Quick Navigation:
- What Is Website Copywriting
- Why Good Website Copywriting Is Important
- What an Expert Copywriter Does
- Examples of Good Website Copywriting
- Questions to Ask a Copywriting Agency Before Hiring Them
- When Not to Hire a Website Copywriting Agency
As we have already mentioned before, a good copy, alongside a great marketing strategy and design, can make a huge difference when it comes to your digital marketing. How exactly does website copywriting affect your conversions and traffic and how to choose the right agency? This post will answer both of these questions.
What Is Website Copywriting
Simply put, website copywriting is an art. It has nothing to do with AI, no matter how many Facebook ads state otherwise. It is a business activity that can potentially make or break your marketing, improve your conversions, get you higher rankings, and improve your reputation. (Just a quick question: would you buy from a professional business if their website didn’t make sense and was full of typos?) I thought that much…
“Website copywriting is putting your message together in a way that is easy to understand and entertaining for your ideal customers.”
If you want your website to work for you 24/7, you will need to provide entertaining and valuable content, as well as the promotional messages that normally go on the pages.
There are a couple of different areas of website copywriting and each of them has its own place in your marketing funnel.
- Website Pages Copywriting
- Blog Copywriting
- Promotional Copywriting
- SEO Copywriting
Website copywriting ensures that your site sends out the right messages that represent your brand. It is usually completed when your website is built, and the writer often collaborates with the designer to ensure that all the brand messages are consistent and the text is in line with the graphics and vice versa.
Blog copywriting will be based on a few different things: current events in your industry or in your company; your audience’s interest; your target keywords. A blog has to be well researched, formatted, and flow naturally for people to read it. Plus, it has to be informative and entertaining. So that’s a tall order!
Promotional copywriting applies to sales pages, landing pages, lead capture pages, and call-to-actions. If you don’t tell your audience what you want them to do they will never take action. This copywriting essentially makes you money.
SEO Copywriting applies to all of the above areas. A good writer or marketing agency providing website copywriting services will always factor in SEO. For example, at LMNts we never build a website without doing the keyword research and optimising the content.
Why Good Website Copywriting Is Important
How you speak to your customers and prospects in real life matters. The same applies to written words. Let’s say that you turn up at a networking event or exhibit at a show and just can’t get a sentence out that makes sense. Or worse; you talk about everything but your business and your offer. You’re not going to attract buyers, are you? The same applies to copywriting.
“Expert writers can make you look professional and position you in the marketplace right.”
A clear and concise copy that talks the language of your audience will certainly close more deals, too.
What an Expert Copywriter Does
I have worked as a professional freelance copywriter and editor for some of the largest UK and US agencies, so I know the process inside out. Here’s the tasks associated with writing a stunning copy:
- Researching the topic
- Finding relevant content that is popular
- Keyword research
- Creating a logical flow (skeleton)
- Crafting the content.
Sorry if I disappointed you. Good content is not a five-minute job, and everyone other than content mills and people promoting AI writing tools know that.
The above list, however, only covers the bare minimum. So, about 99 percent of copywriters applying for a position with us would not stand a chance. They miss one of the important skills. Thankfully, we have had a recommendation for a pro copywriter who is now assisting me with projects and nails everything from press releases to landing pages. Want to meet her? See our About page.
Examples of Good Website Copywriting
Unfortunately, it’s much easier to find good copies than bad ones. However, there are some (apart from the ones we wrote) we approve of. Here’s a few examples.
Dave Asprey’s Website Copy
This copy is great for many reasons. First of all, the text represents the image’s message and compliments it. Second, the headline makes you stop. Third, it provides social proof and states the facts. Not to mention that it is easy to read!
Jim Kwik’s Blog
Jim Kwik is a brain coach who has worked with Oprah, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. His main copy highlights these social proofs and celebrity endorsements. However, his blog is great, too. Whether Jim wrote the post or not, the headline is spot on, and the sentences/paragraphs are short. Well, coming from someone who teaches people how to read 4x faster, it’s no surprise at all.
Neil Patel’s Blog
Of course, this guy lives and breathes SEO, so his blog is well formatted. I love the original and unique images as well as the screenshots. Personally, I believe there’s always too much going on with this site; popups, CTAs everywhere, but that’s a design issue. Nonetheless, the blog is great and informative.
Questions to Ask a Copywriting Agency Before Hiring Them
Now that you know how much goes into writing professional copy, you might be thinking about hiring an agency. Before you do that, you will need to prepare to avoid disappointment. We have collected the top ten questions we would ask if we hired an agency or outsourced work (which we never do).
1) Examples of Previous Work
Of course, any decent copywriter will have a portfolio of work. Even if it is a free one online, you want to see their name featured on blogs and read their content to see if the style is suitable for your brand. Ideally, you want to see examples from various niches and topics.
