There are a number of reasons why so many businesses fail in their marketing efforts. But it mostly boils down to using bad or ineffective copy in their campaign’s and/or not knowing WHERE exactly to focus their marketing efforts for the maximum ROI.
Preventing such a disaster from happening to your own company is fairly straightforward. If you have the resources, consider hiring a business consultant. This can be an amazing asset to you, and make a huge difference in your results alone.
Another way to help prevent this is to carefully search out a skilled copywriter to help you develop your online marketing materials. If you consider that the Internet is literally RUN on information, it only makes sense that everything you put out there should be of the absolute best quality you can manage. Hiring a writer because they’re ‘cheap’ may not be in your long-term bests interests. Here are the top ten (10) reasons why a skilled copywriter can be so important to your bottom line:
1. Credibility
Any newbie entrepreneur knows how important credibility is in kicking off the success of their business. As much as this is a make-or-break-component in achieving your start-up goals, great copy provides the path to credibility. Great copy paves the way in bringing in new potential customers and clients.
Great copy however, doesn’t get written by just everyone. It takes someone skilled with the written word, and knowledgeable in both marketing as well as your particular business, product, or service. A skilled copywriter can bring out the best in your start-up venture or any business for that matter and nurture public trust. A skilled copywriter reassures prospects that you can deliver to their expectations. (Of course, make sure any claims you make you ALWAYS back up.)
A company with a webpage or sales letter full of grammatically-incorrect, redundant sentences or feature claims doesn’t showcase ANYONE’S business well and outlines clearly to the reader of the material that your company is not big on quality OR their customers. Obviously, this is a fairly minor mistake that could be avoided by simply hiring a skilled copywriter to do the job in the first place.
2. Goal Achievement
Regardless of what phase your business or marketing campaign is in right now, it will always need a skilled copywriter to achieve goals. A writer with highly developed writing skills enables a business to elicit desired responses from their target market because the copywriter can showcase a company’s product or service in the best light possible, based on said target market’s needs and wants. Thus, they help drive in the life blood of any company… sales. As marketing execs know by heart, “better communication is what opens life’s doors”.
3. Flexibility
A skilled copywriter is also easy to work with because he/she can shift their tone of writing and style to meet a company’s marketing campaign or theme at any given time. Not to mention, a skilled copywriter can provide just about all written materials needed for various mediums (web, print, email, brochures, etc.) that a company will be using during its marketing efforts, regardless of whether it is online or offline marketing. Kind of a one stop shop when you need good content.
4. Objectivity
Copywriters are objective. They aren’t personally involved with your company, it’s products, or services. They have no emotional attachment. When you try to write your own materials, lack of objectivity could hinder your efforts. “This lack of objectivity,” experts say, “makes it difficult to clearly see your company’s strengths, unique qualities, and even weaknesses.” Thus, a skilled writer can tap into a unique angle of presenting a company’s product or service that a business owner might overlook due to over familiarity. This can often open new doors of opportunity for the business.
5. Creativity
A skilled writer also knows how to create entertaining, engaging copy that will ‘hook’ a prospect and reel them in, making them WANT to know more about you and your business. An ‘expert’ in an industry or field, while they may have some writing skill, usually has the tendency to write somewhat boring, corporate material that immediately puts readers off…and potential sales along with it.
6. Competitiveness
By being an effective communicator, a skilled copywriter can relay the product or company’s information or message effectively and by doing, offer the business a very strong competitive edge. Companies that can clearly delineate their USP, and make people WANT to know more about them are going to be the leaders in their industry. Great copy helps them to achieve those goals.
7. Speed and Convenience
Having a skilled copywriter also allows you as an entrepreneur to get the marketing materials done faster than if you were to do it yourself. Not only does this save you time from the actual writing process, it saves you time in learning the skills needed to write effective copy, it saves you research time that goes INTO writing effective copy, and allows you to focus your attention on the areas of your business you excel at and enjoy doing. Remember the old saying, why do it yourself if you can pay someone else to do it better and faster?
8. Long -Term Savings
Hiring a skilled copywriter from the outset also helps a business save on unnecessary expenses incurred from hiring a not-so-competent writer. Hiring cheap and/or sub-par can add up in the long run because not only will the copy be ineffective and cost you sales right of the bat, it will also likely have to be rewritten repeatedly until you have materials that actually WORK. A skilled writer is a professional and an asset, and expects to be compensated accordingly. If they aren’t charging what they’re worth, it’s fairly likely they aren’t worth what they’re charging. 😉 Just my .02 cents of course.
9. Build Loyalty
Businesses can create loyal customers simply by providing reliable, quality services and products. A skilled copywriter can create quality content for your promotional materials (whether online or offline) that will keep customers’ continued interest and patronage, as well as inspire them to spread the word and offer you referral business. This is an EXCELLENT ROI! Not only do you have happy, repeat customers, but you have people talking about your services and sending you new business. All because you took the leap and hired a quality copywriter from the outset, rather than trying to cut corners in an area where cutting corners just does NOT pay.
10. Professional Alliances
Finally, more often than not, a skilled copywriter is a professional in their own right, that will not only provide material for your marketing efforts but can also act as partners for the long-term growth of your business as well as their own. Sounds like a pretty good win-win situation to me, how about you?
Warm regards,
Cori Padgett