Copywriting

Do you want sizzling, persuasive, keyword-rich copy for your website?

Do you want your readers to:

• buy your stuff? 
• change their behavior?
• sit up and take notice?

Are you looking for a copywriter who can pluck brilliant adjectives from the air and make your product or service sing? Someone who regards a blank page as a challenge rather than a chore?

Well - don’t look at me!  I’m an editor, at my best when you give me a large and complicated website or document many thousands of words long. I’ll happily carve through it and make it shorter and easier to understand. Copywriters find the right words. Editors lose the wrong ones. There’s a difference.

If you're still not sure what a copywriter is or does, there's an excellent discussion by Tom Albrighton in The types of copywriter and copywriting.

 ‘Good with words’

Why mention copywriting at all? Why put a page on my website about a service I don’t offer any more? Because ‘copywriting’ or ‘copywriter’ or ‘web writer’ is still how people find me in Google.  They’re not looking for a content strategist, a content auditor or even a web editor, because they don’t know they need one till they get here.

People often tell me that I’m ‘good with words’ and I am – if you need complex ideas – such as broadband, risk assessment and embarrassing illnesses – explained in simple steps, then look no further.

But that’s like saying a plumber is ‘good with their hands’ and then inviting them to fix your electrics. They might be OK – or they might make a complete Horlicks of it.

Nightmare gig

I finally flipped when someone asked me to describe their catalogue of 50+ bean bags, futons and cushions. I just ran out of things to write. My nightmare gig would be the Lakeland catalogue. I love reading it, but can’t find the words to persuade someone that they absolutely must have a Banana Guard:

“Transport your mid-morning snack to work or school without it looking as if it's gone five rounds in a boxing ring!”

Or a Funny Face Lolly Mould:

“My, what big eyes you have”

My top ten UK copywriters

On Twitter and at local events I’ve met a bunch of great people for whom copywriting comes as naturally and as vitally as breathing. They’ll do a much better job for you.

So here it is – in no particular order – the fit to print directory of 10 ace UK copywriters. Tell ’em I sent you!

• Mike Brown, Word Forge, Blackpool: “Inspired written words”
• Jackie Harris, Brightspark Marketing, Sedbergh: “Ideas for business”
• Sally Seed, Stoneleigh Communications, Orton: “The right words, to the right people, in the right way”
• Clare Coxon, Ten Stories High, Kendal: “Creative marketing, PR and copywriting for business”
• Ben Locker, Ben Locker & Associates, Colchester: “The agency for people who want words to work harder”
• Tom Albrighton, ABC Copywriting, Norwich: “We’ll choose your words carefully”
• Sarah Turner, Turner Ink, Wimbledon: “London copywriter who hates blah blah copy especially the words ‘solution’ and ‘strategy’”
• Caroline Dalzell, First for Copy, Leicester: “On brief. On budget. On time.”
• Clare Lynch, London, DAC Creative “Helping business communicate better”
• Nikki Cooke, The Word Well, Cranbrook: “Putting your words to work”