12 Tips to Find the Right Copywriter or Content Person For Your Company

Finding the right copywriter or content person for your company is not an easy task. Or, so one may think. There is no shortage of copywriters, and good ones. Some copywriters excel in one or several fields, while others can be better in others. While it's true that a writer is a writer and can write anything under the right conditions, most copywriters and content persons will have a natural, instinctive affinity to a certain brand of writing: some are more creative, advertising/marketing oriented; others may prefer more deliberate, literary content, while yet others will turn to the technical field and handle technical content (to be fair, 'copywriter' is not a term usually associated with heavy, technical material). Here are a few tips to help you find the copywriter that's right for your purposes:

1. What kind of copywriter or content writer are you looking for? make sure you know what your company's needs are before looking, so you don't have to 'change the job description' over time.

2. Do not use scanning software: when you're looking for a creative person, such as a copywriter or content creator, they're pretty useless. Searching for copywriters or content people using 'keywords' won't get you very far. You may find someone who may 'technically' qualify, but practically won't be a good match. Save yourself time, money and headache.

3. Post the job in forums where the type of candidate you're looking for will likely see it (i.e., copywriters/writers groups).

4. Make sure the person first interviewing the candidate is the hiring professional, not someone from HR.

5. Focus on what they did, what they can do and other non-standard questions, such as: What inspires you to write? who is your favorite author? what is writing style? and not on mundane stuff like tell us more about yourself. You have all of that on the CV.

6. Experience: ask to see a portfolio, website or work samples in copywriting or content writing.

7. Enthusiasm: ask the candidate a simple question: why does he (or she) want this particular copywriting position?

8. Ask the candidate to perform a brief home test. And by brief, I mean a task that will take no more than two hours, max.

9. Never try and lowball a writer. They are just as valuable as programmers, designers, PR people, etc. It's their job to convey what you want to tell your customers in the most creative, effective manner.

10. If you believe the person is capable of doing the job, whether he or she have three years' experience or ten, hire them.

11. Give them time to grow: Found someone? congratulations! just don't expect him to start producing super-content right out of the gate: sometimes it takes a little while for the content creator to acclimate himself to the style and work ways of your product/brand/service.

12. Forget micromanagement: Copywriters know what they need to do, but if they're constantly interrupted, they'll never get to finishing the task. Let them do their job!