Sure, AI can play a part in your writing workflow, but did you know you can use it to improve your marketing and land better clients?
There’s a lot of talk (still) on the Internet about all the ways AI can save you time and effort as a writer. Some of the recommendations are good, and some are terrible.
But, what’s talked about less frequently is how AI can help get you in front of potential clients in a way that resonates with them. And, when you resonate, you’re more likely to get a good result… a connection, a conversation, even a new project.
Let’s take a look…
Why You’re Not Getting Results
If you’re putting time and effort into marketing yourself consistently, and you’re just not getting the results you want, you’re probably dealing with one of two problems:
- You’re talking to the wrong audience. If the people you’re reaching out to don’t have the need or budget for your services, then you aren’t going to have much luck.
- You’re making the wrong offer. You could be reaching the right people, but offering the wrong thing, or offering the right thing in the wrong way.
Fortunately, you can use ChatGPT to fix these problems or avoid them all together.
Method 1: The Right Industry, The Right Audience
ChatGPT can help you identify your best audience in a couple of different ways.
First, you can ask it what industries are most likely to work with freelance copywriters. I did that, requesting it to return the top 10. Here’s what it gave me…
- Technology and Software as a Service
- Healthcare
- Finance and FinTech
- E-commerce
- Marketing Agencies
- Real Estate
- Travel and Hospitality
- Education and E-Learning
- Nonprofits
- Consumer Goods
Chances are the niche you’re thinking about reaching out to falls into one of those. But, if not, what can you do?
You can ask ChatGPT if your area of focus is viable.
I asked ChatGPT if marketing my copywriting services to artisan craftspeople on a freelance basis is viable, and it essentially gave me an entire business plan… from the types of copy this audience needs to the size of the market to how to package my services to where to look for clients.
Impressive, but I still followed up, asking if artisan craftspeople have the budget to hire a freelance copywriter and if there’s a history of their doing so. ChatGPT provided suggestions about how to identify artisans who have the budget to hire a freelancer and how to approach them.
So, problem number one solved. If you’re uncertain if your audience is the right audience, ask ChatGPT about it. Chances are you’ll learn a lot.
The second problem takes a little more work to solve…
Method 2: Get Inside Your Prospect’s Head
As a freelance digital copywriter, you solve a problem for your clients.
That problem might be that they don’t have enough traffic, and you create content to help them draw in more visitors. It might be that they don’t have enough leads, and you create high-value pieces and lead-generation funnels.
Whatever problem you solve, it’s important that your audience already recognizes it’s a problem.
If you go to your audience trying to solve a problem they aren’t seeing yet or don’t realize is an issue, then all you’ve done is give them a problem they didn’t have before. You’ll get a very different reaction when you offer to help with a known problem than when you point out an unknown one.
To make sure you’re making the right offer to your audience, you need to get inside their head… and ChatGPT can help with that.
As a prompt, I used, “What are some of the biggest challenges faced by content marketers in the software-as-a-service industry. As much as you can, draw on examples and data from content marketers in this industry.”
You can use that same prompt, but with your own niche. You might also put in marketing directors or chief marketing officers instead of content marketers, depending on who you think will be hiring you most often.
Or, you could run the same prompt for all three titles to see how the results differ.
What I got back from this prompt was a detailed answer comprised of 10 big issues content marketers at SaaS companies have to navigate:
- Standing out in a saturated market
- Generating quality leads
- Content distribution and promotion
- Measuring ROI
- Creating engaging and relevant content
- Keeping up with industry trends and changes
- Building trust and authority
- Balancing quality and quantity
- Addressing customer retention through content
- Leveraging data through personalization
First, most of the items on that list are things I can help with. That’s good news.
And second, this list gives me a way to start refining my own marketing messages to really focus in on the problems my market is facing and to talk about those problems in a language my audience already uses.
But, I can go one step further. I can actually tailor the services I offer, creating packages that address these needs specifically.
In fact, I asked ChatGPT what it would suggest I offer to this audience as packaged services, and it had some good ideas, including:
- A Lead-Generation and Conversion Package providing landing pages, email funnels, and case studies.
- An SEO-Content Package providing a content audit, an ebook or white paper, and monthly blog posts.
- A Brand-Voice Package providing brand-voice guidelines, a website refresh, and a team workshop.
Based on these answers from ChatGPT, I have a better idea of how to talk to my audience and what to offer them. Good stuff!
Method 3: Creating a Prospect List
Once you’ve defined the industry you want to reach and who you want to connect with, ChatGPT can help you generate a list of specific companies that fall within your target audience.
For example, I asked for 10 SaaS companies that are likely to use freelance copywriters, and ChatGPT gave me this:
- Salesforce
- Zendesk
- Asana
- Slack
- Intercom
- Trello
- Dropbox
- Buffer
- Zoom
- Hootsuite
You don’t have to limit your request for a list of prospects to 10. You could ask for 20, 50, or a 100.
Even better, for each prospect on the list, you can ask ChatGPT who fills the roll of content-marketing manager or marketing director. It won’t give you contact details, but it may give you a name. And with a name, you can reach out on LinkedIn or reach out to the company directly asking for a way to get in touch with that specific person.
In the course of an hour (or less), ChatGPT can help you identify a viable market, define the biggest problems you can help that market solve, and provide ideas on how to package your services in a way that will appeal to your audience. You can even build a list of companies to approach and find the names of the exact people you want to reach.
Using ChatGPT in this way is like being handed a treasure map to your next paying project. Give it a shot! And tell us in the comments how you’re using ChatGPT to help you find and land better, high-paying clients.
