At this very moment, a triple-threat brawl is breaking out in meeting rooms across the globe.
With huge campaigns looming on the horizon, the world’s marketing teams need to answer an important question: “Who on Earth is going to write this thing?”
Who indeed?
In most cases, there are three contenders:
- Someone in your organisation
- A freelance copywriter
- A copywriting agency
Each option comes with a very different set of pros and cons. Stick around, and you can see how they weigh in – and which one should win for different project types.
The DIY approach
Doing it yourself (or at the very least, getting someone within your organisation to do it) is a very attractive prospect. After all, you and your people already know your business inside out, you (hopefully) know what you want to say, and not spending money is, well, ideal.
There is a huge downside here though. Controversial opinion alert: not everyone is a writer. I know, shocking.
Yes, most of us can write. But writing something that’s compelling, exciting, and readable – and will convince readers to take action – is a totally different skillset.
There’s a small chance one of your product experts is a genuine polymath, who can write marketing copy with the best of us. But that introduces another problem: good writing takes time. For every hour that technical expert spends writing a blog, ebook, or press release, it’s one less hour they have to do the parts of their job that only they can.
Simply put, the do-it-yourself approach to writing is a useful fall-back if you’ve in-house writing skills, team members with available hours, and – frankly – no spare time or budget to hire an external writer.
DIY copywriting: pros
- Saves time as there’s no need to brief an external writer
- Saves budget as your people are already on the payroll
DIY copywriting: cons
- The copy might not be especially compelling unless you have writing skills in-house
- Takes up valuable time your people could be using elsewhere
Finding a freelancer
If your in-house teams aren’t comfortable taking on the writing, freelancers can be a very useful resource.
Offering deep expertise in specific areas, and often charging less than their agency counterparts, freelancers can offer a strong balance between quality and price.
But as the old saying goes, you can have something quick, cheap or good – pick two.
While a good freelance writer will, of course, do their best to get things done efficiently, they are only one person. Diary clashes, long wait times and delays aren’t uncommon – especially if it’s a large project. And the better a freelancer is, the busier they’ll be – making it even harder to find time with them.
And because your eggs are in one basket, you also increase your risk. If it turns out the writer isn’t a good fit for the job, or something unavoidable comes up that takes them off the project, you have to start the briefing process all over again with someone else.
If you’re taking on a job that has roomy deadlines, or if you want to bring in external skills and knowledge while still keeping costs low, freelancers can be a really good fit. But if deadlines are tight, if there’s a lot of writing to do (say, a website or ABM campaign), or if it’s a high-profile project where you can’t risk anything going wrong, you may want to go with a copywriting agency.
Freelance B2B copywriter: pros
- May offer deep knowledge in particular areas of expertise
- Can often be cheaper than going to an agency
Freelance B2B copywriter: cons
- Need to book projects in early, especially for highly sought-after freelancers
- Can have long turnaround times for larger projects, or if your freelancer has a lot of work on the go
- Risk of having to brief someone else if something comes up and your freelancer isn’t able to complete the job
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