What does a Copywriter do and why does your business need one?

4 min readOct 1, 2018

(Infographic) A Copywriter produces briefs and scripts for advertising campaigns and amends advertising copy according to feedback. Copywriters are responsible for generating the words, slogans and audio scripts that accompany advertising visuals.

“Copywriting is the process of writing advertising promotional materials. The product, called copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action. ” — Wikipedia

Copywriters write the text on brochures, billboards, websites, emails, advertisements, catalogs, and more. This text is known as “copy.” That’s why a copywriter is often referred to as “a salesman in print.”

So why does your business need one?

Because copy and content marketing offers three times the leads of traditional marketing, while costing around 62 percent less. It’s all about conversion and Copywriters are GREAT at it.

Copywriters help turn your ads into literary genius — the kind that makes readers convert and buy!

Unlike news or editorial writing, copywriting is all about getting the reader to take action. That action might be to purchase, opt-in, or engage with a product, service, or company.

Graphics can be enticing… though all on their own they're not always clear. Visuals are often your first impression but copywriting is your lasting impression. Ultimately instilling brand, sales or message awareness.

Copywriters;

Illustrate your brands message across clearly and concisely
Delight the reader with actionable writing that inspires and convinces
Drive sales and lead generation
Use emotion to ‘seal the deal’ with words

Copy is everywhere — it’s part of a $2.3 trillion dollar industry worldwide.

What do Copywriters write & create?

Blog posts
Website and landing page copy
Internet ads: LinkedIn, Twitter, Google/PPC Ads
Email campaigns
E-books
Social media posts
White papers
Case studies, product reviews
Industry reports
Press releases
Newsletters, bios
Sales presentations and slide decks

Work activities

To name a few things they;

- Write (obviously)

- Research

- Interview

- Edit

- Proofread

- Manage projects

- Source images

- Plan and implement marketing campaigns

What’s important to understand is that while words are the main output of a copywriter, writing isn’t necessarily what they spend most of their time doing. They have to do a lot of research and thinking, tweaking and formatting, and a bunch of other seemingly peripheral tasks.

In fact, often whilst working on a project a copywriter will spend half their time researching, a third editing and only a sixth actually writing. Despite what some people think, copywriting is a lot more than just 'wordsmithing’.

Work activities also include

Meeting with account executives to discuss the client's requirements and core messages and target audience.
Familiarising themselves with the product, target audience and competitor activities in the market.
Brainstorming ideas and concepts for the visual and words with other members of the creative team.
Presenting initial ideas to the creative director, some of which may be rejected or developed into workable concepts.
Writing various copy options, which may be presented to the client as a story board (a consecutive series of frames depicting the script and drawings that may be used).
Reviewing progress, modifying copy until the client is satisfied.
Overseeing the production phase, booking and liaising with designers, illustrators, printers, photographers and production companies.

5 Elements a good Copywriter harnesses when writing copy

Knowledge and focus on the right audience
A clear aim for the copy
A targeted audience reaction the copy should achieve
A strategy to obtain the desired customer reaction
SEO keyword optimization (not a focus, a natural inclusion)

Copywriters are results-driven, just as much as CEOs.

That’s because clients are only happy if the copywriters content gets them sales, and lots of them. Copywriters have to be driven. They also have to keep up on all of the latest marketing trends, platforms, and even financial trends.