Get Clients as a Beginner Copywriter With The Checkpoint System

In this post I'm going to tell you how to put business owners at ease when they hire you.

This is especially important for newer copywriters without a track record to show a potential client, but don't overlook it if you've been doing this for a while. Many copywriters don't know the checkpoint system, so this will give you an edge over other experienced copywriters as well. 

When you're new and talking to a potential client, they're full of fear. They fear you're going to miss deadlines, you're a bum on the street, you're going to write bad copy, and it's not going to convert. 

This is born out of working with other copywriters, because the majority of copywriters will have all these problems. 

The checkpoint system quells their fears, helping you land a higher percentage of jobs. 

Number one is to have a portfolio and samples. Past experience. If you don't have a portfolio from past experience, that's still okay. You'll want to create some samples though. 

You can do this by finding a product for sale somewhere online, and writing sales copy for it. 

Second part of the checkpoint system is to have a money back guarantee for your first one or two jobs. Say something like..

"Hey, if you don't like it, if it doesn't produce for you, I'll give you your money back. That's not an issue. I'm trying to get into the game as copywriter, I've put a lot of time and resources into getting good at it and I'm here to prove myself."

You're not really looking for money on the first few jobs, you're just looking for experience and a reference. The ability to say, I wrote this copy for xyz company/person. Having even one or two or three references automatically puts you ahead of 80% of the playing field. That'll make getting further jobs much easier.

Then tell them you use a checkpoint system to make sure they get exactly what they're looking for. 

Here's what you'll communicate to the potential client: 

Here's how the checkpoint system works. When we work on this job together, you give me all the info you need, which piece of copy you need, and all the details on your product/service. 

I'll study all of that, then do my own research on top of it. This is my part of my process, I'll research three areas. Your prospect/demographic, the marketplace (ie what are other people selling to your demographic in the same niche)

Last, how are they selling it. How are the most successful and least successful products being sold. That way I can understand this niche the most and how best to sell to them.

Third, I'm going to use your product as if I was a customer. Then I'm going to look for how to position that in a unique manner.

After I do all this research, I'll come up with an angle for the sales piece. I'll hand that over to you. If it's an ad, I'll brainstorm a bunch of different angles, and I'm going to bring that to you. 

If it's a longer piece, I'll come up with the lead, then the mechanism, and then I'm going to bring that to you in a brief. I'll show it to you and get you to sign off on it. Then you say, I like it or don't like it.

If you don't like it. Great. I'll go back to the drawing board and we can chat about how to make it something you do like.

If you do like it, great. Then I'm going to go back and build it out, finish the first rough draft, get your feedback and then there'll be a round of final edits. 

This ensures you don't get blindsided with something you don't expect, and we have time to work on getting you a finished product of copy that you like and you're satisfied with. 

So there you have it, the checkpoint system to get copywriting clients and put them at ease, setting you apart from all the other copywriters applying for the same jobs. 

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