Category: Consulting

It’s 22.41 as I write this. 

The house is as quiet as a mouse. 

Everyone’s asleep, and I’m downstairs, working on my laptop with old episodes of Only Fools and Horses on the box for company. 

Although most of them were filmed before I was born, Only Fools and Horses, or OFAH as us weirdo fans call it, remains my all-time, absolute favourite show. 

While it’s funny, there are a few things we as business owners and marketers could take from OFAH and the legendary Delboy. 

1. Write as you speak. OFAH uses real words, that real people, in the real world use. You should be doing this in your marketing copy, writing so your audience sees themselves in you and can imagine themselves using your product, by writing as you speak, in both tone and language.  
2. Jargon and phrases. Delboy’s famous for his crap French phrases. They’re always wrong and never have the desired impact. Again, avoid jargon and acronyms. Not everyone will get them, and your copy could end up falling as flat as Del’s French – bonnet de douche! 
3. While Del’s a salesman, he also gets straight the point as quickly as he can. He doesn’t beat around the bush when he’s trying to flog something. It’s the same for your marketing, don’t waste peoples time, get straight to the point, as quickly as you can, using just enough copy to get the message across. 
4. They’re triers, ‘this time next year, we’ll be millionaires’. When one enterprise fails, they pick themselves back up, dust themselves off and move on to the next one. For us, marketing is all about trying new things until it works. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s our job to try out new marketing methods while measuring and testing the results until we find the one that does. 

Want to try something new in your marketing? 

Ever worked with a copywriter? 

It’s my job to help you squeeze more sales potential from your marketing. 

Whether it’s on your website, sales pages, emails or offline stuff – if you’re using words to promote what you do, there’s a big chance it can be improved upon with the help of a copywriter. 

Drop me an email [email protected] to see if there’s a way I could help you out. 

Tony the Tiger.

The Jolly Green Giant.

And even the Marlboro Man.

Characters all thought of and invented by someone Time Magazine named as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

They were creations of the late great Leo Burnett,  American advertising exec and the founder of his advertising agency Leo Burnett Company, Inc.

Over 50 years he worked with the biggest brands in the world at the time, including Kellog’s, Procter & Gamble, Heinz, Nestle and General Motors.

He’s also the author of one of my favourite marketing quotes:

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” -Leo Burnett

Summing up everything an effective piece of advertising should be.

Simple, fun to read copy.

With a memorable concept, offering one promise and idea.

Which looks that grab your attention and want to be looked at.

How could you make your advertising a bit more Burnett?

Image By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57229360

The dramatic, bank balance changing impact hiring a freelance copywriter can have on your business cannot be overemphasised.

…Or can it 🙂

A good copywriter brings you closer to your customers, speaks with them directly and pushes prospects for a sale. Which is great, but, how do you work with a freelance copywriter?

Here’s quick list outlining how you can build a solid, money making relationship.

1. What’s the end goal?

We all know about the importance of goals in business.

A copywriting project should be no different. Clear goals will help.

It’ll help your copywriter write better when they your goals in mind – so make them crystal clear.

Try to get these tied down before you contact a copywriter, this helps you both know what’s expected before any actual work gets done, with a look at expectations, outcomes, results etc.

You won’t need the entire, in’s and out’s of the project beforehand, as the copywriter will be able give a steer on this one, since they know what to expect in terms of results, and will be able to advise on marketing medium, social channels etc.

Good copywriters don’t just write stuff, they’re ace marketers and will have tried and tested business experience to help with your own marketing.

2. Make sure your Copywriter understands you

As above, if you’re 100% on writing your brief, they’ll be able to help. Talk to your copywriter face to face if possible, or on the telephone / over Skype, outlining precisely what you want him to do, what your business needs are and how you feel he should be able to contribute.

As soon as the brief has been decided upon, get them to rephrase it in their own words, preferably in black and white, over email.

Why should you do this? If your copywriter is not as familiar with your industry as you are, you may leave things out of the brief because they’re obvious to you.

Asking your copywriter to rewrite the beif ensures you’re both on the same page and, will allow you to return to it should there be a problem later down the line (it’s in black and white).

3. Create a timeline

Even the best plans and projects will fail without a dated timeline.

Your copywriting project should have milestones like this. Keeping your copywriter on track, in accordance with your brief, will help with expectations on issues such as turnaround time and delivery.

Ask your copywriter about a usual timeline and work with them to integrate it into your brief – with dates for research, first drafts, final drafts etc.

Since they’re professional freelancers, they should easily be able to stick to it, delivering your copy project on time.

4. Prioritise your copywriter

Your copywriter could genuinely help to transform your businesses (and your) fortunes. The copy they produce could easily be your businesses next salesperson so, make this a priority and respond quickly.

If your copywriter is any good, he will also be working on a number of projects at the same time, so bump yours to the top of his list, make his life easier by responding swiftly to requests for revisions, answering questions etc.

