A BLOG FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

While I was writing the December and January articles for my column on An American Editor, I kept thinking about the worry that plagues some editorial business owners when promoting their businesses:
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• Worry that her efforts will be perceived as inappropriate (e.g. she wants to send chocolate to an independent author, but what if her client is allergic to it?)
• Worry that her efforts will be perceived as offensive (e.g. she wants to send a Christmas card to one of her project managers, but what if it turns out that he’s a Hindu?)
• Worry that her efforts will be perceived as unnecessary (e.g. she wants to send a printed promotional postcard to an institution, but what if its social responsibility policy means it runs a paperless office?)
• Worry that her efforts will be perceived as tacky (she wants to send a branded mug to a writer client, but what if he doesn’t like taking hot drinks in anything other than fine china?)
• Worry that her efforts will be perceived as unwelcome (she wants to send a letter and CV to the editorial manager of a project management agency, but what if the manager is really busy and her correspondence annoys him?)
• Worry that her efforts will make her look desperate (she wants to call up a particular publisher and ask to take their proofreading test, but what if the PM thinks that direct contact is indicative of a desperate and inexperienced newbie with no secure client base?)

This kind of worry can paralyse the freelancer to the point where she’s wary of doing any marketing at all in case her efforts are perceived negatively.

It’s good to self-promote
If you’re a self-conscious self-promoter, consider these basic facts:

• All businesses should have a marketing strategy
• All successful businesses do have a marketing strategy
• Clients expect skilled service providers to contact them
• If you don’t make yourself interesting and discoverable to potential clients, they won’t know that you can solve their problems
• People enjoy receiving well-planned, interesting materials and goods from relevant others

Perception versus reality
Let’s take a look at the six scenarios presented at the top of the article and consider the worrier’s worst fears against the reality of what will probably happen. The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself how you’d react if you were the recipient.

• The inappropriate gift: Imagine receiving chocolate from one of your clients. They send it to you as a thank-you for doing a tremendous job of editing their novel. You don’t like chocolate. Or you’re allergic to chocolate. Or you’re not eating chocolate at the moment because you’re trying to reduce your weight. What’s your response? Do you think: “Ugh. Thanks for nothing. That’s useless to me.” Or how about: “Oh, how utterly charming. That’s made my day! My work must really have made a difference, and there’s a good chance this client will want to work with me again. I’m going to give this chocolate to my partner – he loves chocolate!”
  
  Most recipients of gifts will appreciate the sentiment. If, after putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, you are still worried that your gift might offend, choose another gift. Common sense should prevail – T-shirts are unlikely to upset anyone, particularly if they are sourced locally, whereas underwear is a no-no.
  
  Most people like chocolate (or know someone who does), whereas other foodstuffs, such as meat, can be problematic. Alcohol is best avoided unless you know your client’s preferences. (See also Rich Adin’s “The Business of Editing: Thinking Holidays” for some good-sense guidance on gifting.)
  
  

• The offensive card: My 20+ years of working in publishing lead me to believe that this industry is populated by people who are open minded and ready to not just tolerate but actually celebrate difference.
  
  I suspect that most of our clients would accept with good grace a card with a message that didn’t match their own belief system. I certainly would. If I was in my customer’s shoes, I’d appreciate the fact that someone had taken the time to think about me.
  
  Common sense should prevail here, again, though. Why risk offending even one person when there are simple ways of getting around the problem? Keep your messages neutral when sending cards, unless you know your clients well. I think that most people will accept holiday cards in the spirit in which they were given, but no one will be offended by being offered sentiments such as “Season’s greetings”, “Peace and good health”, and “Happy holidays”.
  
  
• The unnecessary product: If you try your best to run a paperless office because you want to reduce the amount of trees that are felled to make paper products, what’s your response when you receive something made of paper? I do think that sustainable forestry is important, and most of my clients print their books and journals on paper that is certified by the UK’s Forest Stewardship Council, or recycled, or both.
  
  We can do the same with our marketing materials. If you’re worried about causing offence, take a little extra time to source your printed products from companies that are committed to sustainability.
  
