With the rapid growth of online testing, it is becoming more and more apparent that the words on our websites make a huge difference to all the metrics we value most, the foremost of those metrics being the revenue we generate.
With the words on our web pages being so important, it's not surprising that managers are taking a closer look at the talents and performance of their copywriters, whether they are in-house or freelancers.
Nor is it surprising that those managers have to make some tough decisions about which copywriters to keep, and which to let go.
During the course of preparing this article, I sent an email to more than 15,000 copywriters and marketers and asked for their feedback.
Based on that feedback, I have divided what follows into three parts.
The first will address the most common reasons to fire a copywriter. The second part will look at ways to minimize the risk of firing a perfectly good copywriter. And the third part will look at an area that desperately needs addressing industry-wide: formal training for online copywriters.
There are four main reasons that companies lose patience with the copywriters they either employ or hire on a freelance basis.
1) When copywriters don't deliver on time
When you have schedules to meet and other members of the team depend on the copywriter delivering his or her work in a timely manner, failing to meet deadlines can be a deal breaker.
As one publisher puts it:
"A copywriter who says, 'I underestimated the amount of time required to perform this job and it looks like I'm going to need another week to complete it,' is usually OK -- if that call is early in the process. If that call comes the morning the project is due, that's unacceptable. That's when you begin looking for another copywriter because you know you can't rely on him/her, and all you want is to get that project in your hands so you can move on."
In other words, if the copywriter behaves in a professional manner and gives advance warning of delays, and good reasons for them, that's OK. But to simply announce that the work won't be completed, at the last moment, is unacceptable.
Maybe a good copywriter can get away with this kind of mistake a couple of times, but not more than that.
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