7 reasons copywriters should blog
When I started blogging, I didn’t really know why I was doing it. But over the years that followed, it gradually became clear that it wasn’t just an obligation, but something desirable, if not essential. Here are my top seven reasons to write a copywriting blog.
Join good company
OK, not every top copywriter blogs, but there are plenty who do. And you don’t have to spend long on their sites to see why blogging’s worthwhile. It’s an indispensable way to establish and express your personality as a writer – whatever field you’re in.
Write ads for a living? Check out top creatives like Dave Trott and Ben Kay. Interested in storytelling, or tone of voice? Tim Rich and Nick Asbury have much wisdom to share with you. Got a taste for some spicy opinions? Help yourself to some Holly Brockwell, Kevin Mills or Clare Lynch.
And those are just a few of the blogs I personally like. I could go on, but the point is made. Hundreds of leading copywriters can’t be wrong.
Spread your wings
However varied your client list, and however creative or open-ended the brief, copywriting is writing to order. You put your craft at the disposal of the client. It’s just the way it is.
Your blog, though, is a place where you can cut loose. Wordloose. Kick off your Sunday shoes and write whatever you want. Three words or three thousand. Professional or profane. Mordant or madcap. Publish it and be damned. Ignore the comments or battle the trolls below the line. It’s your party.
Now, clients may be reading, so there are limits to your liberation. But there are still wide uncharted waters between the stuff you have to write and the stuff you want to write. So get out there and sail them.
Sharpen the saw
Maybe you’ve always done B2C, and you hanker after a bit of pinstripe. Maybe you’ve never written anything longer than a Coke slogan, or shorter than an Argos catalogue. We all have things we’d like to do, but haven’t yet had the chance.
Blogging is one way to get started. Writing about what you learn is an excellent way to test, refine and crystallise your new knowledge. And the fact that someone will actually read it helps to bring focus and discipline to the effort.
Of course, writing can never replace doing. But it does mean that when the right opportunity comes along, your head is already in the right place. Chance favours the prepared mind, and writing helps to prepare it.
Close a sale
This is all very well, you say, but will any actual clients, with money, read my blog? And if they do, will it help move said cash from their pockets to mine?
The simple, unhelpful answer is ‘it depends’. Some will read, and some won’t, based partly on their professional situation and partly on their personal character.
In general, it’s probably true that your more experienced or confident prospects (such as those from larger organisations, or established agencies) will spend less time on your blog, while those who are ‘feeling their way’ in the copywriting market (startups, sole traders, SME managers) will spend more. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. In my experience, you simply don’t know who’s reading – and unless they tell you, you never find out.
As it happens, many new clients and prospects tell me they’ve enjoyed browsing through my posts. And it’s not just the technical how-to stuff either – opinions also appeal. Think of your clients as people, and credit them with a sense of perspective – not to mention a sense of humour – and you’ll be surprised at what they enjoy reading.
For example, I know for a fact that An honest About Us page, which some of my peers saw as risky and insulting to clients, has helped to close several deals. Other clients have wryly confessed to being guilty of my Top 20 B2B copywriting clichés and asked me to put them right.
Of course, those posts might also be turning buyers off. But that’s fine – it just means that those people who do call are already, quite literally, on the same page. Overall, the pros outweigh the cons, particularly when you factor in…
Climb the rankings
Considered purely as a tool to support traditional selling, a blog might sometimes be hard to justify. But SEO changes the picture completely. Popular, widely shared posts can have a dramatic effect on where your site appears in Google – which, in turn, has a direct effect on the quantity and quality of leads you receive.
Every page on your site can be a landing page, not just the home page. If you’ve blogged authoritatively about the exact problem a prospect is facing, your post can bring them to your site straight from Google and ‘warm them up’ before they even call, which is priceless. This ‘long tail’ search benefit is a reason to blog in itself.
In the early days particularly, it can feel like you don’t have an audience, or that it doesn’t matter much what you post. But the way SEO works means that the content of your blog directly determines its audience. This is a very important point.
Get referrals
We all like getting business from referrals. The whole process is friendlier, faster and more effective for everyone involved. And a blog can help here too.
Social media’s great, but it only goes so far. To build authority and credibility with peers, you need to unfold your argument at length. And that means it’s time to fire up WordPress.
Off the top of my head, I can think of three superb referrals I’ve had from fellow writers who I met on Twitter and who subsequently read my blog. Because I put time and care into every post, their reading gave them a pretty good sense of my writing ability – and writing attitude. And without my blog, I wouldn’t have been within a hundred miles of that business.
Pay it forward
One of the most gratifying things about getting into blogging is that people start thanking you for your posts. You may be motivated purely by calculated, reptilian self-interest, eyes fixed on the bottom line. Against all the odds, though, people start reading your stuff and actually getting some value from it. Result!
You may feel, particularly if you’re a newcomer, that you have little to offer. But everyone is at a different point in the journey, and everyone has something to offer to someone. You might come to be embarrassed by that piercingly simplistic post on benefits versus features, but to someone who’s never considered the distinction before, it’s gold.
The problem, of course, is being different enough. You’re going to need one mother of a post to end up top of 560m results for ‘benefits and features’, and even getting some modest social action could be a tall order. It’s never too early to start thinking creatively about titles, topics and style.
I hope I’ve made a convincing case for copywriters to blog. It’s made a huge different to my development as a writer – commercially and intellectually. And, as this post shows, it even gives you something to blog about…
Comments (8)
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Well said Tom. I wonder if Andy Maslen will have a discussion about this with you at PCN? He’s come out as not too keen on copy blogs recently.
