Words are one of the best ways to deliver messages persuasively to the audience, so the need for a copywriter job increases with time, who can write ads in a way that enhances the audience's better communication with the brand on whose behalf the advertisement speaks.
With time, specialization in copywriting has increased, so there are specialists in writing ads for social media or for a specific platform, others who write television ads, and others who specialize in radio ads or print ads, and there are many fields in copywriting as well, there are specialists in writing travel ads and others In writing car ads and other fields.
table of contents:
- Who is a copywriter?
- Difference between a content writer and a copywriter
- The importance of the job of a copywriter
- Job Copywriter Responsibilities
- Copywriter skills
- Characteristics of the copywriter job
- Copywriter Job Challenges
- How to become a copywriter?
- Characteristics of a professional copywriter
Who is an Advertising Copywriter?
Copywriting is one of the most important elements in all forms of marketing and advertising, and copywriting consists of words, whether written or spoken, used to try to urge people to take action after reading or hearing them so copywriters try to make people feel, think, or respond in a certain way with the aim of Increase Sales.
A copywriter, also known as a copywriter, can be defined as a professional person who develops content used to market and promote goods and services, as he writes advertising texts, marketing and sales slogans that appear in magazines, television ads, and ads for all other media.
The advertising environment is fast-paced and evolving, as copywriters produce advertising copies under tight deadlines, and they usually work as freelancers for a variety of advertising companies or work for one company from the company’s headquarters, and the copywriter can also work from home and manage his time and projects that he works them better.
There is an increasing demand for copywriting with the increasing importance of writing advertising content, and its impact on the revenues of a large number of companies. To become an outstanding copywriter, you must be able to create customized content with a tone, grammar, and message appropriate to a variety of clients, and have the skill to study the target audience and choose the best tone and style to address it.
The difference between a content writer and a copywriter in e-marketing
All companies and brands need to write in different types to introduce customers to their activities and what they offer, whether it is writing content or writing ads. An e-marketing campaign is not devoid of the element of writing, depending on its purposes and objectives, and here it is worth differentiating between the job of the content writer and the job of the copywriter.
First: the content writer
A content writer's job involves creating textual content to educate or entertain readers, and it may lead to increased sales, but it is not the primary purpose of writing content, but you want to educate or entertain your readers by creating valuable, high-quality, and useful content for them.
Examples of content writing are e-books, email newsletters, news articles, educational articles, case studies, social media posts, and blog articles.
Second: copywriter
A copywriter's job involves creating textual content to persuade readers to take an action related to your business' sales process or stage. For example, if you are trying to sell a product, you will need to convince potential customers that it is worth buying, and if you are trying to get more phone calls, you will need to convince them that your business is worth calling you.
Copywriting focuses on the art of persuading readers to take some kind of sales-related action, and it is not an easy task that anyone can perform without training or practice and learning, so the demand for copywriters and copywriters is constantly increasing, and the job is becoming more specialized, as there is a copywriter for social media, And an advertising writer specializing in a specific field, and other specializations and divisions.
Examples of copywriting include writing landing pages, PPC ads, CPM ads, social media ads, writing product pages, writing online store ads, email marketing ads, and SMS ads.
The importance of the job of a copywriter
It is necessary to choose a professional and distinguished copywriter to perform the work in your company, for several reasons, the most prominent of which are:
- It builds the company's image in front of the target audience.
- Forms a strong emotional bond between your audience and your brand.
- It brings out the unifying brand personality and anchors it in the minds of the audience.
- Differentiate your brand from competitors and create a strong competitive advantage.
- It helps you improve your visibility on search engines with high-quality advertising content.
- Shows the information you want to communicate compellingly.
- It urges the public to take action.
- Avoid the negatives of poor ad copywriting on your brand image.
Responsibilities and job duties of a copywriter
The job a copywriter has a major role in the image and reputation of the company or brand he represents, and his job duties include the following:
1. Social media content writing
Content authors must produce content that shows what the client's brand looks like and appears in a voice and tone appropriate to the nature of the clients.
2. Cooperate with most of the organization's members
Where copywriters work with many people in the fields of public relations, marketing, customer service, sales, and others, to obtain feedback on the result of previous ads, and to know what the customer needs and rejects.
