Ok. You’re ready to take the plunge and become a professional copywriter, but how do you secure your first copywriting job?
You may have received numerous compliments and accolades for your writing and copywriting skills, but until you land that first copywriting job – it’s technically not officially … official.
The copywriting world is hopping right now, and copywriters everywhere are flooding the market. A quick Google search will yield pages and pages of content, copywriting courses, and copywriting personas – men and women ranging in ages from right out of college to retired professionals looking to teach you how to copywrite for your next career.
The Internet has definitely made securing your first copywriting job much easier, but unless the stars and planets are in perfect alignment (and they may very well be) then landing your first copywriting job takes effort and dedication and a few helpful tips from experienced copywriters like the ones below.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #1: Plant the Copywriting Seed
The key is to tell everyone you know of your intent to become a copywriter. You never know where business will come from and it just takes one seed to plant the idea and help it grow. Tell friends, former co-workers, family, neighbors and even cousins once removed, in other words everyone, and let it be known that copywriting is your new gig.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #2: Explore the Copywriting Landscape
Find out what you’re getting yourself into and make sure you adapt your skills and your talents to fit those needs. Scour not only traditional job boards like Indeed but check out freelancing websites like Upwork and Fiverr. Searching social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter with #copywriter or #freelancewritingjobs will also help to get an idea of what’s out there and allow you to start strategizing your next move.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #3: Stand Out from the Copywriting Crowd
Copywriting competition can be fierce so stand out and rise above. Prospective clients want to know more about you and your experience, but they more importantly want to know what you can do for them. When using freelance sites, like Upwork, show prospective clients what you can do for them and give them a quick tease to show them what you’ve got.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #4: Market Yourself
Creating a website or social media site to showcase who you are, what you can do and what you can offer clients is important. Even if you don’t have an official paying copywriting job, you’ve got talent and you need to showcase that talent through real world experience in former jobs or even through fictitious samples that highlight your skills.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #5: Invest the Time
Not only must you invest the time in marketing yourself, but you have to devote time to searching for potential copywriting jobs. Remember, they don’t always come to you or land at your feet, so you’ll need to commit time to scouring the Internet and job boards to find jobs, submit proposals and secure potential copywriting jobs.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #6: Establishing Your Copywriting Rate
Yes, you have to start somewhere, but you’re talented and also don’t want to give away the farm. You may get paid a lower rate at first, especially if you don’t have a huge portfolio. But each piece that you write is a stepping stone and investment towards future projects and potential earnings.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #7: Profiles, Portfolios and Proposals
Even if you haven’t received payment for your very first copywriting job yet, that doesn’t mean that you can’t keep writing and building your portfolio. You need samples to showcase your talent so write copy for a fictitious company or find your dream company and write copy for them.
People’s attention spans are short these days, so you need to make it catchy, to the point and give them a little tease of what’s to come. It’s definitely easier to write about stuff you know, but don’t limit yourself at first and be open to learning and doing research. A good copywriter can write about anything.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #8: Take the Copywriting Leap
Once you’ve written a piece for your ideal company or for any company that you can impress with your copywriting skill – then start working on getting your foot in the door. Send an email to a lead executive, introduce yourself to the decision makers, the front desk person – anyone that will see that you have written something even better. Introduce yourself, but more importantly tell them what you can do for them and how your copywriting skills can solve an issue and equate to more contacts, better leads and more sales.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #9: Continual Learning
There is always room to learn and grow and there are no shortages of online courses and information out there. In addition to spending time each day pounding the copywriting pavement to look for work make sure you devote time to reading about writing and learning even more. A streaming flow of information about copywriting is out there so make sure you are up to date and in the know. Find writing forums that help to keep you in contact with other copywriters and experts that can share tips, best practices and future copywriting jobs.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Tip #10: Learn to Juggle
Not literally, but it is important to multitask and juggle many activities at once – learning, researching, proposal writing, marketing, cold calling, client searching and most importantly copywriting. All of these moving pieces need to happen simultaneously at times to secure your first copywriting job and future copywriting jobs. One good thing about choosing copywriting is that you’ll never get bored, and you can work as much or as little as you want because you are ultimately in charge of your copywriting destiny.
How to Secure Your First Copywriting Job Bonus Tip: Rip Off the Band-Aid & Start Today!
You’re a great writer and it’s time to take the next step. Your copywriting future is unclear and it’s scary, not to mention potentially life changing. I know because I was right where you are, but I ripped off the band-aid and just started and I’ve never been happier. And, you can too!
For more tips on landing your first copywriting job you can check out this article on The Writing Cooperative.
Hi, I’m Mike Giannulis and I have made it my mission in life to help fellow copywriters get started. My hope is to not only help you secure your very first copywriting job, but many more in the future. It just takes one piece, and it grows from there. Every time you write copy you can use it for leverage to impress more clients, gain more testimonials and once that seed is planted it will continue to grow.
I’d love to invite you to my new Copywriter Brain community to learn more about you and connect you to other copywriters. Please join us and also check out my new online course, The Ultimate Copywriting From Scratch Master Course. It’s time to start your copywriting journey … let’s go!
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