When youโve mastered the skill of content creation, youโre able to reach a new height: editing other peopleโs work to make it shine brighter than ever before.
Hereโs how to set yourself apart as an editor.
Find Your Unique Value Proposition
One of the most important ways to stand out as an editor is to be skilled at understanding a clientโs needs. While ensuring things are technically correct is crucial, it may not go far if you donโt address the clientโs main concern or effectively match their brand voice.
A great way to have a head start toward understanding each clientโs needs is to niche down. This will help you ensure that your skills match each clientโs needs and that people who work with you have an idea of what to expect.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What brand voices am I best at? Professional, young, edgy?
- How do my life experiences impact my understanding of content?
- What verticals do I deliver the best results in?
- Are there any projects that have been particularly frustrating for me? What is different about them?
- What products and/or services am I most passionate about?
- What have clients brought up as reasons that they chose me to work with?
- Have I won any awards for my work? What do they have in common?
- How does my digital presence impact what clients find and reach out to me? Is that in line with what I want to do and who I want to work with?
These questions can help you evaluate what makes your personal brand different from other editors and how that can influence which clients you work best with. For example, the kind of editor a business wear company will look for is likely very polished and concise, whereas the type of editor a bubble gum brand will look for may be more edgy and youthful. There isnโt a โwrongโ category, but itโs important to know what you do best so you can find clients that are just right for you.
Consider Adding Technology to Your Service
Editing content for the 21st century requires comfort with technology, but there may be a few ways to add tech to your service that you havenโt considered yet. Here are a few ideas for you to evaluate.
Asynchronous Communication Tools
Whether you work fully remotely or simply need to communicate with clients and creators between meetings, asynchronous communication tools are extremely helpful.
One great tool to get is Loom. This tool allows you to record your screen and yourself at the same time and store the videos online with easy-to-share links. This can make it particularly effective for:
- Providing feedback to creatives about their work to date.
- Project updates for clients.
- Clarifying feedback from clients throughout an existing document or slide deck that you have questions about.
- Sharing a vision for where a project could go based on existing drafts.
- Explaining the thought process behind existing content and how that fits into the overall project.
Another great way to communicate asynchronously is through messages. It is ideal to be familiar with the most popular business messaging platforms, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord.
Page Builders
While your words may eventually go onto a main website, it can be helpful to get to know basic page builders you can use to create mockups. These designs can help clients see what content will look like in context and give developers a clearer idea of the final design youโre looking for. Some helpful tools you can use for this include drag-and-drop page builders such as Squarespace and ClickFunnels.
Upskill As Much As You Can
The more skills you have to offer a client, the more youโll stand out! Here are some skills you may want to consider adding to your proposals.
Copywriting
Content writing and copywriting are totally different experiences. If youโre used to editing more long-form content, consider studying copywriting and building a portfolio of advertising and sales email copy. Even if you start with some hypothetical companies, you can still show your skills while you build a portfolio of real case studies.
Video Editing
You already know how to edit written content, so why not start learning how to edit video content? Consider editing a sizzle reel for your YouTube channel or a social media ad for your services and see how it goes. In the best-case scenario, itโs a new service you can offer and a new creative piece in your portfolio. In the worst-case scenario, you learned more about the process and can use it in projects down the line.
Product Photography
If youโre working with brands that have physical products, learning how to photograph those products well can be really helpful. They may not have the perfect picture of their product for the content youโre working on yet, which makes it that much more appealing to them if you can say โOh, I can take care of that too!โ
Make Saying โYesโ to You Easy
As you continue establishing yourself as an editor, itโs important to build a reputation as someone who is easy to work with, from start to finish of each project. If you end up overhauling your current online brand to build one thatโs more in line with your target audience, you may even want to build a whole new brandย and onboarding process to reflect that. The more youโre able to say โIโm the perfect fit!โ before a client even talks to you, the more youโll stand out in their search and the easier it will be for them to say yes to you.
Some other ways to make saying yes to you easy include:
- Sharing a portfolio of work youโve done in the past.
- Offering references potential clients can reach out to that will share their positive experiences.
- Making it easy to schedule a discovery call with you in just a few clicks.
More Tips From Matcha Design in Tulsa
We know how hard it can be to stand out in a noisy world, which is why weโve built our entire company on helping companies do that. Here are some other things you may want to try to stand out:
- Master the follow-up. Lots of people apply, fewer check back in, and even fewer send a follow-up that makes the lead want toย respond to you.
- Stay present online. You never know who might be watching for the next thing you post, so make sure youโre sharing content that youโre proud of on a regular basis.
- Make your brand distinct. Whether that looks like vibrant brand colors, memorable slogans, or even simply making your existing content more cohesive, make sure your brand looks different enough from everyone else in your industry to be memorable.
For more tips on how to update your brand and stand out from the crowd, contact usย or check out our blog.
