Ashley had always wanted to start her own business but discovered her passion for persuasive writing not before she worked for a web designer for whom she handled business development and marketing. After this job she decided to freelance. Since then she had not thought about going back to fulltime employment once. For her the most important thing that you need to have is a huge amount of faith in yourself, in your talent and in your ability to keep going despite what others may think or try to tell you…(1) Firstly, can you tell our users a bit about yourself and what you do?
Hello Freelancermap! I’m Ashley Hoyland, and I’m from Sheffield in the UK. I’m a copywriter specialising in writing sales emails and website copy for businesses. Basically, I write in a way that makes people want to buy things. It’s persuasive writing mixed with psychology and storytelling. I split my time between writing copy and consulting for businesses (I tell them how they can improve their writing).
I’ve been freelancing for about 7 months now and I love the freedom it brings. My clients tend to ask me to write sales emails. Sales emails are huge at the moment as they’re such a great way to market yourself to clients people don’t tend to ignore an email, especially if it has a catchy headline. I’m about to write an article on how to create great headlines, so keep an eye on my blog if you need help with this.
(2) What was your inspiration and when did you actually decide to become a freelancer?
I’ve always wanted my own business (since being a little girl) I just wasn’t sure what I’d like to base the business around. I ended up studying law at university as I knew legal skills would be good to have later on. After graduating I worked for a law firm (putting my business dream on hold to try a ‘real’ job), but I left after two years because I wasn’t enjoying it.
I started working for a web designer that wanted to grow his business into an agency. The job ad wanted ‘someone entrepreneurial’ so I applied right away to see what would happen. Although my skills were mostly legal, the web designer was happy to let me learn on the job. He was more interested in my entrepreneurial nature. I handled business development and marketing, which meant I did all of the copywriting. It didn’t take me long to realise I LOVED it, because I have a passion for writing, psychology and being creative, but I never put the three together as a potential skill until I was introduced to copywriting.
I began to study all that I could get my hands on to do with copywriting and found that I was getting pretty good at it. After almost a year with the company, the web designer decided to go back to freelancing alone, so I took this as an opportunity to make the jump and set up my own company.
(3) Do you sometimes think about going back to fulltime employment and what are your career goals for the future?
I don’t think about full time employment because since starting my own business I know I can never go back. Yes, being responsible for your own income is scary and stressful at times, but it is far outweighed by the freedom of being your own boss. I think you have to be overly optimistic to succeed by yourself, so thinking about going back to full time employment is something I avoid.
In the future, my aim is grow Hoyland Ink (my company) into a media / communications agency. The focus will be on creative campaigns that engage audiences using storytelling alongside authentic, inspiring content. Copywriting will still be at the heart of the business, because this is essential for reaching an audience and getting them to act.
(4) What was the most challenging obstacle when starting your own business?
Learning how to be disciplined enough to manage myself. When you leave employment, there’s no one to make you accountable for the amount of work you get through. It’s so easy to feel like you’re on holiday and think “I’ll do that later…”. With so much to do when you first start (you’re responsible for everything) being disciplined with yourself, your time and your health is a must.
(5) How do you set yourself apart from your competitors?
When I first meet clients, my intention is always to find out how copywriting can help them achieve their business goals. If I don’t think I can offer value, I don’t work with the client. I arrange an initial consultation to find out what the client wants to achieve, and how I can use my copywriting skills to help do this. Once I know the problem the client is trying to solve I can offer a solution that will be valuable to their business, rather than blindly churning out a random piece of copy and hoping for the best. I find that by discussing the problem with the client, I’m able to offer solutions they didn’t think of initially.
(6) Let’s go for a question which might be interesting for all newbie freelancers and Startups. How do you find new clients?
I have a small email list that I’m growing all the time. I’ve had a few sign ups from my website but the majority of my list is made up of people I’ve met at networking events. I find it’s a great way to keep in touch with them, and keep me in their minds should they need copywriting in the future. That brings me to networking. This is one of the main ways that I meet new clients and contacts. As a small business owner this is the best way I’ve found to grow my network and let people know what I offer. If you need help with networking you should see this article I recently did for Freelancer Map. Most people dislike networking and don’t find it very helpful, but I find it’s important because they go with the mindset of selling. If you go with the view of making new friends and connections, you’ll find it’s much more useful.
When I’m at networking events, I offer free consultations to companies I’d like to work with that I think I can help. This allows them to get a glimpse at my writing style and gives them a few ideas they can apply to their business. Doing this also establishes trust, which is great when I’m trying to attract new clients.
(7) Can you provide any Marketing tips and tricks for freelancers?
Don’t underestimate the power of email marketing. Many people rely on social media but they don’t realise that email marketing is so much more effective. Think about it, social media is easy to ignore or skim through, but most of us will read an email in our inbox. It’s more personal. You might be thinking ‘well that’s great but I don’t have a list’ that might currently be the case but we all have to start somewhere. Everyone with an email list of 1000’s once started from nothing. If you can keep slowly adding to your list, you’ll be surprised at the results you get. Even if you have a list of 10 people but one responds and wants to work with you, surely that’s a great result. So don’t get disheartened and keep adding to your list, you’ll be amazed who’ll find value in your emails and how they forward it to people that aren’t on your list.
(8) How do you manage the pressure of meeting deadlines? Do you use any specific apps or software tools for selforganization, invoicing and something else?
I never take on more clients that I can confidently handle. By that, I mean I make sure I leave enough time to do a great job for each client. I also keep in contact with my clients and give them regular updates so everyone knows what they’re doing. Apps I use are? Dropbox, Google for Business and Todoist. I find too many apps can reduce my productivity so I like to focus on just a few. The software tools I use are Trello (for organisation), KashFlow (for invoicing / accounts) and Brain.fm (amazing aid for concentration).
(9) What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about starting a freelance career? And what does it takes to be successful as a freelancer?
I’d say think about the reasons why you want to become a freelancer before you make the leap. If it’s only about the money, I don’t think it’s a good idea (although obviously money will be a factor). If it’s because you value the freedom of being your own boss, you are passionate about what you do and don’t want your days to be the same then go for it!
I’m not entirely sure what it takes to be a successful freelancer because we’re all different and we all define success in different ways. One thing I will say, is that you need to have a huge amount of faith in yourself, in your talent(s) and in your ability to keep going until it starts to happen for you. Despite what others may think or try to tell you.
(10) Last but not least, what are the top three books, blogs or magazines you read to stay up to date in the ITmarket?
I occasionally dip into TechCrunch, Mashable and Wired magazine.
(11) Freestyle! Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
For anyone that wants to know more about copywriting, I would recommend taking a look at copyblogger and registering for the site (it’s free) to get access to their great range of ebooks. You should also read ‘Advertising Secrets of the Written Word’ By Joseph Sugarman if you can get hold of it. If not, anything by David Ogilvy is brilliant for shining a light on the way copywriters think.
If you’d like regular tips on how to improve your copywriting, you can also sign up to my email lessons here (just scroll to the bottom of the home page). The last thing I’d like to mention is a site called Appsumo. I find a lot of great tools here that have really helped my business. If you sign up for their emails you’ll receive lots of offers on courses, software and apps. Sometimes they give things away for free which is great! One of their last offers was for recording and video editing software called Camtasia try it out, you’ll soon be hooked.
How to find Ashley:
Website: www.hoylandink.com
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/copywritingexpert
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoylandInk
