freelance copywriter Archives - Page 4 of 5

6 in 6 Freelance Copywriter Report – 3 Months

June 14, 2016 by Tanya Brody 1 Comment

I’m still at it and still solvent. Both of these things are very exciting to me. It means although I’m not progressing as fast as I’d like, I’m successful and I’m making this freelance copywriter thing work.

I’ve finished 2 major contracts and 1 minor contract. I have at least 1 upcoming project and I have several proposals out that just need to be finalized. I’ve also been contacted by 2 more possible clients, so I feel like work will be coming in. I’ll be a lot happier when everything is in writing and I’m working on whatever’s next.

I’ve discovered a few things about myself in the past 3 months:

I’m more inclined to work on a client’s project than my own projects, like marketing. This is good, because clients pay me to get their work done. However, it does mean my own business is growing more slowly than I’d like.

I’ll put off writing my own blog posts to do other things. This is bad because it means I’m not keeping up a “regular conversation” with all of you. I need to get better at this.

I really love what I do as a freelance copywriter! I enjoy going from one subject to another. I love learning about new things. New writing techniques, new marketing ideas, new subjects, new products, I find all of it fascinating.

I love focusing on my work. I am the sort of person who will get going on a project and look up 5 hours later to say “Oh, I should eat something.” I try to be careful of this, but I love being “in the zone” so I stay there whenever possible.

Even though I’ve been a freelancer before, I regularly gain a new appreciation for all of the stuff that goes into running a business.

In the last couple of months, I’ve investigated time tracking software, bookkeeping software, memberships to various organizations, as well as several educational programs. I’ve sat through webinars on new products to help my freelance copywriter business. I’ve even purchased or tried a few of those products. I’ve rejected a lot more.

I think one of the hardest things about being a business owner is the day-to-day “running the business” stuff. I think many of us go into our own businesses with grandiose ideas of what it will be like to “be in charge of our own fate.” It’s all very exciting, until you remember someone has to take care of invoices and pay the taxes.

So as a fellow business owner, I would encourage you to remember the day-to-day stuff, as well as the fun stuff. For me, the fun stuff is writing my clients’ projects. But I also enjoy doing my own marketing, when I make time for it.

The day-to-day stuff is remembering to turn on my work timer so I’m keeping track of my hours. Or remembering to make out the invoice so I can get paid. It’s figuring out how many hours it will really take me to complete a client project, not just how many I think it will take.

If you can’t do the day-to-day stuff very well, maybe it’s time to delegate some of that to someone else. I don’t think I’m at that point yet, but I expect I will be soon.

So, here’s to our growing businesses. May they continue to thrive. And may we be able to get all the work done, including the day-to-day stuff.

I’m off to do the day-to-day stuff. Like pay my taxes.

Where are you with your business? How do you handle the day-to-day parts of running your business? Tell me about it in the comments.

6 in 6 Freelance Copywriter Progress Report – 2 Months

May 13, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

2 months in and I’m still reservedly thinking this freelance copywriter thing can work. This month hasn’t been as wonderful as I would have liked, but things are still heading in the right direction.

This has been a bad news – good news month. So I may as well start with the bad news.

Projects haven’t been going as smoothly as I would have hoped. I wanted to have my first two projects done by now. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. Some of that is on me. Life can get in the way of doing what we want. Some of it is just the reality of timing and clients getting back to me with responses.

I am always respectful of the fact that I am only one factor in my clients’ businesses. And until I’m the thing on their desk that is “on fire” I will be pushed to the back of the line. So when I have to, I ignite the flame. Believe it or not, everyone wins that way. I get the responses I need and they get their marketing done without having to do it all themselves.

The difficult part of not completing these projects is not getting paid. Fortunately, I had some money set aside to cover myself during this time. Unfortunately, I’m steadily burning through that money. Having been a freelancer in the past, I am well aware of this ebb and flow. As another freelancer friend of mine said, “Sometimes you eat chicken and sometimes you eat feathers.”