3. Producing content that is free from linguistic and grammatical errors
The content should be of high quality, consistent with the company's style book, values, and standards, and free from errors that negatively affect your brand image.
4. Produce creative and compelling content
Tailor the key points you want to make and communicate to your audience, transforming them from a creative summary into compelling, action-driven copy for the customer.
5. Manage multiple projects
A copywriter usually works on more than one project at a time, so work on juggling projects with deadlines, and breaking them into short deadlines, so you can organize and meet the work.
6. Suggest constants and basics for publication
One of the roles of the copywriter is to present key concepts for the advertising content to be published, and to define and articulate them along with the basic strategy of the company's leadership.
Skills a copywriter should have
Apart from training courses and university degrees, the copywriter must have several basic personal and practical skills that make him qualified to perform his job to the fullest, and these skills include:
First: Creativity
Copywriting is all about creativity, so any copywriter needs to have it, and it's what defines any copywriter's finished job.
Second: Social media skills
The copywriter must have a solid understanding of search engine optimization concepts, an understanding of the nuances of writing on social media platforms, the characteristics of each platform, and the nature of the audience spread on each social media over other means.
Third: the ability to learn
The job of a copywriter may not require many requirements at first, but it needs more work and effort during its performance. A successful copywriter cannot stop learning, gaining more experience, and being familiar with new things in the labor market.
You can develop this skill by obtaining an internship in the creative department of one of the advertising and marketing agencies, and you must try all types of work within these departments, write by telling short and long stories, write advertisements for all media and in various fields, and then search for Specialization.
Fourth: communication skills
The copywriter must be able to communicate well with clients and co-workers, to be able to produce the best advertising content by building a complete and clear picture of the client's needs, interests, and tendencies.
Fifth: attention to detail
It refers to all the details that lead to the satisfaction of the customer and his enjoyment of his full experience with the brand. And just as every profession and job has advantages and positives that make you want to practice it today, it also has challenges and obstacles that you can face. The job of a copywriter has advantages and obstacles. According to your personal nature and preferences, you can identify the advantages that are important to you and are necessary for you during work, and you can identify the negatives and disadvantages that you can adapt to or overcome their difficulty.
Characteristics of the copywriter job
1. Too much work
All institutions and companies need a copywriter or copywriter, as the work of any company is not devoid of the need to make an advertisement on any electronic platform or any media, whether audio, visual, or written, and any company needs a professional copywriter to create its website and all Regarding writing in the company to achieve a greater return.
Not everyone can write to achieve a selling or marketing goal, as in advertisements, and business owners and projects are not free to write advertisements, so they often seek the help of a distinguished and specialized copywriter to achieve their goals accurately, perform the work efficiently, and save time and effort.
Therefore, you find that the tasks of the copywriter are multiple, and there is a great demand for them, and the demand for them increases from year to year, so they have a high demand in European and Gulf countries, and they have an average demand in the Middle East, and the demand for them is still increasing.
2. Business diversification
The job of a copywriter is not a routine job in which the order of the workflow is constantly repeated, but quite the opposite, as the media and platforms you work on vary, as do the types of ads that you can write and compose.
Therefore, it is difficult to feel bored while performing this job, as you can also write in various fields, such as health, travel, education, training, products of various types and prices, and writing about various services, even advertising writing in politics and economics.
This does not mean that you write in all media and fields, you may need a period to experience writing in all fields, and then choose one or two fields to specialize in, as well as you can try writing for all media and platforms, and then you specialize in one or more mediums or platforms, to become distinguished and professional in write in.
Each media outlet and platform has specific characteristics and different characteristics for the audience of each medium, which makes the writer who is specialized and proficient in studying his audience and the medium or platform on which he works, the most professional and achieves great sales and marketing goals, as he is proficient in choosing the words that most influence them.
3. Creativity
The profession of a copywriter is distinguished by its dependence on creativity, and the demand for it increases every year more than its predecessor, and its importance, creativity, and diversity increase. As a decade ago, work on social media was not as intense as it is today, as companies hire specialized people to write for them.
4. Flexibility
There are two types of work: full-time and freelance, available as a copywriter, and each has advantages. What distinguishes self-employment is the extreme flexibility in choosing a place of work, arranging the work schedule, working on projects that converge with your interests and touch your passion, and distancing from projects that are far from the angle of your interests.
