You can hire freelance copywriters for your business, or you can hire an agency or company that does copywriting. Either way works fine. When you look into copywriters that you might hire, you must figure out which ones will work best for you, though.
How can you do that? When looking at possible copywriting services that an individual or agency offers, you should see whether they can deliver in a few particular areas. If you feel that you’ve found a copywriter or agency that has all of these bases covered, you can move forward and hire them to create some scintillating copy for you.
The Right Price
First, you need a copywriter or agency to charge you the right amount. Presumably, you have a certain budget for the copy you need from this person or agency. You can’t go over that budget since you doubtless have other funds allocated elsewhere within your company.
You must ask the agency or copywriter what they charge. They might charge by the page if you need website copy. They may charge by the hour or by the word.
Any of those might work for you, provided the sum you end up paying sounds acceptable. If they want much more than what you’ve allocated, you must go with someone else, even if you think you’ve found a particularly skilled agency or individual.
The Ability to Work Within Your Industry
Presumably, you also have a company that falls into a category, niche, or industry. Maybe you run a dental office, or perhaps you sell office furniture. Maybe you have a car dealership, or you provide catering services.
No matter what you do, you need a copywriter who knows that industry or one who can at least write about it convincingly. When considering hiring a copywriter or agency, you can ask whether they’ve ever created content in your niche.
If they say yes, you can ask whether they have some examples they might show you. They should have a portfolio from which they can pull some samples.
If you enjoy their style, then you can move forward. If they say they’ve never created content for your niche before, that might not automatically disqualify them if you like their work. However, you can probably hire them more confidently if you know they’ve created content in your niche and you appreciate the examples they can show you.
The Ability to Incorporate Keywords and Phrases
Copywriting in 2023 often involves keywords and phrases. You may need some specific ones within your website copy. If you include those keywords and phrases, you know that your website should rank higher on Google and other search engines.
The best copywriters know about SEO, or search engine optimization. You can optimize your company’s website in different ways, but having those keywords and phrases makes a huge difference.
Some copywriters can also produce keywords and phrases on their own that they’ll tell you can help your website rank. These ones usually command top dollar. They use SEO-based analytic tools and come up with keywords and phrases having to do with your niche.
You can pay them more since they’re providing two services simultaneously, SEO and copywriting. Even if you produce the keywords and phrases on your own, though, or if you have an SEO specialist in your company who already does it, the copywriter you hire must know how to include them.
They must embed the keywords and phrases within your content in a way that’s natural and unobtrusive. If they mangle the language on your website when they include the keywords and phrases, that’s not helpful. That’s why you need someone with total command of the English language as well as some creative flair.
Excellent Feedback
You can find out about an agency or copywriter you’re thinking about hiring when you check out some of their online feedback. How you do this depends on whether you’re hiring an individual freelancer or an agency.
If you’re hiring an agency, they should have their own website. That website should have feedback on it from various clients. If you know some of those clients, and if they’re well-known entities, you can hire that agency with more confidence.
If you’re thinking about hiring an individual, they may have their own website as well. However, they will also probably have profiles on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, LinkedIn, and others. They will likely have some social media profiles too.
You can see what kind of feedback they have on their profiles. If you see that many clients liked this person’s work, then you can hire them more confidently. If you see that they have very little positive feedback or no feedback at all, then you should probably exercise more caution.
A Professional-Looking Website or Online Profile
When you look at an individual freelancer or agency’s online presence, it should impress you. If you’re looking at an agency, they should have a website with some great copy on it.
After all, you’re potentially hiring this entity for the copy they can write for you. If their site doesn’t have engaging copy, you know they probably can’t produce content that will impress you and help your company and brand to get ahead.
If you’re looking into hiring a freelancer, the copy they have on their website and on their profiles should impress you as well. You can look at their feedback and make an assessment based on that, but what about what they’re written about themselves?
Can they write content that sells themselves as a commodity? If they’re not able to do that, then you can feel sure they won’t write content that helps you. They must first sell themselves as a commodity before they can write convincing copy for anyone else, particularly for sales purposes.
Keep this in mind while you’re hunting for agencies or freelance copywriters. The best entity or candidate should check off all of these boxes.