Now onto the good news.

There is definitely work on the horizon. I signed one new contract this month and have completed the first draft. This particular client could become a regular, which makes me happy because I really like his niche and how he works. It’s fun to be the “voice” for people who have interesting ideas.

There are several other contracts either promised as soon as “things come through” or in the works. I also have potential clients contacting me about projects they’ll need further out, or on a “Hey, can you fit this in?” basis. This bodes well for the future, but I’ll be happier when everything is in writing. It’s just the way I am.

As I mentioned in my last 6 in 6 report, I won a free subscription to Bryan Harris’s Get 10,000 Subscribers course. So I’ve been building my own email list. My main focus for this new list is potential clients. It’s a monthly round up of blog posts, updates and copywriting tips. I figure it never hurts to stay on people’s radar.

If you’re interested in hiring me as your freelance copywriter, or if you want to keep me top of mind to recommend me on to others, please feel free to join the list here.

Of course, I always encourage people to join the weekly blog post notification list too.

And finally, a bit of “even better” news.

When I was laid off in January, I applied for unemployment benefits. (As one does.) Up until now I think I’ve collected all of $300 on a particularly slow week. Because I’ve been working for myself, the state says I’m making money and don’t qualify to collect my unemployment.

Here in Minnesota, the state unemployment insurance program has something called the CLIMB program. CLIMB stands for Converting Layoffs Into Minnesota Businesses. Basically, it allows people who are starting their own businesses to collect unemployment while working on their own companies.

As of this past Tuesday, I am officially enrolled in the program. This means I’ll get my full unemployment benefits every week, without being penalized for working on my own business. Quite the opposite. I’m required to work at least 32 hours a week on my own business. No problem!

I’ll still have to report my work activities every week, but that’s not a big deal. Having this extra income ensures I can pay my bills during the lean times and build my reserves back up when things are going well.

I’m going to write a post about this program next week, just because I think it’s so cool. Other states have similar programs, so if you’re in a similar situation maybe you can take advantage of it too.

Overall, I feel like I’m still on track to make my goal of making $6,000 a month in 6 months as a freelance copywriter. Not declaring official success yet, but I still have 4 months to go.

Questions? Comments? Encouragement? Please leave them below.

How to Identify Your Target Audience in 3 Easy Steps (And Save Yourself Thousands of Dollars on Advertising)

May 6, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

Who are you talking to?

I’m completely serious here. Who are you talking to with your marketing? Do you have a target audience or are you just throwing money away trying to hit anyone and everyone you possibly can?

I am astonished by how many small business owners and entrepreneurs create a product or service and just assume that they can sell it to everyone. Whatever it is, you can’t. You’re wasting your advertising budget.

Even major retailers that sell just about everything under the sun have specific target audiences. Target and Walmart go after a totally different economic group than Nordstrom and Macy’s.

Identifying your target market is one of the most important steps in creating your marketing plan. It’s also the first thing you should do. In fact, it’s the first thing every copywriter is taught to do when writing any promotional piece.

Knowing your target audience can make your marketing campaigns less expensive and more effective. Take the time to figure out who you’re talking to. You’ll find it’s a win-win.

Here are 3 easy steps to identify your target market and make your entire marketing plan much easier.

Research Your Target Audience’s Demographics

Even if your product is so cutting edge it “solves problems you never knew you had,” you can figure out the demographics of your target audience.

Back when I was writing websites for lawyers, I would ask them about their target market demographics. A standard answer was “anyone with money and a pulse.” A very broad audience indeed.

But as we continued to talk, I’d wheedle more information out of them. For instance, some of the personal injury lawyers would tell me they didn’t want the “cheap” cases. So they were really looking for clients with injuries serious enough to need a lot of medical treatment.

I’d get some great information when I asked about the education level of their average client. Even an answer like “oh, most of them have graduated from high school and some of them have attended a couple years of college” told me a lot.

