There’s something rotten in the state of copywriting
Actually, there’s a lot rotten in the state of copywriting.
And I say this from a viewpoint of someone I believe is qualified enough to see the big picture.
40 years man and boy, working with ad agencies, design agencies and direct clients. Thinkin’, thinkin’, thinkin’. Writin’, writin’, writin’. Spinnin’, spinnin’, spinnin’. Rawhide!
Name it and I’ve probably worked on it.
Tourism, fashion, lager, pregnancy testing kits, lawnmowers, museums, vodka, radio stations, watches, board games, corporate training, car rental, sneakers, whisky, hangover cures, knickers, adult education, mouthwash, headgear, newspapers, makeup, NGOs, care homes, food waste, borough councils, animal welfare, data-driven doohickeys, skin care, TV channels, psychotherapy, IFAs, housing, insurance, banking, magazines, chocolate, accountants, telecomms, hair care, arts festivals, credit cards, hotels, golf courses, esports, football, healthy snacks, unhealthy snacks, ferries, airlines, bus companies, car manufacturers, breakdown companies, schools, hospitals, dentists, castles, country music, couriers, mouthwash, recruitment, data storage, PVC trunking, weightloss, garden decking, red wine, motor oil, fizzy drinks, pain killers, hospitality, generators, language classes, the DTI, the AA, the TA…
But what about sheep worming tablets? Oh yes, I’ve written about those too.
So now I’ve laid my qualifications on the table, here’s my perspective on the current state of play in the world of copywriting.
Over-saturation
The copywriting sponge is sodden. There simply are too many Copywriters scrabbling around for the same briefs. For the last few years, social media has been spreading the rumour that within a couple of months of setting up as a commercial writer you’ll have 10x-ed (gag) your salary. In fact, I saw a headline just today – ‘How to make $1000 a month from writing online (When You Have No Idea)’.
So, if you’re absolutely clueless and you can’t even string a sentence together, you could be quids in. Imagine if you had GCSE English, you’ll most likely be a millionaire this time next year.
Ok, some of us make a half-decent living, but it takes a ton of hard work. Not least of all finding, luring and maintaining clients who are willing to part with cash for our time. That’s before we’ve even done the writing bit.
You can see the attraction though. Thousands of people are telling me, and I quote, ‘Copywriters can easily earn six figures…’. Hundreds more are telling me I can earn those six figures from a beach hammock in Fiji, while flicking peanuts into my gormless gob. Tempting? Of course it is.
Next thing, you’ve got a million and one Freelance Copywriters slugging it out in a very tiny ring.*
Pressure to create a personal brand
Social media is great. But social media is awful too. Not something I had to worry about for the first 20-odd years of my career, which was a good thing, because I could just quietly get on with developing my writing skills, without having to tell the wider world about my awesomenessocity.
I feel for the new breed coming through. Even if you’ve only been in the industry 5 minutes, the pressure’s on to look and sound like you already know everything.
No doubt there’ll be some brilliant writers coming through in the new generation – probably would’ve wiped the floor with me, had we been contemporaries. But, until they’ve sussed themselves and their craft out a bit more, I wish they’d keep their heads down. Seriously, do the work and keep your mouth shut, until you’ve got something really worth talking about.
We Copywriters need to learn from the best in the business, not the tadpoles who haven’t developed back legs yet. Saying that, it’s really handy to learn about the pitfalls of being a newbie from an actual newbie. I just worry that the sprogs are acting like gurus and it’s all getting a bit ‘Lord of the Flies’.
Content, content, everywhere
Content Writers are not Copywriters. There are tons of articles about what the difference is, so I won’t bang on about it here. The thing is, and this is just an opinion of course, the lower quality, slap dash Content Writer is dragging the overall perception of copywriting down.
I know there are some brilliant Content Writers out there. But, for every good un, it looks to me like there are 99 ‘bang it out in AI, fiddle around a bit and run it through Grammarly-ers’. And when they call themselves ‘Copywriters’, all it does is bring everyone else down.
Not every car is an Aston Martin Valkyrie. Not every cheese is Älgens Hus Moose Feta. Not every writer is a Copywriter.
