The word copywiter has become very fashionable in recent years as the Internet has completely transformed the marketing and advertising industry. However, this term is nothing more than the anglicism that has come to define what used to be called a copy or editor in advertising agencies, a figure that rose in the early days of the agencies as the first creative person responsible for creating ads. , and that in the 60s was completed with the support of the art director, responsible for the visual part, and the creative director, in charge of directing and supervising the work of both. However, today what a copywriter does transcends the simple fact of knowing how to write a good ad. Commercial texts and advertising formats have been completely transformed thanks to the new forms of communication and transmission of information that the Internet offers us. So, in this post we are going to talk about the functions of the current copywriter, what he does in his day to day and the training that is needed to be an excellent professional in this area.
Functions of a copywriter
What does a copywriter do in his day to day? what are their roles and responsibilities? This professional figure is gaining importance thanks to the boom and good results that the so-called content marketing gives. Nowadays, many companies have been able to see in the art of generating online content the best way to get customers, sell and grow their businesses. And although there are many Community Managers and Social Media managers who are often in charge of the copywriter functions, the truth is that more and more agencies are looking for people specialized in this field. Even freelance figures have emerged as specialized consultants in this art that is increasingly in demand by large and small advertisers.
In this sense, the professional specialized in the area of copywriting, has the following main activities to develop in their day to day:
- Write, structure and correct texts.
- Write ads for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Adwords… and for all kinds of formats (including magazines, television, etc.)
- Write websites: home page, description of products/services, contact, sales pages, offers, pages to attract subscribers, etc.
- Writing email marketing campaigns and automation.
- Keyword studies.
- Definition of communication strategy, tone and style.
- Content plan creation.
- Writing all kinds of content focused on selling.
- Post writing.
- Editing and correction of texts at the level of spelling, grammar, style and SEO.
It is important to note that there are different opinions about the difference between a copywriter and a blogger. In my opinion, every copywriter must be a good commercial blogger on his website, capable of structuring a complete content strategy for a brand’s corporate blog and writing the necessary posts to achieve good positioning, branding or whatever the objective is. Of the same. We must not forget that the posts of a corporate blog are texts that, deep down, and no matter how uncommercial they may be, seek to attract, convince, persuade, position and/or sell a product/brand.
And now that we know what a copywriter does on a day-to-day basis, we will see what knowledge and training you will need to do it as a true professional, being competitive in your market.
What training is necessary to be a copywriter?
In addition to being aware of the latest copywriting techniques to sell on the Internet, a professional in the sector who wants to develop a long career in it, will need a knowledge base that allows you to have a great strategic vision, as well as adapt to changes in terms of formats, media, forms of expression, trends, etc. University degrees in the field of humanities and letters can be a good starting point: communication, advertising, journalism, documentation, library science, translation and interpretation, or even philology. For example, as an Advertising and Public Relations student, I took a series of subjects focused on writing, advertising, design, creativity, narrative… which have served as the basis for continuing to complete my training in copywriting, adapting it to the new formats and online communication platforms.
However, this broad knowledge base will not be essential or sufficient to carry out the duties of a copywriter. Having a university degree specialized in letters will not make you a true professional copywriter, you will need much more. You will have to train in all these fields to be truly competitive in the sector:
- Market analysis: positioning, competition, public, product/service to sell, value proposition, definition of buyer personas, SWOT…
- Writing, writing, language and spelling.
- Writing styles.
- Storytelling and narrative techniques.
- Copywriting.
- Persuasive and sales-focused writing.
- Structuring offers and sales pages.
- Types of commercial texts and how to approach them.
- Writing headlines.
- SEO applied to writing.
- Content marketing.
- Sales techniques.
- Creativity.
- Strategy.
- Communication.
- Advertising.
- Research and documentation.
- Design and user experience (UX).
Now that you know what the functions of a copywriter are and the training necessary to be one, we hope that you get down to work as soon as possible. Keep in mind that experience is a degree, and there is no better way to learn than by doing, applying and experimenting. And above all, don’t stop learning by yourself, because what a copywriter does today is probably not the same as what he will do in a few years. In this profession, like others related to the Internet, every day is a new learning.