Why Your Web Project Desperately Needs a Professional Copywriter
Here are the Three Main Reasons You Should Consider Adding Copywriting Services to Your Next Website Design Project
It should be pretty obvious that we absolutely love what we do here at efelle. We live, breathe, and sleep all things web design, and we thrive on the creative thinking and problem solving processes that are part and parcel to the work we produce. We like to think our clients have a pretty good time, too, especially when it comes to reviewing designs and then seeing a brand new website come to life at the end of it all.
Of course, there’s a huge amount of work that’s required in between the design and launch phases; from the client’s perspective, most of that work has to do with content creation—aka “homework.”
No one likes homework, least of all our hard-working clients who already have enough on their plates with day-to-day business responsibilities. Having to create web content can disrupt their regular workflows and put pressure on already-stretched teams to go above and beyond their daily grinds.
Still, every single website project out there requires putting together and editing a good chunk of written text. After all, no self-respecting web agency would allow you to launch a website with lorem ipsum all over it.
Relatedly, lack of content is the single biggest reason projects around here experience launch delay. We’ve even started requiring that clients provide us with a certain amount of content before we put their site into development. We know it sounds a little tough, but we like to think of it as tough love—we want our clients’ new and beautiful websites to launch as much as they do.
Fortunately, there’s a very simple solution at hand that can help us all avoid the pitfalls of content-related project delays. Yep, you guessed it: It’s hiring a professional copywriter. Here are some of the benefits you’ll get from letting the pros do your homework for you.
A Good Copywriter Will Meet Your Content Deadlines to Help Get Your Website Launched According to Schedule
If it wasn’t obvious from this post’s intro, getting your content in on time is the number one reason we recommend that clients hire a professional copywriter. We can’t tell you how many fully constructed projects are sitting on our test servers, ready and waiting to get launched...if only they had the written content necessary to do so.
We totally get why a lot of clients choose to not hire a copywriter: It adds an extra cost to their project and they want to avoid the added expense. After all, they surmise, surely they (or someone on their team) will find the time to write the copy themselves.
But—as experience has shown us—it’s so much harder for the average small business to find someone internal to write their content for them than they may at first realize. And the longer the content “homework” gets put on the backburner, the longer their web project sits in waiting. And the longer the web project sits in the waiting, the higher the likelihood the company will miss out on prospective leads (especially if the company’s current website is out of date or if they don’t have a current website at all).
So while hiring a copywriter may come with an upfront cost, it can actually save your business both time and money in the long run; the quicker you get your site to launch, the quicker it can start earning money on your behalf.
And, of course, there’s also the reality that sometimes launch dates cannot get pushed back, whether because the client has stakeholders they need to answer to or because they want to show off their new, beautiful website at an upcoming trade show. Oftentimes, when these tight deadlines approach, the impulse is to throw “whatever” up onto the website instead of taking the time to write and enter carefully worded copy that’s suited to both brand voice and design. There’s clear danger with this strategy, too: As we’ll discuss below, it’s almost always obvious to the average user when content has been rushed—and making a bad first impression can set you back further than making no impression at all.
A Good Copywriter Will Ensure Quality and Consistency in Your Messaging
We say it all the time but we’ll say it again: First impressions matter. According to research, you have 5.59 seconds to make a positive impression on your site’s visitors via your web copy. If they don’t like what they read, they’re gone.
Our copywriting team will be the first to tell you that when companies don’t hire a professional to write their web copy, it shows. Among the biggest indicators are incorrectly spelled words (are you familiar with these common misspellings?) and consistency issues.
Consistency is a key player when it comes to establishing a brand voice. If you can’t nail the consistency game, your users will likely walk away with a confused impression of your brand. We all have different styles when it comes to writing, so if five different people have contributed to your site’s content, your users are going to know. (An exception may be made here for the blog since blogs, by nature, tend to have multiple contributors.)
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your current site’s copy when assessing for consistency: Does the copy flip flop between featuring the Oxford comma and not featuring the Oxford comma? Do hyphenated terms follow the same patterns throughout the site? Are headings all written in title caps or are some of them in sentence caps? Is the brand voice consistently formal or informal? Are word contractions used sometimes and avoided other times in ways that make sense?
A professional copywriter will help you say what you want to say in the way you want to say it, all the while consulting with your team to construct a cohesive brand narrative that gives your users a positive first impression of who you are and what you do.
A Good Copywriter Can Support Your Search Engine Optimization Goals
Though the search engine optimization landscape is always changing, one of the primary ways of scoring a high ranking on results pages—and, in turn, “getting found” on the web—remains offering viewers quality content.
Any good writer experienced in producing web copy will have foundational knowledge of SEO best practices and principles and will interweave this knowledge into the work they produce for your website. They’ll partner with you to understand the key words and phrases you’re trying to rank for and will help ensure these terms appear organically in your site’s copy and headings.
Additionally, keeping your website fresh and regularly updated signals to the search engines that your company is very much active and open for business—and the rankings will reward you for it. A great way to let search engines know your content is up to date is by posting to your company blog on a regular basis. At efelle, we offer ongoing blog copywriting services to help you do just this—not only making you look good in the eyes of the Google overlords, but also helping your team establish itself as thought leaders in your industry.
Our Industry-Leading Professionals Can Help with Your Content Creation Needs to Ensure Your Web Design Project Launches on Time
Don’t become a victim of the content “homework” trap. At efelle creative, we can connect you to the right copywriting professionals to make sure your web project looks good, sounds good, and launches according to schedule. Our team has a range of industry experience and will work with you throughout the entire writing and revision process to ensure the end result meets your high standards. Ready to get started? Call us at 206.384.4909 or reach out via our online contact form.