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If you’re planning on engaging a copywriter then you’re almost certain to have a briefing session at some point. A good briefing is an essential first step to any successful copywriting project. Without it, you’re likely to find yourself being disappointed with your first draft and going through far too many amends stages before you get what you’re looking for.

A briefing session should help you communicate essential core information to your writer or agency so that they fully understand what is required before beginning the work. We often find that the questions we ask during this session help our clients clarify their ideas about the project by making them think about things that just hadn’t occurred to them before.

So what can you expect to be asked about? Here are some of the things we’d be looking to find out in a briefing session.

What are your goals?

Copywriting isn’t simply about phrasing things nicely. It’s about using words to drive results. And in order to see results you need to have first set some goals. So whether you want to reduce your blog’s bounce rate or get people signing up to your newsletter via your website, it’s important that your copywriter understands what it is that the copy they’re creatin is trying to achieve.

Who are you writing to?

We’ve written many times about the importance of understanding your target audience. Unless you understand what drives them, what they want and what they fear, what interests them and what influences their buying decisions, you can’t create effective content. If you don’t already have one or more customer or client personas, it’s worth spending time thinking about some of the elements that go into these profiles before your briefing session.

What is the core message?

If your reader had to take one thing away from the piece of content you’re asking us to create, what would it be? That you’re an expert in your field? That you care about the environment and are working to make a difference? That they will save huge amount of money by switching to you? Messaging is not always overt but it needs to underpin your content and so it’s important that your copywriter knows what it is.

What are the features and benefits of your offering?

If you’re commissioning words for a website or brochure or any piece of content that sets out what you do or sell, your copywriter will need to set out both the features and the benefits of this. Features are facts – the locally grown ingredients that go into your pies, the types of legal cases you handle. The benefits are what people will get by buying your product or using your service – satisfaction that they’re looking after their bodies and the environment, peace of mind that they’re not going to have to end up in court. Most of our clients are well versed in the features of their products or services but the benefits are as important if not more so. After all, as the saying goes, no one wants a six inch drill bit, they want a six inch hole.

What is your brand tone of voice?

If you’ve already invested in getting brand voice guidelines drawn up then you’re well ahead of the game. These are vital documents that provide copywriters with a huge chunk of what they need to know to ensure a piece of copy truly represents a brand. But if you don’t, prepare to be able to give at least some guidance during the briefing. Are you quite a formal, corporate sounding sort of a brand? Or do you use colloquial phrases like “check it out” and “give us a shout”? Having consistency in this area is vital if you want your copy to breed trust and loyalty and achieve results.

By taking the time to prepare for your briefing you’ll not only find that the meeting is a lot quicker and easier than it would otherwise be, by the results your copywriter delivers will be better too.

If you’d like to discuss a copy project with us, drop us a line on talktous@rin-hamburgh.co.uk or call us on 01179 902 690 – we’re always here to help.

How do you get eyes on your blog posts? Whether you’re a business owner or a marketing manager, ensuring that the content you’ve invested time and/or money in is actually being read is high priority. But far too many people simply press publish, pop the link out on social media and then… nothing.

In reality, unless your approach involves relying solely on SEO, to get good traction on a blog post you need to be putting it out there multiple times. Of course you also don’t want to say the same thing again and again.

That’s why it’s important to be creative with your social sharing copy. This is the text that you write for your social media posts, which encourage people to engage and ultimately click through to read your blog.

Using a range of social sharing copy not only injects a bit of variety but can drive different results. As an example, here’s how we might share our blog post entitled 3 ways a blog will improve your website’s SEO.

TL:DR

The straight share

Looking for some simple ways to improve your website’s SEO without having to actually become an SEO expert? Today’s blog post looks at why having a well written blog on your site will help.

This is the one most people use as a starting point and is simple and to the point. The trick is not to stop here…

The pull quote

“The goal of a search engine is to lead internet users to the most relevant and useful content for their needs.”

So it follows that if you’re producing lots of valuable content that answers your audience’s questions, you’ll rank more highly, right? 

Just one way a blog can really help improve your website’s SEO. Find out more in our recent blog post.

Is there a line in your post that either summarises the core message or is inspirational or intriguing enough to capture people’s attention? A pull quote is a device that has been used in print publications since before the internet was invented to catch people’s attention. Follow up your pull quote with a call to action that leads them on to your blog post.

