Finding Your Ideal Copywriting Clients

I believe that as a copywriter, there is an easier way to build your credibility and grow your client list, and that is through alignment. When you know your ideal client, you can start to align your work with them and even package your work to perfectly suit them. This means that when it comes time to pitch yourself and your services, you stand out, you connect, and ultimately, you get the job.

This post is going to dive into why knowing your ideal client is crucial for success as well as practical steps on how to do it.

What is an Ideal Client?

When I think of an ideal client, the word that most energetically comes to mind is synergy. Synergy is 'the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects'. In simpler terms, things that go together in such a way as to amplify the efforts of all, like a mastermind group. I also think of flow and alignment.

If you put all of this together, you quickly get a picture of a perfect working relationship, and that is the key feeling behind your ideal client. That's what it feels like to be working with one- perfect. Your ideas are aligned; your voice matches their voice; you value and like their brand; you are instantly filled with ideas on how and what to write for them; you are excited to write for them. If all of that is true, then you have found yourself an ideal client.

How do you Determine Who your Ideal Client Is?

As mentioned above, what you are looking for in your ideal client is a natural alignment between them and yourself as a copywriter and as a person. As such, you want to begin your search knowing the things that are core to you, so you know what to look for in them. A great place to start is by asking yourself a few questions:

1. Who or what interests you?

2. What do you like to learn about for fun, and what content do you consume?

3. Which of these areas of interest would you actually like to write about?

4. Who needs this kind of copywriting?

By searching for the answers to these questions, you will begin to narrow in on the kind of work you would most like to write about, work that excites you and that lights you up. I believe that part of the 'ideal client contract' is that writing for them brings joy to your work. It has to make you happy. That's not to say it has to be easy, but if it is challenging then it has to be the kind of challenging that you enjoy.

Most copywriters have had the experience of writing for a client they don't like at least once (and those are the lucky ones), so I'll assume this to be true for you as well. Think about how this felt, think about the dread of having to painstakingly put word after word on the page at a rate that felt like 'too slow' regardless of how fast you were typing. Think about the breaks you took, the second and third tabs you opened just so you could give yourself a mental break from the soul-crushing thing you were writing about. Just sit with that feeling for a little bit and fully understand how much it sucks.

Writing for your ideal client feels like the opposite of that. It feels fun, engaging, exciting, and life-giving. It sucks your time but in the 'Oh wow, it's been an hour already?!' kind of way and not in the 'OMG, I can't believe I've wasted an hour of my life on this' kind of way. So, very different and worth doing your part to try and make sure you get the first kind. This brings me back to the questions above, I really suggest you take the time to uncover the answers for yourself.

As an example, working your way through them may go something like this:

1. Who or what interests you?

Food, travel, fashion, writing, books, babies, and childcare.

2. What do you like to learn about for fun, and what content do you consume?

Copywriting hacks, book publishing, cooking tutorials, fashion breakdown videos. Notice that from questions 1 to 2, travel and babies and childcare fell off. This could be because although they interest me in general, they are not areas of content that I consume for fun. They might be things I consume more in an educational capacity. Maybe I read blogs on tips to help me get my baby to sleep faster etc.

3. Which of these areas of interest would you actually like to write about?

Copywriting hacks, book publishing. Again, notice how the list got smaller as I applied another filter to it. This question is critical as it centers around the idea of you liking to write about something which, as you remember, is a crucial component of the 'ideal client contract'. In this example, while I may enjoy cooking tutorials related content- I recognize that I am not the best fit to create it. I don't want to write about the perfect way to sauté spinach- in fact, I know that having to do so would drive me crazy.

By applying this filter to your possible niches for your ideal client, you weed out all the areas that wouldn't fit. Doing this before you search for clients will save you so much aggravation and dread. You don't want to find yourself in the situation of being happy you got a client (yay) but frustrated that you now have to write about 'How to roast a leg of lamb' when all you would love to be writing about is 'How to get more copywriting clients'.

You've been there, done that. Now you want to write for clients that you like on topics that you like even more. So ask yourselves these questions and answer as honestly as you can. Remember, even if you've spent a great deal of time writing in a particular niche and have gotten very good at it, you may actually not like it. This may be a surprising revelation, but just give yourself permission to admit it and then search to find what you do like. It will be worth it.

