How To Choose a Copywriting Course

Advice for the inexperienced novice

Like you, I aspire to a lucrative, satisfying freelance writing career. My quest has taken many twists and turns while raising a family and holding down a day job with various side gigs.

I’ve taken courses in creative writing and submitted novellas to publishers only to receive polite rejection slips. I’ve been published in labour movement periodicals and on union websites. I’ve started and stopped a certificate program in technical writing after getting a promotion at work that consumed the rest of my time and energy.

I stumbled across Medium while being on a distribution list for script writing and am absolutely loving it. I’ve also taken two copywriting courses from major industry players with very different results.

I began receiving promotional material on the first copywriting course I took due to a mailing list I was on. I was a customer of Agora publishing and began receiving mail for the AWAI copywriting course. I had no exposure to the field before and was intrigued by the career prospects that this avenue of writing seemed to hold. I have always believed in my ability to write and just hadn’t come across the right career exit ramp. The only other writing career paths aside from novelist and scriptwriter I was aware of, were traditional journalism and technical writing.

As the AWAI course was among the first of its kind, I didn’t know of any alternatives and thought this was all there was. The course was composed of monthly lessons that were largely studies of successful, copywriting pieces. This was followed by a minor and major assignment all by traditional mail. There was no person to person contact with the school until you submitted your assignments.

The major assignment was a multi part, direct mail piece that represented the most complex and difficult copywriting work. For the uninitiated, this course format did not impart the skills needed and I did poorly on the major assignment. I was given a chance to rewrite the assignment but didn’t think I had a strong enough foundation to work on a piece of such complexity. I came away frustrated and disenchanted with the program and did not submit a rewrite.

Still, I believed in my writing ability was sufficiently intrigued by the mysterious world of copywriting to pursue it further. Feeling like my AWAI experience had too much distance and not enough education, I researched some of the top names in the field and found a master copywriter teaching the craft in my home country, Canada. I chose Steve Slaunwhite’s course.

There were weekly lessons by phone and plenty of contact with Steve himself, an experienced and recognized master copywriter. The course took us methodically through the building blocks of copywriting. We got immediate feedback on our assignments and plenty of access to Steve himself. I came away satisfied with the course and a lot more confident in my skills.

I started applying for copywriting jobs and booked an interview. Steve again made himself available for advice. I was not a successful candidate largely due to inexperience. Steve didn’t candy coat what working in the industry as an in-house writer was like. He advised that ad agencies were likely to hire someone younger than me for all the reasons that employers prefer younger workers. He advised that I may have a better shot as a freelancer. My journey to freelancing was not fruitful for reasons unrelated to education. More on this later.

I have no business or affiliate relationship with Steve Slaunwhite or other providers of copywriting education.

Here are my takeaways for choosing a copywriting education provider:

Don’t choose a course on the strength of the copywriting selling the course.

This sounds counter intuitive doesn’t it? After all, if the school produces great copywriting, surely the course must teach it, right? Don’t assume so. Copywriting schools use copywriters to sell copywriting courses. If you don’t heed this advice, you could be buying the sizzle now and end up chewing gristle later.

Will the lessons be given by a Master Copywriter?

We all want to be taught by the best people in the field. If you’re paying for an industry name to teach you, make sure they’re the one teaching and not an assistant or “franchise” owner. The same goes for marking your assignments.

Hands up if, in your childhood, you went to a sports camp owned by a big name athlete only to see them for fifteen minutes over the whole week? The same principle applies here.

Will you be taught the foundations of copywriting before you begin your assignments?

As a novice, you will need schooling in copywriting foundations and principles before you write your first word.

There are some course providers who do little more than send you a manual then throw you into a complex assignment for which you have no foundational knowledge to fulfill. It’s a recipe for failure, frustration and disappointment.

Take a course where you will be schooled in the fundamentals with interactive learning that happens before you begin your assignments. Ask for a course outline that satisfies this requirement.

If you are studying by distance education, you will need regular contact, feedback and interaction.

As a student copywriter, there is a very real danger of going off on a wrong tangent. To avoid this, you need to have regular contact with someone who can steer you straight. By person to person contact, I mean speaking to your teacher by phone or equivalent, not over an internet message board. If the only contact you get with your trainer is at assignment time, it’s too late.

Choose a course from a jurisdiction where you have consumer rights

Education isn’t just an investment of money. It’s an investment of time and emotional energy. If there isn’t a physical address on the website of the course you’re considering, keep shopping.

If you filed a complaint, could you visit or write to the governing body in your area? This is not to imply that every course is a scam. This is to give you an added layer of consumer protection. Contact the BBB, Chamber of Commerce or Direct Marketing Association in the jurisdiction where the course is offered. Inquire as to the complaint process and whether there are complaints on file about the provider.

All things being equal, a course offered by a provider geographically closer to you is easier to verify or launch a complaint about.

Does your Master Copywriter teach copywriting at a college or university?

Their website should tell you. If yes, give them points for legitimacy. A copywriting program at a publicly funded, accredited institution of higher learning gives many a greater feeling of security. There may also be tuition tax deductions that a private sector course may not be eligible for. Investigate and compare.

Has the course conductor or Master Copywriter published copywriting books independently of your course?

If not, they may not have much of a profile or standing in the field, outside of offering courses. Search Amazon or an online textbook vendor.

How strong is the reference material included in the course?

After your course is over, you will need strong reference material to confirm that your work is true to the principles of the craft. The integration of copywriting fundamentals into your work will need to be reinforced until internalized.

While you may hesitate to judge reference material as a novice, start by asking who the authors are and how many pages your textbook is. Search the authors name online to confirm their status as a copywriting authority.

I’d recommend taking out a copywriting manual from your library or buy one online. Familiarize yourself with the principles. this will give you a basis for comparing it to the material in your course.

Some copywriting industry names are Bob Bly, John Forde, David Ogilvy and Herschel Gordon Lewis. Commit to building your own copywriting resource library as a lifelong learner.

Beware of providers whose main source of income is offering courses.

Every Master Copywriter has their foot in the education, mentoring and coaching world. Like us, they need diverse income sources too. Make sure they have an established reputation as a writer first and course provider second. A Google search and thorough perusing of their own website should provide answers.

How many students will the course conductor accept in one session?

In the best course I took, I was one of 6 students in our session and the Master Copywriter gave each of us plenty of one on one time. Ask the course provider how many students are admitted in each session and how often the Master Copywriter will be available for questions and interaction. If the math doesn’t look favourable for individual attention, keep shopping.

Ask for references from past students that you can communicate with directly.

A legitimate course provider won’t shy away from this. Don’t settle for the testimonials in the promotional literature. The reference doesn’t have to be a world beating, millionaire copywriter. You want to know from a recent student if the course will deliver on its premise of giving you an introductory grounding in the fundamentals.

Choose a course provider that also has mentoring/coaching available after your course.

Unless you are already working in a related industry, taking a course in itself is unlikely to lead to a lucrative copywriting career.

To partake of and pay for mentoring/coaching is your choice.

If you are working full time in an unrelated field, you are entering the copywriting world cold turkey as an unknown.

Are you aiming for a salary job or going freelance? Are you willing to start at the bottom in an entry level position? If freelancing, will you prospect solo or align yourself with an agency? Are you ready to cold call?

Unless someone is supporting you financially, your time, money and energy for pursuing a career in copywriting are finite. A misdirected effort is going to leave you discouraged and exhausted.

If you successfully learned the fundamentals from your course provider and feel comfortable with them as a mentor/career coach, you won’t need to break the ice with someone new.

If they seem too geographically distant to understand your local job or freelance market conditions, ask them to refer you to someone who can.