FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

Your editing website is your shop front. It’s the one online space you control – your land – and so it must work hard for you. Here are 3 things you can do quickly to make it function better.

In this post, I’ll show you 3 things you can do quickly to improve the way a visitor experiences every web page on your site. We’ll look at the following:

> Navigation buttons
> Paragraph headings
> ​Short paragraphs

Being able to navigate a site is key to a good user experience. Buttons signal the delivery of a promise: learn this, go there, download that.

Imagine you’re in a huge, multi-storey department store. Buttons are like the floor plan near the escalator that tells you what’s where. 

Make buttons consistent
Check that your buttons are a consistent colour. That way you’re training visitors to understand that there’s something at the end of the click.

A contrasting hover colour signals that the button is active, that it can be engaged with.

Help people find stuff!
Don’t assume your visitors know where to go, or that they’ll go where you want them to go.

Check every page on your website. Can you add buttons that will make your visitor’s journey easier and that tell them what you'd like them to do?

People are busy and might not have time to trawl through text. Buttons stand out, which means they’re scannable. Use them to help the visitor:
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> Get to another page
> Get to another section on the same page
> Access a resource
> Get in touch with you

Include a meaningful call to action
A button that’s easy to spot is half the job done. The other half is about meaningful messaging. GO HERE, EMAIL ME, CLICK HERE, GET IN TOUCH aren’t always the best signals for a roving eye, particularly on longer pages with multiple purposes.

Experiment with calls to action that chime with the delivery of a promise I mentioned above. For example: TAKE ME TO THE LIBRARY, TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR SERVICES.

Let’s return to our department store. We’ve found the right floor. Now we need to locate the items. H2 headings are the signs hanging above each aisle that say: This is what you’ll find here.

H2 headings are superb visual indicators because they’re scannable.

Check every page on your website. If there are paragraphs that introduce new information but there’s no summary, add an H2 heading.

Make your headings relevant
Busy visitors who are scanning a web page for clues to how it can help them need indications that they’re in the right place.

Headings should be relevant to the text they’re sitting on top of. They should tell the reader exactly why it’s worth investing time in reading the paragraph.

Don’t assume your busy visitor has a sense of humour! A witty paragraph heading that doesn’t stand alone and explain what’s in the text below it is of no use. Boring trumps funny every day of the week!

Offer solutions or ask questions
To solve the boring problem, create headings that signal specific solutions or ask questions that are likely to match a visitor’s query.

Compare the heading The time frame with How long will editing take? The former requires the visitor to ask themselves: What time frame? The latter pre-empts the question.

Solutions and questions will bring the scanning to a halt. That’s where engagement begins. Now you’ve got their attention. 

Back to the department store. If the buttons are like the floor plan, and the headings are the aisle signs, then short paragraphs on our web pages are like neatly arranged shelves. 

Visitors are more likely to engage with what’s on those shelves when there’s space between each item.

The alternative is rummaging. Busy people want to get their information fast. Short paragraphs help them do that. They’re also far more visually appealing.

Are people accessing your website via mobile?
If walls of text are off-putting on a desktop, they’re impenetrable on a phone. 

Do you know how many of your website’s visitors are accessing your site via mobile devices? Google Analytics is free and will give you this information. I can tell you that a third of my visitors use a tablet or phone. A third! 

I can also tell you that my mobile engagement has doubled in percentage terms since 2013. Offering a good user experience therefore means attending to mobile users' needs.
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With that in mind, do all of your visitors a favour and break up text into visually digestible blocks of no more than 3–4 lines on each of your web pages. It’s one of the fastest and easiest design improvements to implement!

Review the buttons, headings and paragraph length on every page of your website.
Each fix can be implemented in under 24 hours, and none require technical know-how.
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More important is the impact on your visitors. The better their experience, the more they’re likely to stick around. That means you’re serving them and your business!

By the time you're done, you'll know how to build an effective web presence!

And take a look at these freebies:

> Library of resources for editors
> How to minimize cancellations and non-payment for editing services
> How to create an amazing portfolio
> 8 reasons to create a learning centre

Audio content has never been more popular. Publishers recognize this; so do independent authors. Here’s a list of tips and tools for freelance editors and proofreaders who’d like to introduce audio content into their business workflow and amplify their editorial voices – literally!

5 advantages of audio
Here are my top 5 reasons why I think audio is a superb tool for the editor or proofreader who wants to use audio as a marketing and business tool.

2 pieces of kit
Contrary to what a lot of people think, you don't need a lot of expensive and difficult-to-use kit. Assuming you already have a computer, here's what you'll need to get hold of.

3 ways to record
Recording audio content needn't cost you a single penny. Here are three resources you can use. You might even have two of them already.

3 ways to host
Here are three hosting options to consider. There's something for everyone – whether you want to keep your costs down while you experiment or you want to go full on in to audio content creation.

6 ways editors can use audio
One of the reasons why I love audio is that it's versatile. If marketing makes you nervous, think of how you might use your voice as a business or educational tool. Below are six things you could try.

5 ways to make audio interesting
Here are five ideas to help you add a cherry on your audio cake! None of them will cost you a bean!

Listen up! Audio content is now showing up in search engines. Editors and proofreaders who use it to solve problems and engage with clients and colleagues will increase awareness about themselves and the profession they love.

Fancy learning how to do this step by step? Me and my brilliant podcasting partner Denise Cowle are creating a course that will show you the way. It’s called The Audible Editor. Watch this space!

[An earlier version of this post was originally published on The Editors’ Weekly, the official blog of Canada’s national editorial association.]

Related marketing and audio resources

• 5 ways to use audio for book marketing and reader engagement
• Beyond editing qualifications: Gaining author trust
• Branding for editors and proofreaders – beyond me-me-me
• How to become a better editor while secretly promoting your business
• How to go mobile with audio: Book-editor podcasting on the go
• Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business
• Overcoming marketing paralysis: How to turn overwhelm into action
• The Editing Podcast

Three questions for you:

1. Do you hate marketing, or at least dislike it?
2. How about editing or proofreading. That’s your job. Do you like it?
3. What about learning how to do your job better? Those courses you take, books you read, and conferences you attend – do you enjoy those?

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​If the answer to all three is yes, you’re in marketing heaven!

I’m not kidding you. If you love learning about how to do your job better, and are prepared to make time in your business schedule for this continued professional development (CPD), you have at your fingertips all the marketing tools you need.

Here’s another question:

Do you think there comes a point when you’ve learned all there is to learn about being a better editor?

If you answered no to that, you’re in even better shape from a marketing point of view because you will never run out of ideas to connect with your target client.

And here’s another question:

Do you think you have no time in your schedule to learn how to become a better editor?

If you answered yes, you need to make time. Every editor needs to continue learning. Our business isn’t static. New tools, resources and methods of working are a feature of our business landscape. Language use changes as society’s values shift. Markets expand and retract, which requires a response from us in terms of how we make ourselves visible.
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If you answered no, that’s great news because it means you have time for marketing. I know – you don’t like marketing. But that’s fine because we’re not calling it marketing. We’re calling it CPD, which you do like!

Making time for business
Everyone who knows me knows I love marketing my editing business. Lucky me – it’s much easier to do something necessary when you enjoy it.

What a lot of people don’t get is how I make time for it and how I get myself in the mindset to devote that time to it.

I don’t have a problem with calling it marketing. But the truth is that so much of the marketing I do is not about marketing; it’s about communicating what I’ve researched and learned.

I love line and copyediting crime fiction. I think I’m really good at it. But I don’t think I’ve learned everything there is to learn. Not for a single minute.

That leaves me with stuff to do. I have to learn.

So off I go to various national editorial societies’ websites. I head for their training pages. I look for courses that will teach me how to be a better crime-fiction editor.
There aren’t any.

I turn to Google. Plenty of help for writers, but not specifically for editors. That’s fine.
And so here’s what I’ve done: read books about crime writing, and attended workshops, author readings, and crime-writing festivals (I live a stone’s throw away from the National Centre for Writing and the annual Noirwich festival). And I’ve continued to read a ton of crime fiction.

And to help me digest what I’ve learned, I’ve taken notes along the way. It’s what I’ve done all my life when I’m learning – O levels (as they were called in my day), A levels, my degree … notes, notes and more notes.
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How much time has it taken? Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been having too much fun. I love reading; I don’t count the hours I spend doing it. How long did the author event last? I’ve no clue. My husband and I had dinner afterwards though, so it was like a date. And it would have been rude to look at my watch.

