VOLUME 19, ISSUE 8 – AUGUST 2020
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: IT’S NOT ABOUT US; IT’S ABOUT THEM!
Yours Truly Muses About “The State of the Copywriting Industry.”
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DARE YOU TAKE THE “FREE”-LANCER ROUTE?
Danish FLCW Sees Controversial Prospecting Tactic Bear Fruit!
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: SLOWDOWN? WHAT WORK SLOWDOWN?
PA FLCW Turns Vanishing Work Pipeline into a Steady Flow Once Again!
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
Bay Area Editor/FLCW Says Her Career is on the Upslope (at 81!)
TIP: New Video Screen-Capture Tool Replaces Jing, Saves a TON of Typing
I. APPETIZER: IT’S NOT ABOUT US; IT’S ABOUT THEM!
Yours Truly Muses About “The State of the (Post-Pandemic) Copywriting Industry.”
In March of 2015, I penned a blog post entitled, “There IS No Copywriting Industry.” It was written as, hopefully, the definitive answer to that age-old (and actually, highly irrelevant) question I’ve gotten forever:
“Is commercial freelancing still a good opportunity?”
The crux of the piece was that that was the wrong question. And as I’ve surveyed the aftermath of the pandemic/lockdowns, it seemed to me to a discussion worth resurrecting.
In these strange and uncertain times, it’s hard to know what kind of “new” world we’ll be facing once things return to whatever can be called “normal.”
In our field, it’s understandable for commercial-writing practitioners to ask, “What’s going to happen to the copywriting industry?” Yet, like before, that’s the wrong question.
This whole topic came up in a discussion with a coaching client a few weeks back, where I was recounting and invoking the above blog post to her.
Mapping the discussion from that post onto today’s reality, yielded this thought: Forget about the “copywriting industry.” That doesn’t matter.
Why? Because, per the post, copywriting is far less an industry than it is a response to an ongoing eternal demand for writing services on the part of businesses of all sizes across the globe.
As long as businesses stay in business, or new businesses come into existence, those enterprises will need our services. Yes, the economic fallout of the pandemic will no doubt shutter any number of enterprises.
But, life will go on, and because life will go on, business will go on as well. And ergo, our businesses will go on as well.
Stop focusing, inwardly, on your shrinking copywriting load. That’ll have you going into “under-the-covers-thumb-sucking” mode.
Instead, focus outwardly on what your clients and prospects need. No question, many of those businesses have pulled back, but plenty are moving forward (and I’m working for some of them).
Our “Main Course” this month is a textbook example of a FLCW who only briefly wallowed in “Woe is me.” Then, he refocused on his clients and how he could serve them (and by extension, himself), and boy, was that the right move.
As long as we keep ourselves relevant, valuable, and on the radar of our current and prospective clients—who have a never-ending need to educate, inform, inspire, motivate, market to, and sell to their audiences—we’ll always eat. Speaking of which, let’s dig in!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DARE YOU TAKE THE “FREE”-LANCER ROUTE?
Danish FLCW Sees Controversial Prospecting Tactic Bear Fruit!
Oh boy, I’ll likely get a TON of grief over the following, but hey, accept it or reject it. Your choice. Obviously, if you’ve got tons of well-paying work you love, just move along, nothing to see here.
If not, given the strange world we’re in, and the challenges many are facing in rebuilding their practices, it’s simply one more avenue to consider.
This interesting story comes from Askeby, Denmark FLCW Anne Neilsen (at 69, the younger of two “senior” writers in this issue!). She recounts the following while doing a ton of work for what she describes as “The Coca Cola of the Danish FLCW world.” She writes:
“My boss at the company received an unsolicited letter from a writer offering to write for the company’s magazine free of charge for one week. As a freelancer I like the sound of ‘free’ much better than ‘cheap.’ If you sell yourself cheaply, you may never get out of that hole. But nobody expects you to work for free forever.
“Everybody wants to work for this company, and they get loads of unsolicited offers from writers. But just then, they were very pressed, and really did need help, so her offer got my boss’s attention. And, the writer got her chance. I was impressed how well her strategy worked.
“Unfortunately, the writer didn’t work out. If she had, I’ve no doubt that one-week trial would have turned her into a trusted, familiar face and given her access to many new writing assignments, with payment at the equivalent of well over $100 an hour.”
The libertarian in me is fine with the idea. People should be free to do what they want to build their businesses (i.e., when starting out, to break into a new arena, etc.), without feeling pressured to always act in the “common good” (i.e., don’t give away your services, as it makes it harder for the rest of us to compete).
If you want to get in the door of a dream client, and are willing to invest X free hours to get your shot, that should be your decision, no one else’s. Just as importantly…
Anne’s distinction between cheap and free is an important one. They’re absolutely not just different feathers from the same bird. She elaborates:
“The ‘cheaplancers’ are not only consistently undercutting their competitors, they’re also ruining their own chances of ever getting a well-paid assignment. Writing for free, on the other hand, is not sustainable enough to be anything but a temporary arrangement. No company worth working for would consider covering all their freelance needs with a series of short-term free writers.
While I don’t necessarily agree that a “cheaplancer” is doomed to always be one (maybe with the client they gave a low rate to, but not with others), I DO agree that “ongoing cheap” is wholly different from “limited free.”
By definition, if you do plan to try this tactic, save it for scenarios only with the greatest possible upside (i.e., a client with the strong potential for steady, well-paying work).
