Is It Time To Hire a Copywriting Agency for Your Brand?

Writing copy is an essential part of effectively promoting your business. Most teams start by creating their own copy. When your business was first starting, you likely had a shoestring budget. However, as time goes on, there eventually comes a point when you need to hire a copywriting agency. Understanding the signs that you need to hire a copywriter is crucial to making the right choice for your brand’s marketing.

The Benefits of Hiring a Copywriting Agency

Before examining how to identify the right time to hire a copywriter, it is helpful to understand the benefits of working copywriting services.

There are many good reasons to hire an agency to help with copywriting; however, these are five of the most significant:

• Professional Copywriters: There is a lot to be said for having your content created by someone who is a knowledgeable and experienced writer. While you may be able to write good copy, it is unlikely that a capable professional won’t be better more consistently. After all, it is his or her job.
• Fast Turnaround: In many cases, professional writers can turn around content more quickly. They are focused on writing, so they spend more of their time on it. When you need something done soon, it may make the most sense to hire someone to write it.
• Avoid Opportunity Cost: When you are writing your own copy, you aren’t doing other work for your business. For many companies, this opportunity cost is more expensive than the price of hiring a copywriting service.
• More In-Depth Research: Professional writers have more time to spend researching and planning each piece. In many cases, this can mean that the final content is more likely to achieve results.
• Objective Writing: Sometimes you are too close to your own brand to write copy for it. You may have a picture of what you want your brand to be that is different than what your customers want. A professional writer can avoid this pitfall and focus on creating results-oriented content.

With these benefits in mind, it is easier to see the signs that you need to hire a professional copywriting agency. For the most part, each sign is related to the value of these benefits outweighing the cost of hiring a professional.

6 Signs That You Need To Hire a Copywriting Agency

Many small business teams are reluctant to hire outside professional services for work that they believe they can do themselves. This is understandable as it is important to run a lean operation, especially at first. Nonetheless, there comes a time when it is better to hire a copywriter to handle the work for you than to continue to do it yourself.

For hiring copywriting agencies, this can vary depending on the needs and growth of the business. While you may expect to hire an accountant as soon as you start paying taxes, choosing when to hire a professional copywriter is a little more complex. The following six signs should help you identify when the time is right.

1) Copywriting Is Taking Up Too Much Time

Writing content takes a long time. It takes even longer if you want to invest the research and creative thinking necessary to create truly effective copy.

Writing the content for a simple, initial website may be within the wheelhouse of many business leaders. However, as demands for new landing pages, ad copy, engaging content, social media marketing and more increase, the time demand for copywriting can become too much. After all, you likely have other things on your plate that also require your attention.

2) Your Content Is Not Achieving Results

The professionals at copywriting agencies are skilled writers. They can craft copy carefully so that it achieves the intended effect. If you are a beginner, you may struggle to achieve these same results, especially if you are trying to appeal to new groups in your market.

Simply put, writing good copy isn’t easy. It requires research and planning. In many cases, it also requires multiple attempts to find the right version that works for the desired outcome.

Perhaps you aren’t earning the same conversion rate in your marketing campaigns anymore. Maybe you want to be reaching higher but are finding your brand stuck in one place. Whatever the reason, if you aren’t satisfied with the results of your content, hiring a copywriting agency may be the answer.

3) The Stakes for Success Are High

Sometimes you will need copy that you can’t leave to chance. These are some situations in which you may feel that the stakes are high enough to require copywriting services:

• A new product or service launch
• A major marketing campaign
• A sales slump that requires a turnaround
• Breaking into a new target market

There are many other situations in which you may be investing significant time and resources into a project. You don’t want that investment to go to waste because you failed to get the right copywriter to help.

The best copywriting agencies will carefully craft each word to ensure maximum impact. They will think carefully through the tone and base the message on research. If you don’t think you can deliver the perfect content for your must-succeed project, you should strongly consider hiring a copywriter.

4) You Don’t Have a Clear Brand Voice

As your business grows, you can communicate with your audience in more ways. You may expand your product offers, open up new marketing channels, tap other customer groups and more. This growth is great for your bottom line. However, it also makes your copy a lot more complicated.

