Six Real-World Reasons to Hire a Professional SEO Copywriter

Look, I’m going to give it to you straight. You’re not good at copywriting. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but if you want what’s best for your business, you can’t be worried about your feelings getting hurt.

I’m sure you’re awesome at whatever it is you do. Maybe you’re an amazing cake baker, a brilliant party planner or you drive a mean taco truck. Whatever your business is, you’re amazing at that.

What you’re not good at is writing content for your business.

That’s how you ended up here. Good thing, too. Because I’m about to give you the straight facts on why you need a professional to write your copy:

1. You are not a professional copywriter.
2. You don’t know how to speak to your audience.
3. You’re not objective enough.
4. You don’t have the tools to write effective SEO copy.
5. You can’t keep up with what Google’s up to.
6. You don’t have time to write copy and run your business.

Before we get into the why, let’s define the what and the who:

What is copywriting, and who can do it? (Hint: It’s not you.)

What Is a Copywriter?

Copywriting is art
with a job to do.

A copywriter is a creative professional who produces written content for marketing, advertising, publicity or sales purposes. This written content is called “copy,” and the act of writing such content is called “copywriting.”

I like to say that copywriting is art with a job to do.

Regardless of whether the copy is meant to sell a product, promote a brand or start a conversation with potential or existing clients, the goal of copywriting is always to convince the reader to take a specific, desired action.

Each stage of the marketing funnel requires specific types of content, making a professional copywriter an essential partner in executing any marketing plan.

Content in the Funnel

The content chart below outlines where different types of content work best: at the Top of Funnel (TOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU) or Bottom of Funnel (BOFU).

What Is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is a subgenre of copywriting that combines the art of writing persuasive web copy with the science of ranking in search engines.

Professional SEO copywriters understand how to write compelling content that convinces readers to act, as well as how to use keywords and optimization techniques so that potential customers can find that content online via search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Now that we’re on the same page about what copywriting is, let’s dive into why you need to hire a copywriter to do it for you—besides the fact that it will make your life so much easier.

Six Inescapable Reasons Why You Should Hire a Professional Copywriter

Reason 1: You Are Not a Copywriting Professional

I know I’ve already said this, but I need to make sure you heard it. Your talents, training and experience make you great at building your products and providing your services.

They do not, however, make you good at writing copy.

Professional copywriters have specific skills and talents uniquely suited to their trade:

Copywriters Have a Passion for Language

For many professional copywriters, writing is our passion. That means that when you hire a professional, we will pour our hearts into promoting your business.

It may sound ridiculous to everyone else, but we will literally agonize over crafting the perfect turn of phrase. We revel in how words sound, their precise connotations and how they flow together.

Even when we’re not actively spilling ink on a page, words are still pacing around in our heads, searching for the perfect way to express themselves.

Copywriters Have a Natural Obsession with Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation

There, they’re, their… No need to fret over your own bad grammar.

We professional copywriters take pride in our OCD when it comes to the proper placement of commas, the usage of em-dashes versus hyphens, and whether it’s its or it’s. While we may drive our spouses a bit mad with it all, our compulsion means you get crisp, clean copy with the need for fewer revisions.

Cleaner copy with fewer revisions means you can get your content out and in front of potential clients faster. And, who doesn’t like faster?

Copywriters Engage in the Subtleties of Subtext

Persuasion is more about the meaning that lies beneath the message than about the words your prospect actually reads. Lucky for you, copywriters are gifted in the art and psychology of persuasion.

According to Steve J. Martin, co-author of the New York Times best-selling book, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, people are not very good at recognizing what actually influences and persuades them.

In other words, while we think we make rational decisions based on all the data available to us, our conclusions are far more likely to be influenced by a skilled copywriter who can speak to the core motivations that lie deeper in the subconscious.

Reason 2: You Don’t Know How to Speak to Your Audience

“So… what’s your Enneagram type?”

Enneagrams remind me of the stereotypical pick-up line, “What’s your sign?” Regardless of the ‘70s cringe this particular cliché evokes, personality types do play a key role in marketing—especially when it comes to writing copy.

