Chris Bibey wrote an interesting post over at ChrisBlogging.com on selling your writing services, and how marketing / selling makes some freelance writers uncomfortable. His post got me thinking about hard-sell versus soft-sell and why, when it comes to “selling yourself” to clients, people seem to automatically picture hard-sell tactics.

First things first - what’s the difference?

When you hard-sell, you essentially scream “buy from me!” This would be something like cold calling, cold email pitches, advertising, etc.

The soft sell is much more subtle - this is where networking fits into the marketing mix, among other tactics. Today I’d like to talk about one soft sell tactic, which happens to be my favorite - content.

Why Content Works as a Soft Sell Tactic

I know it’s cliche, but content really is king. Quality content educates, informs, or entertains. It attracts repeat visitors. It leads to natural referrals. It helps to build an image or reputation. And from the freelance writing perspective, content sells!

What do I Mean by “Content?”

Content can take many forms. Here are a few types of content you can create that can help you soft-sell your writing services:

• E-books
• Reports
• Blog Posts (your own or guest posts)
• Articles / Features
• Forum Posts
• White Papers
• Answers (on LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, etc.)

How Does Content Help You Sell Web Writing Services?

When you help people solve a problem, or answer their questions, you build a reputation as an authority in the subject matter. That’s attractive to prospective clients, who very often prefer hiring specialists if they can afford to. I’ll give you an example.

I do a lot of soft-selling through content for my press release writing service, and I have for years. It brings in a lot of business. I offer content in a variety of outlets - I post on forums about press releases (where my target market hangs out). I write blog posts about it. I even wrote an e-book about it. That information is “out there” for prospective clients to find when they’re looking for information. The idea is simple - you educate a potential client. By doing that, you have visibility with them that your competitors don’t have. If, or when, they’re ready to hire someone, you have a leg up - you’re already in their mind.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many new clients I’ve gotten where they come to me saying something like “I saw your post on X blog or forum, and I can tell you really know what you’re talking about. I’d like to hire you.”

What’s particularly interesting is the fact that clients who find me this way are often the least likely to complain about my rates being higher than other writers’. When you establish a certain amount of authority with that client, they’re able to hire you more on value than price - what you bring to the table in terms of your expertise.

Does Content Have to be Free to Bring in Sales?

There are obvious benefits to offering free content like blog or forum posts - that content naturally reaches more eyes. That said, paid content can be equally effective, giving you a combination of a marketing tactic and an additional income stream (one of many reasons I suggest freelance writers create e-books and reports).

Start looking for places where you can share quality information with your potential client base / target market. Share. You don’t have to blatantly pitch yourself to bring in sales. The soft sell can do that, and more, without making you uncomfortable the way hard sell tactics sometimes can.

We’ve discussed the benefits of specialization and how that can lead to higher earnings as a freelance Web writer. However, the real key to earning a decent income freelance writing online is proving your value to your clients. Specialization plays a major role (if you’re offering a certain amount of depth or understanding others can’t, you’re providing more value).

Today let’s talk about other things you can do to prove your value to prospective writing clients - things you can do to justify your fees and not get paid bottom-of-the-barrel rates:

1. 

   Case Studies - If you specialize in writing marketing copy for websites, you can demonstrate your value by publishing case studies of work with past clients (for example, show how much conversions increased with the use of your copy). If you specialize in SEO content you may want to offer a case study on how successful your articles were in attracting search engine traffic for a client, in comparison to other content on their site. Obviously, you’ll need permission (and information) from past clients to use this approach, but it does work.

2. Testimonials - Even if clients don’t want you publishing traffic stats, conversion rates, etc., you can ask them if they’d offer a testimonial for your website. New clients will very likely factor that feedback into their decision to hire you, especially if they’re familiar with any of your past clients whose testimonials you’ve published.
3. Pricing - Like it or not, even your rates give a potential client some idea of the value you provide. Remember, value does not equal price / cost. Pricing is just one component of overall value (what they’re ultimately getting when they hire you - ex. they’re not just getting articles; they’re getting authority content that will build or improve their own reputation, attract organic traffic, and bring in natural backlinks). If you undervalue your own work, or constantly let yourself get “talked down” to much lower rates, the client isn’t going to value your work as much as they would if you know your own worth, understand what you’re really offering, and stick by your rates (which reflect what you’re offering).
4. Demand - Here’s another “like it or not” for you: clients tend to see more value in a writer whose services are in constant demand. If you keep your schedule full and the client comes to you, you have a better chance of getting paid higher rates than if you run to the client begging for work constantly. That’s not to say you should never approach the client. For example you can followup with previous clients to mention a special offer, check in with past clients who may have pre-paid for something but never completed the order (I have a few clients who regularly do this, so I touch base periodically to see if they’re ready to finish up their prepaid articles, press releases, etc.), or you can solicit work by advertising your services somewhere. Look at it this way though - if a prospective client sees that others value your work enough to keep you pretty busy, there’s a better chance they’ll do the same (and if they don’t, you can always move on because you’re not desperate for the gig).
5. A Little Something Extra - One thing you can do no matter what phase of your career you’re in is to offer something extra - an add-on or “bonus” if you will. You can do this in a lot of ways. For example, you might say “order four articles and get the fifth one free.” Obviously you would have already accounted for this in your overall rate structure, but to the prospective client what they see is that they’re getting more for their money. Another approach would be to offer a free consultation (a marketing copywriter might consult for 30-60 minutes with the client on ideas to further market their website beyond the copy they were hired to write). The great thing about this is that you get to learn more about the client’s needs (which means you may be able to pitch them on additional services to help them meet those needs).

