How you communicate, internally and externally – whether it be a website, annual or sustainability report, bid, brochure, newsletter or any other communication – could be the make or break of your business. It dictates how your stakeholders perceive your brand, the investment you attract, or how you maximise your employee performance.
This is where a good copywriter comes in. Professional copywriting is a unique craft, involving much more than writing skills alone.
1. Bringing a fresh outlook
Very often, within your business you are too close to take a step back and look at things objectively. A skilled external copywriter will look at your business from a different perspective.
Through an information-gathering process, questions will emerge that perhaps you may not have considered internally. By gaining an understanding of the business in this way, your copywriter will be able to create an accessible narrative to the reader and that clearly shows the benefits of working with you. And as an external resource, your copywriter is best equipped to phrase things in a way which is crystal clear to other external parties – and also to employees.
2. Helping you find your voice
When a company develops its content internally – for an annual report for example – it is written by the different subject matter experts. This can result in a range of different and inconsistent writing styles. If the company is speaking in a range of different voices, it brings a lack of coherence to the brand.
It may sometimes be easier and more practical to go the route of creating an internal draft, then engaging an external copywriter to bring it all into one tone of voice narrative. Alternatively, a skilled copywriter can spend time with each of your key department heads to gather the information needed to write the narrative from scratch. Or it could be a combination of both.
3. Optimising your content
SEO (search engine optimisation) is arguably the most important tool a company has to generate new business. A skilled copywriter will weave the right keywords into your content so they sit naturally within the narrative text.
At the same time, replicating other people’s content or duplicating your own will have the adverse effect. It has to be original content generated on a regular basis. This is time-consuming to say the least. Few people internally with their own functional roles have the time for this – another reason to engage an external copywriter.
4. Using calls-to-action
The best way to engage the reader is to make your content benefits driven – the USPs and value-adds your company offers. Using calls-to-action is also crucial to reader engagement. This is a skill in itself, and an area where a skilled copywriter will bring huge value.
5. Creating long-term value
As discussed above, an external copywriter will need to get to know your business and over time the process of working together becomes more and more seamless. This is why, once a company finds a copywriter they comfortable working with, they often form long-term relationships as an external and valuable extension of the business.
Talk to us
To find out more about how MA Technical Copywriting can help you with your copywriting and editing needs, contact us on +44 (0) 1242 23040 or hello@macopywriting.co.uk.
