Copywriters – The Invisible Men

Yes, OK, women too.

Tell someone you’re a copywriter and they’ll usually look a little blank. The brighter ones might think this means that you can copy type. Some people might even think that you work for a publishing outfit and register the copyright for other writers.

Copywriters generally inhabit a world at the edge of peoples’ consciousness – which is strange because we’re usually right under their noses and always have been. If you didn’t already know, copywriters write all that advertising stuff, product descriptions, technical instructions and, well just about every bit of information you could care to imagine, including all that stuff on the information superhighway.

Today, the written word is everywhere, usually appearing on a screen near you – or right at this moment on a screen in front of you. But should you do your own copywriting, or leave it to these mysterious professionals? As copywriters are shady creatures, their names rarely appearing on their work you could, like many people, be forgiven for thinking that they don’t really exist.

Or that there is simply no need for such creatures, and you can produce your own web copy. If you are considering producing your own copy, articles, blog posts and much, much more, here is a little insight into what us copywriters get up to when you’re paying for our time.

Write stuff

Yes, you guessed we write ‘stuff’. Writing involves some very basic, but often overlooked skills. Spelling and grammar are two of the important ones. A good writer knows what they are doing with these two skills and is not afraid to use them. You might think, in the badly spelled world of user generated content, that correct spelling and grammar is unimportant.

For user generated content it’s not really a problem. Everyone knows that customers can rarely spell – it doesn’t matter. But if you want to sell to people it can be frighteningly important. Most people who buy on the internet admit that poor spelling and bad grammar immediately set them thinking that this may not be a reputable site. One internet entrepreneur, who has made millions from internet selling, has suggested that poor spelling can impact on your sales by 50%. Ouch.

Unstoppable scribblers

So, nuts and bolts aside, what else do we do? When we’ve written ‘stuff’, we then read it. How weird is that? Yes, we sit down and read our work, not in one, but at least two different ways. First is the obvious edit for sense, readability and any repetition. Then we get all finicky and read every word to ensure it really is spelled right.

You just can’t spell check these days – partly because language keeps on changing and people go around inventing words like ‘blog’. The final trick that most copywriters then have to pull out of the hat is when they’ve finished writing stuff, is to write more stuff and then more and so on. We just don’t stop!

Obsessive about language

While it is tempting for many businesses operating online – or off, for that matter – using the services of reliable copywriters leaves you free to get on with what you do best. Search engines in particular like lovely fresh content, stale old stuff that’s been around for a while will have them turning their electronic noses up and wandering off to websites new.

Generating new, fresh and interesting content is what those shady copywriters are about. Finally, you might be wondering if we’re such amazing characters, why aren’t more of our names blazing from a billboard near you? Like most writers we are good at putting ourselves in other peoples’ shoes; when we writing for you it’ll be yours. A good copywriter doesn’t care about getting their name in lights; the words are all that matters to us!*

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay