Copywriting business in Nigeria is one profitable online business in Nigeria to make six figures even in a week, i personally know some copywriters in Nigeria that makes that huge, you see them writing strategically, they first give you freebies, then give you reasons why you should buy their courses by practically giving a real life instance, at the end of the day they sell courses worth 100k for just 2k for the first 100 people in a given time, and boom Call to action starts working out.

Awesome right? Well that’s what this article is all about, how you can actually Make Money as a copywriter in Nigeria, but before we begin, for the sake of those who are strange to Copywriting let’s explain what really Copywriting is all about.

What is Copywriting?

Copywriting can be described as the process of re-arranging words to make things sell better. It is a text form of salesmanship.

With Copywriting you can be able to strategically deliver words (whether written or spoken) to people and make them take some form of action.

While a Copywriter is someone who is paid to write “copy” – words designed to prompt action. Copywriting is always connected to the act of promoting or selling a business, organization, brand, product, or service, which makes it, by definition, a form of marketing. Copywriting can take a wide variety of forms: such as

• Advertising
• Websites
• Emails
• Blog posts
• Landing pages
• Brochures
• Presentations
• Video scripts
• Headlines
• Product descriptions
• Lead magnets
• White papers
• Etc, etc, etc

What makes it “copy” is that it’s intended to drive an action.

Sometimes, you want to drive an action immediately. This type of copywriting is referred to as “direct response copywriting”.

Examples of direct response copywriting include:

• A Twitter ad designed to get an ad click
• A billboard designed to make you turn at the next exit and visit the establishment
• A landing page designed to get an email signup
• An email designed to get a message in “reply”
• A product description designed to drive an “Add to Cart” click

Sometimes, immediate action isn’t the goal. The reader might not be in the position to take immediate action when they see your copy, or having them take immediate action might not be the priority. This type of copy doesn’t have a snappy name, but the concept of marketing now for results down the road is essentially branding.

Examples of branding-focused copywriting include:

• A magazine ad designed to expose readers to the brand
• A blog post designed to educate and connect with the reader
• A white paper designed to establish the brand’s authority

Some Top Copywriters In Nigeria (Female)

• Nicole Asinugo. Nicole is a lawyer turned copywriter. …
• Seun Agbelusi. Seun is a brand storyteller and digital copywriter. …
• Elizabeth Oghale Ughoro. …
• Omolade Ibikunle. …
• Sandra Ebulu. …
• Dimtang Bishmang.

 

Tips to write be a good copywriter in Nigeria

1.     Make every word matter

Copywriting involves choosing your words carefully because there is simply no room for waste. Every word that you use should matter as opposed to being unnecessary. No word should be used just as a filler. As William Strunk puts it in “The Elements of Style”, every word should tell.

This doesn’t mean that details should be avoided and your copy should be extremely short. It just means that every word should have a purpose.

2.     Your headline should be impactful and intriguing

One of the most important copywriting tips every writer should remember is that your headline is what drives the audience to actually read your copy. If your headline is not impactful or intriguing enough, your copy will not be effective as you would like it to be because people are not engaging with it in the first place.

To make sure that your headline is riveting enough, follow the 4 U’s of headline writing – useful, urgent, unique, and ultra-specific. Open your headline with a strong benefit of the product you are selling to lure in the audience into reading the body of the copy.

3.     Don’t just write smart copy, write copy that sells

Today, many writers get carried away with creating copy that is “smart” or “catchy”. While this undoubtedly is an important attribute for a good copy to have, putting your efforts only into writing something smart tends to shift the focus from writing copy that actually sells. The purpose of a copy in the first place is to sell a product, not just make people smile and appreciate how good the copy is.

David Ogilvy, the legendary advertiser, once said, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative”, and this is a guiding line that writers in the modern age need to remember.

4.     Don’t speak down to your audience

While writing copy, never make the mistake of speaking down to your audience. No matter how great or life-changing your product may be, it’s not going to sell if the language or tone you use in your copy is condescending. Regardless of how smart or alluring your copy may sound, it’s not a good copy if it speaks down to the audience.

Your audience are simply people who are looking for a solution to a problem, and treating them with respect and dignity can go a long way in helping you boost your sales.

5.     Keep it clear and simple

You may be tempted to impress your audience with flamboyant words, but simplicity really is the best way to go when writing copy. Simple writing is not as easy as it sounds. Bloating your writing is actually much easier than writing clearly and concisely. As Albert Einstein puts it, “ If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

6.       Upgrade your skills.

Take a writing or grammar class at your local community college if you are worried about the quality of your writing. you could even can  a short certificate copywriting course.This will also help you in networking with like-minded people.

How to make money as a copywriter in Nigeria

 

STEP 1: Plan your Business

to start your Copywriting Business In Nigeria then a clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?
• How long it will take you to break even?
• What will you name your business?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

What are the costs involved in opening a copywriting business In Nigeria?

