Why Become a Copywriter?

Every copywriter has a story about how they became a copywriter. Everybody has different reasons. Some enter it through a marketing interest, others through a writing interest, and another group has both skillsets.

Therefore, the best reason to become a copywriter are the reasons that led you to want to be one.

With every business or side-hustle I've tried to start … every blog and every publication, copywriting was involved. If you're a business owner and you don't understand what is going on in your copy, then you're not looking at important data.

However, what I like about copywriting is that it's both creative and scientific. You can be creative, though it has to sell. Information without creativity makes the ad too boring, but creativity that doesn't inform or persuade the reader doesn't sell.

The first reason to be a copywriter is that you like learning things.

There is more than learning copywriting techniques, but a requirement to understand several industries. While niche copywriting can be an effective gimmick early on, you eventually realize that all industries are connected and that the skills of copywriting are convertible among many industries.

The second reason to be a copywriter is that you like writing.

If writing comes naturally to you, then copywriting is a good idea. Again, copywriting is its own form of writing. Copywriting is based off of marketing principles and not artistic status principles. What I mean is that if your goal is to be the next John Steinbeck, then copywriting isn't going to do that. However, copywriting is also creative. You have to be intentional about what you're writing.

The third reason to be a copywriter is getting to network with professionals.

People who do not care about their business do not care about the way their sales channels appear visually, nor about what they say. They're happy with throwing something that does not sell on a billboard or a Facebook ad and don't understand the importance of detail, even if it offends people, or confuses them.

Copywriters will often get to work with people who are good at what they do, and care about quality. They care about the way their website looks, and pay attention to detail.

In addition, you can get to know highly-skilled and creative professionals,, like graphic designers, or innovative, highly-motivated people. People who have skills and goals and want to build, create, and give back to society.

However, that's not always true and we have to apply rational optimism and some people are difficult to get along with, and others may have a very limited scope of mission and value.

The fourth reason to be a copywriter … it improves your understanding of marketing.

The first mistake that I believe new copywriters make is that they view the skill as something easy. They are told this by YouTube marketing gurus who don't really know much about copywriting and tell their viewers that it's a "passive income" scheme. Except that passive income requires no effort … copywriting takes a lot of work to get good at, that many people give up early on when they see what's beneath the tip of the iceberg.

If you're getting into copywriting, then you need to be learning more about marketing than copywriting. Learn the skills and techniques by all means, but don't forget that there is a scientific element to it too. You should understand industries.

The fifth reason is that it gets you to think about communication.

Double negatives, preposition stacking, thought-terminating cliches, and other vices are neither good nor bad. However, you don't want these things in your website's content.

When you rewrite and rewrite, you look at what you wrote and see how it communicates clearly. So, copywriting can help you communicate ideas more clearly.