How much does hiring a Copywriter cost in Singapore?

Copywriting is art. It’s not easy to write good copy. And good copy sells.

So who is the right type of copywriter to hire?

Now, you can find copywriters who can write grammatically correct sentences. They’ll use the right punctuation in the right places and there won’t be even the slightest mistake. But is that enough?

No, it isn’t.

In this day and age, goldfish and humans are the same. We have the shortest attention spans and your copy will need to be enticing enough. It needs to hold the user’s attention, it needs to guide them every step of the way, it needs them to take action.

So that’s how you gauge copywriters.

They write grammatically correct English.

They captivate you with their writing.

Now that you know that, let’s move to the next step. Whom to hire?

There are a kazillion options to choose from when it comes to hiring a copywriter.

Fiverr and Freelancer and Upwork

You can go to marketplaces such as Fiverr or Freelancer or Upwork and look for copywriters. But this is an arduous task, akin to climbing a mountain while smoking cigarettes.

That’s because you’d be lost in the smoke caused by the pitches and promises and you ultimately won’t know whom to hire.

But a cheap Fiverr gig can cost you $25 per page or can go up to $50 for 500 words.

At Fiverr, they work at scale. They are good at creating content very quickly, but the quality isn’t going to be too high.
Agencies and Individual Freelance Writers

When it comes to hiring a freelance writer, it’s best to go for an agency or an individual freelance writer.

Why?

Generally, their entire business is built on copywriting and they need to be really good to survive and make money. If they aren’t good, they won’t get projects.

Types of charges for a Local Singapore Copywriter

These companies charge in various ways. Let’s break this down.

Cost Per Word: Really high-quality writers charge by the word because a lot of times clients demand more than what they’ve paid for. Charging by the word does not shortchange the freelancer. If you think the agency or freelancer is really good and if you know the number of words you want to be written, this is a good payment option.

The work also starts immediately because of the fixed cost.

Cost Range: $0.50 cents to $1 a word

Cost Per Project: Depending on the number of pages you want to be written, agencies and freelancers charge based on the project. They understand the difficulty level, the expertise required and charge you an amount.

Cost Range : $1500 to $3000 for 5 webpages

Cost per Hour: There are a few companies who do charge by the hour. They charge by the hour because of the amount of research involved before the writing process. So if the copywriter needs to understand technical aspects and do a lot of research, they charge by the hour. So if your requirement is highly technical, you can go for a cost per hour model.

Cost Range: $30-50 / hour and above

Types of Content you are looking for

Not all content is the same. Technical writing is different from writing a product description. The cost of writing a content piece is entirely dependent on what you want to be written.

Website Copy

Website copy is one of the most important pieces of literature for a company. It should represent the brand and sell the vision of the company. Website copy is highly customised and there is quite some preparation time required by the writer.

Website copy ranges from $0.50 a word to around $3 a word. As website copy is a one-time investment, it makes sense to pay a premium for a good writer.

Content Marketing Copy

Content Marketing is one of the most important aspects of marketing for a business. Content writing can either generate hundreds and thousands of dollars in revenue or generate no revenue.

This is completely dependent on the writer, how they write, how persuasive they are and if they are able to hit value points.

You can get content written for $10 for 1000 words or as much as $500 for 1500 words.

Product Description

In the industry, product description pages are churned in huge numbers. Persuasive copy directly leads to improvement in conversion. There are many agencies that offer product description services.

The cost of product description ranges from $500 for 30,000 words to $1,000 for 30,000 words.

Social Media Copy

Social Media is the source from which most traffic is generated in the world. Platforms like Facebook, Quora and Twitter drive millions in traffic to numerous websites.

A good copywriter with images will range from $50 to $150 per post.

Email Copy

One of the hardest parts of marketing writing e-mail copy that brings in leads. Not just any lead, but high quality leads. The cost for email copy is dependent on how successful the campaign in. Generally, the cost of email copy is $10 to $15 for every lead that is generated.

READ also : Using Lead Generation Strategies 

Copywriting Rates Singapore

Article 1000 words (Generic) – $200-$500

Article 1000 words (Niche that require research) – $300-$1000

Web Content 1000 words (Generic) – $500-$1000

Web Content 1000 words (Extensive research) – $2000-$5000

Persuasive Sales Writing 500 words – $1000-$3000

Casual Writing (Social media content) 100 words – $100-$200

Newsletter Writing 500 words – $300-$500

Proofreading 1000 words – $100-$200

Hiring a Full-time Copywriter in Singapore

Every year, Singapore’s universities produce high-quality graduates who are more adept than the previous generation in terms of English fluency and also being social media savvy. There is no dearth of copywriters in Singapore that you can hire on a full-time basis.

So what are the pros and cons of hiring a full-time copywriter?

