Creative/ Content Writer

In this career guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about content writing as a career, from roles and responsibilities, to work environment and roadmap to becoming a Creative/Content Writer.

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Who's a Creative / Content Writer?

A content writer is someone who writes “content” for an online audience. This could be different types of websites, blogs, articles, press releases, and more. But content writers don’t just pull words out of their hats! They do a lot of research and gather the right information to help their audience. They identify who their audience is and what they like, and create content that will grab their attention. Curious to know how they do this? Browse through the Content Writer’s section to know more!

Does a career in creative writing fascinate you? Spend a day in the life of creative writer Sonia Mehta, to discover your future path!

Responsibilities

What will you do?

Studying markets, audiences and competition.

A client will give you a ‘brief’, which means they will tell you exactly what they want from you in terms of content. While getting this brief, ask the client who their audience is and which other brands they are competing with. Once you get these details, conduct a detailed research on your audience, understand what they like and dislike, see what the brand’s competitors are doing, and use the information you have gathered to create fresh content that works!
Example: Say you’ve been asked to create a blog for healthy food. You would study the habits of people who are health-conscious, look up other healthy living websites to understand the tone of voice, and then think about how you would write articles for the blog.

Brainstorming with your team to come up with cool ideas.

Work with your designer, marketing person and other team members to come up with cool ways to market the brand you’re working on.
Example: You would discuss five ways to “sell” the idea of a healthy lifestyle, and shortlist one or two of the best ideas.

Writing different types of content for different audiences.

This is perhaps the best part about being a content writer. Every day is a new day for you! You’ll be writing content for ads, social media posts, websites, blog articles and much more!
Example: You might write blog articles for your healthy website, come up with ad content to sell it to health enthusiasts, or write all-new articles for a whole other brand, say an automobile company!

Coordinating with the team for briefs, feedback and submissions.

Work with your marketing team to find out when a client is sharing a brief (what exactly do you have to do for the brand), the deadline (when do you have to share your content with the client) and feedback (what does the client think about the content you wrote). You will also have to work with the design team and explain how you want your idea to come to life. This will help you manage your time better.
Example: Say a client shares a brief on Monday and expects ideas by Friday. You’ll have to come up with the ideas by Tuesday, share them with your designer by Wednesday, give them enough time to work on it and ensure you submit the ideas to the client by Friday.

Planning content marketing and distribution.

You’ve written some excellent blogs, but how do people find out about them? That’s where a plan comes in! You will work with different team members to come up with the best way to ‘sell’ your content and ensure that the right people get to read it.
Example: Once your healthy blogs are ready, you would create a plan to share them with your audience through social media posts, emailers and more.

Training junior writers.

As you progress in your career, you will have to take on a lot more projects and build a team to work on them. You will also have to train your team on writing in different styles for different brands, planning content and coordinating with other team members.
Example: Say you have five new websites to work on. You might keep one for yourself, assign the rest to your team of junior writers and teach them how to write for those four brands, as each one may have a different style and tone.

Take the Mentoria career assessment test, to find out how well-suited you are as a Creative/Content Writer.

Workplace

Where will you work?

Office

Most content writers work out of an office. This could be a formal setting or even an informal one. Unless your company has a strict dress code, you could actually show up to work dressed in casuals! Your timings mostly depend on the company, but sometimes, you might end up working longer hours, especially if you’re chasing a deadline.

Home

Some content writers even work from home! If you choose to become a freelancer (someone who takes up different projects from different companies instead of working with just one company), you decide when you will work and how much work you will take on. You could even take on projects while travelling the world!

Anywhere You Want

As a content writer, you’ll mostly use a laptop or computer to work on. You might even use a notebook from time to time to jot down your ideas or take notes during a meeting. This job doesn’t involve too much travel, unless you go for client meetings or choose to become a travel writer. As a travel writer, you’d probably visit new places every week!

Education

How do you get there?

STEP 1: Class XI-XII/Junior College

Arts should be your first preference since it offers a lot of subjects like sociology, history, psychology, etc., that require you to do a lot of researching and writing.

STEP 2: Graduate Degree

Take up a three-year Bachelor of Arts and choose literature as a major to get into creative writing. Even if you were to pick other subjects, it would help you master the basics and pursue writing books focused on those subjects, ie, history, psychology or even economics. If you’d like to teach writing as a profession, do a Bachelor of Education alongside or after completing your BA.

Alternatively, take up a three-year Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM), it opens up several avenues of writing in the media industry. You could become a copywriter, journalist, SEO writer, screenplay writer, blogger, and so much more!

STEP 3: Internship

Intern with a publishing house during your summer holidays to understand how professional writers work. Or, take up a summer internship at an ad agency, news publication or a media house to try your hand at different kinds of writing. You don’t have to limit yourself to just one kind of internship – try your hand at all three to find out which one suits you best!

