Should You Write Your Own Copy?
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” — Elmore Leonard
You own a company. You have a product or service that needs to be sold. You almost certainly need some copywriting, whether it’s for your website, a sales brochure, a press release, or just a good standard follow-up letter that you can use with prospects regularly.
In this economy, businesses frequently wonder if it is good to write their own copy in-house. While writing your own copy may save you money that you would have spent on a professional writer in the short term, I believe it is a mistake in the long run.
Copy for your website, sales brochure, or sales letters, for example, are more than just tasks to be completed. They are a reflection of your business. Those words are frequently the first impression a potential client has of you.
If your copy is professionally written, your prospective clients will have a favorable impression of your company. However, if that copy is riddled with errors or appears sloppy, your prospects will have a very negative image.
Hiring a professional writer can make sense from a time-management standpoint, in addition to creating an excellent first impression of your company.
It takes time to write good copy, as you can see. It takes a lot of thought to put the right words together.
If you’re running a business, you already have a lot on your plate. Having a lot of responsibilities usually means you’re running out of time. Adding copywriting tasks to a schedule already jam-packed with client meetings and management responsibilities is probably not the best use of your time.
Furthermore, in my experience, when a company decides to make their own copy, one of two things happens:
1- The copy is slapped together hastily and may be riddled with errors.
2- The creation of the copy is postponed until “a later date” when more time is available (a date that often never comes)
To summarize, the answer is a big “NO”. You shouldn’t write your own copy.
You don’t have to, fortunately. There are numerous professional copywriters available to handle the task for you.
