When should you start advertising your copywriting services business?

The best time to start is when you have some money coming in. That is, when you have several clients, and they are sending you work on a regular basis. This means that your business is itself funding your business.

If you start earlier, you'll need to fund your business out of another source of income, like a fulltime or part-time job. This can become a problem, simply because your advertising may not pay off immediately, and so you (or your partner) will start to worry about the lack of an immediate return on your investment.

The opposite scenario is also a problem. If you get flooded with work, which you don't yet have the experience or sub-contractors to handle, it can be a absolute nightmare.

=> Start with your local paper

The best place to test the advertising waters is with a small ad in the Classifieds section of your local paper. A small, four to six line ad is inexpensive, and it gets people used to seeing your business name. You can often buy a monthly or quarterly package at a discount, with elements like stars, dots, or bold lines to draw people's attention to your tiny ad.

If you have a Web page, a two or three line ad, just your business name and URL, is a great investment. People will visit your Web page in response to the ad, and you can post details of your copywriting services business on the Web page. Of course, you can also post your portfolio, or your writing samples if you're just starting out.

=> Local industry publications

All local, state and national associations have newsletters, as do all industries. You can buy advertising in association and industry newsletters cheaply, especially if you offer to help them out with some free content.

Which industries? The ones you write for, or would like to write for.

For example, I write for several heavy construction equipment manufacturers and hiring companies. I'm not looking to take on any more clients, but if I were, I'd advertise in the magazines these people read --- magazines for civil engineering, mining, and transportation.

If you wanted to collect more clients in the fields of managed health care, technology, or insurance, the process is the same. Find out what organizations these people belong to, and the names of the newsletters and

magazines they read. Then call the publications to find out what their advertising rates are. (Don't forget that you can often do this kind of research online.)

=> A Yellow Pages listing

When your business starts to roll along, say in its second year, invest in a Yellow Pages listing, if you find that you're getting a lot of business from local companies.

Why in the second year? Basically because by Year Two, you'll get some idea of the direction you want to take your business. Therefore, you'll know in which section of the Yellow Pages you'll get the most bang for your advertising dollars.

For example, you may find that you enjoy copyediting, and would like to do more of it. This means that you'd write your ad to go into the "Editorial Services" section.

Perhaps you find that you're doing a lot of marketing communications work, if so, select one of the marketing sections for your listing, or perhaps the Public Relations Agencies section.

=> Online advertising

You can also advertise your services online. Google Adwords is very popular, and the system is easy to use ---

https://adwords.google.com/select/

=> How much should you spend on advertising?

Start with a small budget, let's say ten per cent of your monthly earnings. This will enable you to test the waters.

Good luck with your advertising. :-)

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