What is a Copywriter?

Copywriting has become such a buzzword in the last few years, hasn’t it? I’ll be honest, before I became one I really didn’t know what they were or who they were for. It turns out, I always wanted to be one, I just didn’t know anything about it. I’ll bet some of you are still a little fuzzy on that too.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Who Can Relate?

I spent a long time on a rigid career path, all the while taking in various kinds of content wondering to myself “how does one get a job doing that?” Blurbs in magazines, silly product descriptions, the synopses on the backs of DVDs, the recipe descriptions for meal kits. “I could do that,” I thought, followed by “too bad I’m not already in the magazine industry,” or the meal kit industry, or the DVD-case-synopsis-writing industry. Bummer.

I used to tell people that my dream job was to be the person that came up with all the names for Crayola Crayons. Yeah, I know Crayola’s whole thing was letting children come up with names—how else did they end up with Macaroni-and-cheese? But I figured adults had to be involved because what child can pronounce Cerulean let alone “invent” it? Oh well, there goes that dream if you’re not already in the crayon-naming industry, right?

Wrong.

(btw: my favorite has always been Razzle Dazzle Red)

Here’s the big secret no one tells you:

You don’t need to be in those super specific, niche industries to write what you want for a living. It’s not “all in who you know.” You just need to be a copywriter!

Maybe you’re already in your dream industry—kudos! You made it! Maybe you really love those cute product descriptions you see on other sites, or maybe nail polish names make you smile and make your salon decisions more fun. But maybe you just really, really wish you didn’t need to do it all by yourself. It’s okay if you don’t. All those tiny details can be so overwhelming—and so easy to overthink! So maybe…you might just need to hire a copywriter.

Here are the basics on who we are and why the world needs us.

What is a Copywriter?

The no frills answer is this: a copywriter is a professional writer that is responsible for text—or copy—used for marketing materials, ie: websites, social media posts, blogs, articles, ads, and other promotional content.

You might be thinking to yourself “isn’t that just marketing?” and the answer is no—but also yes, a little bit. The term “marketing” is extremely broad. There are different types of marketing and several schools of thought on what the basics of marketing include, but in a nutshell, marketing refers to the various processes and modalities used to communicate, exchange, and/or deliver something of value to customers.

Copywriting really hones in on that “communication” aspect of marketing. It is a copywriter’s job to educate, persuade, or influence an audience with their writing. Whichever of these a client needs most is what a copywriter must accomplish. Let’s break them down.

Persuasion

Does anyone remember those high school English classes that taught how to write a persuasive essay? The one where you have to “persuade” the reader to agree with a specific opinion or stance? And you’re only given three paragraphs, three chances to sway the reader into any direction you choose.

Those of you that had the misfortune of experiencing state-mandated standardized testing will remember this 5-paragraph challenge you were expected to pull off in 40 minutes or less. You may have also been taught that you didn’t actually need to personally agree with your argument, you just needed to support it as best you could.

Before you assume that copywriters will write anything for a buck at the risk of their own ethics or beliefs, let me stop you right there. Copywriting doesn’t have to be scummy. In fact, a good copywriter will work with you because they want to, because they believe in a business like yours. And because a truly skilled copywriter possesses the power of persuasion and can tell the difference between using that power for good or evil.

There are a lot of products and services out there and you know that yours is the best, so isn’t it in your best interests to hire someone that can persuade everyone else of that? Persuasion doesn’t have to be icky; it can be beautiful and empowering and having someone in your corner that knows the difference is invaluable.

Influence

Influence is similar to persuasion, but has data and social proof to back it up. Basically, it’s one thing to be charmingly convincing, it’s another to put your money where your mouth is and still end up with positive results.

A copywriter is a kind of storyteller—one that uses their writing skills to build a relationship between a brand and their audience. It’s 2025; consumers are smart and they’re only getting smarter. They’re capable of doing their own research, finding their own statistics, and coming to their own conclusions on whether or not they should trust you. Don’t you want to be one step ahead of them?

Sure, you could throw some bar graphs and pie charts up on your website to show your potential customers what’s what, but are you really reaching people that way? It’s kind of like saying “because I said so.” which is not exactly the most inviting message when asking others to join your circle of trust. Sometimes facts fall flat because their presentation simply lacks emotion.

Consumers are people, and people are complex beings with thousands of feelings and emotions—named and unnamed—floating around inside of them constantly. It can take a lot of effort to cut through all the noise inside an individual consumer and appeal to their emotional needs. But most copywriters have an array of emotional techniques in their toolkit. They’re equipped to tell your audience the exact story they needed most to hear by tapping into their emotional needs first, and presenting them with influential data second.

Education

Okay, so this one is my favorite. I love to research, I love to take big, broad ideas and boil them down into delicious, digestible little bites. I crave the chase of finding the cohesion, finding that one perfect word that feels exactly right.

Education, I feel, is where Persuasion and Influence converge alongside creativity and storytelling to make the consumer experience fun, insightful, and inspiring. As I said earlier, consumers these days are smart and many are more than willing to do some research before they shell out their hard earned cash. Investing in educational copy for your brand or business can help you help your consumer navigate that difficult decision-making path.

Imagine you’re interested in a product but need to learn more. Some quick Googling leads to a fantastic blog that lays it all out for you and you’re sold. Shut-up and take my money. And then…wait a sec…you realize the very blog you’re reading is from a company selling the very product you wanted? Yes! And they’ve taken the time to educate you, the consumer because they know you want to be educated and because holding your interest is in their best interest. Doesn’t that make you feel more comfortable, more valued? And more keen on making that purchase?

actual result of excellent copy (probably)

With the right copywriter, you could cease to be a simple proprietor of your industry and become a voice of the industry; trustworthy, dependable, and sought after. Isn’t that the dream?

Bonus Pro Tip!

Practice discernment when choosing the right copywriter for you and your unique needs. Any copywriter worth their salt won’t produce work based on shallow research. But there’s a lot of information out there and a lot of riff-raff to sift through. Discernment and source-criticism are the hallmark of any research-based work, so it’s best to find a copywriter that’s willing to dive as deeply as possible.

The Bottom Line

So here we are at the end of my little spiel. Do you feel educated? Possibly influenced? Dare I say persuaded? Now don’t worry, this hasn’t all been a ploy to hire me. It was more so a way to scratch that educator's itch I’ve had lately. It took another copywriter to inspire me to level up and become the confident, independent, badass businesswoman I’ve always wanted to be.

Business Women I admire

It also took a lot of explaining and educating about copywriting to get me where I am now. Consider this a way for me to pay it forward. I’ve invested a lot of time and hard work into shifting my mindset towards success and now that I’m cresting at the top and about to dive headfirst into pursuing my dreams full force, I’m overflowing with gratitude and a desire to inspire others.

I believe education is empowerment, and if I’ve done either of those things for you dear reader—even just the tiniest bit—then today has been a good day.