Web copywriting services - Why you shouldn’t overlook them

Companies planning web projects want to make cost savings wherever they can, whatever the budget. 

As a result, web copywriting services are a standard omission from web launch or relaunch checklists.

It’s understandable. Employees read and write multiple business communications per day––and no one has a better grasp of industry knowledge than them. 

So, clients often don’t list web copywriting as a service, thinking they’ll do it in-house, and agencies don’t add web copywriting to their proposals because there’s not enough demand.

But is this a false economy on both sides? 

This article argues that including web copywriting services upfront enhances performance while reducing costs and time for clients and agencies. And continuing to provide month-on-month support makes as much sense as a hosting and maintenance plan for performance. 

ROI-wise, it’s a win for everyone.

Hang on, who am I to advise you on web copywriting?

I’m Vicky Zaremba, a.k.a. Northern Copywriter, a freelance copywriter who creates original communications for world-changing brands.

I help clients artfully imagine their ideas, creating relatable strategy, copy, and content that generates more leads and sales.

Firstly, let’s address why web copywriting is an undervalued service

Most office-based workers read and write daily, delivering emails, content updates, social posts, etc., without a second thought. 

And they know their businesses and industries inside out. 

But engaging customers requires more than being a subject-matter expert with decent spelling and grammar. 

On average, readers ignore four-fifths of content as they scan it for quick answers. Web copy must be accurate, of course, but critically, it must direct and persuade readers to act. Writers should be asking questions like: 

• Is the copy bitesize? Can users scroll and skim-read quickly?
• Can anyone understand it? Or is it riddled with industry jargon?
• Does it grab the reader’s attention? Or are you at risk of losing users above the line?
• Does it speak to the target audience? Have you addressed your readers’ challenges?
• Is it accessible? Can anyone easily understand the copy?
• Does it contain the right keywords? Will the page have any SEO value?
• Is it mobile-friendly? Is the copy easy to navigate on mobile? 

Imagine how many sales slip through the net without these considerations––and it’s not an exhaustive list. If you even get a user on-site, you have just 0.05 seconds to influence a website visitor’s opinion, so each word needs to count.

Still, the potential cost savings of managing copywriting in-house is appealing, particularly for businesses with direct access to a marketing team. 

Here’s why omitting web copywriting services is a false economy

Imagine the scenario: a company has opted to do its web copywriting internally and has agreed with its web agency it will supply the copy in sections and approve it in review gateways throughout the project. 

Does it go smoothly? Barely ever. 

Here’s what tends to happen: Overstretched employees struggling to do their day jobs have no time for web copywriting tasks allocated on top. So, when urgent business priorities arise, copywriting gets pushed to the back of the queue. 

Meanwhile, the dev team has no content, so their dev site is just a shell of the all-singing, all-dancing concept pitched in the first place.

Of course, everything comes together at the last minute. 

But not without stress on both sides as the client team realises it’s a bigger job than they thought, the dev team shifts lorem ipsum text around, and C-suite execs bellow, “What’s going on with the website?”

In the last few weeks of a web project, after drafting in an emergency copywriter, these three things invariably suffer:

1. The client’s budget as they shell out for additional third-party support. 
2. The agency’s time as they work all hours trying to meet the go-live date.
3. The website’s performance. A site written by an inexperienced writer was never going to be fully optimised, and won’t improve at this late stage in the game.

If cost and time savings are not enough to sway you, performance should. 

7 compelling reasons web copywriting services improve website performance

Most marketers (83%) agree it’s better to focus on quality rather than quantity of content. Therefore, clients, their marketing teams, and agencies must work together to achieve this.

If you want peak performance, factor web copywriting into the initial build and then build it in and manage it monthly, the same as a hosting and maintenance package (or as part of it). By doing so, you’ll achieve:

1. Better optimisation: A readable, searchable layout

Copy-optimised text achieves objectives such as improved ranking, increased engagement, and better lead generation and conversion rates. Google loves a credible, authoritative source, and professionally written copy incorporating relevant keywords works alongside technical SEO measures to make this happen. A copywriter removes overly technical detail and jargon, simplifying copy into relatable everyday language that’s easy for users and Google to read. 

