Copywriters start their day thinking how do I make my readers DO THIS? There’s exactly one thing a copywriter needs to prove that he’s efficient at what he does: for the audience to be moved enough to take action.
That’s your keyword: take action.
Copywriters spend crazy amount of hours in their notepads to ensure they understand your needs, wants, aspirations, paint points, dreams, goals and your inner thinking so you click on the articles, watch videos they promote, share the content to your friends, buy a new viral product, try out a new trend, visit an exotic place, eat at a cozy restaurant, or simply follow someone.
Their power affects millions. Have you seen ads on YouTube, TV, movies, TV series, and various websites you visit? Copywriters helped mold them to fit your reality.
Think of the last time you bought something off Amazon. Did you see a post about a hip new product on Twitter or Facebook? Copywriters are the culprit. They typically spend about 80% of the time assembling copy through extensive research to find out how to best present ideas that turn to dollars.
Who can become a copywriter?
Anyone. Majority of writers start off by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in marketing or communications but in today’s advanced world of easily accessible information online, you only need time and effort to gain real world experience and become a certified copywriter sans formal degree.
Some legendary copywriters didn’t have copywriting related degrees yet they still carved their names as the best in this industry.
Think Eugene Schwartz, David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, Frank Kern, Joe Sugarman, Gary Halbert, Brian Clark, Joanna Weibe, Ben Settle, Neville Medhora, Seth Godin, Jon Buchan, Kevin Rogers, Colin Theriot. They are exceptions though. They lie outside the norm. And they did have great working ethics or background that led them to greatness.
Degree holders will have formal training and exposure as well with the opportunity of having heavily experienced professors. It is quite rigorous though and you need to dedicate at least four years of your life just to complete one.
Copywriting newbies who may have degrees in other relevant fields, know how to at least write a little, and or have experience in a completely far out industry can still try to become a legitimate copywriter through online certification programs by active and prominent copywriters of today. Some of the names mentioned above have digital courses to offer if you’re keen.
The key advantage to doing it this way is the relative swiftness of a few weeks compared to years of training. You will still receive the same level of attention but it will be more concise and will probably include weekly assessments (one thing that helps you write more apart from writing often), and catch ups to ensure your progress is on point.
Several career paths include freelancing (relatively easy to land several clients on your own and set your time as you will be working like a business or self-employed individual), an in house copywriter (find a company hiring one to help them promote their products and you work for just this one company) or become affiliate with an ad or marketing agency (you become a resident copywriter who works with different client needs but you don’t get to decide terms or your time).
Clients can vary from direct to consumer brands (think Apple or Walmart) or business to business (Microsoft or the US government).
What is being a copywriter all about?
Creative writing is not copywriting. As a creative writer you can write both fiction and nonfiction so they can go variably from autobiographies to poetry or news articles. It is the broadest term for writers who provide entertainment and information. If you are a creative writer you can choose topics about real world events or write fiction.
Storytelling or fiction writing is not copywriting. Fiction writing involves creative writing but they should not include real people or events. Fiction writers are still creative writers though. If you write fiction you mostly tend to entertain and present fantastical stories.
Copywriters are a special breed of writers whose main objective is to persuade someone to buy products or services. This is our raison d’etre. The main purpose of our working lives.
These core copywriting skills are needed so you can become a successful copywriter as agreed upon by anyone who has sold a centavo:
That’s your keyword: take action.
Copywriters spend crazy amount of hours in their notepads to ensure they understand your needs, wants, aspirations, paint points, dreams, goals and your inner thinking so you click on the articles, watch videos they promote, share the content to your friends, buy a new viral product, try out a new trend, visit an exotic place, eat at a cozy restaurant, or simply follow someone.
Their power affects millions. Have you seen ads on YouTube, TV, movies, TV series, and various websites you visit? Copywriters helped mold them to fit your reality.
