How to Become a Copywriter in India
Career as a Copywriter in India: Office, cubicle, colleagues, lots of files, good salary, recognition, and much more is expected when a good job comes to mind. Has it ever occurred to you that all this is offered only after you pay the price of staying at work from 9-5 and sometimes one may even need to work overtime?
The career that we shall be discussing today is an extraordinarily well-established career profile and it is well known due to its flexibility in offering both part-time as well as full-time employment to individuals. The personnel can choose to either work in an office or opt to sit in the comfortable premises of one’s residence and operate from there. It is unusual than the other professions as it doesn’t require a lot of effort or hard work and at present, it is the most popular and sought-after career stream for individuals who are passionate about writing and playing with words.
Who is a Copywriter?
Copywriting is the business activity of forming written texts or phrases and using them to promote goods or services in the form of advertisements. The detailed information about a product is summarized into short and appealing texts to persuade and lure people into buying the commodity and that is usually known as a copy or sales copy.
That’s all about copywriting but where is the job of a copywriter? Well by now it must have been all-clear, yet, to be more specific a copywriter is an individual who prepares such sales copy or copy and at times, even an advertisement script for their client company. Now, there are numerous companies operating with different objectives, products, services, customer base, and multiple additional complexities. So, a copywriter needs to be well aware of all these factors before choosing a specific niche for oneself.
The copywriters are employed by advertising agencies, public relations firms, copywriting agencies, national as well as multinational companies. They work closely with the marketing department to get a clear picture of the target market. Their research tract involves components from the study of human psychology, behavioral aspects, economic facilities, economy, computer techniques, market feasibility, and so on and so forth. All these are not learned in a day or two, the more the research and experience, the more will be the mastery and knowledge.
One must always weigh the merits and demerits before making any hasty decisions. This brings us to the following questions.
Why should you be a copywriter?
- It is going to provide you with a lot of flexibility in your job schedule
- It provides job satisfaction as one can learn more and more with the passing time
- It makes you more competent and fast in your dealings with clients
- It enhances creativity and makes you smarter in manuscript
- The individual can choose to work as a freelancer and offer the services from home which means you can get autonomy over your work
- It gives rise to diversity in job assignments.
Why shouldn’t you be a copywriter?
- It offers a lower package of salary in comparison to the work assigned
- It becomes very difficult to maintain a specific environment suitable for work at home
- The pressure from superiors is way too much and deadlines come sooner than anticipated
- It becomes difficult to keep the motivation level alive after a certain period of time
- Most often the job status lacks
After considering the above points it must be clear to you to some extent what working as a copywriter can be, hence, all you have to think is about how you can cope with the demerits and turn them to be your advantage.
Salary for premature copywriters sums up to around Rs.8,000-Rs.10,000 and it can rise up to Rs.20,000-Rs.30,000 real soon after a few months of experience.
Eligibility Criteria
People often mistake the eligibility criteria to be a compulsory requirement after viewing certain sites although this is not the truth. The eligibility criteria mentioned are always based on the usual norms that an institution or training center follows, however, they are flexible in most cases. The basic necessities for getting enrolled in this training are
- 10+2 from a recognized board
- At least 65% marks in higher secondary
- Minimum age of 17
- A good score in English literature in 10th as well as 12th
After fulfilling the above requirements one can easily choose any course best fitted for himself/herself and get admission in any recognized college. There are certainly not any entrance tests that lowers the chances of not getting admissions in a good institute.
Now, there are a lot of you who must be wondering that it is quite easy and sounds achievable. Well, to some extent that is true, nonetheless, one must definitely see if they actually have the capability to do wonders in their career. This brings us to the next question.
What are the skills that you need to have or you need to acquire to become a copywriter?
Every individual has been given the ability to acquire a particular skill that he/she does not already have. If working on such skills regularly with compassion, one can definitely accumulate them real soon. The skillset required to become a competitive candidate in the race of this job is enumerated and discussed below.
