SHOULD I HIRE A COPYWRITER?
Like every trade, copywriting is a skill – not everyone has the knack for it. And while a copywriter can add tremendous value to your business, you might be wondering whether it’s worth saving some money and giving the writing a go yourself. After all, there are plenty of free tools – from Grammarly to Chat GPT – out there that can help you these days.
If you’re on the fence about whether to bring in the professionals, we hope that this article will help you make up your mind.
What can an experienced copywriter do?
Save you time
As a business owner, you’re probably a busy bee. Spending hours or days churning out a bunch of words for your website and marketing materials, then, is probably not at the top of your to-do list. A professional copywriter can take that job off your hands, freeing you up to spend more time on your business, with your family, or doing whatever it is that you love most.
Create more content
The more content you make available to potential customers, the better. Especially in the mid funnel (the stage where people are aware of your brand and others, and are considering making a purchase). Inspirational content can help sway people into buying from you, and informative content can help position you as a leader in your industry. But creating this type of content takes time – time that as a business owner, you probably don’t have. An experienced copywriter can write regular blog posts, articles or social media posts for you, so you can focus on doing what you do best.
Make you think twice
A good copywriter will never be afraid to say ‘why’ instead of ‘yes’ when necessary. What you think is a great idea could actually work better in a different way, whether that’s how you want to lay out a web page or how you want to speak to your target audience. While you’ll always be free to make your own choices, getting a second opinion from a professional can make you stop and think about things that you otherwise wouldn’t have given a second thought to.
Boost your search engine rankings
Great copy is just one element of an effective SEO strategy, but it’s one of the most important. And we’ve come a long way from the days of stuffing endless keywords into our landing pages to try to please Google and co. These days, search engine algorithms are a lot more intelligent, so it’s more important to write genuinely useful, unique copy that answers the questions people are asking. An experienced copywriter will have all of this in the back of their mind when they’re working on your website.
Increase your sales
Paying an experienced copywriter to take care of the words you use to promote your business isn’t an expense – it’s an investment. And as with most things in business, you have to invest money to make money. If your goal is to give your sales a boost, a professional persuasive copywriter can have a massive impact – they can tap into your browsers’ unconscious thoughts to encourage them to part with their hard-earned cash.
What are the alternatives?
We’re not out here to tell anyone what to do – after all, we understand that choosing to hire a copywriter is often a big decision! So, if you’re still on the fence, let’s take a quick look at your other options.
Write your own copy
The obvious alternative to hiring a professional copywriter is to put pen to paper (well, fingers to keyboard) yourself. And the truth is, everyone has varying degrees of success with this. If you have plenty of time on your hands, know your way around the dictionary and have a solid understanding of marketing and branding, you’ll probably do just fine. But it goes without saying that a specialist copywriter can add value in areas that you might not be as clued up on, like SEO, persuasive writing or technical writing.
Generate copy using AI
AI tools like Chat GPT have flown onto the scene recently, making it quick and easy to generate large amounts of copy. And sure, if you’re looking for quantity over quality, they’re great. But we’re going to guess you wouldn’t be reading this blog post if you don’t care about the quality of the copy that’s representing your business. The bottom line is, AI tools can only generate copy based on what’s already out there, which means the results are usually boring, uninspiring, repetitive, and not unique to your business. So, while they can be useful as a starting point or in helping you come up with content ideas, they don’t even come close to matching the value of a professional (human) writer. If you’re interested in reading more about AI-generated copy, check out our other article on using AI to write copy for your business.
The bottom line
Try to look at a copywriter as an investment rather than an expense. If you’re serious about building your brand and growing your business, it could be time to bring a professional onboard. And remember, hiring a copywriter doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing situation – if you’re unsure what value they can add, you could task them with a small project first to see what results you get before committing to outsourcing all of your copy requirements. Or, have a go at the basics yourself and hire a professional to tackle the elements you’re not so confident in.
At Sell it with Science, we specialise in turning browsers into buyers with clever copy that converts. If you’re interested in growing your business with the power of persuasion, drop us an email and let’s see how we can help.