Whether you’re a new business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, you’re probably aware of SEO (search engine optimization) and how it can help put your business in front of the right people.

Sure, incorporating SEO into copywriting for your website and other content is important, but it’s definitely not the be-all and end-all of effective copywriting.

In fact, doing things like keyword stuffing can negatively impact your website’s visibility, and in turn, hurt your sales. Before we delve deeper into how this happens, let’s learn a little more about SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s technical configuration, content relevance, and link popularity so that its pages become easily searchable and more relevant towards search terms.

Having successful SEO on your website can mean that search engines like Google will be able to rank them better, thus bringing your business in front of more eyeballs and potential customers.

There are a lot of SEO tactics that are used today to achieve these results, like:

• Copy with selected keywords
• Headings containing keywords
• Meta descriptions
• Internal links
• External links
• Backlinks
• User-friendly website design
• A consistent flow of new content

Combined, these SEO tactics will increase the overall visibility of your website and also keep it relevant and current, especially when people are searching for a particular product or service.

How can SEO be overly optimized?

As with many things in life, overdoing something can lead to dire consequences. Instead of your website ranking well and appearing higher up on a search engine, overly optimized SEO may just weigh your copy down.

Our search engines are becoming increasingly intelligent and their SEO algorithms are becoming more complex by the day. Your SEO has to make sense to the search engine. Simply overdoing it without rhyme or reason can downgrade your site’s rankings and derail your efforts.

We’re certain that’s not what you’re looking to do for your business, yet it’s so easy to get carried away with SEO and you should always be more careful not to commit these SEO mistakes.

Keyword stuffing

With SEO, there should be one focus keyword used per page. What many do is use the focus keyword way too many times within one page in hopes of ranking better, sometimes even going as far as repeating the focus keyword multiple times in one sentence.

This causes the copy to automatically lose its value and original messaging, and keyword stuffing can bring down your website’s credibility and rank position. This also puts any potential customer off if they can’t understand what you’re trying to convey.

Keywords just because

When written well, SEO optimized content may be picked up by a search engine for ranking for multiple keywords. So, what many businesses do is simply put in a bunch of keywords they gathered from their keyword research.

Besides the focus keyword, carefully chosen secondary keywords can boost your content’s searchability. However, putting in secondary keywords just to try your luck can overwhelm the search engine. It will also find it difficult to understand the purpose of your content.

Content with too many keywords can also read poorly. Remember, your content is written for human beings and not machines. It has to provide clear value in order to entice readers and potential customers.

Content that is way too lengthy

Keyword-rich content, such as blog articles, help a website get noticed by a search engine. On that note, search engines like Google favours articles that are between 1,200 and 2,000 words, or an article length that takes about 10 minutes to read.

Anything longer is unnecessary, and in most cases, the points become repetitive and the messaging gets lost in translation. Don’t stretch out your content just to hit the word count. Keep it straight to the point. It almost always converts better too.

Poor title tags

Your headings matter more than you realize. Any headings within pieces of content tells the search engine what it is about. So, inserting keywords in these headings is important. On the other hand, having no headings or headings that are too long may hurt your site.

To make sure the search engine doesn’t get your content confused, headings used within a piece of content should have a structure that makes sense, with focus keywords included. For best results, make sure to also use H1s, H2s, and so on.

Bad links

Many underestimate the power of inserting links to both internal and external content on a website’s SEO. When the search engine picks up on properly placed links within a piece of content, it groups the content amongst practical resources that get more exposure.

Internal links shouldn’t just direct readers to a website’s main navigation menu. Try to add backlinks too. This means having other websites link to yours or content of yours to enhance your credibility on the search engine.

Too many SEO enhancements

SEO is a long-haul game and it’s normal to want to overhaul your website or copy from time to time to boost your SEO scores. But, doing too much at once, like switching out its content and structure, means search engines have to relearn your website.

If you’re changing your content, focus on one area at a time so you don’t overwhelm the search engine when it goes to scan through your site. Otherwise, just remember that these changes may affect your SEO rankings for a while.

Make SEO work for you

Does SEO work to help you get more leads and customers? Sure it does, but it has to be done right in order to produce positive results. SEO is important, but let’s not forget that selling effectively requires a human touch. Your content has to also resonate with your audience.

