Does a small business need a copywriter?

A working note on writing, businesses and the gap between the two

There's a particular kind of website I see often around the Northern Rivers. The business itself is excellent — a beautiful cafe, a thoughtful architecture practice, a small tour operator with twenty years of expertise and a regular column of five-star reviews. And then there's the website.

The website says: Welcome to [Business Name]. We are passionate about delivering quality service to our valued customers. Or some version of the same five-sentence template, written either by the owner late at night or by a marketing agency that didn't really understand the business. The site doesn't say what the business does. It doesn't say who it's for. It doesn't say what makes it different from the seven other businesses doing similar work in the same suburb.

The owner knows the writing isn't quite right but isn't sure what to do about it. They've already spent money on the photography and the logo. The copy is the last thing on the list.

It shouldn't be. Copy is the only part of a website that does any actual selling.

What we mean by 'copy'

Copy is the writing on a website, in a brochure, in an email, on a sign in a window. It's not the same as content — content is the longer-form writing you publish to attract people, like this article. Copy is the writing that turns up at the moment someone is deciding whether to spend money with you, and either convinces them or doesn't.

Good copy does three things. It tells the reader what you do. It tells them why it's worth their time. And it tells them what to do next.

That's it. Three jobs. The reason most copy fails isn't that the writing is bad — it's that the writer hasn't done the thinking the writing is supposed to communicate.

What changes when the copy is right

Three things, in my experience.

Enquiries get better. Not just more, although usually that too. The enquiries you get start to be from people who actually want what you offer, in the price range you charge, for the kind of work you like doing. Clear writing pre-qualifies leads. If your homepage explains that you specialise in something specific, the people who don't want that won't enquire. The people who do, will.

You stop having to explain yourself in every meeting. A well-written About page does the work of the first ten minutes of a sales conversation, every time, for free. You arrive at the meeting and the client already knows what you do.

You sound like yourself. This sounds soft, but it isn't. A business that sounds like itself in writing is a business with confidence. It's the difference between a wine list that reads like every other wine list and one that has a point of view. Customers can feel the difference even if they couldn't explain it.

When you genuinely don't need a copywriter

Not every business needs to hire one. If you're writing your own copy and it's working — meaning you're getting the right enquiries from the right people — leave it alone. The fact that it doesn't read like advertising copy is probably an asset, not a problem.

You also don't need a copywriter for everything. Most businesses need: a homepage that explains what they do, an About page that builds trust, a Services page that pre-qualifies enquiries, and the language they use in emails and on the phone. That's a fortnight's work for someone who knows what they're doing. It doesn't need to be a monthly retainer.

When you do

You probably do need help if any of these are true:

• Your website hasn't been updated since you started the business, and the business has changed since then.

• You've been meaning to rewrite the About page for two years.

• People keep telling you 'I didn't realise you did that' about a service that's right there on your website.

• You're charging premium prices and the website still reads like the business is fighting for scraps.

If any of those land, it's probably worth a conversation. Not necessarily with me — with anyone who works with words for a living. The investment is small and the returns last for years, because website copy is one of the few marketing assets that keeps working after you've paid for it.

Wattle & Word is a communications studio in the Northern Rivers. We write the words that introduce, explain, persuade and connect, for businesses and publications across the region. If you've been thinking about your website copy, say hello.