Copywriting is a crucial part of any marketing strategy, it creates a clear bridge between your products/services and your potential customers.
Get it right and your marketing efforts will become a scaleable machine that turns out qualified leads and customers like clockwork. Get it wrong and you can waste thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns that don’t resonate with your readers and convey completely the wrong messaging.
So how do you take advantage of this integral pillar of marketing as a small business with an equally small budget?
After building a small print business’ qualified leads from literally $0 to $120,000 a month with carefully planned copywriting we thought it would be a great time to share some of the lessons we’ve learned and how you can apply them to your small business today.
Carry on reading for our beginner’s guide to copywriting for small businesses including why you need copywriting, how to find a professional copywriter for your business and how you can leverage their skills to grow your brand.
Why do you need a copywriter?
Copywriting is a lot like art. It’s something you can learn but mastering it takes years of practice and dedication. A skilled copywriter will be able to identify your target audience’s pain points, speak to them with a clear understanding of those pain points, and communicate your value proposition as a clear and essential solution to their problems.
One of the main reasons why small businesses hire a copywriter is because they need to get more leads and sales from their website, blog or social media pages. Quite simply they need someone who understands their audience and can craft content that resonates with the reader encouraging them to take action.
Another reason why people hire a copywriter is that they want to stand out from all the other small businesses out there by having unique marketing messages that are different from everyone else’s. After all, if your competitors are using boring or generic messages and call to actions, well-executed copywriting is your way to stand out from the crowd.
Check out this example from Upwork, they’re target audience is small to large businesses looking for freelance work. What are two of the biggest pain points when outsourcing your marketing efforts? Delivery time and skill level.
They’ve perfectly captured these pain points and delivered their value proposition ‘You can have the best people. Right now. Right here.’
What’s the difference between a copywriter and a content writer?
Copywriting is all about words. A copywriter’s job is to write engaging, effective sales copy that persuades your audience to buy your product or service. Their focus is on crafting an emotionally compelling message that resonates with your target audience and gets them from point A to point B, from awareness of what you offer to converting them into a customer.
Content writing, on the other hand, has more to do with structure and flow than it does with word choice and expression. A content writer understands how readers think: they study their target audience’s needs in order to create helpful content for those people (rather than just selling something).
How do I find the right copywriter for my business?
The best place to start is our guide on Outsourced marketing for small businesses that details all the steps we take to vet and hire freelancers for our own brands.
You can typically head to platforms like Fiverr, Upwork and People Per Hour to find a suitable freelancer.
If you think hiring the right copywriter is essential to the success of your business. Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to selling more products or services:
- Check their references. If a copywriter is worth hiring, they should be able to provide you with at least three clients who have used their services in the past. Get in touch with those references and find out what they thought of their experience working with this writer.
- All of the platforms listed above provide the ability to review work received, make sure to look for Copywriters with great reviews.
- Ask for a sample/s of their work. You’ll get a better feel for how the writer communicates and what kind of tone they typically use in their writing style and if it’s a fit for your business.
- Ask about rates/pricing structure/payment options before signing any contracts or making any long-term commitments. Good copywriters should provide a process for revisions before you start to work together because this can typically get messy without pre-defining a process.
What can a good copywriter help with?
Whether you’re just getting started with your small business, or you’ve been in business for a while leveraging well-considered copy written by an expert will only increase the efficiency of your marketing.
A lot of business owners don’t realise that copywriting can reduce the cost per click or cost per lead across all of your marketing channels likely leading to a massive ROI which is hard to calculate because it affects so many parts of your business and many of the benefits are intangible.
A good copywriter will help you with all elements of your digital marketing efforts including:
- Create landing pages that convert potential customers into happy clients by clearly explaining what your product or service does and why it’s better than competitors’ offerings.
- Write blog posts that tell viewers why their lives are incomplete without the product or service offered by your company. Your readers will feel compelled to buy what you’re selling.
- Develop email marketing campaigns that gently nudge people toward buying whatever it is you’re selling. This is especially important if people have purchased from you before, retargeting customers is a delicate process and great copywriting within your subject line and the body of your email will alleviate a lot of the issues people have with email marketing.
- Physical marketing like flyers and billboards rely on copywriting and this real estate is rarely cheap so making sure you’re communicating your offer perfectly is key to achieving a positive ROI on your efforts.
Conclusion
If you’re a small business owner, you know how important it is to stand out from the crowd. In today’s crowded marketplace, finding a way to get noticed can be difficult. Copywriting for small businesses can help though! Whether you’re trying to sell goods or services online or offline, it’s important that your copywriting has unique and compelling messaging that resonates with readers. So what does it take?