5. Develop skills
One of the advantages of the job of a copywriter is that any person who is diligent and has a strong will can work in it, as it depends on skills more than it depends on university degrees, as few companies require obtaining a university degree, and certificates are not the criterion for the superiority of one copywriter over another, but Skills that develop with practice and learning.
Copywriter Job Challenges
1. Stress
All professions must be accompanied by a fair amount of fatigue and exhaustion, but the stress associated with the copywriter profession has many aspects that result from the writing and copying process for a long time and the continuous review of one piece, as one piece of content and ads may take many days to be optimally produced.
In addition to what accompanies writing and copying on the computer, and the physical exhaustion that follows due to sitting for long periods and moving the wrist and fingers for long and repeated periods, it also affects the eyesight in the long run, as the job depends mainly on using the computer and writing, and sometimes extracting ideas on paper.
2. Solitude
Most copywriters and copywriters work best when they are alone, even if the work team consists of several people and they brainstorm in some meetings, but the creativity of the individuals themselves usually appears while they are alone, and they need isolation for a good period until the completion of the work to the fullest. Face. With increasing experience, they are usually able to overcome this point, working in a team or among others, interacting with them, and producing efficiently.
3. Limitations
Most copywriters work according to the editorial and creative policy of the organization they work for or the company for which they create the piece of advertising, which causes restrictions on the creativity of writers. There are caveats, red lines, and rules governing any organization, and they must comply with them in the way they write and advertise.
The creativity of the writers may also be affected by the comments and opinions of the bosses, whether in the team or in the company for which they are working on a project, which may cause a change in the final form of what the copywriter produced or a modification to his production, which makes him feel uncomfortable and not fully satisfied with the content he created. in the end.
Therefore, the copywriter must take into account the needs and standards of the client, and not make his personality prevail over the nature of the work in contradiction with the needs of the client, so he does not make creative writing conflict with the requirements of the project he is working on, and often the experienced copywriter masters balancing these two aspects.
How to become a copywriter?
There are no complicated requirements to become an advertising writer, most of the time a certain university degree is not required, and sometimes a university degree is not required at all, and the most important thing is that you have previous work, whether it was actual and presented to previous companies or projects, or pieces of experimental advertising scenarios that you worked on for Learning and practice.
Then you must continuously practice creative writing, to achieve the desired goal of the required advertisement, and to read new methods of writing, developments in the copying process, and other important elements in this job, so do not stop writing and practice writing that helps in achieving an increase in sales, as this is one of the necessary goals of copywriting. Here are the steps in some detail:
First: Obtaining a university degree
Education requirements for a copywriter include obtaining a bachelor's degree, but it is not a mandatory condition for all job opportunities, as many companies do not pay attention to a university degree, and only ask you for a strong work history and actual proof of your competence and excellence in performing the work they need.
There are some four-year university programs related to the profession of copywriter in the field of language, marketing, and communications, that focus on advertising, include the study of a comprehensive view of the advertising industry, and offer courses in mass communication, public relations, consumer behavior, communication theories, and strategic campaigns. The copywriter's background in these elements will affect his understanding of his job and its importance.
Advertising training may contribute to compensating for a bachelor's degree. There is training designed to gain experience in advertising, develop writing and editing skills, and learn all types of copying, printing, and advertising production. And do not rely on the courses offered by the university, but look for training opportunities in the labor market with major companies, where you can find the professional application of all the requirements of the advertising industry.
Second: building a business gallery
You may find it difficult to start a career related to advertising, as most employers require copywriters with previous experience, and you can gain this experience by writing advertising content for TV and radio stations, non-profit organizations, and institutions, and you can start freelancing, which allows you to sell your business to various advertising agencies.
And creating your own blog can contribute to increasing your chances of being hired, in which you will display your latest work or what you have created from writing samples that can be presented to potential employers, and focus on publishing a variety of ad pieces that show your writing abilities and your ability to write to a diverse audience, Thus, you can compensate for the lack of previous experience or previous actual work.
Third: Develop your skills
Your role does not stop when you get a job in an advertising or marketing agency. The extent of your competence and development in positions depends mainly on the amount of your hard work and diligence, and your continued writing, learning, and developing your skills. If you have mastered a skill, move on to the next one, and learn about some areas related to advertisements, and are not limited to writing and editing, as this will make your writing different from others, and more distinctive and valuable.
