Copywriting Training – Specialize For Profits

Want to build a copywriting career? Here’s your most valuable tip: specialize. Not only do specialist copywriters earn more, they build a stable of clients fast, and these clients usually stay with them for years.
Firstly, what do we mean by “specialist?” A specialist copywriter is knowledgeable in one particular area. It may be direct response copywriting, Web copywriting, health copywriting… Your specialty is an area which you know well, in which you have direct experience.
For example, I’ve specialized as both a technology and a manufacturing copywriter at various stages of my copywriting career. I had yet another specialty too — in the 1980s, when I began my career, I specialized in pet product copywriting.
Let’s see how you can become a copywriting specialist.
1. Your Specialty May Choose You
Your first step is to choose your specialty. However, often your specialty will choose you. Most copywriters write for a client in one area, and their name is passed around in that field. Before they know it, they have ten clients in one area, and have a new specialty.
You can certainly choose your own specialty, either because of personal interest, or because there’s money to be made in an area.
2. Get Known: Write Articles for Print and Online Media in That Field
The fastest way to get known in a new area is to write articles for print and online media in that area. I chanced on this promotional method because I was a technology magazine writer before I became a technology copywriter: I was contracted for advertorials (advertorials are advertisements masquerading as articles) by several large companies on the strength of my articles.
In the years since I discovered this method, I’ve recommended it to my copywriting students, who’ve also used it with great success. When you write articles in an area, you’re looked on as a de facto expert.
3. Approach Associations
Here’s the final step in becoming a specialist copywriter in an area: contact industry associations in your city or state, and offer to speak, or to write for their industry publication.
Don’t want to speak or write? That’s fine — all you need to do is buy advertising in their newsletter, magazine, or other member publications.
Learning how to specialize is part of any professional copywriter’s training. Specializing is a way of increasing your copywriting income painlessly — businesses are always willing to pay more for a specialist.