August 5, 2009Be your own brand

I’ve been so busy this week I’ve barely had time update my blog. Since being featured on Smashing Magazine, I’ve been responding to a lot of new enquiries and taking on almost as much new business. It’s hard work. Rewarding work. Work that makes me glad I struck out on my own.

I think Smashing Magazine think I’m a little bit arrogant. I suppose my face is plastered all over this site. But as regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of the personal touch — adding that extra endorsement works, whether you’re a one-man outfit, or the boss of a much larger operation — it’s why I thought the promo campaign for the King of Shaves was so powerful. Sometimes, you have to be your own brand.

I’ve been taking on a lot of branding work lately — my favourite kind of work. It involves working with a client to figure out who their target audience is, then figuring out how to reach them.

So at the risk of sounding arrogant (sorry, guys) I thought I’d talk a little today about how I set up my own business.

It’s an example of what I can do for you.

The idea

This time last year I was a struggling journalist. To say I was earning peanuts would be an insult to monkeys. In fact, it’s an insult to peanuts, too. I’d done a lot of freelance copywriting, but I couldn’t get on the books of the big agencies. I was young, untested and we were in the midst of the collapse of the entire world banking system, after all.

Image is everything. How you pitch yourself determines who you are.

I saw an opportunity to take on the big agencies at their own game. I saw my chance to blow the opposition apart — not just the agencies, but also the old-school freelancers who knew a lot about writing (nice dictionaries, guys) but not a lot about what sells. After all, if they can’t pitch themselves right, what hope do they have of pitching anything for you?

A quick search revealed a lot of copywriters with poorly designed sites, loaded with copy as dull as a matt grey sky. You’d be amazed at the number of them who claimed their copy was “fresh”. Who even uses that word any more, let alone to describe a piece of writing? My competitors were stuck in the nineties.

I saw my chance. I took it. The result is this site, and this agency. You’re already here, so I won’t ramble on.

The secret

I’m a young, confident writer. I’m an individual. I work with branding, image and sales pitches. I don’t just work with words. Words are the end product of my work.

Most people who come to copywriters aren’t just looking for help with their text. They’re looking for a solution.

Copy is a string of words thrown together.
A brand is a sales pitch that gets results.

Most copywriters can produce the former.
Only a few can produce the latter.

My site is an example of good design, images and text that, taken together, create a pitch. My portfolio isn’t my words. It’s my image. That’s my brand.

When you buy my services, you’re buying me. You’re trusting me to come up with concepts that support my words. You want a troubleshooter, you don’t want the end-product of a team of suits “brainstorming” behind a conference desk. I get results, and I get them fast.

I’m more than just a writer. I’m a creative.

Maybe that’s arrogance. Personally, I think it’s just old-fashioned confidence. Either way, I’m certain it’s the secret to success.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Blog, Branding, Me and my business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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