New research from the copywriting agency has found companies unwittingly paying upto £300 per hour for writing services - by doing it themselves.

The Leeds-based copywriting company surveyed existing customers to find out how they had written copy before going to the professionals, and found that the vast majority had written the content themselves. Everyone from secretaries to managing directors had been roped into writing copy, often believing that anyone can write and it is unnecessary to pay for copywriting services.

The results however found the real cost was often much higher then contracting outside services. For example, the managing director of one company claimed his time was worth over £300 per hour, but regularly spent his precious time editing his own press releases. Workers at another company would write brochure copy between themselves, often wasting dozens of man-hours checking and proofreading content which was still riddled with grammatical errors.

The findings do not surprise Sarah Firmin of the writing agency: "When you consider what these people are earning per hour, it's amazing that they are spending time on writing copy when they could be concentrating on what they do best"

Such copy will rarely be as effective as professionally written copy, and this makes the case for professional copywriting services even stronger, as Sarah Firmin continues:

"Professional copywriting services might seem a luxury to some businesses, but when you remember the cost of workers in your company doing the writing, it's often well worth it!"

for more information about copywriting services, see http://www.thewritingagency.com