You’ve worked for hours honing your website, crafting the pages, designing and sourcing images, and filling the pages with copy, but when you launch… crickets. So where did you go wrong?
Many small business owners are jacks of all trades, ready to do it all and take everything on to get their business up and running, but they don’t always realize when they need help. Copywriting–that is, writing designed to sell, which ends up on websites, emails, and handouts–can seem like an easy area to cut costs by doing it yourself. Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where small business owners lull themselves into a false sense of security.
Copy is a lot more complex than you might think, and while DIY copywriting can save you money upfront, it can cost you money long term in lost clients, missed opportunities, and failed conversions.
Why Copywriting Matters for Your Business
The copy on your website serves as your 24/7 salesperson, speaking to customers for you when you can’t. That means it can’t just be filler – your web copy should work for you behind the scenes to attract and convert customers.
Strong copy does just that. If your copy is on point, it will serve to build trust with clients, communicate the value of your service or product, and motivate potential customers to take action. Truly good copywriting doesn’t just sell to a client, it connects your customers with the products and services you offer that will serve them best.
But something on the page is better than nothing, right? Not necessarily. Poor copywriting can cause potential customers to bounce from your site, confuse them about what you offer, or fail to resonate with them–sometimes so catastrophically that your potential clients think that your business values don’t align with their own.
The Hidden Costs of DIY Copy
DIY copywriting can end up costing you more money than it saves. Let’s take a look at the ways in which poor copy can damage your business.
- Time
DIY copy might save you some money upfront, but it will cost you time. Many small business owners don’t realize how long it takes to fill in a web page on their site, layout a brochure, or draft a series of automated emails. Hours spent writing could be spent running your business instead. Hiring a professional copywriter not only frees up your time for other things, but if you hire the right copywriter they’ll be good at what they do and save you time on the project as well.
- Missed Opportunities
If you’re doing your own copywriting and you’re not a copywriter, chances are you don’t know how to optimize your copy for SEO – maybe you don’t even know what SEO is. A professional copywriter not only knows all the jargon associated with the job, but how to best pose your business to take advantage of opportunities you might not know about. Search Engine Optimization is a great tool to use to bring in more traffic, but you have to know how to strategize and optimize your copy in order to take advantage of all it has to offer.
- Brand Damage
It sucks, but it’s true: unpolished copy makes you look unprofessional. If you haven’t spent your career looking for small mistakes and learning writing best practices, you might not see how your copy is damaging your brand’s presence. When building a brand, increasing customer trust is the most important goal, because customers that trust you are more likely to convert. Missed typos and copy mistakes at best make you look like you didn’t take the time to read over your work, and at worst can make your emails look like spam.
- Revenue Loss
The bottom line is, if your words don’t draw the right prospects in and compel them to take action, you won’t have any convert to customers. The right copy can bring in more traffic, turn that traffic into leads, and turn those leads into paying clients. Every moment spent running a website with sub-par copy means lost sales.
Signs Your Copy Isn’t Working
So how do you know if your DIY copy is doing you justice or letting your leads fly out the window? Some common symptoms of poor copy include:
- Your Website Isn’t Generating Leads: Do you have lots of traffic, but few sign-ups or inquiries? This could mean that your web page copy is falling short. No traffic at all? You may have an SEO problem.
- Your Bounce Rate Is High: Most visitors leave quickly because the message isn’t hooking them or resonating with them.
- People Don’t Understand What You Offer: Confusing language or an unclear value proposition can lead to potential customers shrugging and walking away.
- You’re Attracting the Wrong Audience: If your copy doesn’t speak to your ideal customer, you’ll find yourself buried in irrelevant inquiries.
- Your Marketing Feels Inconsistent: If your tone, style, and messaging vary across platforms, you’ll erode trust in your brand.
How a Professional Copywriter Solves These Problems
Hiring a professional copywriter can do a lot for your business because they bring more than words to the table.
A good copywriter will help you:
- Research and Strategize: understand your audience and improve your marketing strategy
- Clarify Value: hone your business’s value proposition and convey it to customers
- Be Consistent: develop and maintain your brand voice across platforms
- Optimize: write for both people and platforms so that you get as many eyes on your business as possible.
It’s Time to Get a Good Look at Your Copy
It’s clear that DIY copy can cost you clients if you haven’t done it right – so if you’re not a trained copywriter, how do you know where you stand?
If you resonate with any of the points in this blog, you should check out our free Web Copy Audit Checklist. In 30 minutes or less, audit your website copy to see if it’s on point or fizzling out, and check whether you can do it on your own or should reach out and seek help. Either way, Ember Writing Services has your back.