How to become a copywriter? Salary, Tips, Get your first clients for free

How to become a copywriter? The place of a Copywriter is up front, centre stage. They are now the stars of the show. More and more people are fascinated by the impact they can make using a subtle mixture of technique and creativity.

When done well, copywriting can make a lot of money for a company, and as a result, good copywriters are prized.

But then how does one become a good Copywriter? 😎

What is a copywriter?

A copywriter is a person who will use the power of words to be persuasive and convince an audience of something.

They create the perception of a company, brand or organization. Unlike a writer, whose goal is to entertain his or her audience, a copywriter tries to sell a product, service or brand to a given target audience.

This is copywriting:

And this is also copywriting: Cold Prospecting Email Templates

(picture from Gmass)

So there are many types of copywriting, and a copywriter can decide to specialize or offer their copywriting work in any of these formats, which they often do.

  • Blogging and article writing (natural referencing, SEO)
  • Advertising (SEA campaigns)
  • Digital hunting and prospecting (prospecting campaigns, often automated).
  • Website pages (landing page, appointment page, presentation page).
  • In other rare cases (scripts, pitches..).

How to become a copywriter?

Do you want to become a copywriter?

It’s not difficult to become a copywriter, but it is more difficult to become one of the “good ones” and therefore to get the best contracts.

It is not enough to have good copywriting skills. We’ve put together a compendium of the best things to read or see to practice. 👀

Copywriting course

Personally, I did a master’s degree in communication. If you want to go back to school, doing a work-study contract or a standard full time course, I recommend courses with a focus on content marketing, sales techniques, digital communication or community manager for copywriting.

Some people also take the journalism route. Of course, you don’t need to get a Master’s degree to start your career. But if you have a relevant degree, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that in just one year you can have a state-recognized Master’s degree.

Ask around after business schools. 😁

Alternatively, try and find highly rated short-term training programs which can be equally enriching.

If you have a full time job already, your company may pay for your training program if it’s part of a qualification you may need to require in order to boost your career in the same office. 🎯

Creative copywriter made a small comparison guide that can help you find the best web editor training courses according to your needs.

SEO Copywriting Certification ✅ data sheet.

  • Length:  3 months.
  • Location: Online.
  • Qualification: SEO Copywriting Certification Program.
  • Cost: $995.

Creative copywriters Academy ✅ data sheet.

  • The Length: Self-paced learning.
  • Location: Online.
  • Qualification: Certificate of graduation in Copywriting.
  • Cost: $290.

Books to read

As we said, copywriting is a mix of creativity/inspiration and known techniques. Copywriting is not only learned on the school benches or in a digital marketing course.

It’s also about a vibe, a feeling for words, the feeling that makes one look at things from a different perspective. 👀🔺

Why? Because a technique is only as good as its re-visited. The best sales emailing template doesn’t stay the best for long. Once it’s known, it loses value.

However, the technique is inseparable. So I recommend books that are in both categories.

Creativity:

  • Steal like an artist, Austin Kleon.
  • Big Magic, Elisabeth Gilbert.
  • Ted talks, “speak in public”.

Techniques:

  • The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort.
  • Copywriting Secrets, Jim Edwards.
  • Lovelaces Online Marketing, Michele BW
  • Others: Stan Freberg, Jay Abraham, Joanna Wiebe, David Ogilvy.

But first, read what speaks to you best. Test several books to find your sauce. 🥗

Youtube channels to follow

There are hundreds of channels to follow on the subject, I’ve made a small but varied top 5, to help you find the type of copywriting that really interests you.

Brian Dean = Rankings and web site traffic.

Neil Patel = SEO and Blogging expert (SEO content writing).

Jim Edwards = specialized in digital communication and copywring secrets.

Ashlyn Writes = Sales and technical writing specialized in “the power of words”.

Yann Leonardi – Growth Marketing = Analysis of digital marketing techniques of major brands, monitoring and news. (FR but substitles)

LinkedIn news feed

Copywriting is a profession that mainly affects B2b (business to business). Therefore, the professional social media network, LinkedIn, is the best place to follow the news of other talented copywriters and community managers to get inspired by their copywriting tips and ideas.

