Copywriting: How To Find Your First Client When You Have No Experience

For many beginner copywriters, the hardest part is finding that first job that makes you your first money. There comes a time when you are comfortable enough to work for clients. You think you are at a decent level to do some work to build your client portfolio. 

You need to find that 1 person who is desperate enough to go for someone with no experience and no qualifications to your name. You going to need to do some convincing and let your work speak for yourself. Allow me to share a few secrets that helped me get my first customer when I had nothing to my name.

Upwork to the rescue.

Make your first profile on Upwork. They provide a great platform for freelancers looking to earn some money. Make your profile look professional but at the same time, be unique. 

Instead of saying “Hi my name is Liam and I am a copywriter…”. Say something like “Hi my name is Liam and I write sales copy that will grab your customers by their eyeballs.”

Make sure your profile is filled with your skills and be sure to explain how those skills can benefit your customer. The whole point with freelancing sites is to first win the customer and then once you get an opportunity, kill them with your work.

For every 10 proposals you send, you going to get rejected 90% of the time. Persevere until you build up a respectable portfolio enough to get into those higher-earning jobs.

Try cold outreach emails.

This method requires you to mail a lot of emails every day to your niche-specific businesses.

Pick a niche and be as specific as possible. For example, if you want to go into health then there are a bunch of different areas you can go into. If you chose fitness, then you may go into supplements. Make sure you analyze a bunch of successful ads that are around fitness-related niches. The art of this is understanding how to write sales copy specific to the personalities of fitness customers. 

Practice and write interesting emails to businesses whom you think you can help. The best way to do this is by offering them performance-based guidelines where, if you don’t make them money, they don’t have to reward you with any pay. This takes the risk many clients may have in taking a newbie on board.

Apply on job searching apps.

I got my first proper copywriting job using this method. One day, I took a gamble and applied for a posting on Indeed. I gave them as many examples of my work as I could after working as a freelancer for a long time, and it turned out they loved it. 

In the job description, they required someone who had a degree in copywriting, advertising, or marketing but instead chose this shlub. My point is, if you put in enough effort and work into your craft, employers will want you because you can do the job. As long as you can do it, there shouldn’t be a reason for a business to reject you. Take a chance and see where it goes. 

These are 3 different methods with which you might find some success. Everything requires hard work and dedication not seen amongst most people. If you can get past that and persevere to no end, you will make it. After a while, things will start falling in place and more opportunities will open up for you.