One of the most rewarding parts of my business is teaching and mentoring other copywriters…
And a while back, I asked a group of my copywriting students what their biggest challenge was in their career.
The answer? “Getting clients”. By A HUGE margin.
Seems that most beginning (and intermediate) copywriters tend to hit a brick wall when it comes to marketing themselves effectively.
So I began to develop a customized marketing system to help solve this problem. And what I found was shocking, to say the least…
Amazingly enough, there really is an abundance of copywriting work out there. In fact, at the time of this writing, I found 19,755 total listings using the keyword “copywriter” on some popular jobs sites.
Yeah, that’s right. Almost TWENTY THOUSAND businesses desperately looking for copywriters–RIGHT NOW.
So where are these primo gigs? How do you sort through everything to find the best one for you? And the biggest question–how do you get HIRED by these people?
Here’s 3 quick tips to help…
1) Use Keywords to Weed Out the In-House Gigs: The majority of these listings will demand that you move somewhere to work in an office. And as freelancers that’s about the last thing we want to do, correct?
So weed out the in house gigs by adding certain keywords to your search. These four have served me very well in the past:
telecommute
offsite
remote
virtual
When you add those to a search, it cancels out the thousands of other copywriter listings that are for in-house gigs only, helping you save a ton of time and effort and target your prospects more effectively.
2) Don’t Stress About Qualifications: This one drives me NUTS. I’ll pass along a great job lead to one of my students and the first thing they say is “I don’t have this degree or that level of experience.” To which I reply, WHO CARES!
Here’s the thing–you and I both know that being a good copywriter doesn’t necessarily mean having a degree or loads of experience. I’ve seen newbie copywriters who can write circles around established pros, and experienced copywriters with degrees lining their walls who couldn’t write their way out of a paper bag.
The only thing that matters is “can you write well, get a decent ROI, and hit a deadline?” They don’t care if it’s a Harvard graduate or a monkey with a Speak and Spell. Anything else is baloney.
So if you see a job you want, skip the long list of qualifications and just go for it. You’ll be surprised how easily all of those must-have qualifications will fall away after they see a few samples of your stuff.
3) Avoid the Bid-for-Hire Sites: I know I’ll get flamed for this, but I don’t care…
If there’s one thing that infuriates me, it’s seeing talented copywriters writing for pennies on these bid-for-hire sites. I can’t believe the amount of work they’re doing for the rock-bottom fees they agreed to.
Look, if you take anything away from this article, please let it be this…
You have a significant value in the marketplace. You have a talent and an ability that few others have.
So why are you leasing it out for next to nothing?
Because those people that hire you are going to make thousands, if not TEN of thousands or even HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars from the copy you write. Doesn’t it make sense that you should be compensated fairly for it?
Yeah, I know it’s relatively easy pickings. And I know there’s a lot of work to be had. But think of it this way…
When you’re looking for someone to date, would you rather just choose any ol’ Tom, Dick, or Harry (or Tina, Vickie, or Mary) that came along–regardless of how they looked, acted, treated you, etc…
..or would you rather wait for the RIGHT one? The one that’s going to treat like you deserve…and respect you…and value who you are and what you do?
When you look at it that way, makes a little more sense. Doesn’t it?
So when you’re searching for copywriting gigs, keep these 3 things in mind and you’ll be miles ahead of the rest of the crowd–I guarantee it!
And if you want instant access to my top 10 places to find great copywriting jobs (and 3 to avoid like the PLAGUE), then check out www.GetCopywritingClients right now.
Hey Jay,
I joined flexjobs today on your recommendation, as I’ve been missing the ad business (but don’t want a “Real” job) and have also decided to offer white paper writing as one of my services. We’ll see how it goes! Thanks for the tip!
P.S. i AGREE about the bid-for-hire sites…
And for now the coupon code SAVE30 will get you 30% off the yearly subscription at Flexjobs.com — which makes it only $34.95 for the year!
Hi, I wish they really didn’t care about years of experience! But when they’re weeding through different applicants, they’ll dispose of anything that doesn’t fit the criteria. I’ve been through that enough times to know. If you’ve seen people get past that criterion, how did they do it? Did they send outstanding copy and hope that it overshadowed the resume? I’d love to know the tips! Thanks.
Good point Diana. What I’ve found to work is trying to “subvert” the system a bit by going around the HR person. Dig a little deeper, find someone who’s most likely the decision maker (creative head, marketing head, etc) and contact them directly if you can. That gets your stuff in front of a more relevant person in the mix, not to mention showing your moxy and assertiveness in trying to get this gig. Can it backfire? Sure. But really, if you don’t qualify (according to their listing) what do you have to lose?
Jay, I’m (almost) in complete agreement! Matter of fact, I was just telling a copywriter who’s gigging on a $5/job website (you know which one) that it’s not good for his career — or ours. My “almost” comment above relates to your second rule regarding qualifications. In many instances during my career, I’ve had to fake it to make it. Carefully in the beginning, and more brazen as I learned the craft. Writing well, getting a decent ROI and hitting a deadline – this oversimplifies the work we do. Newbie copywriters lack some of the key experiences that make faking it possible. If I have written years’ worth of “good quality” copy for industrial companies and get to bid on a project for a billion-dollar manufacturer, I know enough to make them confident in my ability and will deliver like a pro even if I’ve not written for their industry. The newbie could be sharp-witted, a great communicator and eager to please, but that billion-dollar company will laugh at his or her attempt to play Mad Men with their marketing.
Good info. One point though: It’s been my experience that many job listings appear on multiple job sites. Did you take that into consideration when arriving at your 19,755 copywriting gigs?
Regardless, even if there are only 10,000 “primo” gigs, that’s still a fertile field.
Cheers
-Jim
Granted, Jim, I came up with that by typing “copywriter” into the search field for each site and adding up the number of results. Didn’t go through them individually and weed out any duplicates. If I had, I would probably still be, if you know what I mean… 😉
Point is, (and I think you got this), there’s a TON of opportunity out there if you know where to look. Appreciate you chiming in!
Hi Jay,
Thanks for some very valuable tips and strategies on getting clients. My website is almost completed and I can’t wait to get going…