Startup Copywriter: No website? No niche? No clients? No problem!

A well-written LinkedIn profile can be just as effective as a website in reaching target markets, connecting with prospects and winning clients for your startup copywriting business.

For those of us with the talent and desire for writing, an independent business as a freelance copywriter can be the ticket to a lucrative career. Consider the following statistics:

• There are now roughly 5.6 billion web pages indexed by search engines. This number changes daily – and all these pages need writers to create and update them.
• Nearly 320 billion emails are sent and received worldwide per day – including email marketing pieces, lead generators, auto-responders, client follow-up, e-news – the list goes on!
• HubSpot reports that around 50% of customers review 3 to 5 pieces of content before speaking to a sales rep – content for which copywriters are needed.
• HubSpot has further found that content marketing generates three times the leads of paid online search ads.
• According to Demand Metric, content marketing is used by 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C – because it’s so effective in converting prospects into buyers!

Consider, too, that in the United States alone there are an estimated 30.2 million businesses – and only 131,000 paid professional writers.

 All of these facts mean opportunities for YOU as a freelance copywriter!

 But first, you need to get your name out there.

 A Business Website?

 What about a website for your business? You’re correct in viewing that as an effective component of your marketing and outreach strategy. Thirty years into the history of the internet’s existence, nearly every business great and small now has a website. With one, you can let search engines – and prospective clients – find you. You can let the market know who you are and what you can do for them.

Web hosting services, such as Bluehost or GoDaddy, will allow you to get a website built and launched in a matter of days – even hours if you are sufficiently computer-literate and have the block of time available.

There is a fee, however, for hosting your website. And, there can be a learning curve for the less tech-savvy among us in adopting the syntax and protocol for building a site. You’ll also need to regularly keep your site up to date as your market and your service offerings change. Finally, you’ll want to have a good feel for keywords and key phrases to use in your web page copy to get the attention of search engines and to draw traffic to your site.

Most likely, your own consumer experience reinforces your thinking that a website is vital to your business’ exposure.

But there’s an extremely powerful alternative for you as a freelance copywriter if you don’t have a website, or if it isn’t quite ready to launch. This platform gives you an audience of over 700 million users, many of whom need your services or can direct you to other potential clients. Best of all, it’s absolutely free of charge!

Your LinkedIn Profile – your access to target markets and clients

A website can bring you clients and launch your business once you’ve built it and launched it with copy that strategically draws the market to you.

But, what if there was a platform that already exists, and that brings you out into the market to meet prospective clients?

Well – there is!

From its inception in 2003, LinkedIn has grown from a business networking site with allure to job seekers and employers to a venue for rich professional content with powerful connection and communication tools.

For you as a copywriter, LinkedIn could in one sense be even more effective than a website in jump-starting your business and landing you your first client!

That’s because your LinkedIn profile takes you to where the market is – as opposed to your trying to draw the market to you.

Additionally, LinkedIn lets you talk with prospects directly on the platform – even before you connect through a separate email exchange or phone call.

LinkedIn’s linchpin is its connectivity. Its network of 722 million users, and your ability to connect with people you know, with people who know you, and with people whose interests align with yours, can help you focus your efforts in meeting their business needs. And when you find someone who needs what you offer, and who realizes you can help them, then you have a potential business opportunity.

LinkedIn successes – testimonials and tips

Focus is the most important activity you can leverage in your business, and LinkedIn lets you focus your efforts on your market.

Yet your focus need not be restricted to a limited set of rules and guidelines for connecting and communicating with prospects.

You need not even be focused on one particular niche in order to successfully land a client through LinkedIn.

All you need is to make a connection with someone you know, or someone who knows you, or someone who interests you, who needs what you offer – and show them how you can help them.

These past four weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Ilise Benun, a copywriter, teacher and LinkedIn authority, in her 21-Day Challenge for leveraging the power of LinkedIn for business building. Joined by my fellow Challenge students in our private Facebook Group, we received daily exercises to apply to our copywriting business mindset as well as to our presence on and usage of LinkedIn.

As an added bonus, Ilise hosted a series of three Facebook Live webinar events featuring past 21-Day Challenge alumni who are now working in thriving copywriting practices. The testimonies and tips these writers provided are an invaluable complement to the experiences we students shared in the Facebook Group.

I know that I’ve shared with many other new copywriters the questions of what niche to pursue and how and where to find copywriting clients. Ilise’s three guest writers provided solid empirical guidance on what has worked for them. Their experiences differ slightly, but all the points they’ve shared can be applied to your copywriting business outreach effort.

That each of these experienced writers comes from a different background, meets their market in a different manner and has developed the details of their LinkedIn profile in a different way demonstrates the flexibility possible with Ilise’s and LinkedIn’s tools while still achieving success.

Your niche – targeted, flexible – or both

Choosing a niche for your copywriting business is helpful, as it lets you target your market and reinforces the confidence of prospects in that niche that you know their territory and can help them directly.

However, a specific niche choice is not a “be-all, end-all”. You can be successful with more than one niche, with a niche in which you have no prior business experience – or with no stated niche at all.

