Copywriting

Copywriting is a profession that means different things to different people, but this does not mean that each definition is different. What you use copy writing for, or how you function in the copy writing profession will be specific to your niche, business, or career. Business use copy writing to communicate with their prospective customers and their target audiences. The copywriter is the person the business will employ to enact as their communicator for the front-line. Business are looking for copywriters to write what is known as copy, or text which will persuade their audience into purchasing product.

Essentially, effective copy writing involves a process of writing and creating content that is promotional in nature in order to market ideas, products, services, or websites. A web writer may be a copy writer if they are writing content for a web site. A freelance writer may be a copy writer if they are writing articles or press releases to promote a business. Every copywriter is different, but the ultimate goal is the same. The goal in copy writing is to persuade consumers to take actions specific to the business or website. This means you want the audience reading your material to buy a product, subscribe to the websites mailing list, or become a member of that business or website.

Copywriting is a field so broad that any one that wants to become a freelance writer can do so if they learn how to market themselves, how to target themselves in their niche, and what kind of copy writer they want to be.

Copy writers come in many different flavors, and whether you are a business looking for one, or a writer looking to become one, you need to know what you want. Hiring a professional writer to create copy, or hanging out a shingle and saying you are a writer is not going to cut it. As a business you need to be very specific about your needs in order to hire the best freelance writer that can accommodate you. As such, in order to grow your business as a freelance writer, you need to know precisely what you want to do, and what you are capable of in order to attract the appropriate clientele.

The two main types of copy writers are content writers and direct response copywriters. The content writer is going to be a good writer that has a talent for writing specific pieces to the chosen topic and can write on general information. They will be skilled at research gathering, and writing good quality pieces that flow and provide a nice story. In some content pieces, the initiative to purchase or buy a product may be offered, but that is seldom. When you read a good piece from a content writer, your reaction will be ‘what a great story!’ or ‘what a great article!’. The writer or purchaser of this writing wants you to keep that intrinsic emotion and go with the flow. In other words, if you read this piece in a magazine, the editor will have chosen this copy writer in the hopes that after reading this feature piece, you will either subscribe to the magazine or continue to read the magazine. The intent to sell is not overt, but the desire is always there. If you read good copy on a website, the same outcome is anticipated. The webmaster is hoping by placing good copy on his website that you will keep coming back, but is not outright asking you to purchase anything. If you are not a good salesman, but a good writer, content writing may be the kind of copywriting that you are looking for.

Direct response copywriters on the other hand are very talented with marketing and sales directives. They will specialize in direct mail, sales copy, and advertising work. Their intent with their writing is to reach an audience and motivate them to buy a product. A direct response copywriter typically makes more money than a content copywriter, but their business is designed to make the business money through direct sales that happen immediately upon being exposed to their final product. This final product can be anything like advertising spots on the radio or in print, sales letters, or direct mailings to a target buying audience.

If you are considering a career as a freelance writer, web writer, or copy writer, there are many advantages to it. The most obvious advantage to being a freelance copywriter is that you usually do not have a direct employer, but you work for yourself. As a freelance writer, you make your own hours and you accept the projects that you want to. With this flexibility, you do the work that you want to, as opposed to working for a company that is always giving you directives and assignments.

Job flexibility is the most attractive advantage to a career in copy writing. Not only do you have the flexibility of choosing your own work, but you very often have the flexibility to choose your own hours as well. With every project you will have an expected deadline, however, when you choose to meet that is up to you. You could work at night if your schedule allows this. You can work on weekends and enjoy some free time during the week if you want. Flexibility of time is another very appealing facet to a career in copy writing.

A good freelance writer or copy writer also has the potential to make a lot of money as well. In fact, if you are skilled and motivated, it is true that you can make six figures a year. The key to making the kind of money that you want, is knowing how to work the business, market yourself as an effective writer, and getting the jobs that you want. This will all come with time and practice, but if you want it, you only need to work the right way to get it.

Research is the most important element in the job of a freelance writer or copy writer, because if you do not know what you write about you will fail. You could be the best copy writer with the most talent, but if you do not know your product or service that you are writing about, it won’t mean a thing. Research then is the most critical phase in any writing job, and if you do this well, your writing will reflect this. It doesn’t matter if you are writing advertising copy or content pieces, you need to conduct effective research either way.
The more you know about the product, service, or piece you are writing about, the better your writing will be. If you are writing advertising copy, you need to understand the product you are selling better than the people that will be buying it. Know it inside and out, try it, use it, and get a feel for why this product will be better than other products. You also need to know who is going to buy this product. Again, get to know those people better than they know themselves. That is how you are going to sell them what you are selling. When you know them, you will know what it takes for them to buy the product. Every word you write will be written with the intention for them to buy.

If you are writing content for a magazine or website, you still need to do research. You will need to research the topic you are writing about fully and completely. If you are a good writer, you will also research the audience of the magazine or website. Who will be reading this content? What are they like? What is their demographic? How old or they and how often do they read this material? Know your audience, and your content will follow.

The biggest objective in copywriting is to create a response from the reader. How you do that is to give them a feeling of urgency. When you are writing advertising or marketing copy, you want your readers to be moved by what you say, and you want to use action words to do so. You will see phrases in sales copy sound a lot like ‘free gift with purchase’ or ‘limited time offer’ or ‘buy now’. Think back to how many times you bought something just because you saw those phrases. These phrases move the customer to act before it is too late.

