TIP OF THE MONTH: Can't Write? Hire someone who can.

August 24, 2009 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
Remember when you were in high school and you dreaded doing homework that required writing? And you would end up paying some nerd to write it for you, so that you would get an ‘A'? Well, times haven't changed, now that you're in the real world. The only difference is that you're not writing for your teacher anymore. You're writing to convince people to hire you and give you money. If you hate to write or have trouble writing, you need to hire a Copywriter. (But this time, you have to pay them instead of threaten them with wedgies).

When I was in high school, I had a great art teacher. The class was hard, of course, but what was unusual was the teacher's insistence on giving us writing assignments. It turned out that his "writing class" was actually harder to pass than my Advance Placement English class. I never understood why he was so hard on us to write well. After being in the advertising industry -- I get it now.

Writing is hard. Writing great copy is even harder. It takes time, creativity, and excellent writing skills. So, if you don't feel that spending hours of your precious time (which may end up reading terribly anyway) is worth it, it's time to think about hiring a professional. Copywriters have spent their lives learning how to write great copy for business, articles, advertisements, and for the web. They understand about people's attention spans, readability, and sentence structure (not to mention correct grammar and punctuation). They also know who the audience will be -- young or old, hipsters or business people. Persuasive writing is one of the hardest creative ventures.

Also, keep in mind that writing for the web is far different than writing for print. Copywriters must write in a way that incorporates keywords that are spaced-out well, while keeping sentences coherent and interesting to read. This brings me to my next point -- if it's not interesting or too lengthy, no one will read it. If you don't grab your audience's attention in the first 2 or 3 sentences, you've lost them. Many times, our clients are so caught-up with creating the perfect design, that they leave copywriting as an afterthought. But, I urge you to keep copywriting on the same level-of-importance as design.