It usually goes something like this.
Barista: What are you getting up to today?
Me: Just the usual. Off to work.
Barista: Cool, what do you do? Any sugar?
Me: No thanks… I’m a copywriter.
Barista: Oh wow, you must be really smart.
Me: How come?
Barista: Well you have to be really smart to be a lawyer.
Me: You’ve lost me.
Barista: Like, to do copyright law. Here’s your long black.
Me: Ohhhh no, sorry. I’m a copywriter.
It’s at this point we stare blankly at each other until I pick up coffee and walk away. By the way, he spelt my name wrong.
You see, the trouble with copywriting is that no one knows what the f*** it is, or what the f*** we, as copywriters, do. And I get it – I really do. When I was growing up, I didn’t know what a copywriter was. Maybe I thought they were signwriters. Or that they were the people in charge of the screens that played before a movie, warning us that we’ll go to jail if we’re pirates and we burn the movie for our friends at school.
Then there are those that know what a copywriter is, but they’re not entirely sure what they do all day 🤔. We’re a bit like that meme, that gives an insight into what society thinks we do (the movie screen thing), what our friends think we do (watch Ellen in our pyjamas) and what our parents think we do (not really sure but they’ll listen enthusiastically anyway).
Lastly, there’s the people who know exactly what we are, and exactly what we do. In fact, they might own their own business and actually see the value in hiring a copywriter. Good business owner! Unfortunately, they view branding, graphic design, products and basically everything else in their business plan as more important and they haven’t left enough budget to pay for words that *actually* work.
Which group do you fall into? The group that,
A) Thinks we wear suits and take down the baddies in court,
B) Assumes we write the annoying flyers in your junk mail pile or,
C) Needs our help, but thought it would only take a few minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, copywriting is so, SO much more than most people realise. It’s involves a hefty dose of strategy, a bit of psychology, some time and yes – money. That witty five-word tagline you spotted on a freeway billboard? It probably took three weeks to come up with, and it wasn’t just plucked from the sky – even though that would be handy for all parties.
Actually, our stratregy-driven, time-consuming process goes something like this:
I pass a motion to change the name to something far more excitring
And that’s not the only beef I have with copywriting at the moment, either.
I’ve got beef. for a few reasons.
No one knows what we do – like that meme
People don’t save money for us
Whatwedo
THevalueofourwork
This is what we do – not just writing ads