Of all the questions a business owner might ask about copywriting, surely this has to be the prime one. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with anybody asking this – we all sometimes do things that we're not entirely sure of, in order to save money, and besides that, it's not always 100% clear what the difference between quality copywriting and standard writing actually is. In fact, it may not do my business an infinite amount of good to say this, but, yes, it can at times be true: sometimes, just sometimes, a business owner can write their own web page content, blog or email marketing letter and do a decent job of it.
For the sake of it, and to outline a few things which may not be obvious to everyone reading this, here are a couple of examples where this scenario might be the case.
1: the website owner is capable with his or her own writing, knows a bit about SEO and keywords, and feels confident that they know enough about marketing to pull it off nicely.
2: the budget is tiny and it makes more sense for the website owner to do the writing themselves than do nothing at all. Fair enough.
Then there are the other scenarios, which tend to be infinitely more common...like the business owner who is rushed off his or her feet and simply has no time for blogging, slaving over SEO optimised About Us copy or writing specialist product descriptions. Equally, a business owner might realise that their skills and talents lie in other areas, or they might be struggling to sell a certain product and be wondering why that is the case. Here are some more examples of where a copywriter (like me!) could make all the difference:
1: The tone-of-voice used throughout the website is inconsistent and, for various reasons, this doesn't look good. Maybe this is the result of half-a-dozen writers creating the copy, or perhaps it's because a single writer is experimenting with how they put their point across. In both cases, inconsistency breeds confusion, and when customers get confused, they don't buy.
2: The current copy isn't good enough. This could be for a myriad of reasons (it has typos galore, the writing isn't persuasive enough or is simply not as good as the business owner feels it ought to be).
Naturally, we could be here all day: there are countless other reasons why a person might decide to hire a freelance SEO copywriter. One is objectivity. It's very, very hard to be objective when you own a company, is the thing – it's even hard when you yourself are a copywriter and you do this all the time! – and this can be a tremendous obstacle. Alternatively, by hiring a copywriter, you're obviously getting much more than just the content. What you're really getting is a brain which has written copious amounts over a long period of time...a brain which has made countless mistakes back when the copywriter started (don't tell the copywriter's first few clients!), and has worked through hundreds of difficult problems. In other words, a brain which sees issues and problems with copy quickly, and knows how to sort them out so customers do want to buy your stuff.
Yes. That is what we want.
What you're really getting, overall, is more time: with a copywriter sorting out your content and making it SEO friendly for the search engines, you can get back to doing what you love to do – running your business and all good things like that. With more time on your hands, you'll do a better job and be a happier person.
That is also what we want!
Another thing to remember is that when you have never done it before, copywriting can be quite stressful. You can read books on how to write great copy, of course, but again, it takes time, and many business owners just don't have enough of it.
I'll be back with more next week.
For the sake of it, and to outline a few things which may not be obvious to everyone reading this, here are a couple of examples where this scenario might be the case.
1: the website owner is capable with his or her own writing, knows a bit about SEO and keywords, and feels confident that they know enough about marketing to pull it off nicely.
2: the budget is tiny and it makes more sense for the website owner to do the writing themselves than do nothing at all. Fair enough.
Then there are the other scenarios, which tend to be infinitely more common...like the business owner who is rushed off his or her feet and simply has no time for blogging, slaving over SEO optimised About Us copy or writing specialist product descriptions. Equally, a business owner might realise that their skills and talents lie in other areas, or they might be struggling to sell a certain product and be wondering why that is the case. Here are some more examples of where a copywriter (like me!) could make all the difference:
1: The tone-of-voice used throughout the website is inconsistent and, for various reasons, this doesn't look good. Maybe this is the result of half-a-dozen writers creating the copy, or perhaps it's because a single writer is experimenting with how they put their point across. In both cases, inconsistency breeds confusion, and when customers get confused, they don't buy.
2: The current copy isn't good enough. This could be for a myriad of reasons (it has typos galore, the writing isn't persuasive enough or is simply not as good as the business owner feels it ought to be).
Naturally, we could be here all day: there are countless other reasons why a person might decide to hire a freelance SEO copywriter. One is objectivity. It's very, very hard to be objective when you own a company, is the thing – it's even hard when you yourself are a copywriter and you do this all the time! – and this can be a tremendous obstacle. Alternatively, by hiring a copywriter, you're obviously getting much more than just the content. What you're really getting is a brain which has written copious amounts over a long period of time...a brain which has made countless mistakes back when the copywriter started (don't tell the copywriter's first few clients!), and has worked through hundreds of difficult problems. In other words, a brain which sees issues and problems with copy quickly, and knows how to sort them out so customers do want to buy your stuff.
Yes. That is what we want.
What you're really getting, overall, is more time: with a copywriter sorting out your content and making it SEO friendly for the search engines, you can get back to doing what you love to do – running your business and all good things like that. With more time on your hands, you'll do a better job and be a happier person.
That is also what we want!
Another thing to remember is that when you have never done it before, copywriting can be quite stressful. You can read books on how to write great copy, of course, but again, it takes time, and many business owners just don't have enough of it.
I'll be back with more next week.