Is it a blog post?
I wrote a blog post recently about planning when writing crime. I couldn’t churn out 2,000 words just like that; I’m not the world’s authority on the subject.

So I referred to my notes from the event with a famous crime writer (the one where I had a dinner date with hubby). Turns out the guy talked about planning, and told us about his and a fellow crime writer’s approach to the matter. I reread a chapter from a book on how to write crime and found additional insights there. More notes. I read 14 online articles about plotting and pantsing too. Yet more notes.

And then I put all those notes together, which really helped me to order my thoughts. I created a draft. Redrafted. Edited it. And sent it to my proofreader. Soon I'll publish it and share it in various online spaces.

It’ll be on my blog and on the dedicated crime writing page of my website. Some people might call it content marketing. And it is, sort of, because it helps beginner self-publishers work out when they will attend to the structure of their crime fiction – either before they start writing, or after.

From that point of view, it is useful, shareable, problem-solving content, which is a perfectly reasonable definition of content marketing.

Or is it CPD?
But look at it another way. I learned a lot of things I didn’t know before. I can use that knowledge to make me a better editor.

I took notes and drafted those notes into an article. This is no different to what I did at least once a week at university. I wasn’t marketing then; I was learning.
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What is different is that no one but my professor was interested in my article. That’s not the case for my planning piece. That article will help some self-publishers on their writing journey. A few might just decide to hire me to line or copyedit for them.
It’s happened before. Maybe it will happen again tomorrow, or next month, or next year. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter – the article will stay on my site for as long as it’s relevant.

Change your language
If the idea of marketing your business leaves you feeling overwhelmed, rethink the language you use to describe what’s required.

You probably don’t consider attending an editorial conference a marketing activity, even though it might lead to referrals. It’s more likely you think of it as a business development and networking opportunity.

You probably don’t consider a training course to be marketing. It’s more likely you think of it as editorial education.

You probably don’t consider reading a book about the craft of writing to be marketing. It’s more likely you consider it knowledge acquisition.
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So how about this?

• Pick up a book, attend a course, watch a webinar, complete a tutorial – whatever you think will teach you how to be a better editor and do a better job for your clients. This is training.
• Make notes based on that research. This is embedding knowledge.
• Turn those notes into something readable, just like when you were at school or uni. This is writing an essay.
• Place that essay somewhere other than your teacher’s in-tray. Like a blog or somewhere on your website where a potential client might learn from it too. This is publishing research.
• Now use social media to drive awareness about that essay. It’s a kind of open-access thing … just like the academics do. This is sharing subject knowledge.

Training, embedding knowledge, writing essays, publishing research, sharing subject knowledge. Smashing stuff. Nicely done.

And between you and me, it’s great content marketing too. But, shh, let’s keep that quiet. I know you don’t like marketing.

Make your marketing about your editing
If you don’t like marketing, maybe that’s because the kind of marketing you’re doing isn’t likeable. In that case, think about what you do like about running your business, and make those things the pivot for your marketing. [Click to tweet]

In other words, it doesn’t need to be about choosing between marketing your editing business and learning to be a better editor, but about the former being a consequence of the latter. Two birds. One stone.

Me? I’m off to read the latest Poirot. Just for fun, mind you!

Here's how to organize your best proofreading and editing resources so that they're visible and usable to your ideal clients.

Learning centres for proofreaders and editors
I have two learning centres on my website, one for authors and one for editors.

Each topic has an image. Clicking on that picture takes the visitor to a section further down on the page that contains useful relevant content. Maybe it's a blog post, a Word file, a PDF booklet, a video, podcast or an Excel spreadsheet.

Most of that stuff is on my blog too, so why did I create dedicated pages to curate it? Here are my 8 reasons:

1. Learning centres help visitors find your useful stuff
It's much easier for a visitor to navigate from one resource to another when you offer clearly titled images in one place than it is to find what you want in a search bar or blog archive.

And if they get distracted, it’s easy to start the content review process all over again back in the centre. That might not be so easy if they’re on a 7-year-old blog with several hundred articles on it, especially if the ones they want to read sit in different subject- or month-archives.

Your visitor can also bookmark a learning centre on your site. They can’t do that with a list of results generated by your search bar. They can probably bookmark an archive, but that will only show the first article or two on your blog, not a chunk of your core resources at a glance.

2. Learning centres keep your visitors on your site for longer because there’s more to engage with
The more goodies you offer visitors, the greater their engagement. That’s good for obvious reasons – you’re helping your clients, showing them you’re engaged with their problems, and are willing and able to solve them.

But there’s another important reason. The longer someone sticks around on your site, the more likely they are to hire your editorial services.

It’s no surprise, really – I don’t stick around in a high-street shop, desperately trying to find that one thing I want, if the overall feel of the place and the products it’s selling don’t feel like me. But if I keep finding things that grab my attention, I’m much more likely to walk out of the door with something nice.

Editorial websites are no different. If your learning centre makes potential clients drool because you’re offering them a lot of free, helpful, valuable content, if it makes them feel that you get them, and that you’re a good fit for each other, you have a much higher chance of persuading that person to ask for a quote or a sample edit/proofread.

3. Learning centres reinforce your brand
Learning centres are perfect for reinforcing your brand identity because you can create a uniform look and feel by theming your images with consistent brand colours, fonts, and design.

Include a few lines of text at the top to explain who your resources are for, and what problems they’ll solve – your mission, so to speak.
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Here’s a partial sample of the image in my author resources page.

​And here's a partial shot of John Espirian's library. John's learning centre has a very different feel to it, and so it should. His brand identity is built around a different set of skills, services and target clients.

4. Learning centres demonstrate your expertise and arouse clients’ emotions
With a learning centre. you can offer a chunk of accessible information that solves multiple problems. That presents you as an expert who sees the big picture.

It’s not a labyrinthine process of discovery that involves extensive scrolling or putting the right keywords into a search box. Rather, you hit them in the heart with a message that you’re on their side and have their backs.

It’s about arousing powerful emotions. In episode 3 of Content Mavericks, pro content marketers Andrew and Pete argue that high-arousal messages like awe, excitement, relief, and love are much more likely to generate engagement than lower-arousal messages like contentment. ‘When we care we share … Figure out a way to make people care about your message or your offering.’

If your learning centre can generate excitement in your potential client – make them feel that they’ve found an editor or proofreader who’s completely on their wavelength, someone who’s demonstrably in touch with their struggles, and is offering resolution – that’s a powerful message.

And it’s one that’s more likely to get your visitors telling others about who you are and what you’re up to, and have them clicking the Contact button.
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5. Eye candy
I cherish my blog. I’ve lovingly filled it with articles on a weekly (mostly) basis since 2011. But things can get messy. There’s a sidebar with a subscription button, an RSS button, a search box, an archive by subject area, an archive by date, some links to my books, and more.

Plus, I love to write meaty posts. Most of my articles are at least 1,500 words long. And while I do include images and header stamps that summarize what’s included in each post, there’s an awful lot of text.

That’s not all. There’s a lot of scrolling to do if someone wants to glimpse what’s available on one page of the blog. A learning centre is much easier on the eye and allows my author visitors to see at a glance what’s on offer.

6. Segmentation
Back in the day when I worked exclusively for publishers, my blog posts were aimed at my colleagues. These days I work exclusively for indie authors, and now I’m creating content for them, too. So I have two audiences, and two types of content. It’s about a 50–50 split.

Creating learning centres helps me to segment my website so that the right people can find the relevant content. This is particularly important for my author audience because most of them don’t yet know me. They’re less likely to bounce around in my blog, diving from one archive to another in a bid to find what they need.

Many of my colleague visitors do know me, at least in an online capacity. And so they have a little more patience because I’ve already built a trusting relationship with them. They’re more likely to spend time rooting around the blog for what they want. Still, I've created an editor resources page for them because I want them to find stuff easily.

Show off what you’ve got planned
What if you have a ton of great stuff in your head or on a to-do list? Perhaps it's already in production, out with the proofreader, or scheduled for publication sometime in the next few months. None of that stuff is visible on your blog.

Your blog only tells people about what’s available. What’s coming might be equally appealing. They might be more likely to get in touch if they can see exciting things in the pipeline. In that case, upload an image with a 'forthcoming' caption.

​8. Learning centres encourage ‘you’re worth it’ moments
Certainly, a great resource library will increase the likelihood of your visitor hitting the contact button, but not everyone will be ready to make that commitment.

That’s why building a mailing list is a great way to keep in touch with potential clients who are thinking: I’m interested in you and like what you’re doing, but I’m not quite at the point where I’m ready to hire you as my editor or proofreader.

Still, it seems like everyone and their aunt has a mailing list or newsletter these days. And if you’re going to persuade someone to allow yet another email into their already crowded inbox, and make them want to actually open it, displaying a library of gorgeous resources might just be the tipping point – the thing that makes them think you’re worth it.
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Make sure your hub includes a way of signing up to your mailing list, and a clear call to action that tells the visitor what you want them to do, and why.

Summing up
Make your wonderful editorial content easy to access. Whether it’s a blog, a vlog, a podcast, or something else, help your potential clients navigate their way around your resources and show them all the marvellous stuff on offer.

Tell them who and what it’s for – how it helps, which problems it solves.

And make sure it's designed uniformly (Canva is your free friend – trust me!) so that the resources look like they're part of a stable. That way it’s not a hotchpotch of stuff; it’s valuable, client-focused content that represents you, your editorial business, your professional values, and your mission – your brand identity.

Pro small-business marketers Andrew and Pete discuss the power of video marketing for editors and proofreaders.

When Louise asked us to write a guest blog for proofreaders, we thought to ourselves: ‘Editors, they love words, right? Hmm ... we know ... why don’t we write a blog about why they should all stop writing stuff and start creating videos instead?’

WHAT. A. GREAT. IDEA.

Deep breath ...

... Here we go. 

Should you all start video marketing?
Excusing the dramatics at the start of this article, let’s talk seriously for a moment about why video marketing can’t be ignored when it comes to marketing your proofreading business.

We aren’t saying stop writing, period. We do think blogging should be a key part of your marketing mix, but our aim in this article is to make the case for bringing some elements of video into your content marketing strategy.

Remember, you may like to write, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how all your customers want to consume their content.

Reason number 1: Consumers are switching to video content
With faster internet connection both at home and on mobile, video content has been opened up to the masses, and more and more people are turning to video content over written blogs.

This may be the case for you, too! Think about how many videos you’ve watched online in the past 7 days compared to the amount of blogs you’ve read.

Chances are the former is higher; and if it’s not, you’re in the minority here.

Why is this happening? Well, other than the tech allowing it in the modern world, people are becoming highly trained multi-taskers. We’re used to triple or quadruple screening with our devices – watching TV while checking our phones, scrolling through Facebook on our tablets, and maybe even taking a fourth glance at the smart watches on our wrists.

A lot of the content we’re consuming is video because, actually, it’s less effort. Reading generally requires our full focus on 1 screen.

In fact – especially on social – video is being watched with the sound off more often than with it on! Crazy, right? (Rev.com is your best friend for subtitling, btw.)

So, if we want to get people’s attention, if we want to educate them, entertain them, or even SELL to them, video is the best way to get that all-important attention. At least today, anyway.

​Reason number 2: Video builds trust, something that’s lacking
Once we have the attention, the next thing we need is trust.

In 2015, we attended talk by our marketing hero Seth Godin, who painted the picture of the modern business landscape.
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He argued that the businesses that are going to win are the ones with attention and trust. 

Trust is lacking nowadays. It’s never been easier to start a business – the internet has allowed for that.

We’re sure you’re running a legitimate business, but there’s no denying the number of charlatans out there as well as the people who – let’s be honest – have no clue what they’re doing.

But all you need is a website and BOOM! you’re in business.

Because of this, trust is falling … fast. People don’t really know if you’re an experienced proofreader, if this is your first time at the rodeo, if you’re doing this to put yourself through an English degree, or even whether English is your first language. We have to earn that trust before somebody parts with their cash.

Yes – nice websites can do this, as can client testimonials, a nice logo and an about page that says you’ve been doing this since Andrew and Pete were in diapers.

But if you want to go from being a stranger, or a faceless logo, to earning trust to the extent that somebody will actually hire you, video wins the day.

Why? Because people still trust a friendly face.

Add a face to your brand and you’re getting somewhere. Add a talking face and you’ve hit the money.

Let’s be honest – we need to know, like and trust our proofreader. If we don’t, we might as well check our own stuff.
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But if you can show your expertise and let people get to know you through video, you speed up that know–like–trust factor tenfold.

​Reason number 3: It can be a more effective way to communicate
Marketing is basically communication.

Whether we’re looking at blogs, home pages, print, sales copy – whatever – we want to communicate a message in the most efficient way possible, and in a way that people remember.

Video allows for that.

Studies have shown that on average people remember 20% of what they see; or 30% of what they hear, BUT A WHOPPING 70% of what they see and hear!

​It seems a lot but it makes sense when you think about. 

​Reason number 4: Social media marketing and video are a match made in heaven
Being a proofreader, you can work from wherever you like, at whatever time you like – whether that’s the cupboard under your stairs or a beach in the Seychelles.

Because of that, you can’t ignore using social media to find clients and network with people all over the world.

The majority of the social networks are pushing users towards video, and because of this they’re giving preference to it in feeds. You’ll see a significant increase in reach online when using video content natively on a platform, compared to links or plain-text updates.

Side note: ‘natively’ means uploading the video direct to that platform, rather than linking to, say, a YouTube video or similar.

The only exception is the classically late-to-the-party LinkedIn, where video can’t be uploaded natively, yet (for the general user at least). We’d place bets on them catching up soon.
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Video comes in different formats depending on the platform. Whichever platform you’re focusing on, try adding video into the mix. 

Reason number 5: Stand out from the crowd and show your brand personality

Everybody wants their businesses to stand out from the competition, but only a few are willing to take the action to do something different. Video probably isn’t the norm for proofreaders, so it’s therefore a great way to stand out from the crowd and show your brand personality.

We’ve talked about trust and attention already, and this increases tenfold if you show some personality in your business.

We aren’t saying you have to be funny, or crazy, or unprofessional, but rather know what your brand personality is.

By the way, if you aren’t sure what we mean by brand personality, check out Creating a Brand Identity, a video we created ;) 

Once you know your brand personality, you have to show it! Yes, you can do this with the written word (we’d like to think this article gets across some of our personality), but oftentimes this can be much easier with video.
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So don’t go with the flow. Be different and you’ll get attention. 

Using video in your marketing
Okay, hopefully we’ve set the scene for incorporating some video into your marketing. The next thing is getting going with it.

The first thing people tend to jump to is the sales video – the videos for your home page, services page, about page, etc.

This is cool – you can create these to help people through the buying process – but we also want you to use video for content marketing.

Just like you might write blogs to educate, inspire or entertain, make videos for the same purpose. And, importantly, be consistent so that you build your brand awareness over time and max out the 5 reasons we covered earlier in this article.

Remember, just because you’re creating video it doesn’t mean that you can’t write as well. Feel free to embed your videos on your blog and write, too, like we do on the Andew and Pete blog.

Here are 3 main styles of video you could implement:
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1. The edited video. This is the classic. You shoot some footage, and then use a video editor to put it all together (btw, if you’ve bought a Smartphone in the past two years, the camera on it will be perfectly okay to use). Check out the HitFilm video tutorial; it's the free editing software we recommend.
2. Live video. This has become hot over the past few years. You can go live on Facebook, Twitter (Periscope), Instagram and YouTube and create video on the fly super quickly.
3. Stories. Another fairly new video format is the story. Popularised by Snapchat, but unashamedly ripped off by Facebook and Instagram, stories can be created on the fly, too, then downloaded and repurposed. Again – these are super easy to do.

You don’t have to do all three! Find out what works best for you, and stick with it!

Final thoughts
Thank for reading this article. We hope it’s got you thinking twice about using video. Our own marketing efforts improved significantly when we switched to video. Our only regret was not doing it sooner!

Let us know how you get on, and if you need any help don’t hesitate to ask.

Written by Andrew and Pete

Andrew and Pete run an award-winning content marketing company called Andrew and Pete, where they help small businesses builds brands people love.

They have been featured on Social Media Examiner, Huffington Post and Entrepreneur on Fire, and are the authors of The Hippo Campus and Content Mavericks. You can find out more about them at www.andrewandpete.com.

Here's why new freelance editors and proofreaders need to commit to marketing, rather than relying on word of mouth to grow their businesses.

