When I began working as a junior copywriter, I was stunned by the number of ad agency corporate executives—senior vice presidents, heads of account services, even the shop’s CEO—who didn’t take much interest in the overall quality of their writing. But I quickly learned an important lesson: while it would be terrific if everyone could write with creativity and precision, that wasn’t what these folks’ jobs were about—and in retrospect, thank goodness.
Why? Because if everyone could do it, I would soon be out of a job. Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case. Whether writing three-word theme lines or three-page white papers, these executives could see the difference between something well-written and something, well, written. They’ve made the same kind of smart choices that helped make them successful in other important facets of creative communications, they chose to hire and trust copywriters.
Even before the emergence of AI tools that can “write” based on specific prompts, most people with a computer assumed they could do the same. Photoshop, Illustrator, and other complicated design software made it tougher to masquerade as an art director or designer; but the tools of the writing trade are on nearly everyone’s desk. So, what does make an experienced copywriter so different from a reasonably intelligent person who’s putting pen to paper or fingers to their keyboard?
First off, copywriting is a craft, one that, like most crafts, requires skill, practice, and focused repetition. I have a friend who is a woodworking artist; she can genuinely (and amazingly) see her subject lurking in a block of wood. Me? I can whittle a stick into…a much smaller stick. But that doesn’t mean I can carve something intentional, meaningful, and artistic.
Second, being a successful copywriter necessitates experience. It’s rare to find a junior copywriter whose very first professional copywriting scribbles are bought by and produced for the client. But working across myriad categories—for use in multiple channels, and for a broad array of clients, senior copywriters, copy chiefs, and creative directors—yields experience that does, in turn and over time, lead to expertise.
Third, copywriting is also a business skill. Yes, a copywriter writes creatively, much like a novelist, playwright, or poet. But a copywriter must also understand the business challenge their copy is intended to address. And a copywriter must digest all the available and meaningful research, understand their client’s strategic positioning, and get truly familiar with a large number of other left-brained parts of their clients’ business that will inform their writing immeasurably. Then there’s the copywriting.
At its best, copywriting can be artistic, but it’s not an art. If you want to be an artist, please (please!) go work on your art. Be relentless, focused, and immune to criticism. But if you want to be a copywriter (perhaps even in addition to being one of those other kinds of writers), remember that your copy will be part of a larger set of creative assets designed to be integrated with one another to help in meeting your clients’ goal or goals. For writers who also love to solve business challenges, it’s an amazing way to leverage your writing skills.
Which brings me back to the lesson I learned at my first copywriting job. Not everyone is a great writer, in the same way that not everyone is a great anything-else. And some of those not-great writers are phenomenally smart and insightful in other important ways; it’s just that writing isn’t among their most important skills. Sure, you can have a smart person who’s not a great writer write for your website, write your advertising, write your social media posts, and write just about anything else for your business. But when you think about the well-learned craft, the value of experience, and the importance of knowing how to work at the exact intersection of art and business, why wouldn’t you want a great writer? Why wouldn’t you want a copywriter?
“The mind thinks in pictures, you know. One good illustration is worth a thousand words. But one clear picture built up in the reader’s mind by your words is worth a thousand drawings, for the reader colors that picture with his own imagination, which is more potent than all the brushes of all the world’s artists.” – Robert Collier
