Category Archives: Tips and advice

Copywriting is tried by many but mastered by few. As long as you have good writing skills and a decent grasp of spelling and grammar, you have the basic tools you need to become a copywriter. If you’re ready to take it further, check out these exercises you can practise to hone your skills and become a master copywriter.

Set a timer

A basic, but a goodie. One of the best copywriting exercises is to set a timer and see how much content you can produce on a given subject matter. Timers help to banish writer’s block, keep procrastination at bay and improve productivity, whether you’re working on a paid job or your blog.

Ten-minute timers will spur you into action and could help you create some of the most lively content of your career. Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes!

Swap long words for short ones

If you can swap a long word for a shorter one, ALWAYS do. Simple is best, and search engines and readers hate longer words for good reason.

No matter how technical the product or service is, most of my briefs involve a client asking me to explain what they do in “layman’s terms”.

Once you get into the habit of swapping long words for shorter ones, it’s one of the most useful copywriting exercises out there.

Switch features for benefits

One of the most beneficial copywriting exercises you can do is to read through your content and switch all the features for benefits.

Customers don’t care about the latest technology used to make their vacuum cleaner; they care how much dog hair it will clean up first time.

Skincare lovers are unlikely to understand why all of the ingredients you’ve mentioned are good for them, but they need to know if your client’s face scrub will clear their pores and make their skin glow.

A campsite owner doesn’t need to know about the cutting-edge technology used to manufacture a septic tank; they need to know it will collect and treat waste efficiently, save them money and not be noisy or smelly.

When you turn each sentence around to promote the benefits to the end-user, your copywriting becomes instantly more appealing and likely to convert.

Practise fascinations

Eddie Shleyner of VeryGoodCopy has a free micro-course on “Master Fascinations” designed to help you improve your copywriting skills.

The idea of a fascination is a headline or sentence so intriguing or appealing to the reader they can’t help but read on, click or turn the page. In his genius Google Doc on the subject, Eddie urges copywriters to write out a series of famously successful fascinations by hand, to embed the concept into your mind and help you to write your own.

Take out negatives

Nobody likes a Negative Nancy. When practising your copywriting skills, a useful exercise is to take out all the negatives and turn them into positives, like a content writing Pollyanna.

Instead of detailing how a service or product can prevent stress or avoid costly mistakes, switch it around and highlight how carefree or successful your target customer will be when they use it.

Negative words create bad vibes, even if you’re using them to underline a benefit. I was once advised never to say “no problem” in an email, as it uses two negative words to communicate a positive and could subconsciously plant a seed of doubt. While that may be taking it to the extreme, it stuck with me.

Facebook’s algorithm dislikes negative words, so using positive vocab is especially good practice for social media posts and ads, but should generally be adopted across all kinds of copywriting.

Save copywriting examples

Whenever you see a fantastic piece of copywriting, save it to your phone, laptop or Pinterest so you can delve into your archives for inspiration when practising your content writing.

If it makes you laugh, click, share or buy, it’s probably featured some top copywriting – so keep a record of it and learn from the best.

I have a Pinterest board full of fabulous adverts from ad copywriting giants, and I love to browse it for motivation, so find a way of saving your faves and use them wisely.

Write multiple headlines

Clients often ask me for a few different headline options when writing content for their website, brochure or blog.

And while the first time this happened, I may have wondered why one wasn’t good enough, I soon realised the benefit of writing several headline alternatives.

Writing a single headline feels tough, but once you write a few, the words start to flow, and ideas keep coming. Usually, you’ll find it challenging to narrow it down to a set number, and you’ll invariably go back to the first one you wrote and change it.

By writing multiple headline options, you’re fine-tuning your title copywriting skills, as well as working efficiently to get the best title for you or your client.

Keep writing

I find copywriting is a lot like exercise. When I write every day, the words and ideas flow. If I take a few days off, I question myself and struggle to get started when I return to the keyboard.

Therefore, writing every day is an effective copywriting exercise to keep improving and mastering your craft.