In 'When one client isn’t enough – emergency marketing for editors and proofreaders', I offered an emergency marketing plan for proofreaders and editors who’d either lost their sole source of income or ended up in a situation where they were reliant on one client.

​The first stage of the marketing plan asked for a commitment to active marketing.

If you’re simply waiting for a solution to present itself, you’re merely involved. And that’s a very different proposition from being committed.

I love this quotation from Martina Navratilova:

Editorial freelancers, especially new starters, need to be the ham. Committing to marketing as soon as we set up our businesses ensures that we’ll never be client-reliant or, worse, lose our sole source of income.

Acquiring work: commitment versus involvement
Involved: being passive
Most experienced editorial freelancers take advantage of passively acquired work. I have a number of repeat clients who fill some of my schedule.

If you’re highly visible, experienced, trusted and respected, this strategy could well be effective for you. For the new entrant to the field, though, it’s a non-starter.

That’s because these opportunities are a consequence of active marketing.

Passively acquired work might come through a variety of channels. Here, for simplicity, I’ve focused on three:

1. Referrals
2. Repeat work
3. Online profiles (e.g. social media, directories and your website)

Committed: being active
​Active marketing is the work you do to generate these passive opportunities. Here, again, I’ve focused on three:

A. Networking with colleagues and clients (e.g. on editing forums, at conferences, professional society meetings, social media platforms). This kind of marketing leads to an awareness of what your specialist skills are. If a colleague needs to direct a client or prospect to someone with skills or availability that he or she doesn’t have, you’ll be in the running (see 1, above).

B. Cold-calling and writing letters/emails to target clients (e.g. publishers, packagers, businesses, marketing agencies). This is direct marketing and if you do it extensively you can quickly build a solid list of similar client types. If the clients are satisfied with the work, they’ll rehire you, which leads to repeat work (see 2, above).

C. Just creating online profiles in itself is not enough to make you discoverable. Action that maximizes the visibility of those profiles in the search engines is key. This is where content marketing comes to the fore – creating and distributing (via your online platforms) advice, knowledge, tools and resources that your colleagues and clients will find useful, valuable. Examples include blogs, booklets, video tutorials, checklists and cheat sheets. High-quality content offers solutions to problems and makes your online profiles more findable (see 3, above).

In a nutshell, being active enables you to reap passive rewards later (if your office buddy will give you the space, that is).

Why word of mouth (WOM) is often misunderstood
‘But my colleague said that all her work is via word of mouth.’

I don’t doubt it. But if she’s been running her business for 20 years and has a portfolio and client list as long as your arm, she’s not in the same position as the new entrant to the field.

She’s benefiting from 1, 2 and 3 because she invested in A, B and C.

New starters should indeed commit to WOM marketing. What they shouldn’t do is assume that it’s a passive approach that requires no effort. Nor will there be short-term results. Top-notch WOM marketing requires an intense level of commitment to action and an acceptance of slow-burn impact.

Awareness and trust aren’t built overnight, especially in our field. Editorial freelancers aren’t selling a product that promises something that swathes of people have wanted forever – an anti-aging cream, a painless leg-waxing treatment, a broadband connection that never, ever buffers even if you live out in the sticks and there’s more chance of getting a wi-fi signal on Mars. Our services have to prove their worth.

For the editorial business owner, WOM marketing is like creating a garden from scratch. If you’re proactive, it will take many months to knock it into shape. If you hold back, it’ll take years. If you’re passive, the garden will remain barren.

WOM and colleagues
There are a lot of us, and many have already developed niche networks of friends and colleagues to whom we refer work.

When an editor or proofreader ends up on my radar, it’s because they’ve instilled trust in me.

• Perhaps they blog regularly about, offer training on, or deliver presentations about specific aspects of editorial work that I don’t offer.
• Perhaps they’re visible on social media and professional forums, often sharing valuable knowledge that answers questions, solves problems, and demonstrates their skills, experience and expertise.
• Perhaps they’ve helped me solve a problem.

Only then am I likely to add them to my referral network.

WOM and clients
As for client A telling client B about you, you’ll need a lot of mouths to share the good news if you want to have a full schedule! That’s not where you’ll be if you’re a new entrant to the field, not because you’re not an effective editor or proofreader but because you don’t yet have a large enough bank of clients.

Effective WOM
Find out which networks (online and offline) your clients and colleagues recommend and join in the discussion. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions but be prepared to offer solutions too. Even new editorial freelancers have specialist skills and background experience that are relevant and valuable to the debate.

In 'Why word of mouth marketing is the most important social media', Kimberly A. Whitler, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, breaks down WOM marketing into the three Es:

• Engage – talk to your colleagues and clients via social media, online forums and local networking groups.
• Equip – give your colleagues and clients a reason to engage with you and your business – advice, knowledge, tools, support, great-quality proofreading ... whatever helps them and solves their problems.
• Empower – enable your colleagues and clients to engage with you in ways that work for them. What’s useful for one person will not be useful to another. Not all of my colleagues want to trawl through a dense blog with hundreds of articles about editorial business planning and marketing, so I offer them books and online courses, too. Not all of my potential clients want to fill in a contact form on my website, so I provide my phone number, too. Not all of my readers want to read long articles, so I sometimes produce infographics, booklets, checklists, podcasts and videos (though, admittedly, the latter is a work in progress!).

​Action first, passivity later
Clients can come via active and passive marketing strategies. It’s not a case of the right strategy but the right order.

If you’re a new starter, make active editorial business promotion a standard part of your working life, just like copyediting or proofreading, invoicing and updating your software. Assign space for it every week so that it becomes commonplace rather than a chore or, worse, something to be feared.

Be active. Be committed. Be the ham!

Once your business is established, you’ll be able to take advantage of the passive benefits that result from your effort. Just take care not to hand over the chill space to your Labrador!

Maya has a PhD in social anthropology, and is an experienced editor and proofreader. She’s in the process of expanding her editorial business while continuing to publish academic research. She wants to know how to focus her marketing strategy.

To date, she’s focused on acquiring work through a freelancing website, but the work flow is unpredictable and she’s not convinced it will supply her with a viable income stream in the long term.
 
She’s created a website but recognizes that it’ll take time to become visible to potential clients, and to earn their trust.
 
She asks: ‘There are a couple of other freelancing websites that look promising, as well as academic editing agencies. Does it make sense to try to sign up to those as well, or is it better to focus on one thing at a time? I'm planning to blog and make YouTube videos about academic writing on top of these things. But is this a case of "less is more" or "more is more"? I’m an experienced editor but completely new to marketing!’
 
Great questions, Maya.
 
Two things to consider
There are two different elements to your strategy here:

• agency and directory marketing, where you wait to be selected
• content marketing, where you build trust and engagement by creating compelling content that makes you appear delicious to potential clients!

 
Both approaches are important in the editorial industry, so hats off to you for recognizing that even though you’re new to marketing. You’re doing brilliantly!
 
The reason why both approaches are important is because directories and agencies have already done the online visibility work on your behalf. By using them to make your business visible now, you’re freeing up your marketing hours to focus on the longer-burn stuff – your blog and videos.
 
Broadly speaking,

• freelancing directories and agencies: more is more
• content marketing: less is more (sort of – see below)

 
I’ll explain why further down, but first I wanted to ask you whether you’ve considered approaching publishers too. You didn’t mention it in your email so I think it’s worth my taking the time to discuss it here.

Publishers and freelance editors – a gift
Directories, agencies and content creation are all great ways to acquire clients, albeit over different time frames.

The biggest problem the editor faces, however, is getting the client to raise their hand in the first place. ‘I’m interested in you, Maya!’ is what your directory entry, agency listing, blog article or YouTube video needs to make your audience member feel compelled to say.

That means working hard to create stand-out information that sets you apart from the competition surrounding you. Furthermore, in the directory and agency fields, there will always be a group of clients looking for cheap rather than brilliant. And in the marketplace more generally, there are potential clients who don’t even realize they need you, or, if they do, which of the different levels of service will be the most appropriate.

But here come the publishers! (Sing it, like the Boots ad!) We’re in a rather privileged field of having a core client group who understands exactly what we do, why we’re necessary, and the value we bring to the table. We don’t have to get them to raise their hands; their hands are already in the air!

Some publishers will take the time to scour the SfEP’s Directory of Editorial Services, but to my knowledge the single best way to get noticed by a production manager is still to go direct. Email, letter, phone call – whatever you prefer.

I worked almost exclusively for publishers for the first half of my freelance career. I had about 10 publisher clients who kept my schedule as full as I needed it to be. Feast and famine? Nope, just feast.

Like you, I have a background in the social sciences, so that’s where I focused my initial wave of inquiries. You mentioned in your original email that you’d 'bought my marketing books', so you’ll find more information on how to tackle that in Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business.
​
Publishers, like agencies, will give you regular work, and that means you can focus all your marketing juice on creating compelling blog posts and irresistible YouTube vids.

Publishers are a bit of a gift like that – while their rates aren’t always top-notch, the time they free up for you by handing you a steady supply of work certainly is. And creating valuable, usable, accessible content does take time.

Directories and agencies: more is more
Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration! By more is more, I’m not saying you should sign up with 20 directories and agencies; you’ll spend more time being busy creating the entries than you will being productive finding the work!

I do think, though, that you needn’t limit oneself to one. If you identify a group of, say, four or five that are used by your core clients to find people like you, I’d recommend you sign up. More is more, as long as you’re selective.

There are SEO benefits, too. For certain medium-tail keyword searches, I rank first on page one of Google – but it’s not my website showing up. It’s my SfEP directory entry.

And, anyway, you’re in control. You get to accept work, or decline it – whatever suits your needs.

The key thing to remember is that if you get too many requests to quote from the directories and agencies, you can always trim and focus on those that deliver the best-quality clients to you. Plus, you’ll never know what’s working if you don’t test in the first place.

Testing is something else you’ll see me bang on about in my books, but only because it’s the foundation of any solid marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter if you try something, and that something doesn’t work. You’ll still have learned something, and having learned it you can make an informed decision about what to do next. Otherwise your marketing is just guesswork – which is exhausting at best!

So, yes, go ahead. Sign up for a few more and find out what works for you. Evaluate in a few months’ time. Then leave behind the ones that don’t work out and try something else instead.

Now let’s deal with the content strategy.

Creating delectable content! Less is more (sort of)
When I say less is more, I’m talking about platforms, not the actual content itself.

This isn’t just me banging my drum. The professionals emphasize this. My own content marketing coaches Andrew and Pete recommend focusing on one or two platforms, and really honing them. Plus, I’m halfway through the online conference Summit on Content Marketing, and speakers Rand Fishkin, Ilise Benun, Dave Jackson, and Stoney deGeyter agree: concentrate on what your core clients are using – in other words, choose the platforms your customers prefer, rather than the ones you prefer.

So, you’re planning to use a blog and YouTube to deliver your advice on academic writing. If those are platforms that your core clients like using, then go ahead. And stick to those two – really craft them into something special, something compelling.

Some quick tips (you might know the following already but other readers might not, so bear with me!) …

Quality
Make sure your content is really useful so that it offers solutions for your potential clients. Don’t sell – just solve. I used to call content marketing ‘value-added marketing’ (see the marketing book you’ve bought). Seriously, I didn’t know ‘content’ marketing was a thing until a year ago! I still think it’s an oddly bland name for such an exciting strategy.

Anyway, I don’t get to make the rules, so content marketing it is!

Focus on value above all else. Value trumps everything (unless your great writing is so blurred as to be unreadable, or the audio quality of your video so poor as to make it unwatchable).

If you create a beautiful video, or a blog post with loads of fancy pictures, but the story you’re telling your viewers or readers is of no use to them and doesn’t help them, you won’t grow that audience.

But if your video is a little flawed, or your blog post a little ugly, you’ll still grow your audience and build trust and relationships if you’ve made someone’s life easier. It’s no different to friendship. I don’t pick my mates because they look gorgeous – it’s all about the relationship and how we make each other feel. Content marketing’s no different.

I’ve tried hard to make my blog look prettier this year. But you know what? Some of my most popular posts are still those I wrote years ago – posts with really long paragraphs of dense narrative – 1,500 words of me telling people what publishers think about proofreading training courses, and another 1,500 of me on how to upload custom stamps of PDF markup symbols. No pictures. No clever SEO titles. Just loads of text. But it’s text that answers the questions that (some) people are asking.

Consistency
Be consistent with how often you deliver your blogs and videos. The expert view is this: whether you post twice a week, once a week or once a month is less important than choosing one of those and committing to it. That way your readers and viewers get into the routine of engaging with you.

Furthermore, if you commit to once a week, but you don’t have enough content to fill that schedule, you’re more likely to feel deflated and stop. Which would be a huge shame! It's better to excite an audience by raising your game than disappointing them by going backwards.

Quantity
If you write great blogs that are 400 words long, perfect. If you need 2,000 words, perfect.

If your videos need to be 5 minutes long to solve your client’s problems, make them 5 minutes long. If they need to be longer, and that’s what your audience wants, make them longer.

Just make sure that every word and every minute is full of value. I know I’m a right old rambler so I struggle to make every word count. Let’s just call me chatty!

Delivery
Think about how you’ll direct people to your blog and YT channel. I post to Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn to make editors and writers aware of what’s new on my blog.

​I’ve also recently created a mailing list for writers to enable me to alert them when new self-publishing resources are available.

And, these days, Google Search is working wonders for me. In time, it’ll work for you to if you commit to creating all that delicious stuff for your potential clients!

If academic writers are also using Twitter, FB and LI to get their updates, those are the channels you should use to direct them to your blog and video platforms. If they’re using some other channel to get their news, that’s where you should be.

Again, it’s about what your listeners and readers want, rather than your own preferences

Hope that’s helped, Maya. Thanks so much for asking two great questions.

Here's Part 2 of my series on why you must market your editing and proofreading business.

In Part 1, I considered the problem of low rates and some potential solutions:
​

• negotiating efficiency increases
• changing industry policy
• feeling aggrieved
• and an alternative – saying no in the knowledge that there are better-paying clients in the offing

The alternative is premised on the idea that you can market yourself into a position of choice.

Here in Part 2, I take a closer look at the benefits of proactive marketing. I position this within a framework of business ownership that takes responsibility and shuns entitlement.

Generating interest and discoverability
Marketing is about being interesting and discoverable. If enough potential clients can find you (i.e. you’re discoverable) and are persuaded to contact you (i.e. you’re interesting), you can, over time, put yourself in a position whereby you can turn down the work that doesn’t fit (because of the fee or otherwise), and accept the work that does – and have a full schedule to boot.

One fictive example, with a bit of maths!
The following is based loosely on my particular situation – I’m a proofreader who works on relatively uncomplicated book-length projects that take around a week to complete.

I do take on shorter pieces of work and fit them around my larger projects, but, for the most part, it’s a project-in/project-out workflow. I specialize in working for independent authors, academics, students and publishers. I do a little bit of work for businesses and marketing agencies on occasion, but these clients don’t make up the bulk of my working week.

Let’s say that 90% of the new clients who contact me want to pay less than I want to earn. That means that only one in ten jobs will pan out. For simplicity, let’s give each month twenty-two working days (I like to take weekends off). Let’s also say that I can fit in roughly one book-length job in five working days, plus perhaps one or two smaller jobs if required.

The reactive marketer
Let’s imagine that I’m not as interesting and discoverable as I could be, and am not being found by potential new clients on a regular basis. I receive ten offers of work every two months.

Given that 10% of the jobs will pan out into work that pays what I want it to pay, that’s one hit in that two-month period. I consider the remaining nine jobs to be poorly paying. However, because I’m not being found and asked to quote as often as I might be, I don’t have any other hits in the bag.

I don’t want to be without work for the bulk of those two months, so I accept the nine lower paying job offers, and feel a bit sorry for myself, consoling myself with the thought that at least I’m being paid something. Then I go and get myself that extra-big hug from my partner and wait for my sympathetic friend to say ‘poor you’.

The proactive marketer
Now let’s imagine that I actively market my business on a regular basis. I receive an average of thirty offers from new clients every month.

As before, only 10% pan out into confirmed work that pays what I want it to pay. That’s fine, though, because that 10% is enough to fill my schedule when taking into account offers from existing well-paying clients.

Those existing clients are paying us what we want to earn – they’re people who have already discovered us and considered us interesting enough to hire and rehire. They provide an additional safety net that enables us to make choices.

The point is that the more offers you receive, the stronger your position. You can afford to say no. Any percentage of a big number is a very different proposition from that same percentage of a small number.

