I’ve been writing blog posts, articles, ads and managed social media content for brands since 2019. Over the years, I’ve run into almost every issue a new freelance writer gets to experience. These are currently my non-negotiables when working with clients as a content writer.

A Clear Brief

Having a clear brief from the start it’s the most important thing. It helps me evaluate if I am the right writer to take on this project. Companies that cannot even put out a clear brief may turn out to be a disaster to work for. The last thing I want is to write in a way that doesn’t meet the client’s expectations and waste both our time and effort.

That’s why I will ask for a client brief which includes: the brand’s voice, positioning, aesthetic brand guidelines, messaging, and different buyer personas.

I also request samples of competitor work/posts that they like, or to demonstrate what they have in mind. It’s always good to fully understand this, rather than assume I know what they want.

A Clear Goal

What does the company want to achive from writing new content? Short-term sales? Branding? Or long-term SEO traffic?

Their goal will determine how we measure the success of our collaboration. If we don’t choose the right metrics, we can end up having different expectations.

For example, a client may expect to see a 30% jump in traffic, and 50% more sales, while they ask me to write a white-paper on technical specifications. I’m happy to educate the clients on different goals, and how this determines the types of content and KPIs we choose.

Client’s Estimated Budget

Most prospects will reach out to me asking for my packages, or how much it will cost per post. But that’s not the approach I use anymore. Yes, as a new freelance writer, I used to have a proposal deck of packages and plans depending on volume.

But now, I prefer to ask the clients upfront how much their budget is, their goal, and their brief – before we even start talking about content plans.

I will use this info to determine the number of posts we should be publishing based on individual client’s budget. It’s not a cookie-cutter proposal, but a custom solution built together with the client.

Now, I focus on the writing solutions. And I am always happy to try a lower volume in the beginning, or shorter posts before we build a trusted relationship that can scale over time.

Trusted Relationship

Speaking of trust, there’s no worse feeling for me, an experienced writer of 7+ years, when a brand’s marketing executive comes hacking at my draft because their version “sounds better”. Or when they try to pick up every missed comma or misspelled word.

To be fair, I’m always completely open if they don’t like the way an article is structured, or they think I completely missed the messaging; I welcome critical feedback.

That’s why I offer free revisions, where the client gets to share feedback on my first drafts. But being rude and not trusting my skills as a writer, or trying to show an air of superiority, will lead to a shorter collaboration.

Not every collaboration needs to be long-term, but I like to inform prospects beforehand that trust is non-negotiable.

Realistic Deadlines

We need to discuss and agree upon deadlines one month in advance, plus a 1-2 day buffer. This is because I know very well that marketing campaigns (spanning across social posts, website, ads) can quickly become chaotic – and overwhelming. Especially during the year-end sales period.

On my end, I’m committed to delivering my work ahead of time, and I need the clients to put in an effort too to share their feedback on time so we can have enough time to make changes. Otherwise, I’ll end up working overtime, publishing content at midnight – which is often not my own fault.

Prepayment

As a freelancer, it’s hard to ask clients for prepayment, but it’s important you safeguard yourself.

I’ve met many different types of companies, and to them paying you on time is not a priority, but for yourself, it is the most important thing. So to avoid having to chase them for weeks after sending in the write-ups, I will make sure we agree on the form of prepayment beforehand.

• 100% down payment is best
• Fixed monthly retainers are great if the workload is consistent
• Or, a payment mix: 50% down payment and 50% upon completion

As payment collection is the biggest risk for freelance work, I offer an incentive in the form of a discount for brands who pay beforehand.

Access To Product

This is intuitive, but I will need full access to test and understand the product, service or software I am writing about.

I will also ask clients to provide a list of their 2-3 main competitors so I can study them and find ways to compete. I run those competitors through Semrush to see where their traffic comes from and which keywords they rank for.

Do you think I am asking too much? In some cases, I was just shown a PPT presentation about the product, features, benefits, and how they want it positioned.

If I am expected to sign up for the free trial and write from there, this is not good enough.

I need full access to do my own testing, try the premium features, the unique selling points, and discover new angles that will help me write better content.

PS: You can see what that hands-on testing looks like in my honest reviews on the blog.

Author Bio

I want my own author bio linked to the published article. I’ve had brand owners who hired me to write thought leadership content for their website, and then after two months they went to change the author name and bio to someone else’s.

This feels like cheating and stealing.

Other times, I’ve had brands change letters in my name spelling or remove the link to my writer profile as soon as our collaboration ended.

There’s no real way to prevent this from happening again, but at least I can mention it beforehand.

If the client wants my article to be published in their own name, that’s called ghostwriting. And I’m open to discussing it, but at a different fee, and I may not always agree to it.

So these are my non-negotiables.

I’d like to hear from other writers. What are yours?

About the author

I’m Alle Ceambur, founder of Studio Scribis, where I help SaaS, AI, and tech brands with B2B SEO content strategy. I’ve been writing SEO content for clients since 2019, so these non-negotiables come from real projects. You can also find me on LinkedIn.