Take, for example, Beverly Matoney. Her experience demonstrates the benefit of choosing a niche that lets you build your copywriting business on what you already know. On the other hand, she also exemplifies the success possible in keeping your options, your interests – and your eyes and ears – open to change and to future opportunities.

With a prior career in sales and marketing, she aptly applied her business experience in that area to her copywriting business. But, having home schooled her children, she targeted the home school B2C market as her actual copywriting niche. Being a prior home school consumer, she was in an ideal position to write to the needs and desires of consumers in that market. Key to her strategy was outreach to vendors to educational institutions to reach out to home school customers.

Yet Beverly was very happy to move into agricultural technology several months into her copywriting career. Tepid to a colleague’s suggestion of a B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) niche, her interest piqued when her colleague mentioned green agribusiness – an area of interest to her – as a prime SaaS market.

And all she had to do was to make a few changes to her LinkedIn profile and begin targeting prospects and companies in the new niche that interested her.

Holly Morris touts herself in her personal introduction – her “elevator pitch” – as a “copywriter for travel and more”. Her LinkedIn headline reflects this, too. Beginning her business as a travel writer, she broadened her business into more of the copywriting aspect with travel insurance and vacation rentals, which greatly increased her income.

While travel copywriting serves as Holly’s baseline, it’s also been a springboard for new targeted outreach. Holly markets herself on LinkedIn as more of a generalist. She’s a “copywriting partner”, as she puts it, to individuals and companies that need writing services.

Holly says that she’s never gone out looking for other niche markets. Rather, she’s remained open to seeing “what’s out there”. Reading, attending conferences and simply listening to people and asking them questions about their activities have opened up business pathways for her. She began targeting travel insurance, for example, based on a conversation with a friend at a convention.

While Holly does try to remain travel-centric in her business, she will take on other areas if asked. Non-travel niches where she has helped clients include résumé writing and a blog for medical websites.

Terri Trespicio, who positions herself as a brand advisor, writer and speaker, barely cites a niche of any kind in her LinkedIn profile. She mainly references what she does, what she has to offer to clients and who her customers have been. In her Facebook Live with Ilise, in fact, Terri stated flatly that she does not have a niche, i.e., a specific target industry or market, at all.

Like Holly Morris, she casts herself in general terms with her “elevator pitch” as with her LinkedIn headline. She specializes in “cutting through what someone is saying and getting to the heart of the matter” to help them communicate it differently and more effectively.

Says Terri, “Your primary skill is to write. Your job as a business person is to show your prospect that you can give them what they need.” And, this is independent of any targeted industry or market, B2B vs. B2C venue, et cetera.

While a niche based on your prior experience lets you leverage what you already know, thereby helping you jump-start your business, it can be limiting as well as “targeting”. Terri has opted not to “put herself in a box” as such. While this path may not work for all new copywriters, it is interesting to note that it is, in a way, consistent with the experience of Ilise’s two other guests, as they, too, eventually expanded beyond their initial target markets as they developed their businesses.

Clients – attracted to you!

Your LinkedIn headline and profile, written in a brief but compelling way, show potential clients what you bring to the table to meet their needs. Naturally, your past employment and other experience can support this. However, your LinkedIn profile should not be just a re-post of your résumé.

Ilise counsels her students to make their profile aspirational, not historical. It should focus on what you are doing and where you are headed, rather than on what you have done and where you have been.

The headline – visible to others virtually everywhere you show up on LinkedIn – and your About field – take top, front and center position in your profile. So, this is where you get to “flex your muscles” – to let your connections and the LinkedIn community know what you’re about. Your key talents and attributes. Who you serve. How they can get in touch. And what you can do for them – now.

Of course, LinkedIn lets you list past employment experience and volunteer positions you’ve held. These can support your outreach claims as always. And, naturally, you should feel free to cite specific employment experiences and successes in your About section where these could increase others’ desire to connect and communicate with you.

As Ilise puts it, your LinkedIn profile should be a prime example of your work as a copywriter.

With regard to targeting connections who could become prospective copywriting clients, Ilise cites authoritative marketing-related titles, such as “marketing director” or “marketing manager” as fruitful key phrases. Other keywords could include “communications”, “development director” or “business development.”

However, Ilise is unabashed in encouraging outreach to anyone who interests you and to whom you might be able to offer your help – or who might direct you to someone who could use your services. Be open to a connection’s need – and wait for the “tingle” of an idea where you might be able to fill that need!

Beverly Matoney, the home school and agribusiness writer, expands on that idea of opening yourself up to opportunity. As she navigates LinkedIn, reads her news feed and sees others’ activities, she’ll regularly reach out with a request patterned in this simple manner: “I love what you’re doing. Let’s connect.” By its affirming nature acknowledging their activity and effort, her invitation is routinely accepted.

Beverly’s “elevator pitch” – her short intro to new associates – in a way turns this curiosity loop around. “I’m the bridge between home schoolers and the companies that provide educational products” is how she’ll introduce herself. This piques the interest of others, intriguing them to inquire of her: “That sounds interesting. Tell me more.”

