If you’ve already weighed the pros and cons of working with a copywriter, and made the decision to hire one, your next logical question is going to be about money. Just what is the cost of hiring a copywriter?
If you’ve worked with copywriters before you likely have some idea of what to expect. But if it’s the first time you’ve looked at outsourcing the copywriting or content creation in your business, you may have no clue at all.
Even if you have a fairly good idea, the answer to the question changes depending on the level of copywriter you’re looking at, the project you need completing, the time frame in which you need it doing, and several other factors.
If you’re looking for a specific answer, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. The short answer is “it depends”, but since that’s a thoroughly unhelpful response, let’s dig a bit deeper into how much copywriters cost, and what determines the price you’re going to pay…
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How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Copywriter?
Copywriter generally works on one of two pricing models: an hourly basis or a project basis.
Project-based pricing can be a fixed rate for specific copywriting packages, like blog posts of a certain length, or they can be bespoke. When a copywriter has been doing their thing long enough they get a good idea of what’s involved in – for example – writing a 600-word blog post.
They know how long it will take them, how much research will (usually) be needed for the subject at hand, the SEO, etc., and the level of skill involved. Confidently putting a fixed price on that, which is reflective of their talent and years of experience makes sense.
Likewise, when you’ve written a few hundred startup websites that all contain pretty much the same pages (home, about, blog, contact, and a services/products page), you can put a price on a project of that specific scope.
The more complex a project is, the less likely it is a writer will have a fixed package that covers it. In these cases, they will ask for the full details of your project, spec it out, and quote for the work.
Whether a writer uses fixed project pricing or bespoke project pricing, they aren’t pricing based on the length of time it will take them to write the content.
Writers who price based on time are (generally speaking) far less experienced. The less experience a writer has, the longer it takes them to complete a project. This is partly because you get a lot faster at both research and writing the more you do it.
Here’s An Example…
A writer with years of experience can bash out a short blog post on a subject they’re familiar with within ten to fifteen minutes. A novice, on the other hand, would spend a couple of hours writing the same number of words.
If you compared the quality of the writing when they were both done you’d find the pro had penned an expertly crafted piece, while the novice had put together something a little clunky, that was somewhat lacking in finesse and pizzaz.
Yet if you paid them both by the hour, the pro would get £25, while the novice would receive £200.
It’s not about the time involved, it’s about the skill and, more importantly, the results the resulting content will achieve for your business.
The better the copywriter is a crafting copy that delivers consistent, lucrative results, the more you’re going to have to pay for their work.
Yeah, But Seriously, How Much?
Exactly how much you pay for a copywriter will vary depending on their level of skill, their years of experience, the type of copy they’re creating for you, how fast you’ve asked them to complete the work, whether or not it’s a one-off project or an ongoing arrangement…
For that reason, it’s not so easy to just put a number on it.
But again, that really isn’t helpful. So, in very general terms, let’s suppose you want a short blog post writing of around 600 words (FYI this is the optimal length for a short post if you want it to have a decent impact on your SEO). For a piece of writing of this length you should expect to pay the following, depending on how experienced your writer is:
- New or junior level copywriter: £20 – £50
- Mid-level copywriter: £50 – £80
- Top-level copywriter: £80 – £150
How about that startup website I mentioned earlier? The one with 5 pre-determined pages? Well…
- New or junior level copywriter: £300 – £750
- Mid-level copywriter: £750 – £1,200
- Top-level copywriter: £1,200 – £2,250
Just remember, these are very rough ideas when it comes to pricing because you insisted I put a number on it 😉
The Cost Of Hiring A Copywriter Is The Wrong Question…
While it’s natural to want (and need) to be fully aware of the costs involved in something before agreeing to it, considering the cost of hiring a copywriter is actually asking the wrong question. At least from a business growth and profitability standpoint.
The question you should be asking is ‘How much is it going to cost me to not hire a copywriter?’.
So much hinges on your copy when it comes to marketing and sales. You may be fully capable of penning an engaging blog post, but unless you’re also great at SEO, nobody is ever going to read it.
Likewise, you can run as many ads as you like to try and sell your products and services, but if your copy isn’t completely on point nobody will click on them.
Even if by some fluke they do click on them, if you don’t have a landing page, sales page, or product description that has been effectively crafted, they’re never going to convert.
But let’s play devil’s advocate for just a minute and say your DIY copy is doing okay. You’re getting some traffic, some sales, some repeat business.
You’re clearly onto a winner in terms of your business model.
Now, imagine how much more money you could be making, if all your copy and content was written by a pro, optimised for search, and designed to maximise the profitability of your business?
The upshot here is that hiring a copywriter is going to cost you a decent chunk of change. If you want a good one, there’s just no avoiding that. Experience and skill command (and deserve) reasonable prices.
What you need to consider is the value you will receive, rather than the amount you will outlay.
How much income is going to be generated in your business by a website that ranks highly on Google?
The odds are it will be a massive amount more than you paid to get your copy written, even if you paid what seemed like an astronomical amount.
One Last Thing…
If you really want to know the costs involved in hiring a copywriter, the best thing to do is ping me a message, tell me about your project, and I’ll send you a quote. If you’re impatient and want an answer faster than that, check out my fixed copywriting packages…