Think of the last time you bought something off Amazon. Did you see a post about a hip new product on Twitter or Facebook? Copywriters are the culprit. They typically spend about 80% of the time assembling copy through extensive research to find out how to best present ideas that turn to dollars.
Who can become a copywriter?
Anyone. Majority of writers start off by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in marketing or communications but in today’s advanced world of easily accessible information online, you only need time and effort to gain real world experience and become a certified copywriter sans formal degree.
Some legendary copywriters didn’t have copywriting related degrees yet they still carved their names as the best in this industry.
Think Eugene Schwartz, David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, Frank Kern, Joe Sugarman, Gary Halbert, Brian Clark, Joanna Weibe, Ben Settle, Neville Medhora, Seth Godin, Jon Buchan, Kevin Rogers, Colin Theriot. They are exceptions though. They lie outside the norm. And they did have great working ethics or background that led them to greatness.
Degree holders will have formal training and exposure as well with the opportunity of having heavily experienced professors. It is quite rigorous though and you need to dedicate at least four years of your life just to complete one.
Copywriting newbies who may have degrees in other relevant fields, know how to at least write a little, and or have experience in a completely far out industry can still try to become a legitimate copywriter through online certification programs by active and prominent copywriters of today. Some of the names mentioned above have digital courses to offer if you’re keen.
The key advantage to doing it this way is the relative swiftness of a few weeks compared to years of training. You will still receive the same level of attention but it will be more concise and will probably include weekly assessments (one thing that helps you write more apart from writing often), and catch ups to ensure your progress is on point.
Several career paths include freelancing (relatively easy to land several clients on your own and set your time as you will be working like a business or self-employed individual), an in house copywriter (find a company hiring one to help them promote their products and you work for just this one company) or become affiliate with an ad or marketing agency (you become a resident copywriter who works with different client needs but you don’t get to decide terms or your time).
Clients can vary from direct to consumer brands (think Apple or Walmart) or business to business (Microsoft or the US government).
What is being a copywriter all about?
Creative writing is not copywriting. As a creative writer you can write both fiction and nonfiction so they can go variably from autobiographies to poetry or news articles. It is the broadest term for writers who provide entertainment and information. If you are a creative writer you can choose topics about real world events or write fiction.
Storytelling or fiction writing is not copywriting. Fiction writing involves creative writing but they should not include real people or events. Fiction writers are still creative writers though. If you write fiction you mostly tend to entertain and present fantastical stories.
Copywriters are a special breed of writers whose main objective is to persuade someone to buy products or services. This is our raison d’etre. The main purpose of our working lives.
These core copywriting skills are needed so you can become a successful copywriter as agreed upon by anyone who has sold a centavo:
- Research – As mentioned from the great mind of Eugene Schwartz (Breakthrough advertising) considered one of the best figures in modern copywriting: copywriting is assembled, not written. There are building blocks to copy that needs to be thoroughly researched before being put in place. You have to understand your audience well and their awareness level or market sophistication, demographics, psychographics, geographics and any other data to justify what you write will appeal to the end readers.
- Writing – And while you’re assembling copy, there needs to be some sense in your output. It must be short but informative. You must write like a child’s going to read it so they should understand well. You should avoid jargons and always remember the adage: good writers show, not tell.
- Technical Expertise – copywriters also have great deal of experience with marketing and advertising or even sales because remember our end goal is for someone to ultimately buy what we’re selling. You have to have technical expertise on SEO, marketing trends and platforms, industry news, and new techniques or strategies.
- Creative thinking – while copywriting is not ideally creative writing, your ability to make sure you come up with fresh ideas and headlines for your copy make the results less boring and more likely repeatable.
- Can take criticism really well and loves failure – Scientific advertising from another great mind Claude C. Hopkins told all of us that marketing SHOULD be measured and anything we can quantify, we can always improve. This involves numerous phases of testing what works and not and therefore being in love with the idea of failing! Failures come with criticism not just from your clients but also your end audience and you should embrace all of them like an all-in-one package.
