Think about all the things that your business needs to be written. From blogs to social media posts, landing pages to press releases, a sub-standard copy will only get you so far. Unless written well, a generic copy will not inspire customers to take action nor set your business apart from the rest. Ever thought of hiring a copywriting agency to do all the writing for you? And wondering how exactly such agencies work? In this article, we break down the process of working with a copywriting agency.
Step 1: Copywriting agency finds out more about your brand and goals
Giving a thorough brief to your copywriting agency is the most important thing you can do to ensure brilliant, effective copy.
What are you trying to accomplish with this new content? Is it to relaunch a product with new packaging, or educate customers about a new service? What sort of image do you want your new blog, product, or service to have?
It’s imperative that you brief the copywriting agency on what your brand is about, as well as the goals you hope to achieve through the project.
Step 2: Copywriting agency finds out more about your brand’s target audience
The only road to copywriting success is to be clear on your target audience. What are your customers’ demographics? What are their backgrounds?
Brief your copywriting agency on your customers’ needs, interests, and how they consume content. The more information you provide on your target audience, the better.
This helps the copywriting agency convey your messages better and address your audiences’ needs more effectively.
Step 3: Establish the type of content you want the copywriting agency to work on
The next part of the process is to get down to the nitty gritty of the project. Be sure to clearly explain all your requirements for the copywriting project.
Are you looking to commission a search engine-optimised (SEO) blog article or an electronic direct mailer (EDM)? Do you need copy to be written for your website or social media platform as well?
When deciding on the type of content that you want the agency to work on, ensure that it’s aligned with your brand and goals, and targeted at the right audience.
Learn more on what makes your website’s content so important.
Step 4: Finalise the brief with the copywriting agency
Finalising the brief is an important step as it outlines the deliverables, detailed requirements for the content, and a detailed timeline for content creation and publishing.
Before you finalise the brief with your copywriting agency, give them a chance to ask questions. Is there anything they need to clarify? Give them the opportunity to raise any suggestions as well.
The brief helps to align your expectations on what will be done by the agency. Having a detailed brief also helps to ensure that the content produced will meet your standards.
Step 5: Copywriting agency crafts a tone of voice and style guide (optional but recommended)
Do you wish for your business to sound more authoritative or playful? Would you like an upbeat, casual tone, or do you wish to sound more professional and matter-of-fact?
It would be good to give your copywriting agency tangible examples of what has worked for you, and those that did not. Alternatively, you can show them examples of what you’re aspiring towards.
This can help the agency craft a tone and style guide that helps to ensure consistency across all your created content.
While it’s optional to ask the agency for a tone and style guide, it can be useful for developing future content such as when you take content creation in-house.
Step 6: Execution and delivery by the copywriting agency
Once you’ve agreed on a deadline, leave the project in your copywriting agency’s good hands.
Based on your business’ tone of voice, the agency will start working on the first draft of the content.
Step 7: Review the copywriting agency’s content
Once the first draft is done, take some time to look through it to ensure that it meets your expectations. Provide useful feedback and request any changes where necessary.
If something isn’t quite what you’re looking for, share it with your copywriting agency. If you like something that the agency has done, you can also share a compliment so the agency has a better idea of what you desire.
Providing feedback on the agency’s work goes a long way in ensuring that future content produced will be aligned with your goals and expectations. This also helps to minimise changes for future content produced.
Step 8: Continuous refinement by the copywriting agency
Besides adding value for your target audience, digital content must perform well on search engines in order for them to find your business easily.
Amidst a competitive digital content landscape, you may wish to engage a copywriting agency to continuously optimise content based on insights from platforms like Google Analytics. These insights can tell you the kind of content that works best for your business.
The copywriting agency can also help you update your content with new information, which can help you increase your Google rankings.
When should you engage a copywriting agency?
Well-written, engaging content is central to any marketing campaign. However, finding the time to produce the content is a key challenge for any business owner and marketer.
If you’re wondering whether to handle the writing on your own or outsource the copywriting task, here’s a list of the pros and cons to consider.
| Handle the writing on your own | Engage a copywriting agency | |
| Pros | There’s no need to brief someone elseCan better ensure content is accurate, especially when technical understanding is required | Faster turnaroundProjects can be executed on a larger scale |
| Cons | Content may not be created based on best practicesDeadlines may not be met | May not have technical knowledge, especially for niche industries |
| Most suitable for | Projects that require technical understanding | Large projects with tight deadlines requiring quality writing |
More benefits of working with a copywriting agency
If you’re still undecided on whether to engage a copywriting agency for your project, read on to learn more about the benefits of engaging a copywriting agency:
1. Leave things to the experts, ensuring that you put out quality content
Everybody can write. However, the difference lies in how a professional copywriter can pull together an audience with his or her content.
Copywriting agencies come with a wealth of experience across different sectors and industries, allowing them to produce well-researched, authoritative copy across a range of media channels. They know what makes your customers decide to stay or leave your digital platform.
In addition, copywriters have the expertise in writing more interesting, engaging copy that will generate more interest.
Since copywriting agencies are external parties, they’ll be able to view your business from a customer’s perspective. This means that they can help simplify your business offerings in a way that’s more attractive for your readers and customers.
2. Free up more time to focus on your business
It can be almost impossible to ensure that every copywriting task is done well, especially if you’re running the marketing team or business on your own.
Copywriting requires a lot of time, thought, and effort in ensuring that what you’ve written is professionally done and is free of mistakes.
If you don’t have in-house copywriting specialists, consider engaging a copywriting agency. That way, you can focus on other critical aspects of your business such as researching your customers and acquiring more sales. Outsourcing tasks such as copywriting can help steer you towards making your business a greater success.
3. Communicate with consistency
In addition, a copywriting agency can help you craft quality content with a consistent tone of voice across your different digital sites.
This can help build consumer trust and loyalty over time, as your audience becomes more familiar with your brand.
Having a consistent tone of voice makes your content more powerful, and your brand more recognisable.