You can figure out your target audience’s basic demographics by asking yourself a couple of basic questions.

Who can afford my product?

If you’re selling your product for $19.99, you have a very different target market than if you’re selling it for $97, or even $997. Asking who can afford your product will give you a broad idea of your target audience’s income level. Once you know that, you can narrow down the income level of the customers you’re going after.

Who will find my product useful?

Some companies promote their products to anyone and everyone. I regularly get promotional postcards from the Westonka School District and Foss Swim School telling me about their children’s activities and lessons. I am a single woman living in a 1-bedroom house. I wish they would do their research and save their printing and postage.

A great demographic exercise is to ask yourself “who is this product for?” Take the time to write down your answers. Your answers can be as simple as “for mothers” or as detailed as “for working mothers who have toddlers between 18 months and 3 years.”

You can also include time and place: “For working mothers to give to their toddlers as a snack while they’re in the car or being pushed in a stroller.”

You may even find a whole new sub-set of people who would find your product useful: “For active working mothers who are pushing their toddlers in a jogging stroller while getting their daily exercise.”

The nice thing about this exercise is it helps you decide who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about.

Filling in the Gaps

From here, you can refine your customer demographics with research. You can find lots of information on the Internet about demographic groups, including generational information and basic group traits. Use these as a starting point, then drill down to find the demographics of the people who will be your best potential customers.

If you use Google Analytics, their system keeps track of a lot of demographic information. You can use this to build an audience profile based on the people who have visited your website.

Google Analytics dashboard

I like to develop a full picture of my clients’ customers, including:

Age
Gender
Income
Where they live
The kind of car they drive
Where they hang out on the Internet
Their basic shopping habits
What they do for a living
Marital status
Family

You can make this list as long or as short as you’d like. My list is pretty extensive. I have a degree in creative writing and theater, so I want to get an in-depth picture of my target audience. Download my Customer Persona sheet to get ideas for researching your own target audience.

You can get great target audience information directly from your current customers by asking them to fill out a simple survey. If you’re starting a new company and launching a new product, you can survey your email list of interested customers. There are a lot of free survey tools and sites out there. My favorites are Survey Monkey and Google Forms.

Psychographics and Behaviors

Now that you know your target audience a bit better, you should get a feel for their interests. This includes their political leanings, hobbies and their religion or spiritual beliefs. This will help you deliver your message more effectively.

Why should you delve into this information? Because you’ll have a very different conversation with a 20-something male who is in to juicing and organic farming than you will with a 50-something female who is a devout Evangelical Christian and the head of a women’s knitting and quilting club that makes blankets for needy children.

This information is going to help you shape your message, especially when you have different subsets within your target audience. You should target your marketing for each group to get the best return on investment (ROI).

Again, I tend to get pretty in-depth here. I think about what types of magazines, music and TV shows my target audience would watch. (Most of this is guesswork, but it helps me get a better picture of who I’m writing to.)

You also need to look at their emotions. This includes their hopes and fears, and what they want in the immediate and long-term. Understanding these psychographics will let you push the emotional triggers that are more likely to make your target audience opt-in or buy.

You can figure some of this out by looking at advertisements for products that are similar to yours. Are they targeting the same audience? What are they focusing on? What emotions are they trying to evoke in their ads?

Interview Someone in Your Target Audience

Now that you’ve researched your target audience, find someone who matches that profile and ask them out for coffee. You almost certainly know someone who fits the description you’ve just created. If not, you know someone who knows someone.

Ask this person questions about their life, their concerns and their problems. Ask them what products they use now to deal with these problems:

Are they effective?
Are they happy with these products?
What do they like?
What would they change?

Talk to them about your product and see how they respond. Ask them how it would help in their daily life, how they would use it and how they would benefit. If the person is interested in trying your product, offer them a sample and ask them to give you a testimonial if they like it.

