Those who own or run Small or Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) are prone to shortages in time as well as money. It’s difficult for them to produce their own marketing, or find the budget to hire a full-time marketing manager.
Is marketing an SME luxury?
When a manager does find a way to do the marketing herself, it often ends up costing more in time and frustration, than it would to hire someone else to do it. Or worse, it never gets completed.
But there is an alternative. Something better than longer hours at the office, or the stress of finding the budget to hire someone full time. You could go to an agency to do it for you. But better yet, you can hire a freelance copywriter at a fraction of the price.
Definition
Copywriting is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing.
I run into a lot of people that either don’t know the term, or don’t realize all the things a copywriter can do for them. So let’s quickly go over what copywriting is to avoid any confusion.
Wikipedia states: “Copywriting is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action. Copywriters help create billboards, brochures, catalogs, jingle lyrics, magazine and newspaper advertisements, sales letters and other direct mail, scripts for television or radio commercials, taglines, white papers, social media posts, and other marketing communications.”
Copywriters write the words that persuade people to take action – buy.
This is not to be confused with Copyright. From Merriam-Webster’s website, Copyright is: “The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (such as a literary, musical, or artistic work).”
I included this second definition because I sometimes get a momentary blank stare when I tell people that I’m a Freelance Copywriter. They’re usually trying to figure out how a person can make a living dealing with Copyrights.
Why Freelance?
I hope that clears up any confusion you may have about a copywriter. Now you may ask, why would someone work with a freelance copywriter when they can simply hire one full time? The answer is in the amount of marketing needed.
Many SMEs wouldn’t be able to keep a full-time copywriter busy. Others have one or more copywriters, but there are times when there’s too much work and a freelancer is hired temporarily. You simply use freelance copywriters for the projects you need as often as you need them.
Plus, most freelancers specialize in one or two specific areas of content writing. So if you need someone who’s really good at writing white papers or case studies, you can search for that specialty.
Test the Social Media Waters
Something else I often hear is that small business owners want to try their hand at social media. They know they should have a presence in social media but either don’t know how to start or just can’t get around to it. This is a perfect opportunity to use a freelance copywriter. You can give social media a try for a few months to see if it works for your business. The amount of investment is minimal.
As mentioned in the definition, there are a lot of marketing services that copywriters can provide. I will go over some of the main services in more detail in the next article.
This is the first of a series of short articles about copywriters and how they can benefit your business. The next article will focus on social media and mail outs to promote your business. That will be followed by articles discussing other types of content marketing that a copywriter can help you with.
Please feel free to comment. For any inquiries email me at dave@terratechcopywriting.com.