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Quiz: How much do you know about copywriting?

If you’re thinking about a career in copywriting, great! Copywriting is a highly enjoyable skill that will open doors for you to work on interesting projects with interesting people all around the world.

First, why not test your knowledge about the craft with this quick quiz? We’ve included questions that our professional copywriters get asked all the time. So if you’re curious, you’re not alone!

1.Do copywriting and copyright have anything in common?

  1. They’re the same thing
  2. They’re similar
  3. Nothing at all
  4. One is a misspelling of the other

Apart from being a close homophone, no, copywriting has nothing to do with copyright. One involves writing adverts and marketing materials; the other involves protecting ownership of inventions or ideas by law. It may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how often copywriters get asked about copyright law. 

2. What aspect of copywriting usually takes the most time?

  1. Research and planning
  2. Writing
  3. Proofreading
  4. Evaluation

You’d think that as a copywriter, you’d be spending most of your time, well, writing. But without sufficient research and planning, your writing is unlikely to be successful. 

You’ll often be required to write about a topic you’re not an expert in, so research is needed for your own understanding, as well as to identify trends and specific industry lingo to use. Then there’s getting to know your reader and all the SEO research and strategy to do. And it’s absolutely vital to create an outline of your piece before you even think about typing anything, to ensure your copywriting fulfils its purpose.

3. Who must copywriters prioritise when writing in order to be successful?

  1. The boss
  2. Colleagues
  3. Anyone with cash to spend
  4. The target customer

While it’s always important to keep your boss happy, for copywriters, the customer must be front of mind at all times. And not just any customer, but the ones most likely to spend the most with you. As a copywriter, you have to be obsessed with finding out who customers are, what they care about, how they communicate, and everything about them. Only then can you craft a message that hits home and produces the desired results. 

However, you will find that many times, what your boss wants is at odds with what you believe customers want. So juggling different peoples’ priorities is an important part of the job.

4. What is the primary goal of a copywriter?

  1. To inform
  2. To sell
  3. To entertain
  4. To make people laugh

Information is useful and we all enjoy entertaining people and making them laugh, but there is ultimately only one measure of success: sales. Nowadays, results are easy to measure—you can see exactly what actions people take online: if they click on your ad, which web pages they open (and close), which part of the page they look at and, most importantly, whether or not they buy your product or service. 

In many companies, copywriters write content that is designed to lead customers down funnels, with engagement being the initial goal. Even with content marketing funnels though, the ultimate goal is always to sell.

5. What are the main skills you need to be good at copywriting?

  1. Empathy
  2. Creativity
  3. Attention to detail
  4. All of the above

That’s right: all of the above. For an advert to successfully prompt action, it needs to speak directly to what the target audience care about. That’s why empathy is so crucial in copywriting. You need to understand the motivations and emotions of people you’ve never met.

Creativity is needed to take an idea or insight and turn it into a compelling message that will prompt people to act. Copywriters are also tasked with making a brand stand out from the crowd, which requires trying new things and thinking outside the box.

Attention to detail is important in researching your target audience and identifying the specific words they use. But it’s also essential to edit and proofread your messages before they go out. You don’t want shoddy spelling or silly mistakes obscuring your message and distracting the reader.

So, how did you do on the quiz?