What other ideas do you have when it comes to demonstrating value to clients? How do you get them to pay you more than the highly-talked about $5 per article types of rates? Perhaps more importantly, how do you realize your value yourself?

One bit of advice I see commonly given to new Web writers (or any type of writers) is that they have to either do free projects for normally-paying clients or take on work at ridiculously low rates (like $5.00 per article) when they’re new just to build a portfolio or get references.

That’s a load of garbage.

If you’re really cut out to be a freelance Web writer (where portfolios come more into play than full-time employment), you’re going to spend time building credentials and properly targeting your market long before you actually start offering services. When you finally get to that point, there’s no good reason for you to not already have at least a handful of portfolio pieces showcasing your Web writing abilities within your niche or specialty form of writing.

Is Non-Paying Work Ever OK?

Am I saying you should never do non-paying work, when building your portfolio (or after)? No. What I am saying is that you should never take on a non-paying freelance Web writing gig solely for portfolio pieces. It should be paying you in other ways - and I mean more than saying “well this person might give me a referral.”

Why doesn’t it matter that the person receiving the free content might refer you to others? Because people do ask what their friends or colleagues paid, and if you’re going to charge $25 per article, but they know you did a piece for their friend for free, you’ve now set yourself up to be low-balled in your referral base - not smart.

When is a non-paying gig worthwhile? When you’re getting more out of it than you’re losing by not charging. That might be a marketing benefit, exposure, or some kind of contribution to your image. We’ll look more at that below with specific ways to build a writing portfolio with no paid experience under your belt.

Ways to Build Portfolio Pieces with No Experience

• Blogs and Content Sites - If your specialty is Web content writing in the personal finance niche, an excellent way to start building a portfolio is to launch your own blog on personal finance. This not only lets you showcase your best work (you can send a link to the blog or specific articles to prospective clients), but can also serve as an income stream through advertising (and I’ll tell you from experience that if you keep working at it, your blogs can earn you decent money).
• Article Marketing - This is one of those situations where it’s not a bad idea to write for free. The key is getting the most marketing value out of your articles written for this purpose. For example, many writers submit articles to large article directories. I’d suggest against it. They lend little credibility. Instead, send free articles to niche article sites or even to blogs in your specialty area that may accept them as a guest post. For example, if I want to get more exposure in a specific business niche, I may write a free article for Work.com because they carry more credibility with a built-in business audience than article directories do. Again, you can link prospective clients to these articles. Since most are non-exclusive though, if you do go with an article directory instead of targeted options, I would suggest forgetting the link, and instead publishing it directly to your own portfolio site.
• Write for Non-Profits - This is one other area where I’d say it’s OK to write for free (or simply at a discount) early on. What does this offer you that free articles for a profit-based client can’t? It’s an image-builder. Non-profit involvement is often a good PR move. And let’s face it - what looks better? A reference from a branch of a large and respectable non-profit agency, or a reference from a random webmaster no one has heard of, wanting free or $5.00 articles? Take a wild guess. If it doesn’t lend something to your credibility or image, don’t do it for free.
• Write Mock Pieces - This is my least favorite option for portfolio-building if you have no actual experience. To put it simply, you create a “fake” piece. This doesn’t really work for articles (there’s no such thing as a “fake” article really). It works well for marketing copy and similar things though. For example, if you plan to write business plans, you may want to write a fake one for a non-existent company similar to those in your target market. The benefit here is that you can later use them as a template to speed up the process on future projects, and you’ll have more creative freedom. In addition to using mock pieces when you’re new, they can work well if you can’t share full actual samples (again using the business plan as an example - clients won’t want you sharing their private business and financial data enclosed in them with other prospective clients).

Using the Sale to Build Your Portfolio

Here’s something else to consider - run a sale. This can work when you’re new, or more experienced. Let’s cover sales for the new, inexperienced writers here.

The key is this: Don’t go around saying something like, “since I’m new, I’m going to write articles for a while at $5.00 per article, and then raise my rates later.”

