Most copywriters tend to follow a more-or-less fixed career path. This path can be summarized with the acronym IDEAL. The IDEAL path of copywriting is composed of five overall stages:
- Interest: Interest in copywriting
- Decision: Decision to become a copywriter
- Education: Education in the art of writing copy
- Acquisition: Acquisition of clients
- Liberation: Liberation from clients
Interest: You somehow learned of the field of copywriting and developed an interest in the field. You understand the overall ideas of copywriting: We use our words to persuade readers to act. You grasp some of the ideas of copywriting, such as the emphasis on increasing conversion rates. Yet many may not go beyond this step. Some already have fulltime jobs, and some may feel they cannot write or do not have enough talent to succeed in this field. You are not this kind of person.
Decision: You have decided to become a copywriter due to the many benefits copywriting can bring to your life. You’ve learned that copywriters make good money. That they can work from home. That they are freelancers and can accept or reject work whenever they want. That they are often the highest paid writing profession. Thus, you have made the emotional and logical decision to cast yourself into this field.
Education: After making the decision to become a copywriter, the next logical step is to become knowledgeable on the subject, so that when the time comes to write, you will know what to do. Thus, you may enroll in a copywriting course or perhaps read a bunch of books on copywriting. Whatever your method is, you’ve probably learned the same stuff that most copywriters know, as this field is an old one and based heavily on empirical results; those successful techniques are the ones that most copywriters know of.
Acquisition: But after education comes the hard part: You know how to write copy, so how are you going to get people to pay you for it? And how are you going to convince people that you know your stuff? Where do you find clients? How do you keep them? How much should you charge? These are all natural questions that you find yourself asking when you get to the “A” path in copywriting. In the Acquisition phase, you now begin to acquire paying clients and have a whole new set of problems. To summarize this portion of the path, the acquisition step is like when you first start dating: You probably start out chasing whatever is around, but then you begin to get picky. You scratch your head, trying to find the best way to attract the clients you want. You wonder why some clients break up with you or lead you on. You would love to find that one client who could give you consistent attention, consistent action, and form a long-term relationship with that client.
Liberation: Liberation may not come to all copywriters, as a subtle prerequisite to liberation is a slight feeling of regret. Eventually, for many copywriters, a feeling of getting the short end of the stick arises. At first, getting paid $1,000 for a sales letter seems great, but eventually you realize that you’re making your clients a lot more than $1,000 with your work. In many cases, the copywriter gets less than 1% of the earnings stemming from his work. Many copywriters begin to become aware of this fact and realize they could probably make it on their own – writing copy for their own products. Thus the liberation phase is a shift from working for clients to working for oneself.
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