Is Copywriting Lucrative?
Copywriting is the process of writing the persuasive text for the purpose of advertising and similar marketing functions. It’s considered to be one of the most critical elements of marketing and advertising. As both, marketing and advertising are growing in popularity so is simultaneously the need for copywriting. Does this necessarily mean that copywriting is lucrative?
Being a vital part of marketing and advertising, which are becoming vital parts of any business, copywriting is indeed lucrative.
With that being said, if you’re looking to get into copywriting because you think it’s lucrative, the chances of you building a professional career in copywriting are slim. However, if copywriting is something that excites you, you have higher chance of building a professional career in copywriting.
Is copywriting lucrative?
As with any career, you’ll get out of copywriting as much as you put in. Copywriting being a lucrative career depends on two factors:
- Hours you’re working
- Quality of your work
If utilized correctly, those two factors can contribute to copywriting being lucrative. However, keep in mind it’s by no means guaranteed.
Hours you’re working depend on the business climate whilst the quality of your work depends on the competition you encounter. Competition is high as there are two sides of the scale in this business. On one side there are lots of freelancers who work for low wages and put out content for content mills – not a path everybody’s willing or prepared to take. On the other side of the scale, there are the top 5% of copywriting creators and agencies who are getting recognition and winning awards for their work.
Copywriting being lucrative depends on the combination of the two, hours and quality, and the path you’re looking to take. To remind you, if you’re looking to get into copywriting because you think it’s lucrative – don’t. If you’re however a keen writer, want to create creative and engaging content for wide audiences, and are willing to put a lot of time and dedication into your craft, copywriting could be a lucrative career path for you.
Is copywriting in demand?
Copywriter sells a product or service with the goal to persuade prospective customers into taking an action in buying or using whatever’s being sold.
The copywriter’s job is to appeal to the mass public by reaching them through various media like billboards, blog posts, magazine ads, and more. As it’s no use trying to reach each customer individually, at least if you want to do it faster and for cheaper, copywriting provides a perfect solution, if utilized correctly, to reach a wide number of wanted customers.
What makes copywriting different from other forms of content creation is that copywriting conveys a message. A job of a copywriter is to make the message compelling enough in order to persuade customers into action.
This persuading of customers into action is a job that will exist as long as there are products and services to be sold. The number of products and services all over the market is constantly growing and with that so does the need to correctly market and advertise those products and services.
Every business’s goal is to advertise their products or services in a way that makes them stand out from their competition and set prospective customers’ minds on their own product or service.
That’s where copywriting comes in and why copywriting is lucrative. Simply put, copywriting is a fundamental practice that no business can do without, meaning, it’s high in demand.
Is freelance copywriting a good career?
If we’re to consider the fact that copywriting is lucrative, as well as it is in demand, a conclusion can be drawn that copywriting can make for a good career.
But what makes a good career? Although the answer can be quite individual, overall a good career consists of:
Being paid accordingly
With freelance, copywriters have the potential of building a good career and making a good living. On the other hand, freelance itself requires more hustle than any typical job. In freelance, work isn’t always guaranteed and can be inconsistent. The work varies depending on your own efforts to continually seek new clients or the ability to establish your brand to a point where clients are constantly contacting you. Either can ensure you’re earning sufficient pay.
Being paid accordingly also depends on the competition you’re fighting, be it low wage freelancers who put out work for content mills or already established and professional freelancers.
In freelance copywriting, you set your own fees. Your fees depend on the quality of your work and its delivery in quality and promptness.
Different freelancers go different ways about setting their fees – some charge per word whilst others have their fee set. You can find what works best for you but remember not to over or underestimate yourself and your work.
Reasonable working hours
Keeping a balance in work/private life can be hard if you work freelance.
There are times you could be working for clients from different time zones and thus your working schedule could be shifted.
Other times you could be working on your own accord but overload yourself with work and forget about the work/life balance which is needed to maintain a healthy business and private life.
It’s important not to forget that although it’s important, work shouldn’t overtake your life. If it overtakes your life you’re risking overworking which can cause exhaustion and burnout. Not only will it affect your mental health but it will also affect your work quality. Utilizing your talents to the fullest
In the beginning, you might not have an opportunity to choose jobs and projects but with time, as you gain experience you’ll be able to choose jobs and projects that are truly your forte. You shouldn’t settle for less in the long run. Look to work for clients who align with your interests and who share your values. The more you utilize your talents, the happier you’ll be which will result in a higher quality of your work.
How do you make money as a copywriter?
Copywriting includes lots of different fields, such as:
- SEO
- PPC ads
- Web writing
- e-mail marketing
- social media
The money you can earn, however, depends on factors such as:
Your niche
Specializing within a specific niche could prove to work better than generalizing.
Specializing within a specific niche brings in more money and demands more respect. By specializing, your clients see you as an extension of their team rather than just as somebody they can throw anything and everything at.
If you think about it, it’s not always a good thing to be selling yourself as an all-in-one type of professional. Whilst it’s possible to be good at many things, it’s perhaps not possible to be the best at all of those many things.
Constant professional growth
Your main goal should always be to keep on learning. Although it’s not necessary to have formal education you should aim to constantly learn and gain knowledge through courses, reading books, or even exploring other copywriter’s successful work.
By building and improving your skillset, you’ll have more to offer to potential clients. That will also ensure to receive positive feedback for your work which will in turn help you move further up towards success. Like a chain reaction, your skillset will attract more clients, with more clients you’ll get more work, and with more work comes more money.
Building your knowledge, building relationships with your clients, and building your brand all takes time which will in turn result in strengthening your professional copywriting career.
There are two different ways you can earn money by copywriting:
1. Work for hire
Work for hire means you’ll get employed by a company for the specific role of copywriting. These jobs are harder to come by and have many advantages and disadvantages.
The main advantage would be stable pay and constant workload – you’ll get paid monthly as agreed with the acceptance of the position and you won’t have to search for projects yourself as you’d have to with freelancing.
The main disadvantage would be you don’t get to work from home as much, work hours aren’t flexible and you can’t choose the project you’ll be involved with. Working for a company means you’ll have to work on a project they want you to which means you won’t necessarily always be utilizing your real talents to the fullest.
You could be writing SEO texts, describing the goods, writing commercial content, and similar.
2. Freelance
This is where dedication, organizational skills, and punctuality come in. Freelance means you’ll look for employment by yourself for whichever projects you deem right for you on a contract or project basis. Being a freelance copywriter opens a whole new world of opportunities if you’re willing to take them.
As a freelancer, you get to choose clients you want to work with, you’re able to set your own fees, work on your time schedule but also have to be able to hold yourself accountable.