The majority (60%) of marketers and content creators say one of their biggest digital copywriting challenges is that "people just don't get what good copy is," according to a recent report by Sticky Content, an agency based in the United Kingdom.
Among other challenges to creating good digital copy are the following: too much to do/not enough people (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%).
Below, additional key findings from the report, The State of Digital Copywriting, which was based on a survey of 365 marketers, copywriters, content editors, content strategists, and consultants, the majority of whom are based in the UK.
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.
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.
Measurement
- 56% of respondents measure the effectiveness of copy by by unique visits or pageviews.
- 48% measure effectiveness by looking at conversions.
- 20% aren't measuring the effectiveness of their copy at all.
About the research: The report was based on a survey of 365 respondents, the majority of whom are based in the United Kingdom. The largest number of respondents are marketers (20.7%), followed copywriters (10.6%), content editors (9.8%), consultants (3.9%), and content strategists (3.6%).
