Experience Matters: Why You Need a Copywriter Who Can Relate

We all write, but can you write right? Here’s 3 reasons you need a copywriter who’s been there — and done that.

59% of customers would be put off by a website with poor punctuation and grammar.

“I’ll fix it in the morning” is played out. The placeholder fluff that seemed like a good idea after a glass of wine before bed? Not going to cut it.

Hold off hitting ‘Publish’. At least until you’ve read this.

Business is going well. You’re using your diary (and keeping to it). This quarter, you even made a decent profit. You’re busier than ever. But, the bags under your eyes carry the truth: it’s not sustainable.

Claw some time back. Your competitors are sending their writing work to copywriters. Blog posts, web copy, product descriptions…all that wordy stuff you haven’t got time for.

You don’t need to be a writer. Copywriters make your online presence worth following; turn your visitors from hmmm to mmm(h).

Why your growing business needs a copywriter

1. Develop your brand’s voice (and show off your services).

If your business was a person you could take to lunch, who do you imagine across the table from you? Someone who pinches your chips with a cheeky wink? Or maybe they sip wine and look regal as hell?

Either way, copywriters can breathe life into your chosen vibe. Your brand’s voice sells your product without coming off too…salesy. Nobody likes feeling they’re being sold to. It gives dishonest, or sleazy.

2. Authentic writing

I’ve actually got a story down below about how realness — authenticity — is important. People are storytellers (and listeners) at heart. We love a tale with a lesson. Authenticity creates trust. Trust brings loyalty.

3. An impartial (objective) POV

You’ve been up under your product too long. Product blindness. You think everybody knows it’s as wicked as you do. You’re in too deep. They don’t (yet). An objective writer keeps it real. They’ll show off your product’s benefits, and explain why customers should give a damn about your product.

Why you need to keep it real

You might’ve checked out my website, and wondered how I ended up writing for Black-owned businesses. It came around 6 months into freelancing…

Quick note: any “we” and “our” in this story means “fellow Black folks”.

I was browsing after coffee #2 (enjoying baby nap downtime) and found a social post in a Facebook writing group. A guy needed urgent help writing a piece on natural hair. He had no idea what the hell he was doing and was freaking out. Glancing at his profile, I noticed–immediately–he was White.

Responses blooped. Quickly. A lot of the same question: why’d he accept if he didn’t understand what he was getting into? Along with suggestions to turn the work down, or pass it on. But he doubled down. He was keeping it.

Black hair, isn’t just regular beauty writing. It’s complicated. There’s complex backstory and social struggles. Our hair is a statement. It shouldn’t be…but it is. So the message of empowerment in Black haircare is a constant, powerful undercurrent. It’s claiming our industry; it’s triumph.

Any writer can research and fart out passable guff. But some subjects need lived experience to be kept real. Could this dude ever understand the challenges of humidity and shrinkage? The struggle of going to bed with damp hair while waiting for a style to set? The fallout of taking it down too soon?

No.

Instead of earning any respect with legwork of his own, he wanted to be spoonfed. A one-stop Facebook comment shop, and done.

I sometimes wonder how the piece turned out. I had a lot of questions, actually. How much did the company care about their customers, really?

The point of this story? I noticed all this as a coffee-swilling bystander. Imagine how jank, insincere copy could affect your business. Turning off your potential customers.

Everyday topics — fridges for example — can be researched. Others, like Black hair, need lived experience to feel real. Customers aren’t stupid. Fakeness snaps folks out of their spending mood. Quickly.

It’s an easy fix: let a copywriter who knows a thing or two about hands-in-hair syndrome, get their hands (and words) all over your product.