7 Tips to Double or Triple Your Copywriting Productivity, Output, and Income
The arithmetic of freelance copywriting—including copywriting—is really quite simple. The faster you write, the more copy you can write. And the more copy you write, the more money you make.
(How to Get Started in Copywriting.)
Also, when you can write faster, you can get the work done and submitted to the client sooner. The client is happy you made or beat your deadline … and you get paid faster.
So, here are a few tips that can help you write better—and a lot faster:
#1—Focus on a niche.
Seek multiple clients in the same industry. Health, financial, high-tech, nonprofit.
Some copywriters make their niches even narrower. Dietary supplements, options trading, semiconductors, Christian charities.
You save time and write faster. You know the business, products, and markets, and so the learning curve for each new client project is compressed.
#2—Focus on one type of promotion.
White papers, emails, websites, Facebook ads. Something you enjoy, are good at, and for which there is demand. The more experienced you get at, say articles, the faster and better you will write them.
#3—Do more projects for a select group of core clients.
Aim to have 80 percent of your work coming from new assignments for existing clients. If you can, build a small group of only a few clients who give you the bulk of your copy projects.
You will get to know these clients and their products at a deeper level. So when you get new projects from them, the learning curve is shorter and shorter, enabling you to do more work for them in less time.
#4—Repurpose previous writing for new projects.
Keep Word files of all copy written for your clients on your hard drive in clearly labeled and well-organized folders. Often, many pieces of copy (e.g. about the company, order forms) appear in multiple documents. So you can save time cutting and pasting.
Makes sense. Why reinvent the wheel? Plus, you are using copy already approved by that client.
#5—Use swipe files.
Swipe files contain samples of promotions from other companies. You collect them for inspiration, ideas, and models of how to write a particular type of document or promotion.
Newspaper ads for dietary supplements. Social media posts for conservative publications.
#6—Craft a copy platform.
A copy platform is a brief statement of the project particulars. Including target audience, subject matter, unique selling proposition, and objective; e.g. generating leads, increasing online orders.
It takes time to write a copy platform. But in return, having a copy platform helps you to write more surely and steadily, and better and faster.
#7—Create an outline.
In addition to the copy platform, create an outline of what information the finished copy must present and in what order. Make the outline point-by-point. Use bullets or a numbered list.
As with a copy platform, it takes time to write an outline. But in return, an outline helps you write more surely and steadily, and better and faster.
Best-selling author James Patterson writes outlines for all his novels. Patterson attributes his prolificity in part to his detailed outlines. And by the way, James Patterson started out as a copywriter.
So, follow these tips. They can enable you to produce twice as much writing in half the time. And possibly double or even triple your freelance writing income.