What You MUST Know About Marketing Your Freelance Copywriting Services
What You MUST Know About Marketing Your Freelance Copywriting Services
But there’s one slight problem. You’ve got no clue where to begin.
“Maybe I should create a resume,” you think … Or perhaps a stellar bio.
Rather than tell you what potential clients are looking for, let me give you an inside look …
What follows is a recent email exchange between Porter Stansberry, head of a wildly popular investment research newsletter, and a potential job candidate. Pay special attention to Porter’s response …
From Porter’s mailbag:
“Do you have any job openings? I’m a graduating senior at Notre Dame, and I’m applying for jobs … I would really enjoy doing investment or economic research, and if you guys needed someone at the office, I would love to speak with you (or someone from your firm) about working at S&A. My GPA isn’t exactly a 4.0, but that has more to do with the fact that I had already passed out of many first- and second-year requirements when I got to college, and couldn’t get into most of the finance classes I wanted because I was too young – stupid bureaucracy. Once I got into the finance, accounting, and economics classes, I was a star. Anyways, if you have any openings around the office you think might be good for someone like me, or have any general ideas you would care to share about careers in finance, I would be all ears. Thanks!”
– Paid-up subscriber’s son Patrick B.
Porter’s comment:
“Don’t waste time talking about what you did or didn’t do in college. No one cares. What we care about, like any other employer, is what you’re willing and able to do for us now. What skills do you have? Can you use a Bloomberg terminal quickly? Can you make an Excel spreadsheet dance? How familiar are you with poker and other forms of logical gambling? How many stocks have you purchased on your own account? How familiar are you with the SEC’s database? How many different types of businesses do you know well? How many newsletters have you read in the past? How many investment books have you read? Which ones did you like? … ”
Most copywriters think they have to write a formal resume and send it out to hundreds of potential clients in hopes that someone will call back. But as you saw in Porter’s comment, this is a backwards way of going about it.
Because the truth is clients don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for them. That’s why you don’t need a formal, self-serving resume or bio.
Jeffrey Fox, in his book, Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job, explains that landing a job (or client, in your case as a freelancer) is a sales process.
You’re the product, and your future client is the potential buyer. As a copywriter, you have to sell yourself to the person who hires freelance/in-house copywriters.
I know the thought of selling yourself might be a little scary.
But if you follow the steps I’ve outlined below, you’ll find there’s really not much to it. These steps were taken from Fox’s book, and modified slightly for landing copywriting assignments …
1. Research 10 companies you’d like to work for, and then narrow it down to three that are a perfect match for you. There a few great places you can find this information. The most comprehensive is Target Marketing’s Directory of Major Mailers. It gives you mailing addresses and what the company mails, along with key personnel contacts. Another great place is the Direct Marketing Market Place. Chances are your local library has a copy in the reference section. Or check out the Who’s Mailing What! Archive, the world’s largest library of direct-mail data and packages.
2. Find out the name and contact information of the person who hires freelance/in-house copywriters. To get this information, you’ll actually have to call the company and ask.
3. Uncover the company’s needs and wants. Find out who their customers are, how their business works, and – more importantly – how you can benefit them by filling some of their needs, wants, and desires. The best way to do this is by researching their competitors. What kind of promos do they currently have out? Are their products better or worse? How could your potential client reach more prospects and get them to buy now?
4. Write a sales letter directed to the person in charge of hiring. It should be very personal. Make him aware that you know the company, like the company, and have something specific and valuable to offer. This can be in the form of a free report, white paper, or free consultation. The goal is to get this person to contact you one way or another.
5. Listen. Once you’ve contacted the person in charge of hiring, listen. Don’t talk too much. Ask questions. Delve deeper into his problems, needs, and wants … and offer solutions as to how you can help him achieve his goals.
6. Write a proposal. This is the best-case scenario: after speaking, the person in charge of hiring copywriters is very interesting in hiring you for an assignment. All he needs now is your fee. Instead of just blurting out a price while on the phone, let him know you’ll send him a proposal within 24 hours. In this proposal, show how much value you’re going to provide to him and his company. Show him how much you’re going to deliver, along with your asking price for all these wonderful benefits. If he accepts your proposal, then congratulations! You just landed a bona-fide paid assignment. (If this person isn’t interested in working with you at the present moment, simply put his name and contact info in a database. Then make sure you follow up in a few weeks and see if his copywriting needs have changed.)
7. Send a “thank you” note. Regardless of the outcome, always send a “thank you” note. This will set you apart and position you as a true professional.
And remember, always think in terms of why the company should hire you. As Fox says, “If you don’t know why the company should hire you, it’s a good bet the company won’t know either.”
What You MUST Know About Marketing Your Freelance Copywriting Services - To learn more about this author, visit AWAI’s The Golden Thread 's Website.
