Recently emailed a copywriter? Five Easy Ways to Make it to their 'Bin'

Get in the bin! No, really. That’s where you (or rather, your email) will be heading if you commit one of the following ‘crimes’ when you email your chosen copywriter about the possibility of working together.

Start the Email with ‘Greetings!’

Show me a genuine email that starts with ‘Greetings’ and I’ll show you 1,0235 emails that aren’t. What is it about spam messages?! They literally all start with something wildly ‘olde English’ like ‘Greetings’.

Your email provider is probably so used to this keyword that the email in question will almost always end up in your ‘Spam’ folder anyway, but if not, you’ll probably veto it yourself and send it to ‘Trash’.

So, if you’re a bonafide copywriting client that starts emails with ‘Greetings’, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy.

Tell Us Your ‘Usual Copywriter is Busy’.

Now, come on folks…the first (unspoken) rule of buttering someone up to work with with you is to flatter them.

We don’t expect you to tell us you’ve been a ardent admirer of our work for decades (well, you can if you want) but we don’t want to know that you’re only getting in touch because your go-to copywriter is otherwise engaged.

Make us feel special, yo. Please.

Sob.

Ask Us to Do it Cheaper

No. Just no.

Copywriters (and indeed all other professionals) charge thus because they believe their service is more than worth the price.

Want it cheaper? Find someone else.

Tell Us You’ve Used 3 Copywriters and ‘No One Gets It’.

It’s not me (or rather, them)…it’s you.

Sure, one copywriter might not understand your brief. Two might fall short when it comes to meeting your objectives…but three, or more? It’s probably time to reassess how you brief your copywriter.

We copywriters are friendly folks; we’ll work with you and not against you, in order to ensure you get the perfect prose you’re after - but we aren’t mind readers and we do appreciate something of a steer from you too.

The client/copywriter relationship works both ways. Help us do good work and…well…we’ll do good work.

Send a ‘Round Robin’ Message

Again, we just want to feel special*, so allow us to feel that way.

If your email starts with ‘Hi there’ - and you’ve accidently forgotten to blind copy the other copywriters you’ve messaged, the chances are we’ll simply feel like nothing more than a money-saving exercise.

Sure, you have a budget and you also want to find the best copywriter for you - but pitting freelancers up against each other may rile some of the more sensitive amongst us.

Again, you don’t have to go overboard with the compliments (although, please feel free to do so - a spot of flattery will get you everywhere), but it is nice when would-be clients let us know we’ve been plucked from a sea of copywriters as a stand-out candidate for your project. In fact, it’s blimming brilliant.

*gets out tiny violin for one’s self

Want to work together? Say hello here - and, please, tell me you like my blouse or whatnot.

Until next time…

7 Lessons I've Learned During 7 Years as a Freelancer

I usually mark the anniversary of setting up my business as a freelance copywriter by at least treating myself to a large slice of cake. One year I pushed the boat out and had a spa day. This year? It has literally passed me by. Yep, really. Today - September 24 - more than two months after that all-important date (July 22, if you’re asking), I glanced at my calendar and realised I’ve missed it. Oh well.

As well as cutting myself a slice of belated anniversary cake (what else?!) after my tea, I thought I’d share some lessons I’ve learned during seven years as a freelancer. If you’re thinking of going it alone too, you might find these snippets of info useful. Or not. Here they are anyway…

Getting Your Tax Return Done Early is Always a Good Idea

Tax return season always seems a long way off. Until it’s not a long way off - and you suddenly have three days to find all those receipts and pull an all-nighter to get everything ready to send to HMRC.

If I have any advice for anyone entering the word of freelance, it’s to get your tax return done as soon as possible.

Get an accountant on board, organise your receipts and expenses month by month (set up a handy filing system to sort everything by type) and get your return done as early as possible. When January rolls around, you’ll be giving yourself a big pat on the back. Quickbooks is my saviour and it might be yours too.

Working in Your PJs Doesn’t Always Mean You’ll Be Less Productive

It’s a rite of passage that when you go freelance, you have the opportunity to work in your PJs as much or as little as you want. It isn’t something I make a habit of, but when I’ve had a sleepless night or a rough start to the day, I have been known to answer a few emails in my pyjamas. Guess what…it doesn’t mean I’m any less productive.

When you’re freelance, you work from home and you don’t have to head out for a meeting or client catch-up, the suited and booted office look just isn’t necessary. That said, I wouldn’t advise you log onto a Zoom call in your fleecy onesie.

…But Sometimes it Does

If there’s no excuse for you not to be wearing something ‘proper’, get out of those blinking PJs and get blinking dressed. Do I sound like your mother?!

