While I’m an artist and fiction writer at heart, I am also open to providing my writing and creative services on a freelance basis. It all depends on the project, what it’s all about, and what you and/or your company is all about. Email me at brentatkinsonfreelance@gmail.com with questions/ideas/random thoughts.

Services

What is copywriting?

With a quick Google search, you will find that copywriting is defined as: The activity or occupation of writing the text of advertisements or publicity material.

That about clears it up, right?…

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

While copywriting may seem a little mysterious, which causes clients to question whether they should invest in it, it’s really quite simple, and the mission is clear:

You pay a copywriter to write copy that moves potential customers into your sales funnel. Leading to leads, conversions, and eventually, handshakes, smiles, and sales.

All of my copy is written with SEO in mind. This is a big one. More on that later.

Here are some of the most common, and effective forms of copy:

Blogs

In today’s day and age, most successful companies have some type of online presence. If you want customers to consider your company an authority in a given industry, a consistent, interesting, and helpful blog is essential.

The 21st century consumer believes in the concept of purchasing power. They don’t trust old school advertising tactics anymore, and why should they? Advertising companies have engaged in unethical practices for decades in order to swindle people out of their hard earned cash.

Today, consumers want to know that the product they’re buying, or the company they’re working with, actually knows what they’re talking about. They want to make sure they’re spending their hard earned money where they will get the best value.

That’s where a consistently produced blog will establish your company as an intelligent and confident authority in your industry. Not only does good blog writing create a personal bond with the reader, but it shows that your company not only talks the talk, but that you walk the walk, and are willing to share your knowledge with your customers in order to provide them the most value for their business.

Website Copy

Websites are another staple of modern day companies, and depending on the industry, can truly make or break your business. Before a customer buys your product, they want to get to know your business first. As I mentioned above, people want to do business with someone they can trust.

High quality website copy is vital to presenting the image that you want for your company. From the Home page, to the Blog page, to the About page and more, high quality, SEO-based copy is a must.

SEO

Okay, okay, I told you I’d get to SEO, so I’d better get to it. Here it is: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is what I like to call Google medicine.

It might sound a little fancy or confusing, but trust me, it’s not that complicated. Simply put, SEO is employing tactics to boost your standings in Google.

No one knows exactly how Google rankings work, but there are some tried and true SEO techniques that a good copywriter can employ. This is through keyword use, formatting, article length, and quality. These things can be applied to just about any form of copy, from blogs, to website copy, and more.

Here’s an example, you’re a Montana fly-fishing company, and you tie the best flies in Bozeman. Your customer is a tech dude from California. He’s in his mid 30’s, has more money than he knows what to do with, and he’s decided he wants to learn to fly fish.

He Googles “best fly fishing on the west coast”. Naturally, the Madison River comes up at or near the top of the list, and he decides to take a two week vacation in Bozeman. He gets to Bozeman, and, like a true millennial, whips out his cell phone and types “best fly shop near me”.

This is the pivotal moment for your company.

You want to be in the top three or four results. Otherwise, it’s game over, they’re buying from someone else. I could talk about some research about people’s Google behavior, but this is a pretty obvious one (if you are interested in this research let me know, I can send you a whole laundry list of links to studies).

Let me just ask you one question: When is the last time you actually clicked into the second, God forbid the third, page of a Google search?

I’ll wait…

This California tech dude is going to end up choosing between the first few shops that pop up in his Google search. He will, however, check out these first few shops’ websites, read some reviews if available, and likely, take a peek at their blogs.

Fly fishing is a complex sport, at least when first learning, and he wants to be sure that wherever he goes, he can expect the staff to have a high level of knowledge not only about the products, but the art of fly fishing itself.

An active and informative blog, written with SEO in mind, will achieve both the desired sense of expertise, as well as another tool in moving your fly fishing shop up in Google’s rankings.

Hire a professional, like me, to make sure your website copy is doing the most for you through the use of SEO as well, and you will fly to the top of Google rankings.

Copyediting

This one isn’t quite as sexy as the others, but is just as important for many companies. A good copyeditor, with real editing experience like myself, can proofread and edit just about anything, including policy paperwork, contracts, white papers, and more.

College students: as someone with one Master’s degree already and a second on the way, I am quite familiar with academic writing. Need your thesis or some project proofread or edited? I’m your guy.

While I do mostly work in the outdoor industry, I frequently accept work outside of that industry as well, particularly when it comes to copyediting. Feel free to reach out if you think I might be able to help.

Other Services

I’ll list a few other of my services here briefly that I won’t go into detail on right now. Here they are:

• Sales Pages Copy
• White Papers
• Advertising Copy
• E-Books
• E-Mail

If you want more information on any of these services, again, do not be afraid to reach out at brentatkinsonfreelance@gmail.com.