4 Steps to Get Started in Copywriting

A story about Mary from Lebanon, Kansas

Step 1

Imagine a woman named Mary.

She is a registered nurse with a household income of $70,784.

Mary lives in the geographic center of the USA: Lebanon, KS. This town has a Main Street, and this perfectly average person lives there.

Why do you care about Mary, the nurse on Main Street in Lebanon, Kansas?

Because you’re going to write her a letter.

You lick the envelope, press a flag stamp in the corner, and send it on its way.

To Mary. In Lebanon, KS. Whom you’ve never met.

What happens next?

A few days later, you visit your mailbox, and you find an envelope.

Who’s it from? Mary! And what does it contain? A check!

The check is made out to you, for an amount of $83. Four of those dollars are included to cover shipping.

Shipping what, exactly?

The Magic Stat Thermostat.

Why did Mary from Kansas send you, a stranger, $79 plus $4 to ship her a thermostat?

She read the letter you sent her, which looked like this:

The year is 1981, and your name is Joseph Sugarman.

You are a world-renown direct response copywriter.

Mary is one of thousands of Americans who received your direct mail campaign, which included a letter selling readers on the benefits of the Magic Stat Thermostat.

(In fact, you famously sold Mary on this item by starting with all of the reasons she shouldn’t buy it. Maybe more on that in a future post.)

Of course, you’re not Joseph Sugarman because if you were, you would not be reading an article on how to get started in copywriting.

Step 1 is to understand what copywriting is. The story of Mary and the Magic Stat Thermostat campaign defines copywriting perfectly. Mary read the words on the page, which led her to take the physical action of sending a check in the mail.

That is copywriting: publishing a message that gets your audience to take action.

The bad news is that this is very difficult to do. There’s no faking bad copy.

Step 2: Forget about subjective thoughts of “good” or bad” writing. Copy “works” if the reader takes action.

For example, imagine executing Joseph Sugarman’s campaign today. What you do with your junk mail, your “Promotions” emails, or your unsolicited DMs on social media? You don’t send these people checks, now, do you.

The good news is you won’t have to guess if your copy is “good” or “bad.” When you wrote an essay for your English teacher, it was unclear what would get you an A. I would know, as I was an English teacher for 10 years. But when you write copy, the rubric is one question: did the reader take the action?

(Yes, there is brand copywriting and other nuances. But we’re starting with 101.)

The other double-edged sword is that writing copy requires no special equipment, certifications, materials, degrees, or licenses. You can call yourself a copywriter today.

But so can everyone else on the Internet.

So, what do you do with that information? Do two things, over and over again, for a year (90 days even!) and watch what happens.

Step #3: Get started by finding experience and publishing proof.

This can feel like a chicken or egg situation, but it’s not. Begin in reverse order, by gathering your proof.

Find anything and everything you've written in the past. Your first client won’t know what copywriting is, anyway. They’ll want a decent writer who knows English.

If you have links, put them in a Google doc. If you have PDFs and .docs, put them in a folder on Google Drive or Dropbox. Voila! You have a portfolio.

And if you’ve never written anything before you can point to, you may want to ask yourself why you’re pursuing this skill. Serious question, not trying to be rude. Copywriting is writing, so if you’ve never written before, it’s probably not for you.

For those who want some more details, consider this an optional side bar:

Here is my original Google Docs portfolio, which I’ve retired, but it helped me land my first dozen or more clients.

Notice, it is like a resumé for my work as a writer, but I presented and positioned it as a portfolio. This was easier to make than a website, and was often easier for clients to scan, too.

From there, find experience. When you first begin, you have to kind of take what you can get.

For example, I did everything from write website copy for my friend's business, to get writing gigs on Fiverr, to email startup companies with suggestions for new copy in their emails or websites. These are all ways you can get experience and show proof of your work. 

Step #4: Start with the foundation you have, and build from there.

The great thing about copywriting is that practice is self-promotion. Not true for accounting. 

Write in public, share what you're learning, tell stories about your work, describe your thoughts on different topics, in some format. A great place to do that is on LinkedIn, where you can connect with business owners, or Twitter if you want to enter the Idea Coliseum and get your butt kicked like everyone else.

Social media can be a great place to start writing as a copywriter because you get qualitative (comments) and quantitative (analytics) response to your work.

Publish proof and gather experience.  Do that for a year, and you'll be surprised at your progress. 

PS - Suggested Resources to Learn Copywriting

Please don't waste time consuming LOTS of info. Pick a few books, and maybe a course, and then get started writing and finding work.

When getting stated, I read a couple of copywriting resources and took one course.  I followed the advice of a copywriter named Neville Medhora, because I liked his casual style of teaching. He outlines a simple beginner’s copywriting curriculum here. 

He suggests reading something called The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert, and a book called The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook. The Boron Letters is actually a Dad writing to his son (while the Dad is in jail). Some won’t like the brash style of Gary Halbert. You’ll want to skip straight to the AdWeek Copywriting Handbook.

I also then took Neville Medhora's course. He includes "office hours," which are a Zoom call where you can show him your work and he shares his feedback on it. This was very helpful when I was first starting out. This is one of the few products I share an affiliate link for because I highly recommend it. He has changed the pricing to be a monthly fee, and you could get a lot out of value out of 1-2 months. Check it out here.

What questions do you have? If you’re a copywriter, how did you get started? Share in the comments.