Marketing Copywriter

Probably the most common question asked of Writers at dinner parties is, “What do you write?” Although the obvious answers are books and articles, the truth is: Most Writers aren’t Authors or Journalists. Instead, they’re Copywriters, which means they write literally everything else, from menus, magazine ads, and mailers to billboards, cereal boxes, and bus benches.

As a Marketing Copywriter, you belong to a subset of the copywriting bunch that focuses exclusively on writing promotional copy for marketing purposes. When someone asks you what you write, therefore, you answer any or all of the following: advertisements, advertorials, branded articles, brochures, direct mail, emails, flyers, letters, newsletters, postcards, presentations, press releases, product descriptions, sales collateral, speeches, taglines, web pages, and whitepapers.

More than writing, your job as a Marketing Copywriter is selling, so your words must be written in a way that’s simultaneously compact and compelling, at once expressive and expedient.

And yet, writing is only part of the job of a Marketing Copywriter. Along with writing the words for printed and digital marketing pieces, you’re paid to develop the ideas behind them. Usually, that requires meeting with clients and/or colleagues in order to learn about the product or service you’re promoting, then brainstorming different concepts and messages that you can use to sell them.

Other duties involve copyediting and proofreading, and working with Graphic Designers to create visual companions to your written creations. Ultimately, though, your number one duty is persuasion: You’re a Pied Piper who’s paid to befriend the buying public with text, romancing them one word at a time!