Have you ever wondered how to become a copywriter? Or maybe you’ve wondered what it takes to become a copywriter, so you know what to look for when hiring one. Today I’m spilling all my secrets, tips, and tricks about how you can break into the copywriting world and become an expert copywriter that everyone will want to hire.
Know Your Value
The first step to standing out as an amazing copywriter is to know your value and own it. There is no shortage of people out there who will write for low rates. In fact, that’s something that I did when I first went out on my own. I quickly learned how much value there is in copywriting and that I was selling myself short. If you’re bringing value to someone else’s business, that matters. By charging what you’re worth, you’re projecting confidence to your clients and showing them that they are getting tremendous value by getting your unique services. If you undersell yourself, you and your work may end up being undervalued as well.
Focus on Quality over Quantity
You might think that the faster you work, the more you’ll get done, and the more money you’ll earn…right? However, copywriting is about choosing quality over quantity. If you’re quickly cranking out a ton of content, you might lose your creativity. Besides, one really awesome paying client is way better than ten clients where you’re creating quantity over quality. It’s all about working smarter and not harder.
Finding the Right Fit
Owning your value helps you charge a better rate, and helps you get the right kind of clients— people you want to work with, and who want to work with you. Imagine having a roster of your dream clients that keep coming back for more…it can happen! If you know your value, they will too. They’ll be more likely to be repeat customers and you’ll be their “go-to.” So to really become a superstar, find the clients you’re excited to work with and who can’t wait to work with you.
Know Your Stuff
The second thing you need to do to stand out is to know your stuff. If you know your stuff, you can position yourself as an authority to current and potential clients. So how do you know your stuff if you’re just getting started? I’ve got you covered.
How to Know Your Stuff
- There are countless courses out there, and you can always learn by taking one of those. I personally didn’t take a copywriting course until I was about a year into my business. A lot of it came intuitively to me; I just didn’t know my own value at the time.
- Practice, practice, practice, practice. Practicing is crucial to growth, and there are so many awesome ways to do it. You can look at websites that you love to see what they do and don’t do well. Audit them and see if you can pinpoint how they can do better (Pitching idea alert: One way to start networking with people is by kindly offering your feedback).
- Practice writing by rewrite headlines and subject lines. If you’re looking at emails, rewrite sub-headlines. Rewrite whatever you can to see how much of an improvement you can make. You’ll get valuable experience that will help you learn how to frame your future content.
Look Like You Know Your Stuff
Positioning yourself as an authority is not just about knowing your stuff—-it’s showing how you know your stuff. Confidence is important, and it’s okay to fake it until you make it. Keep practicing sharing your knowledge with others through networking. The more you can talk about it, the more confident you’ll feel in your own knowledge, and the more comfortable you’ll get with sharing what you know with other people. You’ll gain more competence with what you actually bring to the table, which leads us back to knowing your value. MIND BLOWN.
Keep Moving Forward
As a content creator, you should always be evolving and improving. If you can look back six months ago and wonder, “how the heck did I write that?” you’re in good company. It means that you’ve learned more and that you’ve grown. You have full permission to be embarrassed by your first go, or your second go, or your 10th go at it. Just keep moving forward.
Network
A third way to stand out is by becoming a networking King or Queen. You never know who you’ll meet that might refer you or want your services. So how do you become networking royalty? I’ve got all the tips.
The key to networking is finding out where you’re people are hanging out. Who is your target client and what social media network are they using? Find where they are and engage in as many conversations as you can. It’s also important to talk with other people who are in the creative industry. You get to learn from each other, create a network of potential referrals, and build relationships. Everybody wins!
Set Goals
I recommend choosing a specific metric and making it your goal. For example, if your ideal client lives on LinkedIn, make it a goal to reach out and connect with X amount of people a week. Make an effort to start a conversation and make it personalized. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being pitch-slapped. I’ve walked away with some really great relationships after making it my goal to book a call a week this way. Building these kinds of relationships will keep you top of mind when people need a referral for your services. You’ll end up with a great network of referral partners!
Offer Value
Remember the website audits I suggested doing for practice? You can offer those to anyone! Ask them to hop on a call for an audit or maybe offer feedback of three suggestions to improve their website copy. Give them value instead of a standard pitch.
If you make your first goal to help people, that’s what they’ll remember. You won’t be just another person pitching to them. They’ll recognize that you’re there to solve their problems and to help them grow. Being kind and supportive is one of the best ways to build your business, as long as it comes from an authentic place. You’ll stand apart from the competition like the superstar copywriter you were meant to be.
Be a Helper
Offer to help other copywriters, and let them know you’d love to learn from them. Could they use an editor? Could they look at some of the pieces that you’ve written and edit them? Would they be open to taking you on as their mentor? Opening yourself up to opportunities like that will give you a connection with someone who may be willing to pass on projects they’re not interested in or don’t have the capacity to take on.
Ask if they need a junior copywriter. Let them know your skills, what you’ve been doing, and that you want to learn more. Just make sure you have samples ready for them, so they can evaluate if you’re a good fit. And the very best sample is your own website…which brings us to the next point!
Rock Your Own Website
Your own website is the best way to showcase your killer skills. While the website design doesn’t need to be perfect, your copy does. Your prospects are going to know that writing your own copy is the hardest part, and if you can do that well, they’ll know you’ll be able to knock theirs out of the park.
Clear over clever is the key to excellent web copy (Psst: check out this blog post and this one to learn more about writing awesome web copy that converts). Make sure that if you want someone to do an action on your site, such as booking a call, it’s clear how to do it and what the process is. Your website doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, you only need to focus on three pages! The most common pages people will hire you to write are Home, About, and Services. Make sure you have those three and that they are your best work. It will be the greatest advertisement of your writing skills to your potential clients. Your clear writing showcased on your website just might seal the deal!
What’s Next
You have the secrets of how to break into copywriting, now what? Let’s get your website ready to win over those potential clients. Book a strategy session with me and we can set you up for skyrocketing success!
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