Dear Chase,
I'm getting old man. I just realized that.
I'm gonna be 25 this year, and I've been freelancing for almost 4 years.
I've learned a lot about how to be a really good freelancer, which is different from the skill of being a good copywriter.
You can be a 5-out-of-10 copywriter, but you can be a 9-out-of-10 freelancer and make more money than a 9-out-of-10 copywriter who sucks at being a freelancer.
These are the tips I learned the hard way, and I think your little fans will like this one.
1. Nail their brand voice as soon as possible.
This is something that is extremely important to e-commerce brand managers (which is likely who you'll be dealing with if they're doing more than $3M in revenue).
How do you do this?
You need to ask a bunch of questions and be super attentive to every other bit of copy that exists in their ads, emails, and on their website.
The questions I like to ask are as follows:
If you had to pick a celebrity that models your brand voice well, who would it be?
What do you want your customers to feel when they read your copy?
What does your dream customer look like from head to toe?
These will give you cues for how to write, and who you're writing to.
Also, asking questions like this will make your clients think that you've done this before (even if you haven't). If you confidently ask these questions as if you've asked them 1000 times before, they'll trust you.
Just nail their voice and it'll make them happy.
2. Learn to write fast.
When I first started writing copy, I wasn't too worried about writing well. I'd been writing my entire life, so it's not like I had to really focus on WHAT to say.
Instead of writing 10/10 copy over the course of 3 hours, I wanted to be able to write 7 or 8/10 copy in 15 minutes.
E-com brands need a lot of copy, and they need it RIGHT NOW.
So, my biggest weakness at the beginning was my speed.
Now, that's literally no problem for me.
I know what I'm going to say in my email or ad copy before I even open my Google doc. It's just about how fast I can type.
The reason I was able to write so fast at the beginning was because I had a "system" for every piece of copy that I wrote.
All e-com copy is kinda the same. It follows a cadence.
You need to be able to turn your copy into a mad-lib.
Remember that game from when you were a kid on long road trips? You'd fill in an existing story with a (noun), (verb), etc.
That's what copy is.
Go through some good emails and ads, bring them into a document, and create blanks where you have variables.
Benefit point here, objection here, etc. Once you've been working with a client for a few weeks, it'll be second nature for you to just fill in the template of an ad with the brand's information.
ALSO, don't just write copy fast. Respond fast.
If you take longer than 15 minutes to respond to a slack message or an email, you're going nowhere in life. It's such a simple thing that requires no skill. Seriously.
3. Build rapport with your POC (point of contact).
The benefit of being a new freelancer is that you have more time than money.
Send them music. Send them tasteful, work-related memes.
Figure out what they like. Give them more of that. Make them feel like you look up to them. 48 laws of power type beat.
I remember my first POC had a huge ego. He wanted to be the MAN, because he was the quarterback of his football team in college and never got drafted. He had a chip on his shoulder.
I made sure to cater to that and let him "big bro" me, because that made him feel good.
This one's easy.
If you can be an easy-going person, they'll keep you around even if you're an incredibly average copywriter.
4. Offer inhuman levels of give-a-sh*t.
Coming from someone who has had freelancers on my team before, I know how hard it is to find someone who has the give-a-sh*t factor.
Most people who have spent more than 24 months in the professional workforce don't care about anything. They wanna collect a check and leave.
I've been a $30/hr freelancer at companies where they had people doing less important work than ME for a 6-figure salary.
I still had more "give-a-sh*t" than they did.
It has nothing to do with how much you get paid. It's an internal thing that you either switch on inside yourself, or you don't.
I run into so many people who have regular jobs who say stuff like "why would I care about a company that doesn't care about me? Capitalism is fake and the West is decaying from the inside out."
Whatever bro.
But watch what happens to your career when you give 100% of your effort to your client, even if they're only paying you $1500 a month.
The opportunities that'll come your way JUST from that will make you more money than anything.
Did I miss anything here?
Lemme know Chase.
Have a sick weekend.
Yours truly,
Alex.
Sent from my losing scratch-off ticket
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