“No” Proof Your Prospecting
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Okay, I just finished up a new free report for you: “No” Proof Your Prospecting.
See, I never cared for cold-calling. No matter what I tried, there was always more “no” than I cared for. It was usually very polite…”no thanks” or “not right now,” but I just don’t like it. 
So, over the course of my journey as a freelance copywriter (about three and a half years, now), I’ve tried to find the “better way” that I knew existed.
The result of that search is this 22-page report, which lays out 7 different tactics that can be used separately or together to help make cold-calling a thing of the past.
You can find it over there to the right (—->). Just enter the email address you want me to send it to, and it will magically appear in your inbox in just a moment!
Social Media: 3 Steps to Using Twitter for New Business
comment now!People use social media for many different reasons. Some use it to connect with friends. For others, it is simply an easy distraction from day-to-day boredom.
But for freelance copywriters, social media has the power to nearly replace something many find about as fun as chewing on a habanero pepper: cold calling.
If you’re like approximately 95% of people on Twitter, you have fewer than 100 followers, and the vast majority of them are people you knew on a first-name basis before you were followed. Facebook stats are pretty similar. Obviously, THIS is not going generate many offers.
That said, a huge portion of the most active participants in social media conversations are…marketers. Agencies, design shops, marketing directors… the kinds of people who are likely to NEED the services of a freelancer. And there are three easy steps to connecting with these people.
1. CREATE SOME CONTENT IN ADVANCE
The first thing someone does before they decide to follow you is often to see what you’re saying. If your best posts are “That was the most kickass tuna loaf I ever ate!” and “How did I lose a sock???” You’re most likely not going to get followed back, or will get unfollowed in short order.
Your Twitter stream doesn’t have to be all business, all the time. But it does need to be INTERESTING, most of the time. Oh, and make sure there is a link to your portfolio site in your profile.
2. FIND THEM.
It’s really pretty easy, especially on Twitter. Here, it’s like a reverse food chain; the medium fish follow the big fish and the little fish follow the medium fish. So, find the guys and gals at the big MadAve agencies and Fortune500 companies and follow them. They may or not follow you back. It’s great if they do…but that doesn’t really matter.
Because what you’re really interested in is WHO IS FOLLOWING THEM. Creative directors at top 10 agencies are going to be followed people who want to be like them: creative directors everywhere else. And those people will be followed by people they know in the biz — creative directors at similar agencies, directors of marketing, folks at design shops, studios, production houses, etc.
Be discriminating, but liberal in who you follow. Anyone who looks like they might be interested in what you’re saying (and, hopefully, hiring you if there’s a need), click “follow.” You should find that your follow-back rate wanders between 30% and 50%.
3. ENGAGE THEM
Pick a handful each day, find out something about their company, and @name or direct message them. Congratulate them on a win, or a great campaign. Ask them for advice about something. Weigh in on something someone else has said about them.
People like attention from other people. If they notice that you’re interested in them, they are more likely to be interested in you, than if you simply say “Here I am; Hire me” in 140 Characters.
And if they’re interested enough, they’ll return the conversation and check out your site. NOW you have the beginning of a relationship. And that’s the first step to new business that most people ignore. People who know you will give you more business than people who don’t, every time.
FIRE: Become an Expert
comment now!Everyone loves a specialist.
As a copywriter, if you specialize in a specific industry or market, then you can command a higher fee and stand apart form the competition. We just saw how to start getting work in a particular industry. Now, how do you build on that and really take command of your expert status?
First off, the one thing that separated most recognized experts isn’t that they are the best in their field. It is simply that they are the most recognized. They publish. They speak. They market themselves as experts in their field. As long as they actually know what they’re talking about, they can create long-lived careers simply being experts.
What Do You Know?
So, the first thing you have to have is knowledge. Thanks to the big-box bookstores, the Net, and college bookstores, that knowledge is easy to come by. The simple truth is, if you read two or three books on the industry, you’ll know more about it than 95% of the copywriters out there (and the general population, for that matter). Read each book, and write a two page summary.