If you don’t have client work to do, add regular articles to your blog or schedule social posts. Alternatively, try to practise copy working – the art of writing out other people’s content to absorb it and learn from it, much like the fascinations exercise mentioned earlier.

Extreme editing

Writing content to a specific word count can be challenging at first, so getting into the habit of editing down text to shorter lengths is an excellent way to improve your content writing.

You can do this one of two ways.

Either go back to a piece of copywriting you wrote and try to reduce the word count by half, keeping the message and purpose intact.

Or, practise with someone else’s content. Copy and paste some blogs from Medium, or someone’s Wikipedia page – anywhere you can find a chunk of content to get to work on.

By regularly practising this extreme editing challenge, you’ll become a ruthless word slashing pro in no time.

Rewrite other people’s content

An excellent copywriting exercise is to find some content and rewrite it. It can be anything – Google something and rewrite the top ads, read a shampoo bottle and see if you can phrase it better, or transcribe a TV ad script and write your own version of it.

By reading and rewriting existing examples of copywriting, you’ll glean tactics on how other people write and help to establish and develop your own style of writing.

Why practise copywriting exercises?

Hopefully, these copywriting exercises will help you to improve your writing skills, build your confidence and lead to securing paid work as a copywriter.

Think of your copywriting as a muscle you need to flex regularly to make it stronger a

If you have any more, please share them!

Copywriting briefs vary wildly from a short sentence to a lengthy document. So what does the perfect copywriting brief include? If you’re hiring a copywriter for your content writing project, they’ll need a decent brief to deliver quality work. Read on to find out how to write a copywriting brief that will help you and your copywriter get the job done.

Word count

Firstly, a freelance copywriter needs to know how many words you’d like in your content. So if you know, make it clear. If you don’t know, make this clear too. This way, your copywriter can advise accordingly based on other elements of your brief.

Company info, tone of voice and style preferences

Is this is your first time working with this freelance copywriter? If so, include company background, brand guidelines and tone of voice in your copywriting brief (if you have them). There’s only so much we can glean from your website, so all insight is welcome.

Many companies have a style preference for their written content. So, if you have preferred terminology and words you don’t like used in your business content, give your copywriter access to this information.

This not only makes life easier for your copywriter but saves you time making corrections later.

Copywriting project description

Clearly state what the project is about and where the copywriting will appear. For example, an event poster, an email or a landing page. If it’s part of a wider marketing campaign, fill your copywriter in on an overview of the project. This will help them to understand where their content will sit within a wider campaign.

Audience

Who are we talking to? You should have a clear idea of who your target customer is. Therefore, provide your copywriter with as much info as possible so they can build a picture of your audience and communicate with them effectively.

Goals

Include in your brief an overview of what the content aims to achieve. Do you want it to make people sign up to your newsletter? Attend your event, or visit your website? Clear motivations are essential for a copywriter to write compelling content and create clear calls to action (CTAs) that prompt your audience to act.

Key messages

What are the key messages you want to communicate in this piece of copywriting? Perhaps it’s as simple as event details for an email inviting people to attend. Or maybe it’s a long-form blog involving more complex ideas. Either way, including key messages in a copywriting brief provides your copywriter with a framework and direction.

Research

Every good freelance copywriter is used to doing their own research. However, if you have any particular insight into which websites, articles or documents would be especially useful, include this information in your copywriting brief.

Competitors

For website copywriting projects, it’s great for freelance copywriters to see some examples of competitor websites in the copywriting brief. This enables us to get a feel for the market and where your company is positioned within it.

It’s also useful to see examples of non-competitor websites you like the look and vibe of, as this can help us to gain a clearer vision of your style in the absence of brand guidelines or company tone of voice.

Keywords

All good freelance copywriters should be well versed in SEO, so if you have certain keywords you’d like to include in your content, cover this in your copywriting brief.

Deadline

“We need this yesterday lol!” – not an ideal example of how you should include a deadline in your copywriting brief.

Excellent copywriting takes time, so try to feature a realistic deadline in your copywriting brief, bearing in mind work can’t always start immediately if your copywriter is working on other projects.

