We believe we need to be involved in every part of our company’s processes…and then… things get really busy! It’s not uncommon for founders and C-Levels to want to be involved in the content creation process, and the truth is, we want you to be involved! You’re the experts and you know more about your business than anyone else. Your insights are incredibly valuable. 

But, it’s also not uncommon for you – C-Level person – to become bottlenecks in the content creation process. This could be for a variety of reasons, like wanting to write content, but you aren’t able to get enough written for your content team to edit. Or maybe it’s because of the approval process, and with things getting so busy, there isn’t enough time to approve content waiting to be published. 

Whatever the reason, we’ve got some great (and relatively simple) tips to help you keep the content creation process moving smoothly, while still getting to be involved! 

Think ahead & be prepared

If you have a good content team, they’ll be asking for information from you and handing in tasks well before they’re due. This is where backlogs become crucial. 

Even before starting to work with a content team, it can be helpful to start a backlog of ideas, and then continue to build it once working with your content creator. 

If content marketing is built on consistency, to build trust with potential and existing customers, the importance of always having a steady flow of valuable content being published becomes clear. 

Having a backlog and a regular flow of ideas coming in ensures that you’re always prepared and never scrounging for what to write about, or what the next video should be about. This can help prevent bottlenecking because your content team isn’t waiting around for you to approve new ideas or tell them what topic to focus on next.

Be realistic about your capacity

We can get excited when we’re starting to activate our new content strategy. And it’s wonderful to be excited about it! But you also need to be realistic about your capacity, in terms of being involved in the process. 

You need to think about your average week and your busiest week. These will help you determine how much “free” time you have, or time you can set aside for being a part of the content creation process.

Overestimating or underestimating your capacity can easily cause you to become a bottleneck. Remember, you can also delegate tasks – it can be helpful to ask your team members about their capacity. 

Once you’ve determined how many hours per week you can dedicate to the content creation process, you can break up that time into days and tasks. 

Setting aside time each week

Blocking off bits of your calendar to focus on the content creation process is really important. This helps to make sure that you aren’t booking other meetings at those times or getting swept away in other tasks – negating your content and content team. 

It can feel challenging at first, but it will become a habit and it gets easier, we promise! The important thing here is to block off that time in your calendar and stick to it. 

We usually, recommend that you pick 2-3 days a week where you can make some time for content. Also, note that blocking off your calendar helps, but it’s also beneficial to outline what you plan to do in that time.

For example

Monday 9:00 am-10:00 am: 10 min filling backlog, 50 min. writing LinkedIn posts
Tuesday 11:00 am-12:00 pm: giving feedback, 
Thursday 2:00 pm-3:00 pm: 30 min writing blog post, 30 min giving feedback

Writing can be anything from writing a blog post or social media posts for your personal account. Feedback will be you setting aside time to give your content team constructive criticism and filling the backlog is to make sure you aren’t losing sight of great ideas and you always have something to create content about. 

Remember to let your content team know about your new schedule! This way they can plan their creating content based on the days you’ll be providing feedback. 

Who’s best at what?

Are you a good writer? Should you be the one commenting on grammar? Or are you more of a subject expert?

Know what you’re good at and be realistic about it. This combines a bit of the delegating tip coming up next, where it’s really important to have the right people in your team performing the right functions. 

A great way to get started with this is to call a meeting and have a discussion about content creation, about your content strategy, and determine who has which strengths – then you can play to those. You can even include your content team in this meeting as a great way for them to be introduced to your internal teams and get their perspective on the different skill sets. 

Delegate tasks to the experts

It can feel like you need to have your hands in everything for it to go right, but delegation can be a more effective way of managing your content creation. You’re likely already delegating other tasks to other people in your team, so find out who in your team can be helpful to the content creation process. 

You could choose someone from your internal team who provides feedback on all content – or you can even choose people from different teams to leave feedback on specific topics (as they’re the experts!)

What we mean to say here is – if you have a blog post about software development, you can choose someone in your dev team to be the person who provides feedback on that. If it’s a design social post, ask a designer. A piece of content about processes – ask one of your project managers. 

