How to Become a Copywriter?

The Copywriter is one of those professionals who are increasingly in demand: his role is to write effective content that captures attention by generating sales or contacts. But how to become a copywriter?

Writing persuasive contents that convince those who read or listen to them to perform a certain action: communicate effectively through the writing of texts and contents for the media (paper, digital, radio, TV), this is the job of the copywriter.

But how to become a Copywriter?

Who are the  copywriting professionals?

Practicing, experimenting, exercising, writing a lot is essential, and fortunately, the internet offers many  opportunities to  improve your writing skills.

There are those who say that  to become a good copywriter you need to have a passion for writing , those who say that you need to have a passion for  psychology and those who limit themselves to recommending some good books on Copywriting , in this article I will try instead to give you a little of useful information.

What is a Copywriter?

According to the dictionary, the term copywriter indicates an  author of advertising texts or advertising editor of a newspaper or magazine, sometimes abbreviated to copy.

The term  Copywriter was actually born within the editorial offices of newspapers to indicate the people who were involved in  creating effective ads .

Later, with the spread of the  mass media , the  Copywriter specialized becoming an advertiser, a person who works in advertising and / or communication agencies in collaboration with the art director (figure who deals with the graphic part of advertising ) forming the creative couple of an advertising agency.

Today the figure of freelance copywriter is also more and more widespread , that is, who works for various clients as a freelancer.

Thanks to the internet, the copywriter figure has evolved, and today the copywriter is more generally the figure who deals with the creation of content: no longer just advertising texts, therefore, but also posts on social networks , blog articles , landing pages and more generally, those who write to sell.

How much does a copywriter make?

It depends . In fact, a good copywriter, with years of experience and a portfolio of works, can demonstrate how, thanks to his work, he has led a company, a business, a website to increase its turnover considerably.

Today, however, many call themselves “copywriters” without experience or skills, for the sole reason that they “write content” or “write for the web”.

Therefore, without taking into consideration who can afford to ask 5,000 euros or more for the creation of the copy of a landing page, it can be estimated that a copywriter can earn around 800 to 3000 euros per month.

SEO Copywriting

The copywriter figure has evolved over time and transformed into various professional figures, one of which is the SEO Copywriter.

This term indicates those who write persuasive content knowing the good rules for writing optimized for search engines, namely the use of:

  • Short sentences optimized for the web and user experience
  • Paragraphs and titles / subtitles within the content
  • Title Tag
  • Meta description

after having carried out a Keyword research that allows him to find out which are the best keywords to create an article that can bring traffic and visitors to the site / blog.

Working as a copywriter

A copywriter, as you will have understood at this point, is a professional who creates valuable content for companies (which can increase turnover) and potentially for users who will read his texts / copy (which can be posts on social networks, articles blogs, sales letters, …).

A different profession from that of the “web writer”.

The web writer, or content writer, is in fact that person who writes content that is published online. In my opinion, anyone is potentially a web writer, there are few copywriters

How to Become a Copywriter?

It is clear that, to become a  good copywriter , you need to acquire a series of skills, and, in my opinion, the best way to acquire skills is divided into  few aspects:

Studying, reading and training

Reading texts and manuals by people who actually have experience and who have achieved results can in fact help us avoid making a series of mistakes and get to make copywriting a real profession more quickly.

Experiment, practice, practice

The thing I like most about the web is that even when you practice or practice you can actually  earn!

You got it right, you can  earn by writing , while trying to improve and refine your copywriting skills!

In fact, there are numerous platforms that allow you to get in touch with companies, bloggers and people who are looking for  columnists or people who  create content and product sheets .

An  important tip , if you decide to use this platform to  improve your writing skills : every time you decide to propose yourself for an order or to write a content do not think about the gain, try to give your best, stick to the guidelines and, if you are asked to  make changes to the article , try to understand why it is asked, perhaps by asking questions and trying to learn from your mistakes, only in this way will you be able to really improve and  become a good copywriter!

Effective Content Writing Strategies

Content is the tool through which you can drive traffic to your website. And good traffic on your website means  profits for you . These are the 3 things that really matter:

  • Contents
  • Traffic
  • Earnings

Everything else, all other metrics, are secondary. The good news is that these three things are absolutely related: the more you create valuable content, the more traffic to your website will increase, and so will your earnings.

Precisely for this reason, companies that deal with B2B and B2C are working more and more on creating more content:  41% of internet marketers work on content  to increase ROI (Return on Investment).

Good content brings traffic to the website, engagement and, consequently, conversions: in the article by Neil Patel a series of strategies are explained that allow you to create articles with a high engagement rate.

The first thing to keep in mind is that:

To create a positive user experience in the people who visit your website, the first thing to do is to have an impact on people’s lives and answer their questions.

1. Align your site’s tone of voice to your audience

By “tone of voice” we mean the style of writing that makes your content strong and of quality. The tone could be formal, informal, intimate, solemn, ironic, funny, …

Many content creators ignore this, but it is one of the key ingredients in differentiating your content and making it more attractive to your readers. The tone of voice ( tone of voice ), when writing, changes according to the verbs and words used, so be careful of the words you choose for your articles!

