Copywriter Interview Questions: What to Ask Before You Hire
With hiring a copywriter costing anywhere from $30 per PPC ad to $2,000 for a landing page, you want to make sure you get the best writer for your investment. That’s why interviewing prospective copywriters is essential—whether you’re bringing someone into your team permanently or working with a freelancer.
Essential copywriter interview questions explore a candidate’s past experiences with writing, flexibility with writing voices, experience with SEO, and more. The idea is to help you find the best fit for your project, company, and existing team.
Read on for a quick list of interview questions to help you hire a copywriter.
Are You Able to Write in Any Voice?
Writers like authors have a distinctive voice—a unique style that identifies the work published under their name.
Copywriters often work as “ghostwriters” for companies, meaning they won’t be named the work’s author. Instead of writing in their voice, they need to be able to adopt the voice used by the brand they’re working for.
Ask the freelance copywriter you’re interviewing to show you examples of their ability to switch voices.
What Does Your Writing Process Look Like?
Ask the copywriter to walk you through their writing process. They should be able to tell you:
- How they formulate ideas
- What their research methods are
- How they structure an article or piece of writing at the draft stage
- How they self-edit and finish an article
- How they respond to feedback
Be sure to read more about exactly what a copywriter does for businesses before heading into the interview.
How Familiar Are You With Content and On-Page SEO?
Are you hiring a copywriter for landing pages, blog writing, website content… basically, anything to do with your website? Then you want someone familiar with SEO. If your website isn’t ranking on the first page (even the first few results) of a Google search, you may as well be invisible.
Dig deep and ask the candidate to run through a list of ways they would optimize, say, a 1000 word blog post. This will give you a thorough understanding of their SEO knowledge.
Have You Ever Missed a Deadline?
As with most creative professions, deadlines are an integral part of the copywriting experience. When hiring a copywriter, you need someone who can manage their schedule and meet (often tight) deadlines.
Of course, things happen, and project timelines shift. Asking a candidate this question will help you explore:
- Whether they often miss deadlines
- How accountable they are for their errors
- What they do to fix them
- At what stage of the writing process they may need extra support
What Types of Writing Does Your Portfolio Contain?
This is probably one of the most critical questions in a copywriter job interview. It allows you to understand the breadth of the candidate’s writing experience.
Perhaps they’re a specialist in conversion copywriting, or maybe they excel at writing for social media. But niche copywriters won’t be a good fit if you’re looking for an all-rounder.
Also, don’t forget to ask for the candidate’s portfolio so you can read their work.
Copywriter Interview Questions for the Best New Hire
Are you looking to hire an in-house copywriter for your marketing team? Or are you hoping to bring a freelancer on board for odd writing jobs? Either way, asking these copywriter interview questions will ensure you get the most out of your hiring budget.
For more advice on all things HR and outsourcing, browse the other articles on our website.