Remember, delegating is great, but those team members’ capacity does too – which is where we come back to the previous tips. If you do decide to delegate to experts in your team, make sure you know their skill set, and their capacity, and that they’re scheduling time in their calendars to manage these tasks. 

And, again, let your content creators know what that schedule is, so they can make sure there is always something ready for feedback on feedback days. 

Battle the bottleneck

You’ve spent time and money on a great content strategy and fantastic foundational documents – now you need to have it all activated. This is where your content marketing really begins to take shape. But it could all be in vain if you become a bottleneck in the content creation process. 

Being realistic about your capacity, setting aside time for your content tasks, delegating to the best team members, and knowing your teams’ skills are all great ways to prevent bottlenecking. There’s no need to feel overwhelmed, or disappointed that you haven’t managed to do what you said you would. If you give yourself and your team some grace – think critically about the process, your skills, and your capacity, activating your content strategy can be butter-smooth.

Yes, it’s a made-up name – but aren’t all job titles? We decided to start calling ourselves UX Messaging Experts because using titles like “copywriter”, “content creator” or “content writer” doesn’t even cover half of what we do at writelingo. 

So if you’ve ever wondered what the “F” a UX Messaging Expert actually does, we’ve got you covered. 

UX Messaging Experts – what we actually do

As UX Messaging Experts, we use research, best practices, and design knowledge to ensure that users understand what actions you want them to take when using your product or solution. 

All the while, we’re ensuring that your brand voice doesn’t get lost in the mix. If you’ve heard us shout anything, it’s probably “consistency is key to building trust with potential customers and keeping existing users”. 

Simply put, a UX Messaging Expert makes sure that users are delighted, feel comforted knowing they can trust your brand, and are able to navigate through your product or solution. 

User Experience

If you’ve met our founder, you know she often talks about the fact that so many companies spend their budget on development and design, but then try to skimp out on their copy. Thing is – she has a point! 

Building a new solution or product means that your users need to understand how to navigate to get from whatever your point A is, to your Point B. Point B, is, of course, the action you want them to take in the end – whether it’s signing up for or onboarding to your app or making purchases. 

Designers, generally, do a great job of using some UX best practices to make products and solutions easy to navigate, but where they often miss the mark is the copy they’re putting into their CTAs or notifications, for example. 

Some actions are intuitive if designed well – but not all. There are a lot of cases where users don’t understand what to do next or what steps to take to complete an action. This is where you need a UX Messaging Expert.  

What services do UX Messaging Experts offer?

Well, we do a big mix of different tasks, but all with the same ultimate goal – making sure that your users love your product and know how to use it!

UX website and app audits

This is where we go through your website or your app and determine points of friction. These are areas in which you could improve the UX for your users. We always provide recommendations and suggestions for how to improve them. 

In-app copy and strings

Working closely with designers and developers, we determine what each step of the customer journey is (or should be). From there we write the copy in your app including calls to action and notification strings, while providing suggestions to designers on changes that need to be made to certain assets or components. We use tools like Figma and Confluence to make sure that there is seamless cooperation between our team and yours. 

Brand foundational documents

Creating the foundations for your brand, ensuring that any and all customer-facing content, including your product, are all in line with your branding. These include:

• Logo & colours
• Brandbook
• Tone of Voice documentation
• Brand Persona
• Buyer Personas

Writing targeted content

Of course, we write and manage company blogs and can even help with writing your social posts. But primarily, we’ll use your foundational documents to write engaging and targeted copy, speaking your ideal customers’ language to increase conversion rates. 

Content strategies

Building a strong strategy is the best way to ensure that your content is consistent – not just with your brand, but also in a timely way. It’s important to understand that all your goals should be attainable and that the way to choose to achieve them are manageable for you and your team. For instance – do you really need to be posting on every social media channel?! Probs not. 

C-level LinkedIn Makeovers

Making your company trustworthy through your brand and content is just one part of the bigger picture. Your C-levels must look like people who can be trusted – also that they actually look human! Having your C-levels makeover their LinkedIn profiles is a great way to engage a wider audience, let them know what your company is doing, and is a great avenue for bringing in quality leads. 

