Turn An Enemy Into An Ally

“To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.”
–Sugar Ray Robinson, Professional Boxer

In This Issue:

Turn An Enemy Into An Ally
by Krista Jones

Working for yourself changes how you feel about many things. But I never thought it would change how I feel about self-promotion.

See, I started out like everyone else—not liking the idea of having to constantly sell my services to strangers. Fortunately, I was able to build my career without having to.

My good fortune didn’t come about so much because I was some hot shot copywriter. It had a lot to do with when I entered the market…

Namely, there were fewer copywriters available and my initial clients were hungry for a copywriter that showed some promise. So I got tons of repeat business without having to make cold calls, create a self-promotion piece, or do a lick of networking.

It was fantastic because it fit my model of what self-promotion should look like: Do a good job…the word will get out… and your phone and email will blow up.

Perfect, right?

It was for a while. After all, word-of-mouth is the best advertising you can ask for.

But the gravy train wouldn’t last forever. I knew that if I really wanted to continue working for myself, I was going to have to do more than good work to promote myself.

That said, I still wasn’t mentally prepared to make cold calls or start going to networking events. Surely there were other ways to get my name out there.

To ease things for me a bit, I stopped thinking of self-promotion as a project that I need to complete and just started doing things like regularly sending emails, personal notes, and useful articles to clients and prospective clients.

In other words, I developed a few work habits that allowed me to incorporate self-promotion into my lifestyle.

What does that mean?

It means being nice to people, maintaining relationships, and honoring my commitments. It also means continuously working to improve myself and my skills. Because ultimately self-promotion is about more than getting new assignments. It’s about establishing trust and respect in the marketplace.

It took me a while to embrace self-promotion the way I should have to ensure my long-term success as a business owner. Don’t let that happen to you.

If you’ve got it in your head that you’re not any good at selling yourself, here are three things you can start doing to make yourself a better marketer:

  1. Set daily self-promotion goals, just like you do with project work. The goals don’t have to be big, just do something small like reaching out to someone, writing an article, or showing up at an event. Do anything to show yourself that you’re making measurable progress in the self-promotion realm even if the real measure—like new clients—might not come until months later.

    Don’t just do this when you’re first starting out, but for as long as you’re in business for yourself.

  2. Get a website as soon as possible to make yourself visible. Although I don’t have a personal website, if I were still looking for freelance clients in today’s market I would definitely put one up. Not that it’s critical for you to have a site from day one, but it will build your credibility down the road. Just remember that what a prospective client sees in the first 10 seconds of arriving at your site is the first impression he or she will have of you.

  3. Be proactive. Once you do land a client or contact a prospective client, follow up. Ask about the status of a project you’ve discussed with them. Share a new idea that might help their business grow or a campaign generate more sales. And make sure you get results for every promotion you write. Keep records of your results so you can share them with prospective clients.

Stop telling yourself you are too shy, busy, or inexperienced to promote yourself. You don’t have to call or approach a bunch of strangers each day to market your services. Instead, start taking the steps above to get your name and your brand on the minds of the people you want to serve.

Resource Referral: The Art of Selling Yourself

If you’d like more detailed information and guidance on how to promote yourself, get a comprehensive marketing toolkit from master copywriter/marketer Bob Bly and other top freelancers like Steve Slaunwhite, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and Joan Damico.

In Selling Yourself, you get Bob’s rate sheet, sample contracts, sample self-promo pieces, and bunch of other tools to help you solicit and work with clients effectively. Bob and company also share things like:

Selling Yourself is a great program if you’re like I used to be and don’t know where to start with self-promotion. This program is not about theory, it’s about getting real-world results.

Reader Feedback: Don’t Count Yourself Out

Several weeks ago I shared a couple of messages from Copy Protégé Reader Suzanne Q. who was out there searching for her first client.

Great news—Suzanne landed her first catalog client a few weeks ago. But things weren’t sounding so rosy when she wrote to share the news with me:

“The client contacted me last Thursday by email and had attached product descriptions (approx. 16) for the copy he needed written. He needed it ASAP. Later in the day when I spoke with him, he provided little information concerning page layout, items that would have accompanying photos, and length of copy blocks. So, I did what I could with what I had to work with.

I spent 4 hours Thursday evening writing the copy (part of that time was spent researching on one of the manufacturer’s Web sites.) I emailed the finished copy to him at 1 a.m. Friday.

It’s now a week later and I haven’t heard anything from him, even though I sent an email on Monday inquiring if he was satisfied.

So, what I’ve learned from this experience:

Stay focused on the project’s requirements. Don’t allow the thrill of being chosen distract me. In retrospect, I should have pressed him to give me specifics, even approximate ones. My biggest obstacle was guessing at what the copy length should be. That definitely affected the quality.

Have confidence in myself. Believe that I get an assignment because I’m qualified, not because I just I got lucky.

I’m glad I got this first one under my belt. I’ve learned a lot from it and will do better next time.”

Krista says: Although it’s easy to assume the worst under circumstances like these, the truth is, you don’t know what the client is thinking until you hear back from him. So do your best to stay positive or at least neutral.

Turns out everything worked out just fine for Suzanne. Here’s what I heard back from her a few days later…

“Hi Krista,

I finally heard back from my client. He was satisfied with the copy and will use it even though he did have to do some revising.

He plans to hire me again and will provide me with a mock up of the page layouts next time (that will be helpful!)

So, things did turn out OK. Live and learn…

Thanks for listening.”

Live and learn, indeed, Suzanne