Instead, try something like this (again based on relatively low rates for easy example purposes): “My regular rate is $20.00 per 500-word article. I’m currently offering a 50% discount on first orders from new clients only.”

Why is the second route better, using the numbers in the examples?

1. You’re not emphasizing your “fault” (in this case that you’re new) - you’re going to let the quality or your credentials in the niche or specialty speak for themselves.
2. You’re putting a limit on the low rates up front (only first orders, and only for new clients).
3. People like discounts. Saving $10.00 on an article can be even more attractive than paying only $5.00 for one if you “sell it” well with your marketing copy in your sales announcement.
4. You’re not immediately starting off by trying to compete with lower-tier writers (once you start feeling like you have to compete with them, you may always view them as your competition - they’re not). What’s worse is that trying to compete with them, even temporarily, can permanently put you in the same league as those lower-quality writers in the eyes of your target clients. Once you create a certain image with buyers, it can be very difficult to break out of it.
5. You’re letting prospective clients know up front that you place a certain value on your work (your regular rates). This helps to ensure that you’ll attract clients willing to pay those rates if they continue with you past that first order.
6. If you’ve taken the time to properly set your writing rates to begin with (again to get those regular fees), you’ll know how many lower-rate clients you can afford to take on and still get by. Most Web writers who simply start off very low because they’re told they should don’t honestly know what they need to begin with - they’re trying to market solely on price rather than running a responsible business (and that’s what being a freelance Web writer essentially is).

Start Building Your Portfolio

Now that you have a few ideas to get you started on portfolio pieces, get to work on building a portfolio that will attract clients, increase your credibility, and demonstrate what you feel your writing is really worth.

I’d love to see how other writers are keeping their portfolios online (for those with public portfolios). If you would like to leave a link to yours, please feel free to do so in the comments. While both of mine (my copywriting pieces are on my PR site) are soon going under construction for a site move and a site overhaul, you can currently find them at http://jhmattern.com/portfolio and http://firstratecontent.com/portfolio.htm.

If you want to move beyond run-of-the-mill low-paying Web writing gigs, you need to be able to effectively market your Web writing services. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Web content writer, Web copywriter, or any other type of writer making a living online - you need to have a marketing strategy. But before you even think about how to market yourself or where to find high-paying clients, you need to understand the most important marketing tool any Web writer has: their USP

What is a USP?

Whether you call it a unique selling proposition, unique selling position, or something else, your USP is essentially the reason a client should not only hire you, but pay you what you think your services are worth.

Examples of USPs

Your USP can be any number of things, or a combination. Here are some common examples:

• Your specialized credentials
• Your quality
• Your experience with a certain type or caliber of client
• “Extras” you may include that similar providers don’t
• Your pricing

Avoid Pricing as a USP

While being the least expensive option can attract clients, anyone with an ounce of marketing sense will tell you that you should never market services on price. It may work as a USP for products - look at Walmart. But you’re not Walmart. You’re not offering products. You can’t manufacture something cheaper, you can’t buy in bulk, and you only have a limited number of hours per day that can be allotted to providing a service.

Web writers who try to market primarily or solely on prices generally don’t last very long. They can’t meet their income goals in the long term, or they find that once they’ve set their reputation as a “cheap” provider, it can be nearly impossible to move beyond that image when they are ready to start charging rates in line with other professionals.

Don’t do it. There’s no good excuse. And don’t make the common mistake of thinking you should start extremely low when you’re new, because you can drastically increase rates later - most can’t. You’ll never earn to your full potential if you go this route.

Example: Web Content Writing

One of the services I offer is Web content writing, including SEO content. You’ve probably seen people advertising SEO articles at rates like $5 per 500-word article. So why is it that my clients are willing to pay me 20 - 100 times more than that for a similar-length article? Because I have a solid USP, and I can back it up.

The primary emphasis of my Web content writing services is the quality. I write business-related content, because I’m a specialist. So my background ( in my education, past client experience, and the fact that I’m a small business owner on top of being a freelance writer) tells prospective clients that I know what I’m talking about. I can write content that generally goes beyond research - I can write from that experience to give them something truly unique or original. That comes at a premium (and specialization is usually a great component of an effective USP for writers). I know how to show clients that higher quality content than those $5 articles can actually improve their business - improve their reputation, increase word-of-mouth marketing on their behalf, and even flat out make them more money. Again, they’re willing to pay more, because my content not only can get them search engine results, but help them solidify a long-term business identity.

What’s Your USP?

Is there anything that sets you apart from the countless other Web writers vying for the same gigs? If not, you should start putting some thought into it. Can you specialize, if you’re not already? Can you improve your credentials? Can you think of benefits your writing would have for clients that similar writers aren’t thinking to mention? Can you offer something extra (like a free report, consulting related to the writing you’re providing, etc.) that might attract clients to you over your competition? If nothing makes you the best choice, you need to change that.