All in a Day’s Work: Steph Swanson
Being a copywriter is much more than crafting a well-written paragraph or two and posting it to a website. In examining a “typical day” for Steph Swanson, Strateligent’s copywriter and digital specialist, it quickly becomes clear that there is no such thing as a typical day.
For nearly four years, Steph has been plying her many skills for Strateligent clients. Her years of experience in writing and marketing are supported by double majors in mass communication and marketing communication, plus business education. Her projects vary widely—from writing copy for recreation, healthcare, or government, to researching and choosing SEO (search engine optimization) keywords, analyzing digital campaign stats, making spreadsheets summarizing the success of client campaigns, and much more.
SEO Skills
“One of Steph’s unique capabilities is SEO,” said Aaron Hautala, Strateligent creative director. “She diligently works to improve Google search results for Strateligent clients, as well as collaborating and strategizing with digital vendors to improve PPC search performance across Facebook, digital display ads, or Google search ads.”
Her SEO skills include keyword research to select relevant traffic for a new client or a project for an existing client, monitoring keyword ranking, analyzing technical SEO audits, and making adjustments to copy or the “back-end” meta descriptions.
“I enjoy writing web copy the most—including the challenge of researching and incorporating effective SEO strategies into the messaging,” said Steph. “The human attention span has become short and most people have become skimmers rather than in-depth readers, so writing attention-grabbing copy that is short and concise is fun as well as challenging.”
Among her projects, Steph is especially proud of the on-page and back-end SEO she’s done to improve the Google search ranking for Cuyuna.com. The pages she’s optimized now have 53 keywords ranking in the top 3 for searches and 14 keywords ranking in the top 10. The estimated organic (non-paid) value for this amount of traffic would mean paying Google $5K/month, when compared to the same amount using search ads.
Wide range of projects
The variety of client projects means Steph often changes hats several times a day.
“Writing for our healthcare clients is very rewarding,” said Steph. “What I write can help people be well, become healthier, or possibly even save someone’s life. As copywriters, we become an extension of the healthcare provider—helping to present well-researched information to their patients. Writing for government institutions allows us to offer valuable information for our neighbors, family, and friends—both near and far. What kind of writing is the most fun? Destination tourism! Who doesn’t like reading about vacations?”
Steph’s favorite part of her interactions at Strateligent is working together with her coworkers and clients. She emulates the Strateligent value of “collaborative” because it encompasses the work she does throughout the day. From connecting with the creative director and designers, to the project manager, copywriting team, and clients, whether it’s via Zoom, by phone or email, or in-person, she enjoys working together and sharing her expertise. She’s even been known to share a good “joke of the day” on occasion.
“Everything we do together to successfully complete a client project is a team effort,” said Steph. “We take feedback and have the ability to change something up when it makes sense to achieve the overall goals of the project. It’s very rewarding to accomplish goals for our clients.”
