Kayla Hollatz: The Underestimated Role of Copywriting in Branding

how impactful copy fits into a successful rebranding process + how it can set you apart

I sat down with Kayla Hollatz, a seasoned copywriter, who also wrote the copy for my website, to discuss the often undervalued role of copywriting in the branding and website development process. Drawing from her extensive experience, we explore the hurdles businesses often encounter when trying to effectively communicate their brand identity through words, the relationship between copy and design, and how to assemble your dream team for your successful rebrand.

If you prefer reading, you can find an abridged version of the conversation below.

About Kayla:

Kayla Hollatz is a Minnesota-based website copywriter and strategist, whose words have the power to transform ideas into captivating brand narratives. She is working with a variety of small businesses, tech and SaaS companies.

The Abridged Conversation

Sara

I'm so excited to sit down with Kayla Hollatz, a seasoned copywriter whose words have the power to transform ideas into captivating brand narratives. I had the honor of working with Kayla on my own website copy. And today we'll explore how copy fits into a successful rebranding process, and how impactful copy can set you apart. Thank you so much for joining me, Kayla. I'm so excited to have you here.

How about you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? 

Kayla

Thank you very much for the kind introduction, but much like you said, I'm a website copywriter who loves to work with entrepreneurs and different tech and SaaS companies on their copywriting. I'm really excited to be here today to talk a little bit more about the really intrinsic relationship between design and copy, but also where copy has a very important role to play in the overall website process as well as branding as a whole. 

Sara

What do you find are some of the most common misconceptions that you encounter among your clients regarding the role of website copy in particular?

Kayla

I've been a copywriter for eight years, and I have been able to get a front-row seat to see how the industry has changed over almost a decade. I would say one of the misconceptions that has continued to come up time and time again is that copy tends to be an afterthought for people. I am very happy to say that there's a lot more people now who even know what a copywriter is but it is really fascinating to see just how often people don't understand that most designers and copywriters agree that copywriting ought to come first when you are planning the overall flow of how a website comes together.

But often people engage a copywriter last minute. Or you pull one in because, as a designer, you're working with a client and start to realize very quickly that it's hard for them to deliver the copy that they thought they were going to be able to work on. So I say that's one of the most common misconceptions that there are right now.

Sara

Can you sum up some of the primary benefits that businesses can expect when they invest in professional copywriting?

Kayla

Most of the businesses I work with feel least confident in the things that, as copywriters, we consider the most essential elements of your messaging: Brand voice and mission statements. That's why copywriting goes so much farther beyond just your website itself: it is creating some of those foundational building blocks for your overall brand messaging. Most of the time, once we get a great mission statement on a website, you're able to use that in so many different ways in your marketing, your social media, brochures, and all sorts of other types of marketing materials. That's one of the huge values of investing in website copywriting: you are able to repurpose it in other areas, especially if you're working with a website copywriter that considers themselves more of a strategist and you're going through a deeper brand voice process. 

Another way one really great way of working with a website copywriter is that not only do you come away with the messaging, but you also come away with the reasoning as to why your website content is structured in a certain way.  There’s more to it than just getting the right photos and the right content for your website. It's how you pair all the different elements with your branding and the design, to create a fuller picture of a website that really connects and communicates the value that you bring to your clients or your customers.

Sara

Having worked with you, it's so much easier for me now to craft my messaging for anything, not just the website, but I can take bits and pieces from the words you created for me and use them elsewhere and infuse them throughout.

In your experience, what does an ideal website development process look like, and when is the right time to bring in the copywriter?

Kayla

I would say for the vast majority of copywriters and designers, the ideal development process usually looks like working with either a copywriter first, or in tandem with a branding designer. Typically, I'd say copywriting even before brand design, if at all possible, just because I know branding designers also like to have the questionnaire and the copywriting from the copywriter. So copywriting first, then brand design, then website design afterward, and then website development, of course, is going to follow the website design.

But I'd say, what you often see is website design coming before copy. Copy is that last-ditch effort that they're trying to pull together at the last minute, and then trying to develop things while also meeting that original launch time, not realizing that they needed to hire a copywriter earlier. 

Sara

What would you say, who should take the lead on website strategy, the web designer or the copywriter?

Kayla

I do enjoy taking on the website strategy myself. And I still have yet, in my eight years, have a website designer say, 'No, I want to take it on instead.' When you're coming together with the website designer, they are bringing the beautiful visuals and the presentation of how everything's going to look. But as copywriters, we need to be thinking about how all the content is going to be organized. What we find more often than not, is that the designer is getting this large document, that doesn't really take into account where all this content is going to go. When, as a website strategist myself, I can actually go through having a conversation about all of those things before I even start writing anything. Then everybody feels more confident: from the client to the copywriter, to the designer – everybody's on the same page. That's a horrible copywriter pun. *laughs* But for real, everybody is on the same page, so when everybody can go and divide and conquer, then it just works really well. But there are website designers, of course, that end up becoming website strategists. But I would say: the website strategy comes even before the website copywriting does, ideally. 