Trying to keep a consistent and effective brand voice across multiple media and different campaigns can be very time-consuming and difficult. It may be a good idea to hire a copywriting agency simply to have a focused professional or team working consistently on your content. It is a great way to achieve a more unified brand voice across each medium through which you interact with your audience.

This can help you achieve better bottom-line results. Many of the most successful brands in the world have carefully crafted voices and messaging that transcend any given channel or campaign. For example, think of Apple’s marketing and how it often sells a brand experience more than the features of the products.

5) Investing Your Time Elsewhere Would Have Better Returns

As your business grows, learning how to delegate responsibilities is one of the most important skills you will need to develop.

You likely have many responsibilities and a small window of time to complete them. Perhaps you could be planning your business’s strategic future, designing a new product, rolling out a new marketing campaign or doing some other high-value work. Although great copywriting can provide a very high return, creating it may be a poor use of your time. Is this something you can delegate while you focus on something no one else can do? Perhaps hiring a copywriting agency can be a way for you to pass off a task to a specialist.

6) You Don’t Like Doing Copywriting

The above five signs mostly relate to the business impact of hiring a copywriting agency. However, there is another element to consider: your experience writing. A lot of people just hate writing.

If you have the budget, there is no reason to subject yourself to working on a task that only leads to frustration and stress. Chances are that you aren’t producing great copy if you don’t like writing. After all, you will be incentivized to rush through as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, working on the wrong projects can be very stressful. It can make running your business less enjoyable. While you may be willing to sacrifice to achieve success, you need to ask yourself whether grinding through writing is causing you to be less effective elsewhere. In some cases, you should hire a copywriter or copywriting agency just to give yourself a break.

What To Look for When Hiring a Copywriting Agency

If any of the above signs seem applicable, it may be time to start searching for an agency to work with. You could enjoy all the benefits of SEO copywriting services and more. However, you need to find the right SEO copywriting agency for your brand.

As with most other business projects, there are multiple partners you could work with. You will need to evaluate your options and find the right one for you. Naturally, the cost will be a significant factor in making your decision. However, it should not be the only aspect you consider. If you want to achieve the best possible returns for your investment, you should think about the following three factors.

Copywriting Experience

There is a lot to be said for a copywriting agency that has significant experience. As with any other skill, practicing copywriting helps to lead to better results. Plus, an agency that has been around for at least a few years clearly has impressed enough clients to stay in business.

It may be tempting to go with hiring the upstart freelance copywriter who is offering low rates. In some cases, this is a good choice. However, if you want to be certain that you will get a strong return on investment, it likely makes more sense to go with the tried and tested agency.

You may also want to ask about whether the team has any writers who are directly experienced in your industry. Sometimes it’s better to get a fresh, outside perspective. However, a lot of times, familiarity with your field is more valuable.

Custom Samples

You don’t have to dive into a long-term commitment with the first copywriting agency you find. Instead, consider asking for a sample of work. Commission a single piece, such as a new content marketing page or some ad copy for a small campaign. Use that sample to test the agency to see if it can deliver.

Alternatively, you can ask for a sample of prior work. This will give you a quick and free idea of the team’s abilities. However, it may not be as relevant as commissioning a sample yourself, and some SEO copywriting agencies will not offer a free sample.

In marketing, it is often best to start small and ramp up once you have some data to back up your assumptions. This is as true for copywriting services as for any other element.

Copywriting Services That Fit Your Brand

Finally, make sure you choose a copywriting agency that fits your brand’s unique needs. As described above, one of the reasons you may want to hire an agency is to get the right brand voice. So, it doesn’t make sense to work with a partner that doesn’t quite get your business.

This is a little different from hiring a copywriter with experience in your area who can produce good work. You also need to find a service provider that can help you appeal to your audience from your brand’s unique position in the market. This requires insight that can be developed with experience but isn’t guaranteed by it.

When you find a copywriter that understands your needs, you will likely have a positive and fruitful partnership. This factor can be hard to quantify, but you’ll know it when you see it.

Finding the Right Copywriting Agency for Your Needs

As you explore the options available to you for copywriting, consider BKA Content. Our copywriting services can help you realize all the benefits of great writing. We are happy to work with you to plan a sample so that you can make a confident decision about our services. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO copywriting agency.