Do Businesses Need Specialized Copywriters?

[David Tandet]

Do businesses need copywriters specialized in their particular industry? Or do businesses need writers who know how to ask the right questions up front, get the proper terminology, and put it all together in a piece that accomplishes the owners' desired results?

The more a freelance marketing writer works in one particular area, of course, the more often opportunities for work in that field will present themselves.

When a manufacturer needs an instructional manual for an airplane engineer, it puts out a call for a technical writer. And writers THAT specialized identify themselves as such.

But I think it's the ABILITY to write a web page, press release, or position paper that goes into the copywriter's arsenal. The skill to focus on any particular subject parallels that ability.

It would be interesting to find out what writers and nonwriters both have to say about this!

[FHI Windows]

My estimate would be that 99% of business' that have websites do not know that they need the services of a copywriter or someone to write articles. Most create a site or pay for a site and the results are the results---end of story. My first website got poor results so I changed it every month just to more poor results.

In my industry most people do not know what a blog is nor do they know they benefits of links or press releases. Since everyone is promoting on-line marketing it is viewed as spam and dismissed.

Good luck!

[David Tandet]

FHI,

Thanks for the good wishes.

Let me ask you - have you tried posting on more generalized home improvement blogs? Any centered around Boston/RI where you could lay down a few words of advice now and then about vinyl replacement windows?

Just make sure all roads lead back to Boston Window Company. : )

[copywriter]

Honestly, it depends on your individual circumstances. Specialists are more highly tuned and would able to crank out the copy more quickly. They'd have no learning curve and the results would, no doubt, be great. However, specialists who write about the same thing day in and day out tend to get stale sometimes. They develop tunnelvision and that's not a good thing.

Someone who is not a specialist, but has the skill to collect the information can bring a fresh prospective to the copy. It may take them longer and it might actually cost you a little more at first (hours spent on learning curve), but IF you get the right writer, the results could be as good or better.

[FHI Windows]

Originally Posted by David Tandet

FHI,

Thanks for the good wishes.

Let me ask you - have you tried posting on more generalized home improvement blogs? Any centered around Boston/RI where you could lay down a few words of advice now and then about vinyl replacement windows?

Just make sure all roads lead back to Boston Window Company. : )

I post on a bunch of home improvement forums but none of them are "local". As far as blogs go I have a few that I post on once in a while. Most of the local window blogs belong to other window companies so my post would not be welcome at all! If you know of a source of local blogs that talk about windows let me know.

In reference to "Boston Window Company", my site is doing rather well on google for Boston searches and I figure a few more backlinks will keep them happy.

[Wilks_eye]

Originally Posted by copywriter

Honestly, it depends on your individual circumstances. Specialists are more highly tuned and would able to crank out the copy more quickly. They'd have no learning curve and the results would, no doubt, be great. However, specialists who write about the same thing day in and day out tend to get stale sometimes. They develop tunnelvision and that's not a good thing.

Someone who is not a specialist, but has the skill to collect the information can bring a fresh prospective to the copy. It may take them longer and it might actually cost you a little more at first (hours spent on learning curve), but IF you get the right writer, the results could be as good or better.

I agree. It depends on the job, the website and kind of content needed. First of all, the writer needs to know what will connect to the target audience. If his abilities can do it, no problem. It its higly technical, then its better to seek a more knowledgeable person.

[copywriter]

If his abilities...

Or her

[Hesedblissfully]

I think it depends on the type of material you need written. If you're talking about an instructional manual or something that's purely technical, then a person who's intimately familiar with your product/industry definitely has an advantage.

OTOH, something like a marketing brochure, sales letter, landing page, etc. that actually requires the person reading it to take action (buy, sign up, opt in, etc.), this would be better left to a writer who has a talent for sales and marketing copy.

Ideally of course, in the second scenario you want a person who knows how to write to sell, but also has a familiarity with your product/audience/industry. That's the sweet spot.

[natetarsha]

I would have to agree with Hesedblissfully.

Copywriting is one of those fields that requires that you REALLY know how to communicate your bottom-line value to your targeted customer.

The difficulty may be wrapped in using the term "copywriter" to convey your value to a cluster of individuals who don't really know why they need a "copywriter" in the first place.

Thus, your marketing job is two-fold: you would have to be able to educate your potential user on why it is that they would need a "copywriter" AND then give them to hire you to "copywrite" for them.

Look at it this way: in the pre-faxing days...no one would have recognized that they needed (or even wanted) a fax machine. But once word got out about the benefit of faxing, then everyone wanted one. (the same goes with destop computing, laptops, cell phones, and even the i-pod).

Those businesses that are effective in sales recognize that it's up to them to sell the customer whatever it is that the customer desperately wants to buy. And oftentimes your customer wants to buy a solution to a problem that's causing them great frustration.

Just a thought...

[Sporkman]

Originally Posted by natetarsha

Thus, your marketing job is two-fold: you would have to be able to educate your potential user on why it is that they would need a "copywriter" AND then give them to hire you to "copywrite" for them...

Sounds like a job for a copywriter!