More often than not, getting changed does equal boosted productivity. So does making your bed. And tidying your workspace. Tidy space, tidy mind and all that.

It Doesn’t Matter How Long You’ve Been in Business, You’ll Still Question Your Prices

I don’t know a freelancer who doesn’t agree that going freelance was the best thing they ever did. When you’ve pretty much turned something you love doing into a career, you WILL question your prices. After all, getting paid for something you enjoy seems like the dream. Allow me to let you into a secret…it is.

On occasion, you might also question if your prices are too high - especially if you charge by the hour. Remember, though, clients aren’t just paying for the time it takes for you to complete a project; they’re paying for your experience, which took way more than the one, two or three hours it took for you to draft that piece of work.

Sometimes, You’ll Have to Tell a Client It Isn’t Working Out (And That’s Okay)

In seven years as a freelancer, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had to back out of a project before I’ve completed the work. In fact, I can probably count on two fingers. Sometimes, though, it happens.

Try as you might, a client relationship doesn’t always go smoothly - just like the relationships we have with friends, family and others around us. Personalities can, sadly, clash, and sometimes the client (or you) is expecting a project to work out differently.

If you’re experiencing a tricky working relationship that doesn’t fit well with you or the way you do business - and you’ve tried your best to make sure the work…er…works out - don’t be afraid to back out.

The joy of being freelance is that you don’t have to say ‘yes, sir’, ‘no, sir’ to a ‘boss’ you can’t - or won’t work with. If someone doesn’t value your time or expertise, I promise you’ll feel great if you gently explain that another freelancer might be a better fit for them - and that’s fine too. We’re not forced to get on with everyone we meet, after all.

Saying ‘No’ Can Be Liberating

Sometimes, you can spot red flags before you even start working with a client - and you should always trust your gut. If someone is causing unnecessary issues before the project has kicked off, it might be worth your while to just say ‘no’.

I know from experience that the client who takes weeks to respond to initial emails will also take weeks to pay your invoice.

Ditto the client who gets in touch to say ‘I’ve worked with X number of copywriters and I’m not happy with any of the work I’ve seen’ is probably harder to please than most. You could take on the work, or you could confidently say ‘no’ and save yourself the stress. Success as a freelancer - or indeed in anything - isn’t based on money alone.

You’ll Never Work a Day in Your Life

Eagle-eyed readers of this blog post may notice that the sentiment of this lesson is pretty much the same as the point I made about pricing your services. Basically, it’s so true that when you work for yourself it won’t feel like work…that I just had to say it twice.

Thinking of going freelance? I promise you won’t regret your decision.

Until next time…

PS: Find this blog post useful? Let me know by saying hello via email. Oh, and if you need a Yorkshire copywriter to help you with a project or two, I’d love to hear from you too.

Not in the mood to write? Here's How to Get Going...

Ah, writer’s block. It is indeed a thing - and it’s a very annoying thing.

For me, writer’s block strikes on the days I feel most productive. I bounce out of bed, ready and raring to get stuck into a day’s scribing…and you can bet your bottom dollar that’s the day I’m reaching for my thesaurus and feeling nothing short of bl**dy disheartened.

Writer’s block comes to us all - and you don’t need to be a writer to suffer from it. Whether you’re wracking your brains over an email to send to your boss or you’re revising your CV ahead of applying for a new role, you’ll face a day when the words just ain’t a-coming. If it rears its ugly head for you too, here’s what to try…

Have a Break

Go on, have a break…and have a KitKat while you’re at it. If you can’t find the words you need, don’t force ‘em. You’ll only wind up feeling frustrated if you do.

So, switch off your laptop, make yourself a cuppa, go for a wander or have a chat to a pal - if you can. Admittedly, this may only work if you’re self-employed, or if it’s the weekend. Go walkabout from your office role for too long and you may have a very bemused boss on your hands.

If you can though, give yourself however long you need to take some time out and I promise you’ll feel much better afterwards. You may still not find the words, but at least you won’t be tearing your hair out while you stare at a blank Word document.

Just Get Something Down. Anything.

Trying to write something truly creative? Plenty of writers will tell you to just get something down on the page - even if you think it’s a pile of tosh. I’ll be honest…this doesn’t work for me. In fact, it only makes me feel worse when I see that what I’ve written is, well, pretty dire.

It’s a trick that’s tried and trusted by many a copywriter, though - and it may just do the job for you too.

Try an old-fashioned brainstorm (or mind map, as is the more PC phrase these days) and come up with some themes and subjects that will give you some much-needed inspiration to keep the words a-flowing.

