How To Choose Professional Copywriting Services

Using professional copywriting services can make a big difference to the results you get from advertising and web marketing. Yet for many small business, working with a copywriter is a new experience – so how do you decide which print, SEO or web copywriting professional to work with?
Don’t choose copywriting services until you’ve spoken with at least a few professional writers.
This will give you a idea of where they’re coming from, and what they can offer you. If you feel like you’re both ‘on the same page’, it’s good indication that the writer might be right for you.
Whether your project involves print advertising or web copywriting, there are certain questions your copywriter should raise – directly, or just in conversation, that will indicate your writer’s level of professionalism. Here’s just a few:
What is the project intended to achieve? What do you want the copy to do – get a direct response, raise awareness, direct people to a website?
Who is your audience? This is about more than demographics. A copywriter should work to find out what really distinguishes your audience. The better the writer knows them, the better he or she can write for them.
What is your Unique Selling Proposition? What sets you apart? What do you offer that know one else offers. As writers, we often have to dig deep to find out what you do differently.
What are the benefits of your products or services? Once we know what makes you different, we can use the benefits your business offers to back up the ‘sale’.
These question can be put in a number of ways. And if you decide to go ahead and hire a writer, they’ll no doubt talk to you about them in more detail. (Remember, the more you can help with the answers, the better your copy will be).
Do you need someone with professional copywriting experience in your industry?
In another article, I talk about why it’s not so important for your writer to be experienced in your industry. Rather, what you should be looking is a writer experienced in the medium you need copy for.
Radio, print, web, TV all call for often starkly different approaches. A fantastic radio copywriter might have little idea of the specific needs of web copywriting.
Look at their work, but pay more attention to references specifically related to their copywriting services.
The best copywriters are able to adjust their tone and style according to the task at hand. Looking through a writers portfolio, you might find work that really doesn’t ‘match’ the style your looking for. But just because what you want isn’t represented, it doesn’t necessarily mean the writer isn’t able to deliver.
What’s important here is how their clients felt about the work. Glowing testimonials and references are a good guide as to whether the writer actually delivered on what the client wanted.