How To Find and Hire a Great Copy Editor for Your Content
If your business is currently creating content, it’s important to make sure you have everyone you need for your content marketing team. That includes writers, as well as effective copy editors. Copy editors fill a crucial role in your content team that ensures your blogs and articles have a cohesive voice and have more of an effect on your target audience. But finding the right one for your marketing campaign isn’t always easy.
Why Are Copy Editors Important?
Imag via Unsplash by @craftedbygc
Copy editors not only help with proofreading content, they also make sure it’s factually accurate. They go through every article, blog, and eBook to make sure all statistics and information come from reputable, relevant sources. This helps to improve reader satisfaction, which can lead to strong relationships, and an eventual boost in your conversion rate.
Copy editors and content creation are the first dominoes to fall in a row of marketing strategies that all lead to helping your company succeed. That’s why it’s so crucial to know the best way to find and hire a copy editor for your marketing campaign.
How To Hire a Copy Editor for Your Marketing Campaign
Here is a list of steps to help you hire a copy editor for your marketing efforts:
1. Understand Their Writing Ability
Though copy editors will, of course, use their editing services more than their writing services, knowing how to write good copy and content is a major plus. That’s because they need to understand how the blogs and articles they read flow and if they’re comprehensible to their target audience. It’s also helpful for copy editors to have experience writing in someone else’s tone. That’s because businesses often create style guides that their content creators follow to make sure all written content has one cohesive voice.
This cohesive voice provides a better experience for the brand’s readers and helps them feel like the brand is an organized authority in its industry. Essentially, if a business posts wildly inconsistent content, people won’t take them seriously. You want a copy editor who understands how to emulate your brand voice and style. This can help you keep the consistency that boosts brand reputation and increases audience engagement.
2. Ask About SEO Experience
Though the responsibility of search engine optimization (SEO) might fall on someone else’s shoulders, it’s always helpful for your entire content production team to have at least a little SEO experience. Knowing how to format content, how to make it more readable, and the best way to structure anchor text are just a few things copy editors need to understand before joining your marketing campaign. Having a basic knowledge of SEO can help your editors catch errors or mistakes that might lower your overall search engine ranking.
3. Talk With Their References
Before hiring a copy editor, it’s helpful to know how they work with other creatives, especially if they’re joining a content marketing team. Copy editors need to work with other writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists to create an efficient content production workflow.
Ask them for references and see what their previous work experience looks like. What do their references have to say about their teamwork skills? Did they have any workplace conflicts? Did they find it hard to work with other writers or editors? Learn about any potential team challenges before hiring.
Related: How To Find a Content Writer for Your Marketing Needs
4. Send Out Test Pieces
Sending out test pieces to potential copy editing candidates can help you understand their editing process and workflow. It can also help you see if the editor can work with your brand’s tone and style. Start by giving them a recent piece of written content along with your brand’s current style guide. Then tell them to read through the style guide and apply its information to their editing process.
Even if they’ve worked with a style guide before, it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be able to work with your brand’s unique voice. That’s why it’s helpful to look over their test piece and see how they do. If they’re close to your brand’s voice, but not perfect, see if they’d be willing to make revisions. If they didn’t seem to understand the style guide at all, it might be good to keep looking for candidates.
5. Know How Copy Editors Fit Into Your Campaign
If your business is performing any type of content creation, it’s important to have a copy editor. Copy editors act as style editors, fact-checkers, and proofreaders. But they’re not the only thing that leads to a successful content marketing campaign. You also need, writers, quality assurance specialists, and content or project managers to ensure your production workflow is effective and efficient. Without a dedicated content team, your copy editor might not be as useful as you think.
At CopyPress, we have a team of vetted writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists who know how to develop content for any brand, no matter the niche. We have content writing experts who help your business develop a style guide that our writers follow to ensure your brand has a consistent tone and voice. We then use that style guide to create compelling content that’s sure to attract your target audience.
When you work with us, you won’t have to find individual writers or editors for your team. We do that for you. Schedule a free strategy call with us today to see how we can start boosting your content marketing campaign and improving your overall online presence.
CopyPress writer
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