Sara

Yeah, that makes complete sense. I can say from my experience as your client, from that unique position of being my own website designer: It really made a huge difference for me, even though I do website strategy and I know how to structure a website. It was a huge relief for me to have the copy already be strategic and to have you think about 'where does it go? How can we structure it in a way that makes sense visually?' I had so many fragmented pieces and ideas and just a visual direction, but it wasn't cohesive. But the copy really gave me a guide and it led in the end to a much stronger design and a much stronger website, in my opinion, than it would have been if I just did everything myself. 

Kayla

Even in the way that we collaborated, too, as you're saying, it's my opportunity as a website strategist that I get to pitch you ideas. And I use that as an opportunity to also educate on the value of not just the content we're crafting, but also the way that we're crafting everything together. I've been talking about having that strategic conversation upfront, and it really does help with building that client trust so that when I go to now independently work on the content, trust me that I'm going to be able to deliver something you're going to be really happy with. Before you see any words, you already have the confidence of how these different pieces are going to be coming together. So I think much to your point, it's really helpful to have those strategic discussions.

Sara

Have you ever encountered a situation where there were too many cooks in the kitchen and you had differing opinions with a web designer? 

Kayla

I would say for the most part, I play really well with collaborators, so I haven't had too many instances of that. But I’ve had times when it would have been more helpful to really define what each person's role is. And I think that's what's so important when you are, what I would consider, ‘assembling your team’. As a copywriter who's freelancing, I'm working with different designers and different developers each time. So I have to understand that everybody's going to have a different process, and I don't necessarily want there to be overlap. I don't want to be walking on someone's toes, so I usually have a conversation upfront with the collaborators and ask for the client to introduce all of us to let them know, 'Hey, this is my process. This is typically what my role is. If you feel like anything needs to change or shift based on your own process, please feel free to let me know.'

And that's the benefit of working with a website designer, a brand designer, sometimes a brand photographer, a website copywriter, and a website developer sometimes too. When you've got those people who are all working together and know what their role is, it can be a really seamless process. 

Sara

That's my experience as well. And also from a client's perspective, I would say, if you're the client do not be afraid to bring all these people together and ask them to collaborate, because most of the time we're excited to and we're happy to. Because it means we get to focus on what we do best instead of taking on all those different roles that might not be to our strength. 

Kayla

Absolutely. The client gets a lot of confidence when everything is being created somewhat in tandem because you're able to see all of those different pieces coming together. So everything becomes a really seamless product from start to finish. 

I completely agree with you, it’s so wonderful to work with other people and most copywriters, designers, and photographers are used to collaborating with others. As a client, when you're having discovery calls with designers and copywriters, ask them upfront 'How do you normally collaborate with others? What does that look like?' Because some people will have a little bit more of an ironed-out process that they follow, and then there's others that'll be more flexible about what timelines look like and how to best collaborate with each individual. I'm flexible enough, but I also have enough of a signature process that I want to be able to follow. 

Sara

I’m the same. Ultimately, we do what we do to give our clients the best results possible, and if that means tweaking things a little most of us are happy to. That's definitely something that you, as our reader, can take away from this: ask for collaboration and don't be afraid to bring different people together and to assemble your dream team of people.

Kayla

Yes, and go with your gut on it too. If you feel like there's somebody that you would really like to work with, assemble the team that you want. I think that there can be, of course, benefits to working with agencies and with people that already have a whole flow of people that are set. But I would say one of the benefits to assembling your team yourself is that you get to cherry-pick exactly who's in the driver's seat of all of these different parts.

Sara

In your experience, what are some of the most common challenges that businesses face when they're trying to communicate their brand effectively through copy? 

Kayla

I would say definitely brand voice always seems to come up. Even more specifically, if you have multiple people who work with you and your brand and have written different things, it’s easy to feel like your brand voice is just cobbled together content pieces from different voices of different people. Of course, we are all individuals. But if you are creating a company-forward brand versus a personal brand, it’s important to really make sure that the brand voice is cohesive, so that if somebody is interacting with one of your customer service reps on social media, it's as consistent as somebody who's going to be reading something on your blog or your website.

If you go deeper into the brand voice process, it can be done in tandem with the website copywriting process, but I always recommend for brand voice to come first. So usually that process within would be: brand voice, website strategy, then website copywriting.

But it really depends on the company in terms of what they are most challenged by. Another very common thing to hear is that lead generation is difficult. Then I really want to think about SEO. Sometimes it’s not lead generation, but being able to convert them into those sales calls. Then I'll also look at conversion strategy and see how that's going. 

A lot of people just come because they feel their current copy is not a representation of them anymore. They no longer feel comfortable and confident leading people to their website to read this content that either was cobbled together or they wrote themselves in a pinch. I know that element was something that you had mentioned, Sara, before we worked together. You felt like you had some moderate confidence in what you had been creating, but you had never really taken that opportunity to step back and really treat yourself as the client and think about all the brand voice pieces and the copywriting for yourself. I think that can be a really strengthening thing to do in your business because it's also going to help you in the communication when you're speaking to clients because you have those phrases in mind or it's going to help you in networking events or it’s going to help you feel more confident leading people to your website, etc. It goes so far beyond just the product itself.

