Copywriting Markets Reader Question
Ollie sent this email across today:
It’s got a few questions and some interesting points, so I thought today’s article could be based around it.
A lot of guys and girls have a single question when they learn about copywriting: “What can you do with copywriting and what copywriting markets are there?”
I’ll answer that in this article.
Also, I’ll answer the question, “When you are copywriting, who are you writing for?”
Firstly though, I’m going to talk about a common misconception; is copywriting for internet marketers and other e-entrepreneurs the only copywriting?
Is Copywriting For Internet Marketers THE Copywriting?
If you go on a ton of blogs and other internet marketing related media, then you’d be forgiven for assuming that copywriting is a very specific thing. It looks something like this:
- Landing page with an email sign up.
- Email auto-responder with a free info product thrown in.
- A link to a video for a premium product.
- A sales letter for an info-product.
- An upsell to a private mastermind class or something similar.
The structure is pretty standard for info-products, and most internet marketers use it. Then, whenever they describe their process in terms of copywriting, they obviously talk about what they know – which is the same structure that they’ve always used and that everyone uses.
Outside of that, there are a ton of blog posts that follow the same structure. “12 Conversion Boosting Headlines That’ll Make Your Monkey Grow A Second Head,” “How to Create Compelling Content That Makes Everyone Buy Your Stuff” and so on. They all expound “copywriting knowledge” that’s basic repacked information about the various things that Ollie already mentioned.
To compound this, there are the internet gurus who do both of these things and make the signal-to-noise ratio for the internet worse.
To be sure, copywriting can involve these things:
- Sales videos
- Free information
- Email responders
- Info Products
- Blog Posts
But copywriting is a much wider subject than this. You can be a copywriter without doing copywriting for internet marketers, and you might not even work with the online world at all depending on what you specialise in.
Copywriting is simply writing with the intention to sell something to your reader.
What Copywriting Markets Are There?
The quick answer is that there are practically an unlimited amount of copywriting markets out there. If you’re a freelance writer, then no small part of your job is finding underserved copywriting markets and giving them the gift of writing engaging copy that sells their products.
The longer answer is that copywriting is a skill, and it’s a skill with a very wide range of applications. You can use the skill of copywriting anywhere where there’s someone that can buy something.
In terms of breaking it down, there are two real copywriting markets that you should learn how to write for.
Business to Business Copywriting.
A lot of businesses do all of their businesses with other businesses. This requires just as much sales material as writing for consumers. Business to business copywriting tends to be a lot more technical, but it still uses the same skills as business to consumer copywriting. The major difference is that you’re talking to a business in your copy.
Business To Consumer Copywriting.
This is the copywriting you’re most familiar with online. Essentially, it’s a salesman, sales team or entrepreneur who uses copywriting to sell to the general public. With business to consumer copywriting, you’re talking to an individual in your copy.
Copywriting Markets: Back To The Point
If you have complete freedom over the work you do, then the ultimate goal is to find copywriting markets based on two things:
- There is a large market of customers (i.e. people that hire you.)
- They have money to spend on investing in a copywriter.
I’ve written before about lucrative copywriting niches in these two articles;
What Are The Most Lucrative Copywriting Niches?
Competitive Copywriting Niches: A Quick Guide
But essentially copywriting markets can be anywhere where the above two requirements are fulfilled. There are tons of businesses and customers who have those two things, and their copywriting needs will be dependent on their business, so it’s hard to say what you’d be doing.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully I’ve answered some questions that people have about copywriting, though I’m not sure I’ve nailed it.
Think of copywriting as a skill. It’s the skill of selling with words. It doesn’t really matter if those are in a blog post, flyer or disguised in a different product.
That skill is highly transferrable to a wide range of applications and industries, and half of the battle in working in lucrative niches is in finding ones – or entering ones – which no other copywriter has found (in your area at least.)
I’ve written everything from legal copywriting and medical copywriting to selling the benefits of starting an oil farm.
The important thing is to get out and find people who are looking to sell something, and then tailoring your service offering to give them what they want.