Don’t Have Any Copywriting Samples? Try This Idea

by Steve Slaunwhite

I get a lot of calls and emails from copywriters who are eager to work in a particular market – healthcare, white papers, fundraising, etc. – but feel stuck because they don’t have any related writing samples.

Here’s what one For Copywriters Only subscriber told me last week. “I bought your handbook and am interested in writing case studies. But I don’t have any samples to show clients. How the heck am I going to get any work in this niche?”

Good question.

Fortunately there are some great answers. Tons of them. I know dozens and dozens of ways to get around the sticky issue of having no writing samples to show.

Here’s one idea that works VERY well.

I stumbled across this technique by accident. And it works like a charm.

Here’s what happened: Several years ago, email marketing was all the rage. I knew that there was a growing demand for copywriters who could craft effective subject lines, emails and landing pages. The only problem was, I didn’t have any samples in this area. None.

But that didn’t stop me. I decided to learn everything I could about email marketing writing. I read articles, haunted the discussion boards, and talked to any expert I could find. All this eventually led me to write a series of how-to articles on email marketing writing.

Then one day a client called and asked me to give her a price “to write an email and landing page.” I still didn’t have any samples to show! So instead I sent her clippings of my articles along with my quote.

A few days later, I was hired!

When the client saw my quote, and the articles I had written on email marketing writing, she pegged me as an expert. She never did ask to see any samples.

Over the years I have discovered that sending a client an article related to the job I’m quoting is just as effective, and in some cases more so, than showing off a writing sample.

Try it. If you want to break into a new market – but have no samples to show – write an article. Or two. Or three.

You don’t even need to get the article traditionally published (although this certainly helps). Just write it and post it on your website. Or lay it out in a nice way and publish it in Adobe PDF format.

It’s the perfect cure for an empty portfolio.

Note: By the way, my new handbook “Cracking The Case Study Market”, includes a ready-made article on case studies that you can call your own. Just clip it, change it any way you like, and use it. You have my permission.

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