We don’t do it all, and that’s ok

It’s always easier to focus on what we do best, and then do that really really well. Performance marketing and other types of marketing have their place, and we often cooperate with agencies or internal teams who do these – but it’s not what we do. We’re your one-stop shop for content marketing!

We’re wordsmiths, with vast experience in product design, product development, and project management. Building brands is an important part of what we do, but more than that – we activate those brands! Having all the documents in the world won’t bring you clients an

Step 1: Organise your documentation

Make sure you have all the important information you need. Rather than sharing pages and pages of old content, or examples of other companies’ content you like – make sure that you have a succinct organized foundational documents. 

These will usually include your brand persona, buyer personas, tone of voice documents – pretty much anything that will inform your copywriter exactly who you are, who you’re targeting, and what language they should use when writing for you. 

This will be handed over to the copywriter once you agree on the project scope and pricing, so they can get started. 

Step 2: Develop a brief

Briefs are one of the most important elements of smooth cooperation. The brief lets your copywriter know exactly what your expectations are for the project and what your goals are for that particular piece of content. 

This is crucial to reducing how long feedbacking takes. If a copywriter is 100% clear on what you want, they can ensure no time is wasted creating copy that isn’t even close to what you were expecting. 

Step 3: Learn your copywriter’s rates

There are several different ways that copywriters can charge for their services. The most common are:

• Per character
• Per word
• Per hour
• Per project

Per project is usually the best option, as it’s likely to get you a better quality of work (from our experience we notice that the more experienced copywriters tend to charge per project). 

If they charge hourly, you can also ask, on average, how long certain tasks take them. This will help you gauge what it could cost depending on the project you need to be done. 

Step 4: Get an estimate 

Even when copywriters charge per word or character, the actual number can vary. This can be because a piece of content is perhaps more complicated (very technical) or requires a lot of research. This is where the brief will help you get a more accurate estimate for your project. 

Some tricks for reducing the cost of estimates is to include the following in your briefs:

• Links to research documents so your writer doesn’t have to spend time searching
• A rough skeleton of how you imagine the document
• Any keywords you want to be included

Step 5: Accept the estimate and get started

At this point, you’ll either accept the estimate…or you won’t. Assuming you do accept it, of course, you’ll now be ready to kick off your project. Remember, your copywriter already has the brief (which should also include the deadline). All you need to do is give the green light, and they will get going. 

Step 6: Feedbacking and iterations

Your copywriter will usually provide you with some kind of agreement in terms of their practices – including feedback. Some will offer 1 rewrite, and others will offer 2. Do not expect unlimited rewrites, and if you do want a more iterative approach, expect that to be reflected in the cost. 

Copywriters can offer you 1 re-write and then charge hourly after that. This means that they create the document, you have an opportunity to leave your feedback and request any changes and then hand it back to them. They will take on all the feedback, and make all the changes – and the document should then be ready. If additional changes are needed, then those can cost you at an hourly rate. 

This might sounds scary, but it shouldn’t be. Experienced copywriters will get it right 99% of the time after that one round of feedback (assuming the feedback is constructive). 

To save time, we often use the method of using google docs and comments in those docs. Your comments and suggestions go directly into the document and then we can all view the changes together. It’s the easiest way to collaborate, and the most efficient. 

What else should I consider?

There are a couple of other things to consider when getting started with a copywriter. Things like:

Are calls included in the cost of the project? 

Most copywriters will not include them once the project has kicked off. So you shouldn’t expect to have multiple feedback calls while working on projects unless your copywriter explicitly outlines that this is included in the price of their service. 

How do I leave good feedback? 

Constructive feedback is vital to the efficient completion of a project. Giving actionable comments is the best way forward. This means, rather than saying “this isn’t good” – explain why it’s not good, or what you would rather them include there instead. This isn’t you writing for them, this is just you taking the time to explain. Taking those few minutes can save you hours of iterations.

Are you ready to start with your copywriter?

