Are You Valued?

May 15^th 2012 Sally Ormond The value in copywriting

As a copywriter a lot of my time is spent educating potential clients of the value of what I do.

Many ‘get’ what a copywriter does and the value that they bring, but some simply come to me because they were told by a colleague they needed a copywriter without really understanding why, or the difference a professonal writer will bring to their project.

Hiring in outside hellp will obviously mean you get great copy, but it also means your marketing materials will ‘speak’ to your reader because a copywriter can be objective; they look at your company from the outside so they get the same perspective as your customers.

So what? Well it means they will write about the benefits of your products and services, not the features.

The other day I came across a job advert for a junior position, looking for someone with the following skills:

Copywriting
PR
Events
Social media

I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a big ask for someone so junior. So, is there really going to be someone out there with expertise in all those areas who will be able to deliver the results the company wants?

Speaking for myself, although I can definitely cover the copywriting, I wouldn’t call myself an expert in the other fields (although I do use social media a lot for my own business).

Devaluing skills

In the current climate, we can all understand why companies want to find multi-talented people who can do the jobs of 3 or 4 people, but creating a position that lumps together diverse skills like that has the effect of devaluing the professional copywriters, PR people, events and social media experts out there.

To master each of these disciplines takes time and experience.

By not bringing in experts in each field (either on permanent contracts or on a freelance basis), the company is running the very real risk of not being represented well in any of the fields and will end up with: