How can a copywriter understand my business enough to write about it?

There are lots of reasons not to use a copywriter to help you write better marketing materials. Some of the reasons are valid. Some of them aren’t.

One of the reasons I hear most often for someone not wanting to work with a copywriter is simply that they don’t think a copywriter will be able to understand enough about their business to be able to help.

I think it’s understandable to feel that way. If you’re a one person business or there are just a few of you, you’ll have a lot of stuff stored in your heads that you just ‘know’. If you work in a niche or specialist area, it’s easy to think outsiders won’t be able to understand it. If your business is complex, you might think it will be too hard for anyone to grasp.

But while I think it’s understandable, I don’t think it’s right.

In all these cases, it’s the copywriter’s job to unpick all this information and tease it out of you.

So how do they tease out all this information? And what value do they add by doing so?

How a copywriter understands your business

Most copywriters will want to start with a briefing session to get to grips with your business and your project. Sometimes, you’ll hear these sessions referred to as discovery sessions, because they’re about exploration.

At this stage, your copywriter will want lots of information. They’ll want to talk to you. They may also want to talk to other members of your team. They may even want to talk to customers.

You should be prepared to share any information you have that might be relevant, such as business plans, marketing plans, website analytics, customer survey results, marketing guidelines, marketing literature, competitor information and sector information.

Once they have all this information, your copywriter will work through the information you’ve provided and research your sector more widely to understand more about the businesses in it and the customers they serve.

So far, so obvious. This is a standard way to get to know something.

Will it take (your) time? Undoubtedly — you only get out what you put in is true here just like it is true everywhere. Will the time you invest up front be repaid in future both in terms of time spent and return on investment achieved? Again, undoubtedly.

But let’s think about the question in a different way.

The copywriter as translator and simplifier

One of the best things about being a copywriter is that you know a little bit about an awful lot of things. And that’s the key — a little bit. We’ll never know as much about your business as you do.

But neither do we need to.

We need to know enough about your business to be able to show your customers why your product or service is the one they should buy.

We don’t need to be able to write the complex code that runs your software. We don’t need to be able to operate your delivery system. We don’t need to be able to advise on future strategy.

We don’t need to know these things because your customer doesn’t either. All they need to know is how what you do and the way you work is good for them. Because that’s all they care about.

It isn’t our job to understand your business as well as you do. It’s our job to work out the things that make your customers’ eyes light up when they hear them. And then it’s our job to use words to convey that information engagingly and persuasively.

You’ll be the expert in your business. And your copywriter will be the expert in writing about it winningly.

In short, by working with a copywriter you can power your business to bigger and better things.

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