- Stronghold at the language be it Hindi, English, or any other
- Striking words and summarizing expertise
- Creativity with words as well as other imaginary means of conveying the text
- Analysis and research should be accurate
- High spirit so as to cope up with turndowns
- Proficiency and straightforward and clearance of designing the words
- Excellent vocabulary is extremely essential
- Fundamental knowledge about computer system for layout and other designs of the contents
How and where can you get a job?
This is the most important question which needs to be answered. Basically, to be very precise the higher-level jobs for becoming a well-established copywriter come from one’s premature projects and clients, as they act as the base for the future career of the individuals and determine which clients they would be dealing with.
Hence, the first step is to choose a well-established website for getting a client. Right after one decides to become a copywriter, he/she should make a profile on the various freelancing websites. The second step would be to work with sheer determination and to give one’s best in the completion of the first project so as to gain recognition and admiration for work.
This shall do just fine for the individual for a few months or a year to gain experience and expertise after which one can try and look for job postings in big companies. The best places as in websites to find clients and create profiles at the beginning are Freelancer, Upworks.com, Linked In, and so on and so forth.
Educational Expenses
The training or educational fees is usually a matter of choice which one makes. The course, college, coaching, and altogether, according to one’s financial position and preference one can expect to incur any specific amount as their educational expense.
On average, if one opts for the online courses or certificate courses, then for the course duration of three to four months one may need to pay somewhere near Rs.7000-Rs.30,000 and if the institute is prestigious and has a certain reputation then the cost may be near Rs.30,000-Rs.40,000.
For the offline courses ranging between three to four years for various courses, one may need to incur an expense of about Rs.1,15,000-Rs.7,20,000 depending on the courses as well as the institutes.
Various Courses
The variety in the courses is due to the factors that there are many platforms offering a wide range of courses both online and offline in copywriting. The offline courses are usually offered by almost all the well-known institutions across the nation and many of them have successfully implemented the application of offline courses for students in recent years.
As much as copywriting is concerned, there is not any specific course which one should compulsorily opt for and so, one can choose any field of specialized course to enter the field of copywriting. The courses offering graduate degrees in mass communication are considered adequate for this field though a degree in other subjects is as much relevant and adequate for becoming a copywriter.
Some of the courses specially designed for the purpose of furnishing copywriters with the required training are
- Six-Figure Copywriting Course
- Essentials and Advancement Copywriting Course
- Sales and Persuasion Copywriting Course
- SEO Copywriting Certification
- Conversion Copywriting Course
- Landing Page Conversion Course
Training Institutions
There is no scarcity of training institutions in India in the present days and one can even choose to stay in one’s native place and study in the best college by opting for online courses due to the adoption of the latest technologies by the institutions. The institutions are best known for furnishing and developing the skills of the students by making them more competent.
It is important to choose the best institutions as it creates a healthy and competitive environment for the learners and enables them to become mentally strong to face the bitter reality of future professional life. Hence, some of the best and well-known institutions equipping the nation with talented and hard workings individuals are enlisted below.
- Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Mumbai
- Symbiosis Institute of a Media and Communication, Pune
- Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Telangana
- Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- Chennai Institute of Communication and Advertising, Tamil Nadu
- Delhi School of Communication, Saket
- Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
Career Scope
What’s better than a cup of tea or coffee(whichever preferred) in hand, slouched on the sofa, laptop in lap! Well, not a holiday, this is your usual day at work which subsists from your own household. The preponderance of this job profile has seen an amazing upswing in recent years and it is expected to rise double folding the coming years. The companies or industries in production or service dealings require individuals who are good with words and those who can promote or sell their product or service and benefit the organization as a whole. It is no secret that the industries are going at very high speed and hence all of them employ copywriters to manage and boost the promotion and sales of the products or services. The future of copywriting will see average expansion in the future however, a passionate writer can come to be successful with sheer hard work and determination.
