90 Days to a Better Freelance Business

I know I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but don’t be mad, I have a good reason. I had a beautiful baby girl in October, and as you other parents know, life hasn’t been the same since. I’ve learned how to function on fewer than six hours of sleep a night and can successfully type with one hand while feeding, or entertaining my little girl. So, becoming a new mom has taken much of my time, however, preschool is expensive, so I need to get back to work.

Since starting my freelance writing business almost two years ago, I must admit much of my business has been a bit haphazard. I didn’t have specific industries I concentrated on and I didn’t have a set system in place for acquiring new business. I also hadn’t really figured out what my true brand was and how I was going to communicate it to clients and potential clients. So it seems that while I can develop message strategy and come up with killer headlines, I lack in the area of business strategy. (In my defense, they don’t teach this in journalism school.) The result of this business structure has been a lot of ebb and flow. More ebb than flow, it seems. It wasn’t for lack of trying because I’ve read about a dozen books detailing other people’s successes with business and how they did it. I’ve even tried several of their ideas. What I quickly realized was that while these were solid business strategies for the successful entrepreneurs who crafted them, they weren’t necessarily a fit for my business. Well, enough is enough, it’s time to get a plan that is customized to my business and use my free time to play with my baby instead of reading “how-to” business books.

My New Year’s business resolution is to grow my business in a deliberate fashion, meaning no more flying by the seat of my pants or implementing strategies that aren’t right for my business. So what ‘s the plan? I plan to turn my business around in 90 days. My way. What’s my way? My way is true to my brand, my personality, my interests and my goals. And while I plan to go about things in a more deliberate fashion, my craft (marketing copywriting) is creative and a bit haphazard by nature, so if my way doesn’t exactly resemble the business books’ ways, that’s OK.

Here’s my customized-for-my-business-90-day-growth-plan:

Re-position and restructure my business to scale
In the weeks to come, I’m planning to re-brand and restructure my business for growth. Currently, it’s just me. But in the future, I’d like to be able to subcontract copywriting work to other freelance writers based on their specific experience. This way, I can provide my clients with the absolute best fit for their projects.

Network my little tail off
I know that I have done a good job marketing my services, but I get comfortable in my home office, and forget that I need to get out and meet prospective clients in person. My new strategy will be to go out and “collect” as many people as I can for the sake of growing my business. This means, I’ve got to go to a lot of lunches, meetings, happy hours and parties (sounds rough, huh?).

Show prospective clients how I can help them
I know from the work I do for my clients that simply listing my services and telling people what I provide isn’t going to gain me any business, at least not as much as I want. So, I’m going to take my own advice and start showing prospective clients how they will benefit from working with me.

Go after the clients that I want to work with
This will be hard for me, but instead of taking on every project that comes my way, I want to decide which clients I’d like to work with and approach them. This way, I’ll be working on projects that really interest me, which is why I went into business for myself in the first place!

Ask for the work
I read in one of my many how-to books to act like I don’t need the business and more will come my way. Well, I must not be a very good actress, because this tip has not helped me. So, my new strategy is to act like I want the work and maybe more will come my way.

Keep my current clients happy and ask for referrals
I love when my clients are happy. It makes my day when a client loves the words I choose for them. When I feel discouraged, a little bit of client praise is all it takes for me to get up the next day and do it all again. My new strategy is to continue to put my clients first, do great work for them and ask them for referrals.

So there you have it. My plan to turn my business around in 90 days. I’ll be documenting my progress right here with the hopes that my readers (I know there are at least a couple of you) will keep me accountable along the way. Have any words of wisdom or advice for me? Have you vowed to turn your business around? I’d love to hear from you. Wish me luck!

October Look-Smart Tip

So…how badly do you want to be the best marketer you can be? Well, then I have a tough question for you (this one might sting a little).

Why would I NOT want to do business with your company? Gulp. While it’s true that a lot can be learned from digging into the benefits and reasons why your customers love you, there is almost more to learn (and use in your marketing messaging) for why people wouldn’t want to do business with you.

It’s called objection messaging, and with it, you can address every reason someone might have for not choosing you and turn it into a strong message to accomplish the opposite. Acknowledging a person’s fears, aversions and issues with your brand or product, and creating compelling marketing messages that overcome them, are surefire ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors and connect with your customers in a powerful way.

Look-Smart Tip: Take a good, hard look at your brand or product’s weaknesses and reasons why people might not choose to do business with you. Then, poke holes in their argument with strong, positive marketing messages of acknowledgment and vuala! Your customers won’t be able to find a good reason why not to do business with you.

Emotional Marketing

Like it or not, humans are an emotional species. Most of the decisions we make each day have something to do with how we feel. Love drives us to buy a special gift, the need for acceptance drives us to dress or act a certain way, loneliness drives us to speed dating, fear drives us to search for protection and happiness drives us to celebrate. To become an expert marketer, we must tap into and use these raw emotions to connect with our buying audience. In fact, I would argue that there is an emotion at the core of almost every purchasing decision we make. Are your customers any different?

