It’s no secret that direct copywriting is where it’s at in 2018. Just look at the success of recent launches like the Uber copywriting program or the Hootsuite copywriting program.
While it’s never been a strong point for affiliate marketers, thanks in part to Google’s aggressive pursuit of quality content, organic search traffic is now more important to performance than ever before.
If you’re serious about growing your agency, you’re going to have to decide how you’re going to make your money work for you. Are you going to become a digital marketer? Do you need to develop a skill set as a copywriter?
One of the best free SEO tools out there is Screaming Frog (discovered by Neil Patel). Using this tool, you can submit any website to get a free SEO analysis, which will examine how well optimized your site is for major search engines. The good news is you can use this tool to find errors on your site that need fixing before publishing — it’s a great pre-launch checklist.
From small businesses to eCommerce businesses, everyone is in need of good quality content to grow their business. If you can write good content for affordable prices, you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
Establish Your Expertise
In 2018, everyone is an expert. It doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO of a company or the headmaster of a school, you’re an expert in your industry. And that’s precisely what makes today’s market so much more exciting.
When I first started freelance writing in 2016, I had a hard time convincing potential clientele that I was an expert in my field. Even now, when I’m pitching a story to a newspaper or magazine, I have to preface my pitch with, “Hey, I’m not a writer, but I work with writers.”
While this may seem like a cop-out to some, it’s a necessary disclaimer. Establishing your expertise doesn’t always mean you have to be an expert in your field. It just means you have enough knowledge to back up your claims. In my case, being the headmaster of a K-12 school didn’t qualify me as an expert when it came to educational publishing. But once I started writing and presenting educational content for clients, I was able to develop a strong enough reputation to be taken seriously. Now when I’m pitching a story to a newspaper or magazine, they no longer doubt that I can pull off the creative writing job. Thanks to my education and experience as an administrator at a school.
Attracting, Marketing to, and Engaging with Specific Communities
Now, more than ever, it’s important to target specific communities when it comes to attracting customers. If you want to be successful as a direct copywriter, you’re going to need to understand how to connect with, market to, and engage with specific audiences.
When it comes to content marketing, this is known as ‘brand identity’ or ‘content marketing funnel’. You’re essentially creating multiple paths to bring in new customers and prospects, and growing your business one interaction at a time.
As an SEO copywriter, if you want to attract potential customers to your site, you need to create content that is appealing to the audiences that you’ll eventually want to convert into customers. When you consider that your site’s content might end up in a newsletter, on a blog post, or even a Facebook or Instagram feed, you have a wider variety of content that you can use to develop your funnel.
For example, if you want to target small businesses, you might want to write a blog post on — you guessed it — small business blogging
Now, I’m certainly not disparaging large businesses here. I’m sure there are many knowledgeable experts who work for large companies. But if we’re thinking about attracting new customers, it’s always best to develop a following built on a foundation of trust. And in this day and age, one of the best ways to do that is by establishing yourself as an expert in your field. Having a large company behind you doesn’t hurt either.
Build Your Portfolio
The best way to learn a skill is by doing. Even professional writers need to constantly update their knowledge base. Fortunately for us, updating one’s knowledge base doesn’t have to be costly. In fact, it can be one of the best investments you can make if you want to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. Do enough of these well-written, informative articles, and you’ll be able to create a portfolio that’ll land you new clients.
Of course, it takes a bit of luck, as well. You could put together a killer portfolio, only to have it go unnoticed because your chosen publication doesn’t think that your chosen topic is worth covering. So while building your portfolio is a great way to establish yourself as an expert, it also depends on what kind of experts you want to attract.
Understand Keywords, Niches, and Loves
When you’re writing for an audience, it’s best to view your content from the perspective of a keyword or keyword phrase. After all, that’s the whole purpose of creating content in the first place — to attract users to your site with the most relevant results when they search for your chosen keywords.
If you want to attract customers to your site with content marketing (as opposed to affiliate marketing), you need to make sure that the keywords you choose are relevant to not just your chosen niche, but also the general public. Choosing too many niche-specific keywords can cause your content to appear unnatural and spammy to search engines. And no one wants to appear that way. Especially not when they’re trying to build trust with their audience.
Make Money Online
Along with establishing an expert brand and portfolio, one of the best ways to generate revenue is via online marketing. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can now market your services as a copywriter to businesses across the globe. While this may not seem like a direct source of revenue, having a remote audience is better than no audience at all. As long as you have a computer and a connection to the internet, you have the opportunity to connect with potential customers everywhere.
If you want to generate revenue through online advertising, you’re going to need a budget. The good news is you can generate revenue (even if it’s small) from multiple sources. Whether you’ve got an eCommerce store or you sell your own products on Amazon, you can earn revenue from online marketing.
However, if you’re looking for a more stable source of income, you might want to consider investing in a single product that you’ll be able to sell over and over again. Whether you want to start a blog or just want to earn a little side income, putting together a valuable content resource for other entrepreneurs and marketers might be one way to go.
How to Get Clients to Pay for Direct Copywriting
So you’ve decided that you want to be a direct copywriter and are looking for ways to make money from your efforts. If that’s the case, you’re in luck because there are multiple ways to make money from a direct copywriting agency. However, in order to succeed as a direct copywriter, you’re going to need to learn how to get clients to pay you for your services.
To start, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to bill your clients. Are you going to charge by the word or are you going to charge by the project? You’ll need to decide, based on your experience, what’s fair. Regardless, once you establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field, you’ll be able to charge what you’re worth. And your clients will have no reason to fight you on that.
For some, the process of learning to write and promote content on a budget might be easier said than done. If that’s the case, you might want to consider using a content mill like Upwork.com or Fiverr.com to find customers.
Fiverr
Fiverr is probably the most popular marketplace for freelancers and small businesses seeking to outsource their content-related needs. On Fiverr, you can create a profile that promotes your expertise in content creation, and then choose from a variety of projects that you’re capable of completing.
You’ll need to have a profile on Fiverr with a decent amount of content to promote. This means that you’ve already created some content that you can use to populate your Fiverr profile. Once you’ve established yourself as an expert in your field, you’re then able to choose from a wide variety of content creation projects that you’re capable of completing quickly and professionally.