How To Become A Copywriter And Double Your Income In 2023

If you want to be a copywriter and rock it in 2023, this is the perfect time to start your career.  Copywriting can be a great way to express your creative side while also helping businesses make more money. Plus, talented copywriters can bring in six figure salaries and have lots of fun in the process. 

In this post, we’re going to show you how to become a copywriter this year so you can double your income.

What is Copywriting?

Copywriting is the text that engages, informs, and persuades a target audience to take action. Usually, this means buying a product or service. 

Copywriting is a form of direct marketing, which is used to promote products or services and an organization as a brand with persuasive copy.

Here are the 5 general types of copywriting:

1. Marketing copywriting (Advertising in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, the internet, etc.)
2. Brand copywriting (Brochures, Press releases)
3. SEO copywriting
4. Technical copywriting (Website, video, and email content)
5. Direct response copywriting (Product descriptions, landing page content, lead magnets)

What Does a Copywriter Do?

A copywriter’s job is to create clear and compelling copy that inspires people to take action. That action is usually to buy something, but it can also be to get informed or to engage with the brand.

Therefore it’s important to keep the audience’s psychological trigger points in mind to be able to write effective copy. Copywriters get paid to make people take action. You can only become a copywriter if you can do that.

To be a copywriter, you also have to master the specific elements that you will craft on a regular basis for various types of copy. These include:

• Headlines to grab the readers’ attention and provide more information and explain the main headlines
• Headings and images or illustrations with descriptive captions to keep the readers’ attention, support the headlines, and provide an attractive overall layout by breaking down the copy to make it easy to read
• Storytelling techniques to convey the main message
• Calls-to-Action (CTAs) to tell readers what action they should take next (e.g. Add to Cart, sign-up, download a document, call a number)

How Much Can a Copywriter Make?

As a freelance copywriter, the short answer is that you can make as much as you want! This, of course, depends on how good a copywriter you are. Businesses are known to pay copywriters from ad agencies an average of $47,838 a year. Experienced copywriters working at ad agencies earn an average of $88,000 while In-house copywriters get an average of $84,000 per year. Freelance copywriters, by sharp contrast, can earn more than $100k annually. This is for the top 20 percent, though.

The bottom line is that it all depends how good you are at getting people to take action, and how well you use those skills to market yourself. There’s a lot of work available, especially in this COVID “new normal” with everyone moving online. You just have to go out there and get it.

Steps to Starting a Successful Copywriting Career

If you want to double your income, you must be persuasive. Copywriting is all about leading people to take the desired action. This is persuasion in a nutshell — getting people to agree with you and trust you enough to do what you tell them. To have that influence over them without even having met them, you need to understand the psychology of the target audience.

Here are a few persuasive writing techniques from Conversion Sciences that you can work on:

Focus on Resonating With Emotional Problems

In the first place, any great proposition begins with a problem to solve. When you have the answer, all you need to do is focus on the people who have that problem and show them that you can solve it. You won’t persuade anyone by talking about how great a product or service is. You need to move away from explaining and towards answering the pain point.

Start by connecting with readers so that you can resonate with them in terms of the emotional problems that they are facing. When you hit that pain point and show how you can help them overcome it, that prepares them to buy into the solution. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and they’ll be more inclined to listen to you.

Every problem is basically either financial, emotional, physical, or spiritual. But every problem actually involves all of these aspects. Understand the ideal customer avatar in terms of each of these angles and you will know how to talk to them.

Incorporate Facts, Data, and Other Analytical Information

Now that you have the audience’s attention, you have to understand and cater to both logical and emotional buyers. Every problem has an emotional aspect, but not every buyer is an emotional buyer.

Address the segment of your target audience that is more analytical by talking about the hard data to strengthen your pitch. Also, especially when you’re selling products or services that aren’t geared toward emotional problems, you’ll need to be more logical.

You can use, for instance, any evidence you have that your solution works better than other available solutions. Depending on what you’re selling, this can range from hard facts to testimonials. Use this truth — facts, statistics, case studies, etc. — to prove your point.

Demonstrate Social Proof at Key Junctures

You really should use testimonials anyway even when you have hard data to share. This is because social proof is so powerful. It’s actually a psychological phenomenon — people copy others to be seen as acceptable and to get the same results. This is why ads that use professionals (like a dentist selling toothpaste or a movie star selling makeup) are so effective.

People follow people who they respect and admire. Even if your customers aren’t celebrities, others can look up to them for the results that they have been able to achieve. Showing them how that was done with the help of the product or service makes them respect the brand.

The audience will also relate better to a copy that tells the true stories of people who are in a similar situation. When people love and share your copy, you get another boost of social proof from that as well.

To be more effective as a copywriter, intersperse your content with influencer recommendations, case studies, and customer testimonials. Be specific to make these customer stories work better — but always make sure you have permission to use customer details!

Learn the 6 Core Copywriting Skills

Create Compelling Headlines

A headline is the “hook” that grabs the readers’ attention first. It has to be catchy and should generate curiosity. Headlines should not only contain attention-grabbing keywords but also stand out with their visual appeal. Keep them concise yet packed with key information.

