VOLUME 20, ISSUE 9 – SEPTEMBER 2021
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: EASY WORK &HIGH PAY?
What Good Clients REALLY Want (AND Will Pay Well for…)
II. “FIELD” GREENS: GOT CLIENT TESTIMONIALS?
Marketing Pro Delivers Solid How-to for Strong, Effective Blurbs
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: MAKING PROSPECTING HAPPEN
Small-Biz Writing Coach: 3 Strategies for Prospecting Consistently
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
NY FLCW Joins Group to Beat Freelance Isolation (& Lands Steady Gig!)
I. APPETIZER: EASY WORK & HIGH PAY?
What Good Clients REALLY Want (AND Will Pay Well for…)
Recently had a call with a Creative Director for a company I’ll likely be doing some writing for soon. I found myself nodding throughout the call as he explained what they were looking for, and the challenges he’s had finding writers who “get it.”
He talked about one writer who insisted on writing copy that was too high-brow, when he’d explained that their target audience was primarily blue-collar folks, with high-school educations, and, by definition, there was no point in getting too lofty with the copy.
Simple worked best, yet that writer just kept making it more complicated.
When it came time to talk about money, the one thing I wanted to clarify was this: given that he’d said the work is very simple, (i.e., “not rocket science”), with no need for brilliant writing, I wanted to make sure that Low Creativity didn’t equal Low Pay.
He quickly apologized for conveying that impression, though he understood how I might go there in my mind. He confirmed that, yes, while the work wasn’t super demanding, and that they were easy to please, that that definitely did not translate to “low pay.”
The main thing they were looking for? Someone who “got it” quickly, and turned in first drafts that needed little editing. Think about that. The work isn’t hard, the client’s easy to please, but they pay competitive rates (which I confirmed), and all they really expect is that you deliver without a lot of hassle.
I was smiling as he was saying this, and when he finished, I said, “This is exactly what I’ve been telling my writing crowd for decades. That good clients (i.e., those we want to work for) are all simply looking for the superior, predictable outcome, and quickly (i.e., rarely going much beyond first drafts), and that, within reason, will pay well to get it.”
His response: “Absolutely right.”
If you’re struggling with demanding clients who pay poorly, and you’re thinking that’s the best you can hope for, stories like the above should spur you to upgrade the caliber of your clients.
Yes, clients that pay well often do have higher expectations of a copywriter, but, as the above story demonstrates, those “higher” expectations are often in the category of “just give us what we want, without a lot of hassle.”
That’s the trade-off for folks like us: we don’t get to write what we want, but, rather, what others want. Yet, in exchange for that, we can get paid quite well. On that “keep-it-simple-stupid!” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: GOT CLIENT TESTIMONIALS?
Marketing Pro Delivers Solid How-to for Strong, Effective Blurbs!
Client testimonials are golden, and always more credible than your own advertising and promotion. This great—and compact—primer on landing solid client testimonials, from marketing expert and mentor, Marcia Yudkin, first appeared in one of her recent Marketing Minute emails (subscribe here).
When a client sends you praise, you may want to post their words immediately on your website and social media. But first, use this checklist to be sure you’re getting the most mileage out of such testimonials.
Permission: Always get written permission from your client. Some individuals prefer not to be publicly quoted, and some organizations forbid it.
Attribution: Fully signed quotes with a company name or the person’s location are strongest.
Editing: With the client’s permission, edit to eliminate typos and wordiness. Short and crisp gets the point across.
Emphasis: The most persuasive testimonials include an outcome, results or concrete impact of your product or service. Also powerful are a before-after comparison or how you overcame their initial skepticism.
Tone: Avoid using gushy quotes that amount to enthusiasm without any reasons for it.
Variety: Ensure the quotes you’re using make different points. Overall, they should showcase a diversity of satisfied clients and highlight factors that counteract doubts and objections.
Presentation: Where possible, preface each blurb with a boldface headline that provides a punchy summary.
PB: Hard to improve on the above, but I’d add this: Given how busy clients stay, when asking for a testimonial, don’t hesitate to offer to write it yourself, and run it past them for their approval.
Suggest either a quick phone call, where they can give you rough bullet points outlining why they like working with you; or an email where they share the same. Tell them you’ll flesh out those ideas, make it sound pretty, and, again, get their final OK.
