A day in the life of a digital copywriter
Life at every agency is different. The truth is that there is no ‘typical’ day as a copywriter, but many of us share a few common enough experiences that you can get a good, general idea of what to expect once you’ve started your career at an agency. Here’s a brief rundown of my day and what it’s like working at a small digital shop.
Start the day with writing
I personally write best in the morning, which is why I try to block off a few hours to focus on one of my writing assignments at the top of the day. I find that writing early helps me focus, because I probably already started thinking about my most pressing project on the commute in to work. Ideally I can get in a few hours of writing before I get pulled into the next most common part of my day.
Attend a mid-morning stand up meeting
A stand up meeting is essentially a short status meeting where you and the rest of your team go over the most pressing tasks for the day and provide updates on what progress has been done towards them. I generally have a daily stand up (or two) depending on how many projects or clients I’m juggling at any one time. They’re a quick, easy way to update the team on what I’m working on and allows me to better understand what else is happening on a project.
Help a team in a group brainstorm
Generally speaking, I’ll get a little bit more writing in after my early stand ups before all my bigger meetings start to fill my day. If you work at a digital agency, especially one that’s building out larger digital experiences like websites or apps, you might find yourself pulled into a group brainstorm session. While these aren’t typical, day to day occurrences, I do occasionally get pulled into brainstorms to help craft creative ideas or spark new perspectives. They’re a great way to see what the other teams are working on and a great way to flex those ideation muscles.
Share some work in a creative review
At some point, I’ll need to check in with my creative director on the writing that I’ve been doing over the last few days. Typically I’ll prepare for a creative review by cleaning up my working copy document and drop a few different options of work into a separate, sharable google doc or deck. Before the meeting, I’ll also think about how I want to present my work and tell the story about how I got to the copy that I’ve crafted. After the meeting, I’ll go make edits or changes and then begin preparing for…
Share some work with a client
Once we’ve aligned on the creative work internally. The next step will be to share that work with our client. Often, this is a phone call with a pdf of a keynote deck or a copy document sent over just before the meeting begins. Once we start, I’ll begin by sharing the overall thinking behind the work with the client, then I’ll get into each piece of copy and why we like it. Most client shares will ultimately end with some general feedback, but frequently, the client will take the work with them and send feedback to me later that day or the next day.
Update my boss and finish up the day
Because I work at such a small agency, I often send work and present to clients without my creative director in the room. Don’t expect this as a junior. You’ll be lucky if you even get to sit in on a meeting. Generally speaking, I’ll give my boss an update on the work, explain to them the feedback and then go over next steps with them. It’s a great way to keep them informed, show them what I’m up to and get their insight. After that, i’ll plan out what I need to do tomorrow, head home and do it all over again.
