Where To Find The Best Copywriting Clients
Keywords: copywriter, copywriting, clients
In my life, I’ve had two freelance careers, one that limped along miserably for a number of years, and one that took off like a rocket after only three months of marketing.
What happened in between was eight year of excitement, growth and misery at a high-powered direct response agency, and a life-changing event at a hospital from overwork. What I’ll always be thankful for, however, is that I learned exactly what it takes to get a lead, and convert them.
Prior to my years at the agency I managed to maneuver myself onto the board of the Oregon Direct Marketing Association. During this time I was often in the company of list brokers.
One broker I wrote copy for was fond of reciting the “40/40/20 rule,” which I thought was a not-so-subtle attempt to put me in my place.
According to the 40/40/20 rule, 40 percent of the success of a mailing comes from the quality of the list; another 40 percent comes from the quality of the offer, and only 20 percent comes from the copy.
I’ll grant he was right, except in the case where a mature marketer has tested all the lists, and tested all the offers, and now all that’s left to test is copy or creative.
New businesses (and new copywriters) must start with the list, and the more qualified it is, the greater (and faster) the success.
That’s why I spend several sessions with my coaching students when it’s time to start building their lists. I emphasize that nothing is more important than targeting the right people!
One of my list-building secrets is the online database, Who’s Mailing What!.
Who’s Mailing What! is a huge archive of “classic” direct mail packages, postcards, magalogs, catalogs, and self-mailers. It exists to give businesses access to competitive marketing materials, and to provide copywriters with a research tool and copying service.
For instance, say you got your first job writing a promotion for the Seminars trade. You could spend about $70 for a one-year membership to Who’s Mailing What! and pull up information on thousands of archived mailers selling seminars.
For an extra $40 or so, you can request that one of these mailers be copied and sent to you in either a traditional photocopied format, or (if available) an instantly downloadable PDF.
Sometimes you’ll find a sample that the Who’s Mailing What! editors suspect is a control (due to the fact that same package keeps reappearing).
There are two types of control identified: the “Control,” and the “Grand Control.” The Grand Control is a mailer that has mailed many times, and over a long period of time.
Personally, I’ve never used Who’s Mailing What! to see what others are doing since I have an extensive swipe file of my own. But I’ve often used it to build my prospect database.
What makes Who’s Mailing What! such a valuable resource for the copywriter is that it lists known mailers. You don’t do better than that when trying to determine whether a company is a likely prospect for copywriting services.
What’s more, in the Who’s Mailing What! database you can search by niched category. For instance, if you specialize in nutritional supplements you can search category #346 (Nutritional Supplements and Vitamins) for high quality prospects.
You’ll find many repeat entries, but that’s ok; it just means that particular mailer is mailing frequently, which making them all the more desirable for your list.
An example: In a quick search of the database for the Nutritional Supplements and Vitamins category - and limiting to just the last two years - I found 66 entries. One strong mailer is Mountain Home Nutritionals, with eight mailings in two years.
Now that’s all I need to know in order to “qualify them” for my list.
However, if you wanted to go deeper, you’d learn that Mountain Home Nutritionals doesn’t mail the same package over and over; rather, it appears they test offers, as well as certain products.
Go even deeper, and you’ll find that on one mailing, they used a #11 envelope, that the mailing specs were 13 pages of four-color process, that it was an acquisition (prospecting) mailing…and that the concept/copy for the outer envelope was:
“Stock Up Now on Dr. Williams’ Top Health-Boosting Formulas!”
Now one caution: this is all very fascinating, but you’re simply looking to qualify a potential prospect. Resist the urge to look deeper as time is of the essence.
What you need to do next is go to your potential prospect’s Web site to get contact data…and that may not be as easy as it seems.
For instance, plugging “Mountain Home Nutritionals” into Google didn’t bring it up…but it did bring up “Dr. David Williams”…and that’s the brand under which Mountain Home Nutritionals is sold. So this is where you gather your contact information.
With hundreds of categories…from fund raising and investments to technology and insurance…Who’s Mailing What! is an ideal source for building your prospect list. Start here, and I guarantee you’ll step into the marketing side of copywriting with more confidence…and more success.
Master copywriter and coach Chris Marlow publishes a free ezine for copywriters who want to quickly build a profitable business. Visit:
www.FreelancersBusinessBulletin.com
Previous Articles Highlighter:
You Need A Comprehensive Plan To Increase Website Traffic (1)
Some even use less-than-ethical techniques like burying keywords outside the website and clustering keywords in the site, creating text that isn't pleasant to read and sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense.