Huge benefit of this approach (beyond the obvious of getting it faster) is that you can steer their comments in the direction YOU want to go. And, in my experience, unless you flat-out put words in their mouth that they didn’t say, they’ll be fine with it.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: MAKING PROSPECTING HAPPEN
Small-Biz Writing Coach: 3 Strategies for Prospecting Consistently
Ongoing prospecting is crucial, but it can get back-burnered way too easily. And then you wonder why the well ran dry!
In this great piece, small-business writing coach, Ed Gandia serves up some solid strategies for ensuring you make time for it. The key (not surprisingly) is to work with your human inclinations (to put it off), not fight them. Thanks, Ed!
Many of my coaching clients struggle to prospect consistently. They try to make time for it. They even set goals to send X number of prospecting emails a week.
But then three weeks will go by—and they realize they haven’t sent even one. It’s discouraging, and they beat themselves up about it. They wonder what they’re doing wrong.
Failure to prospecting consistently is understandable, especially when you’re slammed with work and other urgent tasks keep coming up. So, what to do?
Here are three strategies that can help:
- Shift your goal: Instead of focusing on the number of emails you’ll send out, shift to the amount of time you’ll spend on warm email-prospecting activities.
When we set goals that are based on the number of emails/calls/attempts we’ll make, we tend to be too optimistic. We think we can do more than we can during a reasonable amount of time.
Then, when we don’t reach our goal, we get discouraged. Instead, base your goal on the amount of time you’ll spend on this task. When you make it an “effort” goal instead of an “output” goal, you avoid the problem of overestimating how much you can get done.
- Start really, really small: When you decide on how much time to dedicate to the task, start by making it really, really small. That way, you’re way more likely to get it done.
This could be in range of 30 minutes to an hour a week. (You typically need at least 30 minutes to get into a prospecting task. One hour would be even better.) Even if you’re super busy, surely you can find at least 30 minutes to an hour in your week for this task.
When you commit to this time, don’t set any expectations of how many emails you’ll get out the door. Just put in the time. Shut down all distractions and focus solely on this task.
You’ll find that once you dive in and get into the zone, you often end up putting in more time than you’d originally planned.
- Shift from prospecting to nurturing: If you’re really busy with client work, shift from warm email prospecting to nurturing your not-yet-ready clients(NYR), past clients and dormant clients.
By nurturing, I simply mean staying in touch with these NYR, past or dormant clients. Send them some relevant information and a short note as a way to reconnect (e.g., “Hey Susan, I just came across this research report; I thought you might find it interesting. Hope things are well.”)
With nurturing (as opposed to prospecting), you won’t put yourself in the awkward situation of having to turn down work you’ve asked for. That’s because you weren’t asking for work with your nurturing effort—you were just staying in touch. So, let the prospect know that, while you’re booked solid right now, you do have an opening in “X” number of weeks.
Conclusion: Without a doubt, all of us struggle to prospect consistently. But it doesn’t have to be as hard as you think! Use these strategies to make the task more manageable, keep yourself motivated and build some momentum.
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
NY FLCW Joins Group to Beat Freelance Isolation (& Lands Steady Gig!)
A great combo success story/tip from NY-based financial-services copywriter, David Rodeck. I was part of a Toastmasters group years back, and it WAS both a great social activity and a true skill-builder. In David’s case, it paid rich financial dividends as well!
Freelance writing can get a bit lonely, especially if you work from home like I do. You don’t get the same daily interactions as a normal workplace; plus, no office parties or company trips.
To stay social, I’ve filled my evenings: I volunteer, I’m in Toastmasters, I take dance classes and I’m always on the lookout for Meetup events.
Not only does this help me stay social, it’s been an excellent source of leads. My best client ever came out of a Toastmasters public speaking contest. The Chief Judge of the group happened to work for Kiplinger, a national magazine I’ve always been a big fan of.
We got to talking after the event, he made some introductions, and I’ve been writing for them for over a year.
I find when you build those relationships out of shared interest, they’re so much stronger than standard networking events where you’re throwing out cards to strangers. I do these activities because I enjoy them.
Still, whenever I go out, I make sure to share what I do because you never know when someone needs a writer.