7. Pitching, Impressing, Winning and Pricing

Whichever way you end up finding work, it is unlikely to be handed to you on a plate. You will normally have to convince a prospective client that you are up to the job and that your fee will fit their budget.

Putting together a portfolio

Generally speaking, the measure of how good you are is in the work you have already done. Consequently, it is worth building up a portfolio and/or a résumé of your work that you can send to prospective clients. (This is also the sort of information you will want to include on your website, if you have one.)

Try to make sure you get a copy of all the work you do, even down to the smallest flyer. Few clients will want to see all of it, but you could frequently be called upon to show your expertise in particular areas – writing newsletters, for example – so it is useful to have more than one example to hand. Your ‘portfolio’, therefore, should not be a collection of randomly-assembled work, but a selection of the copy you have written that you think is most suited to a particular job.

If you have a CV or résumé, it is similarly a good idea to tailor it to different types of work. Also, remember that you are not looking for a permanent job, so you should not structure the document in the same way as you would write a traditional CV. Make sure it brings out your relevant experience first and forget about making a big deal about which university you went to or what your hobbies are. The important points are which other clients you have worked for and what you have done for them.

In the early days it will obviously be difficult to come up with a dazzling client list and a long list of projects, so feel free to include examples of writing work you may have done in previous jobs or during any relevant training courses.

If you are really stuck, it might be worth considering some free work for friends and acquaintances, as a way of building up a portfolio. It might also help you build up a network of contacts who can offer paying jobs.

Pitching for work

If you have worked in any form of marketing communications agency, then you will probably be familiar with the process of pitching: brainstorming ideas, putting together creative executions and a pitch document, rehearsing the presentation and assembling a team to represent the business.

Thankfully, copywriters are rarely required to go to such lengths. Copywriting work is (sadly) not normally high value enough to warrant a major pitch and because freelance copywriters are fairly rare you are unlikely to be facing much competition. At most, you are likely to be asked to meet the client for a briefing, put forward some thoughts on your approach and provide a quote for the work. Even so, you have to make sure you land the job. So what do you do?

• When you meet the client, show that you understand their business. Dress appropriately: jeans might be OK for a dotcom but make sure you are in a suit and tie if you are visiting a stock broker. Tell them about any clients you have worked for in the same or related industries. Research their industry, if you need to, so you are aware of the issues affecting them. Make sure you can understand their jargon. (But if you do not, then by all means ask for clarification. After all, you need to know what you are talking about if you are going to make an educated guess at the kind of work involved and how much it will cost.)
• When you put forward a proposal, make sure it meets the client’s requirements. Your idea may be creative, but will it have the desired effect? Have you taken account of any sensitivities or issues regarding the project? Is your proposed approach in keeping with tone of the organisation issuing it?
• When you quote for the work, is it an amount that the client will be happy with? And will it be enough to justify your time and effort? (See below for more on pricing.)

Taking a brief

Knowing how to take a brief is important if you want to win business and write copy that meets your client’s expectations. Make sure you:

• Ask lots of questions. Your client should do most of the talking, not you.
• Narrow down, as far as possible, exactly what is involved: how many pages, how many words, how many versions and so on.
• Clarify how many re-writes might be expected.
• Establish whether there are any concerns or sensitivities that you need to be aware of. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, are very restricted in what they can claim in advertising.
• Find out when the work needs to be delivered.
• Get an idea of the budget, if there is one.
• Try out any ‘on the spot’ ideas you might have, to see whether the client is likely to be in tune with particular lines of thinking.

Pricing

What level should you price yourself at? Answering this question is not always easy. Go too high and clients might decide they cannot afford you. Go too low and you could find you cannot pay the rent.

To work out what you could charge, you could try doing some research. A good place to start might be by talking to specialist agencies, signing up to an online work exchange (see above) or looking at the fees posted on the National Union of Journalists’ website (www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/) to see what other people are asking for. This may not help you much, however. There can be a tremendous range of prices quoted for similar jobs, usually starting at £ 100 to £ 150 a day and going up to two or three times that amount.

