Copywriter Resume: Ultimate Writing Guide [+25 Examples]

This guide will walk you through the process of creating an excellent copywriter resume example and share tips and examples of how to put your skills and achievements together. If you are a copywriter searching for a dream job, keep reading this article.

A copywriter delivers creative and consistent messages from a client to a target audience. Of course, copywriter’s duties may vary from writing articles for blogs to text for banners.

This job makes you a wearer of many hats because you need to know your target audience and write a copy accordingly to it. You also need to create various graphics in your posts (such as images, videos, logos, illustrations, and infographics). It makes the overall text look complete. You need to proofread and edit the text you wrote, and communicate with a client. Not speaking about how many subjects a copywriter need to be an expert in.

Copywriters work closely with photographers, designers, videographers, PR managers, marketers, SEO and project managers. You should be a team player and analyze the information you get from many sources day by day. You can work either from home or from an office. This job requires you to become a creative, reliable, and smart writer. You need to develop your voice, learn the view of the brand you are working for, and then translate it on different online mediums.

1. Copywriter Resume Job Description

Thinking about the job description, most of us remember those job position advertising created by employers. But in fact, the most critical job description is the one you write in your resume in a section dedicated to your working experience.

The job description will tell your potential employer about your previous accomplishments and duties. A structured well-written job description will help you to show off your skills and make your CV memorable. Just like with any other text on the web or paper, make sure to make proper formatting. It means you need to add a heading, subheadings, bullet points and numbering to make your text more readable.

The job title is a first thing a potential employer sees when opens your resume. Unluckily, most job titles could be misunderstood. The title should be clear and brief. Thus, it’s critically important to add summary which is 1-2 sentences description of your duties and relationship to a particular position.

Here is an excellent example of a copywriter job description:

Copywriter, May 2013 – March 2018
Magazine FIVE – Los Angeles, CA

Magazine FIVE is a small yet ambitious magazine about lifestyle and healthy food. Hired to grow readers base and write creative copy for a magazine, blog, and website.

• Develop websites, blog, marketing, and sales content for a lifestyle magazine;
• Manage content strategies for several websites and blogs;
• Research topics and writing articles for blog ghostwriting, corresponding with blog owners and managers to accept the materials;
• Established a reading base for a blog from zero to 50,000 per month.

2. What’s the Best Format for a Copywriter Resume?

After you built your resume, optimized it for keywords, choose headline and subtitles, wrote covering letter, it’s time to select a proper file format. Not all file formats will be suitable for a copywriter resume. No one ever mentions this tiny detail as a file format. The answer is quite simple: it depends on the situation.

Let’s get a closer look at proper CV file formats and then decide which one will suit you the best.

Hard Copy Resume. Most companies still require a classy resume printed on high-quality paper. A printed resume is more straightforward than its digital ‘brothers.’

• Remember to divide the text into readable sections.
• Don’t use too many colors because they may look unprofessional on a printed piece of paper. One color is more than enough.
• Don’t include graphics, images, and colored text.
• Don’t staple the CV pages, use paper clips so it would be easy to release the pages.
• Use subheadings to highlight the key points.
• Place the covering letter on top of an actual resume.

Microsoft Word Document is one of the most popular file formats used for a resume these days. If you want to use this format you need to save your CV in .doc or .docx format. This format is the best option if you need to send your resume as an email attachment. Word is a standard file format for business, so in most cases, your potential employer will open it in the same formatting.

However, keep in mind that some companies may not allow email attachments. And, it happens some companies use MacBooks. In this case, a Word file opened in Apple Pages may spoil the formatting of your CV.

You can also use PDF file format which gives you a complete assurance that an employer will see your resume the way you sent it. And it’s compatible with most Microsoft and Mac computers.

3. What to Include in Contact Information for a Copywriter Resume

This section is one of the easiest to do. You need to include here your actual address, phone number, and email. It also is a plus if you added your portfolio website URL (if you have one) and LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook profiles.

This way you will give your potential employer more ways to get in touch with you and show your professional attitude at the same time.

4. How to Write a Copywriter Resume Objectives or Resume Summary?

Resume summary is one more dominant part of your CV which you can’t ignore. Depending on how you write your resume summary, it could be a waste of space or a complete game changer.

For those of you who does not know the term, resume summary (or ‘summary of qualifications’) is a few powerful statements on top of your resume which help to identify your skills and experience. It will help your potential employer to get a sense of the value you could bring to the company.

Here are some resume summary samples of copywriters from different industries:

• Proven ability to manage multiple copywriting projects while meeting challenging deadlines.
• Strong copywriter, delighting clients for seven years with crisp copy and impressive business results.
• Skilled copywriter with a vast portfolio of brands copy creation for web, print, television, and social media.
• Expert copywriter with over ten years of experience dedicated to lifestyle and fashion.

Do they sound great, don’t they?

It can also highlight your previous experience and show how it prepared you for the challenges of the next position. Resume summary will work the best for professional and more experienced copywriters who have some achievements to show off.

