The UK copywriting market has fallen foul of the recession. The way forward could well be export. Does Japan offer the best prospects for the frustrated UK copywriter?
You don't need me to tell you that the market for UK copywriters is tough right now, and it's only getting tougher. A few years back, the gravy train was rolling along quite nicely. Today, it's been unceremoniously shunted into the sidelines.
Before the economic crash of 2008, if your copywriting website was well favoured on Google, or if you were prepared to shell out for pay-per-click, it seemed that the enquiries would never stop flooding in. If you lost out on a project, well, hey, there'd be another one along soon.
Without a doubt, the UK is very much still in the grip of the worldwide recession. Nothing is moving and the tumbleweed is blowing around the UK's business parks.
So what's the way forward for UK copywriters keen to keep the wolf from huffing at the door? Well, David Cameron is keen on export. He wants us to do business with those parts of the world least affected by the recession.
That can be costly and logistically difficult if you're a manufacturing company. But when the extent of your manufacturing is words, it's pretty easy.
So let's look at possible targets. Brazil is booming – not only is it rich in minerals and self-sufficient in oil, but it also has the lowest inflation rate in the country's history. Stir in the next World Cup and Olympic Games and you have a pretty tasty broth.
But Brazil's copywriting market is tied up, thanks to its proximity to America. US-based copywriters have the Brazilian market wrapped up.
India has a strong economy, too. However, India is also the home of the boys from Bombay - $2 a page web content writers hell-bent on destroying the copywriting industry and turning it into a commodity. It seems unlikely that Western copywriters would be able to sell copywriting back to Bombay at £40 an hour or more.
A much better option for the UK copywriter is Japan. At present, large corporates in Tokyo – of which there are many – farm out their English copywriting work to any local with a half-decent grasp of English. Sometimes, it goes to anyone on the payroll who's spent three years at an American university.
The results are disastrous. Just ask any Japanese corporate for a copy of their English-language brochures and be prepared for a shock. Or a giggle. The phrase 'rudimentary grasp of English' springs to mind.
So, the Japanese market is ripe for the UK copywriter to make a killing. And all that's required to access this export market is to adjust your Google Adwords settings to point your key phrases towards the land of the rising sun, and wait for the enquiries to flood in.
Alternatively, you can create a bespoke landing page on your website all about copywriters in Japan, support it with backlinks and wait for it to climb the North face of Google.
Good luck – export has never been so easy!
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