What is copy­writ­ing?

Copy­writers want to get readers to make a com­mit­ment, a purchase, or any other action through good content. Whether it's a TV advert or online content, the text plays a very important role. Even the most emotional images in tele­vi­sion ad­vert­ising don’t have the desired effect without the right dialogue.

First things first: copy­writers are not content writers like journ­al­ists. In contrast to content writers, whose aim is to inform the reader with their texts, copy­writers aim to elicit a response from their readers. Nev­er­the­less, both text forms tend to mix together, as companies in­creas­ingly prefer in­form­at­ive content over simple ad­vert­ising messages as part of their content marketing strategy.

As a copy­writer, you write a wide range of texts: from blog posts and web articles to social media content and product de­scrip­tions. The potential fields of ap­plic­a­tion for copy­writers are not limited to the internet. In addition, copy­writers are re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing various marketing measures. This applies, for example, to the following offline marketing measures:

• Direct e-mailing
• Postcards
• Product ad­vert­ise­ments in news­pa­pers and magazines
• TV and radio ad­vert­ising
• Brochures for trade fairs
• Posters
• Vouchers
• Product packaging and labels

However, copy­writers today mainly write texts for online marketing campaigns. Examples of these online marketing measures include:

• Product de­scrip­tions
• Product ads for online platforms such as Google and Facebook
• Demo videos
• E-mail marketing
• Case studies high­light­ing the benefits of a product
• Articles and blog posts
• Articles about customers and testi­mo­ni­als

It is par­tic­u­larly important that you as a copy­writer can easily reach your target group. Whether online or offline: ad­vert­ising texts are addressed to potential customers and should open up a dialogue. If you use the direct contact correctly, new customers can be acquired or existing customers can be retained.

Depending on the type of product or service being promoted, copy­writers often create several posts as part of a marketing campaign. They must know which content and which tonality are in­ter­est­ing and ap­pro­pri­ate for the target group and which aren’t. In addition, the overall message of the text and graphics must remain con­sist­ent. Being creative and willing to deal more closely with a possibly new, unknown topic are ad­vant­age­ous char­ac­ter­ist­ics for a copy­writer. Depending on the re­spect­ive product or service, the copy­writer must be able to adapt the tone of their text, e.g. to sound more serious or funnier.

Often no specific degree is required for a job as a copy­writer. Many people changing career paths start out in this field as junior copy­writers in an agency. Nev­er­the­less, training as an ad­vert­ising copy­writer can be prof­it­able in many ways. On the one hand, strategic thinking and brain­storm­ing are en­cour­aged and basic knowledge about topics such as di­git­isa­tion is conveyed. On the other hand, trainees already gain valuable practical ex­per­i­ence as a result of the dual training program. Whether you are a trained copy­writer or are changing careers, the following char­ac­ter­ist­ics es­pe­cially help with text creation:

• Feel for languages
• Cre­ativ­ity and ima­gin­a­tion
• Com­pre­hens­ive general knowledge
• In­quis­it­ive­ness
• Will­ing­ness to learn
• Ability to research

A copy­writer’s success can be measured by the number of actions (so-called con­ver­sions) that are triggered by the cor­res­pond­ing marketing measure. If you want to ex­pli­citly make a potential consumer complete an action, you should include commands such as "order now" or "visit our online shop." This is called a call-to-action (CTA). Note the following three points to generate a response from the reader:

• Determine in advance who you want to reach with your content and actively address your target group.
• Convince the reader of how good the product or service is by high­light­ing the USP (unique selling pro­pos­i­tion). Here, you should answer the question of how the product or service differs from the com­pet­it­or’s products.
• Per­form­ing an action should be made as simple as possible for the reader. If you would like the reader to watch a video of the product, then write: "Click on the video to see the unique range of functions."

A total of 27 million pieces of content are shared online every day (as of 2016). How do you prevent your ad­vert­ising message from drowning in this flood of in­form­a­tion? Companies are in­creas­ingly turning to copy­writ­ing experts to achieve a better position in Google searches, to win over more customers and, last but not least, to present them­selves as a brand with in­di­vidu­al and value-added content. Depending on the purpose of the text, different types of copy­writ­ing are used. Below we explain some of the ap­proaches in more detail.

By using certain keywords (search terms), search engine op­tim­isa­tion copy­writ­ing achieves the best possible placement in the Google ranking. It is ir­rel­ev­ant whether the text is intended to serve an ad­vert­ising or in­form­at­ive purpose. It is more a question of in­teg­rat­ing suitable keywords into a text as ef­fect­ively as possible. Keyword stuffing isn’t the answer, but keywords should be used in such a way that they clearly outline the theme of the subpage. The in­form­a­tion content of SEO texts has become in­creas­ingly important in this context (keyword content marketing). Copy­writers have to adapt to these changes and write extensive texts as much as possible.

In sales copy­writ­ing, the copy­writer faces the challenge of con­vin­cing the reader of the ad­vant­ages of a product or service and ul­ti­mately per­suad­ing them to buy or use it. But that's easier said than done. In addition to a con­vin­cing writing style, profound creative skills and knowledge are required, often only available to marketing experts. The following strategy is re­com­men­ded in order to convince the reader to make a purchase:

1. Com­mu­nic­ate your message to your target audience in a clear way and address them directly.
2. Identify the problem that your product or service can solve. Describe the problem from the point of view of potential customers and as graph­ic­ally as possible in order to gain approval and trust.
3. Highlight why previous ap­proaches cannot resolve the problem.
4. Explain how you found out how the problem could really be solved.
5. Point out to the reader how he can receive the product or service and therefore solve the problem.

Technical copy­writ­ing is the writing of topic-specific or industry-specific texts, the creation of which requires a high level of spe­cial­ist knowledge. The aim is to provide added value to readers using spe­cial­ist knowledge. That is why technical copy­writers are usually not pro­fes­sion­al copy­writers, but experts in their re­spect­ive fields. After all, the task of writing a text on the evidence of hy­dro­chlor­ic acid should be left to a chemist rather than a sales copy­writer. The challenge for the copy­writer is that the texts are aimed at people who also have spe­cial­ist knowledge. Therefore, the content must be detailed and factual. In addition to ad­vert­ising material, a technical copy­writer also writes blog articles, magazine articles, as well as operating in­struc­tions.

Content copy­writers write content for websites and focus on a specific topic. Website visitors receive in­form­a­tion about the topic and are informed of any new de­vel­op­ments. As a content copy­writer, you usually create how-to articles and step-by-step guides. Es­pe­cially important is the appealing and in­ter­est­ing design of the articles. If a potential customer finds a text both en­ter­tain­ing and in­form­at­ive, they are more likely to make a purchase.

Creative copy­writers write about a topic they’ve chosen them­selves, but integrate certain products or services into their posts. There are some parallels to the principle of sales copy­writ­ing, since potential customers should be convinced of how good the product or service is here as well. Creative copy­writers also often create company slogans or headlines and design concepts. Many creative copy­writers have a marketing back­ground, others are simply talented in present­ing topics in an appealing way.