A copywriter is a person who is creative with words. This is a professional who earns a living by writing copy for advertisements, video scripts, websites, and all manner of marketing materials aimed at eliciting a response from readers, website visitors, or a target audience.

The purpose of copywriting is to persuade the target audience to buy a product or a service, download an ebook, sign up for a newsletter, enlist for a course, subscribe to a service, and so forth. The copy ends with a clear call-to-action (CTA).

Copywriters usually work as part of the marketing department of a company, in an advertising agency, or from home as a freelancer.

Freelance Copywriting

While some copywriters work for companies or advertising agencies, others freelance. A freelance copywriter writes copy on a contract or project basis for commercial purposes. 

The individual is not an employee of a company or an agency but is a self-employed professional.

Check out our article on How To Become A Copywriter With No Experience.

Copywriting As a Freelancer – What Skills Do You Need

Copywriting can be a very rewarding career, but it isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. To get hired as a freelance copywriter, you need the following skills and abilities. 

1. Creativity

Copywriting is, above all, a creative endeavor. A copywriter must be able to come up with unique and compelling text that grabs the attention of a target audience and inspires them to engage with the business. However, although the copy must be unique, it must still carry the essence of the company’s brand voice.

Successful freelance copywriters are creative and original but also true to the brand they are writing for. The best copywriters are able to change the tone of their writing to suit the voice of the company that hired them.

2. Strong Communication Skills

Strong communication is indispensable for anyone who wants to earn a living as a freelance copywriter.

You have to understand your client’s needs and goals clearly. If there is any doubt or misunderstanding, a copywriter must be able to communicate that to the client in a professional manner that doesn’t alienate the client or endanger the working relationship in any way.

Lastly, the copy must clearly communicate the company’s marketing goals. Everything about copywriting is about communication.

3. SEO Knowledge

These days, copywriters must be SEO savvy. The website copy, product descriptions, landing pages, and so forth, that a copywriter produces, must be optimized for search engines. SEO copywriting involves in-depth keyword research and other SEO best practices.

4. Strong Research Skills

The basis of good copy is good research. Creating catchy slogans and taglines for ads involves considerable groundwork. The more in-depth the research, the better the copy. Freelance copywriters spend a lot of their time doing research for the projects they’re working on.

Most importantly, copywriters spend a long time studying their target audience to know exactly what interests and motivates them.

5. An Eye For Detail

This is a critical skill for a copywriter. The copywriter is responsible for the correctness of all writing produced for digital and print marketing materials.

6. Being Persuasive

The job of a copywriter is to persuade customers and prospects to do something that will part them with their money. This requires strong persuasion skills and knowing how to use words and phrases to influence behavior.

7. Flexibility 

Freelance copywriters must adapt to different clients. As a freelance professional, you work with different people all the time – you don’t go to the office every day where you work with people you have known for some time. There is no familiarity; there is constant change that requires the ability to be flexible and adapt to new people and new circumstances. 

What does freelance copywriting entail?

The responsibilities of a freelance copywriter will depend on the contract. Some contracts may require you to take full responsibility for all the copy of an entire ad campaign, and another may require you to just write a list of catchy headlines or come up with product names.

In general, a freelance copywriter will be required to: 

• Collaborate with designers and marketing professionals on marketing campaigns
• Do research and interviews
• Implement SEO best practices
• Interpret copywriting briefs to understand project requirements
• Edit and proofread copy 
• Source images and other content, and write

• Sales copy for website content and media channels
• Compelling copy for homepages, landing pages, product descriptions, blogs, and more.
• Email marketing copy
• Social media posts 
• Brand taglines
• Ad slogans

Freelance Copywriter Jobs

According to data from LinkedIn, jobs for digital marketing professionals and digital content creators are in high demand and demand is growing fast. In 2020, the growth in hiring was almost 33% for digital marketing professionals and 49% for digital content creators.

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to attract new customers and showcase their products and services, so there’s always a high demand for copywriters to produce blogs, articles, email copy, copy for landing pages, and so forth. 

Talented writers with an excellent command of language, combined with the ability to write original copy, can always find a lucrative outlet for their talents. Freelance copywriters are usually highly versatile and have a broad client list.

Nine Types of Copywriting

All copywriting is not the same. Most successful freelance copywriters, who have made a name for themselves, focus on just one or two of these forms of copywriting.

1. Freelance Direct Response Copywriting

Direct Response Copywriting harks back to traditional sales copy. With this copy, copywriters aim to motivate customers and prospects to take immediate action. 

The copy is persuasive, creates a sense of urgency, and ends with a strong call to action. The CTA, for instance, ask the reader to share their email address, schedule an appointment, enroll in a course, subscribe to a service, or buy a product.