Pros

Turn around time

One of the best aspects of hiring a full time copywriter is the turn around time for the content. You can instruct your employee to give you an article by end of the day or end of the week. It all depends on your requirement. The same cannot be demanded of a freelancer, because a freelancer is a shared resource and they have their own timelines.

So if you are in a business, where you are are bound to strict deadlines, then hiring a full time copywriter makes sense. If you don’t have any tight deadlines, you can make do with a freelancer.

Control the quality

Most of the times, when you work with a freelancer or an agency, you have no clue of their quality. Sometimes when working with freelancers, the quality of work dwindles over time and there is nothing you can do about it.

When it comes to hiring a full-time copywriter, you know their potential when you hire them. You can also keep a tight check on the quality of the articles.

Also a full-time employee has a more steady job, compared to a freelancer who works with multiple clients requiring differing qualities and output. A full-time employee will give you a more consistent output.

Cons

Limit to content that can be created

Ultimately, even though a full-time copywriter works exclusively for you. There is a limit to how much content they can create. At most, a good copywriter can create 1500 words a day.

Anything above that, the quality of work will get affected. Some writers don’t work on a per word basis and they might be only able to create 300 odd words a day, maintaining a high standard of quality.

A freelancer or an agency, on the other hand, can scale the workload without any pressure, as they have a team of writers who will be able to create content.

Expertise may vary

This is one of the biggest cons of hiring a full-time writer. Most writers have particular expertise. A person who is able to create high-quality content posts, may not be able to create social media posts. This poses a huge problem for companies who have multiple requirements.

An agency, on the other hand, will have a set of writers for each specific task. You can guarantee, the best of content for each of your business requirements.

Although you can ask a writer to do multiple tasks, the quality of the output will always be in question.

How to Hire a Copywriter in Singapore

Ask known sources 

The best way to find a copywriter is from known sources. Ask your friends, your colleagues and ask them to recommend somebody. It’s much better to get somebody through a recommendation. This way they are vetted in terms of trust and your acquaintances are likely to recommend a good candidate. 

Finding Good Copywriters in Singapore 

If you don’t have any recommendations, then you’ll need to hunt for a good candidate and you’ll find a lot on the sources mentioned above like Fiverr, Upwork etc. 

A copywriter is different from a journalist who in turn is different from a content writer 

You need to understand this distinction before you hire anybody. This is very important. A journalist, a copy writer and a content writer are all different disciplines. Here is the distinction. 

Journalist – A journalist reports. For them language and style of writing isn’t important at all. They don’t have flair in their writing and it’s not required for their job. 

Contentwriter – A content writer aims to write content to share information about certain things, content writers write most of the articles on the internet. They do reviews of products and write blog posts.

Copywriter – A copywriter’s main goal is to make the user take an action. They write compelling copy that sells. Copywriters write sales pages, description pages for ecommerce companies and so on. 

A copywriter will earn more money than a content writer for the same word count. 

Give them a content piece to work on. Pay them for it. 

At one point, you might be interacting with 3 to 4 copywriters, deciding whom to hire. To compare and contrast, give all the copywriters the same timeline, same task and same instructions and see who writers better. 

Always have a face to face interaction before you engage a copywriter 

If you have a copywriter that fits the bill, then meet them face to face before the engagement to understand a bit more about them. Talk about their experience, find out the style of writing they generally would like writing and it also gives you an opportunity to brief them before the engagement. 

Set expectations 

Before you start the writing project make sure to have a discussion about timelines, price, repeat work, corrections etc. This is super important to ensure there’s a smooth flow of work in the future. 

Discuss Pricing 

Don’t try to undercut a good copywriter because they will give under par work if you negotiate too hard. Give them the price they want and hold them to a high standard. This way, if anything goes wrong, the ball is on their court. 

Engage and Interact 

This is something that most companies ignore and this is something you need to think about. If you have a great rapport with your content writers they will work with you and not for you. This relationship helps them do more than what you are paying them for. Sometime you might need content urgently or you’ll need extra words and a content writer who likes working with you will oblige positively without any fuss. 

Cost of Hiring Full Time Singapore Copywriters

Looking at the copywriting rates in Singapore, should you go premium?

The answer is yes. When it comes to web copywriting or even app copywriting. You need it once. You don’t need it on a weekly or a monthly basis. So it’s best to invest in something great and let the copy sell your product.

Novatise Writing Services

At Novatise we have a strong team of copywriters. Copywriters who have experience in a wide range of topics. We also have copywriters who are local to Singapore and can cater to the Singapore market very well.

Each of our content pieces is 100% original, well-researched, edited for grammar and style and goes through a sanity check before it is submitted to you.

Check our sister brand Writise’s writing service. (Denominated in USD)