Ask a Pal

It isn’t cheating to ask someone else for a dash of inspiration; some of the world’s greatest writers are believed to have taken their cues from wordsmiths of years gone by.

So, ask someone - writer or otherwise - if they have any bright ideas for how you can pen your intro to your email, or the bio for your CV. They may not come up with the winning idea, but they may well lead you down a path that allows you to come up with something great of your own accord.

Read Something Else

Stop reading what you’ve written and feeling bad about how little you’ve got down. Instead, down tools and pick up a book. This is the same as having a break from your screen, except the act of reading someone else’s words may well spark your imagination to help you come up with some text of your own.

Admit Defeat. Yes, Really!

If the words aren’t popping out of your head and onto the page, don’t stress. If your deadline will allow, just admit defeat. I know, this goes against all the traditional advice about writer’s block, but stuff it! I’m a big believer in not forcing creativity. Some days, we produce excellent work - writing or otherwise - and some days we don’t. Simple.

So, pop on a Netflix episode, grab a slice of cake, kick back and relax. I bet those words will come tomorrow.

How do you tackle writer’s block? Do you plough on through and get something down on paper regardless - or do you switch off your laptop and vow to come back to the task in hand tomorrow? Let me know in the comments section below…

Until next time…

5 Mistakes I Made When I Went Freelance - That I Wouldn't Want You to Make Too!

• “I drunkenly called my ex and confessed my undying love”

• “I handed over my bank details to a scam caller.”

• “I got cornered on the high street by someone with a clip board and signed up to a year’s supply of something I didn’t want.”

The above have nothing to do with with my business, but my point is this: we all make mistakes, but we rarely fess up to them - at least not publicly.

Think of the last time you saw someone genuinely own up to something negative on, say, Facebook or Instagram. It might be for fear of looking stupid, or it might be because everyone wants to present the best version of themselves, but you rarely see someone say: “Hey, I behaved like an absolute d**khead today*.

I say, scrap that notion, own up - and own - your mistakes. If you can, share them with others.

If you’re a business owner like me, you probably didn’t get everything right the first time.

With that in mind, if you’re thinking of going freelance this year - or sometime soon - I want to share with you a few of the cock-ups I made when I tentatively dipped my toe into the self-employment pond. So you don’t make them too. Read on…

I Priced My Services Wrong

When I first went freelance, I had no idea what to charge. Up until that point, I’d been working in-house in a copywriting position, so working out my price went something like this:

My in-house salary ÷ 12 months ÷ working hours in a month = hourly rate

I then added in a small (and I mean, small) amount on top to cover freelance expenses and whatnot. What I didn’t take into account was that my hourly rate in my in-house role was ‘after tax’. I also didn’t take into account that holiday pay and sick pay is technically accounted for in an in-house role, too.

So, of course, when a local digital agency came a-knocking to take me on for four days per month in a freelance capacity, they snapped my hand off when I mentioned my hourly rate. Course they did.

It wasn’t too long before I realised I was VERY competitively priced. What did I do then? I put my fee up - and it has risen slightly with inflation (and experience) year on year.

The takeaway? Don’t undersell yourself or your services. Charge what you’re worth not what you think you should be charging. End of.

I Managed My Own Invoices

I’m not a numbers person. Not at all. So using my own template for invoices was never going to end well. I’d miscalculate things (usually totting up my services and arriving at a cheaper price for a set number of jobs) and my (very honest) clients would inform me I’d undercharged them.

When you go freelance, you immediately have to wear multiple hats. You’re not just doing your job - in my case, copywriting - you’re also:

• managing your books

• marketing your business

• drowning in admin.

• making your own brews and baking your own cake (I miss having colleagues).

Everything falls on you - and you alone. Now, I’m in a fortunate position to have a small team around me - but back then, I struggled. And I made mistakes on the money front more than once.

The takeaway? Use an online bookkeeping service to manage your invoices in one, handy place. I use Quickbooks - and it has literally transformed the way I manage the admin side of my business.

I Rarely Switched Off

When you’re working for yourself - or at least when you begin working for yourself - there’s a tendency to feel guilty if you’re not ‘on it’ all the time.

I’m not really sure where this comes from; if you’ve chosen to be your own boss, you’ve probably done so for the perks it brings, but hey, many of us freelancers feel the need to constantly ‘prove ourselves’, putting in extra hours at the weekend and working ‘til all hours in the week.

If a client emailed me on a weekend, I’d feel obliged to reply.

