The copy in your web design quote needs an owner
Your client or your agency can write the website copy. Neither owns that job automatically. The answer is whoever your proposal names as the writer, with enough time and budget to produce the agreed pages.
A design quote that says “client provides content” can sound settled until the client sends a brochure and expects you to turn it into a homepage. You may have meant finished, approved text. They may have meant the information you need to write it. Both interpretations leave work on the table.
One designer described the result on Alignable: “Our first few sites ended in disaster because we expected our clients to write the copy.” The useful lesson is to make the writing assignment visible before the project starts.
What does writing website copy actually include?
Copywriting is more than placing sentences in a layout. Someone has to decide what each page needs to communicate, turn source material into headings and body copy, and revise the draft after review. Even a short button label depends on what the visitor can actually do next.
Separate those jobs in your estimate:
| Job | What the person does | Decision to make |
|---|---|---|
| Source material | Supplies current business details and evidence | Who can answer questions and provide existing material? |
| Page planning | Decides what belongs on each page | Who defines the message and section structure? |
| Writing | Produces headlines, body text, and calls to action | Who delivers the first complete draft? |
| Editing | Improves supplied text within an agreed boundary | Are you correcting language or rewriting the message? |
| Approval | Confirms the text is accurate and authorized for use | Who can make the final decision for the business? |
| Implementation | Places approved text in the site and checks it | Who handles layout changes caused by the copy? |
A single person can do several jobs. The client remains the source for business facts even when a copywriter drafts every page. Your designer can suggest a shorter heading while implementing it, but that doesn’t make a full rewrite part of the design fee.
When should the client write the copy?
Client-written copy works when the client has a capable writer, time reserved for the task, and a clear understanding of what you need. An internal marketing team may already own the message and have an approval process. Ask for a sample before you set the schedule. A completed page tells you more than “we’ll handle content.”
Define the handoff as finished text for named pages, including headings and button labels, rather than “information about the business.” Give the client your page structure and agree on a delivery date that precedes design decisions dependent on the words. Tell them whether your fee includes proofreading, light edits, or only placement.
There is still an agency task. You need to check whether the supplied copy fits the agreed structure and flag missing sections. If the draft needs a new positioning argument or a full page rewrite, stop and agree on that additional work. Don’t quietly absorb it while calling it formatting.
For clients who can explain their work but can’t produce a polished draft, ask for source material instead of finished copy and assign someone else to write. That change needs an owner and a fee, not just a different questionnaire.
When should the designer or agency write it?
Agency-written copy makes sense when your team has writing capacity and can take responsibility for the agreed deliverables. It also makes the handoff simpler for a client who wants one point of contact. Your quote should say whether you’re writing original page copy, editing existing words, or both.
Designers often make useful editorial decisions as they build. Choosing a label that fits a navigation item is different from interviewing the client, defining an offer, and writing a service page. If your team offers the latter, give it its own place in the schedule and budget. If you don’t offer it, say so before the client signs.
A shared document or a content collection workspace for the writing brief can keep client answers and source files together by page. The writer still needs to interpret that material and return a draft. Collection is an input to writing, not the writing deliverable itself.
When should you bring in a copywriter?
A specialist is useful when the project needs research, a new message, several decision-makers, or a level of writing your studio doesn’t have capacity to provide. You can subcontract the writer or introduce them to the client. Those are different arrangements.
If you subcontract, establish the writer’s scope and price, who briefs them, who pays them, and who consolidates client feedback. Your agency needs time to manage the handoff and integrate approved copy into the design. If the client contracts the writer directly, agree who coordinates delivery and what happens to your schedule if the copy isn’t ready.
In either model, name a single person to resolve conflicting feedback. A writer can’t reasonably deliver a final page if two stakeholders give opposing instructions and nobody has authority to choose.
How do you put copywriting in the proposal?
A useful scope names the pages, the work, and the boundaries. “Copy included” doesn’t tell a client whether it covers a polish of their draft or an interview-led rewrite. It also doesn’t tell your team when the work is done.
For example, imagine a fictional appliance repair company commissioning a new site. Its owner can explain the services but has no page drafts. Your proposal could say:
Website copy: We will write the Home page and two repair service pages from one client interview and the current service information you supply. The fee includes one draft and two consolidated rounds of revisions for those pages, including headings and calls to action. You will nominate one approver to check service details and authorize the final text. Additional pages, changes to the agreed service scope, and further revision rounds require a separate estimate.
Add the dates for the interview, delivery of source material, draft, and feedback to your actual project schedule. Define a revision round as one consolidated set of comments on the same draft, rather than a series of individual messages arriving over several weeks. Include who obtains any specialist review needed for regulated or technical claims.
If the client writes, the equivalent clause should name their deliverables and state the editing included in your fee. For example, “client supplies final text for the three named pages; we correct obvious spelling errors and place it in the design” sets a different expectation from the writing scope above. Adjust the wording to the project and your agreement.
How should you price the writing?
Start with the work required, then choose how to present the price. A fixed project fee is easier to approve when the pages, inputs, review rounds, and deliverables are known. An hourly arrangement can fit uncertain discovery, provided you agree on a rate, an estimate, and when you’ll seek approval before exceeding it. A per-page price can be useful for similar pages, but a complex homepage and a short contact page don’t necessarily take the same effort.
Build an internal estimate for interviewing and preparation, page planning, drafting, feedback, and implementation coordination. Include subcontractor costs if applicable. For illustration, a studio might estimate 2 hours for preparation and interview, 3 for planning, 6 for drafting, and 3 for revisions and handoff. At an illustrative internal rate of $100 per hour, that is $1,400 of writing work before any separately estimated subcontractor costs. These are example assumptions, not market rates or a recommended quote.
Check the assumptions with the client before fixing the fee. If the source material is incomplete or the number of reviewers is unknown, the estimate may need a discovery phase first. Record the conditions behind the price so you can recognize a change rather than arguing later about whether an extra page was implied.
What if nobody was assigned to write?
Find the gap before filling it. Compare the signed scope with what the client has supplied: is it finished page copy, source material, or a draft that needs substantive editing? Show one concrete example of the remaining work and offer a choice: the client completes the text, you quote for writing it, or a separate writer takes it on.
If the agency’s proposal was ambiguous, discuss that openly. Agree on a practical resolution and record the revised scope, fee, and dates before starting the extra work. Don’t present a new charge as though it was already agreed, and don’t assume a client can deliver a complete draft tomorrow because the layout is ready.
Copy and design depend on each other. A real draft can change the space a section needs, so schedule a copy handoff before the design is treated as final. The website sign-off form can help you tie the client’s decision to the version your team will implement.
Before the next proposal goes out, name the writer, the pages, the review boundary, and the person who approves the result. Your client can then decide whether to write, hire a specialist, or pay your agency to do the work with a clear view of what each option requires.