The reason fee levels vary so much is simple: it is entirely up to you to set your price and you can go as high or as low as you want. You could, theoretically, produce a figure off the top of your head. But there is a better way.

The trick is not to ask yourself what price your work should be, but how much it is worth – to you and to your client. This process can help you work out a happy medium that will be right for both parties. Remember that, as your own boss, you do not have to stick to a rigid price level and can chop and change your rates, within reason, to suit particular circumstances.

To work out what a job is worth to you, first calculate what your minimum fee level should be, with reference to the section on business plans in Chapter 2. Ideally, you will want to earn a bit more than this, but you may decide that some types of work are worth taking on at break-even point, or even at a discount. If you are keen on journalism, for example, you might feel happy about taking on news or feature writing commissions even though they are paid at lower rates than other jobs. By the same token, be realistic about what you quote for projects that look as if they will be difficult or complicated.

Get into the knack, also, of working out roughly what the value of your work is to your client. A rush job that needs to be done urgently over the weekend is going to be worth more than a non-vital project that the client could just as easily do in-house.

Price is an important part of winning business, but it is always much better to negotiate on the basis of value. If you keep worrying whether the level of your fees is too high, you will probably end up under-pricing yourself. Instead, ask yourself what justifies the fee that you think is fair. Can you turn the work around extra fast? Have you got experience that your client would value and that they would not easily find elsewhere? Will you manage the project as well as writing copy? Your client will probably value things like this and be prepared to pay a premium for them.

Conversely, if the client’s budget allows for less than you would expect to be paid, it is usually better to see if you can cut the workload accordingly rather than simply dropping your price. You might get the client to take care of any necessary approvals, for example, or undertake just to carry out the essential parts of the project until or unless extra cash is available.

Another thing you might want to try is to use price negotiations to improve your cash flow. If your client insists on a cheaper deal, for example, offer a prompt payment discount if your bills are paid within seven days. That way you both benefit.

There is a good reason why your client should appreciate you being honest and forthright about pricing. If you are happy with what you are being paid for a job, it will act as a good incentive for you to spend time on it and do it well. Taking on low-paid work, however, could force you to cut corners, which will benefit neither you nor your client in the long run. This is why it is always better to work on the basis of value, rather than price.

How do you charge?

There are two main ways of charging fees: by time (usually on an hourly or day-rate basis) or by word count. The former is common in agency circles, the latter is more characteristic of press journalism, but in effect the two are interchangeable and you can use them both, even for different jobs with the same client.

The important point is that the system you use works for you and your client. A word count fee might be appropriate, for example, where you have to deliver a document of a given length but are not sure how long it will take. Working on a day-rate basis might be better if you are doing regular work for a client, such as writing ads or press releases.

If in doubt, you might want to offer the client the choice of which type of rate they prefer. You will however need to be sure that you are costing the work on a roughly like-for-like basis using each method.

Two variations on these approaches are to quote a flat fee for a project, or to ask for a retainer, both worked out on a rough calculation of the amount of time the job is likely to take.

Contracts

Whether you think you need a contract for a particular job really depends on the amount of work involved and the level to which you feel you need to be assured that it will continue. For a day or two’s copywriting it is hardly worth the effort of getting a client to sign a contract. But if you are looking at a project that will provide a significant portion of your income, and for which you might have to turn down other work, you might well want to take the precaution of drawing up a contract.

Engagement contracts are available from industry bodies like the National Union of Journalists. Your client may have a standard contract they will use, although beware that the small print might not be in your favour. For a very large project, you might want to take on a lawyer specifically to draw up a contract that gives you a measure of protection.

In most cases, however, the written communication between you and your client, including briefs, proposals and quotations, would probably constitute enough of a contract to be enforceable by law.