What is the job of a copywriter?
The short answer is ‘the copywriter is the guy who writes the things.’ I’m more of a digital type of guy, so for me, the things could include:
- Web or app copy
- Ongoing content like blogs
- Social media posts
- Video scripts
- Whitepapers
- Branding guidance
- Fortune cookies
- Voodoo curses
In other words, anything that’s going to be read by your audience, customers, victims, or clients should ideally pass through the hands of a copywriter.
I cover the major reasons for this in another blog; why you should trust your creative agency, but basically, there’s a huge difference between writing at people and writing for them. A good copywriter will know that difference.
Writing at an audience might make an impact, it might even cut through the noise and get their attention. But writing for an audience will bring them on board. It’ll inform, convince, inspire, and, ultimately, convert them.
Good writing can shock, appal and entice. But good copywriting can sell.
Where does a copywriter slot in?
I can, and have, come on board with projects at any stage. Sometimes all the strategy and planning has been completed by the time I even get wind of a job. A brief just lands on my desk telling me, ‘write the thing.’ I then write the thing and everyone cheers.
However, I tend to find it’s more effective when everyone gets involved as early as possible. A collaborative approach lets everyone have a say on where and how their impact can be maximised. It also lets a team come together and learn from one another, rather than just functioning like an assembly line.
Now, that sounds a bit happy-clappy, but let me give an example. I’m a long-form copy geek, never happier than when I’m sat hammering out another thousand-word magnum opus on the topic of pheasant farming or divorce law or something.
However, I’m also grizzled and cynical enough to know that getting people to take time out of their days to read something long is a big ask. So, by working with a digital strategist and social media bod, we can come up with a natural stream of content, with social and email marketing steering the audience towards that final big sell which gets them to convert.
Think of it like a boxer, dancing around the opponent and testing them with jabs, controlling the ring and guiding them to that knockout blow. You don’t have that degree of control unless everyone is working in tandem.
What have I learned so far?
When I came on board with Sookio in 2014, we were squatting in a little office out in the Fens, writing blogs about model trains for 50p and a Snickers apiece. Today, we’re sat in the heart of Cambridge offering all sorts of goodies to heavy-hitting international brands.
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t cool to have been a small part of that, and to have learned bags of stuff along the way. Pre-Sookio, my commercial copywriting background was exclusively in printed B2C stuff, so getting my head around SEO was like learning to walk again.
If you pressed me for three key takeaways, one for each year of my tenure, I’d run with these:
Never try to second-guess the client: If it’s in the brief, I’ll write it. If it’s not, I’ll trust my experience and judgement. Trying to read a client’s mind and come up with something to appease them is only likely to get work torn apart by committee, or, worse still, the client will love it but it won’t perform in the marketplace, so their money has been wasted.
Read the rest of this post on the Sookio blog.