Are you tired of hearing from your clients that they need a copy that converts? Or maybe the words crisp, clear, concise, and selling are haunting your dreams.
If yes, you are obviously in dire need of hiring a master copywriter for your agency.
Rest assured, not every writer can be a copywriter. Copywriting is a different sorcery that crafts words to hook the audience, build connections, and drive profitable customer action—emphasis on “driving action.”
However, finding a copywriter is a challenge that every marketing agency faces.
So, if you are embarking on the same journey, make sure to carry with you the copywriter interview questions to find the best fit.
Or better, use our curated list of copywriter interview questions that come from experts with years of experience in hiring copywriters.
We also have a list of marketing interview questions you can use to hire for different marketing positions.
Let’s dive into the questions now!
Common Copywriter Interview Questions to Ask Your Candidates
The client and copywriter interaction is a crucial factor that impacts the overall progress of the project at hand.
On a daily basis, copywriters can expect a lot of feedback and rejections laid in their path before reaching the final YES from the clients.
In such cases, you must hire a copywriter who is equipped with interpersonal and communication skills to understand clients’ perspectives and put forward their points of view.
Here are some interview questions for a copywriter to help you assess the candidates’ thought processes, work ethics, team skills, values, motivations, and self-awareness.
- What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing?
- How do you handle client rejections?
- What is your favorite marketing platform, and why?
- What’s your favorite content marketing strategy and why?
- What areas would you say you’re better than most in writing (social copies, email copies, website or print copies, etc.)?
- How do you invest in yourself?
- Why do you want to work for our agency/company?
- How do you know you will add value to our company’s clients?
- What is the difference between a good place to work and a bad one?
- What was the last copywriting book you read, and when was it?
- Which copywriting gurus inspire you the most? Why?
- What will you do in your first months on the job as a copywriter?
- What would you expect to happen if you underperform?
- What would the definition of the “world-class employee” mean to you? Would you say you match this definition?
- In what capacity was your team better with you being a part of it?
- How do you approach juggling multiple shifting priorities?
- What would you do if you could do anything you wanted?
- If you could build a writing team, what qualities and skills would you look for in candidates?
- Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker or team member. What happened?
Copywriter Interview Questions to Evaluate Skills and Background Experience
Now that you are done assessing if the copywriting candidate is the right person to interact with clients and fits the company ethos and the work culture, it’s time to understand the candidate’s copywriting skills.
“Most good copywriters know “what” to say, I want to know “how” they will say it. I don’t want my copy to sound like every other website, but rather it should reflect my brand and be specific to my business. Also, I look for a person who has SEO knowledge and takes constructive criticism.”
Ouriel Lemmel, CEO and founder of Winit
- How comfortable are you writing in different brand voices?
- What is your style of copywriting? Do you have a particular manner of copywriting that you think could attract customers?
- How do you deal with feedback?
- Do you think website copies need to be SEO-optimized?
- How do you optimize copies for SEO?
- What’s more important to you—creativity or driving sales?
“I ask questions to ensure that the candidate has done their homework about our firm and understands the specifics of what we do. Asking them how they would improve our content also helps me in understanding their critical thinking skills and creativity.”
Karl Hughes, Founder of Draft.dev
- Tell me about one of the biggest mistakes you’ve made as a copywriter and how you recovered?
- What changes would you like to implement in our current content and why?
- According to you, what are the most important elements of a good copy?
- Explain your process, style, and research procedure to come up with compelling content?
“Firstly, I want to see if the candidate is truly interested in our company and has done prior research on us. We’d like them to describe the type of content we create and how it corresponds to their writing style and approach. A few traits I admire are the willingness to learn new things and openness to feedback.”
David Bitton, Co-founder & CMO, DoorLoop
- Are you familiar with our company’s website, blog, or social media pages?
- How would you approach writing copies about a subject or sector you are unfamiliar with?
- How do you overcome writer’s block?
- How would you respond to clients’ rewrite requests?
“Of course, I would mainly focus on the assignment given to understand whether they tailored their tone of voice correctly in sync with our brand. Besides, I will try to see if they had researched us thoroughly before the interview and could demonstrate they knew our company history, ethos, and what makes us stand out from the competition.“
James Parkinson, Head of Marketing Content at Personnel Checks
- According to you, what makes us stand out from our competitors, and what can we do better?
- Can you show a few of your proudest previous works? Which was the most difficult? Why do you think they are the best?
- What changes have you made to your writing to appeal to diverse demographics?
“Well, the three main qualities that I’m looking for in a copywriter are organization, creativity, and brevity. The organization is key because any good copy or content needs to follow the natural flow of the reader’s gaze so they won’t get lost in your text. Creativity is important because you need to develop new ways to talk about old topics. And lastly, brevity is an absolute must-have quality when it comes to blogging or copywriting.”
Danny Veiga, Founder, Danny Veiga Marketing
- How do you see yourself as a writer?
- Would you say you’re best at producing work in the style and tone our brand needs?
- What do you enjoy most about the type of copies our brand needs?
- What type of writing style would be your weakness, and how could we help with that?
- Why should I hire you as a Copywriter over anyone else similar to your skillset?
“The idea, obviously, is to hire efficient and accurate writers who can write original and high-quality copy for your clients. So the first thing you should do is assess the candidate’s prior work methods. Ask them about their work process, research breakdown, tools they use, turnaround time, etc. Such questions will give you a deeper insight on how the candidate would work at your place.”
Will Cannon, Founder, Signaturely, UpLead
- Would you please describe your writing process and the research you’ve done to develop the original copies of your projects? And discuss how it helped you personally as a copywriter.
- What do you do to research the target audience?
- What is your method of fact-checking?
- What research and writing tools do you use to craft your copies?
- How fast is your response time? What is your prior record of meeting deadlines?
- Tell us about a time you missed a deadline. What did you do about it, and what did you learn from the experience?
- What are the most important procedures for SEO Copywriting?
Make Most of Your Social Copies with SocialPilot
Social media is one such crucial marketing avenue where you may require the writing chops of your newly hired copywriter.
Whether it’s building an email list, driving traffic, creating engagement, or simply selling a product, on social, a tight copy is something that will stimulate readers to take action.
But, once the copywriter delivers the copy, the social game gets trickier.
How?
You have multiple clients with multiple accounts that require multiple copies.
The task of managing multiple accounts, posting at the best time, tracking individual data, and creating reports can take a toll on your social marketing team.
SocialPilot is the one-stop solution for all your problems.
It’s the best-in-class social media management tool for marketing agencies with unparalleled scheduling, collaboration, analytics, and social inbox features.
Experience it yourself. Go for its free trial or schedule a demo today.
