How to Develop Effective Proofreading Marketing Strategies

As a freelancer, you might be the absolute best proofreader the world has ever known. You can catch every error. You can spot any misspelling from a mile away. And you can do it all in half the time of a mere mortal.

But if no one knows you exist, it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to find paying clients. That is what makes knowing how to develop effective proofreading marketing strategies so important for your freelance proofreading business.

Thankfully, when it comes to marketing strategies for your proofreading services, the good news is you don’t have to be an advertising genius. Nor do you need a degree or work history in marketing. 

There are some simple things you can do to write marketing copy that is good enough to get the job done—and more importantly, copy that will help you land clients.

Focus on the value to the customer

If you’ve ever written a cover letter for a job, it’s likely you’ve fallen for the trap of talking about your strengths. You may very well have written a letter that includes content like this:

“I would be perfect for this job. I am a hard worker, I come in early and stay late, and I’ve always got a smile on my face.”

While those are admirable qualities indeed, the problem is vague generalities like this 1) don’t separate you from the pack and 2) don’t tell a potential employer how you will help them.

In that respect, writing marketing copy is the same as writing a good cover letter. You must tell potential clients what you can do for them. Your copy needs to answer the question, “Why should I hire you?”

This doesn’t mean you can’t focus on your strengths—in fact, the opposite is true; your strengths are your selling points—but it does mean you need to spin your strengths in a way that speaks to their value to the client. 

So rather than saying you are a hard worker (who isn’t?), focus on what you can or will do for a potential proofreading client. 

Project confidence

But before you start typing up your marketing copy, it’s not just what you say that matters. It’s also important how you say it. Consider the following paragraph, for instance:

“When you hire me, you’re getting superior service at a fair price. I will find and fix every error and have every document back to you on or ahead of deadlines. I can work to CMOS, AP, or any internal style guide, but most importantly, I will make your content shine.”

If you were a client, would you be more likely to hire this freelancer or the one who “always comes to work with a smile”?

Spend some time thinking about how your strengths tie into addressing potential clients’ needs. Then work on ways to express those strengths with confidence by:

• Being specific. “I am well versed in British English” addresses a need; “I’m good at proofreading” does not.
• Not assuming the client understands the value you bring. You are the expert at proofreading, not the client. So tell them exactly what you can do for them.
• Being direct. Don’t hedge or beat around the bush. Be professional yet matter-of-fact. Hedging projects a lack of confidence—something no one is looking for when hiring a proofreader!

More tips for writing good proofreading marketing copy

Although any good marketer will tell you there is a lot more to marketing than this, if you can even just focus on value to the customer and projecting confidence, you can write good marketing copy. 

This includes cover letters, job proposals, social media posts, emails, and anything else. Whether you are applying for a job on a site like Upwork or writing content for your social media feed, the concepts—and even verbiage—are much the same: talk about the value you bring and project an air of confidence.

A few more tips for writing good copy include:

• Keep it short. Prospective clients don’t want to read a novel; they want to know how you can help them—and they want to know as fast as possible.
• Keep it interesting. Use short words and the active voice. Tell a story if it makes sense. Talk about how you can fix a client’s pain point. Find any way you can to keep the focus on the client, not you. 
• Include a call to action (CTA). End every email/post/letter with a call to action. This could be a leading question (“Is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. a good time to call?”), a command (“Click here to read more”), or a positive statement (“I look forward to working with you on this project!”). Create the expectation for the potential client to do something.

Wrapping it up: How to develop effective proofreading marketing strategies

Becoming a successful freelance proofreader requires a degree of business acumen, and that includes marketing know-how. Thankfully, the basics are not hard to grasp or implement.

When it comes to how to develop effective proofreading marketing strategies, focus on creating content that confidently showcases your strengths in a way that makes clear the value you bring to the table. Then use that content in your job proposals, social media, emails, or anywhere else you interact with potential clients.