New Freelance Copywriter? (Grow Your Business Faster)
Are you a freelance copywriter in the first years of your career? Then this post is for you.
You may be writing for people in your network, for businesses run by friends or relatives, or finding work on job platforms like Fiverr or UpWork.
This is how many of us start. Ideally, though you grow from there to work at a higher, more professional level. Let’s get started on a path to growth.
How to Evaluate Your Freelance Copywriting Business
This week, make time to look at your copywriting business and evaluate it.
Look at your clients by billing. If you’re using accounting software, this will be easy. Otherwise, do it manually.
Pick a period, say the last 12 months, and create a report of your clients by billing amount.
Here’s what you’ll want to consider:
Which clients paid you the most over those 12 months? Put them in order of billing.
Which clients gave you the most projects, big or small? (Might not be the same ones.)
On average, which clients paid you the most per project? (Maybe not as many projects, but bigger, higher-paying ones.)
Just sit with that and study the numbers for a while. Were there any surprises, or was this what you expected?
Do You Already Have a Niche?
Now that you’ve thought about the numbers, here are some other questions to consider:
Which of your clients do you like working for the most? Are they the ones that give you the most billing, or not?
Can you group your clients into niches? Do you have a few clients in the same or related businesses? Create groups of any clients that fit together. A group of clients is a niche.
If you have one or more niches, ask yourself whether these are your ideal clients.
Are these the niches you want to grow or would you rather write for other types of businesses? This is worth serious consideration.
If you have clients that don’t fit into a niche but you enjoy working for them, could you find other similar clients that could create a niche for you?
Develop Niche Expertise—Important to Grow Your Business
Having a niche means you’ve worked on many projects for similar clients. You’ve gained expertise in the area. You know the language, the acronyms, and the selling points of various products and services. You understand the client pain points and how different companies attempt to address them.
But just as importantly, from a client perspective, you belong to their “genre”. You’re one of them, an insider, not an outsider looking in. You’re part of the industry group, you’re familiar with others in the group.
Clients quickly sense that you know what you’re talking about. It’s easier for them to brief you and for you to complete the project. You’re not asking basic questions anymore.
The key is this: being a member of the genre, being an obvious expert in your niche means you can charge more. Experts get paid not only for their work but also for their overall expertise. It’s as simple as that.
When thinking of niches, consider that some have more potential than others. I wrote about how to pick high-paying niches here.
Your #1 Goal as a Freelance Copywriter: Find Your Ideal Clients
You might ask, how do you identify ideal clients?
Imagine if you had five to 10 steady clients in one or two niches, where you enjoyed the work, were paid fairly, and got one project after another without competition.
For me, this was always the goal. Not too many clients—that would mean too much juggling and admin work—but enough to keep it exciting and provide substantial billing.
In my case, this meant larger corporate clients who gave me profitable projects. It was also vital that I got along with the clients. I didn’t want to constantly negotiate estimates and deliverables or chase after overdue invoices. It takes too much time and energy.
For me, the ideal client was one I could work with as a “partnership”. We both wanted to develop great solutions for the challenges at hand. They were on the client side, I was the writer. We were two sides of the same coin.
So, in short, I think the job is to find enough stimulating work with a few likable people who have appropriate budgets and pay quickly. That’s not unreasonable, is it?
Get Away From Constant Competition for Projects
Ideally, you want to outgrow the highly competitive job platforms like Fiverr or Upwork and create relationships with clients where you become their “go-to writer”.
It’s painful to compete in a world of low-paid writers vying for every project.
Here’s an important concept to understand: the most successful and profitable freelance copywriters have direct relationships with clients where the projects are theirs, without competition. They’re not chasing after random one-off jobs.
Here’s how to get repeat business from clients.
How Do You Get There? Create Niches and Promote Them
Let’s go back to your current work. Within that, can you identify a group of clients where you’d like to expand the niche? Do you have samples of your work for them in your portfolio?
On your website or your social media, do you position yourself as an expert in your niches? Do you have testimonials from clients in those niches?
Here’s a great example of a freelance copywriter, working in a high-paying, well-defined niche. Read it. There are so many lessons, with examples, that you can apply.
How to Expand Your Niches
Once you’ve fine-tuned your niche messaging, take these steps:
Think about other companies or organizations that would fit into the same niche
Find their websites, social, and other media
Find and follow them. Make yourself known to them.
It’s never been easier to get in front of the people you want to meet. Before social, there were many roadblocks. It’s much easier now. Start the process today.
Next, create a strategy to contact them. Decide how you want to do this. That may mean using DMs on Twitter, LinkedIn, or cold emails. Whatever you choose, refine your pitch.
Sell the Benefits of Your Niche Expertise
What three key benefits do clients get from working with you?
Niche expertise (show portfolio examples)
Ease of working together, familiarity with the niche (include testimonials)
Reliability—it’s number one on the list of what clients value most in freelancers.
You’ll Likely Climb the Income Ladder in Stages
Let’s say your current clients are small businesses and you’d like to work for bigger companies.
You’ll have to do that in steps, going from small to medium, and from medium to larger. You might be able to “make the leap in a single bound”, but it’s tough.
People reviewing your portfolio are looking for names they recognize.
For example, if you’re writing blog posts for a local not-for-profit, you might want to approach a regional or national organization, but not an international one. What’s the difference?
Anyone at a regional or national organization will more likely know your clients at the local not-for-profits. The people at the international level probably don’t.
Also, an international agency typically works with top-tier writers from around the world. You’re not in the group yet. You have to earn your way to the top.
Think Like a Client: They’re Looking for Their Ideal Freelance Copywriter
Put on a client hat for a minute. If you were a client, wouldn’t your life be so much easier if you were working with your ideal copywriter? You send out a brief, you get back a detailed estimate which you approve, and a while later, your writer sends you sterling prose, ready to be used.
That’s who you want to be—the client’s ideal copywriter. Their secret weapon, the person they look forward to working with, project after project.
You’ll grow your freelance copywriting business when you find the right clients and make it easy for them to work with you.
Learn more about growing your freelance copywriting business in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for freelance graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
Buy Your Book Here
Over 300 pages and 23 chapters, available at Amazon (Paper & Kindle), Kobo (ebook), Apple Books (ebook), and Gumroad (PDF).
The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.
I Wanted to Tell You How Much I Appreciate Your Book
“That bit about the difference between projects and clients is exactly where we are in our business right now. I used it to discuss the topic with our founder. So, thank you for that.”
Mike M, from a Twitter DM
Want a free taste first?
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This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.
Questions? On Twitter, I’m @StroteBook. DMs are always open. Ask away.