As a professional copywriter I'm going to let you in on a secret that will absolutely blow your mind and save you money instantly (although it could cost you in the mid to long-term).
Not every business needs a copywriter.
Here's the honest truth, no word of a lie, no spin, no exaggeration, no pulling the wool over your eyes. Here are seven great reasons NOT to hire a copywriter.
1. You have a lot of time on your hands
Surely everyone has enough time in their day jobs to blog daily, update web content on a regular basis, submit articles, write weekly emails to customers, respond to customer tweets, update their company Facebook status, write and distribute press releases, keep brochures new and relevant, update product descriptions to make them more saleable, add new product pages, write guides and articles to make sure customers have the latest information, ensure web copy is optimised correctly and implement a daily news feed? You have loads of time so you won't need the support of a professional copywriter.
2. You are already trained as a copywriter
You might be a copywriter or content editor within a business working full time producing their content. In that case you probably won't need any additional help when things get hairy, and you're probably already keeping up with best practice in content strategy and web copywriting so you probably won't need any support with training.
No doubt your organisation has fully bought into the need for investment in original content and gives you enough time and resource to do all this yourself - you may even have a large team of experienced writers to use so that you never feel overburdened with the sheer volume of work you have to produce. And they've obviously supported you by providing you with some clear brand strategy and content guidelines for all your work.
3. You don't have any budget for copywriting
Let's face it, when budgets get squeezed there's simply no point in investing in new content. After all, when finances are tight you just have to put up with your search rankings falling, getting less coverage through PR, sacrificing your blog followers, and not being competitive with companies that have chosen to carry on investing in content. You recognise the fact that, although good content is crucial to almost every aspect of online marketing, you'll probably be able to make up for it by er... cold calling? Print advertising? Trade shows?
4. The words on your website, brochure etc simply don't matter
Perhaps you have a business that doesn't need powerful words to communicate with customers? It's all done through images, hypnotic symbols in some kind of subliminal slide show. Maybe you only communicate through video or audio (and you happen to be an experienced scriptwriter so you don't need help with the words). Search engines and social media don't matter to you. You're going to do everything through animated gifs and high quality photography. Your customers will need no written information, no call to action - they will just KNOW what to do through the power of your visuals.
5. Your tone of voice is soooo unique
Your tone of voice, your personal writing style is so unique to you that there is no way on earth that anyone else could do it. Because obviously even the biggest stars write all their own stuff online: the celebrities, the Internet entrepreneurs, the personal brand name bloggers - they all do it themselves. Even busy managing directors, chairmen and women, serial business owners - they all make time to do all the writing for their companies/websites because it's about them isn't it?
There's no way they would consider using guest bloggers, ghostwriters or common or garden copywriters to create a detailed set of style guidelines and tone of voice samples and then take over the onerous task of creating great regular content on their behalf without anyone knowing the difference. Would they? Even when faced with the obvious cost savings of using someone cheaper than they are, these dedicated people carry on writing everything themselves.
6. You don't want any more customers
This one's easy. Your business has outgrown you - it's generating way more money than you know what to do with and, quite frankly, you don't want the hassle. Here's my advice: no new product pages, no sales presenters, no brochures and no press releases. Sack your copywriter and stop anyone in your organisation from writing anything new. If you stop writing about your new products or services, there's no way anyone is going to find out about them - hey presto! No new customers. Of course, you'll want to make sure you keep your existing customers happy so you'll need some communication with them, unless...
7. You want to start letting customers go
STOP COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS NOW! No emails, no tweets, no blogs and no articles. If your existing customers can't find out what's happening in your company, get interesting insight into your sector or communicate with you through social media then you'll soon meet your objective of shrinking your company. Good luck!