The people inside a business are the ones who know what makes it tick. But are they best placed to promote everything that business has to offer?

Not necessarily.

If your business is blessed with someone who knows what makes it stand out and can put that into words that tell a convincing story for potential customers – happy days.

But not every business can count such an individual in its ranks, not even those with a Marketing team.

There are several good reasons why firms look to hire in expertise when it comes to finding the right words to promote themselves on a website, through external PR or internal publications.

Reasons to hire in writing expertise

  • There’s a lack of the necessary skills.
  • Never quite having the time to do the job.
  • Not sure where to start.
  • Recognition that it’s what writers do – day in, day out. To a brief, to a deadline, to a budget.

Websites are a classic case in point. Having the best designs, stunning imagery and the latest functionality takes you three quarters of the way to a great website. But, without the fourth element of equally great text, you’re still only 75% of the way there.

So many website projects stall because no one has really considered who is telling the written story. The company thinks that’s what the web developer will do. The web developer is relying on the company to come up with the nuts and bolts.

If you want a professional website, brochure or other marketing material then each component is best done by someone with experience in that area.

One final thought

Don’t expect content creators and PRs to be miracle workers (usually). They don’t have mystical powers that allow them to look into a business owner’s eyes and simply absorb what the company wants to say and how it wants to be portrayed.

Any content writer worth the money will need time to investigate and work out the business’ core, its USPs, its ethos and values, where it stands in the marketplace (as well as where it wants to get to). To do that they need access to important cogs in the business structure. And they need to poke around your customer-facing profile – website, social media posts and previous publications etc.

If they’re not asking questions, then how can a content writer give potential customers the answers they’re looking for?

 

Looking for more?  The communications your business should prioritise in the time of coronavirus.