Spotlight on: Stephen Church

Stephen Church is the owner of Copywriter Pro – he is an SEO copywriter, which means he gets businesses more and better clients by writing words for their websites, which are clear, concise, and compelling. As well as websites, he can turn his hand to sales letters, emails, newsletter campaigns, press releases, case studies, white papers, tender documents,…anything where words are involved. More recently he has launched the “Fire That Copywriter” online course.

How did you end up being a copywriter? What's your business journey?

Well, that's a dangerous question to ask because I tend to bang on and on! I've got about sixty years to tell you about. I loved English at school and did quite well at it. My first job was an English language teacher working overseas. I worked in exotic locations such as Spain, Iran, and Afghanistan. I was there 50 years ago. I always loved English. I love the way it works. I love the way words move people, how words affect how people think and how they act. Then I took a brief break from words and language - about a 30 year break actually, where I joined the family retail business in Northampton. That had been going for nearly 150 years. And in many ways, it was great fun. We sold china, crystal, cookware and collectibles. We had six shops at one point and it was successful for a good number of years. Then, for all kinds of reasons, the business just declined. It was a 15 year long, slow, painful decline where the High Street became less and less of a destination to go for the category we were in. It became less and less popular for all kinds of reasons, the business very slowly and painfully dried up. This bit does link to copywriting. We were ahead of the game in some ways. We had a website as early as 1996, which is pretty early - I think it was probably clockwork driven! It was so interesting. I got interested in the internet, and I got interested in the power of the internet and writing words. In 2005, we set up our very first e-commerce site. Proper online shopping, and we called it the UK Gift Company. That was something I set up myself and again, words and copywriting became more and more important,and also knowledge of search engine optimization, and Google AdWords. This was all a fascinating learning curve for me. But sadly, the greatsuccesses we had online weren'tsufficient to save the business. So, in early 2012 it packed up. It was verydistressing. But I thought this was a chance to do something I'd always hankered after doing and that was to work with words. So I set up Copywriter Pro in 2013 and it's been a fantastic journey. I've loved almost every minute of it. Probably because I'm extremely fortunate. I've had a very cushy, middle-class upbringing with everything on a plate, including the family business. I've always admired people who haven't had the privileged start to life that I've had, and I've admired how so many of them have got on by themselves,set up in business by themselves and made a success of it by themselves. Copywriter Pro has given me the opportunity to do the same kind of thing and I feel very fortunate that it has been a success. I'm busier than I ever thought was possible.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What's your what's your motivator?

A lot of people begin when they answer that question, they say: “My why is that I want to help people dot, dot, dot.” I think I might be

disingenuous, if I were to use that as a reason. Helping people is nice and, if it works, is nice for them too. It makes me feel good. That's a nice,healthy by-product. When I get up in the morning, I do rub my hands with glee and say, “Oh yes - another day of copywriting. What's it going to be today?” My why is certainly to be useful to businesses and individuals. My why is to give me something to do because I'm way too young to even consider retirement. My why is to be productive and enjoy life;making use of a skill that I believe I have. I am determined to enjoy life and I do enjoy it. I love so many aspects of copywriting, I wish I'd done it for 50 years and not just nine.

What makes you different from your competitors? Why do you stand out?

This is one of many bits where I feel quite uncomfortable because it's important not to come across as arrogant. A lot of people, and I hear about all the time, talk about going into copywriting. I've actually helped one or two of them. A lot of them are newspaper journalists who are out of work. A lot of people I've spoken to are very young - they come straight out of college or university, may be having done a journalism course,only to find out there are not many jobs any more. So they think, “Oh, I’ll become a copywriter.” It's something that's very difficult to do without lots a lot of training. I think the best copywriters are probably fairly elderly. Or if they're not, then they've spent a lifetime reading. I'm convinced of the fact that the best way to write well, is to read well, and to read plenty. I spent a lifetime of doing exactly that. I think that gives me a massive breadth of experience and a great feel for the language and a lot of it has to do with this field. You've heard me quote this lots of times the late great poet, activist, actress, Maya Angelou very famously said, “People may forget what you said, they may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

This to me is my copywriting mantra. My job as a copywriter is to make the reader feel that they want to click here or make a phone call there or send an email inquiry there. It's all about using words to make people feel. And I believe it's very difficult to do this, unless you're very well read. I'm sure there have been all kinds of people who disagree with this and they're welcome to and they may be right. There will of course be exceptions. You cannot get a feel for language, you cannot learn to use language without exposing yourself to it in as many ways as possible. That means to have lots of reading, not just business books, but fiction and biographies.

Why would I need a copywriter? I can write English. I think the biggest challenge for copywriters is convincing the world that there's a need for copywriters. I think this probably applies to copywriting more than any other profession or trade you can think of. So many people think they can do it. They've got good reason to think so because everybody, and by everybody, I mean 100% of the able-minded, native English speaking world, did English at school. A lot of people were very good at it. A lot of people enjoyed English. A lot of people had a lot of affection for their English teacher. And they've gone on to get good qualifications: GCSEs, A-Levels, degrees and beyond. Because they were good at it, and because they liked it, they think that they can write good copy. I've yet to come across an English GCSE or A-level coursework, that has effective business copywriting as part of that course. There's a world of difference between studying literature, studying language, and writing words, that work for business writing words that will change people's minds. This is the problem that copywriters have.

They think that if they need a bit of writing doing, whether it's a sales letter or a LinkedIn profile or a web page, they think: “Well, I did well in school, I can do this perfectly well myself.” With copywriting versus plumbing, it's not so straightforward to see the end job. I could hopefully write wonderful web copy that is really engaging but it'll take time to make an impact. It's not overnight for the effect of that to be seen. If you're diligent, you know your way around Google Analytics, you can find out whether the degree of engagement has improved as a result of that. But the results of the work for copywriting are often difficult to assess. It can be purely subjective. So the biggest challenge for copywriters is convincing the whole world out there that they have a role to play.

What would you say has been your biggest business challenge? I suppose my biggest challenge was the one we have lost sleep over from very beginning and have periodically since and it's a challenge that I should think almost everybody who steps into the big bad world of freelancing. It's a challenge that almost everybody has to overcome. And that is: how am I going to get customers? And the other is “I'm not good enough”. That dreaded Imposter Syndrome which I’ve suffered from for years and years; certainly since I set up as a copywriter. You know: “how can anybody take me on as a copywriter when I was a shopkeeper for 30 years?” I've never done a marketing qualification. I've got no qualifications whatsoever. I'm entirely self-taught. Why should anybody take me on? But they do take me on. They take me on because of word of mouth. I do lots of networking. I've got a website, which is effective. I'm very active on LinkedIn. People do take me on and they seem to like what I do, I'm lucky enough to have over 50 gold star reviews on Google My Business and over 50 positive recommendations on LinkedIn.

Given your experience as a small business owner, what would that top tip be?

Don't leave it too long to outsource. We all know that starting up a business is incredibly hard work. You have to burn the midnight oil. If you don't have any capital, you often have to do everything yourself. The problem you have is that as success builds you can make the mistake of thinking I'm becoming successful because I'm working all these hours. You have to have a work life balance. When you start to outsource you make sure that you give yourself time to focus on what you're best at in your business and to focus on proper everyday life as well. And the best way to outsource is to go networking!