- Analytical mind – sometimes you don’t get super easy brands or services to sell. Most of the time they are rather very complex for certain audiences to relate well. Copywriters then need analytical minds to fully grasp complex features and have the technical know how to translate it to simpler terms so everyone can understand and eventually take action from your copy.
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Start learning copywriting from several different sources
If you choose the route of digital certification through online programs here are the best ways to start learning efficiently:
Follow great copywriters and marketers
I’ve listed some of the best copywriting minds (both past and present) in the first section. Here are some of them again alongside their greatest contributions to copywriting:
Three of the best were highlighted with reference above.
And not to humble brag, but if you speak Cebuano then take my course here: https://bisayangva.com/ it’s in bisaya-english so you can relate much more to your course teacher.
I have other courses in taglish on this website, just go to the VA SUPER COURSE section.
Join copywriting groups and communities online
Network with copywriters and marketers on LinkedIn
You don’t have to go far, many of your ideal clients are already lurking in LinkedIn, branded as the world’s only mainstream professional social media outlet.
Identify your ideal niche and find people who are under the same category or keyword. Send them connections and message with the intent of knowing or becoming acquaintances not a future referral (that’s your ultimate goal though) but if you’ve learned anything so far, you don’t go far with just focusing on your needs.
Any outreach campaign regardless of platform should start with the other person in mind.
Read Copywriting Books
On your to-read list should include essentials like:
Take online copywriting courses
Learn about behavioral psychology
One of the leading names in this field (social psych) is Robert Cialdini who is by the way still a very active professor and academic. His book is on a to-read list. Other experts you can read up on are Dale Carnegie for his influential books. Behavioral Psychology is important because it tells you different motivations that lead people to a sale.
Make a “Swipe File”
Swipe file is simply a collection of winning copy that you either saw in the wild that inspired you or caught your attention. Those two things are important criteria for including some ad copy to your list. Attention grabbing is one of the first things any effective copy MUST DO. This is why there is an emphasis on making sure headlines are short but sweet killers. Without grabbing eyes, your ad is dead on arrival.
Next, it should keep you interested enough to read through and take action or elicit emotion. Effective copy should be able to keep your interest long enough for you to do something about what you have just read or seen.
These folder becomes your go to resource for quickly referencing ad angles, ideas, and next profitable inspiration
If you’re not yet up to it, you can swipe these professionally curated swipe files from Neville Medhora (swipefile.com) and Mike Schauer (swiped.co).
Learn to apply copywriting concepts to other mediums
You need to understand that copywriting can help you land jobs virtually anywhere. You can create copy for OTT/CTV companies to let your ads air online or over tv service that are online. With the likes of giants Netflix and Disney+ finally opening up to ad-supported tiers, there’s always room to grow!
Video sales letter
Video sales letters or commonly VSLs is the current king of content marketing. Do you know anyone not watching Youtube or funny FB videos? Imagine a sales letter (a very long, optimized sales page that enumerates not just benefits but also features of a product or service to achieve a sale) but in video format.
This is groundbreaking when it first went mainstream because you can explain a lot in just a few minutes while consuming 1/4th of the usual page size of a full sales letter. Talk about efficiency?
If you have a good video editing team, premium mic, and great background with no noises, definitely aim shooting one for your clients or your brands to explain new launches or services.
Here’s a sample I love from marketing heavyweights Grant Cardone and Frank Kern disguised as a simple copywriting lesson with a soft pitch toward end CTA
If you choose the route of digital certification through online programs here are the best ways to start learning efficiently:
Follow great copywriters and marketers
I’ve listed some of the best copywriting minds (both past and present) in the first section. Here are some of them again alongside their greatest contributions to copywriting:
- John Emory Powers
- Claude C. Hopkins (Scientific Advertising)
- Eugene Schwartz (Breakthrough Advertising) – His book influenced millions of copywriters who still use his book as personal reference for their work today. He prioritized studying his products thoroughly so his writing becomes informed and effortless.