When you think about crafting your marketing message, to truly touch your audience, you must channel the raw emotion that will drive them to make a purchase decision. First identify the problem that you solve for your customers, and then dial into the consequences of what might happen if this problem isn’t solved.

For example, say you work for a telecommunications company and you’re trying to sell the latest and greatest cell phone. To get down to the emotional reason people buy, have, what I call, the “what then conversation.”

Me: What happens if Ms. customer doesn’t purchase this new cell phone?

You: She won’t be able to take advantage of the new emergency locator feature.

Me: What then?

You: No one will know where she is.

Me: What then?

You: She could be facing a life-threatening situation with no way to contact help.

Me: Aha. Fear. The underlying emotional reason Ms. Customer will buy this phone.

You don’t have to actually have this conversation with anyone else, but if you’re caught talking to yourself in your office, I can’t be held responsible for the teasing.

Have a great story of how you used emotion to market to your customers? Share it here.

Sept. Look-Smart Tip

Email newsletters are a must for keeping your business in front of your customers and clients, but poor content can make your subscribers disappear faster than a bad party. Want to create an email newsletter people want to read? Stay away from the

5 Enewsletter Sins

1. Weak copy. Always assume that people read your email newsletters all the way through. That means the content had better be good. Include relevant industry news, trends and solutions to their problems, and your customers will view you as an expert and are likely to keep receiving your messages.

2. Ego articles. The last thing anyone needs in their email inbox is a newsletter bragging about all the awards and praise your company receives. It’s OK to alert people to your company’s successes, but how about change the angle and write about it as a benefit to your customer, say a customer testimonial or client success story?

3. Too long. Your customers are busy, so get right to the point, convey your main message and end it. Break up longer stories by including only an excerpt in your email newsletter with a link to read the rest on your website. This way people can scan your enewsletter and read only the full articles that interest them. (Bonus, this drives them to your website!)

4. Impossible to unsubscribe. It’s very frustrating to be on an email newsletter list with no way to opt out. Make an unsubscribe button available and easy to find in every single email you send, and you’ll know your list includes only those people who are truly interested to hear from you on a regular basis.

5. Typo city. As a writer, I tend to have some sympathy for articles that could have been great had it not been for all the glaring typos and grammatical errors. However, your customers may not have that spot in their heart, so my advice: proofread, proofread, proofread and then have someone else proofread, then proofread again. You get the idea.

Look-Smart Tip: Develop a six-month editorial calendar that delivers solid content in every issue. Keep these common mistakes in mind and your customers will look forward to their weekly or monthly message from you.

August Look-Smart Tip

Have you ever been on a really uncomfortable first date where your date feels compelled to divulge his/her entire life story in one sitting? Just like childhood stories are best saved for much later in a relationship, the same is true for business marketing. Is your company trying to tell its entire story on the home page or in your 3-panel brochure?

To achieve a successful marketing piece (and first date) it’s best to give just enough information so the other person is intrigued to find out more. Give them just a sample of how your company can benefit them and then guide them to your website or blog or entice them enough to sign up for your e-newsletter. Marketing this way turns your prospects into seekers, and then long-term customers.

Look-Smart Tip: Take a look at your company’s website, brochure and other marketing materials. Are you giving up so much information prospects don’t need to contact you? If so, it’s time to, as my mother put it to me, “leave something to the imagination” and make your customers dig a little deeper on their own.

Get your hands on my 3-Step Guide to Benefits Messaging

When I speak with new clients about projects, one thing comes up more than anything else – messaging benefits instead of facts or features. It’s true that to create marketing materials that really work and resonate with your target audience, you have to speak to them in terms of how their life will be better because of your product or service. You certainly don’t have to be a professional copywriter to start transitioning your features copy into benefits copy, you just have to be careful that your “benefits” copy doesn’t include phrases like, “your success is our success,” or “we’re committed to serving you.” Yikes.

So that’s why I wrote this guide – to help marketing directors and business owners who understand why benefits messaging is so important, but may not know exactly how to implement it into their marketing copy.

In this guide you’ll learn:

• The best way to reach your what’s-in-it-for-me audience.
• How to conduct an internal audit to maximize your message strength.
• Why it’s important to target your message to a select audience.
• Develop a new, benefits-driven positioning statement.
• Use a campaign approach to integrate your message into your marketing materials.

Download your FREE guide: 3-Steps to Benefits Messaging – Stand out by solving real problems for real people at www.thomasonfreelance.com.

