This is the concluding part of the 5-part series on Planning Your Website Structure
“Is a professional copywriter necessary to build my website?”
The short answer is no
You don’t have to hire anyone who will know nothing close to what you know about your own business. To write the main content of your website, the best helping hand is at the end of your arm!
If you aren’t comfortable writing, you can ask your business partner or a senior colleague to help out. It can be your spouse who fancies some writing work. You want someone who is close enough to the business to pay attention to the words on your site.
That said, professional copywriters can be quite good at crafting the text matter on the basis of your brief. Many web builders double up as writers. As they work closely with you on other aspects of the site-building process, they will be in a good position to understand your requirements.
Copywriting rates are about ₹500 per page. A 10-page website will set you back by ₹5,000 right away.
What about blogs, newsletters and promotional mail?
These are the kind of areas where professional writers shine. They can provide the polish and sheen to a blog post in addition to doing the research to give it depth.
You can hire a writer (or writers at the beginning till you settle on one) from Upwork or Fiverr to do blog posts on a periodic basis. The topics should be selected by you and the word count expected should also be spelt out by you. A rate of ₹500-₹750 for a fully researched blog post is usual.
You can get a bargain rate if you book a writer for a set number of blog posts over a period of time. Newsletters and promo email can also be entrusted to copywriters, but are best done by someone from your team (including yourself.)
It’s not just that the costs of hiring a writer pile up pretty fast, it’s also that insiders will understand the promotions and news items much better and faster than a paid writer from outside.
So the recommendation is this: Use a pro writer for writing your content on the site. They don’t have to write everything. You can ask them to write a handful of important pages like About, Services, FAQ and the key benefit copy on the Home page. With periodic writing like newsletters and promo mail, use an insider preferably. Blog writing can be an iffy thing – you can get excellent quality and readability (sometimes) with professional writers. And (sometimes) with a talented insider. It will vary from business to business.