5 mistakes to avoid when marketing your editing and proofreading business

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.

EXAMPLE
James used to work for a major academic publisher but now he's gone solo and launched his new editorial business. He asks a former colleague who works in the journal production department if he can proofread for her. She agrees. The publisher has a huge journal list and his colleague keeps him busy with as much proofreading as he needs.

He doesn't solely work for this press (here in the UK, HM Revenue & Customs wouldn’t like that) but it does supply him with most of his work and most of his income.

​Then double disaster strikes – the press merges with a competitor, and his colleague is made redundant.

She gets a job for another press, though her new role no longer requires her to hire editorial freelancers. James doesn't know anyone in the newly merged organization (though rumour has it the press is taking journal proofreading in-house in order to cut costs). Plus, his former colleague can’t take him with her to the new press. He's scuppered.

James won't let that happen again. He does the following:
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• Short term: He investigates core directories he could advertise in.
• Medium term: He builds a long list of publishers, packagers and agencies that are a good fit for his business and plans a staged roll-out of phone calls, letters and emails.
• Long term: He begins the process of developing a content strategy that will make his website more visible and compelling.

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.

EXAMPLE
A well-educated material scientist has decided, for health reasons, to move out of the professional lab and work from home, copy-editing written materials relevant to his scientific educational and career background.

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

His clients don’t need to know most of the above because most of those facts don’t represent him in the best light. Instead, he should focus on his stand-out qualities and present them in a way that's client-centric.

• He specializes in solving the writing problems of students, academics and professional institutions.
• He understands the language his potential clients are using and the theory underpinning their writing because has a BSc in Chemistry, an MChem in Chemistry with Nanotechnology, and a twenty-year career background in material science. 
• He can support potential clients on their publication journey because he has extensive scientific knowledge and experience that enable him to copy-edit papers, books, journal articles and reports to industry-required standards.
• He can empathize with the challenges of getting published in journals because he's contributed to and edited numerous reports and articles in his twenty-year career and has published articles in Nano Today, Chemistry of Materials, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, and Materials Research Bulletin, and sat on the boards of The Journal of Materials Science (2003–2009) and Materials Today (2009–2012).
• His rates reflect his extensive knowledge and experience.

​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.
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Summing up

• Even if you’re nervous about the idea of actively promoting your business, don’t avoid it – make yourself discoverable to your clients so that, over time, you provide yourself with opportunities and choice.
• 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.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.