- Bill Bernbach
- David Ogilvy (Confessions of an Advertising Man) – He is considered the father of advertising even considering he was most influential in the 40s. His ideas transcended his lifetime and many admen and women still use his strategies and one of the best tenets is to do our best work with our current clients first to lure more business. Some of his timeless ads include the repositioning of Dove soap as toilet bar for women with dry skin which they still use today, and the 60 miles an hour ad for Rolls Royce that exude simplicity and facts.
- Gary Halbert (The Boron Letters)
- Albert Lasker (Foot, Cane, and Belding agency)
- Leo Burnett
- Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
- David Abbot (BBDO agency)
- Drayton Bird (Commonsense Direct and Digital Copywriting)
- Joseph Sugarman (The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook)
- Ben Settle (Persuasion Secrets of the World’s Most Charismatic & Influential Villains)
- Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends & Influence People)
- Robert Cialdini (Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) – Psychologist and academic is the leading authority on persuasion marketing. His best selling title has sold over five million copies in 41 languages and he has helped in the winning Obama campaign in 2008. His six principles of persuasion is like a bible for copywriters.
- Jo Foxworth
- Robert Collier (The Robert Collier Letter Book)
- Eddie Shleyner (Very Good Copy)
- Alex Cattoni
- Neville Medhora (Copywritingcourse.com)
- Robert Bly (The Big Book of Words that Sell)
- Brian Clark (Copyblogger)
- Mary Wells Lawrence
- Julian Koenig
- Joanna Wiebe (Copyhackers)
- Colin Theriot (Cult of Copy)
- Jacob McMillen
- Jim Edwards
- Kevin Rogers
- Seth Godin
- Jon Buchan (Charm Offensive)
- Derek Halpern (Social Triggers)
Three of the best were highlighted with reference above.
And not to humble brag, but if you speak Cebuano then take my course here: https://bisayangva.com/ it’s in bisaya-english so you can relate much more to your course teacher.
I have other courses in taglish on this website, just go to the VA SUPER COURSE section.
Join copywriting groups and communities online
- Cult of Copy (Free Private Facebook Group) – Hosted by Colin Theriot, a leading copywriting coach, the group spawned two others called Cult of Copy Colosseum (for brutally honest feedback) and Cult of Copy Job Board (for job postings). Colin regularly hosts paid and free training and writes daily devotionals (newsletters) for tips and hacks. It currently has a combined membership of almost 100,000 people combined.
- The A-List Copywriter (Free Private Facebook Group) – Helmed by famed copywriter Ning Li who is an expert in doing premium VSL (video sales letters). He is also the copy chief of PaleoHacks, an 8 figure cookbook brand. It has 19,000+ members and growing.
- Charm Offensive (Free Private FB group) – Jon Buchan who perfected his crazy unorthodox approach to cold pitching clients with a highly engaged 16,000 plus people and still growing.
Network with copywriters and marketers on LinkedIn
You don’t have to go far, many of your ideal clients are already lurking in LinkedIn, branded as the world’s only mainstream professional social media outlet.
Identify your ideal niche and find people who are under the same category or keyword. Send them connections and message with the intent of knowing or becoming acquaintances not a future referral (that’s your ultimate goal though) but if you’ve learned anything so far, you don’t go far with just focusing on your needs.
Any outreach campaign regardless of platform should start with the other person in mind.
Read Copywriting Books
On your to-read list should include essentials like:
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – Your manager may still be recommending this as a must read despite being written almost 100 years ago simply because its one of the best selling books of all time and its classic wisdom is always fresh
- The Boron Letters – his direct response knowledge is legend and these letters were stories laden with life and business lessons
- Ogilvy on Advertising – pioneer on advertising and spawned successful agencies that still run today in every corner of the globe
Take online copywriting courses
- Colin Theriot – has courses, live trainings, impromptu calls, and mentoring all from his website The Cult of Copy and numerous fb groups.
