Copywriting

Copywriting is writing that gets somebody to do something. It is the most portable skill in marketing and the one that survives every platform change, because the platforms keep changing and the persuasion does not.

What the work consists of

Understanding a product well enough to know which true thing about it matters most to a particular person, then saying that in the fewest words the format allows. The writing is the last ten percent; the research is the rest.

What employers screen for

Range and outcomes together. A folder of clever lines with nothing attached reads as a writing sample. The same lines with what they were for, who they were aimed at and what happened afterwards read as professional work — and the difference in how seriously they are taken is large.

• Writing to a brief and to a constraint, including a character limit you disagree with
• Several registers: the same offer for an email, an advert and a landing page are three different jobs
• Editing your own work down by a third without losing the argument
• Taking feedback on words you are attached to, which is most of the job in an agency

The honest limit

Six to twelve months to competence, and the ceiling is set by how well you understand the thing you are selling rather than by how well you write. The best copy about a product you do not understand is still guesswork, and it reads as guesswork to the people who do understand it.