The engagement question

How confident are you that your website is SEO friendly? If you’re short on time just answer A, B or C…

  1. What’s SEO? It’s something to do with Google right?
  2. We did a bit of keyword research when we last updated our website…
  3. We’re fully optimised, from metatags and indexing to quality backlinks.

If you’re not sure your website is getting noticed by Google and co, read this week’s blog post to find out how blogging for your business can seriously improve your SEO game.

Not everyone who likes your Facebook page, follows your Twitter account or connects with you on LinkedIn will see every single post you share. But there’s a much greater chance they will see one if other people are engaging with it – that’s just the nature of the algorithms. So if you can encourage people to comment by using a question format, you might find your click throughs also increase. 

The powerful statistic

Over 60% of our website visitors arrive on a blog post. 

That means if we stopped blogging, we’d reduce the number of people looking at our website by more than half.

If you’re trying to get more eyes on your website then read this week’s post to find out more about how a top quality blog can help you boost your SEO and increase traffic now and for the future.

Everyone likes a good statistic. If your blog post includes ones one, share it as a way to catch the attention of your potential readers on social media. Even if you don’t, find one that’s relevant and use it to introduce your subject. In the example above, the statistic isn’t included in the blog post itself but it’s powerful enough to attract the kind of audience who would be interested in the post we’re promoting.

The thought leadership

How do you get the balance between a website that works for your visitors and one that makes Google happy from a keyword point of view?

We all want our brand to make it onto the first page of Google. But if you focus too heavily on key words and forget that real human beings are reading your content, you’ll soon find your SEO strategy backfiring.

Luckily it doesn’t have to be a case of one vs the other. Read our recent blog post to find out more.

If you’re trying to establish yourself or your brand as experts in your industry, then being a thought leader is important. Get involved in discussion, have an opinion, and use that to direct people onto your blog. 

The sales pitch

Blogging can help improve your website’s SEO in many ways. For example:

You can find out more in our latest blog post. And if you need help producing quality, targeted blog content that will attract and engage your audience, get in touch to see how we can help. Call 01179 902690, email talktous@rin-hamburgh.co.uk or visit www.rin-hamburgh.co.uk for more information.

Social media isn’t the place to sell, right? Actually that’s not exactly true. Making people aware of how they can work with you isn’t a problem as long as that’s not all you’re doing and as long as you’ve spending time building relationships, adding value and so on. Don’t do it all the time but equally don’t be afraid to sometimes shout about how you can help people.

You may find that some of these social sharing copy options sit more naturally with your brand than others and that some work better at driving traffic to your blog. Experiment to find out what will be the most effective for your and your audience. But marketing is, in many ways, a numbers game so don’t be afraid to share your blog posts more than once.

PS Guess what? Writing social sharing copy is an add-on option we offer to our blogging clients. If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch.

***

Lingo. It’s so easy to use when you’re surrounded by it all day. Whatever industry you’re in, it’s likely that there are certain terms, acronyms and so on that everyone uses. And because you hear them all the time, you start to feel like everyone understands it.

The problem is, when it comes to your customers and clients, that’s not always the case. Even I’ve fallen into this trap. The other day a client admitted she’d read a word on one of our blog posts that she hadn’t understood and was too shy to ask.

So by way of apology and in order to help you better understand some of the words your copywriter, marketing agency or even designer might use, here is a glossary of copywriting terms that are worth knowing:

Body copy: The main section of text on a page, as opposed to the peripheral text such as the headline, standfirst, subheads and so on.

Brief: A written document that sets out what is required from the job, giving the copywriter something to follow.

Call to action (CTA): The part of the copy that actually tells people what it is they should do e.g. buy now, sign up, call us etc.

Content: Any kind of marketing device that people actually want to engage with e.g. social media posts, blog posts, videos etc. as opposed to the more intrusive marketing materials like banner ads and junk mail flyers.

Copy: Simply put, written text. Most often the word is used to refer to either marketing or journalistic text.

Copywriting: The act of writing persuasive text in order to further a business goal.

Evergreen content: Content that is not linked to a particular date or time, so can be reused some months or even years later.

Headline: A short sentence at the top of a piece of copy that summarises the main message of the content.

Para: Paragraph – a group of sentences arranged together without a break.

Pull quote: A line of text that is ‘pulled out’ of the body copy and used as a graphic feature to catch people’s eye and draw them in.

Sidebar: A graphically separate section of text, smaller than the body copy, that is used to give more information. Also known as a box out.