Sara

For me, it's like having this toolbox, where I have different phrases, different words, a sort of dictionary for my own brand that I can pull out and use whenever I need to. And it frees up headspace because you can really focus on the points you want to get across because you already have vocabulary you can use. 

What would you say to a business owner or an entrepreneur who's worried about not being able to maintain the brand voice themselves? 

Kayla

I do think doing something similar to that brand dictionary exercise can be really helpful. So for those of you who might be new to that idea, it's just taking some of those words and phrases that are showing up in your content, and being able to quickly plug and play them into your email templates, your social media content, etc. You always have to have a base to pull from. So if you're worried about maintaining things, I'd say just make sure that you're able to have some of those things so you don't get that blank page syndrome.

Having a brand voice guide can be helpful if you decide to go through that more comprehensive process with a copywriter. But even if you don't have that, being able to look at your website with a critical eye and pull out some of those phrases or even asking your copywriter to help you pull out some of those things that you can continue to use and repurpose. If you decide to work with a copywriter, ask them, ‘Where do you feel like my voice is coming out best? And how would you maybe change some of these things?’ 

Sara

Yes, I can confirm that it does get easier. And I think you get more used to this process of using the copy that you have as a client. 

What factors should businesses consider when deciding between investing in full website copy vs. editing existing copy, which is also an option?

Kayla

It's something that I help my clients determine when we're on that initial discovery call. I would say the vast majority of people need full website copy unless budget is more of a concern and then you can consider a copy editing refresh.

But an indicator that you need a full rewrite is if you are completely changing your intended audience. I have a client who is a talented designer, but she's changing her audience from a blue-collar, construction worker to a high-end custom home builder. Granted, they're both still somewhat in the interior/exterior design/construction industry. But the language between those could not be more different. That's one example to showcase what might be more of a rebrand project.

Whereas if there's somebody who's coming to me who has the main structure of their business and wants to keep their audience, and some of their copywriting still feels true to them, then we can copy-edit it so that it's a bit more strategically laid out on their website. In that case we can take what exists but just improve upon it. 

I would say those are a few indicators to look for: If your audience has changed completely or if your brand voice changes, especially if you want to fit more of a high-end market. I would say the same is true for design too, because a design that's going to resonate with a budget-friendly client is going to be very different from a high-end client. Of course, along with that, if you're changing your price points a lot, or if you're changing your entire offer suite, that usually is another indicator that we need to rewrite the copy entirely.

Sara

That's so interesting because these are the same factors that go into considering when to do a full redesign or just give the design a facelift. 

You mentioned the blank page syndrome earlier, and I want to hear your opinion about how AI can fit into that. Do you think that AI can replace copywriting? 

Kayla

For what it is right now? No. But in the future, who knows? I know AI for a while, especially for copywriters, was almost being treated as a boogeyman, if I may say so. It was the thing that we knew was lurking in the background, but that we didn't necessarily want to think about. I'm not necessarily completely AI-averse. I do not use it in my own process or in my own writing, at least at this point. I just don't see the real value in doing so. But I think what can be helpful is giving AI a specific job. For those who are having that blank page syndrome, as you've been mentioning, I think it could be helpful to give it some prompts for, let's say, writing some headlines. I always recommend writing multiple headlines, and one of the nice things that AI can do is it can generate multiple of those. Even if you don't use them, you can refine them. AI could possibly be a good starting point for you, but I would not ever trust AI, at least at this point, with your website copywriting, especially when we're talking about the website strategy detail, AI does not understand website strategy.

Just to be completely vulnerable, some of my content retainers and tech clients that were focused on blog content or email content, have decided to use AI tools instead. I think what's so important is always being able to be adaptable and nimble to what people want. And it's good to remember who has which job in the process. I'd say, maybe you could get away with trying to have AI help you with little bits of headlines to get you started, but I would never trust it with your entire website page.

Sara

Yes, I completely agree, especially because you also have the copyright situation, because you never know where the inspiration comes from with AI so that's definitely a tricky point. 

Kayla

That's so important and I don't think everybody understands AI only borrows from what you give it. And so with everything that's available online, you don't necessarily know if that sentence or if that idea has come up at another point. And it would be terrible if that was on a competitor’s page. So those are important nuances to think about as well. 

Sara

Before we wrap up, do you have a favorite tool in your business that you can share with us? 

Kayla

Absolutely. I feel like the most boring one for me to say is just Google Docs, but truly I do all of my work in Google Docs. I love collaborating with my clients in it. I also have created my own wireframing method, which is all about figuring out the visual organization of your content, and I create it inside Google Docs. So it's a really easy way for me to be able to present it over – I also love Loom. I love sending Loom video recordings to my clients, so that it allows me to be able to educate them, and they can listen to it on their own time. I'd say those two tools are probably the ones that I use the most in my business and they allow me to work in the way that's best for my own creative process.

Sara

Yeah, fantastic. I use those tools too, and they're amazing. Keeping it simple, but keeping it effective. 

Thank you so much. I feel like this has been a really valuable conversation and I'm so excited that I got to sit down and talk to you.

Find Kayla online:

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