I recommend recording your conversation (with the interviewee’s permission). I always record my interviews because everyone talks faster than I can type and I don’t want to miss something important. Most smart phones have a recording app already installed. If not, there are plenty you can download.

Create Your Customer Persona

Use all of the information you’ve gathered to build a customer persona. This is a full character sketch of your target audience. Again, this can be as long or as short as you’d like. But you should include:

Basic demographics like age, income, profession and gender.
Basic psychographics, especially their motivations, hopes and fears.
The problem they’re facing and the pain points it causes.
How your product can solve that problem and ease those pain points.

When I create customer personas for my clients, I give this person a name and add a picture so I always know who I’m writing to. I feel like having a name and a face helps me to have a better “conversation” with my target audience.

Starting the Conversation

Now that you know who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about, you’ll have a much easier time promoting your product to the people who will actually buy it.

You can use this information when you’re writing your promotional copy and ads. You can also use it to target your online advertising, such as Facebook and Google Ads. Each of these platforms have systems that let you drill down to show your ads only to your target audience. You can get as specific as the example of the active mother with the toddler I gave above.

Most importantly, you have a much better idea of who you want your customer to be. Now your marketing campaigns will be effective and bring in the people who will spend money and increase your bottom line. Congratulations. Your hard work will save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every year.

Want to get into the demographics of your target audience the same way I do? Click on the button below to Download my Customer Persona sheet.

DOWNLOAD MY CUSTOMER PERSONA SHEET

Do you know your target audience? Tell me about them in the comments section below.

Time is Short – Follow Your Dreams

April 22, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

I was going to write something lofty and important about being a full-time freelance copywriter or small business person this week. Something that should have helped others to start or run their own small businesses.

But yesterday morning, a Minnesota Icon died.

Out of the blue.

Just in case you haven’t turned on the news or a radio station or been on the Internet in the last 24 hours, Prince died yesterday around 10:00 am. He was found unresponsive in an elevator at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, MN, less than half an hour from where I live.

We’re all in shock here in Minnesota. When I wrote this, there was a huge block party happening in front of First Avenue, the venue where Prince filmed Purple Rain. More are scheduled for tonight and tomorrow.

Growing up in Minnesota, in the eighties, you couldn’t help but be influenced by Prince’s music. He was the hometown hero. His music was everywhere, school dances, the radio, blasting out of boom boxes and on television. So while Prince wasn’t one of my all-time favorites, I do consider myself a fan.

Prince was a self-taught virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, songwriter, you name it. He was one of the most talented musicians of our time. Whether you like his music or not, ya gotta give the guy some credit. He really was fantastic.

Everyone comments on how eccentric he was. And he was. By all accounts, he was a fabulous, shy, little powerhouse of a man. He was most comfortable on stage performing. He was very private. But he was very kind and giving.

He supported other musicians in their careers. He gave free concerts. He held parties and concerts at Paisley Park. He’d show up at other musicians’ concerts and randomly join them on stage, playing some incredible music with them. You can read all the stories elsewhere on the Internet. He was an amazing guy.

He was also a very savvy businessman. He controlled his image very carefully, insisting that videos and pictures that weren’t authorized be taken down. He removed his music from most streaming services in protest of how poorly musicians are paid for their art.

And the crazy love symbol thing? For those who don’t know, that was actually a battle with his record label, Warner Bros. He felt he wasn’t being treated fairly when they tried to slow the release of his CDs. So to get out of his contract he changed his name to what became known as Love Symbol #2.

But this post really isn’t about Prince.

It’s about time.

It’s about the fact that we have no idea when Death will come for us.

So if you have a dream, do it. Follow your dreams now. That way when your time is up, you can say you accomplished the things you wanted to. Even if you failed at them. At least you tried.

I’ve failed numerous times. And each time, I learned something from that failure. And I can say I tried.

I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life. I’ve had the resources to follow my dreams, no matter how crazy they were. My incredibly tolerant and supportive family has helped me through a lot. I owe them big time. But they all understand that dreams are important and you have to follow them.