- Neville Medhora – His membership site copywritingcourse.com started as a small cohort that grew big and influential in the long run. Neville helped grow Appsumo into a juggernaut in the SaaS industry. He promises continuous feedback exercises for a year with video on demand lessons to go.
- Joanna Weibe – from her Copyhackers fame came Copy School, her on demand video trainings are coupled with widely attended events with affordable payment plans to boost.
Learn about behavioral psychology
One of the leading names in this field (social psych) is Robert Cialdini who is by the way still a very active professor and academic. His book is on a to-read list. Other experts you can read up on are Dale Carnegie for his influential books. Behavioral Psychology is important because it tells you different motivations that lead people to a sale.
Make a “Swipe File”
Swipe file is simply a collection of winning copy that you either saw in the wild that inspired you or caught your attention. Those two things are important criteria for including some ad copy to your list. Attention grabbing is one of the first things any effective copy MUST DO. This is why there is an emphasis on making sure headlines are short but sweet killers. Without grabbing eyes, your ad is dead on arrival.
Next, it should keep you interested enough to read through and take action or elicit emotion. Effective copy should be able to keep your interest long enough for you to do something about what you have just read or seen.
These folder becomes your go to resource for quickly referencing ad angles, ideas, and next profitable inspiration
If you’re not yet up to it, you can swipe these professionally curated swipe files from Neville Medhora (swipefile.com) and Mike Schauer (swiped.co).
Learn to apply copywriting concepts to other mediums
You need to understand that copywriting can help you land jobs virtually anywhere. You can create copy for OTT/CTV companies to let your ads air online or over tv service that are online. With the likes of giants Netflix and Disney+ finally opening up to ad-supported tiers, there’s always room to grow!
Video sales letter
Video sales letters or commonly VSLs is the current king of content marketing. Do you know anyone not watching Youtube or funny FB videos? Imagine a sales letter (a very long, optimized sales page that enumerates not just benefits but also features of a product or service to achieve a sale) but in video format.
This is groundbreaking when it first went mainstream because you can explain a lot in just a few minutes while consuming 1/4th of the usual page size of a full sales letter. Talk about efficiency?
If you have a good video editing team, premium mic, and great background with no noises, definitely aim shooting one for your clients or your brands to explain new launches or services.
Here’s a sample I love from marketing heavyweights Grant Cardone and Frank Kern disguised as a simple copywriting lesson with a soft pitch toward end CTA
VSLs usually work best for SaaS companies and those that offer services as it helps convert complex mechanisms to something anyone can instantly follow (for example Grammarly being an all-around tool for writers instead of just a spell-checker which was a common misconception)
Storyboarding User Generated Content (UGC) Mashups
UGC is a style of marketing that has shown the most potential with the advent of short form video heavy platforms like Tiktok and Instagram. UGC as it implies are short video clips generated from actual users of products (mostly DTCs) but some SaaS are also vying champs in this campaign strat.
There are UGC agencies you can trust to help you generate the ads in exchange for products or paid by clip (sponsored). UGCs are trending because they feel authentic. Most people don’t like being advertised to so the more genuine looking folks showcasing products in their usual habitat get the most attention especially for millennial and Gen Z audience.
Copywriters can help create creator briefs and storyboards that have copywriting tenets baked in: emotional hooks, slippery sloping interest based body, and impactful CTAs.
Radio and Scripts
Podcast and Youtube videos are the biggest types of content selling millions of products and enjoyed by millions around the globe and both categories require that you provide an intelligible script that helps keep readers attention throughout an episode.
Copywriters are experts when it comes to grabbing attention, keeping people interested, and converting to sales. And yes radio is still alive but its user base (the older generation) are slowly fading and whatever’s left of the successful mainstays are now present not just in the usual radio sets but also online (e.g. Pandora). EVERYTHING IS ONLINE!
