To be honest, it's not that easy to find a good copywriter in Singapore these days. There are just so many applicants to choose from! How do you make the right selection?

If you are like many of my clients, you've already been burned by choosing the wrong copywriter first time, so now you are hesitant in making a choice. One of my clients likened it to finding a needle in a haystack.

Just because someone labels themselves a copywriter, it doesn't make it so. You hire someone who looks good on their website, or perhaps you make your decision based on the cheapest you can find. However you got there, you've now found that they just can't come up with what you want, and that's after you've personally trained them (that's a red flag in itself).

So let's look at the process of finding a reliable and effective copywriter in Singapore - the dos and don'ts - so you can increase your chances of making the right decision next time.

There are three questions I get asked over and over by prospective clients and all three tell me they are asking the wrong questions and going about hiring a copywriter the wrong way - and that's going to lead to disaster down the road. Plus, it already has me disqualifying them as a client I want to work with - it goes both ways and is ultimately about mutual respect.

Let's dig into what these questions are and why they aren't suitable in the beginning stages of looking for a reliable copywriter.

Question 1. How much do you charge?

This is the wrong question on a few levels.

Firstly, it shouldn't be the first question you ask.

You've already devalued the copywriter at the first point of contact by reducing their talent to a commodity, and that's not a great way to start a relationship. Yes, of course you need to know the investment to make for the services. It's an important question that has to be discussed at some point, but it shouldn't be your first question. If the copywriter isn't for you for other reasons, it doesn't matter how much they charge. So eliminate other objections from your list first. Once you've decided you'd like to go with them because of the obvious value you are going to get, the investment practically becomes irrelevant because you KNOW you are going to hire them anyway.

With little info to go on, you are going to get a worthless estimate

The second reason this question of price isn't appropriate in the initial stages is that it's a little bit like asking "How long is a piece of string?". Until the copywriter has a full brief and understands the scope of work within your project and the timelines, or unless you are purchasing a fixed service package, they are not going to be able to give you an accurate costing. You'll get a range of prices starting from something low and ending on the higher side, which really isn't informative.

Question 2. Have you written for our industry before?

Now, you've not only reduced the copywriter to a commodity, you've insulted their intelligence to boot!

Are you hiring an expert copywriter or an expert to write copy?

Firstly, the copywriter is, by definition of the job role, a copywriter. That means they get paid to write to market products and services with the goal of making a conversion. They are not a precision engineer, beauty expert, surgeon, chef, programmer, banker, bitcoin expert or whatever expert applies in your industry. If they were, they'd be doing that, not copywriting.

You are paying for what you can't do

You are not paying for their expert knowledge of your industry. You are the expert at that. You are paying for their expert knowledge of their profession, copywriting, and that's what you don't have knowledge in and hence why you are trying to hire a copywriter in the first place.

You could hire an expert but ...

Now, you can hire an engineer, if that's the expert you are looking for, and ask them to write the copy for you - if you want to run the risk of your target market not understanding your communication or not caring.

It's less stress in the long run to hire a professional copywriter

You'd have more success hiring a professional copywriter whose sole expertise is copywriting, providing the expert information about your industry, product or service they will need, and letting them come up with copy that works for the intended audience, who in most cases also aren't experts in your industry, and don't have to be.

Of course, if the copywriter has past experience writing for your industry, it will shorten the learning curve slightly, but honestly, with a good copywriter, it's not going to make much of a difference.

In addition, a copywriter who hasn't written for your industry before may come up with fresh ideas, working from a different perspective.

A professional copywriter's job is to learn your industry anyway

Going back to the point I made at the top of this section on insulting the copywriter's intelligence, by making experience in your industry a prerequisite, you are saying that you don't think they have the intelligence to be able to read and research around your product/service (which a good copywriter will spend 80% of the project time on anyway!). That's a pretty damning accusation to make.