History of copywriting – check out how the development of this profession has progressed!
Copywriting has gained significant popularity in recent years, which is a natural consequence of the development of digital marketing. Although the boom happened recently, the potential had been growing for many years. Therefore, in this article, we will present how the history of copywriting is shaping up.
History of copywriting – beginnings
In order to discuss such a noble issue as history, we must precisely define the concept of copywriting.
Copywriting is a profession that offers a wide range of services involving the creation of professional content that fulfills the marketing objectives of the client.
In other words, it is an investment that brings profits in a specific perspective. Considering this matter, we must admit that the history is not too distant, not to mention strictly online copywriting.
We will try, however, to present a general historical outline that led to the emergence of this profession.
Development of writing – 5000 years ago
In order for copywriting to arise, resources for carrying out this work must first exist. Of course, writing is the fundamental tool, which probably developed most rapidly among the Sumerians around 3500-3000 year before our era.
It was the first advanced civilization that used specific symbols for recording inventory or granting property rights. This people inhabited southern Mesopotamia, which is a particularly favorable region in terms of living conditions. Therefore, there was nothing preventing them from starting the long history of copywriting, culminating in the online article you are currently reading.
The oldest clay tablet in the world containing cuneiform script. The information has been partially recovered, and the interpretation is quite precise. It reads: 34,813 liters of barley were delivered over a period of 37 months to the state official, Kushim, responsible for beer production at the Temple of Ishtar in Uruk.
Expansion in India – 3800 years ago
Although the next crucial step is popularizing writing in Europe, it is worth mentioning India, which was not afraid to create extensive content for religious purposes.
An ideal example of this is the Vedas, which formed the basis of ancient Vedic religion. Although nowadays a thick book is mainly associated with the Bible, the Vedas surpass it six times.
The above information certainly causes great astonishment, however, East Asia dictated the pace in many other religious books, especially during the period of Brahmanism. Here we are talking about the canonical Upanishads (as auxiliary texts for meditation techniques) or Panchatantra (a great collection of tales).
History of copywriting – proper development
As can be noticed, it is impossible to overlook ancient Asia, which gave birth to incredibly extensive content. But the revolution that drastically increased the availability of writing was only just beginning.
Invention of printing – 500 years ago
We are already in the 15th century – despite the “dark” centuries in Europe, there are more frequent exceptions to illiteracy, and great works are already being produced, such as Dante’s famous Divine Comedy and the anonymous Song of Roland, known to all.
The first printed book is Gutenberg’s Bible, which saw the light of day in 1455. However, it should be remembered that the popularization of printing proceeded slowly. Over the next half century, incunabula were sporadically produced, which today constitute writings of extremely high historical value.
Despite everything, the most difficult stages are behind us – from now on, almost all works were being published in print form. It’s only a matter of time before commercial content reaches a larger audience.
Johannes Gutenberg, the creator of the first printing method in the world.
Development of the press
The invention of printing machines enabled the development of mass-scale press.
The first printed newspapers were published in 1605, for example, “Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien” from Strasbourg. The development of the press enabled the dissemination of information on a mass scale. Entrepreneurs noticed, therefore, that it is worth placing advertisements for their products in newspapers.
Typewriter
Undoubtedly, a milestone in the development of copywriting was the invention of the typewriter, which significantly facilitated the creation of texts and the mechanization of work. It was created by the American journalist Christopher Latham Sholes in 1867.
Fathers of copywriting
Amongst many inventions and events that have enabled the development of text, the creators recognized as the founders of copywriting also deserve attention. Among them, the most important are:
- John Emory Powers – recognized as the first professional copywriter who worked for companies as a kind of freelancer; believed that advertising copy should be simple, objective, and based on facts;
- Burce Fairchild Barton – an American writer, politician, and owner of an advertising agency; during the campaign for the Alexander Hamilton Institute, he created the idea of storytelling;
- Claude C. Hopkins – focused on achieving the greatest sales results through advertising efforts in his work; wrote the famous book “The Secrets of the Legendary Copywriter’s Workshop“
Development of the Internet and dissemination of content – now
Although we briefly discussed 5000 years of the development of writing, the true history of copywriting is unfolding before our eyes as an integral part of human progress.
Does it sound lofty? That’s how it was supposed to sound. For thousands of years, people struggled with a deficit of information – there was no Wikipedia, Google, or easily accessible books. However, since the 1990s, the drastic expansion of writing on the Internet has caused current search engine algorithms to fight against an excess of irrelevant content. Copywriting undergoes a very dense quality filtration, providing readers only with reliable, high-quality texts.
So we have reached a stage where each user query is satisfied with extensive and interesting content. While in the past Google focused on keywords in the text, today it takes into account hundreds of factors. That’s why the nature of copywriting has been significantly modified in recent years, and changes are still occurring – and at an increasingly faster pace.
So, it remains for us, copywriters, to carefully observe all internet trends and adapt to the market in order to bring our clients the greatest benefits.
Summary
- The history of copywriting dates back thousands of years, although its sudden growth occurred recently, creating a fresh profession known in its current form.
- Significant events for the development of copywriting include the invention of writing, printing, typewriters, and the growth of the press.
- Once, a book was a sign of wealth, but today we perform strategic and challenging actions to present content to the widest possible group of users.
- Recent years have shown that copywriting is a profession highly susceptible to changes, making it impossible to predict the future.
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