As a business owner, you should establish a proper SEO strategy with your copywriter, and perhaps pinpoint some keywords you’d like your website to rank for depending on your product or service.

To make SEO work for you, the trick here is to strike a fine balance between doing too little and overdoing it to the point that it hurts your sales. After all, you don’t want your SEO game to prevent your website from reaching its full potential.

Great brands manage to give off cohesive and memorable brand identity and connect to each customer as if they’re talking to them one on one.

Maintaining this consistent communication is hard, even for individuals – let alone for a 500-strong company.

So, how do they do it? Great tone of voice documentation (a.k.a. TOV).

Why tone of voice matters

Consistency in a brand or company is more than just its visual look – it’s also about how we talk to our users and potential users.

Tone of voice is an important but often overlooked part of this. A dubious email reply to a customer, an out-of-place section on the website, a weirdly-worded social media post… Small things like these can wear away trust in your brand.

In plain English, if leads are weirded out, they’ll turn elsewhere.

Yes, you might be able to resolve this by having discussions on the topic internally, but they don’t always work.

The importance of documentation

Not having documentation means having to constantly reinvent the wheel.

New campaign? “Let’s have a separate tone-of-voice brainstorming session!” 

Updated product? “Our priority is refreshing content, so there’s no time to think about tone!” 

PR crisis? “Mary from Social quit, and now we don’t know how to answer!”

It’s inefficient, wasteful, and unscalable.

Teams should be able to spend their energy on creating exciting features and fresh content. If there’s no TOV process in place, they’ll be burdened with trying to figure it out every time the need arises (and it will).

And if you’re thinking about how revamping old copy can be useful – by doing your due diligence once with TOV documentation, it can be really successful.

Where the tone of voice documentation shines

Serves as a guide for your customer-facing team

Whether it’s used for onboarding, training, or daily checks, the documentation becomes a single source of truth. It’ll consolidate intelligence that is likely scattered across personal and group knowledge bases.

Ensure customers and leads receive consistent messaging

Once the assigned staff is trained, all communications will then have the same thought process behind them, and the customers will definitely notice.

Preserve institutional knowledge

If only one person is responsible for thinking about the TOV and they leave the company, most of this knowledge will be lost.

Work on branding material if you make it available to the public

Companies like Starbucks and Greenpeace share their style guides online, not only with collaborators who’ll apply them. It’s a way for them to showcase how much they care about good communication.

Saves time in the long run

Having proper TOV documentation will save you time in the long run because there’ll be less back-and-forth required.

When is too soon?

You might think: “But I never created procedures, and so far, ad hoc discussions mostly work for me. Isn’t creating documentation an overkill?”

Probably not. Working on this knowledge base is actually a great way to kickstart your tone of voice journey.

To make things more concrete, you’ll end up assessing how you currently reach out to customers and identify who inside the company should own the process. And both are great steps toward consistency.

What TOV documentation should include

There’s no minimum length or size, as it really depends on your needs. The most important thing here is that it reaches those who’ll apply it.

That being said, there are a few common elements that make a good TOV documentation resource:

Your brand and buyer personas – These will inform all your content by identifying who’ll be on the “other side” of the communication loop

Your brand archetype – Is your brand helpful and eager? Or aggressive and bold? The archetype serves as a general north star to all interactions

Sliding scales – Visually represent where you are in terms of personality (e.g. serious/funny, professional/relaxed, respectful vs irreverent, enthusiastic vs matter-of-fact)

Examples – Preferably both good and bad examples to showcase what to do and what not to do in common situations

Words we like/dislike – Either in a pure list form or in a more organised brand dictionary

Relevant tone – Ideally, it should lead by example and adopt the tone of voice it defends. This not only brings consistency to a full circle but also makes it easier for readers to understand the message

Who should create the TOV documentation?

It might seem logical that the people who face customers all day long should be the ones to prepare the documentation. Well, that’s not always the case.

This is because teams immersed in communication are usually so focused on their process that they likely don’t see an issue with it.

That doesn’t mean alienating those who shape TOV daily, though. They should be the primary point of contact to understand which challenges the documentation should address. Any resource should be a tool for them and be supported by them.

