Why We Aren’t Writing Website Copy Anymore
I can write anything, quickly and well. For years, that was my personal tagline — and it wasn’t untrue. Decades of working at tiny newspapers and magazines meant I could whip up a few hundred words on almost anything with very little notice. I’ve even crafted some pretty great email subject lines in my day … but I have to admit, as a content marketer, I hate writing website copy.
Ask any writer and they will tell you, it’s much harder to write 100 words of copy than it is to churn out a 2,000-word essay. Whittling your messaging down to a handful of sentences while still conveying key information is an art. Writing a couple of hundred words of compelling copy that takes keywords into account and conveys a company’s value proposition is an even more specific skill — and so Quiet Corner Communications is tapping out.
Let us explain.
Websites are an exercise in brand marketing
Do you want well-researched, long-form content that helps you build trust with your clients and customers? Call a content marketer.
Do you want sales copy for your website? Call a copywriter.
Quiet Corner Communications is a content marketing agency — not a branding agency. These are very different skills, and it’s one most people don’t understand. By the time you reach out to us, you should have a solid idea of your brand and its identity. Our job is to help you tell that story through useful content, not with pithy slogans.
A lot goes into getting your website right. Your homepage is, often, a potential client’s first impression of your business. You need to tell your story quickly and, more often than not, sell visitors on your value. Getting that messaging right can — and should — take weeks or months of planning. Every business is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to perfecting your homepage messaging. So, I get the impulse to turn to the writers you’re already working with when it comes time to refresh your website, but frankly, it’s not always a good idea.
“Branding is the process of giving a meaning to [a] specific organization, company, products or services by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds. It is a strategy designed by organizations to help people to quickly identify and experience their brand, and give them a reason to choose their products over the competition’s, by clarifying what this particular brand is and is not.”
Content marketing can be an important part of building brand recognition — especially if you want your brand to be authoritative and trustworthy. Content agencies, like Quiet Corner Communications, can help you build a repository of blog posts, white papers, case studies, and more — but if you’re looking for the next “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” you should be looking for today’s Don Draper.
Do what you do well — for us, that’s content marketing
When you’re a small business or a freelancer, it’s hard to justify turning down any work. Even when you’re so busy you barely have time to breathe, you’re fretting about the day when business slows down. So you take that gig that isn’t quite right for you, and then you regret it.
Over the past six months or so, our business has ramped up quickly. That’s no surprise. Contently reported, “A staggering 85 percent of marketers surveyed by Lucidpress have seen an increased demand for content within the last year.” Quiet Corner Communications has been lucky to reap the rewards of the demand for content — and our hard work, of course. (That’s our way of humble bragging about how busy we are.) At some point, you have to be more judicious about the jobs you take on to ensure you can continue to do great work.
Now, every time a new project comes our way we have to ask, “Is this a good use of our time?” Increasingly, it’s becoming clear that writing website copy is, in fact, not a good use of our time. It’s a distraction from our core business — and we don’t have a good process in place for ensuring the website copy we write is a success.
So, from now on we’re standing firm — we don’t do web copy. If you’re a great copywriter who has a proven track record of developing great web copy, shoot us an email. We may just be able to send some work your way.
