Depending on your business type and even your individual career experience, hiring a copywriter might be second nature to you, or it might be something you didn’t even know you could do. In the industry I have worked in for most of my career, full-service PR and marketing agencies are in abundance, but copywriters, far less so. But when I attend networking events with other local PR and digital agencies, it’s part of the day-to-day running of their business. So, for the un-initiated, what sort of companies hire copywriters and what kind of things can they help with?

There are many unique variations of how a copywriter can be utilised in a business, but here is a selection to give you an idea.

Supplement agency deliverables

If a business has a fairly large marketing budget, they may decide to employ a full-service marketing agency to take care of all aspects of their marketing for them. The agency might work with the MD of the company, or an in-house marketing manager, to deliver a whole host of communications from PR and advertising, to e-mail marketing and social media management. However, sometimes, if there’s a wide scope of work, there are things the agency can’t help with.

For example, perhaps a company employs a B2B PR agency to place and write all of their trade magazine articles and press release, and build media relations on their behalf, while their in-house marketing team manages their social media channels. If that same company then wants a B2C blog to support their customer base, it might not be the best utilisation of time or resources of the agency or the in-house team. A third-party copywriter that is also an expert in that field, could research topics for them, make suggestions for new posts and deliver regular blogs every month to strategically suite in with the rest of their marketing activity.

It might not be blog posts that need supplementing, but it’s a great example of playing to different people’s strengths and building a team that can work seamlessly together to deliver everything you need.

Supplement in-house marketing teams

The same idea applies if you only have a directly employed marketing team and don’t use an agency. Your team might be fantastic at coming up with creative ideas for how to market your business, building relationships with magazines, and managing your social media channels. But perhaps they don’t have the time to dedicate to copywriting for longer pieces. Whether writing for e-shots, social media, blog posts, press releases or magazine feature articles, each channel requires something a bit different and rather than making do, you could supplement your in-house team resource with some additional copywriting support.

Support start-ups

When a business is first established, it often doesn’t have the in-house capacity to carry out all of the necessary marketing activities, nor does it have the budget to employ an agency. A copywriter can be an excellent interim solution, or even a sole solution in the beginning and then supplementary support as requirements and budgets increase. They will have the skill and expertise to guide you through what you need and to produce copy with impact. Whether it is populating your new website with words, establishing a business blog, or writing feature articles to promote your new business in trade magazines, a freelance copywriter can be a superb way to support your start-up business in the early days.

Marketing agencies in need of additional capacity

Copywriters are also utilised directly by marketing agencies who want some flexible additional capacity. They don’t necessarily need to employ an additional account manager or full-time or even part-time employee, but they do require some copywriting support across the accounts they manage.

I know from my own experience of working in a couple of different full-service marketing agencies, the amount of admin and juggling there is to do in agency life. It takes an inordinate amount of time to build and maintain client relationships as well as establish and nurture relevant media contacts. Add to this all the written work they need to supply across multiple accounts, and you can see why they need some extra help sometimes.

Copywriters can prove to be an excellent resource for agencies that want to ensure they deliver quality copy on time every time.

Different agencies work in different ways. Some assign copywriters to specific clients so they can become accustomed to that client’s objectives and learn what they like and what they don’t like in their copy, while other agencies prefer a scatter-gun approach to using copywriters as and when they need the additional capacity, across any and all clients. While I would argue the more a copywriter can understand the client, the better they can do their job, it’s horses for courses in terms of what works for the agency and the copywriter alike.

Marketing agencies’ own promotion

It’s quite a well-known phenomenon that marketing agencies are often poor at marketing themselves. It’s like the old tale of the cobbler who had terrible shoes. You spend so much time delivering the best service to customers that you don’t have the time to focus on your own needs. This is another area where external copywriters can offer peace of mind and remove hassle.

Whether it’s the business blog that never quite gets prioritised, or the feature articles in trade magazines to promote your wares, copywriters can take on this aspect of your marketing for you. Because you are a client to them, the work gets prioritised in a way it simply can’t be by in-house employees who have customers that must come first. And because copywriters generally only get involved in writing the copy, you still get to keep those media relationships that you have worked so hard to build, and full control over how your blog looks. In fact, no-one outside of the business needs to know that you haven’t written those words yourself.

Is partnering with a copywriter right for you?

Only you can answer this, but whether you are a full-service agency or a business wanting to market your wares, if you have identified a weak spot in your marketing delivery or know your team is pushed to the limit, it might be time to consider outsourcing some work to a third-party resource. Freelance support is flexible too, so if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t committed to a full employment contract. What have you got to lose?

If you would like a strong copywriter to join your team on a freelance basis, to help remove some of the pressure from your existing resources, I’d love to help. Drop me a line at [email protected] for a quote on any of your copywriting needs.

About Blog Write Ltd

Writer of smart, engaging copy for businesses that understand the importance of great copy, but struggle to find the time to give it the attention it needs. I offer a proactive approach to deliver fresh content.