Prospecting for clients consistently is essential to growing your copywriting business.
When you get in the habit of prospecting, you’ll attract more clients (and clients who are a better fit). You’ll build your network. And, you may even encounter opportunities for lucrative partnerships.
But keeping up with a prospecting habit can be difficult… especially when it starts to pay off, and you’re busy with client work.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a scary task.
In fact, it can be as easy as drinking your daily cup of tea. When you make something a habit in your everyday life, it becomes like autopilot.
There are various ways for you to prospect without leaving your comfort zone. The key is to find activities you enjoy… and then schedule the time to do them.
Scheduling Your Time
Whether you use a monthly planner, a digital calendar, or a to-do list, adding prospecting to your favorite scheduling tools will help to keep you on track.
Having a visual of the tasks you need to complete keeps them top of mind, and you’ll be more likely to accomplish them.
When scheduling prospecting time, choose the days and hours when you’re the most energized, because you’ll be less likely to procrastinate or resist doing the task.
Let’s face it, when you don’t feel like doing something, there’s a high chance you won’t… so it’s crucial to capitalize on the times when you have more energy, so you can implement what you set out to do.
In addition to considering your own availability and energy levels, you also want to think about your prospect’s. If you’re sending out emails or direct messages, you want those to connect.
People typically check their email at the start of the workday and then again in the afternoon, when they return from lunch, or before they leave for the day.
It’s best to send messages between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., since those are peak business email hours.
Optimize Your Energy for Prospecting
Distractions will deter your focus from prospecting. To stay fully focused and engaged on what you’re doing, start by removing distractions.
Common distractions are:
- Scrolling on social media
- Talking on the phone
- Texting
Everyone has their own “favorite” distractions, so it’s important you know what’s likely to pull you away and then come up with a plan for avoiding that.
For example, if folding laundry is how you procrastinate, make sure all the laundry is folded and put away the night before.
Now, you don’t need to focus for large chunks of time, especially if you’re someone who gets antsy after 30 minutes or an hour. Taking little breaks to refresh yourself isn’t the same as getting distracted. And you can make these breaks even more effective by doing a brain-energizing activity.
Some good options are:
- Exercise – This can help improve alertness and doesn’t have to be strenuous. You can hold a plank or do some jump squats.
- Meditation – Take 5-10 minutes to meditate to 528 HZ and 963 HZ frequencies that help boost creativity and support brain energy.
- Crossword puzzles – These help strengthen neural pathways and improve cognitive function.
- Word searches – These help you grow new neural pathways and support memory.
In a previous article, I also discussed how to time your tasks based on your intuition, so you can start keeping track of how long you’re able to focus.
How Often to Follow Up With Prospects
You want to stay organized about how and when you send messages to your prospects.
Write down how many people you want to message per day or per week and stick to this. Consistency is the goal that will bring you positive results.
Keep a spreadsheet of all your prospects, when you last reached out to them, and how many times you’ve reached out to them in total. Practicing good follow-up is important.
When you reach out to your prospects, don’t expect them to respond to your first message. Some will, but most won’t.
Don’t feel rejected if you don’t hear back. It’s not about you or your services. Your prospect is probably busy, may not have an immediate need for your services, and is still getting to know you.
That’s why having multiple touchpoints with each prospect is an important part of this routine.
A touchpoint is a singular interaction with a prospect. Multiple touchpoints help you get through to your prospects, so you can create a real connection.
In most cases, it takes at least five touchpoints to receive a response from a prospect. So, plan to follow up every week with your prospects for at least five weeks.
The Best Places to Prospect
Before you can start reaching out to prospects, you have to find them in the first place!
When looking for prospects, put on your “Inspector Gadget” hat, so you can sleuth out where your ideal client loves to spend their time.
Look for them on social media platforms, in publications, and at networking events.
On social media, start by visiting a platform or two that you like and that you think is a good fit for your ideal client. Do a hashtag search to find people with similar interests as you. For example, if you want to write for clients in the beauty industry, try hashtag searches for #beautycompanies, #beautytips, and #beautyproducts.
The best publications to follow are the ones created by your ideal clients. Look for email sign-up forms on the business website of your prospect and become a subscriber. See what they write about and use that for ideas on what to say in your prospecting messages.
Networking events can be found on Eventbrite, or you can do a quick Google search and type in “networking events in my local area.” When attending events, look for people you connect with and start a conversation with them. And then, follow up with them after the event.
Engaging Your Prospects
Prospects are more likely to open your email if it’s engaging and offers something of value to them.
There are two components to pay special attention to.
First, you want to reel them in with a well-crafted subject line.
You grab attention with your subject line by:
- Evoking curiosity – Think about the emails you receive in your inbox and what makes you open them. Ask yourself these two questions: “What about this subject line made me open this?” and; “Why did I want to know what was inside?” Your answers to these questions will help you create your own powerful subject lines.
- Focusing on pain points – Focus on how you can help them strengthen certain aspects of their business, solve problems, or make something about their business easier.
- Taking a direct approach – With this kind of approach, you want to be clear and to the point. State exactly why you want to work with them in the subject line.
Second, you want to keep them reading with a well-crafted message.
Before you write and send an email to a prospect, take a little time to research their business. You want to know what their business is about, what services they offer, how they help others, and how you can help them.
Understanding these things will give you a recipe for what to include in each of your touchpoints and for creating enticing emails.
You can reel them in with your email by:
- Congratulating them – You can congratulate them on a recent accomplishment. This kind of email can be short and to the point.
- Expanding their reach – In this email you can congratulate them and include how you can help them expand their reach and boost their mission.
- Providing value – Start with a compliment, and then let them know a mistake you noticed or how you can make something work better on their site. This can be a product page, their newsletter, web copy… aim for the low-hanging fruit.
Map It All Out
Now that you know where to find prospects, how to figure out what to say to them, and how often to follow up with them, it’s time to revisit the schedule you made in the first step.
Put in the specific things you’ll do on different days. Make time for finding prospects, researching their business, and tailoring your messages to their situation.
And make time for sending messages, following up with prospects, and tracking your progress.
Prospects will want to work with you, when you make the time to reach out to them in a consistent way. There are many ways to prospect, but they all work better when you remain positive, create a plan you can stick to, and have fun in the process.
