Guest Contributor – Yolander Prinzel

There is an old idiom that we often apply to our intangible processes that might be doing us more harm than good: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. While this maxim could work when considering the possibility of car repair (well who would pay a mechanic to fix a car that ain’t broke), it doesn’t really work when you apply it to your marketing copy. Why? Because if you’re already getting sales from your marketing materials you might think that your writing isn’t broken but if you’re missing out on the additional sales that more effective writing could deliver, then it really is.

What is a copywriter?

Copywriters are kind of like you they are sales professionals. But instead of specializing in insurance and financial planning, they specialize in written persuasion. Copywriters study your target prospect and decide how to best weave words together in order to appeal to that prospect and make them buy your product.

Many insurance agencies do not use professional copywriting services because of the expense. I’m not going to sugar coat this good copywriters are expensive. But they are expensive because they know how to deliver results. They know how to take your direct mail call to action out of a prospect’s trash bin and put it on their to-do lists. They know how to turn marketing materials into sales calls.

But I can do that too!

Every salesperson has strengths and weaknesses. You may be great at closing a sale in-person or scoring a meeting during a cold call but that doesn’t mean that you wield the power of the pen with the same success rate.  Copywriters center their craft on persuasive writing. They study consumer trends, study other successful copywriting methods, conduct marketing research and know how to turn marketing and statistical data about your target audience into an effective marketing message.

What to Look for in a Copywriter

If you decide to have a professional copywriter develop or revise your marketing materials, you need to know what to look for. Here are just a few tips to give your search an edge:

Samples: The most important thing you can do is evaluate the samples provided by the copywriter. They may not have samples for the products you sell, but they should have a range of samples targeting different audiences. Those samples (commonly referred to as clips) should show shifts in their writing style. These shifts indicate that you are looking at the work of a writer who understands how to target their writing toward a particular audience. When looking at the samples, make sure you are not looking at content writing samples. Copywriting and content writing are two different skills and are not necessarily interchangeable.

Results: Copywriters should be able to give you the conversion ratio of the copy they produced on other projects. After all, you know exactly how many premium dollars you produced for each of the insurers you work with why wouldn’t a copywriter know how many sales he or she brought in for his or her clients?

Personality: Believe it or not, the personality of your copywriter does matter not necessarily to the quality and effectiveness of your copy, but to the quality of the experience. You want a copywriter who pays attention to your requests, who listens and accommodates your reasonable needs, and who is open to criticism and feedback. You don’t have to become best friends but it helps when you pick someone that you enjoy working with.

Confidence: When it comes to writing copy, your copywriter knows best and should be able to tell you what the right approach is for your target prospects. They should be assured and confident when explaining the approach to you and they should be able to back up their suggestions with statistics. Remember, the copywriter is trying to get results from your target not trying to create materials that make you happy to read them.

Yolander Prinzel (www.YolanderPrinzel.com) is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed representative. During her decade of financial industry experience she has been an insurance agency director of marketing and director of operations, a life insurance underwriter, and a trading service specialist for Raymond James Financial Services. She was a featured speaker at the 2006 Hartford National Sales Conference and the 2006 Brookstreet Securities Annual Conference.

Disclaimer:

This article is for informational purposely only. There is no legal advice being suggested or proffered and the author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions take or not taken by the readers based upon such information.

Thank you,

Ryan H.

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