Hire a copywriter or fix your offer first?

When a business owner launches a new marketing campaign, they often focus first on hiring a copywriter or an ad agency. They want someone to write great headlines, emotional sales pages, and run paid ads.

However, if the deal underneath is weak, even great copywriting usually fails to bring sales.

So should you hire a copywriter first, or build your offer first? In most cases, design and test your offer before you worry about the wording.

What copywriting really does

Copywriting is an amplifier. It takes what you are already selling and makes it clear, punchy, and persuasive.

If your offer is strong, a copywriter can help you sell a lot more of it. They find the right words to explain the value you have built.

But if your offer is confusing or unappealing, a copywriter usually cannot save it. They can only explain a bad deal more clearly. Good writing rarely convinces people to buy something they do not want or do not understand.

An example of the offer coming first

Look at a small bookkeeping business to see how this works.

If the owner hires a copywriter before fixing the offer, the copywriter has to write about a generic service. The headline might say: "Accurate monthly bookkeeping to keep your business organized." It sounds nice, but it is still selling standard bookkeeping by the hour.

If the owner builds the offer first, they create a clear package called the "Tax-Ready Monthly Clean":

• What is included: Monthly bank reconciliation, a clean profit and loss statement by the fifth of every month, and a year-end handover to your accountant.
• The price: $199 per month.
• Who it is for: Freelancers who handle their own clients but dread sorting receipts and transactions every tax season.

Once this package exists, the copywriter's job becomes much easier. They do not have to guess what matters to the customer. The value, the price, and the buyer are already built into the deal.

Build the foundation first

Save your money on expensive ad creatives and copywriting until you know exactly what you are selling. Spend your time understanding your customers' frustrations, finding the gaps your competitors leave, and packaging your services into clear options.

Once your offer is solid, the words to sell it often fall into place.

What to read next

• Understand the core idea in What is an offer.
• See how to organize your service details in What goes in an offer.
• Before you spend on ads, read Fix your offer before ads.