When to use a professional copywriter

If there’s someone in your organisation who’s good with words, you might be thinking it’s overkill to use a professional copywriter.

But here’s the thing: good content isn’t just about well-constructed sentences or text-book grammar. It’s not even about catchy headlines or clever turns of phrase.

Good content (at least in marketing terms) is content that persuades, encourages or helps your audience to do a thing – often in as few steps as possible.

Whether you want someone to buy a book, try a new exercise or renew a licence, the key to doing that effectively is to understand what your audience needs.

That, over and above writing great copy, is something a good copywriter knows how to do.

What can happen when you write your own content

When organisations write their own content, they sometimes fall into the trap of ‘broadcasting’ to their audiences. That is, telling them what they think they want to hear.

And it’s easy to see why.

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve invested time and effort in building your products and services. It’s only natural to want to talk about that.

In reality however, customers are rarely interested in the back story. Often they’re not even that interested in the features of the thing you’re selling.

They simply want to know how it benefits them.

Understanding what drives your audience

Before writing a single word, a professional copywriter will have questions about your audience, like:

• what motivates them
• what their pain points are
• what success looks like for them
• what they need to know (as opposed to what we want to tell them)
• why they should come to you, and not a competitor

The advantage of a copywriter

A professional copywriter not only has the advantage of being able to look at your product or service from the point of view of the customer (from the outside in).

They also come with the knowledge of how to identify user needs, how to challenge unconscious bias, and how – of course – to articulate the benefits of your products and services in concise, compelling copy.

Writing is never a one-off process. It takes effort, collaboration, iteration and a healthy dollop of humour.

But when you use a professional copywriter who puts the needs of your audience first, the benefits will follow – whether that means more clicks on your products, fewer calls to your helpdesk, or a lower drop off rate at sign up.

Ready to get started?

If you’d like to talk about a project, get in touch today.