For those reasons, working with experienced tech copywriters to develop your TOV documentation is more than beneficial to your business.

This is because they

1. Know what works and what doesn’t – It’s possible they have already created similar resources in the past, so they have experience on the matter
2. Know the industry and/or niche – They might know about the quirks surrounding specific industries and how to address them
3. Aren’t biased – They have a neutral, no-nonsense point of view and can more easily point out issues in the current TOV delivery
4. Aren’t reactive – Since they’re not dealing hands-on with communication challenges, they have an easier time thinking outside the box

How to get started with tone of voice documentation?

Regardless of whether you’re preparing the knowledge base internally or outsourcing it, you should prepare a plan detailing your needs and expectations. Make it obvious as to who should be its users and the expected outcome.

It’s similar to what happens with a good copywriting brief. The clearer it is, the better the end result will be.

Finally, don’t strive for perfection the first time around. Documentations like these are what we call “living documents” and will be refined as the brand grows.

As your buyer personas and business evolve, the documentation should be updated. Even if your team already has an ideal version on hand, achieving that coveted consistency is a journey. Though it’s one that your company and your customers will for sure appreciate.

You know that it’s necessary for your business to best reflect its products and services through compelling copy, and that’s where tech copywriters come in.

And once you get started working with a copywriter, it’s time to make the most out of the partnership and create killer copy that’ll serve your business.

Through a smooth partnership and collaboration with your copywriter, it’s way more likely that you’ll end up with landing pages, blogs, and email campaigns that convert.

So, here are some dos and don’ts for working with copywriters when creating content for tech.

Be clear about your expectations

Remember to be clear from the get-go. You can include basic information like format, length, deadline, and type of content, or more details, like target audience or insights into your customers’ preferences.

Seasoned copywriters will expect this information, as they’re used to incorporating business intelligence into their craft.

Not providing a good brief is like asking an architect to build a house without providing a blueprint. The outcome can be good or bad, but it’ll definitely not be the home you imagined in your head.

Organize them into a proper brief

A brief shouldn’t only centralize different resources but also explain exactly why they matter. 

Links without context, 100-page PDF files with no bookmarks, and access to a messy “/resources” directory aren’t helpful and will only result in more questions.

Here’s one rule of thumb: If the copywriter needs more time to examine the resources than actually to produce something out of them, your brief could be better.

Connect the copywriter with your design team

Do you want the final piece to include a featured image, infographics, banners, and other visual assets? If so, it’s worth putting the copywriter in touch with your designers.

When coming up with the assets, designers will inevitably check the source material provided by the copywriter. Such questions might also arise:

What’s more important in this section? 

Should all text be in the banner or only a part? 

If everyone’s connected with tools like Slack or email, it’s much faster to address those questions. At the end of the day, there will be better synergy between art and copy.

It’s also why the copy-first approach is usually best.

Consider connecting your copywriter with developers too

Connecting the copywriter directly with the developers can be very useful (and sometimes necessary) for projects that involve technical documentation.

That said, be mindful. Designers are used to working with copywriters, whereas most developers aren’t. That means devs might need help clarifying exactly what’s required from them. 

Seasoned tech copywriters counteract this by asking questions that help translate code and architecture into business value. If you plan to connect the dev team with your copywriter, it’s helpful to keep the more business-savvy developers in the loop too.

Invest in long-standing partnerships

Just as with any supplier, you’ll benefit from building a trusting relationship with a copywriting partner.

Project after project, the onboarding phase will get smoother. The copywriter will have more time to get to know your product and service, as well as the stakeholders.

It’s even better if you’re able to share a higher-level strategic view with the copywriters. For example, if they’re not only working on one landing page but also on a series of LPs and their connected subpages, they’ll have a firmer grasp of the role and goal of each asset.

For niches, go for the specialists

Sometimes, the copy needs to be about very technical products, technologies, and procedures that cover a very niche area.

Moreover, niches stack up. Suppose you provide infrastructure compliance for web3 unicorns in Central Asia. A specialist copywriter in that niche will be harder to come by.

When that’s the case, it’s ideal to find a content partner that has experience writing about at least some of these areas (web3, infrastructure, startups, compliance, etc.). That said, a generalist will likely get stuck on definitions and nuances and struggle to produce something compelling.