4. Who needs this kind of copywriting?

Finally, once you've zeroed in on your perfect niche, it's time to identify what people or organizations work in this space because they are your pool of candidates for finding your ideal client. In the above example, this would look like searching for: writing coaches, authors, publishing houses, printing presses, writer blogs, etc. These are the groups in which you will begin your search to find your ideal client.

If you're able to be even more specific, you can narrow your list even further. For example, if you want to specifically write about copywriting and would really rather never have to write book reviews, then eliminate the publishing houses and printing presses, etc. Keep going until you have a solid list of possible clients that you feel confident would be looking for just the kind of writing you're (excitedly) looking to do.

To recap: You should now know what you want to write about (and how) and you should have a list of possible clients that would be looking for a copywriter to do just that. With that, you're now ready to first study your ideal client to create a profile before crafting the perfect pitch for them. Both of these topics will be covered in future posts so stay tuned for that.

Talk soon,

Nonjabulo

Manifestation: It's Not The Thing You Want, it's The Feeling of It.

When I first heard this I thought: No, it's the thing-it's definitely the thing that I want. I am 100% sure that I want the thing.

I want it so badly that I can feel it, touch it, and taste it in my mind...and I'm dying to feel it, touch it, and taste it in real life. I want it in front of me and that is the entire reason I'm doing any of this Law Of Attraction (LOA) stuff in the first place.

If this is how you currently feel, I get it. I've been there. And now I'm here, I've somehow managed to cross over to making that shift from 'what I really want is the manifestation' to 'what I really want is the feeling of it and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the manifestation is coming (but it doesn't really matter much anyway)'.

How can it "not matter anyway" I hear you ask, and the answer is simple though strange. Understanding the answer is how you make the shift, it's the piece that clicks it all into place.

Here's how I did it.

How Can The Manifestation Not Matter?

So back to the question. If the point of manifestation is to bring forth the things you want with joy and ease, how can the missing piece be for you to not care about actually bringing those things into your experience?

The answer is that it's all about the feeling of it. It's all about the feeling of whatever you want to manifest.

Everything that you want, regardless of what it is, is because you think you will feel better once you have it.

Test it out, imagine the thing you most desire- let's say for argument's sake that it's a brand new car. You know the exact model and make, you've even picked out the color- great. Now, imagine that you're sitting in this exact car and take note of how this feels, how it changes how you feel. More likely than not, once you really let yourself imagine being in the car (feeling the leather and inhaling that new car smell etc.), you start to feel really good.

You feel cooler, richer, more successful, perhaps you feel more sophisticated. It's impossible to know what exact emotional need such a desire would aim to fulfill for you, but in every case, it's better than what you felt like before you imagined having the car. You want the car to make you feel good.

Better yet, you want to feel good and you believe the car will do it. This is a better way to say it because it encapsulates the driving force behind all of manifestation. Swap out 'car' for whatever else you want: a new lover; a new job; more money; to live in Paris- and the basis remains the same. You want any one of these things because you believe that once you have/ do them, you will then be happy, or you'll feel better.

If this is the case, then you could simply choose to feel better now and the outcome will be the same as if you'd already had the manifestation.

You can just choose to feel happier, skinnier, healthier, richer, or more loved right now. By so doing, you then start to understand that when the manifestation does actually appear, from your experience- nothing would have changed because you already felt like you had it. If you spend some time feeling how wonderful it will be when you have your new car daily, you begin to match the vibration of having that car.

The LOA states 'that which is like unto itself, is drawn.'

This means that if you can hold this vibration for long enough, the universe has no choice but to bring to you all that matches it. This means that at some point, you will actually have this new car- provided you have no resistance against it. When you get the car, it will feel to you like absolutely nothing has changed because you have practiced the feeling of having it already for so long.

So because nothing changes for you in the way that you feel, you suddenly realize that in as much as the real-life manifestations are fun and exciting (of course), they don't actually matter.

Manifestations are a byproduct of your feeling state.

If you want more money and can feel like you have it right now, you have in essence achieved instant manifestation. Understanding this will allow you to live out your best life now. You can live as the best version of yourself today. You don't have to defer your happiness until 'X' happens.

This is the shift, this is the piece that allows you to enjoy every moment of your life. You'll enjoy every manifestation when it happens, certainly, but also all the time on the way to it.

This shift allows you to enjoy the journey. Not because you know that at the end of it is the thing you want, but because it all feels really good to you.