Standfirst: A short paragraph of text that sits below a headline and is used to convey a bit more information about what is contained in the body copy.

Subhead: A line of text that is used to separate large chunks of text into more manageable bites, usually formatted in a larger or bolder font. In websites they take the H2 format which is important for SEO.

Strapline: A short sentence that helps convey the essence of a brand. For example, our strapline is: “You don’t need many words, just the right ones.” Also known as a tagline.

Are there any other terms you’re not sure of the meaning of? Let us know on social (we’re on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram) and we’ll be sure to provide a definition.

Last month, I wrote about why you don’t need to insert a comma as often as you might have been led to believe. The feedback indicated that some of our readers are slightly terrified of grammar and indeed of people who know the rules well. I wanted to reassure you that I am not some kind of grammar despot!

While I believe that the rules of our language are important and help to give written language structure and precision, I do not believe that all grammar rules are to be applied fanatically. Sometimes, a writer or editor has flexibility and can bend or ignore traditional grammar rules for the sake of style, tone of voice or emphasis.

Secondly, as our society shifts and evolves, the grammar we use is continually shifting and evolving in the same way. Grammatical behaviour changes in the same way that other areas of etiquette shift from one generation to the next.

Outdated rules

Depending on when you went to school, you may have been told that in English you must never split an infinitive; the most famous example is from Star Trek:

“To boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Strictly speaking, that sentence ought to have been rendered as:

“To go boldly where no one has gone before.”

If the rule had been followed here, the stress would have ended up on the wrong syllable and the drama of the statement would have been lost. The writer wanted to make a particular impact and therefore took the liberty of ignoring the grammar rule. Semantic and pragmatic considerations trumped syntax. A prescriptive approach to grammar would have forced the writer to follow the external syntactic rules rigidly to the detriment of meaning and the writer’s goal.

A descriptive approach to grammar takes account of people’s preferences in speaking and writing and accepts that some rules have become irrelevant and can be safely ignored. It analyses the language people are actually using at any given time and deduces the rules that are being followed. A study conducted of 672,000 spoken words by Lancaster University and Cambridge University Press concluded that split infinitives are now nearly three times as common in British speech as they were in the early 1990s. Once a rule is being ignored this frequently, it is no longer realistic, desirable or relevant to attempt to teach or enforce it.

The prescriptive grammar approach is becoming less fashionable despite the current national curriculum emphasising obedience to a set of grammar rules. All four of my children can explain when to use the subjunctive. In my opinion, this is an example of a rule that is almost at the end of its life cycle in standard English and may not be a valuable use of their time although it’s a nice party trick!

A descriptive approach emphasises teaching children and adults to be able to identify and use the building blocks of the language(s) they speak. I am convinced that this is still a useful and vital skill. I see it as a benefit that they understand when and where a comma is used and that they at least understand the meaning of these words:

Grammar crimes quiz

I hope, as a parent and a proofreader, I err to the side of descriptive in my approach to grammar but of course, there are some commonly repeated mistakes that do grate on my nerves. At our team meeting this week, I did a little survey of top grammar crimes and then compiled a little quiz for you all.

Can you spot the errors in these sentences:

  1. They are giving away samples for free.
  2. There were less people at the event than I expected.
  3. I was sat at my table when my phone suddenly rang.
  4. I was stood at the bus stop for half an hour.
  5. Choice of words is equally as important as grammar.
  6. Outside of work, I love to travel.

See if you can re-write these sentences correctly and bonus points if you can explain why each one is grammatically incorrect. All six are examples where I would still insist on prescribing the rules. Perhaps in 100 years, our language will have evolved again and these will have become de facto constructions. At least I won’t be here to cringe!

Tweet your answers @rinhamburgh, comment on our Facebook page or email your answers to talktous@rin-hamburgh.co.uk with the subject Grammar Crimes.

Want to read more? Try this – Breathe if you have to but don’t use a comma

Did you know that Liz is our resident linguistics expert? In the new #linguisticsliz series she’ll be demystifying some common grammar and punctuation rules that people (including copywriters!) often get wrong in their marketing copy. Today it’s all about the humble comma.

At my daughter’s assembly recently, the class dressed up as pop stars and sang a song called “AAAWWUBBIS”:

“Two clauses in one sentence yeah

You combine never asking why

A comma here

A comma there

It’s a mess no-one can deny”

Tears rolled down my cheeks at the sheer hilarious genius of it. The song is designed to help them remember when to use a comma in a complex sentence. The parent next to me whispered, “I thought you just chucked a comma in whenever you needed to pause for breath?” “No, no, no, there are RULES”, I replied in despair through my tears.