Getting started with a copywriter, if you’re looking for quality work and efficient completion, does require some preparation on your end. But the time you put into that prep will save you loads down the road. A lot of the preparation, like foundational documentation, can be used over and over again – you can hand the same documents to different copywriters. 

The trick to all of this, really, is just finding the right copywriter for you. Someone who really knows your industry gets your business, and someone you can see yourself working with. An experienced copywriter will take you through these steps, and in some cases will even help you along the way by offering consultation or even starting by developing your foundational documents for you.

The copywriting secrets are out! Good copy requires some basics that you cannot ignore. As a writer, I often have these “Oh my gosh, I love this,” moments when I go to a company’s website and see some clever wordplay or some headline that really catches my eye. While, of course, I’ve also had the opposite reaction to some copy…cringe-worthy words that have just been thrown on a page, as if there is no sense or purpose. 

From our experience of writing for companies in the tech industry, as well as some other industries, we’ve compiled a list of 6 secrets to make sure your copy does what it’s supposed to do – informs, provides value and attracts potential clients. 

Share up-to-date buyer personas

You should always take an iterative approach to your buyer personas. They will likely have changed, in some way, since the first day they were developed. This is why it’s not only important to share your buyer personas with your copywriter but to ensure that your personas are up-to-date. 

Over time, with more data collected, and deeper insights into your business and your customers, you learn more about who your target audience is, should be, and who you’d like to reach out to. The ideas you might have had in the first moment you created the personas should develop into something richer and more valuable. 

Sharing these personas, which have been updated, with your copywriter ensures that they understand who your target audience is, and who they are trying to attract. 

Utilize your TOV documentation

I guess the first question here is…Do you have a Tone of Voice document? If you don’t, get one! This should outline everything from the words you like and dislike, to how serious or funny you want your communications to be. 

Copywriters need to know in what tone they should write. Understanding your buyer personas is one part, but the TOV documentation will inform your copywriter exactly how they should write. Do you use “Hey” or “Hello Mr./Ms.” to start off emails? Do you want to avoid a word like “lucrative”, because it sounds too harsh, and prefer using terms like “profitable” or “advantageous” instead? 

Your TOV documentation helps to ensure that no matter who is writing copy for your company, brand, product or service, they are always consistent across the board. In some companies, there are multiple people and teams reaching out to clients or customers – having that consistency in communications helps to build trust in your brand. 

Simply put, the TOV documentation is great for all teams, from customer support to sales. And it is essential when you want your copy to be really impactful. 

Provide a detailed brief

This should include everything from how many words you expect a document to be, to which English spelling you prefer. All details required to successfully write for the asset you want to create. 

The more detailed the brief, the better the results you’ll get. If you have ever given someone a brief and got back a piece of writing that surprised you…chances are your brief wasn’t clear enough. You want to make sure you include everything you feel needs to be included in the asset – whether is a landing page, infographic or feature sheet. 

Reduce the risk of surprises, or wasted efforts and money. Plus copywriters will really love you for this! There are few feelings for a copywriter, as satisfying as receiving a clear and concise writing brief that leaves no question as to what is expected from you. 

Create a copywriter’s deck

Most companies create decks for business development or for investors, but not for much else. We’d argue that there is a lot of value in having these for contractors too. Especially for copywriters. It’s a place where you can include details like your buyer personas, and your TOV documentation, but also anything else important about your company or services that you want to be highlighted. 

Your business value proposition is always good to share in this deck, as it’s an easy way for copywriters to immediately understand your USPs (Unique Selling Points) and what pains your product or service alleviates. 

In some cases, companies like to throw loads of long PDF documents at new copywriters, saying “read this, and you’ll get a good idea of who we are and what we do.” Realistically, why waste so much time and effort? 

If you take the time to compile all the important parts into a deck, you’re not only saving your copywriter hours of trying to read between the millions of lines, but you’re also ensuring that they are catching on to what you believe are the most crucial bits. 

Give constructive and timely feedback

We cannot express this enough! If a copywriter hands in an asset they’ve written, give them constructive feedback. Telling someone “This isn’t good,” “This is garbage,” “I love this,” and “Change this to something else,” is not helpful to anyone. 