There is more to copywriting than SEO

It used to be that lots of keywords, a generous document length, and numerous links would be enough to make a piece of content rank highly. Well, that time has long passed.

Google works hard to identify (and punish) pages that try to mask low-quality writing with SEO tricks. Of course, there are basic SEO principles that always apply, like proper formatting and relevant links.

Just be wary of dull, simplistic formulas, like more keywords = better ranking. The search engine giant is one step ahead and might tune its algorithms at any time to curb these schemes.

Speak the language of benefits

It’s impossible to talk about Google and SEO without reaching a handful of “maybes”. But in copywriting, there are some certainties. One of them is the language of benefits.

Great copy conveys very clearly why a product or service can provide value to the reader. That’s because it emphasizes what the benefits are for the customer. It doesn’t have to be pushy. It’s about facts: Showing that product x solves problem y.

You can help the copywriter explain the benefits of your product or service by mentioning your USPs in the brief. How do you then evaluate if your copy does it successfully? When in doubt, ask yourself:

Is this piece of content helpful to my customer? 

Does it help my business in converting a potential lead into a customer?

Grammar rules and a consistent style are important

A typo in a landing page title is similar to a stain on a shirt during a sales pitch. It’s distracting and undermines the whole thing.

In order to appear more professional, it’s important to keep the bases covered. Watch out for typos, disjointed sentences, and paragraphs with conflicting styles within the same document.

Just as we iron our suits, touch up our makeup and check the mirror before an important meeting, we should be aware that slip-ups will be judged. They aren’t necessarily detrimental, but it’s always good to be vigilant.

Don’t forget to have fun

All that being said, the world’s not only made up of business meetings. If you’re selling volleyballs by the beach, is a neat suit really appropriate?

No, it’s plain weird and out of place.

With copy, too much attention to grammar can make the message stiff and boring. An occasional wordplay, emoji, odd spacing, and other deviations can make the content lighter and might even provoke a chuckle or two.

The main idea here is that if your tone of voice is more conversational – using strict grammar rules could prevent you from meeting your mark.

The key here is intent. It should be intentional and have a purpose.

In the end, it’s all about communication 

These tips offer a general guideline on how to collaborate with a tech copywriter. From setting clear expectations to focusing on quality over SEO, these tips can help strengthen any partnership.

But the most important thing will always be communication. 

When in doubt, ask your tech copywriter what they need and what would make the final product better. At the end of the day, you’re both working towards the same goal: delivering great content that’ll do justice to your product or service.

User experience writing, or UX writing for short, has fast become a part and parcel of many major tech companies like Amazon, Google, Netflix, and Microsoft. It is a relatively new field and is an integral role in a design team.

UX writing is becoming increasingly popular and is a growing profession. For that reason, it isn’t surprising that as a tech business, you may have wondered…

“Do I need a UX writer? Wouldn’t my copywriter be enough to do what needs to be done?”

Even though there are qualified experts who are proficient in both UX writing and regular copywriting, it’s still important for your tech business to be able to differentiate between the two. That way, you can properly identify your business needs and make better informed decisions.

Before that, we’re going to break down what it is, and how it differs from regular copywriting.

What exactly is UX writing?

UX writing is a more complex form of technical copywriting that involves developing content specifically tailored towards UX design for digital platforms and interfaces, like apps, websites, or software programs. UX writing also requires very close collaboration with graphic or UX/UI designers, and the use of interface design tools such as Figma and Adobe XD.

Beyond copywriting skills, a UX writer will most likely have knowledge or some sort of qualification in UX design principles. The reason for this is that they would be working on copy for all sorts of digital elements like buttons, app notifications, error messages, form fields, and onboarding flows in order to refine the customer journey and user flow.

What makes UX writing different?

There are key differences between UX writing and regular copywriting and they can be broken down into:

• The end goal and focus
• Target audience
• Metrics

The End Goal and Focus

Regular copywriting is often done from a marketing perspective in order to engage with the audience, and build trust, brand awareness and brand loyalty. It frequently involves eliciting the sales of products or services through a funnel.