When you are writing content or feature pieces, you still want your audience to be moved, you still want them to experience urgency when they read your work. Why? Because you want them to keep reading your material. If they read this article and move on to another magazine or website, you have not made the material urgent enough. Your content should urge the readers to take action by subscribing to a web site, subscribing to a magazine, or even urge them to look for more work you have done. You can do this by making your content personal. Use emotion in your copywriting to create emotion in your readers. If you personally are moved by your own writing, that is a good sign. Use your emotions to create the same emotions in your readers so that they are moved, urged to take action wherever they are reading your work.

There are two kinds of copywriter for the web writer, and those are content writing and writing for search engine optimization. This section will focus on content writing. Content writing for the Internet usually involves creating content for a website. You will see content writing in blogs all over the web, or the material you read when you arrive at a home page is the content of the web. In many cases, a writer was hired to write that content to ensure you arrived there. If you are a business owner about to go on the Internet, a good content writer can make all the difference in the success of your website. The catch phrase today is ‘content is king’. In other words, the best websites are the ones with the best content.

When you are a web writer writing content pieces, you need to fashion your work to the reader, and this works several ways. This article has already talked about the kind of writing you need to do in order to move your reader, but this section will focus on the readability of your article. Content pieces on the Internet need to be easy to read. You do not want to write in paragraph form, but have a piece that is easily broken up with one or two sentences a piece. This does not mean you have to compromise the integrity of flow, but just make the piece easier to read. Internet readers have been researched to show they are more scanners than readers. The more broken up your piece is, the likelier they will read it in its entirety and the message that you want will get across.

Your pieces will also be a little shorter for the same reason. Internet readers do not spend a lot of time on websites if they don’t have to, so as a web writer, you need to grab their attention fast. How you do this is through short pieces that are easily read. This will take practice, but if you stay in the field, it will become second nature to you.

The copywriter that does web writing with search engine optimization in mind is another kind of copy writer. How search engine optimization works is around the concept of keywords. Webmasters know that readers and, ultimately buyers, go to the major search engines and type in words that lead them to the web sites they are interested in. These words are known as keywords. The better the website, the higher they will be ranked in the search engines, and the likelier they are to be the first website you go to when you punch in these keywords.

Given this, this type of web writing entails writing your pieces around specific topics or keywords. If you are writing for a website that sells fashion for example, you will be writing with the keywords that the web master wants you to use. These may be fashion, fashion designer, indie fashion, or anything pertaining to that particular website. So an article on fashion may require that 3 to 5 keywords be implemented a certain number of times in your web writing. While it seems that keyword writing may be difficult, it is actually the most common form of web writing there is. This will not compromise the integrity of your work, it is just another practice that takes getting used to. If you want to be a web writer for search engine optimization, you can do very well at it once you get the hang of it. Incorporating keywords into an article and still maintaining good flow and good readability are all qualities of a very good web writer that is copywriting for search engine optimization.

A good copywriter is not just a good writer. They will have spent a great deal of time establishing their business as a solid freelance writer so that they can attract more business. Being a freelance writer means that you need to work as your own business. Just saying that you are a writer is not enough. If prospective clients view you as a professional business that you operate on your own, you will not only attract more clients, but you will earn more money. The more professional kind of writer you are, the more money you can charge.

Your business will need an established portfolio of writing samples. This is what you will show prospective clients when they want to know what your writing is like. Start this now or as early as possible. Even if you have not been published before, have a few pieces in your portfolio of things you have actually written. You will need to maintain this portfolio at least once a week to ensure all of your latest work is in there. It does not look professional to show a client that your most recent work was five years ago. Keep updating your portfolio.

You also want to have an established fee schedule and set of policies. If you are attracting large clients, you will want to set up some contracts and forms to protect both yourself and your client in any event. How and when you collect pay is up to you, and what kind of contracts you establish is also up to you. There are plenty of resources on the Internet that can help you establish these. The more professional aspects you implement into your copywriting career, the likelier you are to be a success at it.

In turn, if you are a business looking for a copywriter, these are all things you want to look for.

The only downside to the business of being a freelance writer is that you are responsible for finding your own work. While this is also its greatest benefit, you not only have the job of writing, but you have the job of finding the job. Even the most long-term contracts do not always end up being permanent, so the best copywriter is the one that is always marketing him or herself to potential clients. Keep on top of job sites and sites designed for the freelance writer if you think work might be short. Also, construct your workload so that you have time to look for work. Marketing yourself and getting jobs is now part of your work day.

Most copywriters are good at selling something, it is in fact why they are in the business and why they are good at what they do. To this end, the product you need to sell the most often is yourself. Stay involved in writer’s markets, forums, and communities where you can connect with others in the field. Yes, they will be your competition, but they are also your network to make more contacts. Perhaps they will run across a job that is not their niche? If you have an established rapport with them, you may get a client out of it. Also, you would be surprised how many potential clients hang around writer’s communities looking for their next copy writer. When you work for yourself, you always need to be networking as you never know when your next contact could be money in the bank for you.