We need to ensure we are being clear and concise about our expectations. It might feel like you don’t have the time to provide such detailed feedback, but we can promise you that it’s completely worth it. 

Most copywriters love what they do and love learning from each task they complete. By taking the time to give detailed feedback the first time, you can be certain that you won’t see the same mistakes again, or you’ll see much fewer of them. 

This means that, just like training a new employee, you’re helping to train your copywriter in the way you want to see things written about your company, product, or service. Each task they do for you will only get better and better because they know what you like and don’t like, and also understand WHY you like or dislike certain things. 

We also mention “timely” in this section, because most often, a copywriter will provide you with a “re-write” or “edits” – where once you’ve provided feedback, they can jump in and make all the changes. We suggest ensuring that this feedback is given within the week, and no more than within the month. Past that, your copywriter may not have the time anymore, having moved on to other projects – and really, it’s just about courtesy. If you value the time of your copywriter, providing timely feedback ensures they’ll get your document edited, proofed, and publish-ready as soon as possible. 

Hire an experienced copywriter

More and more, we’re seeing job postings for junior copywriters. And we aren’t saying that no one should hire a junior – of course, all great copywriters had to start somewhere. However, we get the sense that some companies don’t understand how important it is to work with someone who is experienced. 

If your budget is tight, consider what your priorities are – which assets are more important than others. It’s not just about throwing loads of content out at the internet and seeing what sticks. Copywriters with experience, especially in your particular industry, will already have some clues as to what will make the most impact and how to write in such a way that your target audience feels it resonates with them. 

We’re all for giving new copywriters an opportunity to hone their skills, but when time and money are at stake, you get more bang for your buck by hiring someone who has a proven track record for their copywriting expertise, than trying to save a few pennies by hiring someone less experienced. 

These secrets are now…not so secret

All in all, there are some key ways you can ensure that the copy you’re having written really makes an impact. It may seem daunting at the start – that you’ll have to put in all this extra time and effort to create detailed briefs or a copywriter’s deck. The truth is, putting that bit of time and effort in now will save you loads of it later on. 

With clarity of your product and services, comes a more informed approach to writing your texts. It means fewer iterations for edits and re-writes, a better understanding of what words you like and dislike, and overall a more targeted path to attract your buyer personas. 

We’ve discussed in more than one article that not all copywriters are equal – but usually, we’re referring to the industries that they have experience writing for. This article will focus on the fact that there are so many different kinds of assets, and that having someone who is great at writing articles might not mean they are the right copywriter for your website or landing page copy. 

Some copywriters can do it all, and are really good at it! But if you’re looking for someone to write the text for your new website, or a new landing page you’re creating, you want to make sure that they have examples of this kind of work in their portfolio.

Articles and blogs are not always indicative 

Writing long-form texts like a blog or white paper requires a whole different set of skills than the ones needed to write good website copy. Of course, many of the skills are useful in both scenarios – the ability to understand your target market, knowing your brand tone of voice, ability to highlight your USPs. But where websites and landing pages are concerned, there are some other important skills that you need. 

Writing articles for a blog is a challenge in itself. The research, skeleton, making sure you’re achieving what your client wants the article to achieve. But with these articles, you can generally follow some kind of template. Introduction, Body paragraphs, Conclusion.

Website copy is a horse of a different colour

Finding a copywriter who has experience with writing text for websites means they should have some understanding of design principles, UX writing, and readability. 

Often the best text is clear and concise. Hitting on all the key points to make sure visitors understand exactly why they’re on that webpage. But it needs to look good too!

Making copy easy to read in an article is a different task altogether. We, copywriters, use tactics like;

• Headlines, 
• subheadings, 
• bullet points or 
• numbered lists

to break things up and help guide the readers’ eyes. But on a web page, we have different sections in the design that do that for us.

What makes website writing unique

The key here is ensuring the webpage has all the right info while making the copy look good. Finding a balance in the text and making decisions on character limits for different sections are just some of the ways we ensure high readability. 