Once you’ve done this, let the information cool for a bit, come up with an angle you can call your own, and then write a 5-10 page special report based on the information you’ve read so far, and offer it for free on your site to subscribers of your free monthly newsletter. Keep reading a new book on the industry each month, along with half an hour or so of research online, and use this information as the basis for your newsletter. At the same time, you’re talking regularly with your clients and learning as much as you can about the various aspects of the business that affect them on a day-to-day basis.
Act Like The Expert You Are!
Next, contact you local university annex or community center and offer to teach a free seminar on some aspect of the subject at hand. Once you’ve taught it two or three times, contact the local trade association, and offer to speak to the industry about effective marketing. Record these seminars and offer them as free videos to your newsletter subscribers.
Once the members of the industry see you speaking authoritatively, they will see you as an credible expert…because you will be one. At this point, you can start charging fees for speaking, and you’ll have enough first-hand knowledge to start writing your own books on the subject. Not to mention the fees you can command as a Specialist Copywriter in the industry.
All from a few extra hours work each month.
SHELTER: Step Away From The Computer
comment now!The computer is an amazing tool. It simplifies work, makes research and communication a breeze and even provides much needed diversion from time to time. But as amazing as it is, it can come at a bit of a price. While it can be a helpful tool to use in the day-to-day aspects of work, it can also hurt you productivity by monopolizing your focus AND by causing you to lose your focus at the same time.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Sitting at the computer hour after hour can rob you of the very thing that makes freelancing such a great thing: freedom to work when and where you want. If you’re always at the computer, then you could be at your kitchen table, in a corner office, or in a tiny gray-walled cubicle. What’s the difference when your entire world is encompassed by a 10″ by 12″ piece of class and plastic? Being busy it great, but make sure you’re actually BUSY, and not simply keeping busy.
No Distance= No Perspective
Creative work is best done in short, intense bursts. So, too, is analytical work. Since the majority of a writer’s time is spent concepting and writing (creative) or editing (analytical), your workday should be comprised of several short, intense periods of work, broken up by longer periods of, say, research and business management tasks.
Otherwise, you’ll get locked into one creative/analytical task and stay stuck in it for hours…and end up wasting half a day on something that could have been done more productively in thee separate 15-minute blocks. Write or edit until it starts feeling like you’re forcing it, then stop and take a break. Look at your to-do list and make sure you’re staying on-track.
Take a Break, Take a Breath, Go Low Tech for a Sec
You don’t even have to do all of your writing at the computer. Grab a pen and paper, and go sit out in the front yard and enjoy the day while you work. Or go sit in a museum, surrounded by creative masterpieces. Or out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature.
You’re a freelancer, by god. Don’t forget to act like it! You’ll find yourself being more productive and enjoying the job a whole lot more, because of it.
FOOD: Instant Muse
comment now!Stuck? Quick, grab something. Anything!
Seriously, anything with words on it. Take a pen, and underline every noun, verb, adjective and adverb you see. Transpose this word list to your notebook or computer. (A few days ago, I’d reached a bit of an impasse where it seemed like I was just recycling the same ideas over and over. I found the packaging from a pair of slant-tip tweezers my wife bough a few days ago, and got this word list: Tweeze, slant, grip, easy, point, simple, quick, make, work.)
Take these words and see if you can work them into your copy. Even if you can’t, the process of trying, of bringing in new concepts will jump start your brain, and you’ll end up finding something that works.
The Principle of Inertia
Here’s why this works; it’s simple physics, really. The Principle of Inertia states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest, until acted upon by an outside force. In this case, the object is your current project…and it will stay within the status quo unless something upsets the equilibrium.
The outside force is the word list that you found (that someone else wrote). Most of these words will have nothing to do with your project—and that’s a good thing. The brain looks for patterns to see how things fit together. When you introduce these new words, you brain will expand its frame of reference trying to figure out how all of this sorts out. New neurons start firing, and suddenly…magic!
The Creative Catalyst
The new words act as a catalyst to get your mind over the equilibrium. They provide just enough of a nudge to get all the ideas bouncing around again, until something sticks. And then your project is off and running at full speed again.
FIRE: Blogging for New Business
comment now!
The only way to get business in some markets is to prove yourself by writing about it. This is where blogs come in really handy as a marketing tool, even for the beginning writer.
