Professional Standards
Competency Framework
The skills, knowledge, and behaviours that define professional excellence in copywriting and its specialist disciplines.
The Competency Framework defines what it means to be a skilled professional at every stage of your career. It covers core copywriting abilities that every professional needs, plus specialist competencies for those who focus on specific disciplines.
Use it to assess your current skills, identify areas for development, plan your career progression, or benchmark candidates during hiring.
The Foundation
Every professional copywriter needs these core competencies. Whether you're a generalist or a specialist, this is where it all starts.
Copywriting
The foundational competencies that underpin all professional copywriting work. These skills apply whether you're a generalist copywriter or developing a specialism.
Specialisms
Many copywriters develop expertise in a specific area. Each specialism builds on the foundational Copywriting competencies with additional specialist skills.
UX Writing
Craft user interface copy that guides people through digital products with clarity and purpose.
Content Design
Design content that helps users complete tasks and achieve goals, often in service and government contexts.
Content Strategy
Plan, govern, and optimise content across organisations to meet business and user needs at scale.
Content Marketing
Create valuable content that attracts, engages, and retains audiences to drive profitable action.
Conversion Copywriting
Write persuasive copy that drives measurable action, from landing pages to email sequences.
SEO Copywriting
Create content optimised for search visibility while maintaining quality and reader value.
Advertising
Develop creative concepts and campaigns that build brands and drive commercial results.
Brand Language
Define and develop distinctive brand voices that create recognition, consistency, and emotional connection.
Communications
Manage corporate, internal, and stakeholder communications that inform and align audiences.
AI Copywriting
Leverage AI tools effectively while maintaining quality, ethics, and human oversight.
How to use this framework
Self-assessment
Evaluate your current skills against the framework to understand your strengths and identify development areas.
Career development
Plan your progression from Developing to Practising to Expert, or explore new specialisms to add to your skillset.
Hiring and teams
Use the framework to write job descriptions, assess candidates, or build balanced teams with complementary skills.
Download the complete framework
Get the full Competency Framework as a spreadsheet for offline reference, team discussions, or integration into your HR processes.