By responding quicker, not only will this cement a good working relationship, it means your project gets completed quicker. A win-win all round.

Hire a freelance copywriter today

Now you know how to hire a freelance copywriter, head over to my post outlining 10 Reasons to Hire a Freelance Copywriter.,

Or, if you’re ready to start setting your own brief and working with a copywriter who has a 10+ years in sales, marketing and copy?

How UK businesses could benefit from a freelance copywriter

Copywriters are some of the most inventive and creative marketers out there.

If you haven’t hired a freelance copywriter in the UK (yet), it might well be because you don’t know what a copywriter can offer your business.

Afterall ‘selling your stuff’ does sound a bit wishy-washy, which is why I’ve put together this ‘10 reasons to hire a freelance copywriter’ guide just for you.

Good copywriters know the tricks and shortcuts to writing tantalising copy which sells you, your company and your services.  (It’s a bit like magic!).

It’s the power of creative thinking and selecting words which speak directly to your audience, captivating them, and encouraging them to continue reading an ad.

Ultimately, copywriters are marketers whose only tool of salesmanship is their well-crafted words and the copy on a page.  They use these skills to make ordinary, and often really dull things look and sound irresistible.

Really good copywriting goes beyond just putting words on a page, website or advert. The key to incredible, direct response copywriting is ability to use convincing words and tricks to persuade customers that a product or service is worth their money, and must be bought now.

It’s the skill to get customers to act.  

Good copy will not only get a prospect to act – it’ll create an unflinching loyalty from the customers it creates.  Professional copywriters make this happen – they create content that get results, and insights loyalty.

While every copywriter is different, with a variety of qualities and skills, here’s a big old list of other key reasons businesses should hire a freelance copywriter in the UK…

1. Your best salesperson

They’re the ultimate sales people.

Some copywriters won’t admit this, often because they believe the sales world is icky and uncomfortable. It’s beneath them to do certain copywriting tasks…

And afterall, actually selling a product might not get them that latest BS award…

(Sorry, rant over!)

But, it’s true – copywriters are kickass marketers and salespeople. They’re the ones who, through choice words and proven psychological sales tricks, will get your customers to read an entire ad, and then reach for their credit cards.

You need a copywriter on your team for this reason alone.

2. Copywriters are versatile

The major objective of every business is to present its goods and services to its potential customers in a convincing way.  Professional copywriters, by virtue of their background and training, know ‘something about everything’.

Well, they do…a bit.

At least, if they’ve written for any period of time, they are at least skilled at mastering the basics, through research, customer interviews, polling and more – to get a grounding of what you do, and what makes your customers tick.

Which means that a copywriter might be writing about hair products one day, while writing copy for wholesale dropshippers the next.

It’s this versatility to turn their hand to almost any industry and yet continue to make the client’s services or goods appealing to its customers.

3. Helping you compete

No matter how hard you try, it’s often costly, time and effort intensive for you to constantly compete on a 1:1 basis with your competition. Both of you reaching out for a finite number of customers in the market in the same way.

Instead, copywriters know how to position you so you’re not competing.

Any copywriter with business experience will be fresh pair of eyes for your organisation. They’ll be able to see if it’s worth trying to compete, or if it’ll reap more rewards to take the copy strategy in a different, less competitive direction.

For example, positioning the business is a luxury / budget brand, a different customer, swapping marketing channels etc – all, at times, easy money making swaps.

Let your competition fight it out, this low hanging fruit will often be juicer and ripe for the picking.

4. Building your tribe

We all know it’s easier to sell to someone who’s already bought from you. No business wants a disloyal or fickle customer who jumps from retailer to retailer.

But how can a business ditch these customers and recruit loyal, life-long customers?

Leave it in the hands of a copywriter.

Your copywriter will know how to create an emotional connection. Helping you to, from across a screen, build a loyal, trusting relationship and connection with your audience – building your tribe.

This tribe will be your very best customers who, against all storms, will stand with you. These very best customers will even go as far to defend, praise and recommend your product as they though they have a personal stake in them.

They know how to create an emotional connection between customers and products or services.  You see why I said earlier that copywriters are the most creative marketers.

5. Giving you time back 

Whether you want more time with your family, have an endless work to-do list, or just want to play more golf (or Candy Crush?!)…

When you hire the services of a copywriter, you’re ‘buying’ all the free time you need for other things.

The time you spend on thinking up new ideas for sales promotions or witty things to say on your blog or social media channels will all be saved by your new copywriter.

6. Marketing and design input

When working with a freelance copywriter, you’ll often want more than just someone to write ‘stuff’ for you.

Really good copywriters are more than just word work horses, sitting behind a keyboard churning out wordy articles.