This also makes the process of manifesting easier. If the only reason you want to manifest anything is to feel good, then if you feel good right now you will be a match for all the things you want and that you've asked for. All you have to do is feel good. Get happy and have fun.

I think that sometimes, the process of manifestation can start to feel complicated and like work:

• did you spend enough time visualizing being in the new house you want

• did you visualize your partner's hand?

• did you script about the new job?

Understanding that the key objective behind any of the specific things you want is to simply feel happy, makes it easy to focus on what your part of the equation is.

Get Happy.

Get happy and the universe will give you experiences to match your vibration- and it already knows what you want so those experiences will be tailored to you. I also like this because it's easy to monitor- you know when you're not happy. So you can quickly identify when you're off track and fix it. If the conversation/ song/ tv program doesn't feel good to you- change it for something that does. It can really be that simple.

Take active control of your emotional state and see how quickly everything changes.

Feel good.

Nonjabulo

I Published a Book. Really. You can buy it and everything.

I'm certain this is one of the most exciting blog posts I'll ever write. Over the last few months, I've written a lot about writing as an art form, I've given advice on what to do and what pitfalls to avoid to achieve the goal of a completed manuscript. Today, I get to speak about my own completed manuscript and it's very, very exciting.

Perhaps the most exciting part is that I literally remember every stage of the very long process that it took to get here. I remember thinking of my title (always my first step because an exciting title gets me amped up enough to get through the first few chapters). I remember getting lost in the first draft, first excitedly crafting the characters, and then finally just urging myself to get through it. I remember revision, rewriting, and more revision. I remember letting my first reader (my husband) see it and gingerly awaiting his feedback.

I remember entering it for the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award and freaking out when it was longlisted. I remember the disappointment of not making the shortlist. After weeks of wallowing over the manuscript I was letting collect dust on my drive, I remember the tiny voice that said, 'Dude, you can publish this by yourself. And now there's a real, tangible book baby. Birthed through my late nights, deep laughs, and very real tears. The characters in this book are some of the realest people I know and it's my joy to share them with the world. Finally. I published this in August so it's taken me quite a while to do that. At first, I wanted to just celebrate it by myself and then later with a small inner circle. Then I suffered from imposter syndrome and all the while there was Covid-19 because...2020. It certainly has been a year, but I couldn't let it end without properly celebrating one of the greatest highlights it held for me. I PUBLISHED A BOOK!! And not just any book, a beautiful novel.

Related: Free Workbook: How To Plot Your Novel in 7 Days

I'm extremely proud of this book I hope you're moved to get it and read it.

'So what is this novel about?' I hear you asking from way over there. I'm glad you asked.

The Pots is an adult novel, centered around the coming of age story of sixteen-year-old Makhosi Mthethwa, whose typical village life in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is disrupted by her mother’s acquisition of a potter’s wheel. When her mother teaches herself how to use the wheel to make pots, Makhosi must help her fulfill her goal of selling them. The two will have to face Makhosi’s increasingly abusive father, who is threatened by his wife's potential independence. Makhosi will also have to confront her seemingly unbothered older brother as the turmoil builds in their home, in a society where male dominance is the norm. Mama must take all the shame and the abuse, her price to ensure that Makhosi pursues her education and has a different life, even as it kills her. As Mama slowly dies, the three of them must break past the stereotypes that have always governed them and figure out how to be a family without the glue that kept them together.

That is the exact blurb on the back of the book, a summary I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing and revising so I know I couldn't have possibly written it better than that. Outside of what's in the blurb, I'd say that The Pots is a story about family. It's a story about the intricate relationships within our homes, that define us if we let them. It's a story about courage and pushing past the boundaries of the norms that we've always known. It's about wanting better, imagining better, and striving for better even if you don't know what that looks like and have never been given any reason to hope for it. It's about sacrifice and ultimately, most importantly, it's about love. From the title, you can tell that it's centered around mothers and daughters (a theme I love), and that relationship is certainly pivotal in the story. I would even go so far as to say that The Pots is an ode to womanhood. Perhaps most interesting (and heartbreaking or upsetting) is the limitedness of that celebration of womanhood when the story is set within the confines of a patriarchal society. I enjoyed every character in this story and I am grateful for what they were able to bring to it.

If you're so inclined, you can buy the book here. Thank you to everyone who's bought, read, and shared feedback with me. It's difficult to articulate what it all means to me, just know that I truly appreciate all your support.

Sending you my best,

Noni