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| Original Message Added : 16 Jan 2009 I'm a copywriter, and I'm in my first year of going freelance. Although I attend business networking events and find them a good source of motivation and meeting new people, I don't find them a time and cost-effective way of getting new business. I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who need an efficient copywriter - even in these hard times! What's the best way of getting to them? Cold calling and email campaigns seem to have little impact... |
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| Reply : 16 Jan 2009 Copywriters, like many other creative businesses have a hard time finding work and what you have to do is define your audience. 1.) Research and narrow down on your target audience. Who uses copywriters and why? That should help to specify your marketing tactics and focus your efforts. 2.) Online networking & Networking: I see that you've been networking whichis good but networking usually requires some time for it to pay off as an investment. Alternatively online networking is also rewarding as it helps to build up a presence. 3.) Blogging: You are a writer so blogging should come naturally. Provide tips, hints and valuable info on copywriting and it should raise your brand awareness. 4.) Alliances: Many designers and advertsisng firms use copywriters, get in touch with them. Good luck. |
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| Reply : 16 Jan 2009 Have you come across www.elance.com There are always people looking for copywriters and and ghost writers on there. Here is a piece of gold for you. In 2009 we are going to see an explosion online of coaches and other soleprenuer types creating their own electronic ebooks and courses. They know the content but won't know how to write the sales copy. This is where you come in. Tap into the coaches market. You can still get a copy of my free marketing manual at http://www.maximumprofitsinminimumtime.co.uk/ (£97 value) for free. Hope this helps regards Steve. |
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| Reply : 17 Jan 2009 Get on the phone and start dialling. Agencies and publishers. Tell them how great you are and ask for a trial text - copywrite the first text for free. Once you're in the door, your face is known and further work will follow. Lots of good copywriters, few excellent ones. A niche or specialism is worth considering, as is the comparative price of non-EU competition (typically 10% - 25% cheaper in my experience). Best wishes Peter - Minuteman Press |
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| Reply : 18 Jan 2009 Merely attending networking events is a waste of time. That's because attending networking events isn't networking. As you'll see if you check out my responses to other questions on networking, I am a firm believer in networking. But to do it effectively, you have to know what it is. Think of any net. It is a set of connections between points or nodes. The net is the connections, not the points that are connected. For you to have a useful business network, you have to spend time creating the connections, and that means having one to ones with people. I suggest inviting everyone you meet at a 'networking event', without exception, to a one to one. Luckily some won't respond, but, if they can't be bothered to talk to you they won't be worth forming a business relationship with anyway, so this acts as a simple filter. Everyone who says yes is actually interested in talking to you! So why wouldn't you talk to them? Don't assume that in some clever way you know, before you've even spoken to them, that they won't be 'worth' pursuing. If you have a day when you're not doing fee-earning work, aim to have four or five one to ones. This may take more time, but will provide you with results of far better quality than picking up the phone. With respect to Peter, people do not buy from other people because the other people phone them up and tell them how "great" they are. They may well buy because a third party has told them how great you are, but you have to use networking to set that up. Otherwise, they buy from you because you have shown them you can solve their problems - not because you tell them about a range of benefits you offer. |
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| Reply : 19 Jan 2009 Finding work can be tough, especially at the moment. Personally, I find most of my clients through social media sites - online networking is great. I also attend a few face to face networking meetings (I think we are both members of Enterprising Women?) but it isn't my favourite way of meeting people! Another great way to get your name out there is blogging (which I think someone else has already suggested) and writing articles and getting those out on websites such as Ezine. Targeted email campaigns can work although I find I have picked up a few clients that way but not as many as through the social networking method. A great website is obviously a good idea to - it's your shop window - so SEO to the max. This can take time though so also target local companies. I have certainly found that once work starts coming you've cracked it - a lot of my new clients are coming via referrals which is fantastic. Best of luck with it. Sally Briar Copywriting |