Get rid of that comma!

I am often called on to proofread copy for a website or blog before it is sent to clients. My mother was a professional proofreader and I have BSc in Language Technology so I feel at home finding typos and grammatical errors. My most frequent complaint to our writers [Rin’s note: Including me!] is the number of erroneous commas that appear before conjunctions which I must unceremoniously delete.

It is a common misconception that a comma can be thrown in whenever the reader might need to breathe. But actually there are specific points in English syntax where they are required and they cannot be thrown in on a whim.

Introducing clauses

Back to “AAAWWUBBIS”… AAAWWUBBIS is an acronym for the most common subordinating conjunctions in the English language…

“Stop, stop! What on earth is a subordinating conjunction and why do I need to know?”

You use them all the time to join up two clauses in a sentence.

“Wait. What? What’s a clause?”

OK, let’s rewind a few pages of the textbook: a clause is a mini sentence containing a verb.

For example:

I have written a blog post.

I will set off to pick my children up from school.

If I want to join these two ideas together and make one of them dependent (or subordinate) to the other I need a subordinating conjunction:

  1. After
  2. Although
  3. As
  4. When
  5. While
  6. Until
  7. Because
  8. Before
  9. If
  10. Since

See what those initials spell?

Complex sentences

Using a subordinating conjunction I can then write a complex sentence containing two clauses instead of one. There are two ways I could do this:

I will set off to pick up my children from school after I have written this blog post.

After I have written this blog post, I will set off to pick my children from school.

If I choose to use a subordinating conjunction at the start of the sentence then I need a comma between the clauses. If I use the subordinating conjunction in the middle of the sentence then I must not use a comma.

That is the rule – nothing to do with breathing or pausing!

P.S. There are lots of other sentence types that require a comma. For example, when using an adverbial phrase. I will save that for next time!

Every business needs written content. Website copy, blog posts, white papers, case studies – the list goes on. In a startup or micro business, this copy is often written by a founder or another member of the team. But eventually the need for either quality or quantity – or both – means it’s time to hire in a freelance copywriter or copywriting agency.

The question is, which one is right for your business?

In this article, we’re going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of freelance copywriters and copywriting agencies. This won’t help you select an individual writer or agency – you can read more about that in this post on how to hire a copywriter. Instead, we’ll go through some of the factors you should be considering in order to decide what will suit you best.

TL:DR

Why use a freelance copywriter?

A good freelance copywriter is worth their weight in gold. As well as our in-house writers and editors, we have a small but brilliant team of freelancers who are an integral part of the agency.

So we’re not here to suggest that copywriting agencies are in any way better than freelancers. In fact, there are many situations in which we would advise that you go down the freelance route.

Here are some factors that make freelancers appealing.

Cost

In most cases, a freelancer is likely to be less expensive than an agency simply because they don’t have the same overheads. They’re also unlikely to be earning over the VAT threshold, saving you a chunk of money if you yourself aren’t VAT registered.

Freelance rates vary widely depending on experience and even location (London prices tend to be higher than Bristol prices, for example). A junior might start out charging as little as £150 a day, whereas someone more specialist or experienced might charge four or more times that.

There is likely to be some crossover between the highest freelance rates and the rates charged by the smaller agencies though, so don’t be afraid to get a range of quotes. Just make sure you’re comparing like-for-like in terms of what’s being delivered.

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Flexibility

Where agencies will have their processes in place, a freelancer may well have more flexibility. For example, they might be happy to come and work in-house at your offices for a period of time. They are also unlikely to have minimum fee or retainer terms.

Retainer relationships do make sense on a number of levels. First, there is a degree of work to be done upfront in getting to know a client and understanding their industry, establishing tone of voice, messaging and more. Also, in the case of content marketing, it takes time to see results.

But you might not want a long-term relationship. Perhaps you only need someone to do a small, one-off piece of work, or perhaps your budget is too uncertain to commit to a monthly outgoing. Or you might just be testing the water. In which case, a freelancer may be a good bet.

Control

When you work with a freelance copywriter, they essentially become an extension of your team. You’ll manage them directly rather than going through an account manager, which may give you a greater sense of having eyes on all stages of the content creation process.