Hopefully, these tips will help you to write a clear and effective copywriting brief for your project, to help your chosen copywriter produce an exceptional piece of writing.

Free downloadable copywriting brief template

If you still need help, feel free to download my free copywriting brief template and use it to brief in your next project. This template features everything covered in this copywriting brief blog in a user-friendly format.

Using this free copywriting brief template will ensure your freelance copywriter has all the info they need to smash your brief and deliver the goods!

Wondering how to become a freelance copywriter? I am one, so I’ve put together some tips to help you on your merry way.

There are no official qualifications or training required to become a freelance copywriter. So, as long as you can produce smart, targeted and error-free content you’re off to a great start.

Plus, in today’s outsource-happy economy, freelance copywriters are more in-demand than ever. Business owners are wising up to the advantages of only paying for the content they need, when they need it. For them, this makes much more business sense than paying someone to drink coffee and talk about Love Island for 50% of the working day.

So, before you quit the day job and change your LinkedIn bio, wait. Read my advice on becoming a freelance copywriter to arm yourself with some essential tips and advice from an expert.

Start with a side hustle

I’m all for a motivational Pinterest quote. However, the reality for me wasn’t a case of waking up one day and deciding to be a freelance copywriter.

Dreaming big is all well and good but working hard is what makes these things actually happen.

I first started working as a freelance copywriter as a side hustle to my day job almost four years before I started working for myself full-time. While a four-year side hustle isn’t essential, spending time building your copywriting business on the side is a smart move.

Evenings, weekends and early mornings may feature prominently in your working hours at first. Yet this is a key time to establish yourself and lay some foundations for freelance success.

Work on your copywriting portfolio

Most clients will ask to see copywriting examples or a portfolio before commissioning you to write for them. So, it’s time to work on building one up.

If you don’t have any paid work to display yet, use content you’ve produced on your own blog or sites like Medium to gain exposure.

Alternatively, secure low-paid work on sites like Fiverr and People Per Hour to gain copywriting portfolio examples. While this does mean you’ll work for less than your day rate, these tend to be one-off jobs that will help you secure experience and content, without working for free.

My first portfolio was a simple Google Doc using a template I found online. I initially panicked I didn’t have one when a potential client asked. Then I pulled myself together and hastily assembled this copywriting portfolio and sent it on. This helped me secure me a number of early copywriting projects, so it does the job.

Establish an online presence to promote your copywriting work

So far in my freelance copywriting career, the majority of my leads have come via LinkedIn. Therefore, having an active LinkedIn profile and relevant content has been my most valuable marketing tool to date.

Setting up your online presence needn’t be too involved to begin with. You probably already have a LinkedIn profile, so use it to promote yourself. Creating a business account on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is straightforward, and you don’t need to do all four at first. I’m most active on LinkedIn and Facebook, so stick to what you’re most comfortable with at first. Then, develop your social presence on other platforms further down the line.

Of course, having your own freelance copywriter website is a great way to present a professional image to potential clients. It’s easier than ever to create your own simple website using platforms like WordPress, Wix and SquareSpace. If you’re even the slightest bit tech-savvy, you shouldn’t struggle with this.

However, if you have a small budget, you can outsource this to a web designer. Use LinkedIn or freelancer Facebook groups to find someone starting out in their web development career who would be happy to create your site in exchange for your copywriting services. A contra-deal will help you both establish yourselves and start developing the foundations of your freelance career.

Know your worth as a freelance copywriter

Recently, I saw a newbie copywriter posting in a Facebook group asking for advice on how much to charge for freelance copywriting. Her suggested day rate was less than half of mine, and mine is pretty competitive. While I can completely understand her temptation to go low to win some early jobs, this attitude isn’t helpful for your future self or your fellow copywriters.

Devaluing the art of copywriting by setting your hourly, project and day rates too low means you’ll struggle to ever increase them further down the line. Plus, if clients see your dirt cheap rates as standard, they will refuse to pay the actually standard rate for other copywriters, thus jeopardising the landscape for everyone.

