What’s the Best Way to Hire Copywriters?
Hiring a copywriter to write for your client can save you and the client time, allowing you to focus on what matters.
Video Transcript:
Lidija: How do you go about hiring copywriters? Do you have a few people you work with? And do you always have them engaged and ready for you?
David: That’s a great question. There are services that can write for you, and sometimes, the services will work if the topic is broad enough. I tend to work with clients that are more unique. And so, a general writer often can’t write for them. So, what I do is I have six writers, and I go back to them again and again. And one writer might write for the same client every month. But every time they write for that client, they learn a little more, and they get a little bit better. Then the client critiques their writing, and they learn from it, and the next article is even better. And my goal is that by six months, the client is like, don’t even give it to me. It’s right. Just publish it.
Lidija: Right.
David: But I have to send it to the same writer or to a couple of writers so they learn. If I used a service, I wouldn’t necessarily be working with the same writer every time, and they might not learn. I’ve seen SEO companies produce content for websites that’s not really relevant because they don’t really understand the client because they hire a service that writes. And the service’s job is to write an article. And they don’t have the time to research it and understand it, or they don’t have the opportunity to learn. So, I pay more for my writing than I could from a service. They are more expensive. But my clients are happier because the content is better. It actually helps. Right? I have a new client recently, and they were frustrated that the writing service they previously hired wasn’t really talking about what they do. And one article for my client from my writing team, and they were amazed because I pay my writers enough that they can take the time to research. And they did, and they took the time, and they were like, this is great. So, that makes me more valuable. That makes the client benefit. And everybody wins because now those articles are on their website, and they’re starting to get more traffic. And they’re starting to get customers in. And we do the things that are needed. When I’m pricing, I want to do a retainer. I sometimes add a production budget so that I don’t wait, and the client has a predictable cost every month. Nobody likes to say, oh, this month, the bill is now $3,000 because I had to write 30 articles for you. Nobody likes that. But, at the same time, sometimes, clients refuse to do that. And so, I will occasionally take on a project like, will you do keyword research for me as a project? Or will you install analytics? I actually have a call after this where the company wants me to install analytics on their site. I just make sure I’m clear with them that this is a step in the process, not the conclusion. And we can do this for you but don’t think of SEO or website marketing as an expense. Think of it as an investment because if we do this, you will make money. And if it doesn’t, then you should fire me. Fire me. If I don’t make any, you shouldn’t pay the money. You shouldn’t pay anybody money who is not making you money, right? That’s okay. Then I have to perform. I have to do well. They want to keep paying me.
Lidija: Speaking of which, I wanted to ask when it comes to posting and to writing blogs, is it you who thinks of topics and the frequency and creates a list of keywords, and then the copywriter that you have this relationship with is executing that task? Or do the copywriters do some of the research?
David: As you do the key research process that I’ve outlined, you will uncover potential blog posts. And I save those because these are usually questions about the topic. Those are very valid. First of all, they’re really good on the landing page. Google loves it when you ask and answer a question on the landing page. Oh yeah, I always do that. But sometimes, the question is a lot longer than a paragraph can answer. Those are the ones I save for the blogger. And then, I send the topic to a writer. And by sending a topic to a writer, they have to research it. But by asking them, will you write an article? They will produce something, it might not be relevant, and it might not help. So, during the keyword research process, I’m always thinking of and saving ideas about which we can write. And that way, when I’m ready to start writing blog posts, I have a whole bunch of ideas.
Lidija: Okay.
David: Good question. Thank you for asking.
Lidija: Thank you for being here to answer those. I have so much more confidence in the process.
David: Good. I’m not lying when I say that the Curious Ants process is what I do every day for all of my clients. It really is true because I’ve had clients that I’ve worked with for eight years. And I wonder, what on earth am I going to do today? Have I run out of ideas? When I do that, I go back to the process and say, oh, I haven’t looked at their local listing in six months. I should look at that today. Inevitably, there’s an opportunity there. Or I haven’t done keyword research for this client for about a year. Maybe I should do keyword research again and see if I can learn anything new. Inevitably, I’ll find new blog posts or new business ideas. My old boss used to tell this story all the time, and now I can tell it. We were working with a client for ages. What they did was they printed up sports jerseys for sports teams. They had a page on their website for basketball jerseys, and they had a page on their website for football jerseys, and they had a page on their website for other jerseys. And they worked so long with this client, they were like, we don’t know what to do anymore, all the sports are covered. And then, one day, someone did keyword research and said, what’s the name of it? It’s a new sport where oftentimes, women will go on roller skates. Roller Derby. Okay. Roller Derby. It’s a sport where women are on roller skates, and they’re zipping around. And they asked the client, hey, can you do a roller derby jersey? Because people are looking for someone to print roller derby jerseys for their roller derby team. And the client said, not much different than a soccer jersey. So, yeah, they created a page for roller derby jerseys and put the page on the website. They were the only company in the United States producing roller derby jerseys, and they made a lot of money because they did keyword research years after the fact and found out people were looking for roller derby jerseys. Who knew? It was great.
Lidija: Can you ever run out of ideas?
David: My longest-term client’s been with me for eight years. Every month we still find four new blog posts to write for them. I don’t know how we do it. Right now, we’re in the process of doing twice a week where we’re going in and writing a new blog post plus rewriting an old blog post every week. Because some of the old blog posts have been out of date and over eight years, they’re obsolete. One was about how you travel internationally with children. Well, post-pandemic, it’s very different, so we had to change that. And now they have two new blog posts a week. So, we’re actually producing more content for them than ever.
Lidija: Okay.
David: Yeah. I don’t think there’s ever an end to the amount of content you can produce. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes, everything has been written, and it might be tough. But if you keep looking… There are all kinds of strategies for finding topics, such as keyword research. Sometimes, I’ll call the sales team at my client and simply say, hey, what are the questions people ask you? Or sometimes, I will just Google a keyword and see what other people are talking about and not repeat the same topics but use that as a brainstorming idea to think of new ones that no one’s thought of. But yeah, knock on wood, I’ve never hit a point where I don’t know what to write about for a client.
Lidija: That is great.
David: Well, maybe the day will come because, boy, eight years of writing for the same client. That’s tough.
Lidija: Well, if you think of any business right, you’re doing it. You’re doing better and better and better, but how far one needs to be creative, I guess, all the time…
David: That’s what I like about this. It’s technical, but it’s also creative. Right? I have to understand code, but I get to think about creative new ideas. Yesterday, I had a call with a client, and together, we were working on what we call a lead magnet idea, which is the idea of something that someone downloads in order that they will give you their email address and they get some valuable resource. And I came up with one lead magnet idea, and they’re like, well, you know… And we went back and forth, and by the end of the call, we produced this massive strategy, and we’re going in a different direction than we ever knew. And it was fun because we got to be creative. It wasn’t boring at all. And now we’re doing all this new stuff. And I’m excited to do it.
Lidija: There’s much to learn.
David: And that’s what’s fun about this SEO thing, too. It keeps us sharp.
Lidija: True. I find it fun so far.
David: Good.
Lidija: Thank you very much, David.