25 Copywriting Statistics to Know in 2021 (Important Facts) (2023)

Copywriting is a huge part of online business – in fact, copywriters are responsible for writing over 50% of all copy on the internet.

Copywriting can be an intimidating field to enter.

But with these 25 copywriting statistics, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to tackle copywriting with confidence.

These copywriting stats, facts, and figures are sure to inspire new copywriters or give some perspective to the veteran copywriter.

What could be more interesting than knowing what others in your industry are doing?

Let’s dive into some interesting copywriting statistics.

1. Only 2 out of 10 people will read beyond your headline

(Source: Copyblogger)

Despite your sweat, while writing your page copy, 8 out of 10 people will stop reading at the headline.

This may hurt your feelings. But beyond your hurt feelings, there’s a vital lesson to learn here.

Your headline is one of the most critical aspects of your copy. Therefore, it needs to provide a hint of benefits and pique the reader’s curiosity.

Here’s one of the most popular copywriting headline examples:

It’s a direct marketing ad written by John Caples in 1927, about a hundred years ago.

Here’s another classic headline from David Ogilvy promoting a Rolls Royce car:

These examples are exceptional, but you can draw more readers into your copy by working on your headlines.

2. Copy understandable to third-graders gets 36% more responses

(Source: Boomerang)

Most customers don’t want to read so much technical jargon in your copy. Fine, you can add a few that are necessary to explain your offer.

But your marketing or sales copy should never read like a whitepaper.

Presenting your offer in such a way that even a layperson can understand will increase your chances of getting your messages across.

3. Personalized calls to action are 202% more effective

(Source: Hubspot)

One of the main factors of success of companies like Amazon and Netflix is their personalization engines. And this translates into your call to action (CTA) too.

After your amazing copy, your call to action tells readers what to do. If you mess up your call to action, it can dent your conversion rate.

In this research, Jeffrey Vocell studied 330,000 CTAs to see the effect of personalization. He found that smart CTAs outperformed regular CTAs by 220%.

Smart CTAs adjust CTAs to individuals based on criteria such as language, location, whether they’re a lead or customer, and more.

In short, personalization makes your audience feel you’re talking directly to them. Consequently, they’re likely to take up your offer.

4. Readers only read 20% to 28% of the content on a page

(Source: Nielsen Norman Group)

Let’s be honest, there’s too much content on the web. And content production is increasing daily.

From viewing a celebrity’s latest shoe on Instagram to watching cat videos to chatting on Facebook, there’s a lot of competition facing your web copy.

The study by Nielsen Norman Group found that readers only read 20% to 28% of the page copy.

This means you should make your copy scannable for the average reader.

You can achieve this through:

• Subheadings
• Bullet points
• Using images
• Bolding or italicizing vital points

This ensures that even for someone who scans the page, you can still get your offer across to them.

5. 74% of website users note the quality of spelling and grammar on business websites

(Source: Realbusiness)

The business world can be brutal. If not, why would grammar matter so much?

The reality is that when potential customers visit your website, they’re forming an impression about your business. Even without setting out to be the grammar police, spelling and grammar errors stick out on web pages.

When visitors see these mistakes, it makes a bad impression on them.

If you’re sloppy with your web copy, will you be meticulous about your product?

Consequently, visitors start to feel that your product will likely be below par.

6. 59% of users would avoid buying from a business that made obvious spelling or grammar mistakes

(Source: Realbusiness)

This is because, as weird as it may sound, your audience will judge your business based on other factors beyond your product.

A vital aspect of your marketing is paying attention to the grammar and spelling of your web copy.

Since nobody is above mistakes, you need to proofread your content before publishing. Beyond that, you can use a tool like Grammarly to check and correct errors.

7. The ideal length of your headline is 6 words

(Source: Buffer)

According to studies, short headlines perform best. Here, Buffer has given a number which is 6.

The key to making these headlines effective is to ensure that they provide enough information to get readers interested but leave enough out to keep them yearning for more.

That said, writing great and short headlines is difficult. You have to practice writing many headlines to get better at it.

For instance, Upworthy curators create 25 headlines for every post to uncover headlines with a high chance of going viral.

8. Email subject lines with 28 – 39 characters have higher open rates

(Source: Buffer)

Email inboxes are so crowded today. To illustrate, have you ever heard anyone say, “I never get enough emails?”

One way to distinguish yourself in those crowded inboxes is through your subject line.

Unfortunately, you have only a few characters to do so.

If your email subject line is too long, recipients will only see a part of it. In light of this, most experts use short and catchy subject lines to increase open rates.

9. 43.5% of email opens happen on mobile

(Source: Litmus)

With mobile devices accounting for 60% of Google searches, it’s no surprise that many people check their emails on mobile too.

