While there are a number of aspects to quality content creation, I think it goes without saying that copywriting is at the heart of your content strategy. Without words, you’re basically dead in the water in terms of SEO, and it’s the words paired with great visuals and proper messaging that make the difference between the “oohs” and “ahhs” and actions that generate revenues and increase ROI. A good picture can sell the concept, but you still have to ask for the sale. It’s marketing 101.
The way I see it, copywriters have three jobs, and when you’re in the process of hiring one, you should seriously and critically look at their ability to deliver on each. Let’s have a look at them one by one, and I’ll explain why they’re important and how to gauge whether your writer has the skills necessary to get the job done. There are, in fact, plenty of people out there who like to write, but a good writer is both hard to find and worth seeking out. Today, I want to help you with the latter half of that statement and help you ensure that you’re working with a writer of high caliber.
1. A Good Copywriter Aims to Engage
It may sound easy, but I assure you it’s not. You’re asking someone who has limited or no knowledge of your product or service and equally little interest in it to write about it in a way that gets people thinking, “Yes! I need that! I so totally need that! Where’s the add to cart button? I’m in!”
Good copywriters understand that it’s not about them. They understand the need to approach the subject from the perspective of someone who is interested in the product or service and ask themselves what buttons they need to push to motivate those people to buy (or perform whatever other action you want).
Good writers learn how to engage an audience by becoming part of it. It helps if you have an ideal avatar or customer persona for your writer to work with, but good writers can always figure out a way to engage their audiences with or without a lot of extra help. You want a writer who knows how and where to insert emotional language into their copy to keep the attention of the reader simultaneously on the subject and on themselves. Great copy drags feelings out of even the most mundane of topics and makes them interesting to the target audience.
2. A Good Copywriter Strives to Educate
Since your writer will likely need to do some research on his or her subject anyway, it’s a good bet that if you’ve found the correct writer, he or she is also committed to becoming more educated about it. The best writers are then able to turn around and share the knowledge they’ve gleaned from their research in a way that will prove meaningful to the reader.
If you choose a writer who pays the right level of attention to detail, he or she should also be able to spot holes in the delivery, go back and do a little more research, and fill them in. Our writers come back to us all the time wanting clarification on details specific to a client’s product or service, but we don’t always get enough feedback to fill in the blanks. That’s the point where good writers simply decide to use the knowledge they’ve already gained to come up with the details on their own and deliver them in a way that promotes understanding.
The worst thing that will happen in that instance is that the client will read the first draft and let us know that the message is a little off-target. Great! The writer then knows where he or she is headed in the revision and can deliver accurate information in a final draft that will help people establish trust with the brand and make educated buying decisions.
3. A Good Copywriter Endeavors to Persuade
No matter how steeped in facts and statistics your copy may be, all the proof in the world isn’t going to challenge anybody to trust you or spend their money with you. Only the power of persuasion can accomplish that. Here’s the difference: Facts prove that something is a good idea. Persuasion explains why. People are far more interested in the answer to that question than they are with whether or not 9 out of 10 experts swear by the effectiveness of Product X. They’re not the 9 out of 10. They want to know how they will benefit from it, and that is where a good writer knows to insert a reason.
I think, also, that this one is the culmination of the other two. Writing that is engaging plants questions in the reader’s mind and builds up anticipation. Education provides the answers and proofs necessary to solidify the concept, and persuasion takes those two things and shows how they function together. Persuasion happens when the writer closes that circle with the reader comfortably inside and happy to be there. The best writers are really good at this, and it is, in my opinion, the thing that generates the most conversions.
Now, if you’re reading this thinking, “I can do all this myself. I know my product better than any copywriter,” all I can say is, yep. You’re right. You can and you do. So, by all means, take the advice you’re getting here and have at it. If you feel like you can do it on your own and your numbers prove you right, fantastic. In my experience, though, bringing in a new perspective can also help you see your product or service from an angle you might not have before, and you may find the unique spin placed on the subject by an experienced custom writing professional to be a real game-changer in the way you approach your market. It’s worth considering.