This is in addition to the continuous addition to your business exhibition, so that it becomes a witness to your development and the improvement of your level with time, and it is diversified to the extent that makes any employer want to hire you. Print, recordings of TV or radio commercials and links to online advertising that you have worked on or participated in.
Characteristics of a professional copywriter
The quality of advertising writing varies from one writer to another, and some of them achieve their goals, while some writings do not affect the audience and do not help in achieving or increasing sales in any way. There are some skills and critical elements, according to Forbes experts, that the copywriter must possess and take into account to become professional and distinguished in communicating with the consumer and help create a strong link and awareness of the brand, which increases sales, and these elements include:
1. Brand value
Explain how the brand satisfies customers' needs and adds value differently from competitors. Test your value proposition with your target audience. Consider the customer's needs in everything you do. Sales happen when customers feel that you're actually meeting their needs, not your own.
Pepsi Soft Drink Company is one of the best companies that has created value for itself and has linked the customer’s need to what it offers, even if it is not directly related to its product, as it has created a strong link between the value of happiness, launch and the acquisition of its product, and its image is frequent and striking, and it focuses on it in all its advertisements. While its competitor, Coca-Cola, focuses on the value of the family, gathering it in Arab countries, and completing the joy of gathering with the arrival of its soft drink packages.
Among these advertisements, too, was the advertisement of the fried potato chips company “Chipsi”, which was directed at Egyptians and invited them to smile and laugh, and it did not stop emphasizing the value of smiles and laughter only, as the bags were designed carrying half a smiling face and inviting people to take a picture with half of the smiling face.
In the end, he also added a call to take action by sending this image to others, inviting them to laugh and smile under the slogan “Don't stop laughing with you”, which contributes to the spread of the brand. And I carried more than one distinctive element that contributed to making the campaign so successful.
2. The originality of the advertisement
You have to be honest and consistent with the audience and provide them with the best possible information to make them feel that they understand the product or service that you provide, so that they can choose between you and competitors, so your advertising content must be original, unique, and the unique and unified personality of your brand, and not publish any advertisement that may create similarity Between what you and your competitors offer, you will draw more attention to them and they will turn away from you.
For example, avoid using words and phrases commonly used by your competitors, create your own effective phrases, be unique and innovative, and try to install your own words to create your unique personality; So customers can see your ad as soon as it starts, and leave no room for confusion between you and your competitors.
3. Personality
If you're writing to reach a target customer base, understand their needs, and tailor your letter accordingly. Not only does it show that you are listening to them, but it shows that you are in a unique and perfect position to solve their exact problem or pain point.
Address the customer with the word “you” and direct your message to him, or speak with his tongue and what he is suffering and how his suffering ends with your product or service, and do not try to target all customers with different characteristics in one advertisement, but make each target segment an advertisement directed to them, as this is better in results.
4. An irresistible offer
One of the most important reasons for increasing conversion into sales on any ad is crafting an irresistible offer when writing the ad. The essence of the copywriter’s job is creative thinking. Professional copywriters don’t get paid for writing, but rather for thinking. The words that the copywriter chooses carefully if they address an audience are Very targeted, it is likely to lead to impressive results, as you can offer discounts, payment facilities, or a free trial for a period.
5. Evidence of effectiveness
It is important to share your customers' experiences with potential buyers, so you can elicit ratings and opinions from your existing customers that relate to the message you are trying to convey. For example, determine exactly how much money or time your customer has saved by using your product or service, and try to attribute their name to their opinion and rating, as opinions and ratings are one of the most important drivers of purchase and experience.
If you sell a multi-tasking vacuum cleaner, show the situation without using it, how dust fills the place, corners, and furniture, and how the customer suffers while cleaning in traditional ways, then show what the vacuum cleaner is made of change and how it facilitated the customer’s life and eliminated his various problems, how the vacuum cleaner saved time and effort, It removed dust in a few seconds from furniture, corners and other places.
6. Research and audit
In-depth research is a critical aspect of the effectiveness of your ad, so look at what your competitors are focusing on and look at your customer base to see what segments they are in, and according to their needs, interests, and the difficulties they face, you will be able to build distinctive ad content that attracts the attention and emotions of customers, prompting them to take positive action with your brand business, and try to avoid mistakes made by competitors.