How To Set Up Your Hosting In 5 Minutes Flat (2)
Almost all web hosts allow you to configure your account using a program called cPanel. The host your email sent you should tell you how to access it: it'll usually be something like www.yourdomain.com:2082 If you know the address but you can't get to the page, you might need to disable any firewall software you have running on your computer.
Your First Time Doing Internet Marketing? (3)
If you are not patient enough to wait for your search engine ranking to improve, you can attract visitors to your web site right away by using pay-per-click (PPC). With PPC, you pay a certain cost per click to have an ad for your web page run at or near the top of the search engines.
A Look At Adwords And Premium Advertising On Google (4)
Be proactive in redefining your strategy if you receive minimal response. You'll probably have to play with the wording and the keyword selection to get the results you want.
What Article Marketing Can Do For Your Business (5)
But if you have money set aside for your article marketing, paying for the submission sites is also a wise move. Whenever somebody reads your article displayed on directories, the link that leads to your site is prominent enough for the readers to be able to check them out once they find your article interesting.
How The Web Works (6)
3. To find out where this server is, your web browser looks it up using DNS (Domain Name System), which turns the text address into a number. This IP (Internet Protocol) address consists of four numbers between 0 and 255 - it looks like a phone number.
Optimize Your Article - The Forgotten Strategy (7)
Monitoring what happens with them, you may notice that some topics seem more popular than others. This is useful information. Once you know what people like, write more articles on that topic.
Getting Those Needed One Way Links To Your Website (8)
Including your link in the bio of an article you submitted is important when increasing inbound links. Articles will bring you traffic right from the articles, and this is a great advantage.
Network Marketing Internet Business (9)
Another thought has it that the common web surfer, that is those with no knowledge of or interest in internet marketing may be seeing a different message when they see the ads on a web site.
Integrity Is The Root Of All Success (10)
Some people may not like you because of those decisions, but you are laying the foundation of integrity. I see, as you know, 97% of people at the age of 65 are dead or dead broke.
Have A New Website? 6 Must-Do Traffic Strategies To Jump Start Your Online Business (11)
This is a traffic strategy wherein you choose keywords that are related to your site. Once these keywords are entered into a search, your site appears; and if a surfer views your site, you are billed for the click.
One Way Links Are Valued Higher Than Reciprocal Links (12)
Reciprocal link exchange is not dead, if you provide links for the benefit of your visitors. Linking for the sake of visitors is a win-win scenario. David Marc Fishman helps webmasters by allowing them to submit articles to www.myarticlezine.com and creating one way links using article submission to www.articleriot.com
Benefiting From Your Network Marketing Leads (13)
The business model that works for most of your network marketing leads will not necessarily work for this latest member of your downline. You must be willing to be flexible and think outside the box when it is needed.
Building A Buisness Website (14)
However, if you want to have the best website possible and if you want to attract the most customers to your website, you have to have one that is spectacular.
7 Basic Steps To E-Publishing (15)
Now that you're done, you can move on to the hard work. Selling your product! Have you wondered how others make money online? Visit My Site: www.beginnerebookpublishing.com Wood is a successful online entrepreneur, and has been actively involved with internet-based technologies and online marketing for more then 20 years.
Mapping Your Way To A Good HTML Site Map (16)
Keywords: web site traffic, traffic conversion, internet marketing, opt-in list, email marketing A site map basically is a page that features or lists the links you have on your web site.
Drive Potential Customers To Your Website Using These Methods (17)
All that means nothing if no one is looking at your website. So how does the budding entrepreneur get noticed in a place that is swarming with other business like yours?
How To Earn While You Learn (18)
Anyone can earn while they learn and achieve the freedom that come from having a crystal clear why! Jeff Schuman invites you to visit his make money online website for hundreds of make money ideas, articles, and products.
Newspaper Advertising Can Be Used To Get Online Traffic (19)
So, why not offer a FREEBIE in every newspaper ad you run? It is very hard to sell directly from a newspaper. Successful newspaper ads are all geared towards getting the reader to take an action that costs nothing such as making a phone call, coming in to the store, visiting a website, etc.
