In order to become an art director, for example, (who normally works with a copywriter in a two-person, creative team) you would generally need to have some sort of art or graphical design qualification behind you. But copywriting is different. You don’t need any specific qualification (other than a good degree / HND – most will do but in particular, English, arts, media, journalism, marketing, and so on). Copywriting is something that you need some sort of natural talent for, and it is a talent that is best developed on the job (starting off on a work placement), so to speak, as well through various non-formal educational methods for picking up the skills that you need. At some point, though, formal training in copywriting or in a subject related to copywriting may prove beneficial.

Skills you need in order to become a copywriter

In order to become a copywriter you need to be good at coming up with creative concepts for ads, writing good straplines, and being able to write in a variety of different styles (for writing more lengthy copy in brochures, websites, and so on). In fact you don’t even have to be a creative writer to become a copywriter (even though many creative writers have worked as copywriters at some point in their careers).

Where to pick up the skills to become a copywriter

Reading widely to pick up different writing styles
Reading widely (books and magazines) is probably the best way of learning how to write in different styles.

Work placement
The best place to learn about copywriting is on the job. Do some work experience. Work experience will also be the best way of testing whether you do you have any talent / potential talent or not. Work experience could lead to a full-time job.

Read about / meet people who work in the industry in general
Try and learn as much as you can about the advertising industry in general.
Read around the advertising industry as much as possible (trade magazines, blogs, books). Find out, exactly, what the account planner, the account handler, and others (in an advertising agency), do. Look at the big changes that are taking place in the advertising industry as a whole (i.e advertising moving more and more onto digital). Look at lots of good and bad ads. Why are they good / bad? And answer this not just from a creative perspective but also from a brand / marketing perspective (you need to persuade a future employee that you understand the importance of campaigns being ‘relevant’ (that the ad sends out the right brand message to the right audience) as well as ‘creative’ (the ad sounds and looks – although ‘looks’ is the main role of the art director – appealing, as well as the overall creative concept being appealing too). And you need to understand concepts such as ‘the big idea’, ‘the creative brief’, and so on.

Read about / get involved with zeitgeist/culture/people
Read the popular magazines. Watch popular TV programmes. Be up-to-date with what is going on in music, film, fashion, design and so on.

Do interesting things / be interesting
If you want your copy to be interesting, original, different and so on, then do things in your free time to help you achieve this. The more interest you can create around yourself, the better.

Journalism
Writing articles for your local newspaper and / or programme scripts for your local radio would also be really useful (but not essential at all)

Starting up a blog and using copywriting to sell something
Start up a blog and try and sell something – anything (doesn’t matter how small). Or use the blog for Adsense. With time you could develop it to try and create some sort of mini brand. You might not have the business experience to make money. But it would be a good (and interesting) way to help develop and demonstrate your copywriting skills (again, not essential at all).

Art Director
You will need to find out exactly what the role of the art director is. The art director and the copywriter are jointly responsible for the campaign’s overall creative concept. For the rest, the art director focuses on visuals and the copwriter on words. Although there will be jobs available for junior creatives who do not have a creative partner, at some point, however, you will have to join up with an art director, forming a two-person creative team.

Portfolio
You will, also, need to put together a portfolio (or ‘book’). The portfolio must demonstrate your understanding of the brand, the brand’s customers, the brand’s market place, and the brand’s competition, as well as demonstrating your creative brilliance! In other words it must be both creative and relevant (relevant to the marketing / brand goals of the client and the advertising campaign in general).

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