Howdy pardner! Holster your shootin’ irons and head on over to the ol’ saloon for a cool glass of sarsaparilla. Because you, dear reader, are in the Wild West. And you don’t have to take our word for it.
Leif Kendall is the organiser of ProCopywriters, an online community for professional writers and he has strong views on the subject.
“Journalists and editors have a code that they can subscribe to,” he wrote in April 2024 “Copywriters are, comparatively, operating in a Wild West of standards and practices.”
With no sheriff in town, it can be hard to tell the fine upstanding folk from the lowdown varmints. And now that the army of robots is rolling into town, perhaps copywriters need to do a better job of showing the world just what a capable and reliable bunch we are.
Copywriters may be surprised to learn that we live in an unregulated, self-governing digital frontier with no codes of practice. This may seem particularly odd, given how much trust our clients place in us. When they hire us, they make us ambassadors for their brands, empowering us to speak with their voice.
If you’re a lone wordslinger working at the digital frontier of copywriting, how can you give clients and prospects alike the assurance that they need in terms of both ethics and quality control?
A Copywriter’s Code could provide exactly this. For copywriters, it would be an unmistakable sign of their dedication to quality and ethical standards. For end clients and agencies, it would be a shared set of standards to which they could hold the writers they hire to account.
Let’s take a closer look.
At the moment, there is no shared code of standards for copywriters. Leif Kendall is on a mission to change that.
“I’ve been tinkering with the idea of developing some kind of code of conduct / code of practice for a while,” he explains.
Leif is currently developing a code of standards with the needs of copywriters, clients and other stakeholders in mind.
After canvassing copywriters within his network, Leif has discovered a consensus. Most feel that a Copywriter’s Code could be a great asset for copywriters and stakeholders. Nonetheless, what the code would cover, how it might be administered and how it could be enforced are all questions that need to be answered.
Leif notes that “The explosion of AI makes such a code even more relevant and useful. After all, our clients and stakeholders probably want to know where our words stop and the robot’s begin (or if AI is involved at all)”.
We’ve already discussed the ways in which AI copywriting may be alluring to end clients, agencies and even copywriters. We’ve also looked at the caveats that come from entrusting generative AI platforms with branded written copy.
AI platforms can generate large volumes of copy faster than any human copywriter ever could. However, we often see that these platforms generate content that could be inaccurate, misleading, biased or outright dangerous.
Copy is cheap and abundant. But good copy? Well-researched, engagingly written, carefully proofed copy? The value of this is growing increasingly clear to end clients. Our own research demonstrates that SME and agency clients use generative AI. It also shows that they dedicate substantial time and effort to proofing and editing AI copy.
Adhering to a voluntary code provides a level of assurance that AI platforms cannot match. Moreover, it could add true value at a time when written content may be perceived as cheap and abundant.
At the time of writing, the Copywriter’s Code has yet to be finalised. However, there is a first draft that is in the process of refinement. Leif’s intention is for the code to be shaped by copywriters. He is currently creating a committee of copywriters to help develop the code further.
Would you like to see a code of standards to which copywriters can subscribe? Are there any risks or caveats that you’d like to mention? Is there anything specific that you would like to see the code address?
If you are a professional copywriter, now is the perfect opportunity to fill in this short survey.
Your answers could shape the standards to which professional copywriters are held accountable.
And we think that’s darned excitin’!
