Copywriting is a broad subject, and although people looking for copywriting jobs shouldn’t be choosy, it is well-worth being aware of the different types of jobs available in copywriting, and tweaking your approach and CV to match this. In particular, the sort of places where copywriting takes place. And the different types of copywriting disciplines.  

PLACES WHERE COPYWRITING TAKE PLACE

Traditional Creative Advertising Agencies

Most people think of copywriting as:
- working in a creative team to come up with a creative concept, a headline and more detailed copy (to expound on the headline) for a campaign across a wide variety of media, above all, TV.
And these types of copywriting jobs are the most sought after. So if you are going to apply for a junior position in a traditional, creative advertising agency, then you will need to ensure that you have the highest credentials possible for a copywriter: able to write in a wide variety of styles, lots of reading and writing experience, strong knowledge of marketing and the advertising industry in general, and a good university degree or HND – also, the more extra curricula activities you can include in your CV, the better: i.e student journalism, travel, the arts, and so on).

So the above is a brief description of the classic copywriter role (and the sort of experiences / qualifications / abilities that all copywriters need to aim for in general).

But there are other ways into copywriting other than just applying for jobs  (or trying to get a foot in the door, in general) in the traditional, creative advertising agencies.

Traditional Direct Marketing Advertising Agencies

Similar to traditional, creative advertising agencies, although the copywriting is focused more on print and with a more sales-style copywriting approach.

Companies In-house

Many companies have a copywriter or group of copywriters that focus on content or a method of communication very much suited to the particular company or brand. The sort of work these copywriters might do includes: sales copywriting, writing sales brochures, online PR copywriting, content copywriting, SEO copywriting, blogging, in general, and more.

Digital Agencies

Copywriting is now a well established discipline in digital agencies and digital work environments in general. The range of copywriting disciplines in digital agencies is broad: web, sales, marketing and more.

Integrated Agencies

Integrated agencies are advertising agencies that cover both traditional-advertising and digital-advertising-agency work. The scope for different type of copywriting work is, perhaps, biggest in integrated advertising agencies. This makes copywriting more varied (and interesting) but at the same time, demands more flexibility in work practices and a great knowledge of the advertising industry in general.

THE DIFFERENT COPYWRITING DISCIPLINES

The following is an introduction to the different types of disciplines within copywriting (a copywriter might focus on one of these or employ two or more disciplines in his / her day-to-day job).

Marketing Copywriting

Marketing copywriting is a general term for writing copy that creates brand awareness / communicates a brand message to an audience. This is really more of a term than a job title. Marketing copywriting is a basic skill that all copywriters should aim to master. It is found in all areas of advertising / marketing / media agencies in general, as well as in companies in-house.

Sales Copywriting

Sales copywriting is more focused on getting the audience to perform some action after reading the copy (i.e at best, buying a product) than mere brand awareness / brand communication as in marketing copywriting. ‘Sales Copywriter’ is a job title that does crop up. Most jobs in sales copywriting are to be found in direct marketing agencies, companies in-house and digital and integrated advertising agencies. The usual copywriting skills / abilities apply, plus some sort of experience of working in a sales environment.

PR Copywriting

PR copywriting is something that a PR person would normally incorporate with general PR work. People involved in PR copywriting often have a strong background in journalism (or, at least, a background in journalism certainly helps).

Web Copywriting

Web copywriting covers various disciplines:

Creative Copywriting (writing headlines for banners, creative concepts, marketing copy, and so on)
Seo Copywriting (focusing on key words for search engine search)
Content Writing (for general articles, blogging posts and so on)
PR Copywriting (in company news articles, blogging articles and so on)
Website Copywriting (web designer will often write own copy to introduce website to audience and so on)
Blogging (incorporating various aspects of copywriting)

Looking at ‘where copywriting is done’ and the diferent copywriting discplines is a useful way of planning how to get into copywriting as well as planning your copywriting career for the future, in general.
Lastly, people who want to get into copywriting shouldn’t, generally, be choosy about what sort of copywriting discipline they start of doing. A general approach is a good idea. But it is, also, a good idea to build up work experience (through work placements, for example) of the different types of copywriting disciplines (and, in addition to the general appraoch, to focus, a little, perhaps, on one discpline). This will enable you to tweak your CV to the particular company and job role that you are applying for. And increase your chances, overall, of getting into copywriting!

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