Who’s the Expert Here?

It’s a familiar story: you run a business and have to market it. It starts gradually, but little by little you start to build your customer base and your time shifts from marketing and promotion to fulfilling orders and customer service.

You become so obsessed by offering the best service possible your marketing activities slow right down.

After the initial rush of customers begins to dwindle you suddenly realise that you’ve taken your foot off the gas and have to start marketing like crazy again.

This cycle continues until you find yourself rocking quietly in a corner wondering why you started your own business in the first place.

Then you have a brain wave and call in the help of a professional copywriter to help you create the web copy, brochure content, emails, newsletters and case studies you need to keep the customers coming your way.

But then you realise that the copywriter you’re talking to hasn’t worked in your industry before.

What do you do?

Say goodbye to them, even though you get on and know they are the best writer out there?

I hope not, because if you do you’ve forgotten one crucial thing – you are hiring them because the have the expertise you need and that means they can write strong, persuasive and compelling copy for any industry.

What you’re about to read is an earth-shattering statement:

It is not necessary for a copywriter to have written for your industry before for them to do a cracking job for you.

Wow.

Two experts working together

The copywriter/client relationship is a collaborative one – they need you as much as you need them.

You are the expert in your field, your customers and knowing what they want. They are experts in getting that message across in an engaging, persuasive and powerful way.

That’s why you must be prepared to work with your copywriter.

They will delve deep into your knowledge wanting to know stuff like:

• What do you do?
• Who do you sell to?
• Why do they need your product/service?
• How do you help them?
• What would stop them buying from you?
• What action do you want them to take when they’re read this content?
• What makes your company different to all the others?
• How do you want to be perceived by your customers?
• What sort of tone do you want?
• What is your overall aim?

And that’s just for starters because they can only write about your business if you’re prepared to tell them about it.

Just saying, “I sell insurance so write me a brochure” isn’t very helpful. If you want a great end result you need to be on hand to provide all the information they need.

Think of the relationship as the coming together of two great minds with skills and knowledge that will complement each other perfectly.

What’s the best way to find the right copywriter for you?

1. Take a look at their website and see if what they say resonates with you
2. Take a look at their portfolio and read some of the samples, do you like their style?
3. Pick up the phone and have a chat with them or meet with them to see if you can get along

It’s as simple as that.