Reliance on technology
Technology is a tool. Like a stick blender, or an angle grinder, or the Husqvarna POWER CUTTER K 7000 Chainsaw, it does the job that the human wielding it wants it to do. If the human just fires it up, kicks it down the stairs (towards a family of cute baby bunnies), well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Technology cannot replace life experience, intuition and human creativity. Copywriters need to recognise and nurture their unique experience of, and take on, the world. The more you absorb and the more curious you are about the world around you, the better a writer you will be.
If we leave it to the machines, well, the more machine-like our writing becomes. Creativity is the one area where saying, “It ain’t rocket science” is genuinely a good thing. Use your human-ness to talk to and connect with your fellow humans.
It’s not AI that’s the issue, it’s the blind belief in it that’s gonna get us in the end.
Have you done it yet?
“Oi, can you bang out a bit of copy mate? It’s only a couple of hundred words, shouldn’t take more than five minutes.”
Would you ask Gordon Ramsay to bang out a new dish? Would you ask Stella McCartney to bang out a new collection? Would you ask Hans Zimmer to bang out a new choon on the old Joanna? Go on, I dare you.
Really good copywriting takes time. What’s the old saying, ‘You can have it good and fast, but it won’t be cheap. You can have it good and cheap, but it won’t be fast. You can have it cheap and fast, but it won’t be good.’
Thing is, if you want it really, really good, it takes time: to think, draft, re-draft, assess, re-think and craft it to the brink of perfection. Everyone wants it yesterday, or sooner. At least give your Copywriter the time to absorb the brief, experiment and give it the overnight test.
Everyone’s a writer
It’s true. And everyone’s a designer. Why not. But, I would argue that not everyone is a Copywriter.
Stick a monkey wrench in my hand and dress me in overalls, and I reckon I could pass myself off as a plumber. Ask me to sort your pipes out and you might be in for a bit of a shock.
Tools and enthusiasm do not a Copywriter make. Latent talent, training (on-the-job, in a college or with a decent hands-on mentor or three), guts, experience and infinite patience do.
People believe you can become a ‘proper’ Copywriter by reading a few books. Or, by hand copying out the words of great ads. Or 101 other quick-fix formulae.
All of these things may help, but it’s worth repeating – to succeed as a Copywriter you will need: latent talent, training, guts, experience and infinite patience.
We are where we are
I’ve spent 40 years learning my craft and it seems to me like we’re generally at quite a low ebb. There’s a lack of trust and respect in our industry. There’s a small army of terrible writers following other terrible writers’ terrible advice and regurgitating it all over the Internet. Ideas-based copywriting has been buried by data-driven content writing.
But, I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Maybe we’ll ride this wave for a while, then at some point find ourselves flapping around on a deserted beach. The tiddlers will suffocate and become fertiliser.** The really strong fish will wriggle their way back to the surf and swim off into the sunset.
I have no idea where this analogy’s going, but hopefully you get my drift.
Up the Copywriters!
Love and (infinite) patience.
Jonathan x
Jonathan Wilcock (that’s me) is a Senior Freelance Copywriter.
You can drop me a line here, or email jonathan@sowhatif.co.uk
*The stats I could find when searching for ‘How many Freelance Copywriters are there in the UK’ were rather patchy. One site said 18,100, another told me there were around 5,000 in London alone, then another told me we had 7.4 million freelancers in total. Then a quick check of Upwork (don’t do it kids) stats – there are 18,000,000 freelancers on Upwork, 18% of them are ‘writers’, and that works out at 3,240,000. Crumbs! But, if you look at ProCopywriters, they currently have only 875-ish members. And it’s definitely worth noting that last time I looked on LinkedIn, there were ‘290 Freelance Copywriter jobs in United Kingdom (37 new)’. All I can say is, looking at the cries for help online from some pretty experienced Freelance Copywriters, supply is definitely outstripping demand.
**Sincere apologies if I’ve come across as an arrogant, know-it-all curmudgeon. I’m not saying I’m better than you, dear reader; just that Copywriting is in a bit of a crisis. When I started out, The Copywriter was held in high esteem. It was a calling and a craft that had to be nurtured over time. Now it seems to have been demoted to an annoying necessity that can be churned out lickety-split. The tools have got better, the writers have got worse. Of course, I may be very wrong. It’s only my take after all, and one you are very welcome to disagree with. And by the way, there are still some amazing Copywriters around who I humbly bow down to. x x x