This includes things like, in a section of 3 blocks side by side, making all the copy the same or similar length.

Or ensuring that the most important headlines have the punchiest text, and fit within a character limit so that they don’t awkwardly scrawl onto more than one or 2 lines.

It isn’t an easy task making different pieces of copy the same length. It takes exceptional skill, a great thesaurus, and genuine creativity to be able to do this. While, of course, also making everything SEO-friendly!

How do I find someone to write copy for my website?

We always recommend looking at someone’s portfolio. Ideally, they’ve written copy for websites in your industry – for instance, if you are a Fintech company, you want a copywriter who understands Fintech. 

However, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker, especially if you see that there is something in the portfolio of the copywriter that catches your eye. 

The recommendation we make is the following: 

1. Look at the portfolio of the copywriter to see if they’ve written copy for full websites or landing pages
2. Determine what you like about their writing, and what you’d want done differently for your project
3. If they have website copy in their portfolio, but it’s not your same industry, look at some of their other work – perhaps they do have experience in your industry, just not in writing website copy for it 

Power of the portfolio

Handing copywriters tasks to do often doesn’t actually show the skill of the writer and will rule out some of the best copywriters. Experienced copywriters will pass on projects or employment that asks for tasks, especially unpaid tasks. 

Too many companies have used this as a tool to get free work out of unsuspecting copywriters. Also, more experienced copywriters won’t waste their time – that’s why they’ve taken the time and put in the effort to create a portfolio!

The best way to determine if someone is the right writer for you is to see examples of other projects they’ve worked on. 

In some cases, copywriters can’t put all of their work in their portfolio, so you can always reach out and ask if they have examples of something closer to what you’re looking for. 

“Do you have any examples of full website copy?”

“Can you share any examples of something you’ve written in HealthTech?”

Copywriters are proud of the work they do, but because of, sometimes, strict NDAs they are unable to publicly post certain pieces of content. Also, their portfolio might be targeting a specific industry, so they’re only sharing work relevant to that target. 

It never hurts to ask for additional samples if you really like someone’s work. Chances are they will have folders upon folders of work they’re more than happy to share with you, privately in an email.

Having to start from scratch can be daunting. But maybe you don’t need to scrap everything you’ve got. Sometimes it can actually be faster, and better, to find an experienced copywriter to revamp your existing copy. 

This works for all kinds of content

Revamping old copy can work with almost any piece of content, whether it’s your website, a whitepaper or even a feature sheet. 

How much copy there actually is doesn’t matter. Usually, we say the more you have, the better. It just gives us copywriters more to work with – but we expect to be adding copy to any content we work on anyways. 

Why would we re-vamp old copy?

In a lot of cases, when building a whole new website, for example, some of what you already have there can be really useful. Chances are your USPs and the benefits to your customers haven’t changed too much. 

This means we can easily just improve the copy you already have, re-organize it, and put it in a new design so that it feels new. Of course, this doesn’t work for every project, but in a lot of cases, it can be a great way to enhance your website’s presence without having to start from scratch. 

Your copywriting brief should clarify details

If you do have some new USPs or have discovered some new benefits to the users, the best is to include these details in your copywriter’s brief. This way they can make sure that those are highlighted in the refreshed copy. 

The same goes for old USPs, features or anything that is no longer relevant or offered by your company. You can leave notes in your brief to let the copywriter know that they should remove these, or replace them with something else. 

SEO opportunities

Re-vamping old copy is also a great way to take advantage of new SEO keywords. Perhaps your site wasn’t search optimised before, or maybe the keywords you included before don’t have the same impact anymore. 

Or as mentioned previously, you might have new USPs that you want to highlight, which might mean some new keywords you could include. 

Re-vamping old copy is a great way to add in some new keywords and re-evaluate some of the ones you have in there currently. Make the most of the opportunity to revitalize both your copy and your SEO. 

Re-vamping isn’t for everyone, but you should still ask about it

Refreshing old copy isn’t always the best option, but it’s definitely one worth exploring with your copywriter. In some cases it won’t work – maybe too much information has changed, or perhaps you don’t have enough information in the content to work with. 

