When I mention branding, you likely think of a logo, a color scheme, a general ‘look and feel’ for printed and online materials. Creating these designs often requires a specialist who is trained not only in branding techniques, but in visual design and the software available to implement these ideas. Writing, on the other hand, doesn’t always get such special treatment. Why? Because many businesses view writing as something that everyone can do, so why pay someone else to do it?

While it is true that everyone can write, this doesn’t mean that everyone should. This may sound a bit harsh, but let’s look at some reasons why it’s a good idea to entrust a professional copywriter with your printed and web collateral:

1. Allow executives and management to focus their attention on the areas for which they are most qualified. It can be tempting to want to do everything yourself, but if you are a CEO or other high level executive, you need to be able to dedicate your attention to what you do best – strategic planning, management, and keeping the company running smoothly. Entrusting the responsibility of conveying your company vision through writing to a trained professional gives you that much less to think about and that much more room to dedicate yourself to what’s most important in your position.
2. Clarify your company vision. When we build something from scratch, we feel a great sense of accomplishment and are very emotionally connected to our work, whether it’s creating a piece of artwork or boostrapping a startup technology firm. Often times, being so connected emotionally can actually clog the communication lines between you and your potential customers. Hiring a professional writer brings a fresh pair of eyes to your message, with the knowledge of how to get your message across in a clear, concise way.

1. Find your company ‘voice’. If you go to a prestigious law firm’s website, you don’t expect to be greeted with a writing style that you would find in a consumer women’s magazine. There is very good reason for this, because a writer has studied the company’s target audience and created copy that will most appeal to readers. Having an appropriate ‘voice’ to your writing is a key component of your brand. If you have highly technical writing on one page of your website and conversational, casual writing on another, it creates inconsistency with the image you are trying to portray to your customers.

1. Increase your sales potential. Just as you need images and design elements to strengthen a website or brochure, you need the text to balance them. A professional writer will know what parts of your brand to accentuate, and how to incite readers to perform a call to action, thereby strengthening your business’ reputation and putting money in your pocket. A simple sales letter or optimized landing page could mean exponential profits.

1. Reach out to your target audience directly. A writer’s work doesn’t stop at the last sentence on a webpage or brochure. Writers are trained in conveying your ideas clearly in a voice which reflects the brand of your company. You can also employ a writer to reach out to your customers beyond a sales letter or landing page through social media and other outreach programs. Create online discussions in forums or network with bloggers through comments and emails. Depending on the writer you hire, his or her skills may encompass important business benefits like search engine optimization, social media outreach and marketing.

For every business writing need, there is a highly qualified writer out there ready to help you achieve success. So the next time you find yourself saying, “I’ll just do it!”, (unless you, yourself are a copywriter!) remember these five benefits to your business and consider reaching out to a professional.

Hi, everyone! My name’s Lesley DeSantis and I’m a new staff writer here at Radar Media. I met with Paul last week to talk about the big, powerful world of blogging, and now I’m here to bring you Internet Marketing tips, news, even some in-depth spotlights on some of our favorite people—our customers. I’m also excited to tell you that I’m not alone in this venture—all Radar employees will be posting to bring you a well-rounded range of topics and access to the wonderfully creative minds behind this business. In this blog, we will be focusing on a variety of business and marketing topics, from Web and UI design to copywriting and corporate blogging itself, and we encourage you to leave comments, ask us questions, and get involved.

Blogging has truly come a long way since its earliest roots with IT gurus. Thankfully, geekery is no longer a prerequisite to learning how to set up and keep a blog, though it can certainly help. I, like many of you, used to think that blogging was nothing more than an ‘online journal’ of sorts, filled to the brim with the dynamic tales of what people eat for lunch, how cute their cat is, or brooding high school poetry about that ever-elusive crush ::sigh::.

While there is plenty of that, I can assure you, there is also an entirely different side of blogging which many business owners and professionals are taking notice of. People have realized that personal blogging is a great way to keep up with friends, make new ones, and it can be their little personal soap box to the world (which could very quickly gain more friends,…or enemies). Businesses have realized that if their customers are doing this to make friends and stir things up, they can very likely use it to find new customers or to network with others in their industry. Now many professionals and businesses are enjoying great success through blogging, like marketing guru Seth Godin, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, and problogger.net’s Darren Rowse.

You can find a blog now on just about any topic you can imagine. From politics, to Perez Hilton, to, I don’t know, potatoes? (yes, apparently), chances are if you’re interested in it, there’s a blog about it. While I can’t promise to keep you updated about our new presidency, what shoes Lindsay Lohan was wearing to that party the other night, or the best mashed potato recipe you ever laid eyes on (ok, maybe for Thanksgiving), I can bring you some information to help your business, and hopefully make it fun in the process!

I welcome your comments, potato recipe inquiries included, and I look forward to being a part of the Radar Media team as we move ahead with the blog. If your business hasn’t jumped into social media yet, it’s never too late. I wholeheartedly encourage you to reach out and hold on tight. It can be daunting at first, but it just might pay off. Even if you don’t triple your customer base in the first month, you can dramatically improve your search engine rankings, drive traffic to your website, increase your ‘link love’, and you just might make some new friends. And wasn’t that originally what blogging was all about?

It was a long time coming. I hate to think about the last time we redesigned the Radar Media site. It was in the distant past, and oh so many clients and web projects ago. That’s what happens when you get busy for long stretches of time. Customers demand a piece of every waking moment. Actually, come to think of it, we are very glad they do.

It was a team effort, and everything we’ve learned about designing, writing for, and producing websites was poured into this piece of work. We hope it shows. The new site went live this Saturday morning (there we go, working weekends again) and finally we have our own site that is every bit as good as what we produce for our clients.

The new site design is everything the old site wasn’t. The old site was dark and (at least we thought so at the time) dramatic–like a Batman movie or a play be Samuel Beckett. The new site is clean, bright and not lacking in open space. We think it’s easier on the eyes and more likely to invite readers to stay awhile.

The overriding vision for the site was to focus on the work. We figured anyone who would take the time to check us out would have two overriding concerns. One, to see what we do. And the other to see who we do it for. So after lots of creative briefs and prototypes we came up with a simple way for people to browse our work by client or project type.

Another goal for the site was to foster more of a two-say dialogue with readers. In Web 2.0 parlance, I guess that means we’re talking about a community. We now have what we think is the beginning of one in this Radar Resources blog. If all goes according to plan, the blog will develop into a freewheeling, open-ended, fun and frothy discussion about anything and everything that has something to do with the web, interactive marketing, or Internet technology. And oh, it’s perfectly fine to weave in a few other tangents that may be of interest.

Finally, we’re excited about the web platform we’ve chosen. The new site is entirely “database driven”–meaning it’s not just a collection of static web files–and it’s much easier and faster to update than before. That means we have no excuse but to keep the content fresher. Working behind the scenes is a new content management system, or CMS, that enables anyone with a web browser to update the content. Last count that was about two billion people.

I am very proud of the team. We worked off and on, with full project loads, since July to put this together. Thanks for visiting, and do come back, you hear?