Copywriters are some of the most mystical marketing creatures. They can make magic happen with a mere few words. Think Nike’s “Just Do It.” or The Coca-Cola Company’s “Open Happiness.”
And it’s not all slogans, either. There’s also Rolls-Royce’s 1958 full-page ad headline:
“At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.“
Copywriters also come up with the copy for social media posts, websites, landing pages, brochures, flyers, press releases, and many more.
However, the variegated nature of the output that copywriters produce complicates the process of calculating copywriting costs. So just how much does copywriting cost, and how do you compute how much to charge for writing copy?
What Copywriters Do?
Google “copywriting cost,” and you are likely to come across a wide variety of rates. Some would tell you that copywriters can earn 6-digit figures. That’s true. But other resources would say relatively newer copywriters should charge from US$19 per hour. That’s also true.
Related: What is Copywriting? Complete Guide
Remember that copywriters write copy specifically designed to enhance a brand or spur people into action. The words they write are supposed to make an impact, stick to a person’s consciousness, and compel them to do something – e.g., think favorably of a brand, identify with a brand, or act as called for by the copy they have read.
And copywriting is not only writing. First, copywriters ideate or conceptualize. Then they execute whatever ideas or concepts they come up with.
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Whatever they do, copywriters are expected to create magic with their words. So, copywriters come up with words that convey, compel, drive, and move. And their work takes them across all sorts of media and channels: websites, billboards, social media, radio, videos, and many others.
Copywriters write one-liner slogans, short jingles and headlines, scripts, email copy, and even a full page of text, say for a full-page ad.
They write what seems, at first glance, a straightforward press release about a construction company’s 1.5 million man safe hours. However, such a piece drives home the message that the company is trustworthy and that people can trust their work.
Going back to Rolls-Royce’s 1958 magazine ad mentioned earlier, the copy that accompanied the striking headline listed 13 precise details that highlighted how much attention to detail Rolls-Royce engineers poured into that new model.
The ad could have just said Rolls Royce was a high-quality, quiet car. Instead, the copywriter showed rather than told. And that’s the copywriting magic right there.
How To Charge For Copywriting?
Now that it is clear what copywriting involves, you should be able to communicate your value to your target clients. That should make it easier to sell them your copywriting rates.
Related: Best Copywriting Tips For Small Business Owners
But just how do you charge for copywriting? Read on for tips on how to compute your copywriting rates.
Charge Per Day
The best way to do this is to set your daily rate. How much do you want to charge for one whole day of copywriting work? One day of work could be anywhere from six to eight hours of work.
Why a Daily Rate?
Why does a daily rate make sense? Because copywriting is not mere writing work. As earlier mentioned, copywriting includes ideation and conceptualization.
It requires a copywriter to immerse himself in a brand so that they can assume its point of view, its voice, and its value system. They are obliged to understand what the brand yearns to convey and what it wishes to achieve. And the copywriter must understand who the customer is, what their journey is like, and what makes them tick.
Only after doing all of this preparatory work can a copywriter start putting words together and craft a magical message.
How About an Hourly Rate?
Once you have a daily rate, then you can readily calculate your hourly rate. If you charge US$420 per day for copywriting, then your hourly rate could be US$70 per hour.
An hourly rate still makes sense in the context of what a copywriter does.
Charge Per Project
Now, this is something that works great for copywriters because it is a straightforward rate. Clients love this type of rate, too, because it is excellent for accounting.
Use your daily rate to calculate your per-project rate.
How Much to Charge for a Project
These are the steps you can use to come up with a project cost estimate.
- First, determine how many days (a day is a set of six billable hours) you will work on the project.
- Multiply the number of days from the previous step with your daily rate, and you have your project estimate.
Estimating the number of days you need on a project requires a bit of experience to get right, of course.
At first, you can set a ballpark figure for a project, then track the number of hours you spend on it. This will serve as a learning exercise and tell you how many hours you need approximately to accomplish a project.
Charge Per Word
As a copywriter, you can also follow a per-word rate scheme. But only if you specialize in press releases, blog posts, sales pages, landing pages, and all other mid- to long-form copy.
A per-word pay rate does not make sense in the context of slogans, headlines, social media posts, and other short- and micro-form copy.
A Per Word Sample Calculation
Here is a straightforward way of calculating your per-word rate.
- Estimate how many hours (including ideation, research, and conceptualization) you need to work on a typical copy with a defined length or number of words (e.g., 500).
- After estimating the number of hours you need, multiply that with your hourly rate.
- Next, divide the total with the number of words you used as the basis in step 1 (i.e., 500). That would give you your per-word rate.
To illustrate, if you estimate spending 10 hours on a 500-word output and your rate is US$70 per hour, then that 500-word output costs US$700 or $1.4 per word.
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Charge Per Page
How about charging per page? This does not make sense in copywriting. But if you insist, make sure to define how many words make up a page. Then you can use your per-word rate, derived from your per-day rate, to estimate your per-page rate.
A per-page pay rate also does not make sense in the context of slogans, headlines, social media posts, and other short- and micro-form copy.
Name Your Price
If you could have only one core takeaway from the above write-up, it should be this: Your copywriting cost depends on your appraisal of your value. However, to get a copywriting project, the client has to agree with your valuation. And therein lies the rub.
Thus, if you wish to charge premium prices, be sure to document your projects and your copywriting experiences.
The more years of demonstrable experience you have, the more you should be able to charge.