Complementary service: SEO keyword research.

2. Greater consistency: A strong brand voice throughout

Copywriters work with agencies and clients to establish a voice throughout the website and other marketing channels and materials. Most consumers (81%) say trust in a brand is a major purchasing consideration. A likeable, familiar voice is challenging to achieve when multiple internal stakeholders collaborate on web copy. Copy written by one source achieves a voice customers can relate to and trust. 

Complementary service: Brand voice workshop/brand voice guideline/copy guidelines.

3. Easier promotion: A strategic story that’s easy to build out

A copywriter won’t think in individual pages; they’ll write with a copy and/or content marketing strategy in mind, creating a repeatable, extendable format across pages and sections. When a client comes to add a landing page or section for a promotional campaign, it will be easy to add it as an extension of the central story. Your copywriter can work closely with your experts and the client’s marketing team to ensure web copy complements the company’s overarching marketing strategy.

Complementary service: Content marketing strategy

4. Clearer direction: A persuasive tone encouraging customers to act

A good copywriter will work with web designers and developers in the user experience (UX) phase of your planning to develop personas (if your client doesn’t have them already) and typical user scenarios. They’ll then help direct users through the site, encouraging them to act using persuasive language and calls to action (CTAs). Your copywriter will also indicate where informative, educational, or transactional sections are best placed, planning and writing them accordingly.

Complementary service: Persona and scenario development

5. Novel content: Building authority with information gain

As more companies opt to use AI for cost-saving purposes, the information out there increasingly comes from the same source. Copy saying something new and different has the best chance of standing out in saturated markets. A copywriter can work with you to plan this into your content strategy, setting KPIs to gather measurable and actionable results. Customers, bored with seeing the same old stuff in their feeds, are more likely to seek out your content if it offers something new.

Complementary service: Content planning, interviewing and thought-leading content production

6. Fewer design amends: A collaborative approach to layout

Sometimes designers design pages around copy, sometimes copywriters write copy to pre-designed pages. All creative teams like to work differently. But either way, a copywriter + designer + developer combo results in fewer layout changes than if a non-copywriter is involved. Think tweaks, rather than redos––in many cases copywriters can back the changes in the back end so the devs can spend their valuable time on other, more pressing technical issues.

Complementary service: Collaborative discovery and design process

7. Streamlined sign off: Removing barriers to success

No one has time to do more work on top of their day job, do they? Web copywriting requires a lot of toing and froing as the copy is adjusted and layouts amended, and often, C-Suite gateway reviews circle everything back to the start. Project sign-off in stages (rather than in a last-minute rush) is better for performance, costs, time, and the overall sanity of all parties.

Achieving best copywriting ROI for client and agency

All the points listed above are good reasons for a) clients to add web copywriting to their web budgets and/or b) agencies to factor it into their project pitches.

But even if this happens, regularity + consistency is what = visibility.

Regular and consistent copy updates maintain performance. A bit like a dashboard where you can manage multiple WordPress sites in one place, you want to look at your copy updates as a collective, rather than isolated, task.

So, it makes sense to budget for copywriting not only in the project’s early days but also to plan a sustainable monthly rollout of copy and content in the form of landing page updates, blogs, case studies and articles.

Clients, generally focused on what the website will look like for launch, too often return later to seek performance improvements. 

Agreeing on a content strategy and plan informed by the client’s marketing team yet, which sits within the agency’s in-house hosting and maintenance updates, achieves a good balance between style and performance.

It’s also a much easier sell (agency to client or internally up the chain) when regular copywriting ties to performance with measurable KPIs and tangible ROI rather than just being a ‘nice to have’.

In summary

There are three obvious reasons to factor web copywriting into web projects:

• Time savings
• Cost savings
• Performance gains

And the alternative––web copywriting by already stretched internal staff (even if they’re in marketing) isn’t worth the headache for everyone involved. 

Clients and agencies investing in web copywriting services are well-positioned to outperform their competition digitally, building collaborative long-term partnerships based on agile and proactive, not reactive, web presences.

Life made easier. Better ROI. Improved visibility. 

Who doesn’t like the sound of that?