Characters. Copywriting for business.

You work in a busy marketing department. You need some copy to fit with a campaign. There’s a bit of artworking involved but no visually creative stuff. You call your nominated advertising or design agency. After all, agencies respond quickly, your company has negotiated fixed menu pricing, and you need to keep your brand consistent.

Now, imagine you’re the agency account manager. Your best art directors and copywriters are working on the next big campaign. That’s ok, this job is mostly copy. A Mac monkey and a cheap freelance writer is all you need, right?

Why use a Copywriting Agency?

With a copywriting agency, every copy job is important. You get the attention to detail and quality output of the best freelancers. At the same time, you benefit from the responsiveness and adaptability of an ad agency. Think of it as always having an expert on the case.

Think about this too. One copywriting agency can unify your brand voice across different media. So you’ll avoid the varying quality, tone and interpretation that comes from using different media-specific agencies. Makes sense doesn’t it?

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Got a phone and a computer? It’s all the equipment you’ll need. Materials? Don’t worry, you won’t have to buy anything. Specific qualifications? None required.

When it comes to low-risk enterprise, setting up as a copywriter ranks somewhere between breathing and babysitting. And with the recession in full swing, expect lots more wannabe scribes jumping aboard the gravy train to Copywriter Parkway.

Copywriters or cowboys?

“Of the group of people who call themselves freelance copywriters, a far greater percentage is inexperienced… than was the case a decade ago,” said Lisette Howlett, Managing Director of Hirescores.com at www.freelanceuk.com. “The quality of the core professionals is still just as strong, it is just that the size of the pool so much bigger.”

There’s more to this problem than pulling pearls from poo: “Even though these… (candidates) aren’t a serious threat to skilled, professional, natively fluent British copywriters, they are depressing the market in terms of earnings – and, in many cases, eroding trust.”

Searching for copywriters online can be a tricky business. Unless you strike lucky, you’re likely to get what you pay for, or pay too much for work that falls short.

And don’t we know it. Building the Characters team was, frankly, a pain in the proverbials. But there are some good writers out there working at reasonable rates. Happily, we’ve found some crackers and made them sign contracts in blood.

That’s how we make it easy for clients. With Characters, there’s no risk of paying too much for a bad writer. Because we’ve already found the best writer for the job.

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