How To Land $98,000 In Retainer Writing Contracts in 3 Months
This just happened at the end of 2020…
Last year was supposed to be one of the most difficult times for businesses. And while it certainly was for specific industries, like the restaurant business, to blanket term “hard times” for all businesses was far from the truth.
At the end of 2020, I helped 5 writers land over $98,000 in retainer writing contracts. They agreed to write 4+ articles per month for clients and had contracts that ranged from 3 months to 12 months.
I coached the writers through 8-weeks of my 1:1 program, the Client Acquisition System, that taught them how to use cold pitching to get clients. I helped them with their responses and made sure they didn’t sign one-time projects—they could only work in retainer contracts.
What made it possible for them to sign $98,000 in the most tumultuous year content writing as a profession has ever existed in?
I’ve narrowed it down to 5 reasons these writers were able to quit their full-time jobs, get paid $275 per article as brand new writers with no previous client experience, and even make a goal of reaching $100,000/year.
Reason #1: Cold Pitches Have To Be About The Brand
It is dangerously easy to make a cold pitch all about you as the writer. It’s tempting to litter your cold pitch with samples of your work and explain, in detail, your content writing experience.
Here’s the thing: brands don’t care. At all. What they want to see if that you understand:
- Their product
- Their market
- Their offer
As long as your cold pitch shows that you know those 3 things, you’re going to be able to get their attention.
Reason #2: Accountability Is King
Everyone has goals, but how many people reach them? We all know someone who said they were going to do something and never did it (or that someone was us). As a coach, I talk to writers who decide not to enroll in the Client Acquisition System. In the 8 weeks of CAS, those 5 writers enrolled closed over $98,000 in retainer contracts.
When I follow up with the writers who didn’t enroll in CAS, they haven’t gotten new clients, they’re not even close to the income goals we talked about, or they can’t figure out how to get responses to their cold pitches.
If you don’t have accountability to make progress towards your goal of being a writer, there’s a tiny, sliver of a chance you’ll get there. Even if I were to give you the entire CAS curriculum, 97% of people wouldn’t even finish the program. That’s a benchmark standard for how many people complete courses they’ve bought. In CAS, I give writers the accountability to stick to their trainings, to finding clients to cold pitch, and to sending those pitches out.
No more excuses.
#3: You’re Prioritizing The Wrong Things
How many times have you thought about having a newsletter? As a writer, you’re probably thinking—I have to have a newsletter.
If you ask me, you don’t need to have a newsletter until you have enough income to support yourself from writing. If your goal is to work with clients and have a personal writing brand, client work comes BEFORE your personal brand.
Why?
Prioritizing cold pitching clients and working on paid articles gives you an income, fast.
Trying to grow your newsletter requires a lot of work. There are marketing agencies built around audience growth for brands that charge 5+ figures monthly for their services. As a writer, you can worry about all of the tactics and strategies necessary to grow your personal brand (call to actions, lead magnets, opt-ins, funnels, etc.) once your income is steady and predictable.
Prioritize what gives you income, work on your personal brand right after that.
#4: Shiny Object Syndrome Has Taken Over Your Life
Analysis paralysis is when you have so many opportunities, you become paralyzed to take an action on any of them. This is happening to us every day. Take one scroll through Medium and you’re finding article after article about how to make money from writing. The thing is, everyone has different advice because everyone has their own path to becoming a writer.
This creates Shiny Object Syndrome. You try to implement one strategy you read about, then you lack the accountability to see it through to the end result, so you hop to another strategy in another article you read, and so on, and so on. I see this day in, and day out with people trying to become writers.
That’s where a program like CAS comes in. When you’re forced to focus on one strategy (like cold pitching clients) until you reach your writing goal—something crazy happens.
You actually reach it.
Focus on one strategy to take yourself from wanting to be a writer to becoming a writer, and you’re going to reach your goal.
It’s seriously that simple.
#5: You Don’t Believe In Yourself
Confidence comes with time. Or it comes with having someone show you that you’re good enough to be a writer and have clients. Past CAS writers who hadn’t ever worked with clients before, were totally unconfident to pitch clients because they didn’t know what to do afterwards.
What happens if they respond…now what?
Not believing in yourself is normal. Every single person goes through this at some point in their life. The most resilient people go through this a few times and quickly realize they can do anything they wan to, as long as they hold themselves accountable to it.
Chances are you’ve tried to write before, you didn’t follow through with it, and now you feel like it’s not possible *for you.* That’s so far from the truth—you just need the guidance and accountability that gets you messages like,
“We would love to work with you” in your inbox.
Clients need writers and you have a valuable skill they’re looking for.
What does it take to land $98,000 in retainer writing contracts in 3 months?
- Remember that cold pitches are about the brand, not you
- Figure out an accountability system, buddy, or work with a coach
- Prioritize income over views
- Stop Shiny Object Syndrome (please!)
- Realize clients are in need of your talents
If you’ve been sitting and waiting to work with writing clients, to send invoices at the end of each month, and to get paid for your writing work—CAS will help you.
Here’s what we’ll do in the 8-weeks of the Client Acquisition System.
Don’t fall into the mindset that hard times mean your writing dreams have to be put on hold. I know 5 writers who didn’t, and they’re very happy with their decision.
