When someone is interested in working with you, your content is often the first interaction they have with your business. Typos, awkward phrasing, grammatical errors and inconsistencies can make your business seem unprofessional and worse, untrustworthy. Also, nowadays the average prospect can spot copy written by Chat GPT from a mile away. Your business could benefit from hiring a copy editor to ensure your first impression is polished and professional.

10 Benefits of Hiring a Copy Editor

  1. Create a strong first impression – Someone’s first impression of your business extends beyond the colors and images on your website. Prospective clients are looking for message clarity, consistently updated, relevant and timely content and a human factor that lets them know that someone took the time to write messages that resonate with where they are in their buying journey. A copy editor approaches your content holistically to ensure that someone’s first impression is engaged and interested in learning more.
  2. Avoid embarrassing mistakes – Even if you feel your writing is strong, having a copy editor on your team means mistakes are corrected before they go public. One small typo might get a pass but multiple typos can be costly, especially when someone is considering making a purchase.
  3. Maintain brand credibility – Well-edited content helps build your credibility by demonstrating attention to detail and care that goes into every piece. People are more likely to trust, engage (hear: binge) and share copy that is error-free. There’s comfort in knowing they can read your copy straight through without having to anticipate errors. Additionally, a copy editor will help you align your copy with Google’s E-E-A-T requirements, which further boost your credibility.
  4. Improve readability and clarity – Even well-written content can be hard to follow if it’s wordy, overly complex, full of jargon or poorly formatted. A copy editor helps refine your writing so that it’s clear, concise and engaging all while keeping your tone and personality at the center of each piece. Also, the editor will format your text to make it visually appealing – this could mean breaking up large blocks of text with bulleted lists, adding images in long-form blog posts and using different fonts to emphasize words or phrases.
  5. Ensure consistency in tone – Your audience may get confused if different pieces of your content have varying tones, formatting or terminology. For example, if you take a softer tone in one piece and deliver a harsh “tough love” approach in another, readers may not know where you stand on the matter. Additionally, if you have one article that is heavily scientific while others in that same category are full of personal anecdotes, the reader may not understand your viewpoint. A copy editor ensures your brand voice remains consistent across all pieces.
  6. Save time and resources – Editing well is time-consuming. If you’re constantly fixing mistakes, rewriting large passages or starting articles over from scratch, it takes away from your core business responsibilities. A copy editor streamlines the process, allowing you and your team to focus on strategy and execution.
  7. Enhance your SEO strategy – A copy editor takes your content beyond keywords and ensures that it’s well-organized, free of blurry language and easy to scan. This level of editing improves your search rankings, keeping readers engaged and the algorithm happy, too.
  8. Catch plagiarism and inconsistencies – Accidental plagiarism or inconsistencies in factual information can harm your reputation, especially when you’re in violation of E-E-A-T. A copy editor fact-checks and ensures all content is original, accurate, and aligned with your brand’s standards.
  9. Future-proof your content – Unlike social media posts which depreciate quickly, blog articles, web pages, and email sequences have long-term value. Professionally edited content remains useful, relevant, and high-quality over time with the support of a copy editor making regular updates.
  10. Approach your work holistically – As your copy editor gets to know more about you and your work, they may be able to advise the direction of future articles and digital assets. This is not within every editor’s scope, however, many editors quickly gain an understanding of the goal of the content shared and can offer suggestions on how you can create an ecosystem of content, versus publishing individual articles.

Many businesses invest in content creation but overlook the importance of editing. However, churning out new content should never take the place of publishing quality pieces across all platforms. Polished, professional content is a necessity for brand visibility and growth – hiring a copy editor is a worthy investment.

Ready to refine your content strategy with professional editing? Let’s chat!