As soon as I let go of that guilty feeling, I found I could enjoy my weekends all the more. I didn’t leave a full-time role to work weekends - and neither will you if you choose to do the same.

The takeaway? Embrace being freelance - and the fact that you can work whatever hours you blimming well choose.

I’d Lower My Price if It Didn’t Meet a Client’s Budget

I hate to talk money again, but this one’s important.

Even when I was one, two and even three years into being self-employed, if a client told me my price was too high, I’d find a way to lower it. Now? I offer a payment plan if fellow business owners need a way to manage their budget. If not, I just say: ‘That’s my price’.

The takeaway? Don’t let imposter syndrome take over. Your price is your price and it’s your price for a reason.

I Showed Up to Things That Didn’t Complement Me - or My Business

I’ve talked a little bit about freelancers feeling the need to do things - just because. We must be seen to be busy - all the time. We must lower our prices to meet a client’s budget. We must. We must. We must…and so it goes on.

I say b****cks to all that. Working for yourself is nothing short of blimming brilliant. If I can give you one piece of advice it’s this: only do what you want to do - in life and in business.

I got roped into attending all kinds of tedious business networking events when I first started out, after being approached by well-meaning fellow businesspeople who told me it was beneficial for gaining new clients.

True, I would pick up a client or two, but on the whole I found the events an awful kind of forced ‘fun’ that I just shouldn’t have subscribed to, because…well…it wasn’t me.

A coffee with a new client or two? Yep. A lunch and a half a lager and lime in a beer garden with a fellow freelancer? I’m there with bells on. But don’t tell me I need to stand up in a room of suited and booted businesspeople and tell them what I do in 60 seconds to succeed. I ain’t going to do it and neither should you. Well, not unless you want to.

The takeaway? I hate this expression, but ‘you do you’, my friend.

Thinking of taking the plunge to go self-employed? Go get em, gal (or guy!). If you want to pick my brain for more mistakes, tips or tricks, say hello here.

Until next time…

Who hires copywriters?

‘So…do you make money from that?’

It’s surprising how often people take the ‘free’ in freelance quite literally and assume that, if you’re writing for a living, it must be:

A) A hobby

B) Poorly-paid.

Now, I’m not here to tell you what I earn, but what I will say is this: writing for a living is less about drowning in scrunched up paper, rewriting pitches to editors and having novels rejected and more about actually being paid for doing what you love. At least for me it is.

Who hires copywriters, then - and what actually is copywriting?

Copy means ‘text’ and, well, copywriting is the practice of writing of said text.

The ‘who hires copywriters?’ question should actually be: ‘who doesn’t hire a copywriter?’ - because, if you have a business - particularly if said business has a website - you too will probably benefit from the services of a copywriter.

A copywriter can write anything that need writing. Think of a copywriter as an extension of your team. He or she can do the following:

* Write your company newsletter - the one you send to your staff, or the one you send to your clients or suppliers

*Craft the content for your website - from your ‘About Us’ page to your blog posts

* Come up with some catchy text for your printed marketing materials - from flyers and brochures to freestanding banners for events (events…er what are those?! ha)

*Help you come up with a slogan for your business - to use across your site, your business card, and even on your company car

Basically, a copywriter can pretty much write anything for you - and he or she will keep your customers in mind when they do.

Who uses copywriters then? Anyone from a restaurateur (who may need some tantalisingly tasty-sounding menu descriptions) to an electrician wanting to add some spark-le (sorry, couldn’t help it - love a pun!) to their website content, or even an author who wants a fresh pair of eyes to liven up or edit the synopsis of their new novel.

The fact is, there are no bounds to who needs content - and why.

To give you an idea, here are a few examples of what I’ve been working on lately. ‘Diverse’ is an understatement.

1. Editing and rewriting the content for an online course on mental wellbeing in the workplace - with a focus on how people are coping during the lockdown

2. Product descriptions destined for the packaging of a natural skincare brand

3. Lengthy, 1000-word+ articles for an independent group of hospitals, who want to reassure patients ahead of their visit by providing guides about various treatments

4. Adding some extra pizazz to some journalistic-style articles for a 150-year commemorative book all about motorbikes

5. Short, fun bursts of content for the Instagram and Facebook pages of an online clothes shop

6. A slogan for a food company

7. Informative blog posts for an Islamic charity which provides overseas aid to those in need

8. An e-brochure for a chain of pubs - who will soon be throwing open their doors for those in need of a pint (all of us, then?!)

Can I help you market your services to your customers? Get in touch to find out if you can benefit from hiring a Yorkshire copywriter - and how I can help.

Until next time…