Freelance Copywriting, marketing and social media tips

The life of a copywriter can be a lonely one.

They spend many hours alone, working their magic on the English language to create powerful and persuasive sales copy that will blow their clients’ (and their customers’) socks off.

By there lies a potential problem.

How can you make sure you’re working efficiently when you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder?

Below are a few tips on how to make sure you don’t end up wasting time.

1. Remove distractions

If you work from a home office, it’s very easy to get distracted. Whether it’s by visitors, home phones ringing,  that book you’re desperate to finish  or the temptation to pop out of the office to take care of a household chore or two, they must be ignored.

Having a dedicated office, is a must. You can organise it in a way to suit you without having to clear your things away every evening.

If you work from the kitchen table, just think how much time you waste every week setting your bits and bobs up to start work and then clearing them away again so you can use the table to eat with the family.

2. No Facebook or YouTube

Even though you’re sat in front of a computer most of the day, it doesn’t mean you can idly search the web for your entertainment.

And just in case you were thinking that if no one sees you it doesn’t matter – it does.

Make a rule for yourself that you only ‘play’ online once your working day is over. That way, you can remain focused on the projects you’re working on during the day.

3. Learn to say ‘no’

Unless you want to be working silly hours to try and get your work done and deadlines met, you’ve got to learn to say ‘no’ to those clients who just want one more thing (and usually don’t want to pay for it), to colleagues who just call for a chat, to family who make demands on your time (especially during school holidays) and to projects you know you really can’t squeeze in.

That might sound harsh, but when working from a home office it has to be done now and then.

Make sure your family understand that, even though you work from home, you are still working and they have to respect your work time. And, if you’ve decided you only want to work a certain number of hours a week, stick to it and don’t take on that extra project that’s going to eat into your weekend.

It’s all too easy to end up taking on so much work you’re at your desk 24/7. So be sensible, decide on the number of hours you’re going to work and stick to it.

4. Calendar

Keeping a calendar is a simple but effective way of making sure you hit all your deadlines.

When you’re working on several projects simultaneously, it’s all too easy to lose sight of when each section of work has to be completed.

It will also give you an overview of your capacity for future projects to help prevent you from over committing yourself.

5. Daily to-do list

Don’t laugh, it really does help.

At the beginning of each week I make a plan of what I need to do and when. That way, I make sure my blogging fits in with my client work and meetings. And of course, it also helps to make sure nothing slips through the next.

Yes, it does have to be flexible because you never know what might come in, but at least it’s a way to plan your week effectively.

6. Email watching

OK, hands up if you have that little annoying pop up thingy that appears on your screen every time an email comes in.

It’s so distracting I want you to turn it off immediately.

Limit yourself to checking your emails once, twice or even three times a day. That way, you can get on with the task in hand without being distracted by an intriguing subject line.

7. Timed work slots

This is a great way to make sure you don’t run out of steam during the day.

From your to-do list, you’ll know what you need to do each day. So, allocate a time slot for each task. Once that time is up, have a break – leave the office, make a coffee, wander round the garden or even take the dogs for a walk.

Then, you will return to your desk refreshed and ready to tackle the next task.

Over to you

These are 7 things I’ve found really useful since becoming a copywriter.

Do you have other ways of managing your time?

If so, leave a comment below.

We’ve all been there.

You’ve been approached by a customer to create some copy for them; you’ve taken a detailed brief and provided them with a written proposal and quote – the work starts and just when everything seems to be going well, the client moves the goal posts.

So what do you do?

Is it in writing?

Let’s go back a few steps.

You did provide a written quote, didn’t you?

Verbal quotes are all well and good but, if things change, you’ll have nothing to refer back to when tackling the client about the changing brief.

That’s why it’s best to create a written detailed proposal and quote based on the brief received from your client, whether it’s from an email, briefing document or a face to face meeting.

It should include details of:

• The aim of the project in question (what your client wants to achieve)
• Your fee for the project and what that will cover
• The hourly rate that will be charged for further meetings or additional rounds of amendments over and above those included in your fee
• The services you will provide your client based on the brief they have provided
• How the work will be carried out
• When the first and subsequent drafts will be available and how quickly you’ll turn round the amendments
• How payment is to be received

That way, when they want to make changes to the brief (i.e. they now want 10 pages of web copy instead of 3) you can go back to the quote that they agreed to and negotiate the way ahead for the extra work.

If you have nothing in writing it’s going to be an uphill struggle.

A professional way of working

If you think that all of this is just going to generate more work for you and you don’t have time to put formal proposal and quotation documents together, have a think about this.

Can you really afford not to?

After all, how many times have you agreed to extend the work you originally agreed because you either:

• Had no way of proving what you thought had been agreed
• You and your client had different interpretations of what was agreed
• Felt uncomfortable going back and asking for more budget

If you provide a professional, written document outlining all aspects of the project, what your fee includes and an outline of what they will be charged extra should they exceed the scope of the original brief, you can refer back to it if required.

Plus, as they would have agreed to it in order to accept your quote in the first place, they can’t quibble.

Over to you

How do you go about defining the projects you work on?

Have you experienced moving goal posts? If so, how did you deal with it?

Leave a comment below and let us all learn from your experiences.

We all know it’s cheaper to retain customers than to get new ones, so why are so many companies still so hell bent of grabbing more new customers?

Maintaining relationships can be time consuming, but the returns can be impressive. Social media has opened up a whole new way of engaging with and adding value to customer relations, so isn’t it about time you harnessed that power to boost your income from your existing customers?

