As a professional advertising copywriter at DDA, I am responsible for developing creative and effective copy for website designs, brochure designs, and direct mail pieces, scripts for video and animation production, and much more. I must be flexible enough to switch topic, industry, and media format from one minute to the next. In my experience, I’ve found that clients either “get” your work or they don’t quite understand why something was worded a certain way.

Typically, I submit my content to clients for their review with little to no commentary because I truly want to gauge if it worked to convey the right message. Most of the time, clients follow the intention, but sometimes clients are at a loss, which happens most often when working with international clients who rely on us to develop copy on their behalf that sells in the U.S. or when working with clients on a search engine optimized website where there are a million and one intricacies involved in developing first-page ranking copy.

Because it happens so infrequently that I need to explain why I wrote what I wrote in the fashion that I did, I almost welcome the opportunity to clarify things so clients know that there is a method to the madness that is advertising copywriting. Whether it’s for word structure, word play, high search engine rankings or any other strategy, my copy does have purpose. Once clients see all the thought that is involved in the development of their copy, they have a renewed sense of appreciation for the written word and a respect for the copywriting services of DDA.

After a few moments in the office, it’s not uncommon for us to hear a visiting client say, “Wow, it’s so QUIET in here!” That’s because we really love what we do.

When I first started working here, about 4 years ago, I had the usual adjustment to a new job, and I remember my face feeling a bit frozen by the end of the day from being in such a focused state all day. We really are a fun bunch, but outside of lunch we don’t linger around and talk very often.

But the truth is, that we are, in fact, communicating all day. From a design perspective, my goal is to hone a message until it is succinct and engaging to a particular audience.

Isn’t that what good communication is all about — distilling a message or an idea into a clear, direct language?

Of all the advertising copywriting services DDA offers, search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting for widespread medical disorders or diseases is, in my opinion, one of the most important. In 2005, I helped to write the Prostate Cancer Treatment Guide, which consists of over 600 search engine optimizted pages in a patent-applied-for grid format that features easy access to pertinent information about prostate cancer and available treatments. Due to the online seo copywriting and other seo services DDA implemented pre-launch and continues to provide post-launch, this site receives close to 40,000 visitors per month and about 9,000 top ten rankings on Google alone.

In the years following, I have worked on a variety of other medical websites. Currently, I am working on a website for Preeclampsia, which, when finished, promises to be a prominent force on the Web for this particular pregnancy disorder. Writing websites such as these takes dedication to not only learn all there is to know about the given disease or disorder, but to understand what it’s like for patients to go through associated symptoms and treatment. Furthermore, one must research all possible ways people would be searching for information relevant to the disease/disorder online. Applying this knowledge in an easy to understand framework and the proper platform is key to high rankings and the sucessful use of the tool.

Writing medical websites that gain this type of exposure and use makes me feel like I’ve helped, even in a small way, to educate patients, their family and friends, as well as the general public about a specific condition that is affecting millions worldwide. As direct-to-consumer medical advertising continues to evolve, websites like these give people the basics so they are informed when speaking to their doctors, and in return, doctors are pushed to up the ante in proper patient care.

My experience in online and creative copywriting has exposed me to a variety of subject matter and styles of writing. Today my focus is centered on technology-based training for the corporate and medical realm, but tomorrow my focus may be on writing optimized copy for a pharmaceutical distributor, manufacturer of seals, or a jewelry retailer. This is the aspect of my job that I love the most. Not only do I get to exercise my joy of writing, but I also get to explore exciting new topics and industries.

Recently my focus has been centered on developing search engine optimized content for DDA’s new division, Corporate and Medical Training (CMT). In this instance of creative online copywriting, my focus is on generating copy that is not only engaging and market focused, but contains the correct combinations of keywords to ensure your corporate or medical facility competes well in the competitive search marketing world. My position as a search engine optimization (SEO) copywriter can be a challenging one, but I embrace the challenge and look forward to new ones.