What distinguishes one copywriter from another is the amount of research and thinking he devotes to his advertisement more than the formulation and preparation of the advertisement itself. Careful research is what shows you the desired expectations from the advertisement, and includes careful research of the characteristics of customers and the nature of the environment in which the advertisement is published, and the governing values and habits that determine for you what To be published, and what should not be published in the advertisement.
7. Simple language
Use simple language in crafting your ad. Consumers know what they need at the time they are ready to commit. If they get to a point of engaging with content that clearly talks about what the product or service is being offered, how it will benefit them, and what they can expect from it, they are more likely to convert. They are actual, and the use of simplified terms and words is better in bringing them to this stage.
While the use of new, modern, and unfamiliar terms or abbreviations leads to confusion and distrust on the part of the customer, so he turns away from you, due to the nature of the target segment and its different characteristics. So address your audience with what it needs and not with what you think is more appropriate for it, because the language of the youth cannot be the same as the language of the elders.
8. A call-to-action CTA
Make sure your ad concludes with a clear call to action, whether you're directing consumers to visit your website, learn more about your product, or call right away. Your ad should direct readers beyond the text and to a specific focal point, and not stop at the text.
There are different phrases to express one action, so try to avoid traditional phrases and choose phrases that give more effective results, and build your brand personality in your ads. Instead of saying “submit” or “submit”, you can say “get your copy” or “join”. to us” and other phrases depending on the action you ask the customer to take.
9. Attractive title
Focus on attractive titles, to encourage the audience to continue reading, because the advertisement cannot achieve sales if it is not read, so the title that conveys the value of what is below, and the main topic that is covered, will help attract the appropriate reader to your content and help increase the sales.
Whatever the type of your ad is different from visual, audio, or read, the first sentence is what draws the attention of customers and raises their focus to complete the ad or stop at it. can be ignored.
10. Notable differences
Focus on highlighting your difference and distinguishing you from others from competitors, and help the potential customer understand why you are superior to them, so the advertising text must include your uniqueness and points of distinction from others. The competitive advantage is not limited to the price only, but your price can be many times more than your competitors, while you are distinguished in the quality of the service provided, the support you provide to the customer after receiving the service, and other advantages that make the customer want to prefer you over competitors, and he will not realize this feature unless you mention it and focus them in your ads.
Among the famous advertisements that work on this element are advertisements for various cleaning powders and detergents, the most prominent of which is the advertisement of the “Vanish” company directed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was filmed in an area open to the public in Jeddah, to compare the effectiveness of Vanish detergent against “chlorine” bleach. Here, I focused on the effectiveness of the product in realizing its actual value to the public, as well as highlighting the difference between it and its competitor.
11. Customer stories
Stories influence the audience greatly, so you can tell the stories of previous customers and how your brand helped them overcome previous problems and difficulties, and how your products and services affected their lives and made them simpler and easier. The best person who can convince a potential customer is a former customer and a successful experience with your brand.
Stories have a magical effect on potential customers. If you tell a customer’s story on his tongue interestingly and excitingly to make the potential customer want to know the change that resulted in his life after dealing with your brand, especially if he suffers from the same problems that the owner of the story was suffering from, he will want to Try what you offer to get the same satisfactory result, and here you must be honest about the quality of what you offer; So that the customer does not completely lose confidence in you.
12. Data and statistics
After a short period of work, a good amount of data and statistics related to the workflow and customers will be produced, and intelligently extracting and exploiting this data will contribute to doubling your sales, whether by integrating it into a case study or rephrasing it in your next ads or tracking it accurately to come up with recommendations to improve performance.
For example, if you offer a product and find that half of the customers are satisfied with it and the other half have comments or other requirements, then you need to develop another product to fully meet the needs of those who are not satisfied with your current product, and it is not preferable that the production of the old product stop because half of the customers are satisfied with it as well It meets their needs, and the most correct decision is determined by the nature of what you offer. Data and statistics are valuable treasures for your brand, and smart use of them; will double your sales.
And if you can achieve most of these elements in copywriting, then you will be guaranteed in a short period to become a professional copywriter and you will be able to create successful advertising campaigns, so companies will start requesting your services and seeking you to work with you according to your terms, not theirs!