With copywriting, the focus is usually to inform and educate readers about how a product or service may be valuable for them, explain about a given topic or industry, or position a person or business as a leader in its field. This might be done through forms of writing, like blog articles, social media copy, corporate profiles, web copy, and more.

On the other hand, UX writing hones in on the end user and what their experience will be like in regards to a particular digital platform. The goal here is to make the platform as seamless and enjoyable as possible for the user, while still sticking to the brand tone of voice across various touch points.

When compared to regular copywriting, UX writing is typically more concise and makes an impact by delivering accurate messages or prompts. The final outcome should still be visually appealing and sticks within the design framework that has been established alongside the design team.

Target Audience

Both UX writing and copywriting consider the perspectives and thought processes of the respective target audience, but they ultimately solve different problems. Let’s delve deeper into how this happens…

A copywriter thinks about the challenges a potential customer may face and how the products or solutions they write about can address these challenges. They add value through their writing to drive action, like make a sale for instance.

A UX writer, on the contrary, may deliberate about what users should know in order to take advantage of a product or service. They also identify issues that users may face when interacting with a digital platform, in support of an overall design. If they manage to diminish frustration and roadblocks for users who are using the platform, it’s considered a job well done.

Metrics

Conventional metrics that are used to measure the effectiveness of copywriting may include sales revenue, leads, SEO ranking, conversion rates, click-through rates, and open rates. With copywriting, there are also a particular set of tools that are used to assess these metrics, such as Google Analytics and Ahrefs.

For UX writing, these metrics may look completely different. Some of the metrics that are key for a UX writer consist of user satisfaction and engagement, time spent on the platform, and usability.

What’s good to note though is that data from these metrics is usually translated into actionable insights, regardless whether it falls under copywriting or UX writing. These insights then enable copywriters and UX writers to further refine and optimize their efforts in hopes of achieving better outcomes the next time around.

Crafts in their own right

There is no doubt that both UX writing and copywriting are crafts in their own right. Here are the main takeaways you may want to consider when deciding which one your business actually needs:

• Copywriting helps the business whereas UX writing aids the customers
• UX writing is more technical and less creative than regular copywriting
• UX writing delivers messages in a more concise manner
• Copywriters can work alone, but UX writers have to work alongside various teams
• Copywriting is about marketing and gets readers to take specific action, but UX writing isn’t

As a tech business, it’s important to really examine your needs and decide what works best for you, whether that is high quality copywriting, UX writing, or both. In most cases, you may find that both are equally as crucial for conveying your message to successfully retain and grow your business. You’ll be glad to know that there are specialists out there who can do both – you’ll just have to find someone with the right experience for your business.

There is a time and place when informing, persuading, and converting an audience is required. Simultaneously, being able to catch the audience in the right way across product or brand touch points is no less essential. At the end of the day, your content and words will have to sell. It all boils down to the method in which you’re going to make that happen.

Imagine this… Your company has spent millions on research and development to come up with a game-changing software solution that not only triples productivity levels, but is also innovative enough to churn your data into actionable strategies based on the insights generated.

As a technical expert, you present the software technicalities on paper, describing the advanced technology in great detail. Months have passed and you’re now wondering why your software isn’t selling as well as you’d have hoped. One of the reasons could be that the human touch is missing.

Without this human element in your marketing, your target audience may feel alienated from the complexity of your tech, which leaves them confused and feeling that your software isn’t relevant to their daily lives.

So, how can you build the desire for someone to purchase your software?

Tech businesses should be connecting the benefits of their products and solutions with their customers who are ultimately seeking answers for their problems. It all boils down to giving tech a human touch.

Accessibility is Key

Tech products and solutions can be intimidating or too complicated when the reader is not familiar with industry jargon, but it really depends on who you’re selling to. The point is not to simplify your language, but to make it relatable so that it speaks to your target audience.

If you’re selling to an audience subset consisting of software engineers and developers, certain jargon will make the most sense to them. However, if you’re selling to small business owners who may not be as tech savvy, you should be using language that they will understand.

By making language more accessible, your tech becomes more approachable to your target audience. Ultimately, your marketing should connect the dots so that your audience will be able to recognize what your tech is all about, and also feel like your tech would address their needs.