Proactive marketing gives you the numbers. Bigger numbers mean you have a higher chance of more hits (confirmed work that fits your financial needs). If you’re in a situation where you’re being forced to accept work that doesn’t pay what you want to earn, you need to increase your discoverability, or improve your interestingness, or both.

My colleague Rich Adin sums it up rather nicely: 'The primary difference between proactive and reactive marketing is that proactive marketing makes sure you can say no while enjoying the higher rewards when you say yes, whereas reactive marketing ensures that you will never be able to say no and will always “enjoy” low rewards that force you to constantly say yes when you want to say no. No is empowering and proactive is empowerment​' (Adin, personal correspondence, 2016).

‘But my work is different to yours’
I acknowledge that some editors’ workflows will look very different to mine. You may be someone who works on complex long-term projects that take weeks or months to complete.

The project fees will run into thousands rather than hundreds of pounds. This kind of specialist work may mean you are always going to be dealing with a smaller pot of hits and misses than a proofreader with a more straightforward workflow. For you, the numbers will look different, and negotiation may play a larger role when considering how to handle fee issues.

The principle stands, though – however different your business model is to mine, if you aren’t getting enough hits, then you will still benefit from marketing yourself so that you increase the size of your pot and, thus, the proportion of confirmed jobs that pay what you want to earn.

Who’s responsible?
Expecting others to take responsibility for the success of my self-owned editorial business is a path to failure. My colleagues are obliged to look after their interests. My clients (and potential clients) are obliged to look after their interests. I’m obliged to look after mine.

Even established editorial business owners should be actively promoting because they can’t predict how the market will shift over time. A profitable client today could be a loss-making client tomorrow. 

Ultimately, expecting clients to fall in our laps because we’ve decided to go freelance is employee-like thinking, not business-owner thinking.

Considering rates in terms of what’s fair, and what’s respectful is unhelpful. It shifts the freelancer’s focus from one of professional business-ownership to one of entitlement. When you’re self-employed there’s no room for entitlement.

Big-brand practice
If you’re still not convinced about the value of marketing, think about some of the TV, radio and direct-mail advertisements by well-known brands that you’ve recently encountered.

They haven’t stopped marketing their products and services because they already have lots of buyers. Rather, they’re still looking for new customers who value what they offer. So should we.

Looking forward rather than feeling aggrieved
Sometimes the potential client and I will find a place where we’re a good fit, but often we won’t. That’s fine. I don’t begrudge those potential clients who offer me jobs with fees that I think are too low, or those who ask me to quote but choose to go elsewhere (perhaps they like someone else’s price better, or they think someone’s a better project fit) because that’s their informed choice.

If I market my business effectively, their choices won’t affect me because I’ll have enough offers of work that are a good fit from elsewhere.

Being discoverable to a bank of potential clients who are prepared to pay you what you feel you are worth enables you to take a positive and forward-looking view of your business, rather than expending negative mental energy on how you’re worse off in real terms than you were X number of years ago.

Summing up
Being the owner of an editorial business means building regular marketing into the foundations of running that business. When we do things to maximize our discoverability and interestingness, we work towards choice.

Regular, proactive marketing gives you a bigger pot from which to pick a smaller number of well-paying, schedule-filling hits, some of which will turn into repeat clients.

​No choice, on the other hand, means settling for what’s on offer. Just remember that those extra-big hugs and sympathetic ‘poor you’s aren’t billable.

In this two-part series, I take a look at how regular business promotion can put us in a position to decline work that doesn't meet our expectations and aspirations.​

So you’re a copy-editor, and one of the clients you’ve been working for over the past seven years has, yet again, failed to increase their hourly rate. You’re worse off in real terms than you were last year, let alone in 2009. Ugh.

​Or perhaps you’re a proofreader who’s paid on a flat-fee basis by another publisher. The fee is based on the number of pages per book. Over the past six months, you’ve noticed that the typesetter has been squeezing another 100 words on a page by reducing the font size.

Over the course of a 250-page book, this amounts to you having to proofread an additional 25,000 words for no extra cash. Given that you proofread for this client at a speed of around 5,000 words per hour, that’s an extra five hours of work that you’re no longer being paid for. Ouch.

A self-publishing romance writer tries to haggle you down to £4 per 1,000 words for a 100,000-word book. She wants the fee to include a copy-edit AND a ‘quick follow-up proofread’.

She feels that your fee of £9 per 1,000 words is way too high and out of line with what other editors are charging. You thought you were giving her a fabulous deal, given that she’s getting two different and separate editorial passes from you for £900! Headdesk.

A PM agency with whom you’ve worked in the past asks you to do a top and tail of a PDF with some Q&As. They also want a basic howler check and a layout review. It’s a sort of semi-proofread.

There will be other similar jobs over the forthcoming weeks. They estimate that each job will take two hours. They offer you a flat fee of thirty quid for each job. £15 an hour for your level of experience? Sob.

So what can you do?

• Negotiate?
• Work more efficiently?
• Lobby the industry via a union or professional society?
• Talk a lot about how unfair these clients are being, how disrespectful it is considering the value you bring to the table, how they’re taking the biscuit and making a mockery of professional editorial work?

Holy moly, you say, this editorial freelancing lark is becoming a joke.

Negotiating
If you have regular clients who are offering, say, complex projects worth several thousands of pounds, it may, indeed, be well worth your while to enter into extensive negotiations so that it’s clear to the client why what they’re offering is unrealistic and unacceptable.

The time you spend on these negotiations could turn out to be worth the investment if you can find some acceptable middle ground. If, however, you’re dealing with projects worth a couple of hundred quid or less, negotiating may not necessarily be the best use of your time. Instead, you could use it to find new, better-paying clients.

Speed
How about working more efficiently, using tools such as macros? If you’re not already using these tools, then introducing them into your workflow could help tip the situation back in your favour.

If the client is offering a fixed fee, but with more words per project, speeding up could even increase the amount you earn per hour, never mind maintaining the rate you used to earn.

If, however, you’re already macro-magnificent, ReferenceChecker-resplendent, PerfectIt-pretty and wildcard-wonderful, this isn’t going to provide you with a solution.

Changing industry policy
How about lobbying the industry? You could ask your professional editorial society or freelancing union to step in.

But let’s be honest – the mainstream publishing industry is global and consists of hundreds of separate businesses operating under capitalism. It would be a tricky job for the society/union in a command economy, but in a capitalist one? Don’t hold your breath!

As for all the other clients – independent authors, businesses, students, charities and schools, for example – they don’t make up a unified industry. Who are you going to lobby?

Getting emotional
So how about feeling upset, disgruntled, undervalued and disrespected? By all means, go ahead. It won’t change anything, though you might get an extra-big hug from your partner and some sympathetic ‘poor you’s from your best mate.

An alternative – wave goodbye
What if there was another option, though? How about if you just politely waved goodbye to the project offer that doesn’t meet your financial requirements, confident that you can fill that job slot with something else – something that pays you the rate that you want to earn? After all, you’re not obliged to accept the work.

Self-employment obligations and responsibilities
Not being obliged to do a particular piece of work for a price set by someone else is one of the joys of successful freelancing and a key element of being self-employed.

If you work for a publisher, magazine, charity or school (or any other business you care to name), part of the deal is that you may well have to undertake types of work at times and places that you don’t like and that aren’t convenient, things that are not written into your contract and that, officially, you’re not being paid to do.

But you’re an employee and you don’t get to bargain over your salary every time something comes up that requires you to give a little extra for the sake of goodwill and a comfortable appraisal. Your employer is in charge and in control. 

Perhaps your efforts will be rewarded further down the line – you might be promoted or given a bonus. It’s not guaranteed, though, and you’ll rarely be in a position to force the issue.

Being employed often means making do – the benefit is that, unless you’re on some dreadful zero-hours contract, you get paid even on a slow day, or when you’re ill or on holiday. Importantly, your employer will take responsibility for sourcing customers.

But me and you? We’re the owners of our businesses and so it’s up to us to do the work we like, at the times we like, for the pay we want. Holidays and sick days don’t pay. We do, however, have the right to decline a job.

And because we own our own businesses, it’s not X University Press’s responsibility to pay us a fee that’s good for each of our business models. XUP’s responsibility is to pay us a fee that’s good for its business model.

