How to Start Out as a Freelance Copywriter and Get Your First (Paying!) ClienTS

I started out as a freelance copywriter completely by accident. I’d been working within the marketing industry for over a decade, mostly in financial services, however in February 2020, I found myself redundant right at the start of a pandemic. Great.

As all the job vacancies were being shut down, I figured my only option was to start up on my own doing what I do best - writing. 

When I say I had no idea what I was doing, I mean I literally did not have a clue. I went about everything in the wrong order, trying to contact potential customers before I’d really decided what it was that I was offering or how I could help them. I was a complete mess! 

Looking back, it’s a wonder that I managed to get anything off the ground. But as I write this three years on, I’ve learnt a fair amount that I’m hoping can now be helpful to others who are starting out on their freelance journeys.

What is a copywriter and why is it so great?

A copywriter is someone who is hired to write sales copy on behalf of a client, with the aim of promoting their business and driving conversions and sales. Where you write copy can vary depending on the client, but the majority of work focuses around blog posts, website copy and social media captions. 

The best part about this job is that it’s completely flexible around your schedule and needs. Whether you want to start out doing it as a bit of extra cash alongside your full-time job, or to work around childcare or caring needs, this could be the answer for you.

All you really need is a laptop, WiFi connection and the ability to write in a coherent and interesting way.

The first steps to becoming a freelance copywriter

Outline your offer

The very first thing you should do is decide exactly what you want to offer your clients. What background do you have? How could you turn this into a niche? What are your specialties? What can you offer that others can’t? Take your time over this and really understand your offering; practice explaining it to people and try to do so in as few words as possible. You want them to understand the benefits of what you do and how you can help to improve their business. Also, don’t worry too much if you don’t have a niche, this isn’t a ‘must-have’ whatsoever. When I started out, I focused on small businesses and startups, but slowly expanded to help almost any brand as long as it was a project that interested me. I enjoy jumping between sectors and learning about what different companies do, so I don’t tie myself to any in particular.

Choose trading name

The next thing I’d recommend you do is choose a name for your business. Whether it’s something completely off the wall, related to your name or what you do is completely up to you, but make sure it’s memorable and unique. I absolutely did not give this enough thought when I first set up and ended up with my full name in my brand which I really regret! Perhaps something I’ll decide to change further down the line.

Set up your company through HMRC

Once you’ve decided on your trading name, the next step is to get this set up officially with HMRC. You can choose to be a sole trader or limited company, take a look at the differences between them to work out what works best for you - there is no right or wrong answer. It’s a pretty straightforward process although it can seem like quite an overwhelming step! But there are plenty of guidelines online to help you along the way if you get stuck at any point. 

Your HMRC account will be where you log all of your self assessment tax returns each year, so it’s worth getting to know the processes for this before you’re panicking on the returns deadline day.

Set up business bank account

This is something that I did WAY too late and it made it difficult for me to budget for absolutely ages, so I definitely recommend sorting this as quickly as possible. Choose a banking provider that works for you (I use Tide) and make sure that any business payments in or out go through here. This makes it much easier to track your earnings and outgoings, and can help you to save your tax payment to one side for when you do your self assessment tax return. 

Work on your brand

Before you start promoting yourself, you need to put a bit of time and thought into your brand. This isn't just your company name and logo, it’s pretty much everything that goes into how people view your business. So this will include fonts, colour palettes, tone of voice, values and purpose. I don’t think you necessarily have to have everything ironed out before you get going, but it’s worth choosing something you like enough that you don’t find yourself changing it all a couple months down the line (like I did!)

Set up your socials

Before you get started with a website, I think it’s best to start getting your name out there through social media. It’s completely free and can be a much quicker and easier way to promote yourself. When I first started, I set up on Instagram initially, then started updating and refreshing my LinkedIn page. I started out with a few posts introducing myself and what I do, the types of businesses I wanted to work with and how I could help them. 

You should post on your socials as often as you can, at least a few times a week if possible. Try to have a mix of sales-based posts as well as posts that can inform your audience and tell them a bit more about yourself. 

Don’t worry too much about likes and engagement to begin with, the idea is that you’re building out your content so that if a potential client comes along, they have plenty of information to get through to find out more about you and if you’d be a good fit to work with them.

After posting on Instagram for well over a year, I decided that it wasn’t the right platform for my brand, so now I only really use LinkedIn with very sporadic posting on Instagram. There’s no harm in changing your direction if it isn’t working for you.

Build your website

While social media is a great place to find clients, a lot of people will want to see a professional website before deciding to work with you. If you’re finding this is the case, you can make one yourself quite easily. I use Squarespace for mine which I’ve found super straightforward, however there are loads of options out there with various pricing schemes. 

I schedule a website review every 6-months to make sure my website is up to date and still relevant for my audience and the types of questions that they usually ask me.

Think about your pricing

I’m going to be honest. Pricing is my BIGGEST bug-bear of being self-employed and probably something that I’ll never be 100% confident in, but it’s absolutely vital that you get these nailed down before you start talking to potential clients. Do as much research as possible on what others in the industry are charging and settle on prices that you’re comfortable with. You can take a look at my pricing and packages here. 

Tell your friends and family

Ask people for recommendations! When I first started, I asked my friends and family to share my social posts far and wide to see if they knew anyone I could work with. Recommendations are my favourite way to get business because they come through a trusted source, so you have less work to do in convincing them that you’re a good person to work with. If they like you, they’re also more likely to pass your details on to other people who are looking for a copywriter. 

Reach out to agencies

One of the best things I did was contacting a variety of marketing agencies and offering them my services. All I did was create an email with an introduction to myself, my services and a few examples of my work and asked if they were looking for help with any outsourced copywriting. While it was quite a slow and manual process, I did get quite a few responses and this was the beginning of building a sturdy portfolio of regular work.

Reach out to local businesses

In addition to speaking to local marketing agencies, you can also try getting in touch with businesses in your area to see if they need any help with copywriting. Depending on your specialties, this could be local cafes or restaurants, financial services providers, gyms, pet shops…pretty much anything! 

I’ve found that many businesses would prefer to work with someone close by so that they can meet you and get to know you a bit better, so this can be a really lucrative way of getting new business.

Being completely honest, starting any business can be a daunting process, but if you have the right skills and the determination to push through the beginning stages, you’re already on the right path to success. You can find out more about how to become a freelance copywriter in my this free guide that I wrote, or get in touch with me if you have any further questions.