  
• The tacky promotion piece: What would you do if you like your tea in Royal Doulton’s finest bone china cups, and a client sent you a branded mug? Would you say to yourself: “Yuck, how tacky. I won’t be putting my chai in that!”? Or would you once more be delighted that your client had thought about you, and taken the time and invested the money to send you this mug?
  
  Me, I’m happy to drink tea in a mug, but even if I wasn’t I’d be chuffed to bits with the gift and use it as a pen holder!
  
  
• The unwelcome communication: Imagine that a project management agency sends you an email asking you whether you're available to take on an indexing project for them. You’ve never worked for them before. Do you wonder at the cheek of this person for contacting you when you’re really busy? Or do you consider this an exciting opportunity and potential new work stream?
  
  The point here is that you’re being contacted by someone who can offer you something relevant – you need indexing work; they have indexing work. It’s the same the other way around – the agency needs indexers; you have indexing skills. If the communication is relevant to both parties, it’s not going to be unwelcome.
  
  If your potential client is busy, they might not respond quickly, but they won’t damn you for getting in touch in the first place.
  
  
• The desperate phone call: Imagine a publisher calls you and asks you whether you'd like to complete their proofreading test. Would you assume that they must be really desperate to acquire new freelancers, otherwise why on earth would they be interested in you?
  
  That certainly wouldn't be my perception. I'd assume that the PM had seen my website, or I'd been referred to them by a fellow publishing professional, or they'd found my details in an editorial directory, and that they were impressed by what they saw and wanted to add me to their bank of editorial suppliers.
  
  Organizations that hire editorial freelancers on a regular basis are always looking to expand their bank of suppliers. Their production schedules can be punishing and they don't want to incur delays simply because they can't easily source the skills they need.
  
  During your conversation with them, you can pitch the fact that you have the experience necessary to solve their problems. You'll look like someone who knows what your skills are and why these are relevant to the client, and is able to make business-centred decisions about who you want to work for. That's not desperation; that's professionalism.
  
  

In all of the above scenarios, the worry is unfounded because either (1) the worrier’s view on how their promotional efforts will be perceived is unlikely to match the reality of how the recipient will respond, or (2) there is a way of tweaking the approach that will resolve the problem.  

A final reminder ...
If you’re a self-conscious self-promoter, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself whether your worries are founded on myth or reason. Remind yourself of the following:

• All businesses should have a marketing strategy
• All successful businesses do have a marketing strategy
• Clients expect skilled service providers to contact them
• If you don’t make yourself interesting and discoverable to potential clients, they won’t know that you can solve their problems
• People enjoy receiving well-planned, interesting materials and goods from relevant others

Even if you still feel worried, promote your business anyway. None of the targets of your marketing will know that you’re fretting.

​They won’t see your hand shake as you place your leaflet and CV in the mailbox; they won’t know that your nerves nearly made you drop that branded mug; they won’t see your red face when they open your sustainably printed, neutrally messaged holiday card.

They’ll be too busy with doing their jobs, reading your letter, evaluating your CV, marking your test, pinning up your flyer, or fighting with their colleagues over the chocolate you sent!

Wrong and right aren’t words I’m particularly comfortable with when it comes to marketing, given how many different approaches we can take. Nevertheless, there are four basic mistakes that should be avoided when launching an editorial business.

Mistake 1: Not actually doing any marketing
Here are three ideas that I think it’s important to embrace when launching an editorial business:

• All businesses should have a marketing strategy
• All successful businesses do have a marketing strategy
• If you don’t make yourself interesting and discoverable to potential clients, they won’t know that you can solve their problems

Let’s say that I’ve completed the relevant training, acquired the kit I need, worked out who my target clients are, notified the tax authorities of my business plans, acquired some experience via my mentor, designed my stationery templates, created my accounting spreadsheet, and hired a professional designer to produce a fabulous logo.

Now I need the clients. That means they need to be able to find me and I need to be able to find them. If ne’er the twain meet, I’m unemployed. Being discoverable is the first step to the success of any business, editorial or otherwise, because it bridges the gap between the services we offer and the people who need them.

The second step is being interesting enough to retain the potential customer’s attention. Having found us, our potential clients need to feel they want to go further and actually hire us to solve their problems.

