“Not what you think” refers to the common practice of writing online articles in order to improve your offering’s natural search results. There is nothing at all wrong with this. But when I talk about using articles to market your writing services, I mean publishing articles on your area of expertise in industry journals.

These articles may or may not be paid. This seems to run counter to my insistence on “dumping the cheapskates” but here is why: trade journals are enormously influential in their areas. Think of writing articles for them not as a cheap (or non-paying) gig but as a marketing expense. The expense is not in money – this is not self-publishing – but in your time. Ideally the trade journal will allow you to place your contact information in the tagline. Any trade journal that accepts contributed articles will do this, while paying markets may not. In any case you should add your published articles to your sample portfolio and host it on your blog. There may be a question of copyright so read your rights carefully when contributing to trade journals. You can always link to the site with your article, but it’s always best to have a copy of the article that you can host yourself.

Use your published article in several ways:

• Include it in your print and online portfolio.
• Attach it to emails to prospects.
• Do a press release if it is an in-depth article in a good publication.
• Notify your email list that you have published the article and include the link.

You might squirm at the thought of “working for free,” but again consider this marketing, not sales. You might contribute the article without compensation but you will also gain paying clients from it. Remember that we are not talking about pitiful $5-per-article online clients but $1-a-word business clients.

An information kit on your services is a great addition to your marketing arsenal. But you must still get the information kit into the hands of prospective customers. Here is an example of a simple sales letter that works:

Use this free Information Kit to find the best copywriter for your B2B projects

Dear [personalized salutation],

This has probably happened to you:

Approval for an important B2B project never came and you gave up on it. All of a sudden the project is greenlighted and due yesterday – just in time for a major product launch. Your corporate communications folks and agency writers are snowed under with all of the other projects around the launch. How do you find a copywriter who understands the field and can nail a good white paper fast?

You pick up my information kit and send me an email or make a call. And relax.

In this kit you’ll find:

• Testimonials from clients in fields close to your own.
• Work clips and samples.
• An FAQ that immediately answers questions like “Can you meet deadlines?” “Do you understand what I need?” “What are you like to work with?”
• A fee schedule so you know you’re getting great value for your money.
• And a free copy of my special report “When White Papers Go Viral.”

Please email me today at xxx.com or give me a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx and ask for your free information kit. I’ll get it to you immediately.

Warmly,

[Signature]

[Your name]

P.S. Don’t wait until the last minute to scramble for a copywriter. Get my information kit today and be ready to make that call the second you need me.

Special reports are a good way for any business to grow, especially for writing businesses. Special reports illustrate your writing skills and your knowledge of a particular industry. The special report should build the case for copywriting as marketing and sales tools for businesses in your specialty industries. Offer the report as a free download from your website but this is not the most important step.

Here is the truly important thing to do: Build a print direct mail campaign and target at least 50 executives in the industry you want to reach. 100-300 is better, but 50 is a minimum. They might be vice presidents of marketing, sales, channel marketing, or others. In large companies you might also want to reach directors of marketing. You might also reach out to public relations agencies that often have work for skilled freelancers.

Write a special report that will help your target market to make money using copywriting services. You can see an example here. Also write a 1-page cover letter introducing yourself and your report and include your URL. Then print the personalized letters and mail with the special reports.

Ideally you should follow up with a phone call, and writer Peter Bowerman has done extremely well with that. However, you don’t have to – writer Steve Slaunwhite refuses to do so and he has also built a very profitable business. The upshot is that if you really need the work, then make follow-up phone calls. You’ll get more business that way. But if you just know that you’re not going to do that, consider doing a 2nd print mailing as a follow-up instead. A postcard might be a good plan in this case. The important thing is to follow up whether by phone or mail. And remember – unless you have a preexisting relationship with these guys, don’t email out of the blue! I can’t tell you what a bad idea that is. Sure it might work occasionally but you’ll shoot yourself in the foot. “Oh yeah,” the executive thinks. “I remember that guy. He spams me!”

Restrain yourself. This type of printed mail gets a lot more attention than email anyway, especially with a real stamp on it.

You may be a highly skilled writer but if not enough paying people know about it then that’s not going to do you much good. Still, the more efficiently you market the better your results will be. And you will have the added bonus of taking less time to do it. One of the best ways to do this type of marketing is to use templates to speed up repetitive communications.

When you are endlessly composing new emails to send yet another set of clips – or you are AGAIN printing out a stack of clips to send via USPS — stop. Ask yourself if the process is as efficient as it can be. Probably not.

Whether email or print, use templates to help you to produce marketing materials and responses quickly and pretty painlessly. You will not only save time doing these tasks, you will probably do more because they won’t be such a time sink. So stop reinventing the wheel and use templates.

Make templates of all your marketing communications. For example, make a template of emails and letters out of various parts of your sales cycle. Have a letter that introduces you and your business, one that responds to a request for information, one that requests the sale, and a follow-up to ask for a testimonial. Then when you need a letter from one of these stages, you merely make a few changes to personalize it and off it goes. Note: This idea works for both email and for print letters, but let me urge you to print your initial outreach letters. You really have no business emailing out of the blue to businesses anyway. (CANSPAM anyone?) And honestly, a print letter will get far more attention anyway. Once communication starts you can email.

The template idea can extend to related areas. For example, store your clips in easily accessible folders. Most of this communications is electronic these days, but the same principle holds for print. Organize your clips by type (white paper, brochure, sales letter, etc.) and/or by industry. This way you can copy print communications or attach digital ones and send them off with your letters and emails.