Letter to a Young Copywriter

Here's what I know for sure when it comes to having a successful freelance copywriting career:

1. Always be grateful. It's not easy getting clients. Always be thankful for every job and act like it. Send thank you notes. Say thank you at the end of all communications. Say little silent thank yous all day for being able to do what you love and have someone pay you for it.
2. Respect the deadline. Your deadline is just one of many for your client. Concept and copywriting are at the beginning of the project and a missed deadline could start a tumble effect on every other deadline. Don't do this to your client. You will never work for them again. See number 1.
3. The ego has left the building. Remember, like my dear old sainted mother used to ask me, "Why do you write stuff people are only going to throw away?" We're writing advertising here, not the Bible. Be flexible to all copy changes. You may be the expert writer here, but they are the ones with the check book. Write your best the first time, be flexible, and don't worry about it. It all ends up in the trash.
4. Bill the relationship. If you want to have steady work the way to do it is to establish a relationship with each and every client. When it comes to estimating the cost of the job, steer clear of the the one big payday mentality. Study each project carefully. How long will this reasonably take you? How much per hour do you have to make to keep from resenting the job? Make it clear what will cost extra (additions or excessive copy changes, extra non-writing services, extra meetings, etc.) Itemize everything on the quote. Bill to keep the client.
5. Don't sell yourself short. Having said what I said in number 4, never underestimate what you do. Everyone may think they or their sister can write the web site or ad, but concept, headlines, and body copy that get results are harder to write than they appear. This is not journalism. This is not literature. This is persuasive writing in its purest form. You are not just a writer; you are a salesperson. You have to know your customer (a hint: it's not you and it's not your client), you have to know where they dine, where they shop, what they read, where they go and hang out, how they speak to one another. You have to know what you are selling them and the best way for them to receive the information. Never underestimate how valuable you, the copywriter, are.
6. Go back to number 1.

Target Practice

I'm back in the game. I've got business cards in hand; I'm LinkedIn: I'm Freelanced; I'm on Craig's List, Facebook, and Twitter. It's a whole new world of trying to get clients. I've gone back to the client list of ten years ago, only to find many of my past clients are either out of business or are freelancing themselves, getting the overflow work I used to get. One is back, giving me work almost weekly. But, one agency does not a freelance career make and so I continue to search for ways to drum up business.

In the past, I used direct mail with a lot of success. I had a letter, posing as an ad, that I mailed to prospective clients (PC). It contained a self-addressed, stamped postcard that the PC could check the best time for me to contact them and the nature of the project. When I saw a gray postcard in my mailbox, I knew I had an invitation to call. In my experience, it's better to be invited than crash a party. Nine times out of ten, if I got in the door, I came out with work or a pretty good promise of work, which usually materialized in a few days.

Fast forward to now. Different ballgame. Everybody's online. Is snail mail still a good way to go? All my recent research says save the money it takes to purchase postcards and postage and stick with promoting yourself online. Create a website or "portfolio" site to showcase samples of your work. Then it becomes about promoting the web site, by increasing your presence online with twitter feeds, facebook postings, blogging. This is where tag words become important to increase your chances of moving up the search engine ladder.

But, what do smart advertisers do? When everyone leans left, they lean right. Has all this Internet insistence replaced good, old-fashioned target marketing. Is the Internet just a bigger, broader audience, that's harder to hit and easier to get lost in? Isn't it still better to narrow the scope and aim for something specific, bettering your chances of actually connecting with results?

Maybe the answer is in both scenarios. While launching myself into cyberspace, I can reinforce my search by developing a mailing list for local and regional PC's. Maybe a piece of paper mail will be something unique to those young creative directors.

Ironic how something old might become new again and I'm not just talking about mail here.