From attorney to Copywriter – Natalia Soto

How did you go from lawyer to copywriter?

I have always been linked to this world. I started writing stories and poetry when I was 9 years old, I have been a great reader and I studied Law because of my family tradition. I liked the legal profession, but my passion have always been journalism, although at that time there were few professional opportunities, and I opted for the safe, paying attention to reason and not to the heart.

I have been a lawyer for 22 years and I have enjoyed that profession that has given me many satisfactions, but I always had the desire of writing and I even started writing a novel, until a few years ago a forced professional change forced me to reinvent myself, and then I decided that the time had come to bet on my true passion, writing.

I was first trained as a Community Manager with Franc Carreras and Billie Sastre, and later in Copywriting and writing with the course of Javi Pastor “Adopta un Copywriter”. Before finishing it, I already had my first two clients.

The next step was to take my website, https://palabreando.es/, and the rest has gone all followed. Little by little I am developing various professional projects and do not rule out in the future also dedicate myself to teaching.

Do you think that your large experience as a lawyer helps you in your work as a copywriter? How?

Without a doubt I have been able to verify the link between both worlds, where persuasion must be used to convince. And as I move forward in this new profession, I see more similarities and apply more resources that I polished when I worked in the legal sector.

As a lawyer I have written many demands and resources where I had to put all my conviction capacity, and I have attended hundreds of trials of all kinds defending the interests of my clients. And to defend a client as a lawyer you need to persuade and convince a judge with convincing arguments. I have won many lawsuits thanks to the conviction of my legal texts.

In the world of Copywriting something similar happens, because we use persuasive writing techniques to focus on the texts we make so our clients can sell a product or service.

As in the legal profession, there is no room for improvisation. The legal defense of a case involves investigating, studying the Law, reasoning and finally persuading or convincing the opposing party or the Judge.

When I do the copy of a text I also need to investigate everything that surrounds my client and his business, study the competition, put myself in the place of the ideal client to whom I want to transmit the essence of the product or service of my client, and finally persuade and convince.

One of the best known definitions of Copywriting says that “it is the art of selling with words”.

But like the world of law, it is not enough to know, because you have to convince.

Based on your experience, do you think that copywriters should have at least minimal training on the sectors for which they write?

Logically if we master a subject or sector is much easier to write a text, because we know about it, and the legal world is a field that is difficult to write for if you are not familiar with the legal terminology.

In my case, I am now writing all the copy of a lawyer’s website and it is being much simpler than another project I finished a few days ago, where I wrote all the texts of a web of financial products, a sector that I did not know and to which I had to spend a lot more time.

The difference between knowing more or less of a sector to write about is that you have to do a very good research, which accounts for 60% of the work of a copy, and that is the first step that every copywriter has to do to succeed with the texts that you write.

If you do not research and know your client, your competence, which is your ideal buyer or client, the value proposal and the benefits of your product or service, you will not be able to guess your texts, no matter how well you write, and you will not achieve the sales objective that is what they hire you for.

How can copywriters supply their lack of knowledge about a sector and offer a quality text to our clients?

As I have already mentioned, the key is always in a good investigation of everything that surrounds our client’s business. I know many copywriters who specialize in a niche market taking advantage of the knowledge they have about a sector, and others are able to write about anything.

If we do not know the sector, at the time of making the copy of a sales page, a web, a sequence of Email marketing or a sales funnel for our client, we simply have to devote more time to research, and with that part very worked, personally I am sure that you can make some great texts that meet the purpose of sale.

What are the benefits of implementing a good content marketing strategy in a company?

Until relatively recently, and specifically in a sector like the legal profession,  marketing had little importance, the offices did not have web pages and the lawyers’ businesses were all off line.

But the online world is here to stay, and today any business or company in any sector, large or small, needs to invest in a good marketing strategy.

In fact, I am convinced that nowadays many businesses lose true opportunities for conversion and growth because everyone wants to sell more, have a more professional image, get known and get out in the top internet search positions, but do not know how to do it , they lack information or do not want to invest in it.

And here comes the work of copy with its techniques of persuasive writing, as well as the work of the digital writer, who writes well-written texts for a blog that provide content of interest to the user, and that, with good SEO techniques, helps to position and improve the organic traffic of a website.

Having specialized professionals who implement a good content marketing strategy will allow them to grow in their sector, build customer loyalty, work on the recognition of their brand and, of course, sell their product or service.

What characteristics should a good copywriter have?

I think there is still a lot of ignorance about the role of the copywriter, although this is stanting to change because many businesses are realizing the importance of using persuasive writing to enhance their sales goals.

For me, the characteristics that a good copy should have, is know how to write and doing it well:

• Knowing how to research: I have already referred to it several times because it is fundamental in the work of a copy. Get to know your client and his business thoroughly, study his competitors, which is his ideal client and his needs, problems or pain points, your value proposition, and convert the characteristics of your product or service into benefits for the potential client , is the basis for writing a good text focused on the sale.
• Know how to translate: the client of a copywriter will transmit a lot of information, much of it unnecessary, that you have to filter, to convert it into what your ideal client wants to read and achieve the final objective, which can be a sale, a subscription , etc.
• Know how to mentally process the information obtained: the copy does not take all the information transmitted by the client and puts it in a text, but has to be able to order it properly, and put it in writing with a good introduction, some H2, some Shocking phrases such as titles or subtitles, the proper use of bold, etc.
• Knowing how to use persuasive writing techniques to make texts that sell: this is what differentiates a copy from an editor, because while the editor writes to inform, copy writes to sell. Customers hire us to sell more, and that is the goal that must be clear when they hire us, whether to make the texts of a website, a sales page, description of products, a sequence of Email marketing, and so on.

What advice would you give us if we seek to improve the quality of texts on a website for lawyers?

I have been able to verify that the vast majority of the web of lawyers lack copy. They are not focused on selling because they do not use persuasive writing techniques.

In fact, almost all make the mistake of being too legalistic, very technical, not close, and tend to focus on showing that they are the best in the industry, that their services are exclusive and that they have to be hired.

If you go to see several websites of lawyers, you realize at once that virtually all are equal, but there is no copy anywhere.

In fact, many copywriters agree that, if there is a sector where websites proliferate little or nothing functional from the point of view of sales strategy, these are, in many cases, those of law firms.

The home page of a website is its sales page, and I am surprised not to find any website of lawyers that uses Copywriting formulas in it and that none directly addresses the ideal client.

Using a simple PAS formula (problem / agitation / solution) on the homepage of a lawyer’s website would change the perception for a potential client of what that office can do to solve their legal problem.