To write effective headlines, you can use the ROT formula: Results, Objections, Time. Compose the headline so that readers know exactly what to expect from the content. Know your readers well enough so that you can also answer their objections in the headline before they have a chance to think too much about them. Whenever possible, give readers a timeframe within which they can expect to get the results you promise.

Another popular method of writing a headline is using the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Get their attention with something catchy and relevant. Then tell them interesting facts or uses as you make them desire the product or service. Finally, give them an action to take like clicking a link or leaving a comment.

Write a Value Proposition

A value proposition is a statement that summarizes the most compelling reasons for consumers to buy or sign up for a product or service. An appropriate value proposition could achieve the following:

• Communicate a brand’s value to the target audience.
• Connect with customers.
• Increase revenue.

Compose a Landing Page Copy

Landing page copywriting is one of the most in-demand copywriting tasks these days. For digital marketing, every business needs a website, and the success of that website depends on the content of its landing pages.

There are three important landing page types: the homepage, the main services page, and the secondary services page. According to the marketing guru Neil Patel, the following are the crucial elements of all landing pages:

• Customer reviews or testimonials.
• Focus on the benefits, not the features of a product or service.
• Write a killer headline.
• Keep the copy simple.
• Sound like a human.
• Use statistics and be specific.
• Ask readers to take a specific action.
• Do A/B testing of your copy.

Learn Email Marketing

Sales emails are another type of copywriting that is in high demand, especially after the emergence of digital marketing. Sales emails are an integral part of “direct response copywriting” that aims to persuade customers and increase conversions.

The main purposes of sales emails are to:

• grab the attention of the audience with great headlines.
• Increase open and click-through rates.
• Create effective sequences.

There are three crucial elements to consider in writing effective sales emails:

• A clear understanding of the target audience
• A catchy headline
• Objective-specific body content to generate interest.

Again, the AIDA formula works well when writing sales emails.

Create Convincing Advertisements

The origin of copywriting started from writing ad copy. It is still the most creative form of copywriting today. There are basically two main types of ad copywriting: corporate ads and small business ads. Corporate ad writing primarily takes place in advertising agencies, whereas pay-per-click (PPC) service providers offer small business ad writing.

There are four easy steps to write compelling ad copy:

• First, show the audience how you can solve their problem. 
• Second, include emotional triggers. 
• Third, focus on benefits, not the features. 
• Fourth, mention a timeline.

Write Video Scripts

Inbound marketers often create video content to tell a story. A survey by Wyzowl reveals that 68 percent of people prefer to learn about new products and services through a short video.

According to HubSpot, the following are the steps to write a video script:

Begin with a brief about the video and use that to develop an outline. Write the script, section by section. Make sure to introduce the topic at the beginning. Support any B-roll using suitable callouts in the main narrative, and keep it crisp. Use a video script template if possible to make sure that the script is suitable for video from the get-go.

Do a couple of run-throughs off-camera.

Check out this YouTube video to get a better understanding of how to write a video script.

Learn the Basics of SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of increasing quality traffic to a website through paid or organic results on search engines. There are two main types of SEO: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is a digital marketing technique that optimizes webpages and helps them rank high on search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Off-page SEO or “off-site SEO” refers to optimization activities outside of a website. This technique affects web page rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). Optimization for off-site ranking involves improving search engine and user feedback for the site’s popularity, reliability, relevance, and authority.

You can generate traffic through SEO through either paid or organic means. Paid SEO traffic brings in visitors who are genuinely interested in a product or a service that a website offers.

Once the right people click through from search engine results pages (SERPs), there are more chances of conversions. Organic traffic is the traffic that a business does not have to pay for. This type of traffic comes when users find a website by typing queries on search engines.

Start with Practice Projects

Once you learn the aspects of copywriting, you need to hone your skills by doing practice projects. Whether you want to get a copywriting job or become a freelancer, you have to be confident to create effective copy.

Pick a brand or product and write a copy by applying all the elements (heading, subheading, body copy, etc.) Get your copy checked by an established copywriter and note down the feedback. Then, write two new sets of copy for different businesses or brands and show them to people who work there. This way, you will get feedback from relevant people.

After completing three practice projects and applying the feedback, you can start looking for paid clients.

Market Yourself

Marketing yourself as a copywriter is important for getting noticed. There are thousands of copywriters like you who are looking for jobs and projects. You need to stand out. Here are some things you should do to set yourself up for success:

• Create an optimized website, LinkedIn, and other social media profiles.
• Networking, be it online or offline, works well to generate leads.
• Create an elevator pitch to identify yourself as a specialist. Example: “I will transform your business message in a way that your audience will love and help generate quality leads and significantly higher revenues.”
• Use email marketing to reach out to potential clients.
• Join various copywriter groups on Facebook.
• Every time you complete a project, ask the client for feedback.
• Keep clients happy so they will think of you immediately when they come across other people who can use your services.
• Register with online freelance websites such as FreeUp.
• Keep creating content to build an audience.

Final Thoughts

We hope that you have found these steps useful in your journey to begin a career as a copywriter. If you wish to take your skills to the next level, high-quality and practical copywriting training is what you need.

To be a successful copywriter, you also need to sharpen your soft skills, set your goals, and 

refine the art of writing. Look for a mentor who can help you put on the fast-track growth path.

Once you’re ready to get started, you can use FreeUp to find copywriting jobs and start bringing in the dough.