Effective Ways to Find Copywriting Clients Part 4. The Raw Folly of Online Copywriter Groups. Direct Response Copywriter Email Archive September 2018 3.
/September 2018 3
From the desk of Scott Martin, direct response copywriter, Aspen, Colorado.
The Most Effective Way to Find Great Clients. Part 4.
Groups ... The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly ...
Quite a few writers and marketers have joined the list of people who receive these emails. Welcome!
I'm a member of several Facebook groups dedicated to copywriting. I'm also in some Linked In groups.
There’s quite a bit of action in the Facebook groups, with quite a few clients looking for copywriters. I’ve contacted some of these clients and it’s always been a waste of time. D-grade clients looking for cheap work but expecting A-grade work. In fact, I saw a former client looking for copywriters in one of the Facebook groups. This client was disorganized and not that good a marketer. Good luck to him.
Last week, on a Facebook group posting, I saw some advice that was totally wrong. So I wrote a post saying, “that advice was totally wrong.” The moderator lambasted me for criticizing the advice and the person giving the advice. What am I supposed to do? Say something is great when it's clearly awful?
So there are two things happening in those groups. Bad clients. Bad advice.
I’m writing a book about copywriting and it’s close to being ready for a publisher. It’s a book for copywriters. There’s a section about who to follow and who to listen to. You MUST be extremely careful. There’s a TON of really bad advice out there from people who have never actually written much copy.
You’ll find more serious people and more serious groups on Linked In. Not a huge surprise, perhaps. So let me ask you a question. How active are you on Linked In? It’s a great place to find clients. I’m not going to give away my Linked In secrets but, remember, the goal of this series is to get you thinking differently about finding clients so you don’t rely on those Facebook groups and other really bad sources.
So your homework this week is cruising around Linked In and also looking for information about how to make the most of this powerful tool. There’s a lot of free information out there about making the most of Linked In. Read it.
You’ll start to think differently about finding the right clients … and contacting them.
As promised, here are my thoughts about choosing a niche.
In one niche, in a sport, I’m probably the #1 copywriter. And work in this niche is about 30% of my revenue. But I also write in health, financial, and biz-opp. In fact, I’ll pretty much write anything for anyone, provided the company and product are all above board.
Let’s say you decide to work in just one niche … health. There’s plenty of work in that niche but you may end up limiting yourself because one company won’t want you working for the competition. Ditto for financial publishing.
When I started writing copy full-time, I sought out advertising agencies and digital marketing agencies. One day, I was writing for a plumbing company. The next day, I was writing to sell information about Australian real estate investing. I like this variety.
There’s something to be said for being the #1 knee surgeon on the planet. You might find some joy if you ultimately become the #1 financial copywriter but it will be a long road getting there.
But if you look at the careers of the most successful copywriters, they have NOT limited themselves to one niche. Study them and you’ll see what I’m talking about. A bit more homework there for you.
As you start to think differently about finding clients and you become more active instead of passive, think about finding clients who really value copy and copywriters. If you’re going to pursue a niche, think more about the client and not the actual niche itself.
I'm updating my database of 2,000 current clients and and I'm simply asking, "will this be a good client if we work together?" I'm not concerned about the niche.
All the best,
Scott Martin