Fun With Elevator Speeches

I’m a member of my local chamber of commerce, which can be a good source of business leads if you choose to participate in activities. Every month, they host a networking breakfast where people come to meet other business people, get leads and, let’s be honest, try to sell each other their goods or services. At my first networking breakfast, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, so I sat back, ate my breakfast and listened to several pitches. When asked what I did for a living, I would answer, “I’m a freelance marketing and advertising copywriter.” After saying this out loud a few times, I wasn’t sure that people really understood what that meant. After explaining that I’m not a reporter, nor do I sell promotional trinkets or have any type of legal background whatsoever, (it’s copywriter, not copyrighter) I realized that my elevator speech needed some tweaking.

I first of all recognized that people were asking me “what I did” not “what was my title,” so answering, “freelance copywriter” didn’t answer their question. So I set out to really answer the question of “what do I do” in terms of “why should they care.”

I came up with a two-part, interactive elevator speech:

Jayme: “Hi, I’m Jayme Thomason and I help my clients get new customers, keep customers and ultimately grow their businesses.”

Prospect: “How do you do that?”

Jayme: “By creating marketing materials that are smart and creative and that inspire action.”

Prospect: “Oh, I see. What kinds of clients do you work for?”

I just went to my second networking breakfast to test out the new elevator speech. I admit, I was nervous taking off my comfortable freelance copywriter label and putting on the new, but I was surprised by how effective it was. I could see the understanding in people’s eyes when I talked about what I do and they had real questions about pieces I’d created and clients I worked for. I also felt a new sense of confidence in my business and services because at the end of my conversation, I knew I had explained my services in a way that they would be able to refer business. To me, that’s the goal of these networking events, so if people don’t understand what you will “do” for them, they won’t be able to tell others.

Got a good elevator speech? Share it here.

July Look-Smart-In-Creative-Meetings Marketing Tip

I have a tough question for you. What really distinguishes you from your competitors? Amazingly, a lot of businesses don’t have an answer beyond the generic “we-have-excellent-customer-service-and-a-superior-product” statement. This is one of the hardest things to get out of people when I talk to them about their companies, but the most important thing when it comes to writing marketing messages.

Like finding that one number in a Sudoku puzzle that blasts it wide open, finding the answer to this question will shed new light your marketing direction. Knowing the one thing that separates you from the rest will help target your message, streamline your focus and boost your credibility in the mind of your customers.

Look-smart tip: In your next marketing meeting, suggest that you get a group together and brainstorm this question. Make it a casual day, order in food and get comfortable, because you’re not done until you get down to the one thing your company does better than anyone. Then it’s easy! Get your message out and watch your business grow.

Are Social Networking Sites Good For Your Business?

I recently read an article that basically claimed the “here and now” in business marketing is social networking. I don’t completely agree with professional marketers pushing their clients into the online social networking world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of social networks – you’ll find my page on MySpace – but just because they’re the online hot spots right now, does it mean that they’re right for marketing your business or service?

In my opinion, there are a few big problems with businesses using social networking as a part of their marketing strategy:

1) Is it where you’ll find your prospective clients, and if so, is it where they’re looking for you? If your answer to these questions is yes, then feel free to quit reading this post, but if your answer is probably not, then why would you spin your marketing wheels talking with people who will not buy from you? For the sake of argument, I understand that the more online “friends” you have, the better your chances are for referrals, and thus these relationships could lead to more business. However, I have yet to have someone recommend a client to me they met on Facebook. I believe in networking, but networking with purpose. Your prospective clients probably are online somewhere, so find out where and join that conversation.

2) What else might prospective clients find out about your business…or employees? Imagine the horror if a prospect is looking at your business on one of the more popular social networking sites and ends up finding an employee’s page. There they might see wild party photos, blogs about how working with their boss sucks and other information that you would not otherwise present in a prospective client meeting. The big caution here is that when things are posted online, everyone can see it, and that includes prospective clients. We spend so much time and money trying to control our marketing messages, so why utilize a medium where controlling the message is not in our power?

3) “Doing” social networking the right way takes valuable time away from solid, proven marketing tactics. I’m not trying to sound old school here, I just think there are more time-effective mediums to network and market business. For one thing, new social networking sites pop up all the time, so even if you were to keep up with the new ones, you could spend all your time creating profiles, making friends and working the network. And be honest, how many times have you been on a social networking site to look for one specific thing and then you see an interesting video, then a funny blog post, then an intriguing profile…and all the sudden you look up and two hours have passed? It’s way too easy to get “lost” browsing around these sites and lose track of valuable marketing time.

I do have to say if you’re just starting your business or just starting out in a specific field, social networking can give you a good leg up, but I would focus on social networking sites that are more focused on the networking part rather than the social. The two sites I’m most familiar with that are great for business networking are LinkedIn, where people probably are looking for your business and Biznik, perfect if you are a solopreneur.

Know of other sites great for business networking? Let me know!