A copywriter is a person who writes for a company with a commercial objective, writing content with the aim of making it work as a marketing strategy so that the company can increase its sales.
What it means to be a copywriter
Some dictionaries translate the term "copywriter" as creative copywriter, although the reality is that more than creativity, what a copywriter needs to achieve is to be persuasive and accurate. It is not about being innovative and imaginative, but about getting the right word right.
Although the best known translation of "copy" is copy, this English term also means "material to be printed''. Therefore, a copy + writer (to write means to write), is the person who writes a text to be printed later. Although the term arises with this conception of writing, the reality is that nowadays almost all companies focus their marketing efforts on the network, and much of this content that the copywriter is dedicated to (although not all) is online.
Nowadays it is a highly valued and varied profession. A copywriter can be part of the staff of a company, or he can be a freelance, a free worker who does specific jobs for some companies without belonging to any of them. It is common in this profession that the worker is paid by texts or articles, even by words. From this we begin to extract that the choice of each word is decisive for commercial success.
It could be thought that the only text that matters at a commercial level is the content of a press release, the text of an advertisement, or a post on social networks. All of them are very important at a commercial level, but the reality of current marketing is that any form of contact with the client can be a great sales opportunity. Advertisements or posts are not the only things that a client reads. The task menu, emails, the description of a product on the web, information about the company... all this information can work as advertising if they manage to attract the client and make him/her trust the company.
Therefore, the copywriter is in charge of optimising any word and content so that it is attractive to the customer, persuasive and can be transformed, in the short or long term, into a sale.
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Types of copywriter
Depending on the format the copywriter works with, this profession can specialise in the following:
- Copywriter: The most generic term. They can be in charge of the physical and online format, large texts or single words, be part of the staff or freelance, work for companies or individuals. A good tool for any copywriter, especially for those who have to write paragraphs or articles, is storytelling: making use of narrative techniques and adapting them to marketing and sales.
- Web copywriter: The copywriter in charge of a company's website, which is the most important online platform, is responsible for writing almost all the words and phrases that appear, as each one of them is an opportunity to attract the customer. For example, he/she would be in charge of writing the pop-up messages that appear on the screen when you browse a website, the text of the chatbox to talk to the customer, the information sections about the company, the descriptions of its functions or products...
- SEO copywriter: Their objective is to position the company's website among the top positions when an online search is carried out. Within SEO positioning, not only words are important, but also graphic content, but the function of a copywriter is reduced to writing: keywords, publication tags, synonyms, viral and differentiating terms, domains, URLs, alternative texts, meta-description... It is a more specific job than that of the web copywriter, as the functions of the former also include those of the SEO copywriter.
- Social copywriter: Their content is focused on social networks: writing the content of publications, the text of stories, the description of the company in its profile, conversations with customers... And, like the web copywriter or the SEO copywriter, they must master the specific technological language of their field: hashtags, registers, terms and jargon of the different social networks which, as we know, are completely different worlds.
- Micro copywriter: This is perhaps the most surprising specialisation. As its name suggests, it is in charge of the "micro", the small. Who could say that a single word can change everything? The Micro copywriter is the one who is entrusted with reviewing the search menu, the title of each of the sections and subsections, the links to other areas of the website. Is it more efficient to put "contact" or "contact us", or perhaps a telephone icon is more striking? All these small decisions make the difference and it is the copywriter who, with an overall vision, and knowing the line of the company, decides how it should be done.
Therefore, although the copywriter's work is very focused on marketing, the most important thing is that he/she masters the language, even several languages. He/she must use the right word whose meaning is most appropriate, but also the one that is most persuasive for the reader. In fact, the copywriter is often referred to as persuasive copywriter (persuasive means persuasive). He/she writes to sell and reflects how companies have become aware that marketing tasks go beyond advertisements. Generating contact with customers and getting them to read something that comes from inside the company is an opportunity that cannot be wasted with a bad message .
