AWAI, American Writers & Artists, Inc.

GET CLIENTS

26 Ways to Get Clients [here is the slideshow]

Cold Calling.
Warm Email Prospects
Networking.
Online Participation . . . in what? Participate in their blogs, forums, and social media groups. Be helpful and provide valuable information. Demonstrate your own expertise about their company, products, and industry.
The social media King for professionals.
Website Optimization. How do you accomplish this? Think like your client—how are they searching? Target your niche key phrases, like “fitness copywriter.”
Tradeshows. Bill Myers was big on this.
Public speaking.
Inbound marketing. Become an authority in your field. Publish content relevant to your ideal clients. Takes time but great for writers.
E-newsletter. Think of Tom Woods, Ben Settle, Doug Casey.
Cold emailing?
Google Alerts. This sounds like a possibility. Don’t know for what though. Set up alerts for an industry or business, and get emails with related newsworthy items.
List Building.
Job Boards. Great way to find clients looking now.
Your personal network. I don’t have one.
Lead Generation. Give away something for free (similar to building a list method, but more valuable. 30-minute consultation. Basic website audit. Content review. Guide to today’s websites that work.
Relationship Marketing. Create a list of everyone you know. Group into buckets based on your relationship. Decide how you’ll keep in touch with each other. Connect regularly (snail mail, phone conversation, social media, in person, etc. Frequency is key.
Snail Mail. Send something intriguing! Very little competition. You’ll stand out. Personalize the message as much as possible. Demonstrates your professionalism and strong desire to land the client.
Align yourself with other service providers. Graphic Designers. Web programmers. Business Lawyers. Other Writers. Consultants.
Experience working on projects. You get to focus on the writing and less on the client building. But then . . . you can leverage the client names into freelance clients! Great way to add big names early on.
Goal is to make connections with ideal clients. Contact top companies/leaders. Ask questions about the industry/their needs. Compile the results in a report or publish the recording with their permission. Follow-up with a proposal for their specific needs.
Target your ideal clients as the readers. Provide fresh, valuable topics. Demonstrate your expertise in both your industry and in the writing skills that you have. Post regularly (at least monthly—but weekly if you want to use it to build traffic.) Don’t post until you have at least 5 posts.
Special Assignment. A great way to get in front of clients looking now! Demonstrate your ability. If the client likes it, they pay/hire you. Great practice and relevant sample.
Other Writers. Cub for a more senior writer. Take on clients writers have outgrown. Align with writers who offer other project types. Team up as a writing firm.
In-House Jobs. No one says you have to freelance. Ultimate learning experience and apprenticeship. Look for job postings, but also ask direct. AWAI’s Bootcamp and Job Fair. awaibootcamp.com.
Money-Making Websites. You’re a peer in the industry. Gets your foot in the door, they see your work. You have the audience clients want. Also generates income.

Pick a method or two that suits you
Understand who your ideal clients are.
Present yourself as a professional.
Be consistent—do something every day to market yourself.

SOCIAL MEDIA
1. Be a Social Media writer, $247.
2.
3.
4.
5.

“Write a Powerful, 83-Word Email About a Vacuum Cleaner, and You Could Get a Check for $200,” Nick Usborne, December 2019.

“5 Ways to Earn a Healthy Income Without Clients,” Andrew Murray, December 2019.

“Writing for Common Website Types,” by Rebekah Mays, July 2020. It is basically an aritcle about maximizing strategies to get people to buy or to get visitors to do what you want them to do. She lists 5 different types of sites:

1. Ecommerce sites. There she suggests offering free things to get people to feel comfortable about spending money on your site. She writes”

In the banner at the top, we see the details of an offer for a free gift and free shipping, as well as two calls to action leading us to various product pages.

These offers immediately make us feel better about spending money, and again lead us to pages where we can start shopping. . . and to close the sale right away with free shipping or other limited-time offers.

2. “Schedule a Consultation” on a Professional Service Website.

Instead of guiding us to a product page, we are led to take an “assessment” – an engaging quiz that builds trust and gives the company valuable information about their potential clients.

Alternatively, we can skip the quiz and go straight to the final call to action on their website, which is scheduling a consultation with one of their coaches.

You’ll notice on this site that there are no prices – that’s revealed in the consultation. Instead, there’s a whole lot of copy further into the site establishing the proof behind how transformative the coaching is – proof which is very necessary for their high-priced services.

3. “Join the Club” on a Subscription Website.

4. “Download Now” on an App Website.

5. “Educate Yourself” on a Blog-Based Website.

“Five-Step Process for Effective Content.” Could you be more vague?

30-Day Writing Challenge. You’ve got to start somewhere. Start with this. Today is July 6, 2020. Start today and go until August 6th.

How to Make Your First $1,000 in Freelance Writing.”

B2B WRITING
1. 6 Tips for Going from B2B Freelance Writing to Full-Time Writing.
2.
3.
4.
5.

AWAI Writing Prompts. I need these. Complete 1/day. Posted on Monday, July 20, 2020.

“How-To Webinars on Growing Your Freelance Business,” posted on Monday, July 20, 2020.

Write Emails. Oh, here we go again. Posted on Friday, July 31, 2020. Get Certified as an Email Writer. This link on emails could be interesting.

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THESE GUYS
1. AWAI (AWAI Online). And American Writers. I may not be the most qualified person to evaluate a program, but what I have found from AWAI is that most of their products are dated and amateurish. I hate to say that. But I say that because I hate wasting time. I did buy one program from them back in 2014, and I liked it well enough. The program was thorough, maybe too thorough. You can’t apply 80% of the information to any single assignment or project. 80% of the information gets archived for later reference. The problem is that I never needed to go back to the 80% that was archived because I didn’t need it. With 20% of the information from one of their products, I was able to complete a score of projects. It’s your projects that are important. If one of AWAI’s programs can help you produce better work, then it’s all worth it. If not, then it’s a waste of time and money.

As of Thursday, January 7, 2021, AWAI is discounting the price on one of their marketing programs, called “AWAI’s Copywriting Made Simple: A Crash Course in Persuasive Writing.” (I don’t like their tedious sales pages. I realize that longer sales pages sell better and capture more sales, but I can’t get excited about their sales pages, I think, in part because the tone is always the same. It’s like the sales pages are tone deaf0). They’ve cut the price from $129 to $49. I tried getting in touch with AWAI, called, and left a message. Their contact numbers are here:

561-278-5557, Local number. Circle of Success or Infinity Member. So I phoned this number on Monday, January 11, 2021, and learned that the program is still available through this phone number, but online registration has ended. So this is kind of a sales gimmick: tell folks online that the order window has closed, leave a phone number so that you get people to call in, get them on the phone, and take their order. Okay.
866-879-2924, U.S. Toll-Free number (this is also their Member Services number). 8:30am-5:00pm ET.