Toinon (major topic: entrepreneurship) and Amandine (major topic: blogging, SEO, Advertisement, SEA) are the two most talented copywriters at Waalaxy.

Toinon also answered several questions in a dedicated live “How to reach a million views per month on LinkedIn”. (English subtitles are on the way). xxx

If you want tips on SEO/SEA copywriting you can also follow Vincent Hego, who publishes several times a week on the subject.

You also can follow Patrick Dang on LinkedIn, specialized in B2B content strategy, or Ralph Marino, about SEO Strategies.

Last but not least, Grant Golestan, LinkedIn influencer with 700+ Million Views.

What is a good copywriter?

There is a lot of talk about copywriting training and who to follow to be a good copywriter, but what will really make you a good one among the emerging mass of new copywriters maketers or web content experts?

Inspiration

Words are windows, or they are walls.

Mr. Rosenberg.

It’s all about inspiration. Read the content written by your competitors, subscribe to their newsletter, keep scanning the LinkedIn news feed for catchphrases, let the sales people send you cold emails to see how they try to seduce you.

I’ll give you an example here of the quality of an original content from another freelance copywriter, so potentially a competitor, who inspired me a lot. Her first LinkedIn message of prospecting, has a simple goal = to make me join her Newsletter. She chose her target well on LinkedIn and the approach message is very well written.

She uses an automated prospecting tool. With no response from me, she plans a second automated mailing which you can read below.

The approach is original, honest, in short, inspiring. I’ve redesigned it to use in my next content creation. Being inspired is also knowing how to detect the genius of an approach and make it your own.

Of course, I suggest you subscribe to her newsletter too. 😉

Motivation

Motivation is, for the mind, similar to food.

J.davis

Just Do It Yes GIF by Rocky

You’re going to have to write articles and digital content over and over again. The job can seem redundant, especially if you are always writing about the same subject and don’t have a variety of clients.

You have to love writing and stay on top of things. The job sounds sexy, but it has its drawbacks, so you need to ask yourself the right questions. Are you cut out for writing marketing content? What do you like about it? If it’s a resounding yes, then you already have a big advantage. Life is too short to be in a job that doesn’t suit you.

An eye for detail

The devil is in the details.

Nietzsche

In web writing, everything counts, from the comma to the tone of voice to the length of the sentences. You will learn soon enough that nothing is left to chance. It is your editorial quality that is at stake.

If people say you’re more of a moonbat or messy writer, it may be your kryptonite. You’ll have to proofread carefully to avoid silly mistakes or lack of precision.

GIF by Wayward Pines

Concentration

In 2025, a person’s attention will become as valuable as oil.

Me. 😂

To become a writer, you need focus.

It’s so true that nowadays we have every possible distraction around us. How can you become a copywriter if you need to pause for every sentence?

Well, you really need to focus your brain as much as possible on the task and avoid distractions. Otherwise, it’s going to be very difficult to create content on time and it will end up being more frustrating than fun.

🅰 If you don’t want to see your clients outsource content writing to someone else, also make sure you don’t take on assignments that are impossible for you.

What skills does a copywriter need?

Now that we’ve talked about the “soft skills”, such as attention to detail, writing style, motivation and inspiration, we can get into the “hard skills”, which are the hard/solid skills you need to have in order to master the craft. These are usually techniques and tools that need to be mastered.

  • Sales techniques, AIDA methods.
  • Digital communication techniques, BOFU-TUFU-MOFU method.
  • Several classic SEO tools to optimize your referencing (1.fr, SemRush, Ahref…)
  • Basics of Cold Emails.
  • Know how a CRM style prospecting automation tool works.
  • Know how a blog works.

It is a 360° job that often combines sales, marketing and communication skills.

To launch a marketing strategy that works, you will either have to work closely with all the divisions, or be the pilot for the departments.

