Justifying the Cost of a Professional Copy Writer

A new year typically means a long list of new marketing communications and public relations projects.

You know you'll need the services of a professional copywriter for some of these projects, yet how can you justify the expense?

The answer can often be found in a combination of project, time, and revenue factors.

Project Factors

A professional freelance writer can be a cost-effective resource for project and workload challenges such as:

• Writing powerful content for high-value documents e.g., a technology white paper that is intended to generate leads and advance the sales cycle.
• A project that started as a simple idea ("let's post a Web page about this topic"), but turns out to not to be as small and easy as it seems.
• A long list of materials to prepare, such as for product launch, user conference, or promotional campaign.
• A draft may have been written for a document, but you feel it could benefit from the fresh, objective perspective of an outside writer.

Schedule Factors

Time is often overlooked as a cost factor for marcom projects. Consider the cost savings that can be realized by engaging a freelance writer in these scenarios:

• The project has a short deadlines. Bringing in a freelance writer who can focus on just this project may make more sense than trying to adjust the workload of an in-house writer.
• In-house and agency writers are already fully booked on other, equally important projects.
• The project keeps getting postponed because you don't have time to manage it. Especially if you have developed a good working relationship with a copywriter over multiple projects, consider asking him or her to take on appropriate project management tasks.
• Availability and costs of other employees (e.g., subject matter experts) who might be tapped to work on this project. Most likely, writing a document isn't the highest value use of their time.

Revenue Factors

Perhaps the easiest justification for engaging an external copywriter is to view the expense as an appropriate investment for generating revenue. Examples of these factors include:

• The project is directly tied to revenue generation, e.g., an email campaign designed to attract prospects or a Web page for making a direct product sale.
• Documents that serve a multi-stage sales cycle, e.g., a product selection guide. Especially for technology products, a skilled technical copywriter can help you create the best content for addressing both business and technology buyers throughout their complex purchasing decisions.
• High-visibility projects that position your company, such as case studies that showcase your success to prospects and support loyalty from current customers.

Do you use other factors when justifying a budget allocation for outside copywriting services?

Learn More

For information that may support your arguments for hiring a freelance copywriter, see the articles under the heading How to Find A ... listed in the righthand column of this blog.