As a freelance writer, pitching for work can feel like being on a treadmill of emails, follow ups and rejections. Even if you have a regular stream of steady work, sooner or later there will come a time when you need to get out there and pitch your services to potential clients. A great pitch email will help you stand out from the crowd, show your expertise and encourage your prospect to hire you rather than any of your competitors. So just how do you write a perfect pitch email? Here are a few dos and don’ts to help keep you on track. Do: Keep it short: Chances are the person you’re pitching to is busy, evaluating multiple pitches, and doesn’t have time to read through a lengthy essay. Keep it to three paragraphs or less – if they want to know more, they will ask. Provide relevant examples: It’s always a good idea to provide links to samples in your pitch email, but make sure they are relevant to the job at hand. This reinforces your expertise. Tailor your pitch to the job or client: Make sure each and every pitch is specifically tailored to the job or client. Address the specifics of the project and show how you’re a good fit. You’ll have a much better chance of success if you tailor your response as it shows you’ve thought about the job and you’ve taken the time to address the different aspects of the project. Check and double check for typos: There’s no worse feeling than hitting send on a carefully crafted pitch email and promptly noticing...
Have you ever wanted to be the owner of an award-winning business? Entering (and winning!) local business awards is a great way to boost your business profile and get the edge over the competition. Not only do you get bragging rights and recognition for your skills and talents, you’ll be able to market yourself as an award winner. This is a great way to prove your credibility and impress potential customers or clients. Many of the most prestigious small business awards have hundreds if not thousands of entries so you’ll need to put some time and effort into your submission if you want to impress the judges. How do you write a winning business award submission? Here are a few of our top tips and tricks. 1.Read the question carefully. While at first glance they might all seem the same, we’ve found that the majority of award submission questions differ ever so slightly in their wording. This means that preparing one stock standard answer and using it for all your submissions is not going to work. You’ll need to tailor your answer to the exact question being answered and reading it carefully is the first step to doing that. When you’re writing your answer, make sure you use similar wording as the question so the judges can see you’re addressing the specific criteria. 2.Stick within the word limit. Keeping within the word count is often one of the hardest parts of writing award submissions. This is one case where less is more, but trying to cram a year’s worth of achievements into 300 words can be challenging to say...
Fear is a powerful motivator, and it has been used to persuade people to do or buy things for decades, if not centuries. Many marketers still rely on fear-based marketing to encourage customers to buy their product, by waxing lyrical on the awful things that will happen if they don’t. But are these kinds of scare tactics still relevant in modern marketing? Why is fear such a powerful marketing tool? Fear is hardwired into humans as a survival mechanism. When we’re afraid, our bodies release adrenaline, which motivates us to act fast. This is also why it’s such an effective sales technique! While inducing a state of outright panic in your prospects is probably not your goal, techniques like limited time offers and urgency based marketing create similar sensations by making a customer anxious about missing out on a good deal or limited edition product. This in turn makes them more likely to buy quickly or impulsively. Fear based marketing is frequently used for industries like insurance, security and health products by showing us a gloomy scenario of what could happen if we don’t buy the product or service in question. Many cleaning product marketers also use scare tactics, by painting a picture of a germ ridden floor crawling with nasties waiting to attack our children. Physical fear is the fear of being robbed or losing your home due to a fire, but marketing can also play on social fears. Fear of judgement, of exclusion and failure are all valid fears that can, and frequently are, used to manipulate us into thinking we need a particular product or service....
If you’re serious about growing your business, at some point you are going to have to do some networking. In spite of all the fuss about online marketing, face to face is still one of the best ways to reach new clients, but if you’re not the most outgoing person in the world, networking can be daunting. Does the idea of walking into a room full of strangers fill you with fear? You’re not alone. The good news is that you can get comfortable with networking, if you’re willing to take yourself out of your comfort zone and practice. Here are six tips to help you network with more confidence. 1.Be prepared. A little bit of social anxiety can actually get the blood flowing and help you focus. The problem is more when you have so much anxiety that you can’t face talking to anyone. A bit of practice beforehand can help you go into your networking situation with more confidence. Memorise your USP, think of a list of topics you can use to start conversations and you’ll feel more prepared and less put on the spot when you’re talking to people. 2.Set goals. Having a plan can take some of the anxiety out of a networking event and remind you why you’re there. Create a goal – it’s OK to start small. Maybe you can aim to make one new connection at your first networking event, and once you’ve done that you can leave. As you get better and more confident, you can increase your goal. 3.Position yourself strategically. Hovering nervously by the door is probably not going...
Freelancing is exciting, but like most exciting things, it can be scary too. When you start out as a freelance writer, you’re probably exchanging a life of stable paycheques, regular work and paid holidays for one of uncertainty, at least in the beginning. Whether you’re freelancing as a side gig or a full time career, there are a few fears you’re going to have to face at one stage or another. 1. Fear of getting started It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re just starting out as a freelancer, particularly if you don’t have much experience in your industry. Will anyone want to hire you? Will your work be good enough? We all have these fears in the beginning but overthinking can be crippling for a new freelancer. While you want to research your target market and put systems and plans in place for the day to day of running your business, at some point you’re going to have to just jump in. Try a few smaller projects at first, and once you’ve got a few successful jobs under your belt, you’ll have the experience, and the confidence, to pitch for bigger and bigger projects. 2. Fear of rejection Marketing your skills and pitching for work are part and parcel of successful freelancing, but it can be uncomfortable to put yourself out there at first. Rejection hurts, especially at the beginning, but the success of your freelance business depends on your ability to pick yourself up and keep trying. Remember, even the best and most experienced freelancers get rejected sometimes. Often, it’s not about your abilities or the quality...
Do you have a writing niche like real estate or property development? Maybe you’ve worked in a particular field so you understand the nuances and complexities better than the average freelance writer. This might enable you to position yourself as a topic expert, target clients in that area, and command a healthy rate. Ensure you highlight your point of difference – here are 3 ways to market your content writing services to a niche. 1.Create a targeted lead magnet, pushed out through paid channels like Facebook advertising, to attract new prospects in your niche. This can be a free checklist or ebook relevant to the industry you specialise in. Ensure you include strong CTAs and ask for their email in exchange as a minimum, to then continue sending relevant content in that market segment. 2. Weave your industry throughout your website, SEO and social media – highlight your specialty on your home and about pages, add targeted blog CTAs and garner testimonials from clients in your niche, to make the decision for future visitors easier. If you have an SEO strategy in place, you might decide to build customised pages to rank for keywords in your niche. List the credentials that position you favourably to your target clients to make you stand apart. Include your industry in meta title and description tags, including those for your homepage – i.e. ‘COMPANY NAME – Property Social Media and Digital Marketing’. Weave your specialty keywords into free and paid channels, including social media and search engine marketing (SEM) to continually position yourself as an expert in that field and attract the right...
