One of the Fastest Ways to Gain New Copywriting Clients
Yes, it's cold calling!
As is often the case, the shortest way to success is the most
distasteful. But I can tell you from personal experience that
making that call (until you get enough clients), can shave
months off your start-up marketing efforts.
When I first began freelancing, I combined direct mail with
follow-up phone calls, so I wasn't "hard core" cold calling. But
even then I remember mailing 100 letters and getting no
response. However, I always followed up those letters with a
call until I got so busy fulfilling requests for my background
materials, that I couldn't make any more calls.
I always kept track of who I mailed to and who I followed up
with. (At the time, I kept track of my campaigns with ACT
contact management software).
To understand how powerful it is to make those follow-up phone
calls, I recall that my most successful campaign mailed out 100
names with no responses from the letter call to action.
However, after making some follow-up calls, I had 12 viable
potential new clients on my list! And with the statistical rule
of thumb that one in 10 will convert, I knew that one of them
would become a new client.
Conducting a direct mail campaign and then following up the
names you most want to work for is a very effective way to gain
clients, as long as you have unique positioning, a very strong
offer, and a very good list. (Some of my students get about 10
responses from their very first mailing!)
However, cold calling a good list will yield faster results at
less cost, as long as you do it right.
In today's world, direct marketing is a person-to-person
activity. You need to have a good reason for contacting
someone...a reason that offers them an immediate promise of
benefit.
For instance, I teach my coaching students to create a Unique
Selling Proposition (USP) for themselves, and then contact only
those companies that strongly relate to that USP. The phone
conversation might go something like this:
Copywriter: "I've been looking at your Web site for some time
now and have been planning to call to check the spelling of your
name and make sure you're at the Houston office so I can send
you a letter..."
Potential Client (who is flattered and curious): "Why have you
been looking at our site?"
Copywriter: "Because you direct market Corvette parts and
accessories and I am the world's only copywriter specializing
solely in exotic cars. I felt that we were well matched."
Potential Client: "Yes, it would seem so. We have to write most
of our copy in house because we can't find anyone who can talk
'corvette' or handle the technical aspect of the writing..."
A "master salesman" knows that the highest conversion rates come
from face-to-face selling. For the master copywriter, the
corollary is one-to-one communication.
Marketing directors and agency creative directors understand the
sales process and have heightened respect for the copywriter who
follows its tenets...as long as the message is relevant.
So if you've got the gift of aggressiveness, try cold calling. I
promise that it will evolve from awkward and intimidating to fun
and exciting in about 10 calls. (In fact, the last time I cold
called I got a "live one" on call number 10.)
If you think like a salesman and view it as a numbers game ("I
must get nine "no's" so I can get to the one "yes"), you can
become so engrossed in the process that getting a copy job feels
like an interruption.