4 Types of clients every freelance copywriter should avoid
Every experienced copywriter has met at least one client who left a lot of unpleasant memories.
If you are a rookie in the copywriting army, any of these below mentioned clients may step into your dreamful yard anytime, ruin your happy moments, and leave.
Before jumping into the list, let me tell you a bad experience that I faced in my initial days of Copywriting (when I was curiously seeking clients on freelance platforms like Fiverr ).
His name was Mr. X, approached my inbox, asking for a copy for his newly launched website. My hands were about to write some gloriously welcoming words, and that’s when he put forward a long list of requirements.
The whole text was carrying nothing but a bunch of commands. He was not friendly at all and kept questioning my level of skills whenever I reached him to discuss my confusion points regarding the project. Overall, he was a bad bad mofo.
But honestly speaking, this person had opened my eyes and left some great lessons. Thereafter, I met so many As*h*le clients, but the only difference was I clearly knew which clients I had to say NO to. Here comes my first type of client you should always be avoiding.
1. The Boss-alike clients
If you struggle saying NO, now that’s a big big problem. That’s the reason hundreds of thousands of employees suffer and sadly swallow the tortures and pressures imposed by the bosses. At some points, the employees start pretending themselves as worthless and maybe slaves. SAD.
You are a Freelance Copywriter. And the Term Free is sparkling like the Proxima Centauri. You are the steering-wheel-holder of your JOB; you are the one who supposed to sell skills, not to get involved in some BOSS-EMPLOYEE game.
So if you find a client who has a commanding tone like “Do this. Don’t do it. Do that again. Why did you do that? Finish the task fast. I will not accept any mistakes. and so on...” Simply Say a Big NO to that piece of Yawk (I have absolutely no idea about this word).
Why don’t you read the book named The Art Of Saying NO by Damon Zahariades (Buy from Amazon) to realize some of the magical powers of saying NO.
Next comes…..
2. The Idiots
There’s a special criterion of clients, who only know that they know that they need Copywriters who basically are not Copywriters but Genies who know everything already about their projects and can accomplish their task in a snap.
“I NEED A Newsletter about my Bla-Bla chocolate brand.”
Never ever work for any client who doesn’t have a clear idea about their own business. Even if the client offers good bucks, you should not be agreeing by any means before they answer your queries clearly. If you find the clients not aware of their own business moto, then what the hell are you going to serve the money-wasters? There are some Copywriters’ ethics too, right?
3. The Sceptics
A sceptic client is the one who is not sure about what could please his/her needs. The problem doing any project with these sorts of clients is that they will never give clear feedback. Instead, they will always remain skeptical about the project, and will have loads of doubts. Now that’s an issue because any project that you do with these types of clients will never see a happy ending.
How do you detect them before hopping into the project? The samples, they’ll always give unclear feedback about the samples you show them. They’ll keep reminding you of your writing-deficits, they’ll always keep coming back to you with new doubts, even if you make things clear to them. That can also be a reason of why showing samples can be helpful for Copywriting service providers too.
4. The Bargainers
Arguing is relevant when the costs seem high compared to the service or products. However, you’ll find some clients who would always try to pay you the least but wants to get a great piece of art from you. That’s the way they perceive ‘Winning’ ; they’ll never be able to realize that’s not winning in anyways; that’s basically killing a relationship even before it kicks-off.
Eventually
I have arranged this shortlist based on my personal Freelance Copywriting experience. If you are comfortable working with any of these types of clients, I mean, I don’t really have any problem with that. All I tried was to pass my takings from a full-time freelance writing career to you, that’s all.
Eventually, let me recommend you a book about dealing clients as a newbie freelancer, Freelance Newbie by Real Tough Candy (Buy this book from Amazon).
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