Copywriting is one of those careers that requires excellent communication skills, particularly in the areas of grammar and spelling. Many people think they can do copywriting, but soon discover that to do this as a business requires a lot of knowledge, time, and tenacity that not everyone can muster.
There is ample opportunity for work as a copywriter, and there can also be good money at the top jobs. Many copywriters start at entry jobs in newspaper, radio or television. To define the job of a copywriter is fairly simple: a copywriter is a person who composes text, usually for advertising purposes. The copywriter is given information, facts, and figures and is expected to digest and recompose those items into a coherent, concise sales message. There are other types of copy, such as informational, and descriptive, but most copywriting is aimed at generating interest in a product, company, or service. The copy produced should create desire in the reader for more information, resulting in a call or visit to a store that sells said item.
Once the prospective customer is in the store, in front of a salesperson, the sales job becomes that of the sales person. The written or visual message created by the copywriter can only be expected to prompt interest, not finish the sale. Mail order is one of the most visible examples of copywriting that is written as sales material to generate interest, and to prompt further inquiry by the reader.
Rates for copywriting vary from a few dollars to thousands, but money is not always the copywriter’s number one interest in this career. There is a lot of self satisfaction to seeing the end result of one’s work, and there is plenty of opportunity for the accomplished copywriter to enjoy reading and viewing their work.