What copywriters specialise in
Copywriters divide by three things: the format they write, the sector they write for, and the register they write in. A copywriter who writes long-form direct response emails for financial services builds a different muscle to one who writes short brand copy for a fashion retailer, even though both call themselves copywriters. Before you commission, work out which of these three you actually need, because a strong portfolio in the wrong specialism will not transfer as well as it looks like it should.
Format specialists write one thing well: search ads, product pages, email sequences, or long sales pages. Sector specialists know the language and constraints of an industry, financial services and healthcare in particular, where claims have to be substantiated and certain words carry regulatory weight. Style specialists split roughly into direct response writers, who write to get a click or a sale, and brand writers, who write to build recognition and trust over time. A landing page written by a brand specialist can read beautifully and still convert nobody, because the two disciplines are trained to do different jobs. See how audience shapes the writing for how the same product can need two entirely different voices depending on who is reading.
How to read a portfolio
A portfolio shows you the writer's best work, chosen and often edited by the writer themselves, so read it as a sample of judgement rather than a guarantee of consistency. Check three things: whether the format matches what you need, whether the industry is close enough that the writer already understands your constraints, and whether the claims made about the work are specific.
"Helped the client increase engagement" tells you nothing, because engagement is not defined and no figure is given. "Cut the homepage headline from 14 words to six and moved the CTA above the fold" tells you what was actually done and lets you judge whether the reasoning holds up. Ask to see the brief behind a portfolio piece where you can, because a strong piece of copy written to a loose brief is a different achievement to the same piece written to a tight one.
Watch for the flagship trap
Most portfolios lead with one or two polished pieces that took weeks and several rounds of client input. Ask instead for something closer to what your project will actually look like: a first draft, a quick-turnaround piece, or work from a smaller client with less oversight. That tells you more about what you will get than the flagship piece does.
What a fair UK rate looks like
Copywriters price work three main ways: a day rate for ongoing or open-ended work, a project fee for a defined deliverable such as a landing page or an email sequence, and occasionally a per-word rate for long-form content. None of these is inherently fairer than another. A day rate suits work where scope is likely to shift. A project fee suits work you can specify precisely, because both sides know what is being paid for and what counts as done.
Rates vary by specialism and experience, and a sector specialist writing regulated financial copy will typically cost more than a generalist writing straightforward product descriptions, because the specialist carries knowledge that reduces your own review burden. Choosing on price alone tends to move the cost: weak copy that needs rewriting later, or copy that needs a second person to check it against the CAP Code after the fact, costs time even where it costs no extra fee.
What a good brief contains
A brief is what the copywriter works from, and a vague brief produces vague copy however skilled the writer. A brief that actually does its job includes:
- The audience: who is reading, and what they already know or believe
- The goal: what the reader should do, think, or feel by the end
- The format: homepage, product page, email, ad, and the length or character limit if there is one
- Tone reference: examples of writing that sound right, and, where useful, examples that sound wrong
- Mandatory content: legal wording, disclaimers, or terms that must appear
- What to avoid: claims, words, or comparisons that cannot be made
- The deadline, and whether revisions are expected within it
A brief that names the audience as "existing customers of a UK SaaS product opening a renewal email" gives the writer something to aim at. A brief that says "write something that sounds professional" gives them nothing, and the copywriter will fill the gap with guesses about your business that may not match it. The brief structure guide sets out the format in full, and the brief starter tool builds one section by section if you would rather work from a template than a blank page.
Questions worth asking before you commission
A short conversation before you commit answers most of the questions that would otherwise surface as disputes later. Worth raising directly:
- How many rounds of revision are included in the fee, and what happens beyond that
- Who owns the finished copy once it is paid for
- How the writer wants feedback: line by line, or as a general direction to redraft against
- What happens if the brief changes partway through the project
- Whether they have written for a comparable audience or format before, beyond what the portfolio shows
None of these questions is awkward to ask, and a copywriter used to commercial work will expect them. A writer who cannot give a straight answer to how revisions work is telling you something about the rest of the working relationship before you have paid for a word.