Costs to get started in Copywriting Business In Nigeria are often computer and a stable internet connection. If you’re working with larger corporate clients, you will also need a business Paypal account or merchant account and invoicing software.

Costs for a new computer range from between 50k up to 250k or more.

Fees for a merchant account also vary, but can include a flat fee plus a per transaction fee. Some companies, like Paypal, may charge you a flat per-transaction fee and a percentage of each transaction. Merchant accounts and payment gateways may charge you a monthly fee for service, plus a percentage of sales and a flat per-transaction fee.

Invoicing software ranges from free to several hundred dollars per year for professional applications.

Another expense, which varies, is advertising. Using pay-per-click advertising carries a higher cost than using other forms of advertising, like referrals or email marketing.

If you start a large agency, with full-time employees, your costs can increase dramatically. Under this model, you may spend up to $10,000 for high-end computer systems and conference software.

What are the ongoing expenses for a copywriting business?

The only ongoing expenses in this business are utilities to run electronics (computers, lights, etc.) and service fees for merchant accounts and invoicing software. If you employ other copywriters, you will also need a payroll system.

If your clients require you use a special content management system (CMS), you will need to maintain this as well.

Who is the target market?

Ideal clients for a copywriting business are typically large corporate clients who can afford a professional writer or team of writers. Larger clients are also more likely to have ongoing or regular projects and assignments, providing a more stable source of income.

Avoid clients who are smaller or who have no (or very little) budget for projects. Individual clients are more risky than corporate clients.

How does a copywriting business make money?

Most copywriting companies charge clients a flat rate per word or a flat rate per project. However, some companies charge tiered rates depending on the amount and type of work being performed.

How much can you charge customers?

Writing fees are all over the board. There is, unfortunately, no standard rate for writing. However, there are strong trends within the industry. Most volume-based copywriting agencies charge clients between $0.05 and $0.10 per word. In some cases, they charge less. Higher-end agencies may charge clients between $0.20 per word up to $2 or more per word.

Flat-fee rates can be as low as a few dollars for volume work or between $500 and $3,000 or more for customized projects. The higher the fee, the more specialized the project tends to be. Some companies will also require graphical design and layout for higher-priced projects.

How much profit can a copywriting business make?

The profit potential for a copywriting agency is almost unlimited. According to Payscale, the average wage for a freelance writer is $24.24 per hour. As the owner of a copywriting agency, you could earn between $31,000 and $95,000 per year.

How can you make your business more profitable?

Some specialties in copywriting demand more money than others. For example, technical writing usually commands higher fees than general copywriting. Focusing your business on technical subjects like law, finance, tutorials, and educational material may allow you to make more money than writing general topics.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is very important. Read our detailed guide on how to name your business. We recommend checking if the business name you choose is available as a web domain and securing it early so no one else can take it.

2. Learn The 6 Core Copywriting Skills

All copywriting is persuasive writing, but nobody is ever going to pay you for “persuasive writing”.

If you want to make money, you need to be able to utilize your persuasive writing abilities in writing specific types of copy that are in high demand.

I’ve identified six copywriting skills that are always in demand and constitute what I would consider “core skills” in the copywriting world. You can build your entire career on any 2-3 skills from this list, so don’t feel the need to try and learn all six, but practicing all of them certainly can’t hurt.

1. Learn how to write a headline
2. Learn how to write a value proposition
3. Learn how to write a landing page
4. Learn how to write a sales email
5. Learn how to write an advertisement
6. Learn how to write a video script

Headline Copywriting

Headline writing is the only skill on this list that I consider absolutely essential for every single copywriter. It’s also the only skill on this list you are probably never going to get paid for directly.

Virtually every type of copywriting you do is going to include a headline of some sort, and the quality of that headline will have a disproportionate effect on the success of the entire project. The better your headlines, the more clients you’ll land and the better work you will do for those clients.

also read Best 7 Apps to Make Money Online In Nigeria

Value Proposition Copywriting

A value proposition is a concise statement that communicates what a business is offering, it’s value, and who it’s intended for.

For more complex products and services, simply producing a concise statement that adequately captures the offer is a challenge unto itself.

For simpler products and services, there is an art to being able to communicate the brand’s unique value via concise, punchy phrasing.

While it’s not common for businesses to hire copywriters specifically to work on their value propositions (although I’ve had a handful of clients like this), being able to craft a strong value proposition is an integral part of writing landing page and website copy, and also comes into play in numerous other forms of copywriting.

Most importantly, it’s one of the single best ways to get a client excited about your writing. Business owners often struggle to quickly and succinctly articulate the value of their business, so helping them put together a strong value proposition will immediately create “buy in” toward you and your writing.

also read How to Become a Successful Web Developer in Nigeria

Landing Page Copywriting

I would consider landing page copywriting to be the “bread and butter” of online copywriting. Every business needs a website, and the success of every website revolves around the success of a handful of landing pages.