One of Beverly’s earliest LinkedIn connections quickly became her “anchor client” – with whom she now garners the most business and income as their needs and her products have grown. Relating to her past experience in connecting with this client, Beverly plainly told them that, as a former home schooler, she loved this company’s products and would buy them if she were still home schooling.

Much in the same manner as Beverly’s home school niche launched her copywriting business, she also says that you can expand your client market by reaching out to people you know early on.

Holly Morris’ first two clients, one of whom was her daughter’s boss, were primary LinkedIn connections. In addition to her travel copywriting clients, Holly has found clients in interior design and construction, as well as the résumé and medical blog clients mentioned earlier.

Volunteerism can also be an avenue for new connections and opportunities. “Do something that you volunteer for”, Holly says, citing her past experience as a board member with the Travel Industry Executive Women’s Network where she was the sole writer on the board. She connected with that organization through their LinkedIn Group. “That has been a huge source of contacts for me”, she says.

During her Facebook Live with Ilise, in fact, Holly related how her very recent interchange with a new LinkedIn connection could become a client opportunity. While she’d accepted a gentleman’s connection with interest, she found his use of financial jargon in ensuing messages confusing. On kindly informing him of this problem, he replied that he was perhaps in need of her help in communicating with his market! Holly has thus scheduled a discovery call with him as a new prospect.

Holly’s testimony above provides a perfect example of your use of LinkedIn for making an initial connection with a prospect, then taking the conversation offline to phone or email.

To all of us anxious about future client opportunities, Terri Trespicio offers this assurance:

“There will never be enough writers – in every field! If you, as a writer, approach the goal of helping someone communicate – you will always have work, if you do it well.”

Terri’s flexibility regarding a niche also shows in her view toward clients. While you should surely endeavor to provide your best effort consistently on your client’s projects, Terri cautions against becoming “too indispensible” to any one client – as you might cling to them when more lucrative business opportunities become open to you.

To intrigue new LinkedIn prospects to connect and, possibly, to inquire, Terri recommends regular LinkedIn activity. Comment on your network’s posts. Congratulate their wins and successes. Post your own activity, your articles, your thoughts. Terri cites the richness of the LinkedIn environment today compared with a decade or so ago, encouraging a broader range of compelling interchange among its professional users.

She does offer the advice to be simple, direct and, as she puts it, “boring”. Attempts to be “cute”, “clever” or “cool” can risk your looking unprofessional.

All in all, Terri offers the guidance, echoed by Ilise, that she has used to build a robust client portfolio as evidenced by her LinkedIn profile:

• Listen to your market
• Talk to people
• Discover their pain points
• Ask what type of copywriting-related tasks they’d like to have taken off their hands

 Closing thoughts

In her 21-Day Challenge, Ilise continually wove these seven key points through her lessons and webinars with which I will close:

Discipline and responsibility are the first steps to business success. Regardless of your specific niche or lack thereof, your LinkedIn profile approach and application of connection tips, persistence and consistency are your friends in building your exposure, and your opportunities, on LinkedIn. Show up every day – and keep doing what works for you.

Listen to your market. See what folks with your shared interests need. Determine whether and how you can fill that need. Then you’ll be in position to connect and to offer your help.

Use curiosity as your marketing tool. Ask a connection or prospect to tell you more about themselves or their activity that you find interesting. Not only will they will be very glad you did – they will almost surely keep you in their sights going forward.

Use generosity as your marketing tool. This could take the form of relaying a relevant news update in their industry, a tip for improving their web or LinkedIn verbiage, or offering to introduce a connection of yours they might like to know.

Use your business as a laboratory. No pitch you offer, no connection you invite, no reasonably well-thought–out profile update, is “make or break”. Your business is your place to see what works in building your network and winning business opportunities – and what does not. As Chaucer once wrote, “Take the wheat – but let the chaff lie still”. Note, too, that the success measures you learn in your professional life will influence your personal life and relationships, too.

Your clients are NOT your “business”. True, without clients your business does not thrive and grow. But, any time you engage focused business-oriented actions – on LinkedIn or elsewhere – with intention, attention and repetition, you are “in business”. This is the pathway toward gaining clients and, therefore, business opportunity. Adopting this principle keeps you focused, responsible and disciplined at doing what works.

Wait for the “tingle” of an idea – and act on it. As you browse LinkedIn, view profiles, make connections and read in your news feed of what your connections and others are up to, see what intrigues you. What piques your interest? What seems consistent with an area where you could provide help? How might your writing skills help their business? Ilise calls that a “tingle” – the feeling of the seed of an idea being planted. Wait for that “tingle”. Then, ask for a connection or otherwise touch base with the person or people involved. (Or – if you prefer – think of it as a “tinkle” – a little bell ringing in your mind …)

So, here’s what I’ve learned from other copywriters who have successfully built their businesses, expanded their outreach and won clients with LinkedIn. I wish all the same success for you likewise in your copywriting endeavors!