What’s a Copywriter, and Do I Need One?

Well-written content can create a positive customer experience and better SEO. Can a copywriter benefit you? Here’s what you need to know.

By Liz Pryor

As your eCommerce store comes to life, you might want to consider adding a copywriter to your team — but what is a copywriter, and how can they help? Plain and simple, a skilled copywriter creates content that engages your target audience, on your website, blog, product listings, and sometimes, social media. Having well-written content is just as important as having talented developers and designers work on your website.

When a project is rushed or a copywriter team member isn’t established, writing is often thrown into the process at the last minute, an afterthought hastily completed after the rest of the project is finished.

But when integrated properly into any project, having well-written content can help grow your business and increase sales just as much eye-catching design and super-clean code.

As of this publication, copywriting isn’t a service that we offer at Shero. But we still want to provide you with valuable information that can help your business grow, so below we’ll dive into:

  • What is a copywriter?
  • What does a copywriter do?
  • Do I really need a copywriter?

Want to learn more about the marketing + SEO services we offer? Click here.

What is a Copywriter?

A skilled copywriter has experience both as a copy editor and a storyteller. While they should have a good grasp of the technical side of writing, copywriters understand the importance of crafting compelling content through stories that the reader — and target audience — can relate to.

Some copywriters go to school for creative writing, journalism, marketing, public relations, or other branches of communications. Others are self-taught, studying the most effective examples of writing on the internet and adapting a formula.

If you’re a business owner, writing can be time-consuming or intimidating, and hiring both a writer and an editor can be cost-prohibitive. A copywriter saves you the headache, because their unique perspective allows them to write creatively for your business in a way that will engage your audience and lead to increased sales, and their educational training equips them to help proofread and edit any existing content.

What Does A Copywriter Do?

A copywriter works with your creative team to understand your business, your goals, and your target audience.

The first step is to learn as much about the company as possible — this includes reviewing the current website and social media content, interviewing members of your team, and sometimes, interviewing clients themselves.

Analyzing social media and blog metrics gives an idea of which content is popular with your target audience. This data helps to create a content strategy.

It’s important for a copywriter to pay attention to the existing content’s tone, the products that are being sold, how they are described, and the type of language the client uses.

For example, they’ll examine: Does the content includes a lot of slang, or a more formal and classic approach? What are the trends in the industry, and what is your business doing differently? How do customers view your brand?

This research is key. It ensures that all content created is on-brand, strategically reaching potential customers while nurturing existing ones who’ve grown to know and love your brand.

It makes readers feel that the brand truly knows them and cares about their well-being. Ultimately, how can you sell something if you don’t really know who you are selling to? Are they Gen X’ers or Millennials? Do they have children? Do they drink coffee or tea? Are they morning people or night owls? Do they work out, or are they glorified couch potatoes? Though it can seem superfluous at first, knowing all these details is what allows you to take your content to the next level and really stand out from your competitors. This information a copywriter to establish a brand voice for your company.

With a well-refined brand voice, every word written for your website should consistently sound like it was written by the same person: your brand.

Brand Voice: If Your Brand Could Speak…

A strong and consistent brand voice is absolutely necessary in order to build trust and establish a lasting relationship with your customers.

It improves the readability of your content, keeps your ads easily recognizable amongst the clutter on other sites, prevents emails from being deleted immediately, and makes social media posts likeable and shareable because the consumer can directly relate to the message. It makes the brand seem more approachable.

This is especially important after a website redesign. Unless your target audience changes as part of an entire brand overhaul, ensure your brand voice remains the same. Especially if your site appearance changes with an upgraded UX/UI design or after replatforming.

Want to learn more about replatforming or migrating to a new website platform, like Shopify, Adobe Commerce, or BigCommerce? Start here.

Consider how many ways a brand can become a part of your customers’ lives.

When a consumer really buys into your brand, they do more than just spend their hard-earned money on your products. They bring your brand home, share your products with family, and may even recommend them to their friends, peers, or extended family. Over time, a successful brand almost becomes an actual family member.

These brands constantly relay the same message, in the same voice, in all content they produce.

Style Guide: Your Cheat Sheet For Everything

After establishing a brand voice for your business, a copywriter should gather all data, details, and branding guidelines into a company style guide. A style guide is looked at as a compendium of a copywriter’s deliverables.

A style guide is basically a how-to must-have; it’s a cheat sheet you to use when writing any content for your company. Because, of course, at some point you or someone on your team is going to have to write some copy.

Instead of relying on a copywriter to create content stat, your team can access the company style guide to ensure they write on-brand. The guide should provide all the information needed to make anyone a writer for your company — whether that person is a senior employee or someone you hired last week.

Typical style guides include technical tips, like how and when to use abbreviations or to how to properly use hyphens. It should cover specific details of your site, like how to write the copy for the main category pages of your website (down to the word count) or to content guidelines, like how to write detailed product descriptions that will do your products justice.

Above all, a style guide ensures long-term marketing success for your business by protecting your long-term customer relationships.

The Bottom Line

Simply stated, is your brand selling makeup to teenagers? You need someone who can write to address the needs of a teenager. Are you selling chess sets to parents? You need someone who can write directly to a parent. The trick is finding someone who can write to all of your target demographics with equal skill. That’s the benefit of a professional copywriter.

Without physical stores where customers can dive into the brand experience, all interactions must take place through a screen. Well-written content humanizes your brand and instills trust and an emotional connection, because your customers feel like they are talking with a real person, not just a computer.

When added to your team of project managers, account managers, designers, and developers, a copywriter is a crucial part of the magic equation that can make your eCommerce brand more approachable, your clients more loyal, and your business more successful.

Interested in learning more about your site visitors, including their habits and behaviors? Learn more about a UX/UI Audit or contact us today.