However, it’s always a good idea to ask a copywriter if they’re open to doing a quick audit to determine if it is possible and worthwhile. 

Writing copy from absolute scratch can take longer, and can be more challenging – whereas re-vamping half-decent copy you already have can save time and be a good way to get some great copy faster. 

You can always get in touch if you want to find out if some of your old content can be rejuvenated and brought back to life!

You’ve got a photo of yourself in a great suit on your LinkedIn personal profile. Your banner image shows off your business USPs or tagline. You’ve got some basic info filled out. 

But is this showcasing the real you?

Often, we think that because it’s a photo of ourselves, obviously, it’s us. But, we often forget to look at our profiles from the perspective of a stranger. 

Why do you have a LinkedIn account?

One of the first questions we need to ask ourselves is – “Why do I have a LinkedIn personal profile?”

There are a variety of reasons why you have your personal account. In a lot of cases, you probably tick off more than one of the following:

• Looking for new employees or for employment
• Connecting with people in your industry (or adjacent industries)
• Reading the latest business insights being shared
• Because you were told you should have an account

Regardless of the reason, connecting with others is sort of the whole point. But will people want to connect with you?

Robots, everywhere

When we say robots, we don’t mean actual robots. We mean those annoying spammers whose repetitive posts you see, or whose generic messages end up in our inboxes. You know the ones. 

Now…imagine you try to connect with someone, and they think you’re one of those robots! 

Oh no, but how could that be?!

Making people want to connect

In the office, you’re able to show off your personality and people learn to trust you because of the interactions they have with you. Some of us even like to think we can just tell from a first glance what kind of person we’re dealing with. 

Most of us love to connect with like-minded individuals. Often, the foundational traits we look for are honesty and trustworthiness. But online, we don’t have the same opportunities as we do in person. 

You can create those opportunities by making sure your personal profile is a genuine representation of you. 

If you don’t usually wear a suit, don’t wear one in your profile picture. Instead of a company slogan in your banner image, put an image that means something to you. 

Filling out your LinkedIn personal profile

In person, we can sit face-to-face and ask questions/ get answers. But online, people want to know something about you before they hit that connect button. 

This is why filling out key sections of your profile is so important.

You should go through each section of your LinkedIn profile, and determine if you have something you can put there. If you do – you should! Education, languages, even your summary. These are all key areas that will help you build trust and start bringing in connection requests. 

If you see a LinkedIn personal profile that really catches your attention, think about which elements that person has included that you might also include in your own. Is their summary easy to read and interesting? Maybe their job experience section is filled in with bullet points.

Whatever elements that catch your eye in someone else profile will likely also catch the eye of others too.

LinkedIn workshops

Workshops are a great way to find out what your profile is missing. When you work with people experienced in using LinkedIn for marketing purposes you gain different insights than if you just read articles online or follow guidelines you googled. 

It can be more than just changing your profile picture – even if that’s usually a great place to start. 

Social media is ever-changing, and LinkedIn is becoming more important for both individuals and businesses when it comes to creating professional connections. It’s important to keep up and stay relevant – while also being able to build trust.

The chicken and egg paradox is as old as time…probably. When working in marketing and content creation, we’re often met with a similar paradox. What should come first, copy or design?

The absolute truth

Depending on how experienced your copywriter is, it really won’t matter too much which comes first. Anyone who is considered a wordsmith can manage to fit the key details, in a catchy way, within guidelines set by the designers. 

If you have a less experienced copywriter, having the designs could also help to guide them. 

Needless to say, there is no one right way to do anything. But there are better, more efficient ways to do things. 

The better way

Some might disagree, but we believe the best way to go about creating a landing page or website is to start with the copywriter. 

An experienced copywriter will already have experience working with designers (some might have even been designers or taken design courses). This means that they can lay out a google doc in such a way that it informs the designer how they imagine the page should be laid out – using the best practices they’ve learned from past tasks. 

