VOLUME 17, ISSUE 3 – MARCH 2018
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: WHAT IF A TON OF PROSPECTING YIELDS NOTHING?
Yours Truly Shares 6 Things to Check and 4 Things to Remember!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: ARE YOU A “WILL-DO” WRITER?
FL FLCW Reminds: Do What It Takes to Make the Client Happy!
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: WHERE DO YOUR SENTENCES SING? (Part 2 of 2)
CA FLCW Shares His Optimal Writing Space and Challenges Us to Do the Same
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
NY Writer Lets Existing Projects Do the Marketing for Him!
TIP: Want Better Proofreading? SEO Pro Says: Let Your Computer Do the Talking!
I. APPETIZER: WHAT IF A TON OF PROSPECTING YIELDS NOTHING?
Yours Truly Shares 6 Things to Check and 4 Things to Remember!
Got an email the other day similar to many I’ve received over the years. The gist:
I’ve made 500+ (or 600 or 1000) contacts, and I still haven’t gotten much interest/landed any work. What’s going on?
Sometimes they’re freaking, sometimes not (but close). I’ve been there, believe me, as has anyone who’s now thriving. I never know what to say: After all, there are so many unknowns, that it’s hard to gauge what’s going on. And those unknowns include:
1) What’s your pitch, and how are you coming across? (i.e., talking too fast, saying/writing too much, making it all about you, not them, etc.)
2) Have you made those 500/600/1000 contacts over 2 months or 2 years? They’re absolutely not the same; momentum definitely matters.
3) How solid are your samples and website? Yes, you need a site with a portfolio. Is your portfolio just articles/blog posts, while claiming proficiency in all types of marketing copy? (And if you WANT to claim proficiency, check out The Well-Fed Craft.)
4) How realistic are your expectations? Do you imagine this should be easy? Do you realize there’s a non-trivial, ramp-up cycle to profitability?
5) What is your threshold for uncertainty and lack of tangible success? Are you used to everything coming fairly easily? Do you have a strong “stick-to-it-iveness” streak?
6) Do you have a well-defined niche or are you a generalist? Generalists can certainly make it, but those with an in-demand niche will always have an easier go of it.
All that said, here are a few things I DO know:
1) This is NOT an easy business. Any business that can pay what ours does, is going to take a lot of butt-busting to get you to enduring profitability.
2) There’s no magic number of contacts that once made, spell automatic success. The list above underscores the futility of hard-and-fast rules. For some writers, 500 may be enough; for others, 2000 might not be.
3) “Is this still a good opportunity?” is an irrelevant question. This business is a “by-definition” opportunity: As long as there’s a “business world,” there will be an ongoing, never-ending need for our services. Period. As such…
4) Assuming you’re a good writer with good samples/website (big plus if you’re “niched”), and are consistent in your marketing, the only way you’ll fail is if you quit.
Put another way—and I apologize if this sounds glib and a bit cold—don’t claim companies aren’t hiring writers anymore (see #3 above). You may not have found any to hire you yet, but that’s a very different thing.
On that “bad-news-good-news-reality-check” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: ARE YOU A “WILL-DO” WRITER?
FL FLCW Reminds: Do What It Takes to Make the Client Happy!
Got this timeless piece of advice from Gainesville, FL-based FLCW Jean Feingold. Fact is, being easy to work with is one of the most reliable predictors of enduring success. About the writing life, Jean says, “I’m fortunate to have work people will pay for—work that’s always changing and which doesn’t require going to an office at a certain time dressed a certain way.” Amen to that.
The most powerful words a writer can ever say to a client are “No problem, I’ll take care of it.” When you accepted the assignment, the agreement, implicit or explicit, was that you would provide the written material the client requested. That means you have to leave your ego behind and do it the way the client wants.
You’re not writing The Great American Novel here. You’re writing to communicate your client’s information. If your first take is not to their liking, you’re obligated to give it another try and to be cheerful (at least as far as they know) while you do it.
A client for whom I was doing search-engine-optimized writing for a website, wanted me to use a split infinitive. I politely asked why, and he explained that the wrong way from an English grammar perspective was the right way for search.
His data showed many more people split the infinitive when they typed their query into the search box, so the chances of them finding his website were enhanced by doing the same in the copy.
Remember: When dealing with clients, the client is always right – even when they aren’t. Forget this truth and watch your clients go elsewhere.
Are there unreasonable clients who are impossible to please? Yes, I’ve had a few and I made the decision to stop working with them. Fortunately, they’re the rare exceptions.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: WHERE DO YOUR SENTENCES SING? (Part 2 of 2)
CA FLCW Shares His Optimal Writing Space and Challenges Us to Do the Same
Got this cool and colorful two-part contribution from Watsonville, CA FLCW Tom Bentley. WHERE we physically write can make or break the quality of the outcome. In Part 1 last month, Tom shared his funky digs while getting us to think about something we may not have (but should). In this month’s conclusion, he turns the conversation in our direction. Great stuff – thanks, Tom!
