MarketingProfs Issues Report on the State of Digital Copywriting

Leading Marketing Hub, MarketingProfs, has issued an in-depth report detailing the challenges that marketers and content creators face when it comes to digital copywriting, Write House can reveal.

According to the report a high proportion (60%) of marketers and content creators state that a ‘lack of understanding about what good copy is’ represents the biggest challenge of digital copywriting.

Other challenges affecting the production of good digital copy include: work overload/lack of staff (55%), finding skilled writers (51%), meeting SEO requirements (44%), input from stakeholders (40%), lack of writing guidelines (37%), insufficient time to check copy (34%), and no copywriting training (31%).

Other key findings from the report, titled ‘The State of Digital Copywriting’, which was compiled following a survey of 365 marketers, copywriters, content editors, content strategists and consultants, predominantly based in the UK, revealed the following:

Copywriting Activity

• 74% of respondents check and proof copy before it goes live
• 58% use language and style guidelines
• Only 32% have a standard content structure format for their writing
• Just 19% train all their content creators in web writing

Source: Marketingprofs.com

Workflow

• 52% of respondents write copy on demand, in response to business needs
• Just 18% roll out copy according to a content plan, and only 9.8% always use a creative brief
• 43% have, on average, 1-2 stakeholders who need to sign off on a key piece of web copy, and 42% have 3-5 stakeholders
• 42% of time is spent creating content, and the rest is spent planning, delivering, and governing it

Source: Marketingprofs.com

Measurement

• 56% of respondents measure the effectiveness of copy by unique visits or page views
• 48% measure effectiveness by looking at conversions
• 20% aren't measuring the effectiveness of their copy at all

Source: Marketingprofs.com

Write House, Wolverhampton, understands that the majority of responses within the research came from marketers (20.7%), followed by copywriters (10.6%), content editors (9.8%), consultants (3.9%) and content strategists (3.6%).

Write House founder and copywriter, Daniel Waldron, commented: “The report gives copywriters and marketers valuable insight into the habits of copywriters and a glimpse into the state of digital copywriting as a whole. This information will enable the Write House copywriting service to improve its own standards therefore, the research is welcomed.”