STEP 4: Land a Job

You could work for a publishing house as a full-time writer, or even as a freelancer, where you choose your hours and projects, and get paid on a per-project basis. Or, apply to digital marketing companies, ad agencies, media houses, publication houses or news outlets for a job. You could even start your own blog or freelance – this gives you the freedom to pick what kind of projects you want to work on and decide your working hours as well.

STEP 5: Postgraduate Degree

Once you’ve worked for a few years and picked a specialisation you wish to pursue (educational writing, blog writing, travel writing, fashion writing, SEO writing, etc), pick a suitable diploma course or online certificate course to master your basics in that field!

If you wish to do your masters, you could enrol for a two-year Master of Arts in Communication, Journalism, Advertising or Media Studies, depending on the specialisation you wish to pursue after.

STEP 1: Class XI-XII/Junior College

If you wish to get into financial writing, choosing commerce in junior college will help you build a strong foundation in subjects like accounting, maths, branding, etc.

STEP 2: Graduate Degree

Master your basics in finance and accounting with a three-year Bachelor of Commerce degree or in commerce and management studies with a three-year Bachelor of Management Studies degree. Take up a certificate course in writing alongside to hone your writing skills.

STEP 3: Internship

Take up an internship at an accounting firm or financial company and begin exploring your writing options! You can do this during your college’s summer holidays.

STEP 4: Land a Job

Work for a few years to figure out which kind of writing you want to master. While it’s best to learn on the job, you may choose to enrol for a certificate course or diploma course based on the specialisation you pick.

STEP 5: Certificate Courses

Once you’ve worked for a few years and picked a specialisation you wish to pursue (educational writing, blog writing, etc), pick a suitable diploma course or online certificate course to master your basics in that field!

STEP 1: Class XI-XII/Junior College

If you want to become a technical or medical content writer, take up science in junior college. It will help you build a strong foundation in subjects like physics, chemistry, biolgy, etc.

STEP 2: Graduate Degree

A three-year Bachelor of Science degree will help you master the basics and apply for jobs as a pharma writer, or medical writer. If you want to get into technical writing, pursue a three-year Bachelor of Science in Information technology.

STEP 3: Internship

Take up an internship with a pharma or software company, or try your hand at freelance projects to understand how scientific content writing works. You can do this during your summer holidays.

STEP 4: Land a Job

Work for a few years with a tech company or blog, or with a medical company or blog as a writer. ALternatively, you could start your own blog on topics you’re interested in.

STEP 5: Postgraduate Degree

Once you’ve figured out what you’d like to specialise in, look for the right master’s course! You could opt for a two-year Masters in Science in Technical or Medical Writing or even look at a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Writing.

What skills would you need?

Technical Skills

Technical Skills

As a marketer, you will work on different platforms to communicate with people. If you don’t understand how they work, you won’t be able to come up with the best strategy. You will also use various kinds of software like Google Adwords, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, etc., during your promotions. You need to know how they work, and how to use them to your advantage.

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Creative Skills

Creative Skills

As a marketer, you need to get people hooked on your brand. This requires you to come up with fun, entertaining, and exceptional ways to engage your audience. There is a lot of competition in the market, and the only way to be on top is by constantly doing something new and innovative.

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Time Management

Time Management

The best - and worst - part about marketing is that there is never a dull moment. But this also means that there is NEVER A DULL MOMENT. Be prepared to be working on several tasks at once. That means that there are times when you will have to put certain projects on the backburner. You will have to know how to prioritise so that you don’t lose out on any opportunities.

Attention to Detail

Attention to Detail

Working with eggs and embryos is a very tedious task. Every little detail matters when you are observing them. If you are good at giving attention to detail, then your job at the laboratory will be made much easier.

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Adaptability

Adaptability

As a marketer, you will deal with different types of customers. You could be working with a manufacturing company that sells paper to businesses, or a company that sells chips to the masses. Your skill will be measured by how you deal with different consumers.
Promotion levels

How do you make it to the top ranks?

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Intern

You’d work with different departments, handle simple tasks like researching or uploading content, and assist full-time writers with their projects.

Junior Writer

You’d work on marketing communication material and contribute to projects assigned by your senior writer.

Senior Writer

At this level, you would start taking on projects, create a detailed plan and framework, crack the main communication and assign smaller tasks to junior writers. Around this time, you may also decide to focus on editing and choose to specialise as an editor, or take up content planning and strategy, and work towards becoming a Content Strategist. If you’re interested in the marketing aspect of content, you could also look at becoming a Content Marketer.

Associate Group Head

You would handle multiple projects at this level. Your job involves cracking the marketing strategy and implementation plan for the content, and assigning different aspects to the relevant team members. You will also manage a team of writers at this level.