This is great for founders who are naturally close to their business and feel protective of anything that gets written on their behalf, or marketing managers who are used to managing a team, setting strategy, giving feedback and generally running projects.

If your business is growing and your copy requirements are likely to grow with it, then you need to be sure that your provision will be able to expand to meet that.

Why use a copywriting agency?

This is not where we do a big old sales pitch. As we’ve demonstrated above, there are many reasons why you might need a freelance copywriter. And if you find a good one, hold onto them!

But there will be times when getting an agency on board is going to suit your needs better.

A variety of experts

With a freelancer, you’re relying on one person to have a number of different skillsets. With an agency, you’ll get a team that brings together a variety of specialists.

For example, you might have a brand consultant to help you with your brand voice and messaging, a content strategist to help you create your editorial calendar, an account manager to interview your experts, a writer to create the draft content and an editor or proofreading to ensure it’s polished before it reaches you.

Consistent capacity

One key issue with freelancers is capacity. An agency will have greater internal resources, as well as access to a pool of tried and tested freelancers. What’s more, they’ll have processes in place for resource planning and managing consistency of quality. As a result, you shouldn’t have to wait weeks before they can fit you in and you’ll never have to worry about what happens if your writer gets sick or wants to take a holiday.

Likewise, if your business is growing and your copy requirements are likely to grow with it, then you need to be sure that your provision will be able to expand to meet that. One person can only do so much work, whereas a team has potentially infinite capacity.

Project management

As well as accessing a variety of strategic and creative experts, using a copywriting agency means you’ll have to do less on the project management side of things too.

An agency will provide a fully managed service, handling everything from brief creation through copy drafting, editing and proofing, managing the writers and even liaising with other professionals like designers or developers. That’s a lot less mental load for you to deal with.

Quality

We’re not suggesting that agencies produce better work than freelancers. But the reality is that there are plenty of bad copywriters out there. Choosing an agency should give you at least a minimum standard of quality.

A not-so-great freelancer might be able to get by on good luck but a substandard copywriting agency won’t last long. It’s just too competitive out there and running a business – with employees to pay, office space to rent, insurance, accountancy fees and a million other expenses besides – means there’s no room for slackers.

Is RH&Co right for your business?

Everything we’ve written so far has been designed to give you a broad brush and unbiased view of the copywriting market. Of course, not every freelance copywriter or copywriting agency is the same. So what about us?

Cost

Because no two projects are alike, we create proposals on a bespoke basis, taking into account factors like the type of work involved, the complexity of the subject matter, how quickly it needs to be turned around and the value it will deliver.

Our minimum project fee is £2,500+VAT, while retainers start at £1,250+VAT, with most of our regular clients tending to have annual budgets of between £15,000 and £50,000 for content.

We put our prices up every January as standard, to reflect the increased cost of living, our commitment to pay our team and freelancers fairly, and the increasing value we aim to deliver year on year. For the last two years this increase has been around 10%.

Specialism

Our specialism as an agency is in working with expert-led businesses to help them clarify and communicate their message and establish their expertise through content.

Our services include:

Our writing team pulls together experience across a wide range of industries, primarily in tech, healthcare, sustainability and B2B services, and we are particularly experienced in working with complex subject matter to draw out the elements that readers will find engaging.

Flexibility

As a relatively small copywriting agency, we like to think of ourselves as being pretty agile in the way we work with our clients. However, we aren’t able to provide writers to work in-house on your premises.

We do work on both a project and a retainer basis, with retainer SLAs being set for a minimum of six months to ensure that we can provide the most value. In reality, most of our clients stay with us for much longer!

Team and capacity

With both in-house copywriting resources and a team of handpicked freelancers on our books, we almost always have capacity to work with new clients. We also have processes in place to cover sickness and holiday absence.

We can usually book in a kickoff session within a fortnight of you making the decision to work with us, during which we’ll agree on timeframes for your project. As a general rule, first time content projects tend to take a minimum of six weeks, although in some circustances we can work to tighter deadlines.

Every project, whether one-off or ongoing, has – at the very least – a dedicated project manager, a writer and a separate editor to ensure that the quality of the copy we produce meets RH&Co standards. You can find out more about the in-house team on our About page here.

Conclusion

Hopefully by now you’re feeling a lot more confident about whether or not you should be aiming to work with a freelance copywriter or a copywriting agency – and whether we might be a good fit. Let’s sum up the main points.

