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If you're contemplating hiring a copywriter to work with you on your promotional and marketing material, you may be facing the dilemma of whether to use a freelance writer, or a copywriting agency. Now, before we begin, I must confess something. I'm the director of a small copywriting agency - so, as you might expect, I have a predisposition to favour copywriting agencies over freelance copywriters - but, I'm going to try my best to offer an un-biased rundown on the merits and disadvantages of each option. The copywriting agency Copywriting agencies are essentially a group of copywriters, headed by account managers. The copywriters do the research, concept development, and the writing, while the account managers keep the clients happy, communicate the clients' needs to the copywriters, and enforce quality-assurance. From this description alone it is easy to imagine some of the benefits and disadvantages of using an agency, but let's explore these a little further. Advantages - Industry specialists: With an extensive bank of copywriters to hand, copywriting agencies can often locate a writer with specific industry experience and expertise, allowing you to work with someone who is familiar with your particular field of work. - Availability: When it comes to workload, freelance writers are, obviously, limited by their schedule, and given that they work alone, it doesn't take much work for their schedule to become full. Copywriting agencies, on the other hand, generally have a much greater capacity in terms of workload and availability. So if you've got a rush job on, agencies are more likely to be available to deliver. - Quality assurance: I want to avoid the issue of 'quality' in this article. Quality is not determined by the fact that the writer is freelance or part of an agency. Quality is determined by the response rate that the writer can deliver for your campaign, and quality varies amongst freelancers and agencies alike. BUT, a point I would like to get across is that in most agencies, the account managers proofread each document before it is sent off to the client. This helps to eliminate mistakes and maintain clarity and objectivity in the text. Disadvantages - Price: Typically, copywriting agencies charge higher prices. This is simply down to maintaining a higher cost-base than freelancers. Freelance writers work from home; the only costs directly related to their business are perhaps a laptop, a notepad, and a pen. Copywriting agencies, on the other hand, have an office, numerous computers, staff wages, and insurance costs directly related to their business. These are often reflected in the price they charge. - Flexibility: Freelance writers don't work set hours, agency writers do. So if you have a project that needs completing at an obscure time or over the weekend, a freelance writer is probably more likely to be your port-of-call than a copywriting agency. The freelance writer I could stretch this article out and go over the advantages and disadvantages of using a freelancer as opposed to using an agency, but to be honest it would be quite pointless given that the advantages and disadvantages are simply the flip-side of the ones mentioned above. Freelance writers don't have the same number of industry specialism's, the availability, or the same quality assurance procedures as copywriting agencies. But they do tend to beat the agencies on price and flexibility. The verdict Your decision to work with a freelance writer or a copywriting agency should be based on your particular requirements for the project. If it requires particular industry expertise (i.e. finance, medical etc.) and needs to be completed quickly, a copywriting agency might be more appropriate. If budget is a major factor, using a freelancer would probably be a more feasible option. writers job
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