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: SLOWDOWN? WHAT WORK SLOWDOWN?
PA FLCW Turns Vanishing Work Pipeline into a Steady Flow Once Again!
Got this truly terrific “I’m-still-standing” story from Pittsburgh, PA FLCW and PR pro Jeff Durosko. At the risk of trite cliché, when the going got tough for all of us these past few months, this tough guy got going.
Think he’ll freak out if it happens again? Highly doubtful. Thanks, Jeff. Such great, inspirational stuff!
When the coronavirus lockdowns began, I was worried. Very worried. My pursuit of a number of potential projects came to a screeching halt and I haven’t yet been able to revisit them.
A good chunk of my work is media relations/outreach for a number of clients for whom I also do more focused writing work.
In the midst of a pandemic, it’s tough to pitch stories about products and services to news media. And most of the new business I was chasing was a mix of writing and media work, but the two had to work together. Thus, the screeching halt.
After a few days of mild panic and self-pity, I did some outreach. And I found three areas of success that pleased me for sure, but also surprised me, even if just a little bit.
First, I reached out to all my current clients to ask “How can I help?” Because I’m a writer and a media relations specialist, I worked to pivot to as much writing as possible, while also exploring media topics connected to what was going on in the world in that moment.
I had success on both fronts. One client had me working on all their customer and employee communications related to closings and changes in service due to the pandemic.
Another had me switch from writing news stories for a website and magazine to focusing fully on a weekly newsletter update for employees and a focused media relations effort on topical items related to the health crisis.
In addition, three more of my core clients actually ended up with more media opportunities because of the nature of their businesses.
The second tactic I used was to do some gentle follow-up with companies with whom I’d worked in the past, to ask that same question. How can I help? To my surprise, this turned into three potential new projects—all unrelated to the pandemic—I’m now pursuing in earnest.
The final tactic is taking place as I write this. As we begin the process of reopening businesses and returning to offices, I did more outreach to help those five existing clients mentioned above on all their communications related to the reopening: what’s changing for employees; what’s changing for customers; what mission-focused things are staying the same; etc.
That work has begun and will continue. Next on my list is to begin revisiting the new business I was chasing before the pandemic and see if any of those organizations are ready to begin planning for next steps.
Then, it’s on to some cold calling to organizations who’ll need help in the coming months communicating changes to their constituents.
Side note: I’d just launched a travel blog, and thought: only I would launch a TRAVEL blog just in time for travel to be shut down worldwide. But for my own mental health, I committed to writing a weekly post to keep my dreams alive and entertain my small but important audience.
I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with that promise to myself and it has served me well from a place of emotional well-being.
Bottom line? At probably the scariest moment of my 15-year-old freelance business, I found a way to keep the lights on. And I hope that all of my fellow FLCWs did the same.
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
Bay Area Editor/FLCW Says Her Career is on the Upslope (at 81!)
TIP: New Video Screen-Capture Tool Replaces Jing, Saves a TON of Typing
Got the following from downright inspirational 81-year-old Bay Area freelance editor and FLCW, Linda Jay (see pic below!).
Linda had sent me a few success stories, and after a back-and-forth, which touched on her age, she followed up with the missive below, which I thought was even stronger than her two submissions!
Clearly, this woman still has PLENTY to offer in the marketplace. In case you’re wondering how long you can be active in this business, here you go. Thanks, Linda! Following that, an updated tech tool you’ll want to know about.
Peter: I’m on the upward trajectory in my editing/writing career, so I’d love to be cited as an example that one can continue a career as long as one’s brain and sense of humor are functioning. Also, the adjective in my email signature is accurate: I truly am lightning-fast. Sometimes I astound even myself…
I used to be super-polite and somewhat shy; as I get older, the Midwesterner in me is still polite, but I find I’m sometimes downright snarky with people who just don’t care about good writing, good grammar, etc.
Some of my recent, current, and future career wins:
- Last year, a marketing friend brought me in to write PR for the Sonoma TEDx Talks committee.
- I’m a freelance copyeditor with the Path to Publishing Program at a great Marin County bookstore, Book Passage.
- In the last year, the Program’s Director referred me to seven authors of varied genres, as copyeditor/proofreader
- This year, I’m set to work with 10+ authors, as copyeditor for their book manuscripts.
- I’m doing a trade with a tough NYC love and relationship coach (vetting every word she sends out on the Web, in a barter for her coaching)
A few years back, I shared a way-cool video-screen-capture tool called Jing, that dramatically reduced time spent typing out explanations/edits to clients. Jing was grounded in Flash, which is now obsolete, and, as such, so is Jing.
BUT, the same TechSmith folks have come up with a replacement, Capture. Quick (and FREE) download for PC or Mac. How have I used it?
Say I’m submitting a first copy draft to a client, and want to “frame” her viewing by explaining a few things in the document. Instead of typing all my points out, I just open the document, open Capture, start recording, and talk and mouse my way through the document, pointing to the sections in question and delivering my explanations verbally.
Instead of typing for 15-20 minutes, I talk for three. And it’s more effective than typed notes because she can see exactly what I’m referring to as I talk about it.
When I’m done, one click uploads the video to another site, which instantly generates a URL, which I can grab and email to her along with the document.
Get it and you’ll come up with all sorts of time-saving reasons to use it. Since all we have as freelancers is our time, we need to maximize what we’re paid for that time. Plus, you’ll absolutely look more professional and buttoned-up, which will raise your value in clients’ eyes.