­sen­ta­ti­ves, your part­ners, your affi­lia­tes, or your assigns, in any way.

12. APPLICABLE LAWS

The above agree­ment super­se­des all other agree­ments, whether implied or sta­ted, and is cons­trued under the laws of the pro­vince of Onta­rio, Canada, and shall be gover­ned by the laws of the pro­vince of Onta­rio, Canada.

_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​ Sig­ned (Client)

_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​ Date Signed

You must FAX the above agree­ment to (613) 482‑4828 before this pro­ject starts. Please do not fax your reply to the ques­tion­naire, below. It’s best to email them to us.

Your Ques­tion­naire

Your res­pon­ses to this ques­tion­naire will help us create the most effec­tive results for your busi­ness. As well, it will help YOU to focus on exactly what you’d like to achieve. Not all of these ques­tions may be directly appli­ca­ble, but try to pro­vide as many detai­led ans­wers as you can. At least, guide us in the right direc­tion and try to be as spe­ci­fic as pos­si­ble. Please ensure you save your ans­wers in a sepa­rate docu­ment. Send your ans­wers to this address.

Your Pro­duct Or Service

If we are polishing, cri­ti­quing or rew­ri­ting copy that’s already writ­ten, and if it is published somewhere and publicly acces­si­ble, please guide us in the right direc­tion. For exam­ple, if some of the ans­wers to the ques­tion­naire appear online, refrain from just inc­lu­ding a URL (web­site address). Tell us where this infor­ma­tion can be found, exactly (or simply copy and paste it).

• For your cus­to­mers: what are the spe­ci­fic results and/​or bene­fits you pro­vide the peo­ple who buy from you? Give us as many per­so­nal, tan­gi­ble and/​or quan­ti­fia­ble results as possible.
• Do have any tes­ti­mo­nials? If you have some with results, quan­ti­fia­ble infor­ma­tion and full iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the per­son giving it, send them to us. To guide you, here are some examples:

• “After using [pro­duct] for [days or weeks], my sales rose by 147.9%!“
  – John Smith, ABC Corporation
  
• “Your pro­duct is ama­zing! It only took less than [num­ber of days or hours] to ins­tall and start using! Other simi­lar pro­ducts took weeks! Thank you!“
  – Jane Doe, Salt Lake City, Utah
  
• “After lear­ning your sys­tem, my web­site traf­fic explo­ded — one little change hel­ped me to inc­rease my traf­fic by as much as 12,511 hits per day. That’s a 500% inc­rease in only 8 short days!“
  – John Han­cock, XYZ​web​.com

• List two short key phra­ses that desc­ribe exactly what you offer, in 16 words or less. (This is about your pro­duct or ser­vice spe­ci­fi­cally, and not you, your busi­ness or your website.)
• What’s your sin­gle, most mar­ke­ta­ble, uni­que, com­pe­ti­tive edge? This is your essen­tial Uni­que Selling Pro­po­si­tion (USP). In other words, what is uni­que about what you sell, or how you sell, pac­kage or deli­ver it? What do you offer that your com­pe­ti­tion doesn’t? And how do you desc­ribe the ans­wers in one suc­cinct, per­sua­sive line?
• Desc­ribe your pro­duct or ser­vice in detail.

• List 6 fea­tu­res about your pro­duct or ser­vice that “jump out at you.” (A fea­ture is a fact about your pro­duct or ser­vice, such as “stops spills,” “easy to use” or “made in Cali­for­nia.” Fea­tu­res demons­trate how things are crea­ted, deli­ve­red and main­tai­ned. It’s what your pro­duct or ser­vice has, or how it works.)
• List 6 enor­mous bene­fits that your pro­ducts or ser­vi­ces gives your cus­to­mers. (A bene­fit is anything that will make life bet­ter, easier or more pro­duc­tive by using your pro­duct or ser­vice, or by using any of the fea­tu­res lis­ted in the pre­vious ques­tion. A bene­fit, in other words, is what a pro­duct, ser­vice or fea­ture does for your customers.)

• If you offer mul­ti­ple pro­ducts or ser­vi­ces, which one is your “best of the best” (i.e., your most popu­lar, pro­fi­ta­ble or mar­ke­ta­ble offe­ring)? If you only offer just one pro­duct or ser­vice, then what one, sin­gle aspect, fea­ture or bene­fit of your offe­ring truly stands out? What one ele­ment truly defi­nes your product’s exis­tence and its purpose?
• Tell us a story about you or your pro­duct — something uni­que, new, dif­fe­rent, intri­guing or mys­te­rious. And/​or what was the story behind the making of your pro­duct? How and why did you start selling it? What was the story behind your busi­ness, com­pany or website?