The Seven Deadly Mistakes Of Online Businesses (20)
If you sell products that have to be shipped, provide shipping information. Getting traffic to a website takes a lot of work and time. Don't throw all that effort down the drain by making these mistakes and losing those who visit your online business and turn around and leave to find a website that is more pleasing.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Should You Open An EBay Store? (1)
One of the most powerful aspects of having an eBay Store is that you automatically have a huge client base right at your doorstep. eBay has over 181 million worldwide registered users and rising daily.
Search Engines And The Effect On SEO (2)
It is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to your website by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. Search engine optimization can be worked into a site while designing it you can optimize the site after it is designed.
Advanced On-Page Search Engine Optimization Techniques (3)
Where you place your text can make a big difference. If you format your page using tables and you keep your text to the left, the keywords in that text appear lower down on the page and therefore not as relevant.
3 Steps To Search Engine Optimization Success (4)
Content analysis is a set of procedures for collecting and organizing material in order to make valid inferences about text. Search engines use content analysis in order to bring information related to a search to the user.
Maximize Your Exposure - Write Articles That Refer To Your Website (5)
If you choose not to write an article, you can delve into articles, tips, testimonials or book excerpts written by other people on websites and e-zines and copy and paste them to your site.
Choosing Good Public Domain Content (6)
Who wants to read about the Wright Brothers now when we have 767s and jets that can break the sound barrier? Well, tell that to all the people who flocked to see "The Aviator" with Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes.
Do You Know About Downloadable Audio Books? (7)
Those who love stories but do not have the time to read will greatly appreciate the dramatized audio book. This is because different people play the characters. It will also have music and sound effects, which makes the experience just like watching it in the theatre.
Website Content For Busy Webmasters (8)
On the Internet, content is king! So where can you get lots of quality website content without paying a lot of money? Well there are many options to choose from.
How To Increase Your Affiliate Marketing Pay Checks With Product Recommendations (9)
So don't hesitate to use videos in your product recommendations. Dassana Jayalath is the editor of InternetBizIQ newsletter. Visit www.internetbiziq.com for more valuable information on how to increase your affiliate marketing commissions.
Mistakes In Article Marketing You Do Not Want To Get Into (10)
Most writers may have passed the first stages with flying colors but this is where they blow it. All because they think of themselves first and foremost. In article marketing, you are not writing for yourself.
What To Consider When Getting A Broadband Service (11)
Generally speaking, if you're simply browsing the Internet, then you will enjoy the speed of broadband, but don't need to purchase the fastest connection possible. Most text-based documents such as e-mail, news sites, and similar sites, simply don't need connections that are superbly fast.
Guides On Free Affiliate Programs (12)
If they charge postage and then send you the information by way of a download, ask for your postage back. Another company may offer to set up your website for free and does so in a matter of minutes to put you in business immediately.
The Weekend Internet Entrepreneur (13)
What exactly you may ask entails staying power? Well it is a healthy mixture of dedication, consistency, persistence and perseverance. To Your Success.. Obinna Heche: Delivering the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home successfully..
Mindset For A Successful Online Business (14)
What you process through your mind and how you process it, produces the success (or lack of it) in your life and in your online business. Thoughts are what bring about ideas, motivation, behaviour, action and results.
Online Promotion Not Working? Drop All Your Marketing Strategies And Do This Now (15)
In case you are involved in a joint venture and are not making profits, then you should look at the fine print and if necessary, find another partner who is better skilled in traffic generation.
How To Find Quality Web Hosting Services (16)
These will allow you to get information on how many people are visiting your site. Front page extensions, reselling web space, uptime guarantee, and access to CGI-BIN are also some important features you may want to check into.
Profit Getting And Customer Building With Article Marketing (17)
When looking for topics for your article, you could go to forums that cover your targeted market. Be keen in observing what people are talking about or looking for.
On The Fast Lane To Success (18)
It is cheaper to learn from somebody else's experience. Internet marketing is no difference from these facts of life. Many have gone before us, they have tried and many have failed, gave up or grew tired of it before they hit pay dirt.
How To Use Pay-Per-Click To Boost Your Affiliate Marketing Income (19)
This kind of affiliate program is also an easy way for you to generate some more additional revenues. For example, when a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listings, the advertisers' account will then be deducted because of that click.
Research Data Drives Effective Creative Strategy (20)
For example, if the survey indicates that your organization is not producing results for customers in a particular area, maybe customer service or responsiveness - those are largely emotional issues, as no one likes to feel ignored or not served adequately, but they are not functional issues or operational issues within the organization's functional mission.