Copywriting

Ten common projects

No idea why anyone would want it, but here's a list of 10 really typical projects which might come a freelance copywriter's way over the course of a year. Not all writers would take on all of them, however, and I daresay the same list drawn up by a writer with an editorial background (mine is marketing) might have more 'articles' and 'papers' on it. Bet someone's interested to see it, though!

1. A small to medium sized sofware or financial services company's website.
2. A direct marketing mail pack, consisiting of a 1pp A4 sales letter, plus a 1/3 A4 6pp (or A5 4pp) leaflet.
3. A US-style 'internet marketing' 10pp direct mail sales letter.
4. A large quantity (say 200 pieces each 300-500 words log) of search optimised copy around one subject. Very often travel related.
5. A 12 or 16 page copy-light corporate brochure.
6. A very copy-light brochure for a specific property development.
7. A large quantity (often thousands) of pieces, each 300-500 words long, to describe every individual product in an e-commerce store's database.
8. A long-copy web landing page, capable of converting traffic created by an email campaign or by Adwords.
9. One, or a campaign of, HTML email/s.
10 A press release.

Coffee copy

Clarity is good. A cornerstone of what copywriting is all about and all that. Better to communicate to all, than to presume knowledge on the part of the reader and fail to communicate by having done this. Ok. No problem there. But is it really necessary to write 'SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS' on the side of a jar of coffee? (Thank you, Tesco Fair Trade).