VOLUME 20, ISSUE 1 – JANUARY 2021
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: THE MASSIVE MARKETING-WRITING OPPORTUNITY
Article Underscores the Unfathomably Immense U.S. Market for Writing Services
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DITCH THE DOOM ‘N GLOOM!
ATL FLCW Shares: From 2020 Emotional Rollercoaster to Near-Best Year Ever!
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: 4 WAYS TO EARN MORE IN LESS TIME
Small-Biz Coach Shows How to Minimize the Costs of Landing New Work!
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SWEET SUCCESS STORY & TIP
SEO Writer Forwards Fun Video to Old Client, Lands Big Project!
I. APPETIZER: THE MASSIVE BUSINESS-WRITING OPPORTUNITY
Article Underscores the Unfathomably Immense U.S. Market for Writing Services
I don’t know about you, but I’ve stopped saying things like, “Here’s to a better 2021 (how could it be any worse than 2020?)” Don’t want to tempt the fates… 🙂
Superstition aside, I thought I’d start out the 2021 E-PUB with something I came across in early 2020. Yes, before everything turned to doo-doo, but it’s no doubt just as true today.
The article was, “U.S. States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs.”
The subtitle: “It’s pretty difficult to even comprehend how ridiculously large the US economy is.” The article matched every U.S. state to a foreign country with a GDP equivalent to that state’s GDP.
I bring this up, of course, to remind all of us that our country is home to a mind-blowingly, jaw-droppingly huge number of businesses, and hence, a commensurately huge volume of writing opportunities.
Sure, we all know how big the U.S. economy is, but until I saw the graphic that accompanied this article, I hadn’t really fathomed its immensity.
For example, New York state’s economy? As large as all of Canada’s economy. California’s economy (which, last I checked, would be the fifth largest GDP in the world, if California was a separate country), equals India’s economy. Texas’s economy roughly equals Brazil’s economy.
My state of Georgia? A GDP match for Pacific Rim powerhouse economy, Taiwan. Ohio = Turkey. Minnesota = Israel. Tennessee = Ireland. Oklahoma = New Zealand. And so on.
Every one of those individual state GDPs translates to an enormous number of companies working hard to grow and thrive. All of which requires consistent marketing, which, in turn, requires writing.
Which, in turn, can only be done in-house or hired out. Plenty do the former, but a huge number don’t.
Yes, we still have to ferret out the companies who’re prospects for services like ours, and land the work, but if you had any lingering (and silly) notions that there wasn’t enough opportunity out there, hopefully this neatly annihilates those benighted ideas.
Even with a certain amount of economic contraction, thanks to the crazy events of 2020, the opportunity for folks like us is vaster than any of us can ever imagine. And, as I’m fond of repeating, any given one of us only needs a tiny bit of the whole to do quite well.
So, even if you could clone yourself 100 times over, you couldn’t begin to blanket all the possible opportunities. On that “embarrassment-of-riches” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: DITCH THE DOOM ‘N GLOOM!
ATL FLCW Shares: From 2020 Emotional Rollercoaster to Near-Best Year Ever!
I literally got this great piece yesterday—the day before the (already queued-up) E-PUB ran, but thought it was important enough to “stop the presses.”
ATL-based Don Sadler, whose advice and wisdom has graced the E-PUB before, is an exceptionally successful FLCW specializing in financial-services writing. His wise contribution here nicely complements my “Appetizer” above. Read and heed!
Looking Back at 2020: An Important Lesson Learned
Enough jokes have been made about how bad 2020 was, so instead, I’ll share what happened to my business last year and what I learned from it.
2020 started off like gangbusters. It was shaping up to be my best year yet—until COVID. While things stayed pretty steady during the first months of the pandemic, they slowed down considerably over the summer and into fall. Long-time clients hit the brakes, several good prospects fell through and my usual steady flow of leads slowed to a trickle (if that).
I won’t lie—I started to get pretty nervous. But then in September, I landed a huge new client out of the blue. And then another one soon after! Then, one of my regular blog-writing clients who’d paused in May started back up. Before I knew it, my workload was full again and my monthly income was back to its usual level.
When I closed out my books at the end of December, 2020 ended up being my best year in three years!
What did I learn? Don’t get caught up in the “gloom and doom” that dominates the media—everything, really—during times of national economic crisis. Instead, stay focused on the things you can control (like your own marketing efforts) and filter out all the outside noise.
Peter often stresses that, given what a small sliver of the overall “copywriting pie” one freelancer needs to make a good living, “the state of the economy” just doesn’t matter all that much. I couldn’t agree more!
So, what’s in store for us in 2021? We all hope things are going to be better, but nobody really knows. Regardless, make it your resolution to block out all the static, keep your head down and stay focused on your business. That’s the only thing you can control—and it’s enough!