If you’re not sure how to go about this, take a look at this following aticle on SocialMediaExaminer.com. They give you 5 tips to help you gain more revenue from your existing customers using social media…

Are you using social media to keep your existing customers happy?

Do you want to figure out how to drive revenue from existing customers through the social channel?

This post will give you 5 tips to gain more revenue from your existing customers using social media.

Why Focus on Existing Customers?

For many companies, connecting with their existing customers is a natural fit for social media. These companies are seeing conversations about their brands, their competitors and their industry that provide them with an opportunity to engage others in dialogue.

There are two types of strategies that revolve around existing customers on the social media channel. The first is to offer customer service help through the social channel. …

Here’s a post from the archives. Although written a few years ago, it’s still very relevant today.

We all understand the importance of article marketing to help generate traffic, building reputations and brand awareness, but are you making the most of your content? What follows is a post outlining 7 ways article marketing can improve your profits:

Writing articles and marketing with articles is one of the best and fastest ways to market your business.

Don’t believe me? OK then, I’ll prove it. Here are seven ways you can benefit from articles.

1) Articles quickly position you as an expert in your field

 

Writing articles sets you apart from your competition. You never have to say “Listen to me, I’m an expert!” Your articles do that for you, because articles increase your “expert-ability.”

2) Articles can become an army of 24/7 salespeople

 

Once you have an article published, especially on the internet, you will achieve a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 day a year international sales team working specifically for you and your business.

3) One article can have many uses

 

In other words, leverage. Just one article can be used as a free report, a newsletter feature, it can become part of an online e-course, part of a book, etc.

4) Articles spread the word about your business and your services

Articles, especially when submitted online have a very long shelf life. They can be picked up by anyone at anytime and anywhere.

5) Marketing articles is simple, easy and inexpensive

It costs you nothing to write an article (apart from your time). It also costs you nothing to have it listed on article directories such as EzineArticles.com. Imagine what it would cost you to pay for that kind of exposure and publicity.

6) Articles can help you build a mailing list

Once you have a few articles out there, prospects will begin to flow in. These will build into a mailing list worth its weight in gold which can be used over and over again.

7) Articles let you stay in touch with clients and sell more products

We know that it can take from 5 to 8 contacts or more for new prospect to be ready to become a client. Articles allow you to stay in touch with prospects and provide them with quality information.

This list of 7 is just the tip of the ice berg. Article writing and article marketing will boost your business. Why not give it a go?

Neil Stoneham of Voxtree has kindly agreed to allow me to re-post his blog Hot Content and the King-Fu Panda – Part Two on Freelance Copywriter’s Blog.

In the last post, we saw how Google employed a bit of kung-fu Panda to send badly written content right to the bottom of the pile…where it belongs. We also looked at why web content is changing and the importance of having good, strong copy that is read and shared.

Now, I’d like to share some ideas that help draw visits to your site and attract potential ‘backlinks’ (links to your site from other users).

Apparently, few people these days buy a product or service directly as a result of a Google search. Think about it – when did you last do that?

If someone comes across your website directly from a keyword search, you might well grab their interest – especially if you’ve made a good job of your site – but they are unlikely to buy your product or service straight off the bat.

Typically, people will look for other things like recommendations from sites that rate you – or criticisms from those that don’t  – so it’s important to get a name for yourself and have others singing your praises.  Here are a few ways to create added value content that does just that…

Add something useful

A good proportion of search engine activity comes from people seeking answers to queries. If you offer a service, why not produce a series of articles that answer some of the your most frequently asked questions?

I recently wrote an article for an experienced quantity surveyor who specialises as an expert witness. Based on his notes, I wrote about how to avoid stress while managing a building project. For anyone embarking on such a project, there is some pretty solid advice in there and so the article achieves three things:

1)   It draws traffic to the site from people who are not looking specifically for the service but may have need of it in the near future.
2)   It builds up his reputation as an authority on the subject, thus enhancing the essential ‘trust’ factor.
3)   Others in the trade will want to link to the article. This increases his backlinks, his audience reach and his search ranking.

Create something unusual

Marketeers these days have to be pretty creative and original if they want their brand to stand out. And so we get all sorts of weird and whacky things in an attempt to generate that all-important message.

Viral videos are all the rage now, so you could go down that route if you’re adventurous. Alternatively, try for some content with a humorous take on your product or service – lesser known uses for your product might be a good start.

People share things that are funny. But a word of warning: comedy writers often talk about how difficult humour is to get right. That’s why there are numerous casualties from the viral craze – companies that have lost out because they ended up offending too many people and completely sending out the wrong message!

Make it personal

Address your customer directly in a way that shows how your product or service can enhance their lives. If you engage your customer in an emotional way, you can increase the likeability – and therefore salability – of your product. Tell stories about your product with a happy ending. Show how it can help your customer become more attractive, safer, proud. You could even target different parts of your demographic by addressing their individual cravings in separate articles.

Advertise your content

Whatever the form of your content – be it video, article or blog – you’ll need to get the word out there. Social media is the easiest, cheapest and most fun way of advertising what you’ve created. Tweet about it on Twitter, link to it on Facebook, blab about it on your blog; there are so many different ways to grab the attention of your audience.

Remember that if it’s good and relevant to someone other than yourself, chances are it will get shared.

But people won’t share badly written content, unless their purpose is to laugh at you. Good quality content stands more chance of being passed on, so make sure it passes the test and you’re away!