Making the jump and deciding to become self employed is a major step. To ensure it is a success you'll need to find a lot of clients, which can be difficult task when starting out. Normally it takes months, if not a few years, to grow a solid customer base to keep your income at a secure level. Which means you need to ensure you have enough funds to last half a year before you get started and also that you never cease marketing and advertising yourself and looking for clients.
These are four ways of finding firms prepared to pay for your copywriting expertise:
Attending face to face business networking functions
With competition for customers proving becoming a race to the lowest rates of pay on the net, the most sensible method is to hunt for clients in your local region. It’s simply human nature that folks prefer to hire those they like, know and trust. So you ought to be getting out there, introducing yourself and meeting local business leaders at each and every chance you get.
In the majority of towns and cities there are networking events where entrepreneurs can get together to chat, introduce themselves and swap their contact details. They are generally hosted over an early morning breakfast in a local restaurant or in local hotel function room . You may find that many networking events charge an entrance fee for attendance, which normally covers food and refreshments. There are usually, however, odd events you can attend without having to pay.
But if you cant find any professional networking events in your city or town, then why not launch one yourself? You could create the event on a website, like Facebook, Meetup or LinkedIn. After you've created the event send invitations to people you're friends with and encourage them to invite their own business contacts so you can help one another to obtain additional paying clients.
Look for clients on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional business alternative to Facebook. Rather than party photos, Farmville and posting witty jokes, people use LinkedIn as a specialist networking tool to connect with other professionals they’ve worked alongside with and those they would like to. So it's a wise decision to get engaged by setting up a user profile and interacting with colleagues you've dealt with in the past and people you would love to work with in the future. A good starting place is linking with friends from your previous jobs to build your network. You may also use LinkedIn to discover enterprises in your neighborhood that might need your expertise and whom you can approach for work.
Get in touch with local agencies who use freelance copywriters
Marketing and web design agencies always need website content copywriters to supply them with articles for their clients’ campaigns. They will also provide you with access to larger brands and higher paying clients than you would be able to connect with as an individual freelancer. The big agencies probably have copywriters internally, so it's more realistic to aim for the smaller to medium sized agencies that use freelancers to add extra abilities if they require them.
Cold calling
Contacting by phone businesses seeking work may sound like a frightening proposition. It can be time-consuming, but phoning local enterprises that might require a freelance copywriter is much more effective than merely email bombing them. Sending unrequested email messages is unlikely going to get the reply you want, unless you want to annoy people and be branded a spammer. Making the effort to pick up the phone, on the other hand, gives you the chance to discuss your copywriting business in a more ethical way that can build up a connection and give you the opportunity of acquiring some freelance copywriting work.
Hopefully this post has provided you with a few ideas on what to do to find customers. So you should be constantly marketing and selling your copywriting skills so you can build up a stable salary and make the freelance dream a reality.
