Yes, Your Copywriting Project Does Need Research

November 1^st 2016 Sally Ormond copywriter, pay professional rates, professional copywriter, research

Research

Marketing budgets have never been tighter, I get that, but that doesn’t mean you should start to skimp on the important stuff.

I have noticed a trend recently in the enquiries I have been receiving.

One or two, once they have received my proposal and quote, suddenly announce: “It’s OK, you don’t need to do any research, I’ll provide you with everything you need…so, can you re-quote?”

Hmmm.

To me, that’s a problem.

There may well be copywriters out there who just take the information they are given by their client and use it to create the content they’ve been commissioned to write.

Not me.

It doesn’t matter how much information I get for a project, I will always do extra research.

Doing your homework will make you stand out

On the whole, my clients are great.

They get that copywriting is a collaborative process and are happy to answer my endless stream of questions. They don’t seem to mind when I challenge their perceptions, especially when they come up with an idea I know won’t work.

But those that say extra research isn’t needed are missing the point.

Research, in a copywriter’s world, doesn’t necessarily just mean getting to know their client’s business; it’s also about gaining a deeper understanding of their industry and market demands.

You see, all the information in the world about your particular product or service won’t create killer copy.

Why?

Because it only scratches the surface.

As a business owner, you want your writer to create something that makes you stand out from everyone else.

If they don’t research your industry, how can they achieve that?

A good copywriter will create content that fulfils your brief; a great copywriter will do that, but their copy will also a few steps further:

It will also be different to everything else out there making you stand out
It will concentrate on your reader (i.e. the audience they spent time researching)
It will be visible in the search results (because it will fulfil all of Google’s demands, plus be written naturally with the right combination of related terms to give the search giant that all over tingly feeling)
It will shower your readers with so much empathy and love they’ll buy, buy, buy

But all of that will only happen if you pay a professional who will do however much research they deem necessary.

A professional copywriter doesn’t come cheap.

They spend years honing their craft and will always go that extra mile.

If you just want padding that will add pages to your blog or website, but absolutely to substance, then, by all means, pay £20 per blog.

But if you want content that’s well thought out, relevant to your audience, attractive to the search engines and irresistible to your readers, overcome your inner Scrooge and pay professional rates.