How to Find the Right Copywriter with a Minimum of Headaches
Back in my corporate days, I hired copywriters. And I quickly learned that it wasn’t that easy to find the right one. Some were great writers but didn’t understand technology. Others were tech wizards but had a stilted, too formal writing style. Still others didn’t meet deadlines or annoyed my marketing team by sending too many emails asking questions that could have been covered during our kickoff meeting.
When I started my copywriting business, I vowed that wouldn’t be me. And according to my happy clients, I think (hope) I’ve done a pretty good job learning from those copywriter hiring mistakes back in my corporate days.
To that end, here’s a list of questions that you might find helpful when considering which writer is the best for your needs.
High-Tech Industry Experience
- Do they quickly “get” your technology and understand how it benefits your buyers?
- Do they understand how to market and sell to technology buyers?
- Do they understand the typical technology sales process, including selling via direct sales, inside sales, or partner channels?
Strategic Marketing Experience
- Do they ask lots of detailed questions about your audience, their pain points, and how you address those challenges?
- Do they understand how content should align with sales-cycle stages?
- Are they experienced at interviewing subject matter experts and gently, but persistently, “pulling” out the relevant details about a solution or product?
- Do they understand the business objectives for your content? Can they suggest strategies or tactics that will help you achieve your objectives using content?
Outstanding Copywriting Skills
- Are they a skilled writer who can easily translate technical concepts into easy-to-understand, engaging benefits?
- Are they experienced in writing to a variety of buyers – from those that are highly technical and want the nitty-gritty product details to C-level executives who need relevant business benefits?
- Do they have a strong list of happy high-tech customers? A great portfolio of samples you can browse?
- If they’ll be writing demand generation pieces, like nurture emails or landing pages, do they understand demand generation principles? Do they have a demand gen portfolio they can share with you?
Does a potential copywriter need to meet all these criteria? No, but the more of these questions you can answer with “Yes!”, the closer you’ll be to finding the right high-tech copywriter for your company.
Next Steps
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Learn more
By the way…whenever you’re ready, here are some ways I can help you stand out the noisy tech market:
1) Grab a copy of my report on original research, which includes all the details on how to use original research to capture prospects’ mindshare. Download it here.
You’ll learn why marketers are getting so much value out of their original research, the steps in conducting an original research study, and you’ll get my 14×9 content grid that gives you 14 content ideas to fulfill nine different marketing strategies. Get it here.
2) Not ready for a full-blown original research project? Work directly with me to create a roadmap. There are a lot of details to running an original research study and creating content that gets results. I’ll work with you to create a roadmap plan that ensures you’ll get the biggest ROI when you’re ready to kick-off an original research project. Contact me, and I’ll get back to you with more details.