Making the jump and deciding to become a freelance copywriter is a huge step. To ensure it's going to be a longterm move you will have to find a great deal of clients, which can be difficult task when first launching your business. It will take months, if not a number of years, to build up a stable customer base to keep your revenue at a stable level. With this in mind, prior to starting out it's a wise idea to have at least six months of savings in the bank along with a plan of action to find profitable customers.
Here are 4 ways of acquiring firms prepared to pay for your writing talents:
Phoning business to promote your copywriting services
Many copywriters are inherently fearful of picking up the phone, and would rather clean the house than pick-up the telephone. But getting in touch with local companies to inform them about your copywriting abilities can be an effective means of locating clients. Mass sending e-mail to as many firms as you are able to might sound like an simpler, and quicker, option. However your e-mail are unlikely to get read by the right people and may even annoy people for spamming them. Picking up the telephone, on the other hand, is a chance to grow rapport on a human level and to link with local business owners.
Marketing and website design agencies always need freelancers
Marketing and website design agencies always need copywriters to provide them with articles for their customers' promotions. They'll also provide you with access to bigger brands and higher paying clients than you'd be able to connect with as an individual freelancer. The big agencies may have already have writers inhouse, so it is wise to concentrate on the medium sized to smaller agencies that use home based workers to add extra capabilities whenever they need them.
Attending face to face business networking functions
With the level of competition for clients on-line leading to rates of pay to drop fast, the most sensible method is to hunt for customers in your local region. It’s simply common sense that people prefer to work with those they like, know and trust. With this in mind, you need to be out there greasing palms and speaking to local business managers, face to face, at each opportunity.
In the majority of towns and cities there are networking events where entrepreneurs can get together to chat, say hello and hand each other business cards. These networking events are usually hosted in local hotel function room or can take place over an early morning breakfast in a local restaurant.
You may find that most networking events charge an entrance fee for attendance, which normally covers food and drinks. It is, however, usually possible to find plenty you can attend withought an attendance fee. However if you can not locate any professional networking events in your town or city, then why not start an event of your own? You could create the event on a website, like Meetup, Facebook or LinkedIn. Once you have setup the event send invitations to people you know and persuade them to invite people in their business network so you can assist one another to obtain additional paying customers.
Find customers by networking on LinkedIn
Whereas Facebook is for fun, LinkedIn is focused on business. It is a social media site where professionals can promote their skills and link with other people in their sector.. So it's a wise decision to get involved by setting up a user profile and interacting with people you've worked alongside in the past and people you would love to work with at some point.
An appropriate place to start is connecting with friends from your old jobs to build your network. You can even use LinkedIn to identify companies in your neighborhood that could require your skills and who you can contact for work.
As a freelance worker you can not afford to sit back and wait around for enquries to roll in. So you should be constantly advertising and promoting your copywriting skills so you can build a consistent salary and make the freelance dream come true.