Unfortunately, many people call themselves copywriters these days, some of them even pretending to be an agency when in reality they are just a one-man band looking for freelance gigs. So look for company branded portfolios and examples
2) Industry Experience
The second question you should ask a website copywriter agency is whether or not they have experience with your industry. If they don’t – more likely than not – they will be able to come up with examples of clients they worked with from similar industries and niches. And this will be useful for you. As an example, B2B and B2C copywriting require a different approach, style, and set of skills.
3) Location and Native Language of the Copywriting Team
When working with an agency, you have to check their registration records as well as their website. Some companies register a .co.uk website from Asia and get a virtual office address in London for a few pounds a month. If you want native writers, you will need to be vigilant.
Other companies will be using freelancers – many of them students from Singapore or India – and the content they deliver will not be culturally relevant. No matter how good the language skills of the writer are; without living in the UK or US they will not be able to feel the small nuances of language and understand colloquial expressions.
If you want a culturally relevant copy, make sure the writers are native and located in the UK.
4) Quality Checks
Ask the agency you are thinking about hiring about the quality checks they have in place. It is important, especially if the marketing agency doesn’t have an advanced project management system. Ask who will supervise the project and how the quality is checked. After all, you are planning on paying for website content marketing.
Here’s an interesting story from BBC about an agency that pretended to be something that it wasn’t, fooling not only clients but also employees.
5) Research Skills
A good copywriter is not only good at writing, but also reading and listening. Also thinking on their feet and summarising concepts.If they just go and make things up without checking the facts, you might end up in the middle of a lawsuit soon. That’s why the best copywriters I worked with have an academic background and are very quick at researching.
“Thanks to Google, fact checking is now much faster than it has ever been, still so many writers skip this step watering down the quality of content they produce.”
6) AB Testing Process
No matter how good the content agency is they are not guaranteed to get everything right the first time. And that’s fine. That’s why AB testing exists.
Let’s say that you are launching a new product and want to get an agency to create a sales letter. They will craft one headline and copy that converts at 2 percent. If they created two additional versions, you might have realised that the third copy would convert at 6 percent, tripling your revenue.
No copywriter should be cocky enough not to create an AB test of the copy.
7) NLP Knowledge
NLP stands for neurolinguistic programming, and it is a study that involves language, psychology, and communication. If your selected agency provides staff with training on NLP, it is more than likely that they will end up talking directly to your customers instead of just writing generic content that is simply out there.
There are plenty of great NLP courses for copywriters and executives. We love this one from Shelle Rose Chavret called Advanced Business Influence. It gives you the tools to get more buy-ins and sales by optimising your language. It is essential for any copywriter or public speaker, and it is based on science, too. A winning combination.
8) SEO Expertise
I have known plenty of copywriters in my life, and most of them were amazingly creative, but didn’t have the patience to actually sit down and learn how to optimise the content to search engines and humans. So while they created engaging content, it didn’t help with our traffic. No matter how unique and creative your copy is, if it is not formatted for the readers and search engines.
If you want to drive traffic to your site through SEO you will need a writer who can optimise it. Otherwise, you will have to pay a search engine optimisation expert to rewrite your site, and it will cost you double. If you want paid traffic or referrals, you might forget about this question.
9) Revisions
One of the problems you might encounter with copywriters is that they might go off the brief and produce something that doesn’t even resemble your instructions. If you have ever used Fiverr, you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
It is always a good idea to agree on the number of revisions and check-in points before you sign up with a website copywriting agency. Most of them will offer one or two revisions; we do offer two. However, it is your responsibility to provide all the information the writer needs; they might be good at their job, but maybe don’t have psychic abilities.
10) Collaboration Tools They Use
When working on a complex project, it is important that you can communicate seamlessly with clients. We usually share a Google Doc with our customers which is located in a shared folder with all their information, briefs, recommendations, images, etc. So, let’s say that I write a copy draft (it happened this week) for a new site, I can see the client adding more information. Now, how much better is this than emailing back and forth? (That’s why one of our Lean goals is to eliminate eMail.)
When Not to Hire a Website Copywriting Agency
Now, there are a few reasons why you should not get involved with an agency. Believe me; you will save yourself and the business a lot of frustration if you follow my advice.
- When you think you can do it better – the relationship is doomed to fail plus you can save a lot of money.
- When your nephew can do it cheaper – yes, you can cut costs at your own risk.
- When you are unclear of what you want to sell – a copywriter can follow instructions but not come up with a business idea for you.
- When you don’t have a clear ideal client avatar – you are likely to fail. Head over to our free resources section and download our ideal client persona exercise to see clearer before hunting for a copywriter.
Hopefully this blog post has helped you decide whether you need a copywriting agency. Follow the guidance and you will reduce your risks of getting it wrong.
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