Again, it will depend on the job description, there are copywriters for specific content, like me, who only do blogging for example, and others who deal with any kind of content in the company, even internal.

What salary can you expect to get as a copywriter?

Please, don’t read any more diplomeo to know what your salary will be, these crazy people respond “between 3,800 and 5,100 euros” on average. 😂

This is worse than false. Already, you should know that a non-specialized role such as “Web editor” is clearly not going to be the best paid.

On average (outside Paris), you get 1,500 euros net for a full-time job as a content writer designer. After that, if you are aiming for positions like pro marketer, communication strategy manager or acquisition manager, obviously, salaries are higher and so is your professional experience.

It’s all going to come down to your qualifications and your ability to negotiate your entry-level salary. The job of “copywriter” is not always used as such, especially for permanent positions, so you have to look for its equivalents: content manager, digital writer, acquisition strategy manager… In freelance, prices vary between 10 and 20 cents per word.

Practical case: prices of copywriting services

If you write an article of 2,000 words and you are a beginner, you will only get between 200 and 400 euros per article.

At the time of writing I am at 1556 words for 4h30 of work, and I am used to write for the web every day. Not to mention that the article is not yet optimized.

So as a freelancer, you would need 2 to 3 full days for a quality article of 2000 words.

So, if your prices are 10 cents a word, you’ll have to write at least 8 articles a month in order to get an acceptable salary. When you think about it, that’s a lot of work in terms of finding regular clients, contracts and time.

Get your first customers this week

Take advantage of the power of Waalaxy to generate leads every day. Start prospecting for free, today.

waalaxy dashboard

Conclusion: How to become a copywriter?

So, in relation to everything we’ve just seen, my advice for you is two things:

  • Get enough training to make sure you are very good.
  • Don’t sell out (whether freelance or permanent)? Rather bank on the fact that you know what you are worth.
  • Use the writing skills you’ve learned, to sell yourself. 😉
  • Have fun during the recruiting processes. This is a creative job, you’re going to be asked to be creative, so put yourself out there and dare to be truly unique.

We made a free video for you on how to get started on a blog when you know absolutely nothing about it, and how to write for Google. Did I mention that it’s free? 🎁

🅰 When you go to a training course, whether it’s free or paid, remember one thing: check your sources. How do the people who train you write?

Do their articles rank well on Google? Are they good copywriters?

How well known are they? What are their customer reviews? I’m always wary of paid training courses done by people who know nothing about it. Usually the user feedback is very good advice.😉

Faq of the article

The questions often asked by the audience. We hope you’ll find your answer right there. 😍

How to become a freelance writer?

We’ve already given several ways to be a good copywriter and start freelancing: Important softskills, relevance in the choice of training and a good knowledge of the market and its prices. Now we are missing a crucial element, how to get clients?

Get your first clients as Copywriter

Amandine has written a great article about a very efficient way to get those first 10 clients when you start as a freelancer. Here’s the article. 🔥

In it you’ll learn how to:

Define your buyer persona = the typical client who is interested in your copywriting offerings
Clarify your offerings = this is so important; What type of copywriting do you do? With what tools? For what type of company?
Work on your online presence = Your branding is your first door to customers.
Create a lead acquisition strategy = think multi-channel and automation
Work on your visibility and your viral marketing strategy = SEO, Blog, Google Mybusiness, LinkedIn Posts.
Use Waalaxy to find freelance copywriting missions = the free prospecting automation tool. 👇👀

Build A Recurring Leads Channel

To build a prospecting channel that works, there’s nothing better than Waalaxy, the only prospecting automation tool that offers a free, lifetime option to send 100 invitations per week (with or without a personalized prospecting message).

Waalaxy also comes with:

Our blog to get the best tips for your marketing campaigns.

Our day and night customer support (with real humans).

Our app tips and FAQ spaces to hemp you get started.

Plus, it’s all beautiful. 😻 Anyway, all you have to do is download the tool.

Because knowing how to become a copywriter is good, but how to become a copywriter with clients is better. 😁

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Get the ultimate e-book for multi-channel prospecting 📨

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