I have a degree in creative writing and theater. I wanted to be a full-time actor when I graduated from college. (Among my acting credits is being an extra in Sign O’ the Times, so there’s my Prince tie-in. One of the many benefits of growing up in Minneapolis.)

I’ve run my own business making costumes, primarily for people performing at Renaissance Festivals, but also for local theater productions. I’ve toured the country as a professional musician, playing at those Renaissance Festivals and as part of a Celtic band.

I’ve been very lucky to be able to follow my dreams, even if I’ve failed at some of them.

But if you don’t try, you’ll never know if you’ll succeed or fail.

Which is why I’m doing what I’m doing right now. Until I try being a full-time freelance copywriter, I’ll never know if I can do it.

So I’m encouraging you follow your dreams too. You don’t have to take the crazy leap of faith like I did. You can work your way into it.

Or maybe you have a dream that doesn’t involve upending your life. Maybe you want to travel because you’ve never left your home state, province or country. Maybe you want to learn to paint, just because. Maybe you want to become a sommelier, so you can say you did it.

Go do it. Even if you fail, trying can be considered a success.

Prince did it. He lived a spectacular life. I’m sure in amongst all his successes, he had some amazing failures too. It wouldn’t be life without them.

Follow your dreams. No matter how big, or small they may be.

Because we all get the same thing, we get a life. How we use it is what defines us.

Tell me about your dreams and how you plan to make them happen in the comments below.

6 in 6 Freelance Copywriter Progress Report – 1 Month

April 13, 2016 by Tanya Brody 2 Comments

One month ago today I started this blog with the goal of making $6,000 net a month in 6 months as a freelance copywriter. So I figured this would be a good time to check in to let you know how I’m doing.

I was laid off on January 20^th. By the beginning of March, I had 2 clients, both of whom came to me through referrals. Yes, I started this blog with 2 clients. That’s part of the reason I decided to write about the journey I’m on. I finally knew where I was going.

Since the beginning of March I have received signed contracts from both clients and each client has paid half of their fee up front, for a total of $5,750. That’s close to what I want to be earning a month net, but definitely not there yet. I’ve got some serious work to do.

I do have a project starting in May, but I haven’t received a deposit on that one yet. I have also been pursuing other potential clients, some of whom have approached me and some of whom I have reached out to. I’ll let you know when those pan out.

I’ve also been networking in every way possible, including offering my services to a non-profit my father is involved in. I’ve reached out to friends and family. I’ve used social media, job boards and various other channels to tell the world I’m a freelance copywriter looking for clients.

Some of those connections have paid off, with various people contacting me, asking if I’m interested in a project. As I write this post, I’m waiting to hear from a friend regarding one of those projects.

I’m not yet prepared to say this freelance copywriter thing is even remotely a success. But it does have the potential to become one. And the Universe, or (insert your choice of deity here), does seem to be steering me in this direction.

Here’s how I know.

As mentioned in an earlier post, people (including those of you reading this post) keep sending me support and potential clients.

I have managed to secure two client contracts, both of which I am enjoying writing.

I’m learning tons. Even if this doesn’t pan out in the end, I can honestly say it was a learning experience.

I attended the Brian Clark/Bryan Harris email list building webinar on Monday and won a free “Get 10,000 Subscribers” course. (If that isn’t the Universe pointing me in the right direction, what is? I have a lot of list-building work to do now. Phew!)

I honestly feel like I’m off to a good start. I’m not where I want to be yet, but hey, I’m logging my 1-month mark. I’m doing pretty well. Stay tuned to see if I keep going up or if I hit a snag somewhere along the line.

So… yeah. After being laid off and not knowing what to do next, I can honestly say that so far, this freelance copywriter thing is a good idea. Not sure if it’s my “forever” career yet (though I want it to be). But it’s so crazy, it just might work.

I’ll report in again in another month.

Cheers,

Tanya