How To Sell Your Freelance Copywriting
Copywriting is the skill of convincing someone to buy something. It’s a pretty awesome skill to have, as skills go. As a superpower, it’s infinitely more useful than being able to breathe underwater or something.
It’s also relatively easy to acquire. You read the books, put in the hours learning how to do it and then unleash your super-persuasive copy on the world.
Yet there are copious forums, blogs and discussions from copywriters who repeatedly ask the question, “How Do I Get Copywriting Clients?”
If you can’t sell yourself… then you haven’t learned all you can (and should) about copywriting yet.
Don’t worry though, I’ll help you with this article.
Sell Your Services Like You’re Writing A Sales Letter
Let’s say you’ve done some cursory reading around copywriting as a subject and discipline.
The first thing you’re likely to learn is that copywriting – direct response copywriting at least – is based around something called a “sales letter.”
Essentially, it’s a document where you type out all the benefits of buying the product. You go through getting a person’s attention with a headline that kicks them somewhere painful, build their interest by giving them the story of how their imaginary future is going to be awesome, lay out the facts and figures and then tell them BUY THE GOD-DAMNED PRODUCT RIGHT NOW!
…Really, we could finish the article (and this site) with that paragraph. There’s not much else to it.
For marketing yourself as a copywriter, this should all come to you in your sleep. You should be able to write about products in that format whilst standing on your head and if you can’t, practice more. Other people can and will, so it’s a competitive market.
For those of you who are bored with this copywriting introduction, can write a sales letter and want me to get to the good stuff, let’s move on.
Where Most Copywriters and Freelancers Go Wrong
“Here’s my copywriting website! How do I get clients?
I’ve read variations on the above question so many times I can’t put a figure to it.
You’re trying to sell your ability to sell. If you’re asking that question, you’re not inspiring confidence in the world and probably not exuding it in your interactions with potential clients. I’m not being a grumpy grandpa here, but it’s something to bear in mind.
Firstly, you must write a sales letter selling yourself. Do this for yourself if for nobody else. If you can’t accurately describe why someone should hire you, then they won’t hire you.
Most copywriters think that their “copywriting skill” is something different from what they should be doing to market themselves.
I’ve visited a hundred or more copywriter portfolio sites. Now, these people presumably know that you’ve got to get someone’s attention, give them the features and benefits of their service and call them to action.
So why do most websites I visit start with some massive header image (usually of a cup of coffee and a laptop,) some bland links to things like “The Work” “Portfolio” and “Philosophy” (HINT: Nobody cares about your work philosophy – whatever the hell it is) and some weird snappy jargon paragraph that comprises the whole of the first (and last) page your reader is going to see?
“Words that inspire. Words that create. Words that transcend.”
I’ve been a copywriter for three years, and in that time I’ve learned how to sell stuff to people.
I know your time is valuable, so I’ll keep this short: If you hire me, I’ll write whatever you want.
I’ll write about medical stuff, legal stuff, magical stuff or cleaning the dishes.
I write exclusive and amazing ! words that help achieve your vision.
Oh, I also do graphic design, SEO and puppetry too.
*
If you want copywriting with a vision then contact me right now and we’ll discuss your needs.
If you think, “Yeah but Jamie… that’s not a realistic example,” you’re right. The ones I’ve seen get worse than that.
They’ll talk in third person.
Maybe they’ll only have 25 words total on the page.
Sometimes it’s literally a template job for some free website thing where you’ll have “INSERT HEADLINE HERE” left on the page and then it’ll abruptly jump into pricing, where you’ll have three options in a comparison box.
My point is this: none of this looks like you learn in even the beginner’s beginner books like Copywriting For Dummies.
What works, according to years of science?
A long form letter that explains the benefits of your service to your client.
Now, obviously a website and a single long form sales letter aren’t entirely the same, but your website should transfer a sales letter into website form. If your website looks and works nothing like what works, then it probably won’t work.
It Doesn’t Take A Massive Site, Massive Budget Or Massive Network To Get Clients
Copywriting is a disruptive technology. If you’re into direct response copywriting, then you have already read tales of how guys like Gary Halbert spent $100 on envelopes and made $90 million from a single campaign.
The whole point of copywriting is to do away with the trappings of “money makes money” and skip all the nonsense. You give a product directly to the person who wants it.
And yet, when you see people giving advice about how to advance as a copywriter, it’s all the usual status-quo stuff like “Do your networking. Buy Facebook Ads (Why the hell would you advertise B2B on a social network?) Build a blog and let millions of people come to you organically.
Here’s the second in the two-step process I’ve laid out in this article:
Sell your copywriting service directly to the people who need it.
By all means, when you have a budget to spare and time to kill, play around with the other stuff. If you like running a blog, then have fun with it. If you find a little niche of targeting for social media ads, then try them out with a $10 budget.
Really though, marketing your copywriting service amounts to finding people who need it and giving them a superb product at the end.
Final Thoughts
Essentially, selling a freelance copywriting service can be boiled down to two steps:
- Follow the principles you’ve learned as a direct response copywriter. Create a sales letter and include all those psychological elements you’ve learned about.
- Find buyers of your service and sell as directly to them as possible.
You don’t need a million Twitter followers. Nor do you need a flashy website with a sliding thing on the front page. You don’t need to know Bill Gates and Elon Musk and fifty million other entrepreneurs so you can “hack the network.”
It always boils down to “Have a good offer and find people willing to pay for it.” If you follow the above steps, then you’ll meet both of those requirements.
P.S. Tomorrow, I’m going to post an idea I’ve been playing with that demonstrates this point exactly. You’ll probably want to check it out if you want the following:
- How to make your freelance service seem exclusive
- How to convince potential clients that they have to buy from you right now
- To turn cold/dead leads into prospects and stick them in a sales funnel
This is not the sort of advice you get on cookie-cutter copywriting blogs.