How to Succeed as a Freelance Sales Copywriter

Being a freelance sales copywriter is not for the faint-hearted. Indeed, there are some fundamentals that you are going to have to understand before jumping headlong into the fray.

Unless you are particularly lucky, most freelance sales copywriters would have a background in writing. Or even a sales and marketing background. This is the sure-fire way to bag yourself your first sales copywriting job. Clients want evidence that you know what you’re doing: influencing the market and encouraging potential clientele to purchase a certain product or service.

1. Know What is Sales Copy

There is a big difference between website copy and sales copy. Website copy can be just about anything, from in-depth articles to very basic content writing for websites. It can be informative, persuasive, or just a way of introducing certain keywords or links to the reader. However, sales copy (sometimes also known as direct response copywriting) is written with just one target in mind, and that is to generate a sale of the particular product or service that it is introducing. You will find that the best copywriting is not overly direct. It doesn’t force the specified product or service down the reader’s throat, but rather approaches them from the side angle.

2. Looking for Work

There are a few factors that define how easy it is for a sales copywriter to find work. This includes; your personality and how you approach potential clients, your professional background and portfolio and most importantly, who you know.

You could very approach companies and businesses directly. After all, every business that is selling a product or a service requires a good sales copywriter, and indeed even charities require the help of a sales copywriter to help them raise awareness of their cause. Or, of course, you can sign up to multiple agencies in the hope that they put some work your way.

3. A Sales Copywriter Needs to get Inside the Mind of Your Target Market

There are two ways to be successful as a sales copywriter. By promoting a product that sells itself, or by dedicating time and effort into your work and research. Rather than selling the product, you are going to have to sell the concept, solution, or lifestyle that comes with it. Say, for instance, that you are writing copy for a top-end luxury yacht, and your target market is going to be a certain type of person with a large amount of expendable income or pots of money burning a hole in their bank account.

You may want to touch on a few of the luxury finishes used within the build or design of the yacht. However, what you want to focus on is how the new owner will be perceived amongst their friends, family, and acquaintances or to the media if they are well known, the freedom, and the lifestyle that such a purchase will promote goes without saying. For some, this comes naturally, but for others, it can be a struggle to envisage from the desired target’s perspective.

4. Investing in the Correct Software

Having the correct software to back up your business. Your writing can then blend smoothly with that of the business or company that you are writing for is a must. You will be working closely with their marketing department if they have one. Using the correct keywords to target the desired market, while also staying safe and secure in your work. Regardless of where in the world you are working from.

Using a top-performing api management platform, you will be able to move seamlessly between different relevant applications of your clients, therefore providing you with the information that you require to do a good job, while also keeping you in contact with the teams that you are sharing data with.

5. Using Different Mediums

As for most things, the world has moved on from requiring everything to be in only print and on paper. Now, you have multiple mediums at your fingertips, to use within your sales copywriting, to get your voice heard and your client’s products or services sold.

If you are focused on writing an email drop or even an old-fashioned postal drop, then you are probably going to be looking mainly at typeface and pictures. However, even the style and color of the font that you use is important and should not be overlooked. However, it is more than likely that your sales copy is going to be used within a social media environment or on a website and could very well have animated parts, videos, audio, and music all wrapped in there somewhere.

6. Getting Your Fee

It is important that you decide on your fee before you commence work and that you have a drawn-up contract for your client to sign in advance. It is between you and your client as to whether you ask for a lump sum for your work or whether you are happy to take a much smaller payment alongside a percentage of the generated sales that your sales copy will entice.

If you have a good hand at writing sales copy, the product or service is a strong contender in the marketplace, or there is already a large guaranteed customer base with their money in their hands, you would do well to go for the latter contract. You will find over time that the money still comes in from all that hard work. And while you are working on other projects far down the line, this trickle of money coming through from the sales provides you with a passive income.

Continue Reading: 11 Things You Must Know to Succeed With Inside Sales

About the Author

Dan Cormac knows how to make his money go further. A freelance financial journalist, Dan is passionate about personal finance. Whether you hope to escape the chains of debt, save for a house, or to retire within a decade, Dan explores the most effective ways you can achieve your financial goals.