Hello everyone,

I recently started in the copywriting game after two years of English study and media writing. After three months, I have gotten only two jobs for tiny money, with no repeats.

So far as I can tell, I am doing it right. I have settled on a market I know, write well (won prizes, published at 21 in worthy magazines and newspapers), learn fast, and have more life experience then most my age because I graduated at 15 and moved out when I was 16. Does age make a difference regardless of experience?

I have a marketing plan in the works, which I plan on excelerating with profits as they come in. I study, work, and breathe business and the business of copywriting to my own peril.

What I can't understand is why I get no work. Often I will be "hired" in voice, but then the offer is reneged. I lost $17,000 of contracts in the first three weeks of January alone.

My guesses as to why this is are threefold: 1) It is just a matter of time, so stick it out, 2) My tear sheets frighten people because they are literary or opinion pieces loaded with "me-ness", or 3) I live in an area with too small of a population of the wrong kind of people to be clients. Mainly, that anyone who would be interested in a copywriter is underfunded (one job was a 12 page report and appendix that payed me $350), and many people figure that anyone can write so it is worthless to pay a writer when you can pay a highschool kid $40 bucks to make up your website.

How do I maintain credibility? Do I quit, go back drywall finishing, get rich and sick off of that, move to a more suitable location, and pick up writing again? Or do I take the porridge with the lumps as the inevitable struggle anything worth doing requires?

#1 To succeed as a copywriter, you need to know how to "sell." Both yourself to clients and the copy you write for your clients to their prospects. There have been several newbies that have come on this forum from an assortment of backgrounds... some with MBA's, some with experience writing articles... but you can tell that most have no experience when it comes to selling anything.

#2 If you master the art of selling, then you have to master the art of prospecting. Again, most newbies think everyone is their customer, when it actuality I would bet less than 1 business in a 100 is a good prospect for a copywriter that wants to make a good living. Sure you can get jobs earning $50 to a couple hundred bucks from people that don't have any understanding when it comes to the magic of direct response, but you can awfully sick of dealing with those folks because of the amount of education you have to give them along the way.

Credibility? Most businesses don't even know what a copywriter is. They understand what a graphic artist does... they don't understand what a copywriter does.

I suppose it could help if I spelled 'frustrated' right.

Fixed!

Modusoperandi,

This is going to sound harsh. But believe it or not, I'm actually trying to help you here.

Here's what you said:

"Often I will be "hired" in voice, but then the offer is reneged. I lost $17,000 of contracts in the first three weeks of January alone."

I doubt that's true.

You can't lose what you never had. And if you've been hired in voice, then chances are you were never really hired. You thought you were hired, your prospect knew you weren't.

So I wouldn't feel bad about losing the contracts. That's pretty rare. You have to screw up pretty bad to undo a sale you already made. The more likely thing is that you never had the sale in the first place.

Stop making guesses about why you aren't getting the business. Your guesses don't count. ASK your prospect why you aren't getting the business. You'll learn more in that 5 minute conversation than all of your guesses put together.

You're not going to see success overnight. Nothing good comes overnight. But most of your "competition" won't stick around without seeing overnight success. So stick around. Keep learning. Keep trying.

There are TONS of products in the marketplace that aren't the best, yet they sell. It's not because the products are superior. It's because the person selling them is.

Get good at selling yourself FIRST. Then improve your copy.

Is the "market you know" a market worth pursuing?

Do they have money?

Do they already value what you offer?

Are they in enough pain to agree that the fee you charge is worth paying in order to remove that pain?

Here's what you said:

"Mainly, that anyone who would be interested in a copywriter is underfunded (one job was a 12 page report and appendix that payed me $350), and many people figure that anyone can write so it is worthless to pay a writer when you can pay a high school kid $40 bucks to make up your website."

These are your beliefs talking. If that's what you believe, that's the type of prospect you'll attract.

I'm not getting all mushy and positive thinking on you... it's simply a fact that that's what tends to happen.

You TURN your prospect into what you expect him/her to be.

Is $350 the amount your prospect would pay to relieve their pain, or is $350 the amount you charged... simply because you didn't know how to get more?

There's nothing wrong with being new. But there is something wrong with shortchanging yourself and then blaming it on your prospect.

You are in control here. You didn't have to accept $350.

I'm only telling you all of this because I've made ALL of these mistakes... and more. I "LOST" a $16,000 job last WEEK. I lost it, because I never CLOSED it properly. I never had it. I was living in a fantasy land.

