What Does a Copywriter Do? (Hint: More Than Just 'Words'!)
If you’re running your own badass brand, you’ve probably heard that you need to work with a copywriter at some point, but maybe, whilst smiling and nodding, you were actually wondering… what does a copywriter do?
And that’s totally fair!
When I tell people that I’m a website copywriter and blog writer for female entrepreneurs, I still get a fair share of confused reactions or the good old “oh, copyright? That thing inside books!”
Let me tell you a bit more about what copywriters do and, most importantly, what we can do for your business.
What does copywriting mean?
Copywriting means creating written content for marketing or advertising purposes, usually focusing on a specific call-to-action.
Of course, this CTA is mainly centred around selling, but it could also be something like signing up for a newsletter or registering for a webinar.
Copywriting exists both in print and online, as well as across a variety of media and platforms (for example, websites, social media, leaflets, PPC, etc.).
Sometimes, for the sake of simplicity, copywriting is used as an umbrella term that includes blog posts and other forms of content writing and marketing.
However, technically, there’s a difference between copywriting and content writing:
the former is meant to convert immediately, whereas the latter is a long-term strategy to build trust and grow an audience through free, high-quality content.
What does a copywriter do?
A copywriter creates the written text (copy) and marketing materials to help a business promote its products or services, generating leads and converting them into sales.
Anything about your business that happens to be in a written form? That’s a copywriter’s bread and butter.
You might think you can do it all on your own because nobody knows your small business like you do, but trust me: copywriting is more than just ‘writing’!
What copywriters do isn’t writing pretty words.
It’s writing the right ones for your specific target audience.
Rather than blow your own trumpet like we often end up doing when we talk about ourselves or our business, copywriters like me help you repackage your offer to make it sound appealing to your dream customers.
For example, instead of writing your entire homepage talking about your company history and describing every single feature of your products, I’d start by boiling down an overly complicated message to a simple but attention-grabbing sentence that showcases what you do and how this benefits your target audience.
The rest of the page would then give them more context, build trust through facts and social proof rather than just stating how great you are, show them how life will feel once they invest in you (hint: so much better!), and give them an unmissable call to action.
Oh, and what does a copywriter do when it comes to online copy? They must also be skilled in SEO (search engine optimisation) and optimise your online copy for search engines, or else… nobody will find your website to begin with!
What does a freelance copywriter do?
A freelance copywriter does what an in house copywriter does, except that you don’t have to pay for our holidays, sick days, pension, insurance, and office equipment.
An in-house copywriter is a handy option for large companies that can afford to pay an additional employee and that need great quantities of copy across different formats almost every day.
On the other hand, outsourcing specific tasks to freelance copywriters is a wiser and much more cost-effective option for solopreneurs and small businesses, as you only pay for what you actually want and only when you need it.
Types of freelance copywriters
If, as well as ‘what does a copywriter do’, you’re curious as to what types of copywriters you can choose to work with, here are the three main ones:
Jacks-of-all-trades: a generic copywriter is the most similar to in-house employees because they will write any kind of copy for any type of business or industry. However, you obviously only pay them for the projects that you require, or you might even be able to hire them for a set number of hours every month
Niche copywriters by industry: these copywriters usually focus on all kinds of copy, but only for a specific industry or type of business (e.g. medical copywriter)
Niche copywriters by type of copy: these copywriters specialise in creating content for a specific medium or platform. For example, website copywriters or email copywriters
What I do as a copywriter for badass female-founded brands
As a freelance copywriter who has niched down by type of audience and copy, I turn ambitious female entrepreneurs into THE go-to solution in their audience’s eyes.
My core services are:
Website copywriting: new website copy that simplifies your message, attracts your dream customers through Google, and turns more visits into leads and sales
Blogging: stop wasting time writing blog posts that don't drive results! Instead, start generating more relevant traffic and leads while establishing yourself as an expert in your field
So, what does a copywriter do? In a nutshell, we turn your offer into the most compelling message for your ideal clients and get them to take action
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