As much as I wish the answer *could* be “right now!” for everyone, it’s not always the right time to hire a copywriter. Investing in any service provider for your business is a commitment, so if it’s one you’re going to make – it’s worth doing right.
Signs It’s Time To Hire A Copywriter For Your Website
You may not need to hire a copywriter – but if you’re reading this post, I’m guessing you’re thinking about it. Here are the three top signs it’s time:
You don’t know how to talk about your business and the impact you create through it.
Doing the thing is much easier than selling the thing, if you ask me (okay, maybe not *me* since my literal job is to sell your thing – but you know).
When you’re incredibly close to your own brand, it’s hard to find the perspective you need to talk about and write about your own business (I usually compare it to trying to read a label from inside the jar, or living in your home during a huge renovation).
A copywriter can come into your business and not only help you gain that perspective, but figure out what to do with it – and how to articulate it. This is one of my favorite parts of copywriting projects – leveraging
You don’t know what kind of content goes on your website (or you do, but you don’t want to be the one to write it).
All of the words on your website have a job to do – namely, to get people to take the action you want them to (whether that’s subscribing, booking, or buying). They’re also responsible for how people move through your website (and ultimately, how they become more familiar with your brand).
Because of that, website content is *far* from guesswork – there are specific pages, sections, concepts, and more that you’ll want to touch on to give your readers a great experience (and turn them into clients). A website copywriter’s literal job is to create copy that acts as a guide for people to get to know your brand, realize your value, and take actual action on working with you (or buying).
You’re not getting enough people to your website (or your inquiries).
Good website copy makes your website work better in two main ways:
- Getting more people to your website (if your website copywriter also offers SEO)
- Getting more of those people into your inquiries
When it comes to SEO, there are a lottttt of services providers who can help with this (like a specialized SEO expert, or a website designer or copywriter who also offers SEO) – so your main job is to make sure whoever you hire is doing your SEO, and has a good track record for it.
Then (assuming you did hire a copywriter) your copywriter’s job is to teach people about your brand and offer, address objections, and explain the benefits of your offer – in a way that people *actually* want to read.
How To Hire A Copywriter (& Choose The Right One For Your Brand)
There are two (main) things my clients usually consider when hiring a copywriter:
- Budget
- Experience/Approach
How much does it cost to hire a copywriter?
The investment for a copywriter varies wildly depending on what they do, how much experience they have, and what they’re providing – but a fairly average range for website copywriting is $2,000 – $10,000 (with most people being between $3-6k).
This increases if you need more pages written than their “base” package or add on more deliverables (example: my SEO and brand messaging services are both add-ons) – but most providers offer payment plans to make the financial side of things more manageable.
For any contractor/service provider, I also recommend weighing the investment against the potential return – if you hire a copywriter who charges $6,000 (and you charge about $3,000 per project), you make your money back with just two bookings (and that’s if the ROI stops after 2, which is…unlikely).
Copywriter Experience & Approach
After deciding on your budget for hiring a copywriter, I also recommend looking at their portfolio or writing samples for:
- Variety
- Quality
Once you’re sure that they can provide the literal copy you want, you may also want to know about the experience they provide (if that’s important to you), and other details (like how many rounds of revisions you’ll get, what the timeline is, etc).
Not ready to hire a copywriter? You still have options.
There are a ton of resources out there to help you write good copy, quickly (or learn the entire process of copywriting, if it’s something you love).
Here are my favorites:
COPY TEMPLATES: My plug-and-play (emphasis on play) website copy templates that will help you write allll of the pages and sections you need for your website to convert. Each headline comes with two fill-in-the-blank options, and the entire template is full of prompts and tips to make sure you don’t miss any details.
COPY COURSE: If you want to learn more of the strategy behind copywriting (and still get yours done quickly), I will never be able to say enough good things about my friend Sara’s Site Series® Sprint course. It’ll take you through your website section-by-section, with video examples to show you exactly how to write.
COPY AUDIT: If you don’t need a complete overhaul (and just want to refresh what you have), a website copy audit is the perfect middle ground. I’ll review your entire website or sales page, and film a video walkthrough with suggested copy edits to boost your conversion (plus design and SEO tips, because ya girl can’t help herself).
Why My Clients Have Hired Me As Their Copywriter Lately
Feeling snoopy about why *other* people hire a copywriter? Here’s a peek into my clients’ brains:
I just wanted my copy done *right* so I could stop messing with it – it was taking up too much brainspace.
^ This client is a website designer, and (obv) knows her way around a website. She’d actually taken a course about how to write her website copy, but as her business grew, she was finding it harder to keep a pulse on what her audience was saying, how to articulate her rising value, and what *actually* made her different in a very crowded market.
I knew what I needed to say, but didn’t know how to do it in a way that got people to listen.
^ This client is an online educator and an absolute queen on social media – but her brain breaks when it comes to selling her (high ticket) offer through her website. She was constantly answering questions about her program in the DM’s, or overexplaining (or underexplaining) and didn’t like that her copy felt like a hard sales pitch.
I honestly just don’t want to do any of it.
^ VALID. This client runs an online business and needs her website to convert clients for her, butttt didn’t want to deal with the work of researching her audience (beyond what she knows about them from social media and client calls) to figure out the exact words and approach that would work for them.
Your turn to hire a copywriter?
I happen to know one who’d love to write your website, sales page, brand messaging guide, or email sequence for you. Learn more about working with me here!