If you’re an inexperienced marketer, and feel nervous about the process, take a look at the following:

• the marketing archive here on my blog
• Rich Adin’s marketing archive on An American Editor
• KOKEdit’s Copyeditors’ Knowledge Base, especially the article Marketing Tips for Freelancers
• my book Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business (there’s a sample marketing plan in the final section to guide you)

No matter how much the thought of actively promoting your editorial business sends shivers up your spine, to not do so is a mistake. Marketing your business gives you opportunity and choice. It puts you in a position where, over time, you can develop the client base, pricing strategy, service portfolio and income stream that you require and desire.

Mistake 2: Marketing via a single platform
Relying on only one particular channel to make yourself discoverable to your customers is better than not doing any marketing at all. But it’s hugely risky – if that platform fails, so do you.

One of my most valuable marketing assets is my website. It’s my shop front and it’s the only space in which I have complete control over the content and design. I’ve put a lot of effort into SEO so I rank highly in the search engines.

I use Weebly as my host. But what if the folks at Weebly ran into some horrendous problem and the site was inaccessible for a few days, or even a few weeks? It’s unlikely to happen, but even if it did it wouldn’t be catastrophic because I don’t rely solely on my website for work leads. It’s simply one tool among several.

Another scenario is more likely. Imagine I used to work for a major academic publisher. Now that I’ve launched my new editorial business, I ask a former colleague who works in the journal production department if I can proofread for them. They agree. The publisher has a huge journal list and my colleague keeps me busy with as much proofreading as I need.

I don’t solely work for this press (here in the UK, HM Revenue & Customs wouldn’t like that) but it the provider of my primary income stream. Then double disaster strikes – the press merges with a competitor, and my colleague is made redundant.

He gets a job for another press, though his new role no longer requires him to hire editorial freelancers. I don’t know anyone in the newly merged organization (though rumour has it they’re taking journal proofreading in-house in order to cut costs) and my colleague can’t take me with him to his new press. I’m scuppered.

Even if you’ve been able to establish a couple of apparently stable and lucrative work streams, and you’ve found that one particular marketing platform or tool works well for you, take the time to investigate other channels.

At the very least they’ll provide you with a backup. Moreover, by experimenting with new avenues, you may find that customers whom you’d been invisible to beforehand are now placing you on their radar. That means more opportunities and more choices.

Mistake 3: Focusing attention in the wrong place
Some new entrants to the field can make the mistake of giving information that focuses potential clients’ attention in the wrong place.

Focus on stand-out statements: Imagine a well-educated material scientist who’s decided, for health reasons, to move out of the professional lab and work from home, copy-editing written materials relevant to his scientific educational and career background.

• He’s a new entrant to the field of professional editing
• He doesn’t have an extensive client list or portfolio
• He has yet to acquire any paid work, though he has edited (on a gratis basis) two engineering theses for students he met through is workplace. He’s also edited and contributed a significant number of reports and papers, and been involved with the boards of several industry-recognized journals
• He’s in the middle of a comprehensive copy-editing training course run by a recognized national provider
• He considers advertising the fact that he can offer lower rates because he’s in the early stages of developing his editorial business

His clients don’t need to know most of the above because most of those facts don’t represent him in the best light. Instead, he should focus on his stand-out qualities:

• He specializes in solving the writing problems of students, academics and professional institutions
• He has a BSc in Chemistry, an MChem in Chemistry with Nanotechnology, and a twenty-year career background in material science
• His extensive scientific knowledge and experience enable him to copy-edit papers, books, journal articles and reports to an industry-required standard
• He has contributed to and edited numerous reports for colleagues in his twenty-year career
• He has published articles in Nano Today, Chemistry of Materials, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, and Materials Research Bulletin, and sat on the boards of The Journal of Materials Science (2003–2009) and Materials Today (2009–2012)
• His rates are in line with those suggested by the Society for Editors and Proofreaders [or other professional editorial society] and the National Union of Journalists [or other recognized body]

If what you say doesn’t sell your business in a way that makes you interesting because it shows how you can solve clients' problems, recast your message.

If you lack experience and an extensive portfolio, focus instead on positive selling points that make the customer feel confident about hiring you to solve their problems.

Our message needs to focus on the skills we have to offer, not those we’ve yet to acquire.

