Why startups need a copywriter from day one
Hiring a copywriter is not often the first thing that comes to mind during the launch of your startup business. There are more pressing issues, such as winning and retaining enough clients to keep you in the black or showing your investors you’ve got what it takes to make your business work.
So it’s understandable why many startups generally spend their first few months hiring salespeople to win business fast.
However, hiring a copywriter is equally important, despite the fruits of their labour only becoming apparent later on down the line.
Once SEO-friendly and shareable content gets recognized, the work of a copywriter becomes invaluable, which is why startups should be just as eager to hire copywriters as they are to hire salespeople or even CMOs. In this article, I’ll explain the benefits of hiring a copywriter from day one.
1. Copywriters establish your brand voice straight away
A well-developed brand voice gives your new company a personality, builds trust amongst consumers and investors, and establishes a solid brand identity early on.
A copywriter can tap into your company’s values and image to write around them and set your company apart from your competitors.
A strong brand voice attracts your ideal customer, and your ideal customer is more likely to buy your product or service. In the early stages of a business, you might not even know what your brand voice sounds like. A copywriter will listen to your company values and vision and understand your target audience to give your brand a unique presence.
2. Copywriters save you time and energy
Many people believe they can quickly write a few articles, post them on the company website and save themselves a small fortune. It’s understandable why lots of people believe this, especially at a time defined by artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT.
But writing good content is not as simple as it seems.
Copywriters are dedicated to their work and have spent years sharpening their skills. Creating content isn’t just about publishing a few articles here and there. Content creators have a huge set of skills, from writing SEO-friendly articles, social media posts, press releases, thought leadership articles, newsletters, sales emails, and so much more. They also develop well-thought-out content calendars. Business owners who try to go it alone waste time in the short run and will likely waste money in the long run.
3. Copywriters give your company more authority
Copywriters don’t spend the majority of their time writing. Copywriters and content creators actually spend most of their time researching and proofreading. Using expert research skills, copywriters can write informative and entertaining content that will go down well with your customers and investors.
What’s more, the trained eye of a copywriter can spot any grammatical or spelling mistakes that the average skim reader might miss.
4. Copywriters bring traffic to your website for free
In the early days of your business, you might be tempted to invest money in Google or social media adverts to draw the maximum number of people to your website. While spending a bit on advertising here and there is a good way of testing the waters, it can quickly become very expensive.
But, with the magic of SEO and the knowledge of writing sharable content, copywriters can consistently bring people to your website with free and high-quality information that offers potential customers value.
5. Copywriters turn complex topics into digestible content
While writing for Workfellow, a Helsinki-based process mining startup, I turned complex subjects such as process mapping into a bite-sized blog post that everyone, from decision-makers to curious skim readers, could understand.
Getting this information required interviewing experts in the field. They shared pages and pages of information that I whittled down into digestible chunks of information.
If you’re running a startup that sells products centred around technology or engineering, etc., you need someone to turn complex subjects into understandable material.
The bottom line
Although the benefits of written content take a while to become apparent, startups need a copywriter from day one to help develop a brand voice, communicate with buyers and decision-makers, and bring a steady and consistent flow of traffic to their websites. If you’re watching your budget, hiring a reliable and experienced freelance copywriter who can help share your vision with the world is a good idea.