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You’ve spent countless hours studying the intricacies of copywriting. After all that hard work, you’re ready to promote yourself as a response-exploding, sales-boosting machine.
But there’s one slight problem. You’ve got no clue where to begin.
“Maybe I should create a resume,” you think … Or perhaps a stellar bio.
Rather than tell you what potential clients are looking for, let me give you an inside look …
What follows is a recent email exchange between Porter Stansberry, head of a wildly popular investment research newsletter, and a potential job candidate. Pay special attention to Porter’s response …
From Porter’s mailbag:
“Do you have any job openings? I’m a graduating senior at Notre Dame, and I’m applying for jobs … I would really enjoy doing investment or economic research, and if you guys needed someone at the office, I would love to speak with you (or someone from your firm) about working at S&A. My GPA isn’t exactly a 4.0, but that has more to do with the fact that I had already passed out of many first- and second-year requirements when I got to college, and couldn’t get into most of the finance classes I wanted because I was too young – stupid bureaucracy. Once I got into the finance, accounting, and economics classes, I was a star. Anyways, if you have any openings around the office you think might be good for someone like me, or have any general ideas you would care to share about careers in finance, I would be all ears. Thanks!”
– Paid-up subscriber’s son Patrick B.
Porter’s comment:
“Don’t waste time talking about what you did or didn’t do in college. No one cares. What we care about, like any other employer, is what you’re willing and able to do for us now. What skills do you have? Can you use a Bloomberg terminal quickly? Can you make an Excel spreadsheet dance? How familiar are you with poker and other forms of logical gambling? How many stocks have you purchased on your own account? How familiar are you with the SEC’s database? How many different types of businesses do you know well? How many newsletters have you read in the past? How many investment books have you read? Which ones did you like? … ”
Most copywriters think they have to write a formal resume and send it out to hundreds of potential clients in hopes that someone will call back. But as you saw in Porter’s comment, this is a backwards way of going about it.
Because the truth is clients don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for them. That’s why you don’t need a formal, self-serving resume or bio.
Jeffrey Fox, in his book, Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job, explains that landing a job (or client, in your case as a freelancer) is a sales process.
You’re the product, and your future client is the potential buyer. As a copywriter, you have to sell yourself to the person who hires freelance/in-house copywriters.
I know the thought of selling yourself might be a little scary.
But if you follow the steps I’ve outlined below, you’ll find there’s really not much to it. These steps were taken from Fox’s book, and modified slightly for landing copywriting assignments …
1. Research 10 companies you’d like to work for, and then narrow it down to three that are a perfect match for you. There a few great places you can find this information. The most comprehensive is Target Marketing’s Directory of Major Mailers. It gives you mailing addresses and what the company mails, along with key personnel contacts. Another great place is the Direct Marketing Market Place. Chances are your local library has a copy in the reference section. Or check out the Who’s Mailing What! Archive, the world’s largest library of direct-mail data and packages.
2. Find out the name and contact information of the person who hires freelance/in-house copywriters. To get this information, you’ll actually have to call the company and ask.
3. Uncover the company’s needs and wants. Find out who their customers are, how their business works, and – more importantly – how you can benefit them by filling some of their needs, wants, and desires. The best way to do this is by researching their competitors. What kind of promos do they currently have out? Are their products better or worse? How could your potential client reach more prospects and get them to buy now?
4. Write a sales letter directed to the person in charge of hiring. It should be very personal. Make him aware that you know the company, like the company, and have something specific and valuable to offer. This can be in the form of a free report, white paper, or free consultation. The goal is to get this person to contact you one way or another.
5. Listen. Once you’ve contacted the person in charge of hiring, listen. Don’t talk too much. Ask questions. Delve deeper into his problems, needs, and wants … and offer solutions as to how you can help him achieve his goals.
6. Write a proposal. This is the best-case scenario: after speaking, the person in charge of hiring copywriters is very interesting in hiring you for an assignment. All he needs now is your fee. Instead of just blurting out a price while on the phone, let him know you’ll send him a proposal within 24 hours. In this proposal, show how much value you’re going to provide to him and his company. Show him how much you’re going to deliver, along with your asking price for all these wonderful benefits. If he accepts your proposal, then congratulations! You just landed a bona-fide paid assignment. (If this person isn’t interested in working with you at the present moment, simply put his name and contact info in a database. Then make sure you follow up in a few weeks and see if his copywriting needs have changed.)
7. Send a “thank you” note. Regardless of the outcome, always send a “thank you” note. This will set you apart and position you as a true professional.
And remember, always think in terms of why the company should hire you. As Fox says, “If you don’t know why the company should hire you, it’s a good bet the company won’t know either.”
What You MUST Know About Marketing Your Freelance Copywriting Services - To learn more about this author, visit AWAI’s The Golden Thread 's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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