Michael Clendenen’s profession began on the fast-food restaurant In-N-Out Burger, however he has since remodeled his life. Now, he’s a six-figure copywriter and direct-response marketer, working with Fortune 100 corporations, USA BMX, political campaigns, and extra.
In a Business Insider interview, Clendenen described his life at 19 as dire. He was malnourished, penniless, and felt he had ruined his future. Each morning, he walked by fast-food drive-thrus to purchase meals and accumulate cans of candy drinks, scraping collectively cash.
While sustaining this routine, Clendenen secured a job at In-N-Out Burger, just lately voted the most well-liked quick meals restaurant in California, US. After a yr, he requested a elevate from his boss. Instead, he was assigned to the morning shift.
“Little did I know that meant I would be scrubbing toilets at 5 am and waiting for the Arizona sun to come up so I could clean the parking lot,” he wrote. “I found myself scrubbing concrete by day and performing at punk-rock shows by night. Meanwhile, my friends were graduating college, getting married, and having kids.”
By age 22, his state of affairs worsened. To get monetary savings, he lived in a single motel room with 5 different folks and a Chihuahua. He had no laptop, smartphone, automobile, or web connection.
Becoming a Self-Taught Copywriter
Without any prior expertise in writing adverts, Clendenen borrowed a pal’s telephone and Googled “how to write a good advertisement.” His analysis led him to “The Gary Halbert Letter,” a e-newsletter that modified his life.
“I read one of the newsletters, in which he said he could charge a client $15,000 for a letter he wrote in his underwear at his kitchen table,” Clendenen shared. “That was when I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
Following Halbert’s recommendation, Clendenen began writing letters to corporations to achieve shoppers. With restricted assets, he wrote his copy on the native library utilizing the Reference USA database, now often known as Data Axle, to seek out enterprise addresses. His persistence paid off, touchdown his first consumer by a letter.
Building Client Relationships
After securing his first consumer, Clendenen selected to work on fee solely with companies he was personally curious about. His first goal was chiropractors, as he had a private historical past with scoliosis and automobile accidents.
In his letters, Clendenen expressed his emotional funding of their work, creating a real connection somewhat than specializing in what he may do for them. This sincere method constructed instantaneous rapport, a precept he nonetheless applies in his shoppers’ copy immediately.
By the age of 27, Clendenen’s freelance profession had supplied him with a furnished condominium and a worthwhile enterprise, all with out dedicating extreme time to social media. He presently works round 35 hours per week, incomes between $40,000 and $100,000 per thirty days for his shoppers and repeatedly rising his private revenue with every new collaboration.
Michael Clendenen through Facebook
How To Become A Successful Copywriter In 6 Steps:
1. Decide what kind of author you wish to be:
Social media copywriter: Gives subtitles to paid ads and social media posts. Examples: Instagram captions, Tweets, and Facebook adverts.
search engine marketing copywriter: Ensures that info is seen by the supposed demographic by using search engine optimisation. Examples: search engine marketing weblog, key phrase analysis, web site content material, and meta descriptions and headlines.
Brand copywriter: Carries out the model’s messaging in each correspondence, each inner and exterior. Examples: model model pointers, slogans, product packaging, mission statements, and web site content material.
Marketing copywriter: Specialises in writing content material for ads and advertising and marketing. Examples: digital adverts, press releases, electronic mail campaigns, promotional supplies, and touchdown pages.
Technical copywriter: Explains the advantages and benefits of a product in a method that’s simple and simple to grasp. Examples: person guides, product packaging, assist content material, FAQs, and person manuals.
2. Audit your ability set:
The best copywriters are those that are at all times gaining new data and talents to broaden their clientele and providers.
Skills to say in your profile and proposals:
- You are conversant in utilizing electronic mail advertising and marketing providers similar to Constant Contact, SendinBlue and Mailchimp.
- You have labored on social media websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- You are accustomed to writing in AP, Chicago, AMA, and MLA kinds, amongst others.
- You can write materials for paid advert platforms like YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Facebook.
- You can use web site builders like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.
3. Create a portfolio:
All your shoppers wish to do is get a way of your writing model. Make certain it is apparent that any samples that are not from shoppers are mock-ups.
Samples to showcase or mock copywriting samples to organize:
Landing web page: Using Canva, Squarespace, or Wix, create a touchdown web page to your most well-liked enterprise or for a close-by firm.
search engine marketing weblog: Write a short weblog put up utilizing search engine optimisation. Remember to incorporate your meta description and title.
Email: Use a platform like Canva or Mailchimp to write down an electronic mail for a model as a strategy to showcase your expertise.
Ads: Make ads on social media with Influencer Marketing Hub.
Social Media: You can use Media Modifier to create social media posts that spotlight your copywriting skills.
4. Study the market:
When you first begin out as a copywriter, analysis what sorts of skills are in nice demand. Remember that not all shoppers perceive the excellence between copywriting and content material writing, so that you would possibly have to develop your search to find positions in your space.
5. Apply for copywriting jobs:
Initially, making time to use for employment is absolutely helpful. As a freelancer, you’ll be able to uncover that shoppers come to you and that you simply needn’t spend as a lot time searching for work after you determine a good title.
6. Promote your providers:
After compiling your best writing examples into an eye catching portfolio, you will need to market your work to potential shoppers. To make it simple for them to contact you, you should definitely embrace a contact type or electronic mail. Including a contact hyperlink and the phrase “accepting new clients” in your skilled social community biographies is one method to attract in enterprise.
According to Google Trends data, the time period “copywriting” hit an all-time international excessive in January 2023. However, whereas extra persons are turning into within the subject, copywriting continues to be in excessive demand, significantly within the digital sector, the place companies depend on impactful messaging to attach with shoppers and highly effective content material suppliers.