Get Out of Your Own Way

“The more authentic you become, particularly regarding your personal experiences and even self doubts, the more people can relate to you and feel safe to express themselves.”
–Stephen R. Covey

In This Issue:

Get Out of Your Own Way
by Krista Jones

Here’s something I know for sure about copywriting: Falling in love—or even just being infatuated—with the product you’re selling does wonders for your copy.

I had hoped that was true before I got into the business, but confirming it made my work much easier because I had never sold anything in my life.

If the same is true for you, let me assure you that when you’re excited about something you don’t need to be a natural salesperson to lead people to take the actions you want them to take. All it takes is for you to immerse yourself in the product before you start to write and your genuine enthusiasm and positive energy will come through without you even having to try.

Of course it’s not always that easy. You’re not always going to land assignments where you are writing about products or services that turn you on. Like it or not, if you’re going to be a successful freelance copywriter, you’re going to have to learn how to sell products that don’t interest you.

The first time it happened to me—my task was to sell a hi-tech heart monitor to stressed out executives—I wondered how I was going to be able to sell something that I thought was too complicated and expensive. I just knew I was headed for my first major flop and the client would never hire me again.

But then I had an epiphany: Just because I wouldn’t buy the monitor didn’t mean the monitor was bad…or that a stressed out executive wouldn’t love to have one. It was my first lesson in how I could think more like someone else – namely my target prospect – than like myself.

Truman Capote once said that writing is learning how to get out the way of yourself. To be a great copywriter, you have to master this skill. When you personally connect with the product, it’s certainly a plus. But ultimately, you have to accept that what you’re writing isn’t about you! It’s about what will benefit the customer.

Once I remembered that my job got a lot easier.

Now I have a three-step process that helps me muster up genuine excitement about any product (assuming the product does what it’s supposed to do):

  1. Talk to people who could benefit from the product. These are the true prospects for the product. People who would use the product – or who could be helped by it – will show you the product through a new set of eyes.

    Talking to people in the target audience does a couple of things. It helps you put your own feelings aside and focus instead on helping someone else. It also helps you learn their core emotions—tapping into these emotions is key to the success of your package.

  2. Write a letter to someone you care about who could benefit from the product. Take some time to write a letter to a friend who has painful feet, financial woes, or whatever problem your product solves. This simple exercise will help you produce authentic feelings for the product and the reader…and will likely generate copy you can use in your promotion more easily.

  3. Read a draft of your promotion to someone who falls in the target audience, if possible. If it’s about prostate problems and you’re a woman – call a friend or family member who is more likely to have this issue and see how they react to your promotion.

I’ve had a couple of big winners after using this process. I’m sure it’s because it helps me wash away my own prejudices and biases so I can look at the project from the perspective of the people who can truly benefit from the product.

Try this process the next time you find yourself in the difficult position of trying to sell something you’re not interested in. I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly it can turn an unpleasant assignment into one that you’re genuinely excited about.

Resource Referral: Great Spare Time Income

The first business Monica and I launched together was an online agency that provided copy for a wide range of mid-size clients. We wrote about everything from alternative health to financial services. But we were surprised by our biggest moneymaker: writing resumes. In fact, with just one client, we kept two copywriters busy pretty much full-time until we closed the agency to start up Copy Protégé.

The moral of this story? There might be more easy money in the resume writing market than you realize. If you think you might like to start a resume preparation service – or at least dabble in it on the side while you get your copywriting career off the ground – I highly recommend AWAI’s Pro Resume Writer Program. It teaches you…

We found the market very easy to break into, very consistent – and quite lucrative. At $50 per hour (that’s what we were charging our clients) or more, you can earn several hundred dollars a week by doing only a handful of resumes. And more, of course, if you were to do it full time. Sound good? Then you should check it out.

Quick Copy Tip: When to Deliver Bad News

Everyone knows no one likes bad news.

But even so, there will be times when you have to give a client some news you’d rather not have to deliver.

Whatever the news might be, the best thing you can do is give it to them straight and as soon as possible.

As they say, bad news doesn’t get better with age. And never is that more true than when you’re dealing with clients who have tight design schedules, printing schedules, and budgets. So the sooner she knows your copy will be late or that she needs to find another copywriter, the more time she’ll have to make the necessary adjustments.

AND…the sooner she knows the better the chances are that she won’t hold the news against you.

So when you’ve got news you think your client would rather not hear, take a deep breath and go ahead and make the call or send the email. Truth is you’ll both feel a lot better when you get it over with.