One of the reasons why people leave a website after a few seconds is precisely the  tone of voice  chosen by the author of the article: maybe a person clicked, then was not captured by the text and abounded the article without reaching the end of reading.

For each published content there should be a  tone of voice  appropriate to the audience and to the purpose of the article: to help you choose the best words you can imagine speaking in public about the topic you are dealing with and using the words present in your article. Were you able to get attention  or is everyone bored and distracted?

Write exactly how you speak, avoid too complex and “bombastic” terms, be smart, fresh, concrete. Imagine writing a post / article as a conversation with a friend and remember that it is a conversation with only one person, not with an audience of users: the you on the internet is almost never used!

2. Use the blog for useful and interested topics

Helping people means being interesting and useful. Nobody likes to read rants that offer no solution to any real problem. When you write, remember that people should practice what they read on your website.

First, create a list of the articles you could write on your website. Then circle the article that you think 80% of your readers will find irresistible: there are thousands of pages, online today, with outdated / outdated information.

Why not start from these contents to create a better and more in-depth article? Taking a look at the statistics of your website will also allow you to discover the articles and the most read pages: why not continue on the topics that interest your readers most?

Once this is done, of course, your task will be to create strong, powerful and clear articles. The title is where  73% of purchasing decisions take place : if 8 out of 10 people read the title, this is probably where you should prioritize your internet marketer business!

Remember that you must not copy content from other websites, Google penalizes duplicate content: you must be better than others, more complete, more fluent, more readable.

A case study is one of the 15 types of articles that bring traffic to a website:  don’t wait for something spectacular to happen to your company, use the experiences of other people, their results to create an article that can attract traffic!

3. Write for one person only

How do you usually use the internet? Do you read an article or blog post on your own, or do you call friends to read it together? Surely you read the contents by yourself in front of your computer, tablet or smartphone.

That’s why you have to write for that person who is looking for something on the internet: in this way you will make your content more interesting, more useful, more powerful. Writing for the web requires a lot of creativity, you can’t just write 500 words and expect people to read your article.

The words “you” and “why” are much stronger than you might think, when a person arrives on your blog they must be captured by your article! Include “you” in your content to stimulate interaction: people don’t care how successful you are, what matters to them is the  value you give with your content.

If you start to value people very strongly, they will take care of you – it takes time for people to trust you. But when they start to trust you, great things happen naturally: they will link your content, share it on social networks, recommend your products and talk about you with friends, relatives, …

Move your focus from yourself to your readers: if you decide to open a blog, remember that this is written by you but it is not “for you”: it is your audience that dictates the rules, you simply have to follow them.

4. Ask your readers for feedback and advice

One of the most important characteristics of persuasive content is relevance: is the content you write useful for the people who read you? People’s feedback shows you the reactions and point of view of your readers. You can collect information and feedback in several ways, for example:

  • Taking a survey : Don’t ask too many questions, otherwise users won’t participate. The ideal is to ask two / three questions. Try using an open-ended question. Also think about offering an incentive or bonus to users who complete your survey
  • Through a form integrated in the articles : you could for example ask users to write what they would like to find in the articles or what they did not like on the site.
  • By email outreach:  send an email to your list and ask them for more information, or invite them for a lunch or an aperitif / meeting.
  • Through usability tests:  use statistics to understand how people use your website. Find out which pages are most visited to create other content relevant to the topic most read by your readers. In other words, create more content on the most popular topics on your website

5. Break the mold with your opinion

Sometimes, moving the waters by talking about a much-discussed topic and giving your point of view can lead to an article going viral. The example reported by Neil Patel is an article by Derek Halpern in which he wrote about the famous phrase “Content is king”, continuing with “Myth Debunked”.

With this article Derek managed to receive thousands of shares from social networks and more than 240 comments. The same page also got 69 links from authoritative sites, and this got it very high on the search engines, bringing in a lot of organic traffic.

Clearly, when you write articles of this kind, try to have valid data and information, you have to argue your opinion and give strong reasons for your content. In fact, if you create an article that can generate a flame but has no value, you risk losing traffic and making your users lose the trust that you had gained with a lot of work.

Giving a clear point of view (even if against the current) can be a good strategy to increase your personal branding and improve your online reputation (if you know how to argue what you write about).

6. Use images to increase the perceived value of your content

The human brain responds better to images than to text. 50% of the brain is involved in visual processes, and this is why social networks like Pinterest and Instagram work: they work right on the Visual world.

When creating content, using  visual asstes  such as infographics, videos, presentations or interactive content allows you to increase the perceived value of that content. Furthermore, for a long time, infographics have been an excellent tool for obtaining links and consequently authority and traffic to your website.

Create and share infographics periodically, you will see your traffic grow over time in a rather interesting way.

Writing is not a simple activity, writing for the web, if you want to make money online, can be even more difficult and requires time, dedication and perseverance. But at the same time writing is the tool you have at your disposal to make a difference. It is not easy to create content that converts and brings income, but when you can do it try to analyze the text used, the words, the verbs and the contents, to replicate those contents.

I hope with this article I have given you a series of ideas, tips and useful information, if you want to add something or if you have a question leave a comment below, or, if you found this article useful, share it on Facebook!

Good work and good copy,

 

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