Your Cus­to­mer

• Who is your tar­get mar­ket? More spe­ci­fi­cally, who is (or who could be) your “per­fect cus­to­mer?” Give us a clear pro­file and desc­rip­tion. Be spe­ci­fic. Supply as much detail as you can in this area, such as:

• Demo­graphics (i.e., age, gen­der, employ­ment, etc);
• Geo­graphics (i.e., country, state, city, etc);
• Psycho­graphics (i.e., inte­rests, cul­ture, lifestyle, hob­bies, buying his­tory, asso­cia­tions they belong to, etc);
• And tech­no­graphics (i.e., cus­to­mer owns PC; tech­no­logy enthu­siast or pes­si­mist; reads emails and surfs the web [how often, how many hours/​week]; uses the web for work, plea­sure or shop­ping; has bought online before [if so, what pro­duct and from where]; web­si­tes they visi­ted, etc).

• List 6 uni­que and inte­res­ting facts you really want cus­to­mers to know about you and the pro­ducts or ser­vi­ces you pro­vide. It can be anything you want! Let loose, here. You may want to iso­late, iden­tify and expand on those facts that make your pro­duct the way it is, or that make it dif­fe­rent from, or bet­ter than, the competition.
• List at least 6 of the most com­monly asked ques­tions about your pro­ducts or ser­vi­ces, as well as the ans­wers you give. Are there any ques­tions you seem to keep ans­we­ring regu­larly? What pro­vo­kes them, or what do you think is not currently addres­sed (or addres­sed pro­perly) in your copy, your web­site, your mate­rials or your emails?
• List at least 6 of the most com­mon mis­con­cep­tions about your offe­rings that your cus­to­mers have. What are they mostly con­fu­sed about? List things that peo­ple have some dif­fi­culty unders­tan­ding, or those things that, even though you address them in your copy, peo­ple can’t seem to find them or grasp them properly.
• What are the 3 spe­ci­fic things your tar­get mar­ket seeks, wants to know about or looks for in your pro­duct or ser­vice? How do peo­ple find you? In other words, how do they learn about what you offer? Why are they see­king you out? As an exam­ple, under what key­words or key expres­sions do most peo­ple find your web­site? Why do they visit your web­site in the first place? What drove them ini­tially to seek you out?
• In what spe­ci­fic ways are you simi­lar to your com­pe­ti­tion? Is it easy for your cus­to­mer to con­fuse them with you? How? Why?
• What is the main, pri­mary pur­pose of your copy (desc­ribe only one)? Is it to get peo­ple to read? Subsc­ribe? Join? Down­load? Buy? Call? Email? Fill out a form? Please be spe­ci­fic, here.

Your Busi­ness

Along with your ans­wers to the follo­wing, we ask that you supply, if pos­si­ble, any mis­sion sta­te­ments, media kits, press relea­ses, pros­pec­tu­ses and all other rele­vant colla­te­ral mate­rials. If you offer, for exam­ple, down­loa­da­ble pro­ducts, screenshots, sam­ples, soft­ware or password-​​protected access to a pro­duct, pro­vide these (or grant us tem­po­rary access) as they will help tre­men­dously. We want to see what peo­ple see, hear what they hear, read what they read, do what they do. We want to expe­rience being your customer.

