COPYWRITING — MUST-HAVES

Hey excellent copywriters,

Here are my thoughts on the attributes you MUST possess as a copywriter to help you enjoy writing and scale at the speed of sound perhaps.

Have a read!

Happy Holidays!

Must Haves as a Copywriter

I will start by sharing the most powerful skill sets a copywriter must possess — Soft Skills before diving into the more teachable ones — Hard Skills.

Soft Skills Needed to Succeed as a Copywriter

1. Stay Updated — Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings across a number of industries. This is a core skill for any copywriter that wants to excel in copywriting and keep up with the volume of information available and the changing landscape across sectors.

Staying updated is one of your Superpowers as a copywriter because it positions you as a smart, intelligent, and industry expert who is capable of delivering authentic content in any subject matter. Copywriting requires the ability to write about many niches and topics.

This doesn’t, however, suggest that you write about every and anything, that has your listed niches of interest. One powerful way to stay up-to-date and get insight into trending topics and subject matter is to be active on discussion forums, Q&A forums, News forums, and social media. Some of these platforms are; Quora, Medium, Writing Forums, She Writes, and Twitter.

2. Be Consistent — Consistency beats Hard Work! Do well to be consistent in your writing, and never forget that practice leads to perfection.

Writing is tied to creativity and when you hone the skill of writing over time, it gets really easy to write about topics and increases speed and accuracy which is one of the core skills of professional copywriters. Not to forget, it also exponentially increases your revenue.

3. Network with Other Writers — Networking is as powerful as having the right skillsets, perhaps a bit more power. Here is why networking is inevitably a must-have skill for copywriting:

· Helps you stand out from the crowd

· Ensures you get value for your expertise in terms of commensurate compensation

· Boost your pace of learning — you learn faster and grow faster

· Create a strong community of like-minded persons that will serve as “PUSH” and Motivation whenever the thought of giving up POPS in your head.

· Increased chances of getting writing gigs and full-time copywriting jobs

· Building long-lasting personal and professional relationships with colleagues on and offline.

4. Be Patient — Patience is needed for all kinds of jobs, in writing, you must be patient with yourself, craft, growth, colleagues, and clients. Patience is at the core of having a successful career as a copywriter.

It Takes Grit to Pull Through, guess what? You Can Do It. Remember these words by Andre De Shields “Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be.” Take your time, master your craft and fly high on eagle’s wings, do not ignore the stirs they will prepare you for times when the elevator is down. Keep climbing.

5. Be Creative — If you truly want to stand out in writing and anything else, then, do not be afraid to think and act differently. Writing poses an incredible opportunity to bring your innate creativity to life, seize it, and run with it.

Be different, have your unique style, and remember not to cross the line. Most brands have their writing style guides, understand and stick to them but don’t let them dampen your unique style and creativity, strike a good balance.

6. Remember Your Target Audience — Always have in mind that every copy you write is met for a particular target audience and reflect on the relevance of your copy to this audience as you write. Do not drift from reality but let reality guide your mind to delivering value through marketing copies.

Hard Skills — Copywriting

Now that we have mentioned several vital Soft Skills needed by Copywriters, let’s remind ourselves of some of the Hard Skills needed for Copywriting. These are:

I. Read, Read and Research — Do a lot of reading in your spare time. Read a book that interests you, it can be a motivational book or memoir, or any text that works for you.

Research the meaning of words, and phrases and understand the contextual angle of words/phrases. All of these add up to fine-tune your writing whenever you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, lol!

One of the greatest skills anyone can possess is the ability to express ideas and oneself clearly and explicitly. Your skill-building in writing will help you in every facet of life as people will listen to you attentively whenever you open your mouth to speak.

II. Deliver Professional Copies — It is not as hard as it seems to deliver copies that are professionally crafted. To do this, you need to pay keen attention to detail and aim for perfection.

A well-written copy is grammatically correct, easy to understand with the simplest of terms, authentic (plagiarism-free), has great content flow, and has clear information. The niche you are targeting should determine the tone of voice to be used.

For instance, if you are writing a finance article, then, because the target audience is professionals and industry-relevant terminologies will be used in the article, it is ideal to stick with the FORMAL TOV as against writing for the fashion industry which can take the funny and casual TOV.

III. Get Relevant Writing Tools — Having the right tools to aid your writing is a big distinguishing factor that can make or mar your career as a copywriter. There are essential writing tools that will take your writing to a professional level.

Some of these tools are:

• Grammarly (Grammar and error checker) 
• Copyscape (Plagiarism checker)
• Character Count (Online Word, Character, Sentence, Paragraph, and Space count)
• Google Docs and Sheet (Online collaboration and tracking of work)
• Slack — (Remote work collaboration)
• Loom or Snagit (Video, Audio, and Screen recording tools)

IV. Invest in Knowledge — If you snooze you lose! Stay hungry, don’t get comfortable, and keep learning and upskilling. A good way to keep learning in a world of information overload is to be part of networks that are relevant to your professional growth.

In these groups, you will constantly be reminded to keep going forward and challenged to learn new things. Do not fail to create time to attend webinars in your industry, watch that YouTube video you have bookmarked for more than 3 months, and take that course to get some more insights into the most effective way to deliver value and scale professionally.

V. Rest Proper and Have a Healthy Balance — This may sound unconventional, but that is why I’m exceptional in what I do, not intended for bragging, lol. Seriously, having a healthy Work-Life Balance is an indispensable skill that you must learn and hone.

My formal Boss and Manager will always say these words “Work Never Ends.” He went further to emphasize the importance of resting properly and hinted the health implications of insufficient rest. It is You First before your job, so do well to take good care of your health because without good health you can’t even work at your job. Health is Wealth.

I hope this content provided some vital information.

Do well to share your feedback and suggest related topics you like me to write on.

Many thanks for taking out time to read!

See you ALL in 2023. Let's keep learning.