As far as what you do now... you do what you WANT to do. If you want a copywriting business, then keep going.

Good luck...

Excellent. Thanks a lot -- I mean it.

The more people mention it the more I think that my sales skills aren't quite as peachy as I'd like.

In sales, what are some methods for conquer and pillage? Another thing -- how do you achieve something more then a snake oil sounding pitch?

Are there any recipes for overcoming deep rooted cynicism, which shows itself (unfortunately) as defensiveness? This seems to euchre my best efforts towards being sales-y.

Thanks again for the knowledge.

Hi Modus,

I've read that the more you rehearse your sales scripts, the more natural they sound.

I've found this personally in public speaking. The more I practice & rehearse before I give my speech, the more natural it sounds (not to mention the more confident & in charge I feel).

I guess its due to knowing what you're going to say, so you relax more, and can then fall more into your natural every day way of speaking.

Knowing your sales pitch also means you can improvise on it as you go, rather than just trying to remember it.

Cheers,
Jon

Sounds like you could benefit from a copywriting franchise with a big name behind you

MO, who's your target market? And what kind of marketing tactics are you currently using to reach them?

I think you're on to something about your tear sheets being literary or opinion pieces. I can't think of anyone who will pay for that kind of writing outside of the lit mag world, which is not (presumably) your clientele. You need samples that are relevant to your target market. If you're targeting small business, your samples need to show them the kind of work you can produce for them, and you need to speak to the results that can be gained.

There's a cheap Dan Kennedy book about marketing plans that would probably give you 95% of what you need to start getting some clients.

One thing I have found is that your follow-up must be extremely crisp with small businesses, as they are always overwhelmed and often disorganized, and they rely on you to be "the organized one." You must be very precise about what you expect from them, what the next step is, when you will be blocking off time to work on their material, etc. If you aren't hyperorganized and completely proactive in coming in and *taking* their business, it will drift away.

There's a really good sales book with a methodology along these lines, and I can't remember the title for the life of me. I'll try to bang my head until I remember it for you, I think it would be very helpful.

Another very good book for you to read is Michael Port's Book Yourself Solid.

Edit: One more thought came to me, are you trying to get any work from local ad agencies? That can be a good way to build a portfolio. I'm on the list for a few smaller local agencies. They're not always very good about paying promptly, which is certainly annoying, but it's a way to get experience, create some good portfolio pieces, and get a sense for what kinds of writing businesses actually need.

Hello everyone:

My target market is resource industry and new real estate/large contractors and developers. I have learned a few things in the past few weeks:

1. Canadians are cynical. They do not respond well to mass emails. Therefore, I decided to snipe at them, and send one or two exactly directed emails every day. It is very labor intensive, but gets follow-up to around 70% on the initial email. A decently worded prompt on those who hope to ignore it and make it go away attracts another 10%. The other 20% resign themselves to being guinea pigs for test verbiage. It's pretty good results.

2. Like Sonia said, small businesses need crisp followup. Almost whip-like.

Thanks, Jon, for your advise. Very true -- when was the last time you gave concious effort to riding a bike? I imagine the same "unconcious competence" applies to sales also.

C. Fossil - I have kind of looked into a franchise situation, but not very thoroughly. None of the franchises that I have seen would jive with who I am, which would make it a more complicated miserable experience then my repeated costly failure. Also, on sniffing the wind, I have "sensed" a couple things that make me leery for now.

In Western Canada, where I am located, the economy is fly-off-the-shelves booming. Having an American franchise that is not a Canadian household name would kick my butt, because folks are considering America to be a bit of a liability. I kid you not when I say that Canadians treat the U.S. right now like the U.S. treats Mexico. Please note that I have not one anti-American sentiment, either.

The other is that Canada and the U.S. are different, vastly different. We are a different country. For instance: there is a higher firearm-per-capita in Canada then the U.S., but a vastly lower rate of violence. That in and of itself points at a glaring cultural difference. I am not talking about guns, either. It's just different here. Any franchise would have to be tailored to that difference. Crispy Creme tried moving into Canada and got soundly trounced by Tim Horton's, who has successfully wired itself into our national brains by its brand of downhome appeal. Since then, they have slowly raised prices and lowered quality, but no one complains. Crispy Creme has better donuts, but in my opinion tried a tactic based on hype, which doesn't work here unless you are selling beer or hockey.

ModusOperandi