How to Set Yourself Apart Series: Copywriter

Many potential clients think that copywriters are a dime a dozen. After all, COVID got a lot of people comfortable with the idea of working from home, so copywriters started cropping up right before ChatGPT burst onto the scene, threatening to take our jobs. Things have mellowed a bit since then, but it’s still tough for a copywriter to find good work.

So how do you set yourself apart as a copywriter and start booking clients?

Find Your Unique Value Proposition

There are so many options available to you as a copywriter. As a marketing-adjacent professional, you are familiar with the importance of finding your niche. You’ve probably written about it a lot for your marketing clients.

Finding your niche is one of the ways you can set yourself apart as well!

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to find your unique value proposition:

• What am I extremely skilled at?
• What do I do differently/better than other copywriters?
• What topics are my favorite?
• Which pieces do I consistently get great feedback on?
• What are my passions?
• How can I fuel my work with the life lessons I’ve learned?
• What makes me unique?

 

Once you’ve got all those ideas down on paper, see if there’s any crossover between the answers that matter most to you and the things that will matter most to a company. For example, if your unique life experiences include homelessness/unstable housing, you’d be the perfect copywriter for a nonprofit that works to secure housing for individuals. Why? Because you’ve actually experienced it.

Using the example above, it’d be important to keep that unique value proposition front and center when pitching your proposal. Anything you write for a secure housing nonprofit will come off as more real, authentic, and genuine than it would for a person who’s never experienced the stress and heavy burden of homelessness.

Consider Adding Technology to Your Service

“Wait,” you’re thinking, “You were just talking about ChatGPT stealing my job – now you want us to be friends?!”

Yes. And no. You should at least be frenemies.

The fact is that AI isn’t going anywhere. While you and I would prefer that AI stay out of the writing world, the harsh reality is that you’d be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn’t at least tried out AI writing software. Technological competence is now a must-have.

Because of this, you can gain a competitive advantage over other writers by familiarizing yourself with the software. If a client wants to know if you can work with ChatGPT or other sources of generative AI writing, you’ll be able to tell them you can! AI writing still misses the mark when compared with human writing, and you can offer AI editing services to differentiate yourself (or as an add-on to what you typically do for a quicker turnaround time).

If you choose to go this route, it’s important to stay transparent. You should be an adept writer, whether you offer AI editing or not. And you should always clarify with the client whether they want AI-edited content or “from scratch, 100% human” work.

You can (and probably should) also run the content through an AI checker to be sure that it’s not flagged as mostly AI-written content. Even people open to AI writing don’t like to see a high probability of AI-written content. You could also run it through a plagiarism checker to ensure that nothing in the AI draft is blatantly plagiarized.

Of course, there are other technologies you can try out if you’re completely AI-editing averse. You can familiarize yourself with SEMrush, GA4, or other helpful tools to position yourself as an expert SEO writer.

Upskill As Much As You Can

If you’re a copywriter, there are other ways to upskill (in addition to embracing technology to make your job easier). Here are some more things you could add to your repertoire if you’d like to become a more unique copywriter:

• Familiarize yourself with different writing styles and their rules (AP, MLA, and so on)
• Get acquainted with all forms of copywriting (social media, blogs, case studies, etc.)
• Focus on providing the best customer service experience possible (read about it)
• Learn how to code (JavaScript, SQL, Python, Ruby, PHP, Swift, HTML, C++, CSS, etc.)
• Create stunning visuals (can start with Canva and move up to graphic design software)
• Become a better public speaker (promote products or add videos to your offerings)

The more things you learn to do well, the more capable you will be to take on the projects that come your way. Another benefit of upskilling is that you can use those marketable skills to seek other work if there’s a lull in the copywriting industry.

Make Saying “Yes” to You Easy

Sometimes we’re so busy looking for more work that we forget to take care of the most basic, straightforward aspects of taking on new projects and clients.

Here are the questions you can ask yourself to help clients say “yes” to you:

• Is there a set of questions I can ask every time I take on a prospective client?
• Do I have a standard operating procedure when it comes to onboarding?
• Have I been using templates to streamline my operations?
• Did I follow the clients’ directions exactly?
• Did I reach out to the decision-maker?
• How can I anticipate my client’s needs and solve them?
• How can I anticipate my client’s questions and answer them?
• Is there a recurring issue that comes up for my clients that I can solve?

Of course, upskilling can also feed into making it easier for your clients to say “yes” to you. For example, it’s one thing to have basic invoice templates that are created in Google Docs, but if you’ve got branded templates for your business that you made through Canva or with graphic design expertise, that’s going to show next-level professionalism to your clients. And brushing up on customer service will enable you to do better at anticipating your client’s needs.

It all comes down to making it impossible to justify the cost of saying “no” to you!

More Tips From Matcha Design in Tulsa

Fun fact: this piece is brought to you by Matcha Design’s very own copywriter, who has two years of copywriting experience and a lifetime of general writing experience. I’ve done my best to distill my years of knowledge into something that will help you shine in a sea of copywriters.

One of the unique benefits of writing for Matcha Design is that I’ve been able to learn from a fantastic, award-winning company that excels at what they do. It’s been an exciting journey so far, and I’ve learned a lot.

Some of the best pieces of advice I can give aspiring copywriters are:

• Learn from your clients. They’ve been doing this longer than you have, and they know all of the wonderful life hacks that you need.
• Put in the work. Have a can-do attitude. Make it your goal to do as much as you can and help as much as you can.
• Let your creativity shine. Look at things from several angles and consider the best way you can get your message across.
• Be enthusiastic. Your clients are excited about what they offer – let that enthusiasm become contagious!
• Surround yourself with greatness. Meet other people who are experts at what they do. Network and see how much you can learn. LinkedIn is great for this!

For more great advice, check out the Matcha Design blog or subscribe to our email list!