Case Study: Ad Agencies and Web Developers

Posted on 09/04/2024 by Karen

If you're a fan of TV series Gruen or the fabulous Madmen, you may be tempted to think that every advertising agency has a row of copywriters in-house, typing away furiously. The fact is, there are many small advertising agencies around who don't employ full-time copywriters in-house because they only need them from time to time.

So who does the writing at the agency?

It could be the creative director, who is often copy-based, or the agency may rely on outsourcing the copywriting to freelance writers. When choosing a freelancer for a particular project, the ideal situation is to allocate the work to the writer best suited to the project. This could be because of the copywriter's experience, their expertise and/or their writing style.

Once a writer is up to speed with writing for a particular client, the ideal situation is to have them write the copy for that client ongoingly. And the best way to make sure that writer is available and not busy with other freelance work is to book them and have them come in-house on a regular basis, to work with the in-house team.

Over the years, I have worked for a number of Adelaide's smaller advertising agencies including THEM, MOF and Martins. Going in-house to work on projects for clients including Jag Kitchens, Stockland, Passenger Transport Board, Career One, Boral, Excel, HomeStart, HeartCheck and more.

Web developers don't usually write web content

I would love to have a dollar for every time I've explained to a grumpy small business owner that no, it is not the job of the web developer to write their web copy. The web developer's job is to build the website.

Now, it's true that some web developers are good at writing but the majority are not, and they are relying on their client to provide the words for their website. I have spoken to more than one developer who has been waiting for over a year! to get information from a client. Information I could help them get.

An in-house writer could make life a lot easier

If you have an ad agency, a marketing agency or you're a web developer, and you need regular help with writing copy for clients, please give me a call and let's chat. Maybe me coming in once a week or even once a fortnight would be helpful — to write some web content or fine-tune the content you may already have pulled teeth to get.