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: 4 WAYS TO EARN MORE IN LESS TIME
Small-Biz Coach Shows How to Minimize the Costs of Landing New Work!
Great piece to start out the New Year, from Atlanta small-business coach, friend and colleague Ed Gandia. If you’ve ever thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just focus on writing” (vs. the selling, marketing, admin, etc.), you’ll love this piece. Enjoy!
Freelancing is both a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because you’re in charge. YOU call the shots — not some overpaid and incompetent boss who has no business managing people.
But freelancing is also a curse because you’re on your own. Which means you have to wear all the hats. You have to do all the marketing. All the selling. All the production work, customer service, finance, accounting, HR and R&D.
That’s a lot of hats! And when you’re pulled in so many directions, your income can suffer.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to help offset this. One of the most important is to lower your “project acquisition” cost: the time, effort, energy and cost required to land a new project.
This is important, because when you lower the cost and effort required to land that next project, you can spend more time on billable activities and less time wearing all those other hats I mentioned earlier.
How can you do that? Here are four ideas:
#1: Look for larger clients: Larger clients have more, bigger, and recurring needs. When most of your clients have “one off” projects only, you don’t get a chance to cover your acquisition costs. That’s because onboarding a client takes a lot of time and effort. You need multiple projects to help offset that.
#2: Actively seek referrals: Prospects who are referred are 10X easier to convert to clients, assuming they’re a good fit. Tell your clients from the very beginning that you expect referrals from them if they’re thrilled with your work. Mention this early in the relationship.
And, make referrals a key component of your marketing, not an afterthought.
#3: Entrench yourself in the organization: Become much more than an order taker. Become someone who regularly brings ideas to the table. Go the extra mile. Think of yourself as a member of their team. Show your clients you truly care about them. Refer them to others where appropriate.
#4: Implement a formal lead-nurturing process: Most writers only want to deal with prospects who are ready to hire someone NOW. But studies have shown that about 90 percent of prospects who inquire about our services are not ready to hire us today. Yet, most will hire a writer within the next 18 months.
A simple “staying in touch” strategy with these qualified not-yet-ready leads helps ensure you’re the first writer they think of when the timing is right.
Better yet, the bulk of the “selling” is already done, because you’ve stayed in touch, demonstrated value and developed trust.
Now the client is ready to go…and you’re the first person they think of.
Optimize Your Efforts with These Four Strategies
If you’re looking to earn more in less time as a solo practitioner, you have to optimize your efforts. That means spending less time on non-billable activities and more time working on lucrative projects.
Just one of these ideas, implemented well, will make a huge difference in your business. Two or more will create a multiplier effect that will transform your business.
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SWEET SUCCESS STORY & TIP
SEO Writer Forwards Fun Video to Old Client, Lands Big Project!
Got this fun success story/lesson from SEO copywriting pro, Katherine Andes (subscribe to Kathy’s great Easy Web Tips at the link above).
Remember: It’s ALWAYS easier to get more work from an existing client than land a new client. And, as you’ll see, Kathy kept in touch with this client, not by asking if he had any work, but by sending him something she knew he’d enjoy seeing.
That’s all about him, not her. The way it should be.
By the way, the nasty-car-clean-up video she mentions is a hoot. As one of those people who actually enjoys cleaning, and turning chaos into order, the video absolutely resonated. It was almost meditative… 😉
My daughter got me into watching The Detail Geek on YouTube. It features a guy named Mitch who details the most awful vehicles and gets them to looking like new. I started watching them late at night to relax. Mitch seems to be almost Zen-like in his ability to take a filthy vehicle and to make it sparkle. I loved his garage setup and all his cool tools, too.
While watching, I got to thinking of a former client from a few years back. He’s an entrepreneur in the automobile industry. I thought he would enjoy the channel so I sent him a link:
Deep-Cleaning the NASTIEST Vehicle I’ve Ever Seen!
A day or two later, I got an email from him saying he’d watched the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then he said he was going to be in my area visiting dealerships and would I meet him for a coffee. “Sure,” I said. I’d never met him, as we’d always worked remotely.
When we met for lunch, he asked me to do a white paper for him, along with a series of press releases and articles. I told him I’d never done a white paper. He didn’t care. He knew I could do it and I knew it, too.
Near the end of the meeting, I mentioned that he must need to get to his dealer appointment, and he said he was just dropping by the dealership since he was in town. He really came to meet with me. I was honored. He could have hired a big agency, but he chose little ‘ole me.
The moral? It’s always good to check in with old clients, not necessarily as part of your “every-six-months” routine, but when you run across something you think they’d appreciate.