It’s also helpful when the copywriter leaves notes for the designer, this can be in the form of a comment in the doc. Designers, of course, have the final say in the layout, but it doesn’t hurt to be guided a little bit by the copywriter so that you can be certain the right information is going in the right order. 

Why write copy first?

The point of your landing page, or website, is to inform potential customers about what you do. So naturally, the copy is what will educate them – highlighting your unique selling points and demonstrating the benefits of your product or service. 

Rather than constraining what copy should be included on the page, it’s usually more beneficial to constrain the design (not that the design is really constrained by the copywriter though). 

When copy is written well, and by someone who is experienced with creating texts for content like webpages, infographics or anything else that requires heavy design, you will gain the benefits of their understanding of design and how to improve readability. 

Copy challenges

When those of us who aren’t writers think about copy, we just figure writers can throw a few words together and there you go. 

Or sometimes we’re even told the copy on the page doesn’t really matter…but we know that is never the case!

When writing copy for content like a website, or infographic, we not only need to include all the important information. We also need to:

• Make sure that all copy sections (like in a row of 3, for example) are the same length
• Include buzz words or SEO keywords
• Fit character limits for sections
• Make headings catchy
• Keep to the tone of voice of the brand we’re writing for
• Ensure the flow of the copy makes sense and guides the reader
• Consider where and when to include CTA (calls to action)

For projects that require multiple pages, we can also be involved in the architectural decisions (what goes where and what is the best order). 

Waterfall or Agile?

When working with a copywriter and designer we always recommend taking an iterative approach. Again, the more experienced writers and designers you work with, the fewer iterations you’ll need to get the job done. 

Step 1: 
First comes the copy, with some design guides in the doc. 

Step 2: 
Then the designer takes that copy and the comments and creates their design. 

Step 3: 
From there, depending on your agreement, one of the 2 will implement the copy into the design. 

Step 4 & 5: 
The copywriter and designer should have direct communication. This way they can determine if some of the copy needs to be modified, or if the design can be modified to optimize the readability. 

This final step shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours if both people can set aside the same time and just go through the final draft.

The well-versed will say “copy-first”

There are so many different ways you can go about completing projects like websites, landing pages, feature sheets or infographics. Any design-heavy project, really. 

From our vast experience, we find that copy-first is the best route. It ensures that all the most important information is displayed and then through design, highlighted. The ultimate key in all this is to ensure your copywriter and designer have direct access to one another on a messaging tool like Slack. This will speed up the process if time is of the essence (it usually is). 

Most tech companies have a product or service they want to sell, but there is a tendency to want to focus on the technology itself. It’s not that you shouldn’t talk about your tech, but a good copywriter will make sure that you’re highlighting your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) in a way that isn’t so “we-centric”.

Speaking the language of benefits is a game-changer for any company looking to market itself.

What is “we-centric”?

We-centric copy is when your company talks about all the things that you do. 

• We help you keep your passwords organized. 

• We’ve got more than 10 years of experience developing software solutions. 

• We’ll help you build your website from strategy to design. 

So what’s wrong with being we-centric? Well, you aren’t highlighting the benefits, you’re just talking about all the things you do. 

Language of Benefits

It’s been proven time and time again that you should use and choose your words carefully. How potential customers and clients will view what you can do for them will be based on what they read on your website or social media pages. 

Instead of using “we”, emphasize what the customer will get out of it. Let’s take the examples above, and re-write them so that they’re using the language of benefits. 

• Organize your passwords with one simple, secure online tool. 

• Enjoy the perks of working with a team that has over 10 years of software development experience.

• Seamless website development, from strategy to design, to implementation. 

See what we did there?

Take my word for it

Using the language of benefits will transform the way your company talks about itself. It becomes less about all the things you do, and more about what you’re actually doing for your customers. 

This makes your product or service far more attractive, and readers don’t have to guess or search for what they’ll gain. The perks are right there in front of their eyes. 

I challenge you to go to your website and see if you are using the language of benefits. It’s no small feat, but the value of using the language of benefits is clear as crystal. 

For consultations, or to re-vamp your website copy, just get in touch. We’ll make those words work!