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What Does it Take to Succeed as an Independent Copywriter?
by Marcia Yudkin
Published on this site: May 15th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
In looking back on the nearly four dozen aspiring copywriters I've
trained and mentored over the years and asking which personal qualities
posed challenges and roadblocks and which enable beginners to carve
out a
lasting niche for themselves, I have zeroed in on four key skill
areas. To build and sustain a copywriting or marketing consulting
business, you need to be or become good in these four competencies:
- Writing. To develop persuasive written materials, you
must learn to meld creativity, which involves being able to put
forth fresh ideas, concepts, phrasings and images, with proven
formats - structures for sales letters, brochures, press releases,
home pages and so on that embody techniques that work.
If you learn only the latter, your work comes across sounding
formulaic and hollow. It can attract clients and produce results,
but only to a limited extent. Perceptive clients will notice that
your projects tend to come out much the same. They'll conclude
that you're either still in the apprenticeship phase of mastery
or that you lack the
problem-solving skill they need to get the kinds of results they
crave.
And on the other hand, if you depend too heavily on creativity,
you fail to use the little devices, turns of phrase, formatting
tools and finishing touches that help improve response. I see
this weakness in a lot of my
beginning students - which is fine, because any halfway decent
copywriting training course, whether live or canned, can remedy
this shortcoming.
To achieve the ideal balance between creativity and the tricks
of the trade on your own, you'd need great instincts and loads
of practice. Top-notch mentoring, with frequent feedback from
an experienced master, is a surer and faster route to finding
your feet as a copywriter.
- Pleasing clients. I've seen people who have no trouble
with #1 flounder or become miserable because of this essential
factor. Again it's necessary to strike a balance, this time between
doing great work and making sure that the person or company paying
your fee is satisfied.
Without knowing how to please clients, you can turn out terrific
copy and have clients refuse to pay, or pay up but never come
back. It's crucial to be able to listen to the client's goals,
to keep those goals in mind while shaping the work, to explain
what you've done and why, and to talk through differences in perception
so that the two sides
eventually see eye to eye.
This skill did not - does not - come naturally to me. I have learned
this painfully and repeatedly, by overlooking or forgetting it,
analyzing what went wrong and resolving to do better in the future.
Sometimes the error here is in accepting projects where the client's
expectations are at odds with the way you think things should
be done. Sometimes there's not enough communication with the client
and education of the client away from what you see as wrongheaded
ideas.
While this factor still goes awry for me a few times every year,
most of my projects go well because I attract plenty of clients
who love the way I do things and respect my opinion where it differs
from theirs. If you build a strong enough reputation, clients
tend to listen to you - though not always.
On the other hand, I've seen plenty of beginning copywriters as
well as colleagues with years of experience struggle with the
opposite side of this balancing act. They know how to please clients
but in doing so, they make themselves unhappy.
For your own sanity, you need to be able to set firm boundaries
- ground rules, policies and things to say when clients become
unreasonable in their demands. If they demand rewrite after rewrite,
insist that their ignorant ideas are superior to what you know,
expect you to chitchat endlessly whenever they feel like calling
or otherwise
drive you nuts, you must be able to head off these problems, negotiate
solutions and disengage.
Having trusted colleagues to discuss problems with, an online
or in-person peer group or a coach help immeasurably in finding
your way with pleasing clients.
- Business skills. How much should you charge? How many
clients do you need, and how can you find them? What if your sure-fire
marketing tactics fail to bring in clients, or bring in more than
you can handle? What if clients who say they loved what you did
don't pay?
No one is born knowing any of this stuff. With guidance from people
who are running or have run a successful business, you can learn
key business skills. If you've run any other kind of business
before turning to copywriting or have watched successful entrepreneurs
up close, you'll probably find this skill area easy.
Years of membership in the New England Women Business Owners organization
and my prior experience as a freelance writer for national magazines
taught me how to be tough with clients when needed, charge what
I'm worth, keep on trying when I felt I was on the right track,
regroup when necessary and avoid dumb business decisions most
of the time.
One of the most common business challenges I've seen for aspiring
copywriters involves money issues. Charge too little, and you
may be working very hard, have loyal clients and yet not be earning
enough to sustain yourself (or your family) over time. A support
group or mentor can help you battle the inner demons that keep
you from raising your rates, whereupon almost always you discover
that the best clients don't mind paying more, and you feel happier
about the business.
The second most common business challenge involves perseverance.
If something doesn't work out the way you'd hoped, do you retreat
in hurt and disappointment, or do you simply try something else?
I've watched a couple of people jump into the copywriting business
with supreme enthusiasm and then brood obsessively over every
minor reversal. Unfortunately, this type of person isn't suited
to self-employment. If you give up or feel overwhelmed easily,
then you may be better off working on salary for an employer.
- Discipline. To earn a living writing copy for others,
you must be able to manage deadlines and details. By deadlines,
I mean not only the obvious point that if you've promised that
a project would be finished by June 30, it must be, but also the
less obvious point that you need to be able to complete top-notch work in a reasonable amount of time.
If you can reach excellence only painstakingly or through a slow
process of repeated drafts, you may not be able to make it in
the business. Few clients are willing to pay enough for a web
site, or be patient enough, to let you treat their project as
if you were Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.
Another personality type that has trouble with discipline is a
Crisis Cathy - someone who masterfully and continually creates
emergencies, problems and roadblocks so that things never get
done, but with seemingly legitimate excuses. Family members may
put up with this kind of behavior, but clients generally won't,
especially if it rears its head more than once.
As for details, you must have the discipline to proofread, check
facts and get things like names and numbers right. I've seen a
couple of writers who can't spell or use proper grammer become
fabulously successful nevertheless, but I do not recommend this.
Where clients are concerned, it's a much bigger handicap than
these blithe spirits will admit. Most clients do not take well
to carelessness on your part. When you deliver work containing
mistakes, they consider it disrespectful and unprofessional.
So there you have it. These four competencies are roughly equal
in importance for success as an independent copywriter or marketing
consultant, I believe. Do you measure up? Are you willing to work
on developing the qualities you don't have?
Marcia Yudkin is the author of Persuading on Paper, 6 Steps
to Free Publicity, Web Site Marketing Makeover and nine other books.
She runs a 10-week, one-on-one mentorship program for aspiring copywriters.
Details: http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm
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