By all means, offer some mates’ rates for friends to secure some content for your portfolio, but know your worth when establishing your copywriting rates, and you’ll thank yourself (and hopefully, me!) later.

Don’t write for free 

Following on from the previous point, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned since becoming a freelance copywriter is not to work for free. I’ve had countless requests for free content, and many “amazing opportunities” to work with a company by supplying them with free sample blogs or articles.

It’s super tempting to go for every opportunity that comes your way in the early days, and I did it myself a few times before wising up.

People who expect you to work for free will never value your work, and they’re likely to be the same clients who are terrible at paying you on time if you ever do come to produce paid copywriting work for them.

Sadly, freeloaders will always find a naive newbie to do their work for free, but don’t dwell over these missed opportunities and use the time you could have spent writing their content for free to focus on finding great clients who respect your time and pay you for it.

Having spoken to other freelancers on this issue, there seems to be a couple of exceptions to this rule. Working for free for a great cause or a fantastic reason can be a satisfying experience. If someone can benefit hugely from your support, like a charity, a penniless startup or a beloved friend, then feel free (lol) to provide your services free of charge.

Ask yourself if you’ll feel good for doing it, or if the impact you can make is significant. Is this a worthy cause, or is someone trying to take advantage of you? Usually, you’ll know the difference.

Another exception to the “no free work” rule. If you’re lacking copywriting examples for your portfolio, it’s a good idea to reach out to business-owning friends to see if you could write some blogs or landing pages for their websites in exchange for a testimonial. This is a win win situation, and you’re willingly offering your services, rather than reluctantly providing them out of desperation.

In these last two examples, always make sure you get a little something out of it, like a backlink, a Google review or a LinkedIn recommendation – these will cost your client nothing, but help you significantly.

Add value to your audience

Once you have a social presence, be consistent in your posting and ask all of your friends to like, comment on and share your posts and page. My Facebook audience grew from around 100 to over 700 in a couple of days when I put out a post asking all of my Facebook friends to invite their contacts to like my page. I was more than happy to do the same for fellow self-employed or small business owning friends, so don’t be afraid to ask for support from your existing network in establishing yourself.

The golden rule with business etiquette on social media is not to sell aggressively to your network. Instead, focus on engaging with others, making new connections and producing content that will be useful to your target audience. Instead of asking them to hire you to write their blogs, create a post or blog* showing them how much more traffic their website would receive if it had weekly blog content.

Adding value to your audience is key. Maybe they’ll see that post and start writing their own blogs, but if this becomes too time-consuming, which it invariably will, you’ll be the freelance copywriter they think of first when they decide to outsource it.

The same goes for your website visitors. Rather than selling to them when they land on your site, think of ways to interest and engage them. Promise them copywriting tips to increase their conversions. Or, offer a downloadable template for writing their own press release. Both options are more likely to prompt them to sign up than simply asking them to subscribe to marketing emails.

*Top tip* – rather than posting a link to your blog on LinkedIn, recreate the blog as a LinkedIn article, as LinkedIn’s algorithm frowns on external links in a bid to keep users on the platform. Copying and pasting it is fine. Make sure you proof it for errors before posting live on LinkedIn, as it often won’t paste correctly and misses out words or sections. If you want to link to an external site in a LinkedIn post, do it in the comments to keep in favour with the LinkedIn gods. Simply create a post as you normally would, then end it with “link in comments”.

Network

The dreaded networking can be an incredible way to establish yourself as a freelance copywriter. Admittedly, many writers are introverts (me included). But overcoming your fears and promoting yourself at networking events will help you to make great connections that can develop into clients or lead to successful introductions.

Luckily, networking is varied these days. So, there’s plenty of scope to find an event to suit your personality, interests and target audience. From gin tasting to dog walking, there’s a networking event for everyone if you look hard enough. Some will be geared around the 30-second selling spiel, others will be more relaxed and informal. Therefore, find out which event will be the best option for you.

Ask for suggestions on social media to find out what’s happening in your local area. Too scared to go it alone? Rope a friend into coming along as moral support.

