In a rocky financial climate, small business owners often have to make tough decisions about where to spend dwindling budgets. Whether entrepreneurs are dealing with limited funds because they are in the startup phase of their businesses or strictly because of a poor economy, they must choose carefully when to hire someone to do a specialized task or when to perform that task themselves.
Small business owners just starting their own companies often have to wear many hats because they cannot always afford even to subcontract out small tasks to creative professional services experts like copywriters, web designers or professional marketing experts. But while setting up websites, writing copy for marketing materials and designing an overall marketing plan may be doable for many entrepreneurs, they are not cost-effective tasks when they are taking away large chunks of time from other important elements of running the business. Also, business owners now have so many targeted Internet marketing vehicles and strategies that they must use to stay competitive in the marketplace, many of which require deep knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) marketing and targeted, professional copywriting; by trying to do everything at once, they can actually spread themselves too thinly and take away from the impact of their company’s message and mission on potential customers.
For the 21st Century entrepreneur, professional marketing is essential to differentiating his/her company from the pack and getting a response. With so many voices speaking through Internet marketing, and so much targeted, high-quality, SEO keyword-packed copy crowding the Web, a company has to do a lot to get the attention of ideal clients. The following are two compelling reasons why a small business owner should bite the bullet and hire a professional copywriter.
A professional copywriter understands how words directly affect response to marketing materials. When overwhelmed by the many, complicated moving parts of running a company, no entrepreneur can possibly expect to focus entirely on the isolated, fine points of writing an effective ad or direct mail piece that will get the response of exactly the right customers or clients. Having someone focused 100% on the finer points of professional copywriting and not distracted by accounting or other day-to-day tasks can help make sure only the most professional marketing materials go out into the world. Today’s copywriters are also typically well-trained in SEO marketing, which is an edge any business owner will want to have in order to help make their products and services findable to the right population online.
Successful , growing companies need marketing materials to evolve regularly. No company that is growing can use the same marketing strategies or copy for too long before needing to change it to reflect new services, products or the changes that come naturally as the marketplace shifts and increases its customer base. A skilled copywriter will always be needed to update company objectives, business plans, proposals, brochures and website content so that they always reflect the company’s objectives and mission.
Of course, realistically, most small business owners – especially when just starting out – do not have the budgets to hire full-time, professional copywriting experts on staff. Still, they cannot just let professional Internet marketing, SEO marketing work and other important tasks go out the window whenever money is tight. The following are some signs that professional copywriting might be in order:
- The company is missing a lot of strict deadlines and is generally behind on creating marketing materials.
- The individual currently responsible for all the professional copywriting and SEO marketing has not been getting a decent response rate over an extended period of time.
- A project – a business proposal for an investor, large mailing or e-mail campaign – is coming up, and it needs special attention.
- The task of drafting professional marketing materials is starting to get passed around to so many people that staff members are getting confused about their responsibilities.
- Feedback indicates that current marketing materials are getting lukewarm response, and surveys – informal or formal – of prospects and clients reveal that the marketing message is just not compelling or even relevant to their needs.
Persuasive words are more important than ever in a world that has been overtaken by SEO marketing and the increasingly short attention span of potential customers. Solid copy written by a professional copywriter can go a long way to help build a company’s brand and client relationships.
