We’ve all seen it. A lovely looking website or brochure destroyed by self-centred, grammatically inept, over-complicated copywriting.
If you’re a company reading this, please consider the sanity of your poor designer. Most importantly, think about what you want your new site, brochure, advert or newsletter to do.
Now, please, close the document, put the keyboard to the side, put your pen back in the drawer and step away from the copy.
Firstly, writing about your own business in an interesting and valuable way is hard. You’re too close to it to give the message the right perspective. Good marketing copy positions itself on the audience and its needs, fears and frustrations – not on telling the world how great you think you are. It’s easily done because you’re enthusiastic about what you but your readers need to understand the benefits first.
Secondly, writing good copy takes time. Many people can edit someone else’s copy but starting that copy from scratch, faced with a stark, blank sheet of paper requires a different approach altogether. Time and time again, designers are left in limbo waiting for clients to deliver the copy to finish the job far beyond the quoted deadline date.
Thirdly, marketing copy needs to have a purpose. You may be able to write, but do you know how to generate a response?
Online copy needs to work with the design of the website and the search engines. Remember, your business needs to appear in the search engines when people search for the product or service you provide – not just your company name. Optimising copy is a science. It takes research and effort.
The same goes for traditional media like advertising, press releases, direct mail, and newsletters. You need to make your words interesting and your message irresistible.
What’s going to make your promotion stand out from everyone else’s? What’s going to make your reader pick up the phone or send you an e-mail?
Do yourself a favour…and your designer. Get a copywriter onboard and see the difference it makes. The good ones will transform how the world sees and reacts to you. Employing a good writer is always money well spent.
Need a copywriter? Find one here.
Written by Kia Cranwell, copywriter and marketing consultant