If you’ve done any marketing for your business at all, I’m sure you’ve already researched the demographics for your target audience. Where do they live? What do they do? How much do they make?

You’ve likely even developed personas so you can really nail down the right voice for your marketing campaigns.

But, if the subconscious truly guides our decisions as Martin suggests, then age, gender and income alone can’t reveal what will truly motivate a prospect to become a paying customer.

You need a copywriter who can complement your demographic data with their own professional insights into personality types, marketing funnels and customer mindsets.

Personality Types

Personality types tell us whether a prospect responds better to logical arguments or emotional appeals. They also let us know how quickly these customers tend to make decisions.

Optimization experts and best-selling authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg identified the four primary personality types of buyers as Competitive, Methodical, Spontaneous and Humanistic.

Writing for HubSpot, Leslie Ye similarly categorized personalities into four types: Assertive, Analytic, Expressive and Amiable.

The Enneagram system, the personality test du jour, further breaks down personalities into nine types, while the classic Myers Briggs test mixes and matches four “preferences” into a whopping 16 personality types.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll boil it down to this. Your customers generally fall into one of these four personality groups:

• Emotionally minded thinkers who make decisions quickly
• Emotionally minded thinkers who make decisions slowly
• Logically minded thinkers who make decisions quickly
• Logically minded thinkers who make decisions slowly

Purchasing Stages

Now that you know who they are and how they think, you need to factor in where they are in the customer journey. That is, how deep are they in the marketing funnel?

What Is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a graphic representation of the customer journey—the stages a customer goes through from the time they first become aware of your brand until they become a paying client.

The best marketing funnel designs include stages beyond the initial purchase, continuing to nurture the client relationship so that prospects become repeat customers and even brand advocates.

These more comprehensive marketing funnels look like an hourglass or a wheel, with brand advocates influencing new customers to adopt your brand. Thus, the funnel feeds back into itself, as well as into dozens of new funnels, and the cycle begins again.

From Dead-End Funnels to Perpetual Flywheels

This idea of an ongoing series of funnels gave rise to the marketing flywheel model. Introduced by HubSpot, the marketing flywheel places customers at the center of a perpetual attract-engage-delight cycle rather than dumped at the bottom of a funnel.

The Marketing Flywheel places customers at the
center of a perpetual attract-engage-delight cycle.

Whereas a funnel views sales and marketing as means to an end, the flywheel demonstrates that a closed deal is only the beginning of another rotation.

The true genius of the marketing flywheel is that every satisfied customer builds more momentum. Instead of losing the effort you put into gaining that customer, that energy rolls over into the next marketing cycle. When happy customers keep coming back for more—and bring their friends, family and followers along for the ride—they keep that flywheel spinning.

Conversion is no longer simply defined as transitioning prospects into customers but transforming customers into promoters.

As you seek to delight your customers at every step along their journey, you’re not just conducting a transaction, you’re cultivating a relationship. And as with any relationship, communication is key.

Disgruntled Customers Add Friction to the Flywheel

Kyle Jepson from HubSpot Academy points out, “The attitude of people when they come out of your funnel directly impacts the number of people who are willing to enter the top of the funnel.” So, while satisfied customers can influence others to dive in with you, the opposite is dangerously true. “People coming out of the bottom of the funnel can prevent other people from entering the funnel.”

Don’t risk a misunderstanding that could fracture your relationship with your customers. Hire a strong, professional, nuanced communicator who knows how to get the right message across at the right time in just the right way.

A professional copywriter can help keep your marketing flywheel running smoothly.

What to Write and When

Attract Stage / Top of Funnel (TOFU)

At the top of the funnel, potential clients are just beginning their search for a product or service.

They may or may not be aware of your brand at this point, so you want your brand to rank well in Google for relevant searches.

Critical Content for TOFU:

• SEO Content
• Website Homepage
• Product-/Service-Specific Landing Pages
• Branded Ads
• Social Media Posts

Engage & Delight Stages / Middle of Funnel (MOFU)

Congratulations! You’ve caught the prospect’s attention. They want to know more about you and how you can help them.