You should choose a freelance copywriter if:

You should choose a copywriting agency if:

Whether or not you should work with us is something you won’t fully be able to decide until you’ve had a chat with us. After all, you want to know that whoever you choose, you’re actually going to get on with them, right?

If you want to get to know us a bit better, drop us a line to arrange a call. In the meantime, feel free to have a look around the site, and why not connect with us on LinkedIn?

Have you ever had a project that involved some sort of writing, but had to ask yourself, “What kind of writer do I need?” Or have you thought you were asking the right person, only to find that’s not actually what they do?

Every now and then, someone will ask me if I can write them a press release or whether I’d be able to write the content for their social media feed. While technically the answer is yes, in reality I’m generally not the person they’re looking for. Key differences separate a copywriter from other types of writers.

If you have a writing project and you’re not sure who it is you need to hire in to do it, this guide will give you a nudge in the right direction.

TL:DR

I need someone to write a press release

A press release is literally that: information released to the press i.e. the media. It might be an announcement about a new product launch or an award nomination or a merger or an exciting new hire. Whatever the case, the idea is to get coverage in whatever media outlet you’re targeting. While a copywriter should be perfectly capable of writing a decent press release – especially if they have a journalistic background – the writing of the press release itself is only a small part of the PR process. Good PR professionals not only understand how the media works (and it’s a funny old world, very different from most business), they are also super star networkers and have the kind of industry connections that can get your story seen by the right people.

You need: a PR professional

I need someone to write posts for social media

Like in the PR example above, writing posts for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on is just a small part of effectively using social media for your business. After all, it shouldn’t be about just pushing out content – much more important is engagement. That means it’s not simply a case of crafting a few snappy one liners and leaving it at that. A good social media manager will know not just what to write but how and when and to whom, and they’ll combine great copy with images, video and other media.

You need: a social media manager

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I need someone to check my writing

If you’ve written a piece of content yourself – perhaps a white paper or an e-book – it’s a good idea to have a second pair of eyes glance over your work. And though it might be tempting to run it past a colleague, it’s definitely better if those eyes belong to a professional. But you don’t necessarily need a writer for this job. While a writer or even an editor could be useful you want help shaping and developing that piece of work, if what you’re actually looking for is someone to check spelling and grammar, key facts and overall sense and flow, then a proofreader is the best person for you.

You need: a proofreader

I need someone to write my marketing plan

Writing a marketing plan is less about great writing and much more about strategy. It’s an internal document, after all. Because your marketing plan should contain everything from your client personas to your pricing strategy, it’s not something someone can really do for you. However, if you don’t have a marketing manager or team you can work with internally, then a marketing strategist will be able to help you clarify the key points – after which they can certainly write up the marketing plan document itself if you wish.

You need: a marketing strategist

I need someone to write my newsletter

This could be something a copywriter would handle for you. It’s not all that different to website content. Certainly if all you’re looking for is the written text for your newsletter, then that’s fine – and we do look after newsletters for a few clients. But if you want the whole thing designed up too, it may be beyond the scope of a writer, depending on their skill set. And if you’re getting into full service email marketing – including strategy, delivery and analytics – then a specialist email marketing agency is almost certainly your best bet.

You need: an email marketing specialist

For most other things that you might need written for your business, you’ll find a copywriter should be able to help. Our core service offering covers website copy, blogging and video / animation scripts. But we also help our clients with everything from leaflets and brochures to email templates to LinkedIn profiles.

If you still aren’t sure who you need to help you with your project, let us know. If we can’t do it ourselves, we’ll almost certainly be able to refer you on to someone who can.

If you’ve ever been to a formal networking event, you’ll have had to do a 60 second pitch about your business. I’ve delivered hundreds of these so-called elevator pitches, usually off the cuff and often, if I’m honest, a little garbled. It’s not easy summarising who you are, what you do, who you work with and what you’re looking for in a mere minute.

That’s why at Entrepreneurial Spark they’re so insistent about practising your pitch over and over and over and over again. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to feel like it was a bit much, having to start every meeting and mentoring session with a pitching session. But as I mentioned in my recent blog post about what I learned during my time on the programme, it turned out to be one of the most important things I did there.

So how exactly do you go about writing the pitch? Here’s how I constructed mine, following Entrepreneurial Spark’s format of Hook – Problem – Solution – Traction – Ask.

TL:DR

Pitch step 01: HOOK

“Just do it. Every little helps. Finger lickin’ good. When it comes to creating powerful marketing copy for your business, you don’t need many words, just the right ones.”