Get a job as a copywriter
You can get jobs as an agency writer where you don’t need to find your own clients as the agency sends work to you (different ones every time so it never goes stale) or be hired as an in house copywriter by a huge corporate firm to write all their marketing materials. There’s always the freelancing route or self-employed folk who gets to choose the clients you can work with.
What can help you land employment faster?
Create a portfolio or websiteIts relatively easy to do this by using free tools such as Canva or Wix. You can even start with linktree and just list down a way for people to contact you for a discovery/getting to know you call. It is important to input your best work written somewhere and productized services as much as possible to make sure there’s an anchor price point anyone can look into. Your chance of closing deals who see prices right away is higher than when things are vague.
Analyze ad copy from popular brands and write about it on LinkedIn
Harry Dry from MarketingExamples does this well. He dissects some of the worst and best ads he comes across with and paint a story of how marketing ideas can help make it better. He grew his newsletter from virtually nothing by creating a website with a list of his detailed notes. Visit the link and be amazed! Learn from the guy, subscribe to his list, and emulate his every move.
Apply for copywriting jobs at marketing agenciesThe best thing about going the agency route is there’s not just plenty of them in the market, you don’t even have to market a lot if you’re pressed for time. They get you the clients and you just start bleeding ink on your drafts. You just write. Famous marketing agencies abound in job sites such as Indeed and LinkedIn. You just have to know which keywords to use such as copywriters, copyhackers, copywriting expert, certified copywriter. There’s a free google tool to help you with relevant keywords.
You don’t need experience to get your first copywriting job
Surprised? Don’t be. One of the best tricks newbies with no experience can do to get jobs regardless of niche is to volunteer for free work. But not for long. Use it as your launching pad. Approach your network with businesses and have a fun agreement for a few weeks of content with the explicit value exchange of testimonials and portfolio packing.
Another ingenious way is to take advantage of your relevant skills. Hiring managers may not care much if you don’t have direct copywriting experience if you have writing experience elsewhere and or marketing and sales heavy background. These elements are what makes a copywriter super special and irreplaceable in any team.
And of course a knack to learn more. This attitude could be a deal breaker so be ready to be a sponge, ready to absorb new information every time.
Freelance copywriting vs marketing agency copywriting jobs
The best pros I can see for freelancing route are as follows
- You own your time
- You can easily outsource as long as you got things covered legally both ways
- You get to choose the type of clients to work with
- You get to choose the type of work clients send your way
- Can choose to be location-independent
While the cons are:
- You need to market consistently and without cease. Losing one client would jeopardize your entire operation so you need consistent flow of leads
- You need to be adept at sales funnels to help nurture leads from start to finish as not everyone you reach out to or reach you will instantly close
- You need to have a sales closer’s mindset
- Heavy spend on advertising platforms or marketing campaigns
Marketing agency job pros are:
- Your job is secured. Even if one client goes away, the agency finds a replacement for you
- You don’t need to constantly market your own services
- There are a lot of companies to choose from regardless of country
- Mostly office based but many are now adjusting to hybrid
While the cons are:
- You don’t have a say on what clients to take even for products you do not like or don’t feel interested about
- You have no say about types of content as long as its assigned and you have proper training
- While there are a lot of agency, their job postings which are mostly shown in the public tend to also garner a lot of attention which results to high level and number of competing applicants
Which path do you think works best for you?
Becoming a Copywriter Recap
Becoming a copywriter in today’s advanced world is getting easier but it doesn’t mean there are no sacrifices on your way. You have to win great network of friends, start writing more to practice, get expert feedback, read up on historical figures and recent greats, and understand a whole new world of terms.
Copywriters just beginning in the trade should be confident in their research skills and there’s magic in knowing your audience really well that helps smoothen out your entire writing experience or as Schwartz calls it: assembling copy.
Several Career paths abound and the more you put the other person’s need ahead of yours, you just discovered the most important gem in all of copywriting.
