Copywriters craft persuasive text designed to guide audiences through every stage of the sales funnel. From catchy taglines and SEO-friendly web copy to vivid product descriptions and email campaigns, these professionals help businesses communicate effectively with their target market. Hiring a skilled copywriter can dramatically improve conversion rates, strengthen brand messaging, and drive measurable results across marketing channels.
What does a copywriter do?
A copywriter writes content designed to persuade, inform, or convert. The goal is to connect with a target audience and guide them toward a specific action, whether that's buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a white paper.
Where content writers focus more on information, copywriters often specialize in direct response, search engine optimization (SEO), and brand voice, often collaborating with brand strategists for comprehensive messaging.
Key deliverables include:
SEO and digital copy: Web pages, blog posts, social media posts, video scripts, and email newsletters
Brand and creative copy: Taglines, brand stories, corporate communications, product packaging, event promotion
Direct response and marketing copy: Sales and landing pages, email marketing, paid ads, case studies, white papers, press releases
How to hire a copywriter on Upwork
Upwork can help you connect with experienced copywriters who can help your content reach and convert its audience. The hiring process is flexible, fast, and built to help you find talented, experienced professionals. Just follow these four simple steps.
Step 1: Craft a targeted job post
Your job post serves as the first point of contact with copywriters and directly influences the quality of applications you receive. In your post:
Specify the type of copy you need, such as landing pages, email funnels, or product descriptions
Describe your industry, target audience, and preferred brand tone
Include desired outcomes or KPIs (key performance indicators) like conversion rates or engagement metrics
Mention any required research, revisions, or optimization expectations
For a faster starting point, try the Job Post Generator powered by Uma™, Upwork's Mindful AI. Describe what you need in a few sentences, and Uma will craft a job post in seconds. You can also review copywriter job description templates to see what to include in your post.
Step 2: Filter and evaluate candidates
As you receive proposals, you can compare candidates based on their portfolios, proposals, and testimonials.
Use Upwork’s features to filter by rate, experience, and location
Have Uma conduct instant video interviews and provide shortlists of candidates with side-by-side comparisons
Review portfolios for similar deliverables and writing styles that match your brand
Look for SEO knowledge, direct response expertise, or specialized certifications
Check testimonials and any documented conversion metrics from past clients
Step 3: Interview your top choices
Quick video interviews can provide answers to any questions you have left for your top choices. They also help you get a feel for what working and communicating with candidates might be like.
Schedule and conduct interviews within Upwork messaging, where you'll receive immediate transcripts and summaries provided by Uma
Ask about their copy testing and optimization processes
Discuss their writing workflow and approach to revisions
Explore how they adapt tone and messaging for different audiences
Have them walk you through how previous work drove measurable results
To help your interviews be productive, you can review interview questions for copywriters.
Step 4: Agree on scope and begin work
Before the person you choose can begin work, you’ll need to have a clear contract in place. Contracts protect both parties and help collaborations be successful from beginning to end.
Use Upwork’s tools and services for creating and managing contracts, and processing payments
Choose fixed-price contracts for projects with clear deliverables, such as writing a predetermined number of pieces
Create milestone to break larger projects into manageable sizes, such as research, outlining, first draft, and revisions
Choose hourly contracts for ongoing projects or projects that lack a clear deliverable, such as supporting ongoing marketing efforts with many drafts of different types of content
Once the contract begins, be sure to give the writer everything they need to succeed, including limited access to Google Drive folders, brand guides, and similar assets.