We, and only we, have responsibility for deciding whom we work for and which projects we accept or decline. Importantly, we have to take responsibility for sourcing customers – there’s no one else to do it for us. We’re in charge and in control.

That’s where marketing comes in … and in Part II, I take a closer look at the benefits of proactive promotion.

This article considers the importance of testing in an editorial business marketing strategy.

If you're building a marketing strategy for your editing or proofreading business, you probably have a ton of questions. Some of those questions might look like this:

• ‘Is [directory name] worth advertising in?’
• ‘Should I include a full portfolio of work on my website or just a selection of completed projects?’
• ‘Are business cards necessary?’
• ‘Should I include images on my CV/résumé?’
• ‘Does cold calling work?’
• ‘How much text should I include on my homepage?’
• ‘Is it best to charge per hour or per 1,000 words? Or should I charge a flat fee?’

They’re perfectly good questions and our colleagues usually have some excellent answers.

There’s nothing wrong with asking more experienced professionals for advice on how to go about promoting one’s business; indeed, I’d recommend it as one tool for deepening one’s marketing knowledge and stimulating one’s creative juices.

However, it’s important to remember that ‘advice’ is just that – guidance and recommendations for action; advice is not a rule of thumb that needs to be followed without consideration of our own individual business goals, target clients groups, and required income streams.

We all, too, have our own voices – some people shine when promoting their businesses face to face or over the telephone; others make more of an impact using their written communication skills.

In brief, the marketing tools that work for me might not work as well for you, and vice versa. That’s why we need to incorporate testing into our marketing strategy.

Testing involves experimenting with particular marketing activities over a fixed timescale, and evaluating the results.

Testing allows you to discover which promotional activities are effective for generating business leads in particular segments of the editorial market. The results may well match the experience of many of your colleagues, but don’t be surprised if they differ too.

Before you start …
Before you begin testing, it’s crucial to consider what you are trying to say and to whom. Spend some time reviewing your business plan so that you have the following in mind:

• Your core skills and services
• The types of client for whom you can provide solutions
• The problems those clients need you to solve
• The key selling points that will make you interesting to each client group

A fictive case study
Let’s return to just one of the questions that I posed at the beginning of this article and consider how testing offers a constructive approach to acquiring market knowledge that complements the advice gleaned from colleagues.
​
‘Is [directory name] worth advertising in?’

Ash is a recently qualified proofreader. He’s considering advertising his services in his national professional association’s online editorial directory. The cost would be $300 per annum, which is a big chunk of his marketing budget.

He asks 3,000 of his fellow association members whether the directory has proved successful for them. He receives 30 responses, which at first sight is useful, but when he reads the replies in full, the advice is mixed.

• One-third of the responders have had work from the directory, primarily from publishers. These publisher clients have offered repeat work over several years; and even though some considered the rates of pay to be on the low side, the advertisers have seen a positive return on their annual investment.
• A further third of responders tell Ash that they have had a few enquiries off the back of their advertisement, but the enquirers were one-off student clients who had small budgets; the advertisers struggled to break even on their investment.
• The remaining responders have had no work from the directory, though a few felt that their presence in the directory, with its backlink to their personal business website, had SEO benefits.

Despite the mixed responses, there is some really useful information to be gleaned. Ash considers the following:

• Are publishers a target client group that he’s a good fit for?
• Why did two-thirds of the responders receive little or no interest? Are their core client groups not using that particular directory to source editorial suppliers, or are these responders poorly communicating their ability to provide the required solutions?
• What about the experiences of the 2,670 members that didn’t read the question or respond to it?

Ash reviews his business plan (including the skills he has, his career and educational background, the editorial training he’s carried out) and concludes that, although he has little experience, publishers are a good fit for his business model.

The price tag of $300 is a little on the steep side for him, but he wants to acquire experience from publisher clients. Publishers seem like a core client group for the directory, though Ash is cognizant of the fact that he only has feedback from a small percentage of the society’s membership and he’s unsure whether their views are statistically significant.

He decides to test the effectiveness of the directory for 1 year. He constructs a listing that is designed specifically to appeal to the publisher client group. In 12 months’ time he will evaluate the results.

If the listing has generated his required income-to-cost ratio, he can continue investing in this marketing activity, confident that his money is well spent. If the listing doesn’t generate the desired results he will have two choices: (a) test a reworked version of the advertisement or (b) abandon the directory and explore other methods of making himself discoverable to publisher clients.

Whatever the outcome, Ash’s test will provide him with evidence that he can use to make informed and confident decisions about how best to market his editorial business.
​
What should you test?
What you should test will depend on what you want to know. Here two tests I've carried out.

Advertising with Reedsy
I wanted to know whether creating a profile on Reedsy would make me more discoverable to independent fiction authors. It costs nothing financially to generate a listing, although Reedsy takes a percentage of any income earned. Feedback within the UK and the international editorial communities has been mixed.

In May 2015, I decided to carry out a test over a 12-month period so that I could evaluate the potential benefits for my own business. Early results were positive – I picked up a high-value client within only a few weeks and completed several projects for him.

The process was smooth and payment was timely. I continued to advertise on the platform and monitor the results. As of 2018, I receive requests to quote on a weekly basis. The test proved to me that Reedsy is a valuable lead generator for my business. The only way to find out if it works for you is to test it too.

Adding video into my marketing mix
I wanted to know whether videos would offer my clients and colleague-customers a valuable alternative way of consuming my written blog content. Would there be SEO benefits? Would the project generate sufficient additional high-value work opportunities and book/course sales to make the investment in time worthwhile?

I began creating video content in 2017. As of 2018, my written content still drives more traffic to my website than my video content. However, certain videos, such as the 'Hello' one on my home page, a free webinar for colleagues on emergency marketing, and some tutorials on using Word's styles palette, have been popular. The emergency-marketing video led to a spike in sales of my books, and several clients have commented on how much they like being able to see the editor behind the website.

The test leads me to believe that, in the main, I'm more likely to gain traction from videos that have a teaching or welcoming element, so I've decided to focus specifically on tutorial-based video content for now, and only as a supplement to my popular written content.

Don’t mix things up
Take care when carrying out more than one test. Multiple tests on one marketing tool are problematic – it won’t be clear why any changes to response rates, either positive or negative, are occurring.

For example, if I decided I wanted to find ways of increasing the speed at which I receive payment, I might consider tweaking my invoice as follows:

• Highlighting the late-payment-penalty information in a yellow box
• Offering a 5% discount for early-bird payment
• Adding a thank-you message and an emoticon smiley

It’s crucial that I test each of these things separately; otherwise, 12 months down the line, I’ll have no idea which of these tactics is working (or not working).

It could well be that the message and emoticon are just as effective as the 5% discount. Unless I identify this by carrying out the tests separately, I’m needlessly throwing money out of the window.

Tests can, of course, be carried out separately but simultaneously by dividing similar clients into groups, with one tweak applied to each group. So, in the invoicing case, I might divide all my publisher clients into three groups and send out invoices with the late-penalty payment info highlighted to group A, a 5% discount for early-bird payment to group B, and a thank-you message and emoticon smiley to group C. Then I would track the results for each group.

Track the results
Make sure you track test results. If, for example, you’re mailing your CV to a large number of publishers, and testing different designs, or different wording in the accompanying cover letter, make a note of who was sent what. That way you’ll be able to identify whether a particular test is generating a higher response rate.

Codes can be a useful way of collating data if you’re want to work out where your best leads are coming from. Many editorial freelancers receive emails and phone calls from clients who don’t identify how they discovered them. Adding a distinct code to each call to action on your website’s Contact page, leaflet, business card, or advertisement helps you to distinguish the results of your marketing efforts.

Likewise, if you are testing different pricing models with, say, students (e.g., a flat fee vs. $X per 1,000 words), you might issue them with different ordering codes if they decide to commission you (FF2015 for those offered a flat fee vs. PK2015 for those offered a price per 1,000 words); this would enable you to track which test generated the best likelihood of being hired.

Summing up

• Thomas Edison is reported as having said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’ It’s a marvellous quotation – a great reminder that marketing is as much about learning as about being interesting and discoverable to potential clients.
  
  Testing is integral to marketing because it provides a considered framework in which we can look at what we don’t know and move to a position where we do know.
  
  
• Don’t be frightened to test new ways of doing things; your colleagues can provide guidance but there is unlikely to be consensus, especially so given the number of voices in the online editorial community.
  
