Are you new to copywriting? Wondering what copywriting is, how to learn it, how much you can make as a copywriter, and how to get first copywriting gig? Stay with me. In this blog post I'm going to answer 15 questions about copywriting. Ready to get started?
Let's go!
To sell their products and services, businesses need to get their message out there. The act of writing this message is copywriting. Copywriting is an essential element of marketing, advertising and sales. You can say that copywriting is a form of persuasion in writing.
Copy needs to inspire people to take action – make a purchase, book a class, click on a link, make a donation.
Writing copy that makes people act is both art and science. It's one of the most powerful skills you can master.
You can see examples of copywriting everywhere: in your Facebook news feed, in your email inbox, in a local newspaper, on a billboard on your way to work. Copywriting can be found online, in print, on TV, on the radio, even in book stores – it's everywhere.
Check out my Instagram page for some great examples of copywriting.
SEO copywriting is the art of writing text that uses specific keywords to attract traffic from search engines. For example, if you need to write a sales page that is supposed to attract traffic from Google, you should pick out a keyword that you want to target with this copy so that when a person is searching for this keyword, they could find your sales page.
A copywriter is a master of copy. They write copy for websites, landing pages, Facebook ads, emails, social media with a purpose to convince people to take action: sign up for a newsletter, register for a webinar, make a purchase. But copywriting isn't the only thing that copywriters do. Their other activities include:
And more.
If you want to learn more about what copywriters do, check out my blog post: What Does a Copywriter Do?
Copywriters write copy that sells. Content writers create content that inspires, educates, entertains, or informs. Content writers are usually hired to create long-form content such as blog articles, ebooks, whitepapers, and case studies. Copywriters are hired to create copy for sales pages, emails, ads, and other marketing materials designed to sell products or services.
Learn more: Copywriter vs Content Writer, Technical Writer, Blogger, UX Writer and More: Who to Hire?
I'd say the following seven:
Read also: What Skills a Copywriter Needs to Succeed in Marketing
Copywriters can be paid differently depending on the industry they work in, where they live, and how they charge. A new copywriter could make $25 per hour, or about 10 cents per word. I wouldn't suggest charging per word for copywriting, though—charging per word reduces your creative value.
You can charge per word for writing content such as blog posts. But if you're creating copy for a sales page, for example, I would recommend that you charge a fixed price per project. To define that fixed price, try to list all the activities that go into writing a sale page and how much time you spend on each of these activities. Then, multiply hours by your hourly rate ($25, $35, $50 – it's up to you), and you'll get your fixed price.
I believe that anything can make you rich if you're willing to put in the effort. A great thing about copywriting is that it can be a side hustle, a full-time job, or a business. At the start of your career you need to be focusing on learning how to do your job really well, because if you're great at what you do, money will follow.
In my opinion, copywriting is a great career! Why? Look:
Watch my YouTube video: Why Copywriting Is a Great Career
Great copywriters are a hot commodity and will continue to be in high demand. Every business needs good copy for their websites, landing pages, product descriptions, sales emails and ads. They need copywriters because copywriting directly impacts their revenue.
I'd say copywriting is a better fit for people with degrees in Journalism, Marketing, Languages or Communications. But you don't necessarily need to have a degree in those fields to become a copywriter. Anyone can become one. All you need is love for writing and willingness to learn the craft.
It's not easy to learn copywriting. It takes a lot of hard work, experimentation, and dedication. Learning copywriting rules isn't that hard, what's hard is understanding the market and the customer. This requires years of experience.
You can learn basic rules in like three months, but getting really good might take a lifetime.
I'd suggest that you check out some courses first. There are a ton of them on the internet. My recommendation is 10X Sales Pages by Copy Hackers. It's very practical, it gives you a bunch of handy guides and tutorials and it's really worth it.
You can also practice copywriting by enrolling on internship programs offered by companies that hire copywriters. You can check out those on some popular job sites in your country.
You can also get my book From Reads to Leads. It has 40 copywriting exercises with every chapter to help ramp up your writing skills.
Read also: How to get your first writing gig
Watch it on YouTube:
I hope this blog post helped you get the answers to some of the questions you might have about copywriting. Thanks for reading and subscribing to my YouTube channel.
On Friday, just before I was about to wrap up my workday and leave the office for the weekend, one of my clients sent me a message to Slack: "Have you seen the new ChatGPT? I wonder how it can be used in our SEO strategy…" I was like, "What's a ChatGPT?" (I'd never heard of it.) Read this article to learn what ChatGPT is and how you can use it to create content.
Open a fresh Google Doc and flex those typing fingers. In this blog post, I'm going to break down how to write high-converting landing page content and show lots of examples to inspire you. Let's get started.
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