For example, here on my own website, there are three important landing pages:

1. Homepage
2. Main Service Page
3. Secondary Service Page

If these pages perform well, my business performs well. Period.

Every website has pages like this, and to be honest, we could even expand this concept to include all core website pages.

The main point here is that website and landing page copy is in high demand. Plus, since it’s theoretically a one-time expense, and the online success of the business revolves around the website copy, businesses are willing to pay a pretty competitive rate to make sure they get it right.

If you can do a great job at writing website and particularly landing page copy, you will never be out of work as a copywriter.

also read 39 Construction marketing tips directly from Business CEOs and Pros

Email Copywriting

Similar to landing page copy, email copywriting is in high demand. Everyone needs it, but unlike website copy, they need more of it every month.

While email copywriting has never been a large part of my client work, I know quite a few successful copywriters who do emails pretty much exclusively. The ongoing nature of the work makes it easy to fill up a schedule and build recurring income.

It’s also a breeze to track email “opens” and clicks, making it easy to measure your performance, improve your craft, and demonstrate the value you are bringing to the client.

Plus, with thousands of templates and case studies publicly available, email copywriting is probably the single best starting point for new copywriters.

also read How to Start a Photography Business in Nigeria

Ad Copywriting

Ad writing is the godfather of copywriting, and it’s more prevalent today than it’s ever been before… by leaps and bounds.

The good news is that there is never-ending demand for ad copywriting.

The bad news is that most of it, from what I can see, isn’t being done by freelance copywriters.

You basically have two major types of ad writing taking place:

1. Corporate ads
2. Small business ads

Corporate ad writing is done primarily by junior copywriters within advertising agencies and firms. They don’t get much credit… and they don’t make much money.

Small business ad writing is done primarily by PPC (pay-per-click) service providers. These are your Facebook Ads or Google Adwords “gurus”. You don’t pay someone to write ads for you. You pay someone to advertise for you, and they do the writing as part of the job.

Granted, this isn’t my wheelhouse, so I might be blind to certain niches of opportunity, but from where I’ve been sitting the last six years, if you want to write ads, you’ll have better luck as a PPC specialist than an “ad copywriter”.

And to be perfectly honest, if I had to start my career over from scratch today, mastering PPC would probably be the path I’d choose. But regardless of all that, ad copywriting is indisputably a staple in the market right now, and I’m sure there are freelancers somewhere making bank off ad writing.

Video Script Copywriting

Finally, we have video scripts. I’ve written some stupidly high performing emails and some solid ads, despite neither of them being a huge chunk of my client work.

I’ve never written a video script… well, at least not one worthy of being called a video script.

I can’t give you much in the way of advice here, so I’ll just say this: video script demand is insane, and there are very few copywriters specializing in this field.

There are multi-million dollar markets built around webinars and dedicated to teaching people how to build a business through webinars. Every single webinar lives and dies by the script.

300 hours worth of video are uploaded to YouTube alone every single minute, most of it with the ultimate goal of making money. These videos all need scripts if they want to outperform their competitors.

This market is prime for the taking, and if you’re someone who is plugged into communities that revolve around video, it might be the perfect option for you to pursue.

also read Make Money Online Selling Longrich Products in Nigeria 2023

Again, your goal here isn’t to master or even learn all six of these. Start with 2-3. I’d recommend that you learn how to write both headlines and value propositions first and then select a third option as the core service you will build your copywriting business around.

3. Include calls to action

This is the first copywriting strategy almost every entrepreneur learns first, and it’s also one of the most effective. A call to action is simply a phrase that tells users to take a specific action.

These include:

• “Buy now”
• “Don’t wait any longer”
• “Contact us today”
• “Get your free quote”

They are often short and sweet. It’s enough to make a sale or lead a customer toward one. Let’s say that you are promoting a new feature of your product in a blog post. Some potential customers are very excited, but you don’t include any call to action or link to the product. Imagine how many sales you would be missing out on. Use calls to action for leading users through your sales funnel to avoid this.

4. Focus on formatting

Have you ever come across an article that was pure paragraphs of text? You probably took a few scrolls and left. Without good formatting, content is hard to digest. It makes it difficult to find the answer you need and understand what the article is going to discuss.

Some good formatting rules are:

• Use header tags to break down different points within the content
• Use lists and bullet points for organization
• Bold certain keywords in every paragraph
• Include useful links to other resources
• Add images or video

5. Get them saying yes

Finally before you start your Copywriting Business In Nigeria you need to understand your customers well enough, you can tailor your content perfectly to their personas. You should ask questions they are probably thinking throughout your sales copy. If the answer is yes, they are more likely to agree with the purchase later. It also is a wonderful way to build trust as it shows you understand them well.

Examples include:

• “Have you been trying to build a website?”
• “Struggling with SEO?”
• “Are you thinking about X or Y?”

Key takeaways