You’ve decided your website needs a facelift. 

While your business has exploded in the last few years, your website – that’s your shop front, your catwalk, arguably your most important marketing tool – looks stuck in the early noughties. 

It’s time for an upgrade. 

So, you hire a whizzy web designer who makes it look all shiny and new, and fixes all those bugs and broken links. 

You get a photographer to do some up-to-date headshots that make you look like the professional, friendly, approachable gal or guy you are.

Then it comes to the words. The all-important words. The single most crucial part of the puzzle (IMHO). 

You decide this is where you’ll save a few pennies. You won’t outsource the writing to a copywriter. You’ll do it yourself. After all, you were pretty good at writing at school. Maybe you’ll finally be able to put that A in GCSE English to good use?  

*Alarm bells* 

You won’t be shocked to hear I think this is a bad idea. 

In fact, this kind of talk makes me break out in a cold sweat (sorry if that’s TMI). 

Yes, of course you could write your own web copy. But the real question is should you? 

My answer, rather unsurprisingly, is a big, fat NO. And here are just a few reasons why…

One: Copywriting is nothing like academic writing 

Ok, there are some similarities. You need mad research skills to do both. Both require perfect spelling. And you need an excellent grasp of whichever language you’re writing in for both.

But that’s it. Everything else you were taught in school, college or university: dismiss it. 

Long, flowery prose. Out.

Jargon. Out.

Pretentious vocab. Out.

Sentences that run for days. Out. 

Conjunctions all over the place. Out.

Intro/body/conclusion structure. Out. 

Passive verbs. Out. Out. Out. 

People won’t buy from you because the copy on your website has been beautifully crafted. They’ll buy from you because the copy has struck a nerve, hit on a problem and offered a solution. 

Two: Copywriting is an art and science

Copywriting isn’t just sitting at your computer and throwing some sentences together. It’s the art and science of strategically using words to get a reader to take action (without sounding too salesy). 

It isn’t about creativity. It’s research-driven and involves testing and optimising to ensure your reader is moved to do what you want them to do. Buy your product. Sign up for your service. Listen to your podcast. Eat at your restaurant. 

Many copywriters have invested time, effort and money into honing their craft (me included) and continue to do so through coaching and mentoring groups (me again). 

So, unless you happen to be a trained copywriter, I can assure you, you’ll be in better hands with a professional. 

Three: You’re too close to your business 

You work in your business day in, day out (and maybe at night too). You know everything there is to know about it. Why it exists. How it operates. Why it’s better than the competition. You know it’s the solution for your prospects. That there’s no-one better to solve their problem.

That’s great.

But when it comes to selling your business to people who potentially have zero knowledge of your industry, you could easily scare them off with unnecessary detail and jargon. 

With copywriting, less is more. And a skilled copywriter is best placed to turn your messaging into easily digestible word magic.   

Four: You don’t have time 

You’re a busy person with a thriving business to oversee. You don’t have time to write effective, research-led copy for your website. Maybe you’ve decided you’ll block out one day in your diary to get it done. I can assure you, that won’t be enough. 

Good copy takes time. It involves customer research, competitor analysis, review mining, proofreading and editing. In other words, it can’t be done (properly) in one sitting. 

Your website is the first place many prospects will come across you. And first impressions count. You don’t want the words on the page to put people off. You want them to make people say “I need this in my life”. A good copywriter can do this for you.

Do you need help breathing life into your website copy? Or are you launching a site from scratch and don’t know where to start with the words? I can help. Get in touch and I’ll send you some examples of how I’ve helped other great businesses turn their websites into 24/7 sales machines.