Most copywriters are employed within organizations such as advertising agencies, public relations firms, company advertising departments, large stores, marketing firms, broadcasters and cable providers, newspapers, book publishers, magazines and creative agencies. Copywriters can also be independent contractors who do freelance writing for a variety of clients, at the clients’ offices or working from their own, or partners or employees in a specialized copywriting agency. Such agencies combine copywriting services with a range of editorial and associated services that may include positioning and messaging consulting, social media and SEO consulting, developmental editing, and copy editing, proofreading, fact checking, layout, and design. A copywriting agency most often serves large corporations.
It is quite essential for a copywriter to be up to date with analytics and how they work, since the content they write is primarily responsible for conversions on their clients’ business pages.
Here we can see how The Future Buzz throws light on the importance of modern copywriters being well versed with analytics.
Previously, being a great copywriter was about having that high profile client list. But having worked on a well-known media site or hot startup is just the beginning – that alone is only half the story. If you want to be truly persuasive and get conversations with your dream clients, you now have to be numbers savvy too.
You are now a great copywriter, not purely because of pedigree, but because your content improved conversions on a client website by 40%, or because your brilliantly-worded landing page helped a new publisher grow their email list from 2,000 to 10,000 subscribers in one month.
When I was consulting, those were the types of numbers that would make my ears perk up when my agency was looking at new copywriters to hire. And It’s not just marketing copywriters. We have seen a shift in journalism models as well, where writers on many popular sites are at least partially accountable for the success of a given story (including some brands actually giving bonuses for high trafficked stories).
Copywriting can no longer be considered a soft art that’s impossible to measure. It’s now incredibly easy to get data behind your work and prove success in black and white — and you should highly consider it if you want an edge in the field.
The best part is marketing teams have become much more democratized over the last few years as everyone understands the importance and benefits of sharing data with all stakeholders, something that leads to everyone’s success.
If you want to get an in with an A-list team as a copywriter, the path is simple: begin to assign clear success metrics behind your work when showing samples, or if you’re a copywriting agency, include a healthy amount of proof points and data on your own collateral.
So, don’t just link to a bunch of articles, blog posts, web pages, or email campaigns you wrote. Instead, spend the extra effort to package your work in a case study format with some proof points (hint: start to make this part of your process as you work so you can have a list of successes anytime).
A few sample metrics you could consider including:
- Results of an webpage A/B test you created (shows you understand how to effectively test two different messages while staying on brand as well as work with analysts).
- Pageviews for the content your company publishes for thought leadership such as executive posts you ghost wrote (perhaps average views per month, show us you created something that’s in consistent demand not just when first published).
- Social shares for all your content (indicates you understand how to create sticky content and have your finger on the pulse of what’s sharable).
- Performance of the emails that you write. Specifically the click through rate and even the number of business-related conversions that result from your email.
- Anything else that matters to your client in your specific field
