A copywriter's review of 2022

Looking back on 2022, we began the year optimistically as things started to open up after the pandemic. It was a new normal, but, we’re glad to say, more normal than new.

Work was a mix of servicing existing clients with regular projects and retainers and getting to know new customers. One "new" customer we finally got to meet in the flesh three years on, thanks to the pandemic. Signs of changing times indeed.

So what kept us busy this last year?

We've always had our fair share of rescue projects, but these have noticeably increased over the past year. Clients came to us either because they tried to write the copy themselves and knew it needed sprucing up, or they could no longer cope with an existing copywriter that required too much handholding and, in most cases, the marketing manager was having to rewrite the copy themselves. Projects we took over included a couple of video scripts – one for a logistics provider and another for a chemical company, some blogs and a couple of newsletters.

Another logistics provider contacted us late in the year, having previously asked us to pitch for their internal newsletter project. They settled on another copy provider but after six months of constant struggle with the writers not being able to understand the brief or the client’s business, they came back to us. The fact that we could get the first issue out with virtually no input needed from the client is testament to why we have become known as the rescue copywriter – able to get it done painlessly where no one else could.

We were also able to add value to an old client in the year with a small and simple job of conducting a monthly editing review of their internal newsletter and writing the opening address. This carries into 2023 and is one of our favourite projects.

Another old client approached us in the year to edit and lay out their scientific reports. We designed a template for this and have edited several further reports and laid them out to the same template. We enjoy being able to add value for the client with the surety that the reports are presented in accurate English for an international audience.

We also secured a retainer in 2022 with an IT services provider for ad-hoc editing and proofreading services as well as the research and writing of some of their whitepapers. This was following a recommendation from another client. That’s worked out well in the year and we’ve picked up a further retainer from them for 2023.

Annual reports have always been a favourite type of project for us and we love to get involved right at the beginning stage, providing copy for the theme to help tie it all together and ensure the theme flows through the report from cover to cover. In 2022, we got to work on a short report for a property developer and they’ve engaged us for the next year’s report as well.

One book editing assignment we took on in the year proved to be an interesting project. Instead of the usual remote editing, this one involved several meetings with the client and his team, including group read-throughs for input from all parties involved. It was great to see the book published and it’s getting good reviews. We will start 2023 working on ideas for the client’s next book project.

Some short ad-hoc projects in the year included some EDM copywriting. Projects that spring to mind included one for a pharmaceutical company promoting their upcoming conference and another series of EDMs and landing pages for a packaging company. The latter gives incredibly clear briefs and are crystal clear on their USPs so it makes writing for them a breeze.

A year in Proof Perfect wouldn’t be normal without a few government websites to revamp and some blog posts to write. We took on several projects in the year to rewrite copy of a range of government websites, simplifying the messages, shortening the texts and suggesting infographics where it made sense. We also secured a few blog package projects, notably one from a nutritionist who again has tried other writers but couldn’t get the same quality elsewhere.

One of our favourite projects of the year was the revamp of a website for an educational institution. To secure this project, we were asked, alongside other copywriting agencies, to present our version of two pages of the existing website, following the client’s new brief. For us, this is the best way to show what we can do, rather than producing past samples that may or may not address the client’s concerns or tick the boxes they are looking to check off in finding a copywriter. We presented our versions and won the project.

The client commented that our submission stood out for being both creative and straight to the point, and we had put more thought into every aspect of the page, not just the main text. Not a rescue project, but it could have been, had the client not taken this approach to assessing copywriters.

And this really brings me to one of the major realisations we had in the year as life adjusted after the pandemic – the market has changed and continues to do so, and we had to assess where we now fitted in, who we were best serving and where we could deliver the most value.

The role of Copywriter has now become a corporate position and most larger organisations now employ copywriters in-house as full-time paid employees. The demand for outsourced copywriting has declined as a result. There has also been an influx of copywriting agencies and freelance writers into the market, which poses a challenge for the companies still outsourcing their copywriting projects – how do they sort the wheat from the chaff?

In most instances, they can’t and this is why we at Proof Perfect have personally seen an increase in copywriting rescue projects arriving at our door. It’s also why we’ve experienced filtering processes by potential clients that are much more stringent than previously. Once burned, these organisations understandably don’t want to make another mistake hiring a writer.

But it’s still a gamble – especially when they don’t take the approach that the aforementioned educational institution did. We tend to secure projects when we are asked to provide a sample. It's proof that we really can do what we say we can do.

Adding to the lack of writing projects being outsourced is that even the smaller companies and SMEs are leaving the market, happy with the results of AI copywriting tools that can do the bulk of their copy for them. AI tools provide a great base to start creating ideas and low-level content. We see our value here in providing editing services to help make their pieces more cohesive and less robotic, and infusing the company’s brand voice.

Our founder, Ange Dove, has been spending the majority of 2022 exploring online coaching services for people wanting to start and run an online business they can operate from anywhere.

Through her research, she has also come to realise that companies now need training around copywriting and content writing to build the skills of their in-house teams and to help up-and-coming freelance copywriters to navigate the path to understanding their clients better and becoming copywriters that add value.

While we will continue to service clients with our copywriting and content writing services and to rescue projects from bad, ineffective copywriting, we’ll be turning our attention as much to running training courses for copywriters.

Ange’s mission when she founded Proof Perfect 20 years ago was to improve communications one business at a time. Today her mission is to empower upcoming copywriters to service their clients so that they too can improve communications one business at a time.

Ask about our copywriting courses and programmes.