Write about ten to fifteen articles (200-400 words each) about marketing for that specific industry. Set up a blog, either as part of your current domain, or set up a free blog at wordpress.com or typepad.com. Add your articles to the blog, and create an about page tailored to this industry, as well as links to your main writing site.
If you’ve done some work in the industry already, then go ahead and put the applicable pieces in your portfolio. If you don’t have many pieces for that industry, go ahead and beef it up with some of your other pieces. If you don’t have any paid work at all, yet, you can either throw up some spec pieces, or just let your articles suffice for the moment, until you get some.
You can use some of the articles you wrote for Article PR at submission sites if you want, but you don’t have to. A better strategy is to take a day or two out of your schedule and just start making phone calls. As always, you’re not calling to beg for work. Just to approach companies in this industry to see if they use copywriters, and if so, let them know you’re available and ask if they’d mind a follow-up call in a week or two. In the mean time, point them at your new site.
The fact that you have a site devoted specifically to marketing for their industry now puts you in a “specialist” category that not only puts you ahead of the competition, but also allows you to command a higher fee for your work. Now, take two or three hours once a month to write ten to twelve new posts for the blog, and schedule them to post throughout the month, every three days or so, and within a few months, you’ll have one of the most comprehensive marketing sites in that industry. Assuming you’re writing quality articles with helpful content, people in the industry will spread your name around, and you could soon be a recognized industry expert.
FIRE: Thanks for the Memory…
comment now!I had this idea while talking with a friend not too long ago. You can get jump drives (or flash memory drives) for very cheap, nowdays. In fact, my own “data backup” is a 2 gigabyte flash drive I got in a 2-pack for $25. A little searching online shows 256K flash drives for about three bucks.
So, put together a PowerPoint presentation (or trade out with a programmer who can create a flash presentation for you) selling your services, and add your portfolio, and send it to your prospects. Not only is it something no one else is doing, but they get a free jump drive out of it, something they’ll be reluctant to throw away.
SHELTER: Adobe Connect
comment now!Need to meet with a client across the country to show (or look at) documents? Adobe Connect is a fantastic, easy-to-use online meeting application. You get an online meeting room where you can share your computer desktop or specific applications with everyone else, plus you get a dedicated, dial-in conference call number for your meetings.
At the very least, this will save you gas money and drive time, if not airfare and lodging, for a long-distance trip.
There is a cost: $39 per month, so it might not make sense for everyone, but as you build your business and pick up more long-distance clients, it’s a good tool to have. They have a 15-day free trial, without having to enter and CC info, so you might want to just try it out and see what you think.
FOOD: Using Google Alerts
comment now!On of the big causes of writer’s block is that the well just runs dry. This usually happens because we get so busy we forget to replenish the well by reading up on the industry, subject or whatever the topic might be.
Using Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) is a great way to avoid this. Simply type in a phrase associated with your topic, and you will get an alert with news and blog posts about that subject daily in your inbox, so you are constantly kept in the loop about the topic, and you can have a wealth of material to draw from when you’re ready to write on the subject.
To avoid clogging your inbox with tons of alerts, you can set up a filter to send the alerts directly to a dedicated folder, of if you use gmail, apply a tag and skip the inbox, so they are there whenever you are ready to check them out.
With this tool, you’ll never be stuck for what to write again, no matter what your subject!
“On Spec”
comment now!I had a question from a reader about something I mention in 10 Days to Paid: creating a portfolio of “spec work.” As I mention, if you don’t have any work to show, spec work can be a great way to show prospects what you can do.
I was asked how one should label the spec work. In my own initial portfolio, it simply said “spec ad” or “spec brochure.”
This is a little different from work created “On Spec” (which is common in ad agencies, but not for freelance writers. In the agency world, a potential client will often ask to see an example of what your agency can do for them. So the agency gets a team together and creates a campaign to pitch to the prospect.
This work is “on spec,” or, on the speculation that they will be paid for the work if they get the gig (and sometimes, even if they don’t).
As writers, such work would be silly, as you’d be giving the client your words and THEN letting him decide whether or not to pay.
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