Copywriting DIY – never a good thing when the content is king.

Word Forge discovered something a while back. Take a look at any design agency’s website, any new media site, almost any SEO site and you’ll find one sad but consistent fact. The copywriters are almost always left unmentioned.

Content is king, you’ll have heard, ad nauseam, and yet the very people who provide that content tend to be the ones at the back of the class with their hands raised wondering why no-one’s listening.

Word Forge wondered why this was the case. So we went and asked some of the movers and shakers within the industry why copywriting appears to be the profession that dare not speak its name. The results were startling.
Responses came in all shapes and sizes but one response rang out above all others. One response; just 3 letters. D.I.Y.

DIY. Destroy it yourself.

"It’s interesting," said one studio MD, "I just tend to do it myself. Either that or I’ll ask the client to provide the copy they want. I really don’t think about it too much. I suppose I should."

We’ll not print the name of this respondent to save any embarrassment, but this was hardly an atypical response. In fact, it appears to sum up the general thought process of the industry quite succinctly. The statement bears closer examination:

"I ask the client to provide the copy they want."

The follow-up question here was, "and do they?" The answer was, of course, "er…no."
The client commissions a design team to do the design. End to end. Start to finish. They no more want to provide the copy than you want to employ a plumber and then do the soldering for him.
So you either receive nothing from them, or a few hastily scribbled notes. Content is king. And yet at the centre of your lovingly crafted website that has taken the combined time and effort of some rather expensive people sits a dollop of copy knocked up by someone in accounts during their tea break.
That’s like serving the finest a la carte meal with a Ginsters pasty as the entrée.

"I just tend to do it myself."

Well you would, wouldn’t you? After you’ve expected something from the client and not received it you’ll no doubt be painfully short of time and you’ll have little option but to start hammering the keys yourself.
What you produce may be perfectly reasonable, but as a rush job it’s highly unlikely to be any more than that. And if we’re being brutally honest it’s likely to be considerably less.
Content is king. So why do we insist on paying lip service to that truism? Either content isn’t king, in which case any old tosh will do and copywriters everywhere can burn their laptops, or we really need to embrace the fact that the words matter and consider the content a little in advance of the final 20 minutes of the deadline.

"I don’t really think about it… I suppose I should."

DDIY (Don’t do it yourself)

Yes copywriters cost. Good copywriters cost more. They don’t cost any more than a decent graphic designer, optimiser or new media specialist but times are tight and if there’s one area where you can cut costs it’s the copy, right? Well it would be – but for that darned maxim. Content is king. You can’t get away from it.

Times are tight for the car industry too but they’re not putting out vehicles with an engine knocked together over a quiet weekend by a team from the staff canteen.

Know where the value is. Know what matters. Don’t cut corners on the copy. Use a copywriter. The end result will be better.
As the respondent said, you may not really think about it… but you know you should.

Copywriting Articles

Copywriting Portfolio

Copywriting Services