• In 30 words or less, give us an ele­va­tor speech. In other words, name your com­pany, explain who you are and exactly what you do. An ele­va­tor speech is a brief, pithy and attention-​​grabbing intro­duc­tion of you, your busi­ness and your pro­duct or ser­vice, as well as what it does, why it is uni­que or how bet­ter it is than the com­pe­ti­tion, that you would tell your pros­pect during a short “ele­va­tor ride.”
• Desc­ribe the current pro­cess for making a sale and ful­fi­lling the order. Inc­lude all terms, both tech­ni­cal and non-​​technical, avai­la­ble to your cus­to­mers — inc­lu­ding who­le­sale and retail cus­to­mers, if any (and if dif­fe­rent). Walk us through a purchase from begin­ning to end (such as from a visi­tor first hit­ting your site to recei­ving the pro­duct or ser­vice purcha­sed). Is there any post-​​purchase follow-​​up?
• Do you offer gua­ran­tees? Bonu­ses? Extras? Spe­cial offers? Or any other spe­cial treat­ments you give your cus­to­mers? Do you have a pro­mo­tion, tool or affi­liate pro­gram in place to sell for you? Do you use “takea­way selling” by pla­cing a limit on your offe­ring, whether it’s a time-​​limited or quantity-​​bound offer, in order to add a cer­tain ele­ment of scar­city and ins­till a sense of urgency into prospects?
• What spe­ci­fic accom­plish­ments, achie­ve­ments, acc­re­di­ta­tions, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or affi­lia­tions do you pos­sess? For exam­ple, are there any reviews of — or is (or was) there any cove­rage in the press about — you, your busi­ness or your offe­rings? Are you a mem­ber of a trade or pro­fes­sio­nal orga­ni­za­tion, society or asso­cia­tion? (If so, are they online or can you supply info about these organizations?)
• What has been your big­gest suc­cess story so far? What has been your big­gest disap­point­ment? It can be anything: sales, mar­ke­ting, Inter­net, publi­city, joint ven­tu­res, endor­se­ments, clients, pro­jects, results, fraud, aca­de­mic degrees, fun­ding, uni­que situa­tions, semi­nars, honors, gifts, rela­tionships, edu­ca­tion, etc… You name it.

The Spe­ci­fics

Please ans­wer the follo­wing ques­tions as best you can, pro­vi­ded that no chan­ges are made to the ori­gi­nal assign­ment. Add any addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion you may have that may help. Can we con­tact your part­ners, sup­pliers, cus­to­mers? Do you have any suc­cess sto­ries? List them here.

• What is your grea­test prio­rity need (e.g., adding life to your copy; edi­ting and polishing it; revie­wing and cri­ti­quing it; wri­ting or rew­ri­ting it from scratch; desig­ning your web­site or copy for­mat to inc­rease res­ponse; orga­ni­zing your ideas bet­ter; wri­ting, edi­ting or rew­ri­ting your news­let­ter, email mar­ke­ting cam­paign, article, press release, adver­ti­se­ment or rela­ted colla­te­ral mate­rials; etc)?
• What kind of results, in gene­ral and within rea­son, do you wish to achieve? Be rea­so­na­ble, here — please don’t say, “I want to inc­rease my con­ver­sion ratio to 100% because EVERYONE should be buying my product!”
• Is this pro­ject a direct res­ponse mes­sage or sales­let­ter? If so, what is its current con­ver­sion ratio (inc­lude ratio of leads, sales and refe­rrals to rea­ders, if pos­si­ble)? If this pro­ject is on a web­site, what pages do you have and which ones do you need help with, such as: Home, FAQ, About Us, Con­tact Us, Order Page, Pro­duct Desc­rip­tion, Affi­liate or News­let­ter Page, etc? Please list all rele­vant URLs.
• Are there any web­si­tes, ads or sales let­ters (simi­lar to what you want us to do for you) that you like and want us to emu­late? Are there any that you DON’T like and want us to avoid? Do you have any com­pe­ti­tors (or com­pe­ting web­si­tes, even non-​​competing sites that cater to the same audience you do)? If so, list all rele­vant URLs and pro­vide your thoughts and fee­lings with each one.
• Finally, what goals would you most like to achieve with our assis­tance? If more than one, please prio­ri­tize them. Is this a rush job? What is the time­frame or dead­line, if any (please note that a 50% surcharge is appli­ca­ble to “rush jobs”)?

Your infor­ma­tion will be kept con­fi­den­tial. We will review your ans­wers, create a pro­ject fol­der online, and con­tact you with access to your pro­ject team. We res­pect your email pri­vacy. Your email address won’t be pla­ced on ANY mai­ling list or sha­red with anyone.

This pro­ject fol­der is a cen­tra­li­zed loca­tion where you and your pro­ject team will be able to com­mu­ni­ca­tion, colla­bo­rate, and ans­wer any per­ti­nent research ques­tions we may have. It is pri­vate, and you will receive login infor­ma­tion to access your folder.

War­ning! If you are sub­mit­ting a lot of infor­ma­tion, please make sure you keep a copy, just in case so you won’t lose your con­tent. If you have docu­ments to sub­mit, please wait until we create the pro­ject inter­face for you, where you can upload it online. If this is urgent, then please email it to Andy and Shawn Catsimanes, Direc­tors of Copyw­ri­ting Services.

(Please do not dis­tri­bute or reprint this ques­tion­naire without express, writ­ten permission.)