Stand Out In Crowded Marketplace

With so many tech businesses vying for attention, it’s important that your business and your tech products and solutions stand out. Thus, the language you use in your marketing should be engaging, emotional, and human-centered.

Your marketing copy for your tech should reflect your brand tone of voice, have personality, and be memorable enough that it hooks your target audience. It needs to go beyond the technical lingo and speak directly to the consumer at their level.

For that reason, your tech business should be thinking about investing in a proper tech copywriter as they have a clear idea about what all the technical jargon means, but are also able to reflect this in your copy by considering your buyer personas and their pain points.

Prioritizing the Human Impact

By giving your tech a human touch, your business will be able to highlight the real-world impact that your products and solutions can have on people’s lives. It could be that your tech is helping a small business become more productive, or supporting an individual to achieve their goals.

The copy used to promote your tech shouldn’t be about your business. What can your product and solution do for your customers? How can you put your business in their story? Make your target audience the focal point of your tech marketing, and watch how it’ll transform your reach and sales.

Prioritizing the human impact can make your business feel more meaningful and purpose driven, which may just be the thing you need to build and retain a valuable connection with your target audience.

People Prefer Buying From People

Don’t forget – people always prefer buying from people, and that is why tapping into the audience’s emotions is so essential. As human beings, we are inclined to relate to others because this helps us build trust.

If your target audience doesn’t understand your marketing copy and your tech products or solutions, it can be difficult to create a relationship with them. You should be selling tech by adapting your language to that of your target audience in a way that is relevant to them.

Most technical experts live and breathe tech, which can make it hard for them to step away from the technicalities of their products or services, and give it the human touch it needs. At the end of the day, you’ll have to find a way to connect with your target audience to start making the impact you’re hoping for, in terms of quality leads and actual sales!

Here’s an important question you need to ask yourself – are my company’s marketing materials connecting the dots? Are my potential users or customers really understanding the value they’d get from us?

They will go through your website or marketing materials, and when they realize your content doesn’t give them the information they’re looking for, they’ll move on.

Effective marketing has to click, and it needs to be a lot clearer than you think. Your potential customers will not rack their brains to decipher the deeper meaning in your content or put the pieces together to figure out how your copy connects with their lives and problems.

Most businesses don’t quite understand what it means to connect the dots and think that copy is just… well, copy. In fact, so many tech businesses tend to think that they can do it on their own and write their own copy. They’re wrong.

Copywriters do way more than just penning down nice words. It’s about connecting ideas by understanding the problem and solution to deliver the intended message for the right audience. 

Engagement is stronger than novelty

Copywriting isn’t always about coming up with the most innovative idea. While we all strive to be original, reinventing the wheel when it comes to your copy, particularly in tech, may not necessarily get you the results you’re after.

That’s not what the craft (copywriting) is about. Instead, for effective marketing to happen, your copy should engage emotionally, persuade, entice, inform, and entertain. There is an element of creative storytelling that communicates a particular message to your potential customers.

The brand new idea that you’re proud of means nothing if it doesn’t help your business make a real connection with the human beings reading your words – something AI writing tools are unfortunately not able to do yet. This connection is the very thing that may just get your potential customers to take action and buy your products and services.

It’s mostly about research

Anyone can write, but copywriting isn’t about writing alone. It’s much more than just putting words on a page as a huge chunk of copywriting involves doing research, taking the time to think deeply, and connecting different topics and ideas.

Before you engage with a copywriter, you may want to do a deep dive of your business and get these questions answered to figure out what your message is.

• What products and services do you offer?
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• Who is your potential customer?
• What are their pain points?

Research is the backbone of copywriting, and more of it is done before any ideas come into play. Not all ideas are great, but a skilled copywriter will know exactly what to do to narrow down these ideas to make the copy stronger and more impactful.

C-o-n-n-e-c-t-i-o-n

Connection is the key to successful copywriting and effective marketing. Experienced copywriters often see the big picture and are able to deliver the brand message successfully by being the bridge between what businesses want to say and the words the audience wants to hear.

They think critically and make meaningful connections by assembling little nuggets of insight into a cohesive web that makes sense. This web needs to convey a clear and concise message that resonates with, and accommodates the needs of, your potential customers.

