Why Outsourcing Copywriting Makes Sense
Writing. Anyone can do it, but not everyone does it well. For many people, it actually is a daunting task. It’s easy for me, of course, as I do it every single day and I love doing it. However, the feedback I get from many people is that it takes them hours and hours to write and structure some text.
Then when done, they are still not happy with the result.
Editing is a huge part of the writing process. If you end up deleting or completely changing 80% of what you started with, that’s perfectly fine. Trust me, even if you have amazing writing skills, it’s highly unlikely you get it right the first time.
Rewriting and restructuring is what makes a good story.
Don’t be discouraged if you end up getting ruthless when changing and deleting stuff. I do it all the time, and the text always turns out better because of it. A good, hard, and merciless edit helps to condense and improve the efficiency of a write-up.
So why do people hire me to write their content?
There are plenty of reasons worth mentioning, but the main one is that it saves them heaps of time. Sure, you can do it yourself and use Grammarly, but keep in mind that the focus of a professional copywriter is to write clear, concise, unique, and error-free copy.
The Magic of Word Power
If you struggle with words such as affect and effect, compliment and complement, which and witch, stationery and stationary, weather and whether, or perhaps only here in New Zealand the cringe-worthy brought instead of bought, you could put words in front of your audience that make you and your business look unprofessional and sloppy.
A professional copywriter is skilled in word placement. Here at Sweet Orange, we like to call it Word Power. If your goal is to get more online enquiries and sales, a copywriter can focus on adding strong calls to action (CTAs) and you’ll see the results.
An SEO copywriter also has keyword skills, which is an absolute necessity if you are running a digital ad campaign or even better, want to be found online in organic searches.
A good copywriter expertly helps all aspects of your brand feel cohesive, and that will instantly lift your game in the business world. But as said before, the most important reason to outsource copywriting in my opinion is that it saves you a tonne of time.
Focus on Your Goals
I had a meeting at a local café with an old friend yesterday. Well, she’s much younger than I am so not old at all, but we’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve always admired her for her relentless positivity and drive.
Not unlike me, she is the entrepreneurial type. She’s always focussed on her goals, and is never short of amazing ideas. This lady is truly beautiful inside and out. She’s an inspirational woman on all accounts (and I hope you’re reading this girlfriend, as I absolutely mean it! xx).
Most recently, she had a high-flying career in travel. Literally. Thanks to the global pandemic, that’s all over now. She explained that it was only meant to be for a few years anyway, as a way for her to learn as much as she could about the industry and see some of the world’s most incredible destinations, which she did, so she’s not sad about it. It’s just the end of another chapter and the beginning of a new one.
Her next venture is exciting and original, and it’s an idea she’s been brewing up for a while. It includes art, photography, and storytelling.
That’s another thing we have in common. We both realise that everyone has a story, and that every story is worth telling.
She had done a few interviews and photo sessions with some incredible people, and now she is at the stage of writing up the text. You guessed it, she got horribly stuck. She spent four hours or more each on typing out the recordings, then had a bunch of transcripts and no idea how to turn that into stories worth reading.
She wanted to pick my brain, and I forwarded her our last blog post on how to ace the structure of a story and gave her lots of tips and tricks over coffee. Although she said all that was helpful, she still asked me to help her sort out the text as it’s hugely important that the stories are as good as the photographs.
She realises that there’s huge value in hiring a professional to put the stories together, and she knows we will do an excellent job with her transcripts and brain dumps in a fraction of the time it would take her to sift through it all.
Stay in Your Lane
One of the things you’ll often hear me say is: Stay in your lane. Keep doing what you excel at, but don’t try to do everything. Find the right people that can help you with the things you don’t like doing, or those tasks that you’re simply not good at. Trust me, it will save you so much time and agony.
To give you an idea, I am chronically bad with numbers. I love words, but figures are not my thing. That’s why I’ve hired an amazing woman to sort out my GST and annual tax returns. When I get stuck using my super simple accountancy software programme, I give her a quick call and she clears it up for me in 2 minutes. You have no idea how grateful I am for the lady that does my taxes.
I have an eye for design, but I am not a graphic designer. I can mess around in Canva for hours and come up with something close to acceptable, but when I engage one of the fabulous designers in my network, it will be done much better and so much faster, too.
Sure, I can build a simple little template-based website in Squarespace, WordPress or Wix, but it’s exactly that. Simple and rather basic. I don’t do code or customisation and for me and my clients, that really isn’t good enough. Luckily, I know people who excel at it.
I work with web developers, graphic designers, videographers, and illustrators who all do amazing things. I’m more than happy to pay for their skills and expertise, as it makes all the difference. As Sweet Orange grows, I’m even thinking about hiring a kick-ass VA and maybe someone to drum up new business, too.
The amount of time it’ll save me and added value it brings will be worth every cent.
Spend a little to get huge value
The two main reasons that decisionmakers in business outsource work such as copywriting are to reduce costs and to keep their focus on the core business goals and operations. The required skills may not be available inhouse and even if someone on the team could focus on it, it often means things can get ticked off the list much faster when it get outsourced.
There are plenty of reasons worth mentioning why outsourcing makes sense.
Here’s my Top 3:
- Efficiency – It eases up your workload, so you can focus on doing what you do best, bring in more revenue, and have a stronger bottom line.
- Better quality – You benefit from the expertise of professionals who know their stuff and have worked with many other companies just like yours.
- Flexibility – You hire the said professional for as long as you need them, with no payroll responsibilities or internal training to worry about.
When it comes to quality content, some writers come cheap where others charge a lot more. It is like it is with everything else… you will get what you pay for.
If you prefer an easy process, a fast turnaround and a high-quality write-up, don’t hire a newbie or someone who thinks it’s okay to copy/paste what they find on your competitor’s website.
Our team of 3 understands the importance of unique and relevant content that speaks directly to your audience. We don’t charge the earth either, but we also don’t come cheap.
We specialise in website content and write for print publications, too. We’ve written incredible stories and produced content that converts for a huge range of businesses and individuals in New Zealand, Australia and the UK & Europe.
We make the process easy, are approachable and professional, and people say we’re fun to work with. We absolutely love what we do, and we’ll make sure you’ll love it, too.
~ by Martine Pierhagen, senior copywriter and the driving force behind Sweet Orange
For quality writing services for your website, advertising campaign or magazine, talk to Sweet Orange first. We’re based in Tauranga, New Zealand, but work with businesses and not for profits around the globe. We’re happy to go over and beyond to deliver content that is unique, shareable, easy to read and always fresh.
If outsourcing copywriting is on your mind, call (+64) 021 492 040, email info@sweetorange.co.nz, or send us a message today! We’d love to hear from you.
Once again, with huge thanks to all the amazing photographers that share their work to use for free by all on unsplash.com