2. Freelance Brand Copywriting

Brand copywriting is unlike any other form of copywriting. The focus of brand copywriting is not to sell; it is to create or raise brand awareness. 

Brand copywriting is an art. It aims to create a bond with consumers whereby they become fans of the brand. The idea is to create a positive image of the business that goes beyond making money from sales. 

Coca-Cola has done that very well. What do most people think of when they are hot and thirsty? An ice-cold coke – It’s the real thing. Coke.

And which slogan has given countless athletes the drive to persist against all odds? Nike with: Just do it.

3. Freelance Email Marketing

By now, everybody knows that there are indisputable benefits to email marketing. The return on investment is massive: for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $40. 

Behind every successful email marketing campaign are the writing skills of a copywriter.

Freelance copywriters who have mastered the art of email copywriting will always have work and a good income because companies know the benefits of email marketing and value the services of a competent copywriter. 

4. Freelance Technical Copywriting

Technical Copywriting is very challenging. It requires the ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms so most people can understand them. 

There is a scarcity of technical copywriters because of the two diverse skills needed to do the job well: excellent command of the written language and the ability to grasp complex technical or scientific concepts.

In fact, to succeed as a technical copywriter, you need a STEM background. The problem is that people with a STEM background are working in STEM, not writing about it. 

So, if you have a background in STEM, but can’t find a job, why not consider becoming a technical copywriter? You will be writing case studies, white papers, and the like.

5. Freelance Social Media Copywriting

This is a skill that has become highly sought after. These professionals have to be very strategic about their posts, as it can have far-reaching consequences. 

Social media copywriting requires the ability to write short, impactful messages on different social media platforms. The message can be to

• Direct users to a sales page
• Direct users to buy 
• Direct users to certain content
• Create brand awareness
• Generate a  conversation with fans, or customers
• Get followers to like, follow, or share a post

Social media presence is hugely beneficial to brands – the majority (71%) of livestream viewers have purchased something via social media.

To be effective, social media copy must be short and conversational; the shorter, the better. Every platform has different conventions. It’s a question of trial and error to find out what works on which platform. Also, these platforms limit the number of characters you can use. 

Posts with emojis and graphics get the most attention, but the biggest challenge for copywriters is the short-lived nature of social media posts. This means, when you write a post, you better make sure it makes the right impact.

This is an area that keeps changing. What works today may fail tomorrow. So, social media copywriters must stay up to date with industry changes.

6. Freelance SEO Copywriting

This is a relatively recent position that has opened up for copywriters, including freelance copywriters. 

SEO copywriters have a special skill. They can take keywords derived from often-used terms in search engines, and create content around that. Then, when a person uses these keywords to conduct a search, they will find the website because search engines will have given it preferential ranking. 

Identifying and using the right keywords is a crucial skill for this kind of copywriting. SEO copywriters also look at the keywords that other top-ranking websites are using to help them decide on the best keyword strategy.  

So, an SEO copywriter fulfills a crucial role for businesses – helping them to rank high on search engines and creating an opportunity to grow their customer base and increase revenue.

Check out our article on Is a Marketing Degree Worth it.

7. Freelance Website Copywriting

Website copywriting is highly sought after. It involves writing copy for website pages, including homepages, landing pages, and more.

The job requires a copywriter to understand the business they are writing for. Since readers spend only a few seconds reading website copy, it’s the writer must create texts that immediately grab attention and pique interest.

Copywriters must understand the objective of each webpage and write for that. Each website page needs to communicate specific information to website visitors and prompt them to take a certain action, whether it is to navigate to the next page, read a newsworthy snippet, or pick a product. 

8. Freelance Public Relations Copywriting

This is a specialized type of copywriting that is often neglected by companies. It is an art to write a well-crafted press release that states a company’s value proposition in less than 500 words.

A lot is at stake with PR copywriting because the writer needs to consider how the press release will affect the company, its customers and employees, and all other stakeholders.

In PR writing, the writer must be able to create newsworthy content that achieves certain objectives for the client. The goal of PR writing is not to sell; it is to inform, promote and influence a wider audience. Good PR writing builds brand awareness and reputation for companies.

9. Freelance B2B Copywriting

B2B (business-to-business) copywriters help companies market and sell their products and services to other businesses. 

Although this copy is aimed at businesses, it’s individuals within the business that buy the product or service. Actually, it’s not one person; it’s several people, each with their own perspective on the proposed product or service and the vendor that sells it.

Because multiple people are involved in the sales process, B2B sales typically take a long time.

A B2B copywriter must understand how communication happens between businesses and know how to communicate product features for business purposes.

A B2B copywriter will be called upon to write a wide range of sales material, from product comparisons and case studies to white papers, press releases, and blog posts.