Breaking into copywriting can feel hard (if not impossible). You need experience to get a job, and you need a job to get experience. It’s the ultimate catch-22.
But it’s also not true.
You do need training. And you do need experience. But here’s how you can get both and move forward in your copywriting career.
What You Need to Break Into Copywriting
You Need Copywriting Training
Yes, you need training. You can’t just decide one day that “Now I’m a copywriter.” I mean, people don’t just walk into airports and suddenly declare “Now I’m a pilot,” right?
You’ll find lots of online threads saying “you don’t need training, there are free resources.” And yes, there are. The Filthy Rich Writer blog and YouTube channel alone are packed with valuable copywriting tips. But learning the principles and actually practicing and getting feedback on your work are two different things. (More on experience in a second!)
You also can’t get training in school because 99.9% of the colleges and universities in this country don’t offer copywriting majors. If they offer copywriting at all, it’s a single class as part of a broader marketing major. It’s absolutely insane. Copywriting is the ONE way for a writer to make a good living. And they don’t teach it in universities. I mean, seriously?
But you can get still training—and it doesn’t have to be via a $30-40K per year portfolio school.
You Need Practice Copywriting
The second consideration is that you need experience. Hand-copying ads is not experience!
By “experience,” an employer wants to see a portfolio that shows that you know how to write for various mediums in various voices. For example, you can write an email in Apple’s brand voice, which is different than Microsoft’s brand voice. Or you can write a magazine ad for a real estate company. Or a Facebook ad for a healthcare conference.
Basically, you know how to put your copywriting training to work. The best copywriting courses will not just teach you the principles of copywriting, but also how to stand out from other copywriters, how to create your portfolio, how to consistently find and land clients, and more.
Too many courses will focus on one way of doing things—the course founder’s way. And often these course creators, while well meaning, don’t have a lot of experience in copywriting. That’s why we designed the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy to cover all the ways you can build a copywriting career: on staff, at an agency, full-time freelance, part-time side hustle, part-time while working at a full-time job … you get the idea! Our team has decades experience in all those areas, and with clients of all kinds: Fortune 500 to solopreneurs and everyone in between.
You Don’t Need a Job to Create a Copywriting Portfolio
That’s right: you don’t need a job to demonstrate you know how to write copy and to put together an online portfolio. You just need to get creative.
Watch this video to learn more about creating a portfolio that demonstrates your ability to write copy.
Take the First Step: See If Copywriting Is for You
I put together a free video training to give you the first steps to finding out if copywriting is for you. All you have to do is sign up below and we’ll send a link to the video straight to your inbox.
You’ll also get added to the FRW newsletter list (also free) with more free tips and tactics each week to give you more of a taste of what copywriting is like. The team and I work hard to make it super-useful each week, but if you don’t think it’s super-useful, you can always unsubscribe. Easy.
So sign up, watch the video, and get your career started.
Why I Know What I’m Talking About
I know what I’m talking about because 20+ years ago, I was exactly where you are.
Super quick introduction: My name is Nicki Krawczyk. I’ve been a copywriter for over a decade, working for and with clients including Tripadvisor, Marshalls, Hasbro, Keurig, Adidas, and, yes, even Harlequin Romance novels. I’ve worked for agencies, I’ve worked in-house and I’ve worked freelance. And (not to brag, but just to give some credibility) I’ve made over six figures for several years now.
The CCA is Designed to Help You Break Into Copywriting
I started Filthy Rich Writer and created the Comprehensive Copywriting Academy (CCA) because breaking into copywriting shouldn’t be difficult. I also created the CCA because there are a lot of perfectly nice people applying for copywriting jobs who have no idea what they’re doing. They don’t get interviews. (How do I know? Because they’ve applied to me, too.)
There is plenty of room for skilled copywriters in this world. A little training and practice goes a long way!
I put this site together because there is more than enough work to go around.
Am I worried about competition? Absolutely not! If I had a nickel for every hiring manager that has told me they couldn’t find someone to fill a copywriter position, I’d double my income! (<–Exaggeration. But I’d still have at least a buck or two.)
Basically, I put together this site (and the course), because it’s exactly what I was looking for when I was trying to break into copywriting and couldn’t find. (What I did find was a lot of books that told me to do things like “buy a fax machine.” Greeeeat.)
So, that’s my story.
Look: Copywriting is crazy important. It can literally make or break a business. Which means that copywriters are important. Which means we need more good ones. And that means, if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort and flex your creativity, we need you.
If you want this, it’s time to get started.
Last Updated on September 13, 2023