Of course, what works for me might be productivity sludge for you. A new year has begun: why not take a look at where you work and how you work there, and whether those choices bring out your finest labors.
If you have room-flexibility in your house, you might try a different work area, or different workplace setup. Do your days end with your neck cricked and your head throbbing? Might be easily resolved by making sure your ergonomic setup—mouse, monitor and chair positions—are best suited for you.
Have you always worked with open windows and doors, so noise is a part of your work environment? Try closing them and see if it makes a difference. If that’s not possible, try earplugs, or perhaps one of those white-noise generators. You might face your desk away from the window it’s always faced—more focus might be the result.
What about timing? For many people, there’s heightened energy and focus early in the morning, falling toward mid-day, and crashing in the early afternoon, only to rise again later. Note your own energy patterns: Can you schedule your work approaches so that your creative work is done when your fires are crackling and perhaps your invoicing and administrative work when those fires are banked?
Could switching up your work habits kick them up to another gear? As I said, I’m not one to seek out coffee-shop buzz to bring out the productivity honey, but perhaps stale routines make for rancid writing.
Maybe mixing up home-office hours with bringing your laptop onto a commuter bus would be the thing to shake up unproductive patterns. I’ve read of famous writers who can’t get out a solid sentence during the day, but unleash their inner vampires in the wee hours, readily spilling their creative blood on the page. (Not for this scribe: I’m asleep well before the midnight hour.)
So, take a look at your routines with an unjaundiced eye. Have you set up your work environment, hours and attitude without much thought? Making changes, even small ones, can make a big difference. Oh, but if you’ve got kids at home, you’re on your own. That’s a challenge for an expert; I have enough trouble just making my cat happy.
And this one’s always worth trying: turn off your email notifications, your Twitter and Facebook beeps and burps, and face the page alone. In fact, lock your phone up in a wall safe; you’ll be amazed what you can do minus superficial distractions.
A great privilege it is to be able to work from home, and a greater gift to be able to work with words, the dizzying whirligigs that they are.
Where do you hang your writing hat?
Tom Bentley is a business copywriter and editor, fiction writer and editor, travel writer and essayist. He’s the author of Think Like a Writer: How to Write the Stories You See. His singing has been known to frighten the horses.
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
NY Writer Lets Existing Projects Do the Marketing for Him!
TIP: Want Better Proofreading? SEO Pro Says: Let Your Computer Do the Talking!
A wonderful success story/tip from David Rodeck, a Brooklyn, NY-based marketing writer for the financial services industry. It always makes sense to capitalize on ANY “background of relatedness” with a client. After that, a great technology tip for ensuring your copy is error-free—always a good goal!
I recently worked on a project for Forbes—the top 10 credit cards of 2018. I realized that I had previously contacted many of the companies on the list for work, with no luck.
I called them up again as a marketing catch-up call, but also to congratulate them for making the list with Forbes.
They were all much more responsive than when I reached out the first time. All asked me to forward copies of the guide and a couple asked me to follow up on possible projects over the next couple months.
I came across as a much more established writer and also made it seem like I was doing these prospects a favor. The best thing is it took virtually no extra work on my part since I leveraged a project that was happening anyway.
This strategy could work even if you don’t write for publications and only handle commercial writing. Do you ever write “Top 10” lists or other articles recommending a specific company or product? Why not use that as a lead-in during a cold call?
Sure, a post on a small company’s blog might not be as interesting as a national magazine, but it still shows the prospect you think highly of them and are giving them a little free publicity.
Who wouldn’t want to hire that kind of writer? Marketing gets a lot easier when you let your past assignments do the work for you.
I read years ago that when visually proofreading written material, your eyes/mind will automatically correct errors you see, and have you miss things. Anyone who’s ever lamented, “I proofed this 8 times, and my readers STILL found errors,” gets it.
So, I started slowly dictating my copy out loud to proof it—doing an end-around my eyes/mind, so they can’t pull their usual “nothing-to-see-here!” trick.
My friend, colleague and SEO copywriter, Katherine Andes (subscribe to her Easy Web Tips by clicking her name above), takes this strategy to another level by suggesting we enable the text-to-talk feature on our PC or Mac. To her mind, it prevents you from zoning out while you’re dictating, and letting things slip by.
She writes: “My computer’s ‘text-to-speech’ function helps me listen better (perhaps it’s the different voice).” She offers the following how-to:
Mac Users: Select the section you want read back to you and press Option+Esc. If that doesn’t work, try enabling the tool by the following:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences > Dictation & Speech > Text to Speech
- Check the “Speak selected text when the key is pressed” checkbox (default is Option+Esc).
- To have your Mac start speaking, press the Option+Esc, or whichever keys you’ve designated. To stop the speaking, press the keys again.
PC Users: My PC guru/colleague, Tim Torian, sent these Windows 10 instructions:
- Highlight the text you wish read.
- Press the Windows Logo Key+Ctrl+Enter.
- If your device has a touch screen, tap it three times with four fingers.
- To see all Narrator commands, press Caps Lock+F1 after you open Narrator.