During COVID 19, webmail became more popular as people worked from home and checked emails on their browsers.

As people got back to work, mobile regained its popularity in terms of the number of emails opens.

Therefore, as a copywriter, you need to consider mobile users in your email copy.

Two main considerations are the length of your subject line and email copy. Another consideration is the email design.

Today, the least expectation from recipients is to receive mobile-optimized emails.

10. Having the word “because” in your request can increase actions from 60% to 94%

(Source: Langer, 1978)

People can buy products impulsively if you give them a reason to do so.

In this study, researchers compared the compliance rates of people making requests in different formats.

The result was that even people with poor reasons got a higher compliance rate than people with no reason. If you think about it, you’ve probably bought a product you don’t really need just because the advertising copy gave you a reason to buy.

While creating ad copy, you need to stress benefits which are good enough reasons for prospects to buy.

11. 73% of companies hire someone for their content strategy

(Source: Content Marketing Institute)

Great copywriting can increase a company’s revenue by a lot. Unfortunately, not everybody can use words to sell products and services.

In light of this, many businesses hire experts to be in charge of their content strategy.

This way, businesses are likely to obtain a high ROI from their content marketing campaigns.

However, it will cost a high amount to hire a copywriter and content strategist who can get great results. For instance, expert copywriters can cost as high as $100 per hour or more.

12. The average click-through rate of search ads is 1.91%

(Source: Hubspot)

Most businesses run search ads to stay on top of the search results for valuable keywords. But running search ads doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get clicks to your landing pages.

First, you have to get your ad copies right to convince searchers to click. Unfortunately, the average click-through rate of 1.91% shows getting clicks is a difficult task.

In your search ad, vital aspects where copywriting plays a key role include:

• The ad title
• The ad description (or meta description)

For an ad, you have a few words to convince a searcher to click-through to claim an offer. You can also A/B test two ad copy variations to find the most effective.

13. Freelance copywriters can earn up to $250 per hour

(Source: Freelancing Hacks)

If you’re looking to hire a copywriter at the top of their game, it will cost a lot of money.

That said, your investment in an expert copywriter is worth it, considering the potential ROI they can deliver.

For instance, say you run a business that earns hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. In this case, paying $2,000 to a copywriter who can improve your revenues by $100,000 looks like a great deal.

14. The average email open rate across all industries is 21.33%

(Source: Mailchimp)

Considering that an average email user receives many emails daily, it’s difficult to open all of them. Most users just open emails that are important to them.

A study of Mailchimp customers sending campaigns to at least 1,000 subscribers revealed that only about 1 in 5 recipients open your carefully crafted email.

On the page, you’ll see a breakdown of open rates for various industries.

Two vital ways to increase your open rates are to use exciting subject lines and to send personalized and relevant emails to subscribers.

15. The industry average email click-through rate is 2.13%

(Source: GetResponse)

Getting subscribers to open your emails is a difficult task. But getting them to click through to your website is even harder.

According to GetResponse data, only 2 subscribers click links in your emails out of 100 emails sent. Of course, this is only an average, and there’s a big room for improvement.

To convince recipients to click through, you need to get more people to open your emails and present your offer through great copywriting.

16. The average email click-to-open rate is 10.12%

(Source: GetResponse)

The click-to-open rate compares the number of clicks to the number of email opens.

GetResponse data reveals that, on average, 10 out of 100 people who open an email will click on a link.

This is another stat that provides vital insights into your email campaigns. For example, if your average click-to-open rate is high, that means your copy is effective in convincing recipients.

17. Email subject lines have 43.85 characters on average

(Source: AWeber)

When AWeber conducted a study into 100 top email marketing experts, it found that their subject lines have an average of 43.85 characters.

This number of characters is short enough for desktops and even for most smartphones.

The short subject lines mean recipients can see what the email is about before clicking.

18. Emails from experts contain an average of 434.48 words

(Source: AWeber)

While some experts will advise you to stick with a short copy for your emails, no rule works for everyone. If your emails are good enough, recipients won’t mind reading a hundred words more.

Incidentally, that’s what AWeber found in its study. Experts do write long emails.

An example is Ramit Sethi, a personal finance and email marketing expert. The copywriting expert, Neville Medhora, also writes long emails.

However, if you’re writing long emails, you can’t afford to be boring.

19. 64% of small businesses claim their email copy is effective or very effective

(Source: Aweber)

For businesses that invest in personalized email campaigns, email can provide significant ROI.

Furthermore, when businesses use compelling copies in their emails, they can convince recipients to take their intended actions.

According to data from AWeber, 64% of businesses believe their email copy is at least effective for their campaigns.

