When I moved my copywriting business from Miami to Austin, I decided it was time to rebrand. I didn’t think my current brand showed enough personality. I thought, if I’m not clear about my business identity, how am I going to attract clients who are a good fit?

Less than a month after I arrived in Austin I relaunched as Inky Clean. I didn’t worry about the fact that my brand was kinda quirky, nerdy and even a bit cute. I enjoy writing for businesses that can appreciate these qualities, in their copywriting or in general. Shouldn’t my brand speak to this audience instead of trying to reach out to a faceless mass?

Turns out, I’d landed in just the kind of town that could appreciate quirky. In case you haven’t heard it before, “Keep Austin Weird” is the slogan adapted by the Austin Independent Business Alliance to promote small businesses. It was coined as the result of an offhand remark by a librarian calling a local radio station, then caused some controversy once it was trademarked by a company that printed shirts with the phrase.

The slogan is all over the Austin area: t-shirts, bumper stickers…and probably tattooed on a die-hard Austinite or two.

But in the short few months I’ve lived here, it’s become apparent that “Keep Austin Weird” is much more than a slogan. It’s a way of life around here, and a great way to do business and approach copywriting.

Austinites protect their mom and pop shops and their trailer eateries and independent bookstores because they know that this “weirdness” is what gives the city its character and charm. (Not to mention that keeping it weird stimulates the local economy). They don’t want Austin to turn into just another city, where all the coffeeshops are Starbucks and all the bookstores are a Barnes & Noble.

You could say they’re trying to preserve who they are. What they stand for. Their uniqueness. Their brand.

Shouldn’t all businesses, large or small, be doing the same?

That’s why copywriting is so important. The words on a business’s marketing materials make up their voice; they determine how readers will hear them in their minds. What you say and how you say it is just as important as how you look. If you’re going to make an impression, shouldn’t you make one that’s a real reflection of you, what you stand for, and what makes you different?

Shouldn’t you build your true brand?

Maybe your brand isn’t weird, like Austin’s is. That’s okay. “Weird” isn’t so much about being weird as it is about embracing what makes us all different. And when a business does that, they stand a much better chance of attracting the right people.

That must be how I ended up in Austin. The weirdness was calling to me.

What about you? In what ways are you keeping your business “weird” and embracing its unique qualities?

There’s a point when every business goes from DIAY (Do It ALL Yourself) to Do What You Do Best and Get Help for the Rest of It (let’s not bother with the acronym for that one). This is actually a great thing. It means your business is growing and it’s working. But it can also be a scary thing for many business owners because it means you’ll have to trust others to help you keep the momentum going.

Oftentimes clients who’ve done their own writing for their website and marketing materials don’t know what to expect when they hand the job over to someone new. But I find they’re always pleasantly surprised not just by the finished product, but the entire process of working with a copywriter. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It all starts with you and your needs–A writer, like any other artist, has a vision for their work. But as a copywriter, I’m not writing for me. I’m writing for my clients. I’m bringing out their voice and speaking to their audience. Before I write anything for a project I take the time to talk to the client and get to know their company, their audience, and what message they’re trying to get across. The writing should never lose focus of these factors.

2. The client is still in control–Maybe you’ve gotten used to being the one in the driver’s seat, but wouldn’t it be nice to just tell someone where you want to go while relaxing in the passenger’s seat? When I work with a client, the direction I take is always determined by their needs. What’s the end goal for the copy? That’s where I’m headed. But the beauty of hiring someone else to get you there is that I might know some different routes. I might take a whole new approach to selling your product that’s fresh, invigorating, and more importantly, speaks to your audience.

3. Nothing is set in stone–If the first draft I send you just completely misses the mark, (which, to be honest, has never happened) that’s what revisions are for. I always include revisions in my fee because the most important part of the writing process is the shaping, and the molding, and the tweaking to get it just right. The client should have input because they’re the ones who need to be happy with the end result. Of course as the writer, I’ll have input as well (because isn’t that what you hired a writer for?). The key is to keep that line of communication open so that the work evolves in the best way possible.

Having majored in Creative Writing in college, one of the things that always stuck with me was the way my professors talked about voice–probably because most admitted it’s the one thing you can’t teach. It’s something a writer develops on her own, and you may not know how you get it, where you get it from, or even when you finally have it. You just write a whole lot and then one day you realize you have a style, a voice, that’s truly your own.

Funny thing is, with copywriting, that voice is still so important. Only it’s not about me anymore. It doesn’t matter what my voice is (the voice I use when I write this blog, or poetry, or fiction) because great copywriters listen to their client’s voice and bring it out in their writing. Each company has a unique personality, a unique set of values and a mission that’s going to align them with their audience. Even if they’re not writers, the voice is still there because their brand is. It’s my job to use that brand to shape the tone and style I use in my writing.

Now the other funny thing is this: Not all companies realize they have this voice, and writers often need to search for it and pull it out. Or sometimes a company might be fairly new, so the challenge is to find the voice in the first place. In both cases they’re a lot like that young creative writer. Both need to look at themselves and find a way to stand out in a crowded world full of product launches and authors. Voice is so important because when it seems like everyone else is trying to say or sell the same thing, a distinct voice reminds us that this product, this company, this service, is different. This is one that gets us and that we can trust. This is one people remember.

Think of a crowded room where everyone’s yelling at you. Even if you’re able to hear a message amidst the chaos, will you know where it’s coming from? What if, in the middle of all of that, one person came up and leaned in to tell you something in a calm, collected manner, completely differently from everyone else? Would you remember them then?