Copywriting Online: What Is It and Is It the Right Path for Your Success?
Copywriting uses the power of your words to attract the right audience.
I had no idea what copywriting was. I definitely heard the term. Peggy from Mad Men, is a copywriter. But what does that mean exactly?
Even if Don Draper isn’t breathing over your shoulder, it seems like a tough job.
But copywriting has changed a lot and writing copy online is very different. People are seeing fewer commercials due to online streaming. Few people read magazines or newspapers anymore.
Online copywriting is vital to all businesses today because being successful requires having an online presence. The need for digital marketing strategies from copywriters isn’t going away anytime soon.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting isn’t coming up with clever lines to convince someone to buy a product. The type of copywriting they did in the 60s doesn’t work anymore. People can spot obvious sales tactics.
Today, we want to trust the brands we buy from. We want brands/products that speak to us.
Copywriting, especially online, is about creating engaging content. Content that captures the attention of your target audience and motivates them to take action.
In other words, writing that excites the right people to interact with a product, person, page, etc.
Instead of casting a wide generic net and catching whatever fish get dragged in. It’s casting a small specific type of net to draw in your type of fish.
Still sound scary? It did to me too.
Some people are born with the ability to understand people’s needs and motivations. And then know how to appeal to them. I don’t have that skill! And I don’t like feeling manipulative.
But copywriting isn’t as complicated as it seems.
There are ways to do it ethically. And if you are working for yourself, you can choose what companies you work with. If you feel they don’t align with your values, you don’t have to work with them.
What if you aren’t a strong writer?
Not a problem! You can build a successful and stable business even if you don’t have a degree. Or strong writing skills. There will be a market for you, it’s just a matter of finding it.
Think about the brands you like the most. Do they have perfect grammar? What about influencers you like? I’m sure they don’t talk like a college professor.
Copywriting today is about being real and relatable.
It’s that conversation you have with your best friend when you find an awesome product. When you excitedly describe a new restaurant that blew your mind. Or the show we stayed up all night to finish.
You describe why you love it and why they have to check it out. You aren’t following the rules of grammar.
Sometimes having more education makes copywriting harder. The more education we have, the more engrained all the “rules” about writing are. And it can be hard to break those habits. But that is exactly how you connect to your audience.
What kinds of projects are copywriters hired for?
When you write copy online there are different kinds of projects. Here are some of the most common:
Blogs
Website (the words, not the art)
Landing Pages & Sales pages
Emails
Product Descriptions
Opt-Ins (pages that request email addresses to build a customer base).
Social Media Ads
Yes, that is a lot! But you can choose what kind of copy you want to write. Most freelancers have certain types of copy they prefer and others they don’t like. You can decide if you only want to write blogs or social media ads.
What else do copywriters need to know?
The main thing that any aspiring copywriter has to learn is how to appeal to search engines like Google.
It is one thing to appeal to your audience but how do you get your work in front of their eyes?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the largest piece you need to learn to become an effective copywriter. There are plenty of courses out there to learn about SEO, both paid and free.
There are also a lot of copywriting courses to help you get started. I am going to talk about the one I went through, Write Your Way to Freedom, later this week.
The Wrap Up
Those are the three main parts of being a copywriter:
* Being relatable and engaging without sounding pushing or fake.
* Encouraging and exciting people to check out what the client is offering.
* Understanding SEO and how to work with search engines so your clients are being seen by the right people.
Does the idea of using your creativity with strategy and influence appeal to you? Do you want to help companies you believe in connect to their audience? Then online copywriting is definitely worth considering.
But you should have more questions at this point.
What are the downsides? How to start? How long does it take? Out-of-pocket costs? Earning potential?
There is too much for one post so this will be a series of posts addressing these different subjects. If you have other specific questions you can comment below and I will do my best to include them in future posts.
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Read my intro to this series of posts here