How you choose to open your pitch will determine if people keep listening or switch off. A clever question, interesting fact or statistic, or something else a little quirky that will make people take notice is what’s required here. Remember always to think about your target audience and what will resonate with them.

Pitch step 02: PROBLEM

“There are over 200,000 words in the English language and the average native speaker has an active vocabulary of around 20,000. So how do you find the right words to describe what your business offers and make your brand stand out from the crowd?”

Here again it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client or customer and understand what the problem is from their point of view. I might be able to see that someone’s website content has syntax issues or lacks clear calls to action, but for them the problem is more likely to be, “How do I make people notice my business?” So that’s the problem I need to be talking about in my pitch.

Pitch step 03: SOLUTION

“I’m Rin Hamburgh and I love words. I’ve been a professional writer for 14 years and set up Rin Hamburgh & Co last year when I saw the need for reliable, top quality yet cost effective copywriting services. By bringing in my team of freelance writers on a project by project basis, I can keep costs reasonable while also meeting the tightest of deadlines.”

This is where you get to talk about your business and how what you do can genuinely add value for your target audience. My solution starts off by explaining who I am and what I do, and then goes on to give a bit of detail about how I do it. This kind of insight is really valuable when it comes to differentiating your business from your competitors.

Pitch step 04: TRACTION

“We work with anyone who can’t write, doesn’t enjoy writing or simply doesn’t have the time, and since our launch in August last year we’ve helped over 80 clients ranging from small businesses to household name brands improve their marketing copy.”

The next step is traction. This is a particularly important step for a start up – especially if you’re looking for funding – and is your chance to show that you’re already up and running and having some success. But it’s also a valuable section for more established businesses. Telling people that you’ve been going for 20 years or have worked with a number of well known brands gives you credibility and helps build trust.

Pitch step 05: ASK

“Now we’re ready to increase our capacity, so I’m looking for introductions to keen junior copywriters who can join our growing team. And of course, if you know anyone who is struggling to find the right words to make their brand stand out from the crowd, we’re always here to help.”

Finally, it’s really important that your pitch has a clear ask, especially in a formal networking situation. My pitch was aimed at fellow ESpark entrepreneurs, so it was less about sales and more about support – hence the request for leads for new copywriters. But you might be looking for an introduction into a particular business, referrals from within a certain industry or people to sign up to your newsletter or join a focus group to help you test a new product. The more specific you can be, the easier people will find it to help you.

Once you’ve written your pitch, go through it and try to cut out any unnecessary words or even whole sentences. You’ll need the overall word count to be less than 180 words, which is roughly how many you can fit into a minute without rushing.

Then all that’s left is to practice and practice and practice some more, until the words roll off your tongue and you feel comfortable delivering your pitch in any situation, even at short notice – like if you should happen to get stuck in a lift with your ideal client.

“What should I look for in a copywriter?” I was so pleased to be asked this question recently. It’s one I wish more people asked. After all, if you’re going to entrust the words that represent your brand to someone, you want to make sure they’re going to do a good job. But so few people do any real research before making their choice.

What is a copywriter?

First things first, let’s define what a copywriter actually is and does. And no, it’s nothing to do with helping businesses secure copyright for their products or ideas.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a copywriter as “someone whose job is to write the words for advertisements”. But that definition is pretty old fashioned and limited.

In fact, a good copywriter should be able to produce everything from website copy to blog posts, ad text, brochures, white papers, social media content, flyers, video scripts and more. Basically, if you need words for your business, go to a copywriter.

More than good grammar

So how do you tell whether someone is a good copywriter or not? Because it’s not as simple as being able to “write nicely”, or making sure the spelling, grammar and punctuation is right.

Those things are important, of course, but let’s face it – there are quite a few people who passed their GCSE English exams. Unlike brain surgery or advanced robotics, we all learn to write to some degree at school, which means plenty of people are more than capable of stringing a passable sentence together.

So, here’s what a copywriter needs to do for you…

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A good copywriter will draw out your message

The copywriting process begins during the briefing, when your copywriter should be able to go beyond what you’re telling them and ask the kind of questions that really get to the heart of what you’re trying to communicate.

A good copywriter will sell the benefits

Whether writing a simple flyer or a complex website, it’s about understanding your target audience and what benefits will help them make the decision to buy from you. Yes, you might sell the most sophisticated widgets in town, but if your customers care about the fact that those widgets will protect their kids or save them money on their water bill then that’s what you need to talk about first, not the flashy tech.

