Corporate Websites And Copywriter USP’s
A lot of would-be copywriters have asked me about copywriting niches, lucrative niches for copywriting and variations on a similar question.
It all boils down to, “How do I find copywriting clients that’ll pay me money?”
I’ve written a few articles for this site about copywriting niches. You can check out the articles here:
That said there’s plenty of work outside of “competitive” niches – and even within them. In this article, I’m going to show you how to determine whether there’s need for a copywriting service within a company, niche or market. Or wherever else you might be browsing online.
Websites Are Still Terrible
I wrote in this article about how copywriters should start looking for work outside of the tech/make-money-online industry.
At that point, I’d planned out a new service offering for companies in a particular sector.
It’s something I’ve done a little of on freelance sites, but there’s a different between working on freelance websites and approaching clients on a regular basis to deliver a specific service.
Anyway, for reasons I wrote about yesterday, I put this service on the shelf. After a little time away, I’ve decided to open up my notes again this morning.
Luckily, everything I found out about the sector I was targeting is still as true today as it was back when I had the idea.
Here’s The Key Determinant
The thing I’ve noticed this morning is that there are a lot of companies that have terrible copy.
More likely, they have no fundamental understanding of how copy is supposed to work.
Copywriting is, as regular readers will know, the art of selling a need and solution to the customer.
Many companies don’t do this at all with their websites.
With the particular project I have in mind, these are companies worth millions. (If not more – my brain is pretty small so I can’t really conceive of a hundred-million dollar company.) The companies spend a lot on marketing as well.
An offline, traditional marketing campaign costs thousands – potentially tens of thousands – yet some companies who are worth millions have basic HTML websites with terrible, jargon-filled copy. No blogs, no mailing lists, no real social media presence.
(They’ll have a few accounts, but they’ll only update them when they’re trying to sell something, and often not even then. I saw multiple company accounts which hadn’t been updated since 2015. That said, I’m not exactly a social media guy so I can’t complain too much.)
Even if you’re not a web designer or even a copywriter, you can see where there’s potential there. In fact, there’s probably a lot more than you think.
For instance, you could write an e-book. (Hoorah!)
Or, you could create a service where you do whatever it is they don’t for them.
Or, you could create a training service. One friend of mine does something like this; He is a marketing consultant. I won’t tell you what he charges, but his day rate is pretty eye-watering. It’s more than a lot of guys earn in a couple of months.
Hopefully, the above paragraph has you a bit sceptical. Maybe it’s got you a little curious as well.
I imagine you’re thinking, “Yeah, but why would these massive companies filled with geniuses and guys that earn 100k a year hire me, the lowly internet freelance copywriter?”
Your USP As A Copywriter
The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert in say, high finance. (Although it can help – I suggest reading this article for how to become knowledgeable on tricky subjects.)
A legal company or medical company won’t hire you to be a better expert than them at their subject. That would be counter-productive.
With the above said your unique selling point as a copywriter is that you have the skill to translate the company’s knowledge of their industry into selling points for the readers of their marketing material.
If you’re into the wider internet marketing stuff, then your USP is that you can connect them with customers.
Connect is the key word. A million spam companies that buy followers and spam out hundreds of emails will be born and die without a medical company ever being remotely aware of their existence.
A guy (or girl) that helps them get actual customers is a completely different ball game, however. No company, regardless of the market, sector or niche is going to turn down a competitive advantage.
If you could set up an email autoresponder that gives people customers, then you can give your company a competitive advantage.
If you can write sales pages (or even blog posts) that’ll make a reader give a company a call, then that is a competitive advantage.
If you’re able to train an employee to take care of those things, then that’s a competitive advantage that you can give to whatever company hires you.
Those are what companies pay for regardless of the niche.
Why Aren’t Companies Doing This?
I don’t know.
I think that in England, a lot of companies are still lagging a long way behind their American counterparts. For all Anglo-American countries have their differences and similarities, the U.S. tens to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to marketing.
A lot of companies here (I can’t speak for the U.S.A, but I have a lot of clients there so it’s not like there’s a glut of online marketers stealing all the business) don’t have good websites. They’re not interested in building an online presence, even though the majority of customers are online and looking for companies there.
I don’t think if I went to the average managing director they’d even know what an email list or autoresponder or any of that super-secret-internet-marketing stuff was.
Those are my reasons for thinking that companies don’t put money into these things, but the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t really matter why they aren’t doing these things.
The important part is that you can do them. You can build services around them and then all that’s left is getting the clients and ensuring that you provide the return on investment that you say you can.
…Which sadly, is a story for another day.
Final Thoughts
People overcomplicate building a business.
Essentially, you provide a service that promises a positive return on investment.
There are companies out there – big companies – that fail to do basic things when it comes to marketing (and especially online stuff.)
Now, you’re probably not an expert in whatever high-flying niche that those companies are a part of, but you don’t need to be. Let them do the doctoring, lawyering or financing. You should concentrate on that service that allows them to concentrate on their own customers and service offerings.
Wherever you see terrible websites, non-existent marketing plans or terrible online stuff, there’s an opportunity to provide a service for these companies. To be honest, a lot of the skills I’ve talked about are skills that you can get a basic grip of with an Udemy course and some hours reading articles online.
If you do this, you’ll be able to work your way into niches that pay big money. You’ll also have less competition, because most guys (and girls!) who know about internet marketing are busy selling make money online courses.
There are other paths out there!