20. Companies that A/B test every email obtain 37% higher email marketing returns than companies that never perform A/B tests

(Source: Litmus)

Even if you write excellent copy regularly, it’s difficult to predict the emails that will convince recipients to click through to your website.

That’s why A/B testing is an integral aspect of email marketing.

Critical aspects of your email you can test include:

• Subject lines
• Email copy
• Call to action

Most email marketing tools allow you to test different email variations to find the most effective one. So, it’s easy to perform these tests.

In light of these, it’s no surprise that, according to Litmus, companies that run regular A/B tests obtain 37% higher email marketing returns.

21. 37% of the top landing pages include testimonials

(Source: Nifty Marketing)

One of the best ways to convince readers through your landing page copy is to show positive experiences from current customers. If customers similar to your prospects are achieving positive results, then prospects become more open to your offer.

Without exaggerating, testimonials are one of the most popular forms of social proof. With 37% of top landing pages featuring testimonials, it’s an element you should consider adding to your landing page copy.

22. Long landing pages can generate 220% more leads

(Source: Marketing Experiments)

If you read best practices for creating landing pages, the conventional wisdom is to make your copy short.

However, there are cases where you need to write long landing pages. If you’re marketing a high-value product, you may need to write more copy to convince the prospect.

For instance, writing a copy of 100 words will likely be insufficient to convince a lead to pay $10,000 for a product. Marketing Experiments ran an A/B test between two pages of different lengths.

The longer page had 220% more conversions. When you’re creating a longer landing page, it’s usually to stress all the benefits a visitor will derive from your offer.

23. 29.5% of landing pages contain over 500 words

(Source: Unbounce)

While some situations warrant long landing pages, most offers will do fine with short copy.

Though it’s important to stress the benefits of your offer, you also need to avoid boring your readers to tears and away.

In a study, Unbounce found that 29.5% of landing pages contain over 500 words. Beyond that, pages with over 500 words had a conversion rate of 11.1% compared to 14.3% for pages with shorter copy.

In most cases, your offer and audience will determine the amount of copy you need on a page.

For instance, you don’t need 500 words to sell a $20 t-shirt.

24. Having more than a single offer on a landing page can decrease conversion rates by 266%

(Source: Wishpond)

Every landing page should promote a single offer.

Consequently, the headline, copy, and even the design should focus on that offer.

When you have 2 or more offers on a landing page, you’ll confuse readers. Since most viewers only need a single offer, they’ll likely leave a page that switches between many offers.

25. The average copywriter makes $57,000 per annum

(Source: Copywriting Course)

How much do copywriters earn?

This is a question with no straight answer. Because there’s a big range for copywriters at different levels.

To answer this question, Copywriting Course collated salaries of copywriters working for companies, doing hourly work, and freelancing.

On average, they arrived at a value of $57,000 per annum. You can visit the page to see their breakdown across different copywriting positions.

Final Thoughts on Copywriting Statistics

Ever since media became prominent in marketing, copywriting has been a potent weapon.

Over the past decades, you’ve seen many successful ads and heard of genius copywriters. You’ve probably seen the Rolls Royce ad and heard of David Ogilvy, the legendary copywriter who wrote it.

With the invention of the internet, copywriting has found even more applications in online marketing. In this post, we want to explore the numbers related to copywriters, copy, and the audience that reads it.

Copywriting Statistics 2021 summary

• Only 2 out of 10 people will read beyond your headline
• Copy understandable to third-graders gets 36% more responses
• Personalized calls to action are 202% more effective
• Readers only read 20% to 28% of the content on a page
• 74% of website users note the quality of spelling and grammar on business websites
• 59% of users would avoid buying from a business that made obvious spelling or grammar mistakes
• The ideal length of your headline is 6 words
• Email subject lines with 28 – 39 characters have higher open rates
• 43.5% of email opens happen on mobile
• Having the word “because” in your request can increase actions from 60% to 94%
• 73% of companies hire someone for their content strategy
• The average click-through rate of search ads is 1.91%
• Freelance copywriters can earn up to $250 per hour
• The average email open rate across all industries is 21.33%
• The industry average email click-through rate is 2.13%
• The average email click-to-open rate is 10.12%
• Email subject lines have 43.85 characters on average
• Emails from experts contain an average of 434.48 words
• 64% of small businesses claim their email copy is effective or very effective
• Companies that A/B test every email obtain 37% higher email marketing returns than companies that never perform A/B tests
• 37% of the top landing pages include testimonials
• Long landing pages can generate 220% more leads
• 29.5% of landing pages contain over 500 words
• Having more than a single offer on a landing page can decrease conversion rates by 266%
• The average copywriter makes $57,000 per annum