After all, true connection is critical for conversion. Having your content communicate the right message and be relevant to those whom you’re writing to is way more important than for it to be of the highest quality.

Copywriting is an art

Having a story that connects is everything and shouldn’t be taken for granted. After all, being able to communicate with your audience effectively is the only way your tech business will stand out in a noisy marketplace and be able to maximize your ROI.

Copywriters are not just paid to write. It’s about connecting the dots. There’s lots of thinking, research, putting it all together, and making everything make sense. It’s the ability to make connections that truly sets good copywriters apart from the rest and makes them invaluable an asset to any business.

To truly leverage these skills, hire an experienced copywriter who knows what your business and industry is all about. This will save you time and get you real results!

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has made it possible for us human beings to rely on automation to simplify processes for… literally everything. But does AI really make our lives easier? For copywriting specifically, an AI writing tool can be a double-edged sword if used carelessly even though it’s practical to a certain extent. And before you start wondering, no, this article was – thankfully – not crafted using an AI writing tool.

How an AI writing tool can be helpful

Copywriting can be a grueling task and even the most articulate writers sometimes get writer’s block. An AI writing tool can be useful when you need to explore a different perspective for your content or rewrite something but can’t seem to find the right wording.

Similarly, an AI writing tool is a great place to draw inspiration for new ideas, especially when creating a brief or content outline. Writing on a certain topic occasionally requires a ton of research, and many people simply may not have the time to do this from scratch.

However, AI writing tools are not the be-all, and end-all, and won’t replace human copywriters. Here are several reasons why.

Lacks human touch and proper tone of voice

When used for marketing in particular, copywriting should make an impact, deliver the message, and ideally achieve a business goal while engaging the reader. It doesn’t matter if it’s a call to action for a purchase of a product or service, or to tell a story of how the business came about.

That’s where the problem lies – content produced by an AI writing tool may not necessarily convey the proper tone of voice of a business in the right way, and the content might not have the emotional nuances needed to leave a strong enough impression on readers.

When the content delivers the tone of voice of a business properly, the business is able to communicate and connect with its readers, which helps it differentiate itself from competitors and build its brand identity. As a result, readers will be more inclined to take action.

Prone to errors

While AI has indeed come a long way, it’s far from perfect. Oftentimes, you will find errors in grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, or even in the general coherency of the content produced by an AI writing tool, which isn’t capable of abstract thinking.

AI writing tools ingest data and follow basic grammar rules. They may not be able to piece information together in a logical way that makes sense to a reader. Instead of taking action, the reader may be left feeling confused and lose trust in your company.

At the end of the day, you’ll have to thoroughly analyze and refine the content on your own. It may require rearranging sentences so that it flows nicely and sounds coherent. You might even have to cut out redundant, generic, and irrelevant information to perfect it.

Risk of plagiarism and outdated information

Can you be sure that the content produced by an AI writing tool is of high quality, 100% original, and contains the most up-to-date information? Unfortunately not. An AI writing tool collects data from various sites and sources, but doesn’t fact-check and verify this data for the best results.

For this reason, you may end up with content that is outdated, inaccurate, and even plagiarised. Needless to say, this will look bad on your business, particularly when a more complex topic is involved, like technology, medicine, or something science-y.

If you’ll have to double-check every sentence for accuracy and make sure that it is in fact current and not plagiarised, you may as well hire a copywriter to ensure you receive the highest quality of work that requires minimal to no double- or triple-checking.

A writing aid, not a replacement

We cannot stop technology from booming, and AI will constantly be evolving. And even after weighing out the pros and cons, we’re certain that AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT, should only be used as a writing aid that supports your content, rather than replacing a real copywriter.

Think about it – your business needs to always be credible. Are you sure you should be copying the content produced by an AI writing tool directly onto your website and other marketing materials? Probably not. It is still a machine after all.

Hiring human copywriters makes sure you receive high-quality and compelling content that is innovative, creative, original and has the human touch. This also means delivering an accurate brand tone of voice that connects and relates easily with other human beings.

Our verdict? AI writing tools aren’t the answer to lowering costs for your marketing efforts. You could actually lose out, in terms of your marketing efforts when only using AI writing tools. At this point in time, they could very well come up short and likely won’t generate the results you’re after.

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.