Sell your positives, not others’ negatives: It’s also imperative that your message does indeed focus on what you have to offer. Just case you are one of the few people on the planet who thinks that focusing on a competitor’s or colleague’s mishaps rather than your own skills is a good marketing strategy (I’m sure you’re not!), then this is a quick reminder that it’s disastrous in terms of PR. Why?

1. Pointing out a competitor’s foibles focuses the client’s attention on the competitor’s business rather than your own.
2. Such an approach destroys integrity, which leads to a lack of trust. And if they don’t trust you, they won’t hire you. We need to make ourselves interesting and visible rather than trying to make our competitors look incompetent and unworthy of discovery.

You might enjoy this article by Lauren Bacon, who considers the benefits for business owners who move away from critical thought processes (as well as actions), and turn instead towards a what-can-I-learn approach: ‘How Trashing Others Holds You Back.’

Mistake 4: Ignoring traditional marketing methods
Before Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, editorial professionals had to promote their businesses using telephone and postal services, face-to-face meetings, and onsite networking groups.

These methods worked then, and they still work now – don’t make the mistake of ignoring them in the belief that they’re out-dated.

Social media profiles, websites, and emails are all excellent and immediate ways to make yourself discoverable. However, from the client’s point of view they are as easy to discard as they are to access, precisely because they are digital methods of contact.

A cleverly designed postcard can be tacked onto a wall; a targeted CV and covering letter can be read anywhere, even if there’s no internet connection, and held on file; a well-thought-out gift pack will be appreciated, talked about and used; and a business card can all be retained in a wallet, purse or card deck.

I’ve addressed in more detail the benefits of letter writing on the SfEP blog (‘Don’t forget the ‘old’ ways: marketing via letter writing‘), and I’ve discussed custom card-giving here on AAE (‘The Proofreader’s Corner: Giving Your Business Promotion the Personal Touch‘). See also Rich Adin’s ‘The Business of Editing: Thinking Holidays‘, an excellent guide to gifting.

Balancing immediacy and permanence is key to a well-rounded marketing strategy. By using a mixture of the two, you will enhance your visibility and spike your customer’s interest.
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Summing up

• Even if you’re nervous about the idea of actively promoting your business, don’t avoid it – make yourself discoverable to your clients so that, over time, you provide yourself with opportunities and choice.
• Use a variety of channels to cover your back. That way you’ll minimize the chances of unexpectedly, and through no fault of your own, being without a work stream.
• Make yourself interesting to your clients by drawing their attention to your business – the key skills and knowledge that you possess to help them solve their problems; the things about you that differentiate you, that make you stand out.
• Use a combination of traditional and digital marketing tools so that your promotional campaigns have both immediacy and permanence.

 

Those of you with whom I'm connected on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will have seen my sharing of several posts written in the past few months by my colleague, technical writer John Espirian, on the Espirian blog. 

I follow a number of editorial blogs, though I haven't added all of them to my blogroll because I need to keep the list manageable. I've added this one, however, because it offers me something a little different. 

I like technology because, when it works, it allows me to run my business more easily, more productively, and more efficiently. I like reading advice about digital editorial tools (such as macros, markup stamps, and Word shortcuts), and I particularly like it when someone helps me to understand things that I'd previously considered beyond my technical know-how. 

I'm a non-techie person who likes techie things but is sometimes wary of using them because I don't have the time or inclination to take them on unless someone can spell it out for me in my language! This is the niche that Espirian is filling.
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• Does HTML get you in a muddle? Part 1 in the series (Anatomy of an HTML page) explains the basics in language that any editorial business owner can follow. Future posts will introduce further elements, and the author has promised to guide us through some interesting applications of our newly acquired knowledge once he's covered the basics.
• Having problems with an unstable internet connection? The advice offered in Powerline provides a simple solution that I've tried and tested myself.
• Need a user-friendly solution to building a business website? Espirian offers guidance on doing so using WordPress, SquareSpace and Weebly. 
• Confused by ISPs and favicons? There's some solid and easy-to-digest guidance on offer.
• Want to know how to get the best out of LinkedIn? John has mastered the art of building business networks and generating leads via this platform.
  

Louise Harnby is a fiction line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in supporting self-publishing authors, particularly crime writers. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) and an Author Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

​Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.