Ah, Summer! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

Summer is my favorite time of year. I love the heat, I love the beach, I love the ocean, I love that things are a little slower at work and I can make HUGE plans for the upcoming year.

On the first year I became a copywriter, my children were just babies and I had undergone a rough year of ups and downs. When summer hit, I was on a downswing. I had a handful of clients paying me a pittance and asking for the world. So, I did what any fool might do and I quit!

(kind of)

I took a hiatus from staring at my computer and trying to drum up new business. I took out a notepad, went on outings with my kids and started writing down ideas, then editing them and writing new ideas. By the end of the summer, I felt like the kid with a wicked tan and the best backpack on the first day of school. I was refreshed and ready to meet new clients. I had my ideas mapped into a sales funnel, I had pitch emails ready to go and a list of potential clients. It was the beginning of a new start.

So, if you’re watching families pack up for the beach as you’re staring for hours on end at a screen and jumping to Facebook or Instagram more than you’d care to admit, here’s some things you could be doing instead. And, if you’re fortunate enough to have a good set of clients, don’t overestimate their loyalty. Take this opportunity to work on these tasks too so that you’re ready to pitch new clients whenever you need.

Plan out a sales funnel

Above is the sales funnel we designed for a staffing client. In simple terms, the idea is that you create some marketing pieces that will build awareness with your ideal client. So, for a staffing firm, sending out a press release is a good way to build awareness, but for a copywriter, it would be better to send a series of letters or emails.

The idea for the sales funnel is that once they receive your sales letters, they are interested in learning more about you. Now they are in the interest stage. What would a client want to know about you? Probably what you can do for them, and how you’ve done it for other people.

If they know that, they probably also need to know when you could start, how long it would take and how much it will cost. You don’t want to be writing this for every single interested person, so why not make it a webpage? And, if you’re making a webpage, make sure it’s easy for them to sign up for a quick consultation with you. Because now they are in the decision-making stage.

So, you get the idea I hope.

Let’s recap some of the specific things you could do this summer:

Attract Clients

• Write a series of letters to your ideal client. Leave it general enough to send to several good potential clients too. Remember to provide a call to action in each letter (what do you want them to do with the info you’re giving?)
• Write a series of emails. Similar to point one.
• Do some research and find the names, addresses and/ or email addresses of people worth reaching at these companies.
• Plan out social media themes for the rest of the year. Like this: July will be all about words that have impact or this July will be all about construction companies and how they can use copywriting to reach clients.

Build Interest

• Write out a handful of services that you provide. Explain why these are important. Now put them in a letter and on your website. Add them to your social media calendar where it fits the theme.
• Explain why you are the best option for your potential clients. Put it in the letter and on your website… I’m gonna stop repeating this now and presume you know it’s coming.
• Build a portfolio on your website and… you know, right?

Make It Easy To Sign Up For Your Services

• Put together a price list. This makes copywriters super nervous because it seems like you’re locked into a price, but fear not! The purpose of a pricing list is to make life easy. It takes hours to figure out pricing and it can take meeting upon meeting to lock down a client. Don’t drag it out. Share your price list and be done with it. Think of it this way – if you move through the pricing stage fast you’ll reach more people and eventually, you’ll reach the right person or people.
• Clients that are interested will want to have a chat with you. Make it easy on everybody by creating an account with drift.com. Drift will integrate with your calendar so that anyone can automatically make an appointment with you, making it nice and easy.

There we go – your summer homework is now set. And keep in mind that all of these tasks can be completed while collecting sand between your toes. Just make sure you proofread everything written while holding a cold beer.

Enjoy!