Effective, conversion focussed communication isn’t just about the words on the page, it’s about getting the reader to read the whole piece, it’s about getting the article to stand out and importantly – acted upon.

It’s important it looks good too.

Which is why, since they’re also creative marketers who may well have produced similar campaigns before, they’ll give their thoughts on the advertising medium, design, style and channels, in addition to the actual copy.

Copywriters will recommend on the use of imagery, video and audio when appropriate to help reinforce and complement the copy they’ve written .

Remember the core objective of businesses is to leverage on any accepted communication means to coordinate and inform outsiders and customers about them.

7. Turning bad news into an opportunity

Sometimes bad news isn’t always the shit-storm many of us think it is.

A copywriter will be able to assess if it’s worth leveraging bad news, a mistake or a negative incident to your benefit.

So, instead of hiding from something negative, why not use a copywriter to turn it around and get something from it?

Your copywriter could use it as an additional excuse to reach out to your audience, gleam positive PR from it, or even make it go viral.

When a business faces a brand challenge, a copywriter will know how to create an overwhelming “Yes” from the prevailing “No”.

8. Saving you money

Good copywriters will cringe at the use of ‘money saving’ as a key benefit to sell anything.

But, a copywriter will be able to save you money in the long run. By producing a set of money-making assets, it will save you money in the future from having to recreate the wheel every time you want to run a new promotion.

Plus, your copywriter will save you from endlessly pouring money into ads that don’t give a positive ROI. – This is saving you money.

9. Your eyes and ears

While you’re busy serving your customers, who knows what’s going viral on Twitter? Or what the latest YouTube video trend is?

Your copywriter should.

They’ll be your eyes and ears, advising on how you can jump on the latest trends to beef up your own marketing, and get a slice of the viral pie.

This brings variety into your communication with your audience, making you seem more interactive, agile and appealing.

10. Saves you a job

And lastly – it just saves you the job of writing that next piece of content.

Even copywriters get it, opening up that Word document, staring blankly at the page hoping the creative juices will start flowing – and nothing.

Never get this again, hire a copywriter to get all sweaty infront of a blank page for you.

Copywriters know how to get their mojo going well before they get to the writing page. Which is ultimately what you’re paying for, these background skills which go into producing effective, sales producing copy.

And…it saves you the job!

Hiring a freelance copywriter in the UK could be the best thing your business does in 2018. From the smallest blog post, to long-form sales pages and direct mail pieces, a good copywriter could easily become your new favourite person.

Hire a Freelance Copywriter in UK

Now you’ve read the why’s behind hiring a freelance copywriter, why not speak to one?

Head over to my contact page and drop me an email about your project and let’s see how I can help sort your copy.

A teeny, tiny blog post…

I’m pleased to say I’m now an official, paid up Wired Sussex Member.

Wired Sussex is a Brighton based membership organisation for companies and freelancers operating in the digital, media and technology sector in Sussex.

They’ve got a handy directory where businesses and freelancers like yours truly can boast about what we’re doing and shamelessly plug ourselves to our hearts desire.

Checkout my own profile by clicking the logo below…

I’ve also recently joined a niche, copywriters website, so I’ll probably do another quick post bulletin promoting that one too.

– Liam

I just wrote about blog post about my brand spanking new email newsletter which you can find over here…

It’s covering techniques you can use to market the crap out of almost any business.

…it’s hugely value driven, which is what’s core (at least in my head) to my copywriting. Providing actual value to readers on behalf of my clients.

Well, I kinda need to ensure I’m doing the same here on my blog don’t I?

So, in that spirit…let’s serve up a huge dollop of value for you.

My Favourite Gary Halbert Quote

‘I Didn’t Worry About Offending The “Dogs” Instead, I Concentrated On Selling The “Foxes”’

Gary Halbert, to many – is considered to be the father of direct response copywriting. His ‘Letters’ were the first things I read when I thought about going into copywriting, and his Baron Letters (which he wrote to his son Bond from prison!) can always be found (somewhere) on my desk.

He made a shed load of cash from his direct response copywriting, even while in prison, thanks to his to the point copy – which always did the job and got you as the reader ‘right where it hurts.

The quote above sums this up beautifully.

It’s something I’ve come across numerous times with marketing clients, owners way too scared to implement something I’m suggesting because either…their competition aren’t doing it, or worse – it might put ‘someone’ off them.

Which is rubbish, the whole point about good copywriting is precisely that – you’re not looking to sell to all the ‘somebodies’ – you’re trying to flog your stuff to one reader, your ideal customer.

If your product works, your copy – no matter how brash or out of the norm, will resonate with them if done properly.

You need to stop caring what everyone else thinks and solely focus on your one customer.

As Gary said in his own words…

“Stop worrying so much about offending people and start worrying more about selling to them”.

So…start bloomin’ well start selling more.

Need someone to help write copy that focuses on your sole reader? Make contact to see if I can help.