  What works for one person may not work for another. If some of your colleagues have found a particular promotional platform to be unfruitful, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will have the same experience; they may have mismanaged the way they communicated their message, or they may have a less-appealing skillset than you.
  
  
• Testing allows you to make the decisions that are right for your business, rather than your colleagues’ business. Seek advice and use that guidance to help you through the thinking process.
  
  Ultimately, though, your decisions need to reflect your business goals, your target client groups, your skills and services, and your income requirements – no one else’s.
  
  
• Set time frames for your tests and track the results.
  
  
• Avoid confusion – carry out one test on one marketing tool at a time. Simultaneous testing is possible where the number of targets is large enough to apply different tests to groups of similar-type clients.
  
  
• Most importantly, keep trying new methods. Even methods that are successful today can become unsuccessful tomorrow – innovation is as important in market testing as in any other endeavour.

 
An earlier version of this article was first published on An American Editor.

More resources

• Podcast: 3 ways to tackle editorial marketing overwhelm
• Podcast collection: Editorial business tips​
• Book: Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business
• Guides: Business Skills for Editors series
• Blog: 2 business mindset tips for new editors​
• Blog: Why you MUST market your editorial business. Part I
• Blog: Why you MUST market your editorial business. Part II
• Blog and booklet: Overcoming marketing paralysis: How to turn overwhelm into action

There many different and effective approaches to marketing an editing and proofreading business. There are several ways to make a hash of it too. Here are five mistakes that you should avoid, not just at launch stage but once your business is up and running.

Mistake 1: Not actually doing any marketing
Here are three ideas that I think we should 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 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.

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: Stopping marketing when you have work
If the cupboard is full, this isn't the time to put business promotion on the back-burner. I know it might feel like the perfect time to take a breather, but trust me, it really isn't!

• Crisis marketing sorts out a problem now. It helps you pay this month's mortgage.
• Marketing during the good times helps you pay the mortgage in six months' time.

A healthy business is a sustainable business. Not knowing what's round the corner is about surviving not thriving, and that's stressful.

Emergency marketing forces us to rush. We don't always make the best choices when we're anxious. Panic can even lead to inertia.

Plus, we might find there's a lot to do and only a small window in which to do it. For example, one tactic for emergency marketing is contacting lots of publishers. However, gathering all the information required to do that effectively is time-consuming.

If we build marketing time into our schedule when the cupboard is full, we can pace our plans so that we do a little on a regular basis rather than a lot all at once. That's a far more pleasant and productive way to tackle business promotion and helps us build a wait-list.

Mistake 3: Marketing via a single platform
Relying on only one particular channel to make yourself discoverable to your clients 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 making it visible so that I can be found and visited.

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.

Even if you’ve been able to establish a couple of seemingly 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 could find that clients whom you’d been invisible to beforehand now have you on their radar. That means more opportunities and more choice.

Mistake 4: 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. Instead, focus on stand-out statements.

​If what you say doesn’t make you compelling, don't say it. Show how you can solve clients' problems. It should be all about them and what you can do for them.

If you lack experience and an extensive portfolio, focus instead on positive selling points that make the client feel confident about hiring you to fix what they can't.

Sell your positives, not others’ negatives
​It’s also imperative that your message does indeed focus on what you can do for the client. Just in case you are one of the few people on the planet who thinks that highlighting a competitor’s or colleague’s mishaps rather than your own skills is a good marketing strategy (I’m sure you’re not!), then here's a quick reminder about why it’s disastrous in terms of PR.

1. Pointing out a competitor’s foibles focuses attention on the competitor’s business rather than your own.
2. This 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.

Mistake 5: 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 ways to make yourself discoverable, and the twenty-first century editor should embrace them.

Bear in mind, however, that from the client’s point of view they're as easy to discard as they are to access, precisely because they're digital methods of contact. Consider also the following:

• 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.
• A business card can be retained in a wallet, purse or card deck.

Balancing immediacy and permanence is key to a well-rounded marketing strategy. By using a mixture of the two, you'll enhance your visibility and spike a client's interest.
​
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.
• Concentrate on marketing during the good times, not the bad. You'll have more space to plan and get it right. Little and often will stand you in good stead.
• Use a variety of channels to cover your back. That way you’ll minimize the chances of unexpectedly being without work.
• Focus on your business – the key skills and knowledge that you possess to help clients 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.

Whether we’re sending a letter, responding to a request for a quotation, writing website copy, designing a brochure, creating a directory listing or contacting a (potential) client via email, the call to action is always helpful but often forgotten. The best of them compel people to do something

What is a call to action?
A call to action tells your reader what you want them to do – and it does it in a nutshell, thereby creating a sense of immediacy.

Even though the information the customer needs in order to respond may be included on the contact page of your website, your listing in an online specialist directory, the banner heading of your letter, or in the signature of your email, it’s always worth adding a reminder so that the reader doesn't have to spend time searching for the instructions you want them to find.

What does the call to action look like? The 4C framework
As with all things marketing, I prefer to avoid promoting strict rules because I worry they might impinge on the nervous marketer’s creativity. Instead, consider these 4 Cs as a framework for good practice:

• Clarity: Make your call to action stand out – your design will depend on your personal preferences, but consider these options: using a separate final paragraph in a letter or email; repeating the information in the postscript of a letter; creating a tinted box on a brochure; formatting the text in bold or in a contrasting colour on a directory listing; creating a click-through button, with the instruction written on it, on your homepage.
  
  
• Conciseness: Make your instructions short and to the point; this will mean they are quick and easy for the reader to understand and act upon.

​

• Communication: Think initially about the core instruction that you wish to communicate, the what-you-want-them-to-do bit – “call me on this number”; “fill in this form”; “visit this website”. You might then include a reiteration of what the consequences of their action will be – in other words, what you’re doing for them: “call me on [number] for a free proofreading quotation”; “email [include hyperlink] for a free, no-obligation 200-word sample edit”; “contact me at [number/email] and I’ll confirm your booking within 24 hours”.

​​

• Customer focus: Think about what your customer’s problems are and how you can incorporate the solution into the call to action. What you’re offering will depend on your core client base and your business model. 

​Below is a partial screen shot of my home page. It shows two simple calls to action asking my readers to do two particular things: visit the author resources page and contact me.

You probably use them already … 
Many of us use call to actions in daily situations without even realizing it.

When we’re talking to friends and colleagues, it’s not uncommon to sign off with a summary sentence in which we round up what’s required, how it’s required and by when: “Right, you bring the wine; I’ll bring the cheese. I’ll see you at yours at 7pm” or “Good, that’s agreed – give me a call to confirm the meeting by lunchtime tomorrow” or "Great, send me the details by noon and I'll talk to X on your behalf."

By summing up in this way, we’re informally clarifying everything that’s been discussed (perhaps at some length) beforehand, so we know exactly what action is required – who’s doing what, when, where and how. Using the same technique in our business communications works in exactly the same way.

Why is using a call to action a good idea?
The call to action focuses the client's attention. There’s strong evidence to suggest that whether clients are reading the information on a webpage, or scanning a letter or CV, they don’t dilly dally, and are more likely to do something when they're told to do it.

Says Jakob Nielsen regarding websites: “How long will users stay on a Web page before leaving? […] Not very long. The average page visit lasts a little less than a minute” (“How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?”, 2011).

And here’s Gill Wagner on the issue of letters: “[A]t most you have […] eight seconds before the decision-maker will make the first yes/no decision about whether to crumple and toss” (cited in Harnby, 2014).

Nudging your client to take the action you want them to take is therefore crucial if your marketing materials (online or in print) are to have the biggest impact on time-limited readers.

Solving the client's problems
In “11 Kick-Ass Call to Action Examples, and Why They Work” (Word Stream, 2014), Dan Shewan takes a look at 11 very different calls to action used by a variety of businesses, including a résumé/CV builder, a credit-card reader, and a retailer specializing in products aimed at men.

He shows how these businesses focus on the desires/needs of their potential customers, and how the calls to action (1) use language that reinforces those desires/needs and (2) offer the customer a solution that will lead to fulfilment.

Encouraging engagement … 
Calls to action can say different things to different clients; they can be designed in a variety of ways; they can be placed in a variety of positions depending on the message you want to communicate and when you want to communicate it.

Not everyone is a good copywriter, but that needn’t stop any of us from creating calls to action that help our busy customers navigate our marketing materials easily. Us the 4c framework to guide you.