I will have one now I think Andrew 🙂 First of all, another great post on your blog Tom – you’re definitely one of the better bloggers around.
I want to respond to your well-made points in turn. And I should say, I am a blogger myself, so my earlier tweet about copywriter’s blogs needs a broader canvas – as you say here!
Join good company
Well, that’s true. We’re all at it, me included. The question is, and this is really my point, is there a commercial goal for the blog? I know you go on to answer this later, but I see a lot of blogs of such dubious quality that I can’t believe, even for a moment, that they do anything at all for the writer’s P&L.
What is undeniable is that there’s a hell of a good reason for READING blogs. Free education from top professionals in this, or any other, field.
Incidentally, if you look at someone like Dave Trott, remember he has books to sell, so he’s building a constituency who might go and spend money on one of his titles.
Spread your wings
Yes, your blog is where you can cut loose, but as you say, you’re constrained by the fact that you’re writing in public. So, actually, you can’t.
Unless you really don’t care, you’re probably not going to write porn, violent fiction, ill mannered tirades (OK, OK, I know I do!) or loony flat-earth stuff.
Whereas a nice notebook is a private space where writers have traditionally found their voice. BEFORE getting published.
Sharpen the saw
Again, why on your blog? Supposing what you’ve written is so-so? Or worse? Now everyone knows it. I get the need to practice, but, once more, I don’t believe a blog is the place to do it
I guess the counter-argument to this is that since most blogs have readers in the single digits, it doesn’t matter anyway.
Close the sale
OK, here’s where it gets interesting. You make the valid point about the types of people who read copywriting blogs.
If you are after the readers you mention, then yes, blogging would be a fine lead-generation channel. But bear in mind, and this is my problem with content marketing in general (even though I do a lot of it), you are also educating your future clients to expect something for nothing. This is a bad thing.
Climb the rankings
I agree with you here. If you are a good blogger, like you are. But when every copywriter is blogging then that competitive advantage withers away. Plus Google will no doubt be planning Lemur or Pangolin or Barracuda to discount the more obviously cooked-up blog content anyway.
Get referrals
Again, I agree with your point. Up to a point. It goes back to the problem of proliferating content. These days everyone’s a publisher, which is great news for WordPress, less so for those very same bloggers hoping to carve out a reputation.
As you say, if you’re a good writer and put care into your posts then it can work. But only today I read a post advising me that giving my sales copy a good title (I think they meant headline) would improve it. Really? Gee, thanks for that.
Pay it forward
Ooh, now you got me. You see (and I think you know this already) I am one of those “calculated, reptilian self-interest, eyes fixed on the bottom line” kind of people. I guess it comes from running a business, which, let’s not forget, we all are.
I think the fact your post inspired me to think hard enough to want to respond shows how powerful a good copywriter’s blog can be.
Thanks!
Thanks for the namecheck, Tom. And your article has given me the confidence and self-belief to say to myself yes, ‘benefits not features’ may have been done to death, but it’s MY TURN NOW.
I look forward to feeling the benefit when I read your feature. See what I did there?
Thanks for commenting, Andy.
I agree that there are many copywriting blogs that don’t add much value for more experienced writers or marketers. But they may still have value for those writing them, as a record of their learning. I covered this in more detail in an earlier post called ‘Why you should write your own blog’ (it’s listed in the ‘related posts’ bit above). A blog can be a sort of developmental diary where you hammer out the things you’re learning about. Now, that might have little value to some, but to people at the same stage it could be very informative – not to mention reassuring.
Regarding constraint, I think you and I are of a generation that feels constrained, but this is disappearing fast. Younger professionals just share everything freely online, with no apparent concern for what employers, clients etc might think. I guess that once they are old enough to be employers and clients themselves, the whole idea of discretion will have passed away. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Something for nothing – maybe, but I don’t find it so. In my experience, most (admittedly not all) prospects understand where the line between free and paid is. The blog provides generic information, but if they want specific help, the band don’t play for free. I think that’s clear to most people.
In terms of climbing the rankings, it’s true that Google can change its attitude any time. But it will always be looking, or trying to look, at the value you provide to visitors. If people are reading and liking your stuff, that will (in theory) gain more exposure for your site. When that stops being true, Google stops having a business model.
Get referrals – this is really more of a social media point. Blogging gives you the ammo to build a network through other channels, like Twitter, LinkedIn and even offline. I don’t think anyone will refer work to you based on the blog alone – they’ll want to have at least some sense of your character.
As you say, we’re all running a business. But we’re all people too, and we all enjoy writing – or I hope we do, anyway. Blogging’s one of those things that straddles work and play. If you see it as purely part of work, it’s always going to feel like a drag. If it’s partly play, it delivers more benefit – just not the sort of benefit you can stick on a balance sheet.
Again, thanks for commenting!
I’ve just come across this article and agree wholeheartedly. I’ve only been going as a freelance copywriter for a year. I try to blog every week and find it’s a great discipline to have. It allows you to write about areas that wouldn’t fit in your normal website. My biggest win is printing out my ‘#confused? Unravelling Twitter hashtags’ post and handing that out at networking events, with my business card stapled to the back. It acts like a mini-audition and has won me more clients as a result.
Copywriters should write a blog to help creating their your own recognizable brand. Thanks for this post!
I just recently started reading your blog and am finding it informative and strangely comforting. My previous blogging attempts have fallen victim to doubt but you may be inspiring me to pick it back up again. Cheers.