How To Measure Your Copywriting Skills

If there's one thing that bugs me about the copywriting market
is the lack of a standard measurement that copywriters need to
meet in order to call themselves copywriters. Maybe it's the
scientific part of me that says you should be able to measure
just about anything.

Or maybe it's just the onslaught of new
"copywriters" I've seen online who I honestly don't think
deserve that title.Think about any other profession, even real
estate, you need to take license exams or complete some course
that allows you to attach a title to your name. But for
copywriting, you can take that name at will.

Now I'm not going to pretend as though I have no self-interest in requiring this
benchmark. I want the industry to recognize some standard and so
customers can cut through the confusion and know the quality of
a copywriter they are working with. But more so, I see the
industry being watered down by title bearers without much
qualification, if any at all.

Now my suggested requirement may go against the very spirit of
entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurs think that formal education or any 'false
standard' should not define your success. In fact, most business
people will boast of their accomplishments without having attended college.

But this is not just about education although
it is. I would even go as far as suggesting a core set of books
that copywriters should at least read before they carry a member
card. Now for sure, different copywriters would want to include
different books, but so do different schools for the same course
and sometimes the same educational institution for the same
course.

Okay, so along with the basic course requirement how
would I measure a copywriter? I've seen many different elements
suggested and so I'll like to investigate each one at a time and
then suggest the benchmark I would use.

1. Conversion rates.
Some would suggest that a copywriter should be measured by the
conversion rate of the sales letters he or she writes. The only
problem here is that I've seen some high conversion rates
achieved by sloppy sales letters all because of the market these
letters targeted.

For example, markets that generally take
"advantage" of the natural "lust" of the human heart normally do
very well. This (for me) would include dating, gambling,
pornography, sex, 'get rich quick schemes' and items that border
on the illegal. If a copywriter does well at selling a drug
addict cocaine, that's nothing to cheer about.

2. Writing for famous clients.
Many copywriters present as proof for their
superior skills the fact that they have written for famous
gurus. While I cannot blame them for flying these flags, many
times these letters are used as a first draft and even chosen
because of the low fees. That's right. Top gurus often go the
low fee route and then adjust the copy themselves. So
copywriting clientele is no proof either.

3. Top Trainer or Coach.
If a copywriter was taught by a famous coach then it
could be assumed that this would recommend them to be gifted by
association. Who wouldn't want to be taught golf by Tiger Woods?
But again having an excellent teacher doesn't make you an
excellent student.

4. Length of time STUDYING copywriting.
In this business of writing if you simply study about writing
without actually practicing, then you'll remain a novice. You
have to be in the trenches fighting the battle with many scars
to prove your involvement and results to show for it. I'll
prefer a gauge of the number of pages of copy written than the
total length of time studying copywriting.

5. Amount of money earned.
"Million dollar Producer", "My Copy Sold Billions"-these
are the usual advertising blurbs we see advertising copywriting
services. Now I don't personally have anything against making a
lot of money, but this is often a gauge of one's business skills
and the market you write for rather than your raw abilities. In
other words, if you are 'lucky' enough to write for a big
company with huge mailings, then it's highly probable the profit
will reflect the company rather than the writer.

And one successful piece of copy written for the 'right' company can
earn you a "dollar amount title" that may not reflect your
skills or experience.

So what is the solution? How do you measure one copywriter against
the other? Can I write for the same product and same market and try
and beat the control of another writer to prove myself better? Maybe
this will be a fair measure, except that I should allow the control writer
to try and beat my new control. You must admit that time changes
markets and the same letter would get different results over
time-hence the need to have the old control writer update his
copy.

It seems that we are still at the very point we started,
but we have made some progress since we have eliminated some
options. I'm suggesting that your copywriting skills cannot be
measured by conversion rates, famous clients, gifted teacher,
length of time studying the discipline or money earned.

So what's left after this?

I would suggest that a copywriter should be measured by the
results of writing for a NEW product to be introduced to a market
where the need is NOT already very obvious and in which the product
creator had little or no previous credibility with the market. When such
a sales letter is judged against the result of other letters written for the
same market and product, then you have a safe standard to judge
your skills.

Now this may seem like a hypothetical situation
and indeed it may be. But introducing a new product to market is
where the tire really meets the road. Of course there is no 100%
new concept, but there was a time when the PC was "new". So were
the personal video recorder (VCR) and many other modern
inventions. And this is why I have such high respect for the
early copywriters who had no swipe files to refer to except
those filed between their ears.

So write me a new letter for a new product for a new market and if you
knock the ball out of the park I'll be in the stands cheering you on.