The Dilemma
Every company wishes to put out the most engaging, well-written, effective content they possibly can. Ultimately, this content is the vehicle for who they are and what they are selling, and without it, they could have the best product in the world, but no way to get it to the people who need it most.
Businesses can sometimes be sceptical, then, of outsourcing their copywriting, hoping instead to have someone more specialised, and in house, carry out this service instead. Reasons to never outsource your copywriting are often founded in a misunderstanding of the extent of a copywriters breadth of knowledge and skills.
Let's look at why that might be, and dispel some myths about the pros of in house copywriting, and the cons of outsourcing.
Myth Busting!
Myth One- Outsourced Copy Writers Won't Know Enough About The Companies Industry
If you have ever owned a company, this was likely what you were told was the first and most important of the reasons to never outsource your copywriting to a content writing agency. There is some truth to this, but only some. It is true that someone who has worked in an industry for years will have a greater understanding of their given industry.
However, experienced Copywriters, particularly a freelance writer, is in the industry of becoming an expert in other industries. The meticulous research and ability to get to grips with a whole new industry, its insider information, its jargon, and terminology, is all an experienced copywriters bread and butter.
Every task a freelance writer works on begins with either a crash course in a new industry or a refinement of knowledge already gained writing for that industry previously. An experienced copywriter is an expert in becoming an expert in a short time span.
The further advantage an experienced, freelance copywriter will provide is an inherent ability to get that specialised information across to a layman. Whereas an industry-insider may get bogged down in technical jargon, a copywriter knows by heart how to communicate specialised information to the general public.
Myth Two- Good Copywriting Is Expensive
Companies may be tempted to do their copywriting in-house due to a desire to cut costs. This, however, is a false economy. Asking someone not practiced in doing so to write engaging content, to write blog posts and social media posts, to suddenly become an expert in digital marketing, to overall put out high-quality content across multiple platforms, is only going to result in an overworked, stressed employee, and low-quality content.
The drive to reduce internal costs is understandable, particularly for a small business, but bringing in an expert to do all of this for you by outsourcing will provide more than a return on investment; it provides efficiency, reliability, someone who will do all of the little things right, that an experienced copywriter knows to do by heart that an untrained in house worker may never even think of.
It is in the interest of the copywriter, and their agency, to make their clients money. It is a reciprocal relationship; a good copywriter does not simply seek to make money themselves, but to make their client money.
Myth Three- The Copywriter May Misrepresent The Tone A Company Wishes To Present
This can be a big one for companies that have a very particular image they wish to present. Particularly, if a company is selling a lifestyle, or selling to a very particular audience that is best communicated within a particular tone.
This, of all of the myths presented so far, is the most unfounded. Any Copywriter worth their salt should be able to easily adapt their tone of voice to a particular audience, and convey accurately the tone that the client wishes to get across. These are the absolute basics of what a good Copywriter does, and to an experienced Copywriter, it should be second nature.
A client should inform the Copywriter in their brief of what they want the Copywriter to represent, the tone they desire, and the audience they are writing to.
But even without that, again, any good copywriters will do their due diligence on the company and their audience to ensure that they are accurately representing a company's tone, ethos and are appealing to their target audience.
Why Should You Outsource?
So, we've busted some of the myths behind reasons to never outsource your copywriting. Now let's take a look at the advantages of outsourcing and why it can be more beneficial than going the in house route.
Efficiency
It should go without saying, that copywriters are professionals. They spend every day perfecting every aspect of copywriting, from managing projects, learning to appeal to a specific industry audience, perfecting how to guide consumers down the sales funnel, writing compelling content, and adapting to the necessary brand voice.
A good copywriter knows how to appeal to specialists as well as to the general public, and to do so with an efficiency that only comes through experience doing this professionally for a wide variety of clients over an extended period.
As much as a member of an in house team may understand the company or industry audience, they also lack the experience in providing a polished, compelling finished product. Diverting an employee from their regular duties can also have a detrimental effect of productivity, particularly for a small business.
Furthermore, the outsourcing of copywriting service by a company frees up their workforce to focus on what they specialise in, maximising efficiency within the business as employees are not getting bogged down doing something they are not as competent in.
Understanding of SEO
Search engines dictate what potential consumers do and do not see. A grasp of SEO is therefore invaluable in allowing your content to be seen. Experienced content writers will have a working knowledge of SEO to better enable their work, and thus the companies product or service, to achieve far greater visibility and exposure than would otherwise be the case if an experienced in house non-copywriter were to write the copy.
SEO is an essential part of any digital marketing that wishes to increase traffic, therefore increasing the maximum potential customers the product or service can hope to reach.
Without a good copywriter, companies can never hope to fully utilize SEO to their advantage, meaning they are fighting an uphill battle in trying to reach potential customers. It is often the case that companies underestimate the impact of SEO, whereas copywriters understand how vital it is.
Creativity
Copywriters are not just robots, solely focused on the bottom line. Many freelance copywriters have backgrounds in Creative Writing and Journalism, with the result being that there is a pride both in the quality of their writing from a technical point of view, as well as a proven ability to approach things creatively; a good copywriter will always look for a way to make their writing stand out.
It may be tempting to think of professional copywriters as clinical, trying to get things done as quickly as possible and without taking the care to craft something truly suited to the company or brand in question.
However, any reputable copywriter takes great pride in their work, and wishes to represent themselves as well as possible.
And that includes writing with the correct tone, and analysing what it is that is unique about a company, its product, and its audience, and accentuating these factors as well as possible. The combination of creativity, competency and efficiency can only be achieved by a professional copywriter.
Don't Be Fooled
Don't be fooled into thinking copywriting is a job just anyone can do on top of their regular duties. It is a full-time profession, a craft honed by talented individuals over the course of years of regular writing, people will bring their expertise, experience, and attention to detail to any company or client to produce great content.
Burdening employees with responsibilities that are better left to professionals can have an extremely detrimental effect on company culture, efficiency and the quality and extent of the exposure the end product ultimately gets.
