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"Some of the marketing material from the bike trade is dire," Smith told bikebiz.co.uk.
"Many businesses in the cycle industry are relying on ‘someone in the office’ to write their PR and marketing copy. It lacks the direct, clear, concise and effective touches that translate into actual leads and sales.
"I know of one major player in the UK market who has their brochures written by a guy in the technical department – yet technical details don’t sell products."
Smith started producing sales copy when a marketing agency director ran out of staff and approached Smith to do a one-off direct mail package. This was Smith’s first taste of such campaigns but he knocked up some winning copy and his work – produced for a multi-national agricultural chemical company – generated a response of over 20 percent in the first two days of the promotion. A two percent response is what’s normally considered a success.
Smith was given further copywriting briefs and this subsequently led to the launch of bettercopy.co.uk – a freelance copywriting service aimed at SMEs who may not have their own marketing departments or personnel. The site itself is tiny – just a page, really – but the self-promoting sales copy on bettercopy.co.uk is seeking one result: contact Dave Smith. Now.
"The right words, written in the right way, can make a massive difference to the effectiveness of a sales letter, press release or even webpage – people don’t read web pages like they would a brochure, yet many company websites are simply brochures on screen," said Smith.
Smith won’t be giving up the day-job, though. He is to remain a cycling coach. His main ‘customer’ is Scott Beaumont of Kona, aiming for his best season to date.