If you attend regularly, you’ll make friends and the entire experience will be less daunting. And the results could be amazing.

Find a copywriting niche

A fantastic way to develop as a freelance copywriter is to establish a niche. Specialising in one sector will give clients in that industry the confidence that you’ll speak their language and understand their target audience.

If you’re not sure where to specialise, you could start by setting up a blog in an area you’re interested in or know a little more about (maybe due to your current career or hobbies). Examples could be fashion, personal finance, recruitment or sports.

I’ve worked in two key copywriting roles which gave me varied experience across multiple sectors. So, while I don’t have a set niche, there are areas where I have more experience and expertise, like property, interiors and the KBB industry. This enables me to secure regular work and clients in those sectors.

Write guest posts

Another kind of exception to the “don’t work for free” rule is writing guest posts. Compile a list of websites in the industry in which you’re hoping to find potential clients and carve a niche, then approach them offering to write them a guest post.

While you won’t get paid for the post, you may be invited to write paid posts later if they like your content. Or, it could open other doors in that industry. Not to mention, creating valuable backlinks to your site from websites with an excellent domain authority.

The key element of the “no free work” rule is to avoid working for people who will take advantage of you. So, if it’s someone you really want to work for and you can clearly see the potential benefits to you and your career, then go for it.

How to find copywriting clients

Got yourself a copywriting portfolio and a couple of testimonials? It’s time to start finding clients who will pay you to write for their business.

LinkedIn is a great way to do this, and you can use a number of different methods. If you have a niche, connect with the target client in that industry. For example, marketing managers in the food and drink industry. Always add a note to your invitation, introducing yourself and gently asking if they’d like to connect to see if there may be an opportunity to work together.

Another way to find clients through LinkedIn is to use the content search function to find posts with keywords relating to your copywriting services. I regularly search for keywords like copywriter, copywriting, freelance copywriter and blogger. Then, I connect and private message anyone who has put out a post searching for these services. Make sure you message directly rather than commenting on the post, as it’s more personal.

Most of all, identify who you want to target then work out the best place to find and approach them. If your ideal clients are startup owners and entrepreneurs, join some LinkedIn and Facebook groups where they’re liking to be hanging out. If you know of niche networking events they frequent, book onto them and start schmoozing.

Pitch your services

Rockstar copywriter Jacob McMillen has a highly successful “no-risk pitch method” you can use to approach dream clients. By offering potential clients a sample piece of copywriting which they only pay for if it’s successful for them, he’s secured an plethora of paid jobs and regular clients. The only risk is if the quality of your writing isn’t up to scratch, leading businesses to reject your work. However, if you’re confident in your style and substance, it’s a genius way to approach and convert copywriting clients.

Find a copywriting or business mentor

Accessing advice and support in the early days of your copywriting career gives you the confidence and knowledge to win clients, produce great work and get paid well.

I’ve leaned on a couple of key people during the first few years of my time as a freelance copywriter. One is a friend who runs her own marketing business. She has both worked as and hired freelance copywriters, so understands the process and has experience of dealing with every situation that can arise.

The other is my partner, who runs his own commercial photography business. Not copywriting-related, but he’s been through the highs and lows of setting up a business, is a few years ahead of me and has bags of experience dealing with clients and suppliers.

Calling on these two regularly helped me to find my flow as a freelance copywriter. From panicky WhatsApps asking for quoting advice, to weekends spent brainstorming blog topics and marketing ideas, I’ve gained a huge amount of expertise from these sounding boards.

There are websites like this to find a mentor if you don’t have anyone to ask, and there are plenty of Facebook groups for freelancers and copywriters where you can tap into advice and support.

Now, all that’s left to do is become a freelance copywriter!

Hopefully, these tips will help you get started on your path to become a freelance copywriter and secure you some paid work from great clients. If you use these to earn some copywriting work, please let me know!

If you have any other questions or want to know more about working as a freelance copywriter, please feel free to drop me a line on hello@jameso73.sg-host.com and I’d be happy to help.