A good copywriter will guide people around your website

Focusing just on website content now, one really important issue is navigability. Having gained a visitor to your site, the last thing you want is for them to click away before they’ve found what they’re looking for. Having understood your target clients, a good copywriter will use each element of the text – especially on the home page and any other landing pages – to clearly and quickly funnel them to the most relevant part of the site for their needs.

A good copywriter will understand page furniture

Strictly speaking a magazine term, but one that can apply more generally across any published material, on or offline. From subheads and bullet points that break up copy and improve scannability, to eye-catching pull quotes and buttons that drive action, there’s a lot more to great copy than well written body text.

A good copywriter will use the right amount of words

Which is usually less than you’d think. A good copywriter isn’t enamoured with the eloquence of their own writing. They understand that the reader is busy and probably just needs to get to the point. Of course, there are exceptions – but a good copywriter will know that too!

If you’re planning on getting a professional in to help you with your marketing copy, do make sure you do a bit of digging to see whether they’ll be able to genuinely help you. Check out their qualifications, ask for referrals and most importantly, have a look at work they’ve already done.

Because if you pick someone who simply “writes nicely” and spells properly, you’re going to miss out. And I don’t want that for you, because your business is worth more than that and if you’re going to pay a professional, you need to know that they’re really good at what they do.

Making the decision to spend money takes some thought, and the more money involved, the more thought it needs. Assuming you’re not selling penny sweets, your clients and customers are likely to go through a journey something like this when it comes to their relationship with your brand:

Know – Like – Trust – Try – Buy – Repeat – Refer

This is a helpful way to think about your marketing, which should be meeting customers wherever they are along that path. And each stage will have a particular style of marketing that suits it. Although you’ll need to experiment to see what works best for your brand, here are a few ideas to get you started…

Know

Brand awareness is an important marketing goal but it can be hard to track ROI (return on investment). The key is to target fairly widely while keeping costs low. For that reason, social media is a good option at this stage. Make sure that you’re very clear about differentiating yourself from the competition, and be sure to clearly communicate your core brand values, benefits and so on from the outset.

Like

If you’ve done your client personas, you’ll know exactly what your target audience wants and needs, which means it shouldn’t be too hard to get them to like your brand. You can use pretty much any kind of media to engage your audience at this stage – blog posts, video, social – so long as it adds value for them. Creating personalised and segmented content will help get them to the like stage much more quickly.

Trust

People are far more likely to buy from you if someone they know or respect endorses you. Testimonials, case studies and referrals on platforms like LinkedIn can go a long way to building trust, so don’t neglect this aspect of your marketing. Establishing expertise is another important way to build trust, and this can be done very effectively via a blog or vlog, or by being quoted as an expert in relevant press.

Try

Promotional offers are a great way to get people to try your products and services, reducing the amount of thought they need to put into the transaction by reducing the price. But some brands prefer to avoid discounting as a strategy. In that case, you could offer a taster product or service. For example, free webinars or low cost workshops are a popular way for service businesses to get people trying what they have to offer. The equivalent in retail might be sample size perfumes.

Buy

This is the stage where you leave the realm of marketing, and step sideways into sales. But don’t ditch your marketing hat completely. If you’ve got a potential buyer who is wavering, you’ll need to support their transition to the sale by reinforcing all the messaging you’ve used in the stages leading to this moment, especially the ones around trust. That’s why testimonials on a sales pages are an absolute must.

Repeat

If you think that once people have reached the buy stage you can forget about marketing, I’m afraid you’re wrong! If you’ve spent all this time getting a client on board, it would be frustrating for them to disappear after one transaction. Capturing email data at this stage is vital so you can use it to follow up and ensure that the aftercare they get reinforces their great customer experience so far.

Refer

Getting referrals from happy clients is the holy grail of marketing, but most businesses forget to ask for them. There’s nothing wrong with a follow up email a week or two after a sale has been made or a job completed, checking on how everything is going, whether your customer would be happy to write a testimonial or refer you to someone they know who might be looking for something similar. You could even incentivise referrals, for example offering discounts to both parties for any work that comes from it.

Thinking through your customer’s buying journey like this will help you create the right message for the right stage, and should get more people to ‘buy’ and beyond. As always, experiment and don’t hesitate to ask for feedback when people reach the buy stage to find out what helped them along the way.