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| Reply : 2 Feb 2009 2 things. I notice you're in Cambridge ... you could try one of the networking opportunities there. e.g. http://cambridgenetworksocialnetwork.ning.com and in particular http://cambridgenetworksocialnetwork.ning.com/group/breakfast_networking http://cambridge-business-networking.onpageone.co.uk/ http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=153 (I have to declare an interest in all of those, not that I'm a natural networker!) The top 3 are closely linked and the next physical meeting (13th Feb 8am @ SJIC) will be themed around 'social media' - that's something else you should consider as part of your marketing. Finally, since no one mentioned it, there's also Adwords (I ought to declare an interest there too!). But don't go into that blindly - there are many expensive pitfalls. Sorry I couldn't make any of the links real - don't know why. Anyway - best of luck and hope to see you at one of the meetings. |
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| Reply : 26 Feb 2009 First of all, I have to strongly disagree with Steve about solopreneurs and coaches being a good market. (Sorry Steve ;-( ) Why? Because although these people desperately need your help and skill in communicating their offering, they mostly don't know that. Even if they did know that, they probably wouldn't want it enough or be willing to pay for it. Or, frankly, have the money. Here's a simple aphorism I've nicked/paraphrased from Frank Kern of Mass Control: People don't buy for 3 reasons - they don't want what you're selling, they can't afford it, or they don't believe you. So, turning that on its head - who wants copywriting, can afford it and will believe you? In other words, what markets are out there where you would have credibility, who can afford you and who already know that they need you? I can also say with some confidence that most SMEs and corporations get their internal staff to do copywriting. For the simple reason that they don't seem to have any clue whatsoever about direct selling or how specialised copywriting is. The old joke is that people delegate the copywriting to the secretary or marketing assistant. They really do not have any idea how much of an impact good copy can make. So, the problem with that is that you can't afford the time or the money to educate a broad audience about the ROI they can get from good copywriting. You may therefore need to find a niche that can easily justify to themselves the need for your services. A bit more bad news is that I didn't find anything on your website that made me want to "sign up now" or "buy now". That is what I would expect to find from a copywriter - some kind of irresistible offer to get on to your list, or talk with you. You don't write enough for me to get "hooked". I'm sorry to say that I find that a lot with female copywriters. I'm schooled in the Gary Halbert, John Carlton, Michel Fortin etc. schools of direct marketing copywriting. Whilst I don't subscribe to the whole gamut of manipulative tactics that some of these boys use, I think I know how to write copy that gets a response. If that isn't what you do, then I wonder if you're more of a business "wordsmith"? In fact, I wonder if you do business copywriting for financial reasons, but would rather do some other types of writing for money? With my hard-headed marketing hat on, I would agree with the other experts here and say that you must discover your market. At the moment your website is way too general - if I was in the market for a copywriter, I wouldn't really know if you were for me or not. Your portfolio shows me what you've done, but not what results it generated or why I should hire you. With my "Intuitive Jane" hat on - I'm going to say that you should probably follow your passion and aim at the markets and the type of writing that fulfil that passion. You could branch out in all kinds of ways. Instead of writing for solopreneurs and coaches, you could lead trainings on how they can do their own writing. You could show people how to write articles and publish ezines. Spotty Dog? Maybe you could write for dog charities, or pet companies. What I picked up about you from your website is that you're a very creative person. Business writing and direct response copywriting do not require huge amounts of creativity in my experience (some, but not a lot). Therefore, I'm suggesting that you consider your direction and fundamental proposition and what would really give you the most satisfaction. I hope that's not too presumptuous. You might like to take a look at this lady's website: http://www.parlancetraining.com/. She is a self-confessed "word nerd" and has built a business out of helping solopreneurs find the language to express their innovative ideas. I know quite a lot about copywriters and the copywriting business, so if you'd like to talk more, please contact me via my website www.getclients.co.uk Jane :-) |
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0).jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Chaten Parmar")
.jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Steve Crane")
.jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Peter Wise")
.jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Rob Hadingham")
.jpg&maxW=50&maxH=50&action=crop "Jane Hendry")
