Notes from
Minnesota
Woo hoo! Spring
has sprung and I'm sooooo excited.
I spent the
last two weeks criss crossing Minnesota and I'm more than a
little fatigued. I love to travel, but the down side is trying
to catch up with everything once you get back to the
office.
Wow... things
pile up fast! :)
I've got Peder
(my beautiful son and trusty summer assistant) working his tush
off counting inventory and getting all my messy files
re-organized. It's almost embarrassing listening to him tsk tsk
all morning. :(
Oh
well.
Rudie my little
Doxie Cross pup traveled with me and is more than exhausted.
Sadly, Jake the Min Pin won't leave her alone. Guess he missed
her.
I hope this
little update finds you well, happy... and
writing!
Best,
Beth
P.P.S. Be sure
to check out our best
sellers.
A Mindset
Moment
Hey
Freelancer,
I know life can
get overwhelming at times. You've got to make a living. Writing
assignments don't always flow the way you expect. Sometimes you
just get tired.
It's in these
moments that you must slow down long enough to realize you have
all of heaven and earth supporting you in your writing
goals.
The universe
possesses infinite resources to charge your battery, ignite
your creativity, and help you feel fulfilled.
Take care of
yourself this week.
Grab a book.
Take a walk. Pet your dog. Whine. Laugh. Cry.
Live.
(Mindset Moment)
Beth's Hot Pick of the
Week
Without a doubt, one of my favorite freelancers is
Bob Bly. In many ways, I've modeled my freelance career
after his. His writing style, his marketing techniques,
his tenacity despite so-called economic conditions have
always been an inspiration to me.
“Bob Bly's Guide to Freelance Writing
Success” is just one of his dozens of titles
available today (all highly recommended, by the way) that I
consider an essential part of my freelance plan as well as
my marketing strategy.
I'd
suggest you pick up your own
copy today.
Easy Market... Little To No Rejection Part
Deux :)
Beth Ann Erickson
Last time, I talked about using your
writing skills to write for small businesses. This time,
I'm going into a little more detail on how to target your
prospective clients.
I use a very
scientific process to do this:
I dig through the local yellow pages and…
-
Target
an industry I find interesting.
-
Choose
all the businesses within that category that have large
ads.
-
I then
choose businesses without a big ad that may interest me
anyway.
It’s really
that simple. (And not very “scientific,” eh?)
If I’m
particularly daring, I’ll select a few businesses as I read the
morning newspaper and shoot a letter to them as
well.
I most
certainly tweak each letter to reflect each business I’m
contacting. I personalize the salutation and add any pertinent
information that may apply.
I’ve had
fantastic luck using this process, despite the fact that I live
in a very rural area.
You may enjoy
working for local clients as well. I’d suggest you give it a
shot.
However, if you
want to really ratchet up your income, the time eventually
comes to stretch into larger markets.
You can shoot
for regional clients, then state-wide, national, then
eventually world-wide. The Internet makes all this
possible.
First things
first: You need a website.
Never fear, I
don’t know of any writers who have enjoyed writing their own
website. But you still have to do it.
Non-negotiable.
I may get into
the nitty-gritty mechanics of writing a great sales piece some
day. But for now I want to talk about your site a
bit:
Before you
write word one, you’ve got to get into the mind of your
prospective customer.
What do they
want?
What do they
think about their current marketing plan?
How can you
help them achieve their boldest goal?
What’s on their
mind? How can you properly address what they’re thinking
about?
It’s not a
complex process if you simply take some time to slip into the
skin of you potential reader and find their hot buttons.
Address these concerns in a compelling way and you’ve got a
sale.
So… you know
who your ideal customer is. What next?
You start
writing, right? Nope. You research.
While still
channeling your ideal reader, read you need to thoroughly
research the product you’re selling. Start with everything your
client gives you; every piece of documentation, specs, the
product itself… everything. Then study the competition’s
marketing efforts.
Print
everything and highlight every interesting tidbit of info you
find.
After this, you
should dig through your swipe file (hopefully you do have one
of these) and find marketing pieces that could possibly serve
as a jumping off point in your writing.
Read what your
potential client reads. Surf to the same
sites.
Dig
deep.
If you don’t do
this, you run the risk of not connecting with your audience.
And if you don’t connect, you definitely won’t make the sale.
It’s really as simple as that.
OK. You’ve
researched your audience. You’ve got a few swipes to glean
information from. You’ve read so much about your audience that
you can actually transfer their speech patterns onto the
written page. (This means you’ve mastered communicating to your
audience using their language… not some high-brow literary
style that will bore them to tears… unless they’re of an
academic bent and actually speak in that manner. But I
digress.)
Fabulous! Now
you can start writing!
Not so fast,
Grasshopper.
Now it’s time
to re-read.
If you’re a
smart reader, you’ve made notes, highlighted, and basically
chewed through your papers. Now’s the time to
organize.
Pull out some
note cards and start transferring all your nuggets of gold onto
the cards.
As you do this,
form bullets in your mind. Perhaps a few subheads. Maybe a few
headlines’ll pop out at you.
It’s amazing
how the letter basically writes itself when you’ve got a ton of
information to work with.
Just keep
making notes and tossing them into various piles. I use one for
potential bullets, one for headlines, subheads, interesting
tidbits, crucial information… you get the
drift.
So, if you’ve
done everything I’ve suggested up to this point, you’re ready
to start the easy part. Writing.
I know. This
process sounds like a lot of work.
But your other
option is to pull your information out of thin air, cross your
fingers and hope for the best.
I never said
copywriting was easy. Nor did I say it was for the faint of
heart.
However, if you
truly want to make all your marketing efforts worthwhile, there
simply are not any shortcuts.
This is why
many copywriters find it lucrative to specialize in a
particular niche. Writing to the same, or similar, audiences
day in and day out really cuts the learning
curve.
But no matter
what you write, you most certainly need to research, understand
your audience, and speak their language.
This is best
illustrated by this: supposed a client called upon you to write
copy for an e-book.
Client one:
advice to senior citizens on burial plots. Client two: vacation
hot spots for spring break.
I’m sure you
can imagine that your use of language would be very different
for each project.
I’m also sure
that any research you perform for client number one will not
transfer to client number two.
I’m also very
positive that the mindset of these two audiences will be quite
different.
As you work on
each sales letter, everything you write will completely and
totally reflect your audience, their values, their language
style… everything and I mean EVERYTHING is written to and about
your reader.
You never sell
a product or service. You sell a solution to your reader’s
problem.
You never
“talk” about your company, you always talk about your reader
and how your company can help them.
Big
difference.
In fact, miss
this point and (again) you’ll lose readers. And when you lose
readers, you lose the sale.
~~~
Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of
Filbert Publishing. She’s also the author of numerous titles
including “101 No Cost and Low Cost Secrets To Turbo Charge
Your Freelance Income.” Pick up your copy today
at http://filbertpublishing.com/101.html
She’s also a busy copywriter, speaker,
and publisher of Writing Etc., the free e-mag for
writers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Recommend:
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write. Receive the FREE ebook, 83 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING
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-*-
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