When it comes to resume objective, most of you come up with a sentence: ‘I’m seeking for a copywriter position where I can apply my skills.’ A resume objective shows your career goal. As a rule, it’s 1-2 sentences long. Check out these objective samples:

• My objective is to get a position where I can work with designers to maximize copy style, increase branding effectiveness and grow the reputation of the company.
• To obtain a job as a copywriter where my strong writing and communication skills will come in handy in enhancing the image of the company.
• To obtain a job as a creative copywriter where my strong writing and communication skills will come in handy in enhancing the reputation of the firm.

Try to focus on your strong skills and show what benefits of hiring you the company will get.

5. How to Describe Your Work Copywriter Experience

Showing off your strongest skills would not guarantee you a job. You need to show your potential employer actual real results. Tell about your previous projects and demonstrate how you contributed to their success.

For instance, you may include some followers Facebook account gained after you started writing texts for them, number of page views of your article, the response rate for direct emails, number of subscribers for a blog you worked at, and sales of the products you described.

Take a look at the example of copywriter experience below:

I created and wrote more direct emails which got respond than anybody else in this field.

• Increased the follower base on Facebook in 200%.
• Described over 10,000 products and got about $150 thousands in sales.
• Implemented an email campaign which resulted in $4,000 revenue increase.

So, as you see you need to show as often as it’s possible the result of your work in numbers and make an accent that it all was your merit.

6. What to Include in Education for Copywriter Resume

Talking about this section, you need to know that experience is much more evaluated than education and qualifications. In your copywriter resume, you need to list all your institutions in reverse chronological order. Make sure to include dates and critical subjects and grades.

If you have any (even less significant) industry qualifications, for example, copywriting courses on Coursera, you should mention them.

Let me show you a proper sample of education section in a resume:

Education:

– B.S. in Advertising, University of California (2007 – 2011)

– Creative writing courses ‘Back2School’ 2012-2013

7. How to Put Skills on a Copywriter Resume

“While technology gives the ability for anyone to make a movie or write a blog, it doesn’t give them the ability to do it well. The days of copywriters being reduced shoehorning keywords into web copy are also coming to an end as Google gets more sophisticated and rewards good, interesting content.” – Martin Calladine, a freelance sports writer on English football and the NFL

Putting together a list of skills in a copywriter resume is as essential as ice cubes in a glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. No one wants a warm lemonade. So if you want a resume which will guarantee you a dream job, then you need to learn to describe your skills in a proper way.

Most often you can find skills in job summary or experience. But it’s also essential to put them together in a separate field. Add characteristics which are the most suitable for a particular position first, and then list them all.

Imagine, if you are applying for a position of a copywriter for a design blog, obviously, you would work with graphics and images for your posts. It’s crucial to know Photoshop and other graphics editors for this position.

Ensure you add some skills which you also mentioned in summary and experience. You need to prove your employer you applied your skills in your work.

8. List of Skills to Put on a Copywriter Resume

When you hear a word ‘skills’ the first things that come to mind are hardworking, public speaking, and fast typing. But when it comes to a resume which will help you to land a job, you need to focus on ‘selective’ skills which fit this particular work.

Any job requires to have a specific set of skills and characteristics, and you need to demonstrate them in your CV. Have you ever known that there are two basic types of skills: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are the ones which you can learn in a classroom, university, or at home. For example, the hard skills are speaking foreign languages, typing on a computer, using some specific equipment, drivers license, or web programs.

Soft skills you can also call ‘people skills’ because they help you to communicate with clients and other team members. For instance, patience, self-awareness, or communication. So what are the specific hard and soft skills required for any copywriter position?

The hard skills for a copywriter position are:

• excellent grammar,
• spelling,
• punctuation,
• writer research skills,
• using Microsoft Word,
• using Adobe Photoshop (and other relevant software),
• technical writing skills.

Let me explain some of the points here. Whether spell-checker you use, excellent grammar and spelling still need a human being. Showing that you had proofreading experience in the past would be a high proof that you have proper grammar and spelling. In the era of internet and technologies, it’s obvious a writer will be able to type text on a computer, but not write by hand on a piece of paper. Also, it’s essential to use Microsoft Word for typing, (or Google Docs) and Adobe Photoshop to create images and graphics for your articles.

Some of the copywriter positions may require knowledge of foreign languages on the level allowing you to write and speak this language. At the same time, some places may need to have some specific technical knowledge.

And the soft skills are the following:

• collaboration,
• communication,
• time management,
• multitasking,
• efficiency,
• teamwork.

All these skills help a copywriter work in a team, collaborate with other people, deliver any work on time, and stay productive.

Make sure to include abilities which you are experienced at, and you have actual examples of using them on your previous jobs.

9. How to Add Certifications to Your Copywriter Resume

Adding certifications to your resume is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and get an interview. They should tell your potential employer that you are a perfect fit for the position.

You should include any relevant certifications in your CV. If you have one certification, it will be appropriate to list it next to your name, or on top of your resume. If you have more than a single certification, it will be better to place on the bottom or in the Education section.

Don’t hesitate to include courses like Udemy or Coursera in your resume, it will show your hiring the managers that you are updated about the latest trends and are willing to learn and improve your skills.

10. Closing words

Crating a killer resume is dramatically important if you want to get a job in copywriting area. Whether you are a copywriter or digital writer, you need to highlight your previous experience, skills, education, write a decent summary and send a resume in a right format. We hope this guide helped you to figure out some critical questions about copywriter resume.