Now that you have them squarely in your MOFU, it’s time to start building that oh-so-important customer relationship and giving them the information they need to make a purchasing decision.

Critical Content for MOFU:

• Product-/Service-Specific Landing Pages
• Website FAQ Page
• Targeted Ads
• Emails
• Product Guides

Brand advocates are
marketing gold.

Promoter Stage / Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)

This is it! Your prospect signs on the dotted line, and you’ve officially made the sale. But, don’t stop there. The best is yet to come…

Happy customers become repeat customers, and happy repeat customers become advocates for your brand. Brand advocates are marketing gold.

Critical Content for BOFU:

• Website Pricing Page
• Website FAQ Page
• Emails
• Social Media Posts

Pain Points

Have you ever considered that the different people who visit your site have various motivations and goals? In addition to their demographics, personalities and positions in the funnel, each person carries unique pain points.

Consider a manufacturing company in need of inventory software.

• The warehouse manager who needs to increase efficiency needs to know why he should choose your product instead of your competition’s.
• The Director of Finance who is dealing with cutbacks is primarily concerned with whether your pricing options fit this quarter’s budget.
• The CEO with a shareholders meeting on Monday has tasked her executive assistant with boiling down all the important details of your product into an executive summary before she leaves work on Friday.

Each of these visitors to your site brings a different pain point to the purchasing decision, whether it’s financial, productivity, procedural or something else. A copywriter can create a variety of content pieces to speak to each one.

Point is, a professional copywriter deftly balances sentimentality with cold hard facts, mixes in marketing psychology, and backs it all up with data.

Reason 3: You’re Not Objective Enough

You know all there is to know about your product, right? Problem is, that’s a problem. While you’re tooting your own horn about every bell, buzzer and bauble on your product, your reader has lost interest.

And, you’ve lost a customer.

See, people don’t actually care what your features are. They care about whether you can solve their problem. Enter the copywriter.

You speak features and functions; your audience speaks benefits and solutions. You need a seasoned copywriter to translate what you want people to know into what customers need to hear.

Reason 4: You Don’t Have the Tools to Write Effective Copy

If you want to rank well in search engines, you can’t just go with your gut. While professional copywriters do have great SEO instincts, they also consult a cache of tools to help them write for the web more effectively and efficiently than you could on your own.

Professional Copywriters use specialized tools for:

• Site Auditing
• Keyword Research
• Content Optimization
• Rank Tracking
• Traffic Analysis
• Competitive Intelligence
• Identifying Backlinks
• Finding Duplicate Content

You could easily spend thousands of dollars’ worth of your marketing budget on access to the best SEO tools online. Even then, would you know how to use them, much less make the most of the data they provide?

Pop Quiz!

1. What should you include in your technical SEO audit?
2. What’s the best way to expose toxic backlinks?
3. How can you find and correct duplicate content?

Don’t know? Professional SEO copywriters do! So, save the headache medicine for another problem and invest in a copywriter instead.

Not only will you gain the advantage of their copywriting skills and SEO savvy, you’ll get the benefit of all the tools and software they already use.

Talk about great ROI!

Reason 5: You Can’t Keep Up with What Google’s Up To

Unless you’re highly skilled at herding cats, you’d best leave this one to the pros.

Google’s numerous teams of data scientists are constantly changing, updating and improving the search giant’s algorithms. Billions of daily searches means Google has to make updates every day in pursuit of its mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

In March 2017, Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed via Twitter, “we have 3 updates a day average.” Fast forward to today, and you’ll find that Google makes 8 or 9 updates daily.

Yeah, you ain’t got time for that. So, hire a professional copywriter who knows SEO and keeps up with what’s going down at Google.

Reason 6: You Don’t Have Time to Write Copy and Run Your Business

You hustle. You’re on the grind. You’re up with the sun and never say die.

You make the most of every minute, but you’ve only got 1,440 of them in a day, just like everyone else. Your time and talents are too valuable to waste on something you’re not that great at anyway

You can write copy, or you can run your business.

Get real with your priorities and hire a professional copywriter. You’ve got better things to do.