 

Group Head/Director

You’re the one who “pitches” to clients, which means you will create the first framework or idea that will be sold to the client in order to bag the project. You will also lead and manage all content-related projects in the organisation, build and train your own team of writers and delegate the right projects to the right team.

Scope

Pursuing your career locally VS abroad

If you’ve studied writing in India, you’ve understood the markets here and it would, therefore, make more sense to pursue the profession within the country. There’s a huge demand for good writers in just about every field, so you have plenty of job opportunities right here to try out!

Pursuing a BA or BMM in India would cost you anywhere from INR 2,00,000 to INR 20,00,000, depending on the university to choose. While a graduate degree is enough to land you a job, you might want to take up certificate or diploma courses after gaining a few years of experience to enhance your understanding of the field. Such courses can also be availed online; you don’t have to take a break from working to pursue them.

If you’re graduating in a writing course outside the country, you could always look for job opportunities in the country you’re studying it. It’s much harder to look for a job as a writer abroad with an Indian degree, mostly because countries like the US and the UK often look for native English-speaking writers (people with English as their first language/mother tongue)

A creative writing course abroad would cost you anywhere between INR 10,00,000 and INR 45,00,000, depending on the college you apply to. You could opt for a graduation programme in creative writing or even look at specialised certificate courses in content writing, digital writing or content marketing. There are several online certification courses that you could also pursue to enhance your knowledge of the subject.

You could work with international clients on projects, build a great network and reputation and use this to apply for jobs abroad. Pick a specialisation and carve your own niche within it – this could help you attract great job offers from all over the world!

 

Payscale

How much would you get paid?

The exact amount of your salary will depend on where you work, the kind of writing you do, your skill-set, experience, etc. However, we can give you a fair idea of how much you would make.


Specialisations

What are your career options?

SEO Writing

When creating a website, someone needs to ensure that it appears in the top 10 results for specific ‘search terms’ on Google. That’s where an SEO or Search Engine Optimisation writer comes in! SEO writers create content with specific keywords and search terms to improve the content’s search rankings on search engines like Google. An SEO writer needs to be skilled at coming up with all the possible search terms a user might key in while looking for a particular piece of content, and use them to create descriptor copies for a website.

UI/UX Writing

UI refers to user interface, while UX refers to user experience. Both terms refer to a user’s journey on a website; UI is what the user sees and UX is the journey they undertake within a website. A UI/UX writer comes up with all the content you see on a website or app. From the descriptions you read to the notifications you get – even the error messages you might come across – have been created by a UI/UX writer. This kind of writer needs to be good at predicting a user’s journey on an app and website, and coming up with engaging copy to guide them in the right direction.

Subject Matter Expert

This kind of writer picks a particular subject to specialise in, gains a deep understanding of that subject and provides the relevant content within that field. For instance, you might choose to become a travel writer and provide all kinds of travel-related content – from places to visit, things to eat and even experiences to try out! As a subject matter expert, you could write websites, blogs, marketing campaigns, e-books, and more.

Influencer

This is a specialisation you can begin pursuing right from a college level! An influencer is someone with a large fan following on their blog and social media profiles. Influencers share specialised content based on the topic they’re focusing on. Say you decide to become an influencer in the ‘food’ category. You’d curate meals and restaurants from all over on your pages, and people will turn to you for recommendations every time they try something new. Have you checked out the profile of The Big Bhookad on Instagram? Now that’s an influencer!

Social Media Writing

As a social media writer, you would focus on creating content for social media profiles like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat. Brands are using this as a primary targeting platform, as this is where their audience spends a significant amount of time. If you understand how each of these pages work, and how to target audiences on them with the right messaging, you’re perfect for the job!

Copywriting (Advertising)

When you hear the words ‘Taste the Thunder’, do you immediately think about the soft drink Thums Up? A copywriter came up with that line! As a copywriter, you would come up with taglines, ad content and campaigns for advertising different brands. You could create content for mainline campaigns (ones that appear on TV, radio, in papers and hoardings all over the country) or digital campaigns (ones that appear online and on social media).

Technical Writing

Technical writers tackle complex concepts and make them easier to understand. They create manuals and guides for different products and applications, helping people understand how they can use a particular product or software. A technical writer needs to have a sound understanding of the technology they’re writing about, and also needs to be meticulous and detailed in their work.

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QUIZ

#CAREERREADY QUIZ

Think you know everything there is to know about this career?

Take the quiz to test your knowledge and find out how #CareerReady you are!

 

START

1. What do content writers do?

2. Which of these is not the responsibility of a content writer?

3. Which of these courses would help you become a content writer?

4. Which of these is a must-have functional skill for content writers?

5. What does a junior content writer do?

6. Which of the following is a benefit of becoming a content writer abroad?

7. Which of the following is not a specialisation for content writers?

8. Which of these is not a challenge content writers face?

9. Which of these is a myth about the world of content writing?

Submit

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