Do Ad/Marketing Agencies use freelance writers?

[OptimalWord]

Hi there,

Since lockdown I've been dabbling in 'copywriting', I use the term loosely as I seem to have solely secured content-writing gigs, I have quite a few years of experience in manufacturing and have been using that experience to write blog posts for manufacturing companies. A little bit technical, little bit persuasive, but mostly it's about keywords, links, and all that SEO stuff.

I'm happy with the niche I've carved, and I'm happy with the rate I'm getting, but all my work so far has been through UpWork. It seems being verified as a UK native helps a lot in winning work there.

I see many manufacturing companies that have blogs and 'news' sections on their website that I could help them with, but they're often very hard to contact, and usually, even the people in charge don't know what a copy/content writer is, as they use a marketing expert to handle it all.

So I tried contacting marketing agencies and have had little interest. Just wondering if I need to keep improving my approach (email copy and image) or if its just that these agencies are reluctant to hire the services of freelance writers?

Also, what margins are they typically working at? One of my long-term clients pays me £110 per article flat rate, typically 1,000 words (I don't charge per word don't worry!) and with a decent amount of information and relevancy, with the usual SEO focus. That said I've never actually got as far as discussing rates.

Anyone with experience of agencies that can shed light?

Thanks!

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Hi there,

Since lockdown I've been dabbling in 'copywriting', I use the term loosely as I seem to have solely secured content-writing gigs, I have quite a few years of experience in manufacturing and have been using that experience to write blog posts for manufacturing companies. A little bit technical, little bit persuasive, but mostly it's about keywords, links, and all that SEO stuff.

I'm happy with the niche I've carved, and I'm happy with the rate I'm getting, but all my work so far has been through UpWork. It seems being verified as a UK native helps a lot in winning work there.

I see many manufacturing companies that have blogs and 'news' sections on their website that I could help them with, but they're often very hard to contact, and usually, even the people in charge don't know what a copy/content writer is, as they use a marketing expert to handle it all.

So I tried contacting marketing agencies and have had little interest. Just wondering if I need to keep improving my approach (email copy and image) or if its just that these agencies are reluctant to hire the services of freelance writers?

Also, what margins are they typically working at? One of my long-term clients pays me £110 per article flat rate, typically 1,000 words (I don't charge per word don't worry!) and with a decent amount of information and relevancy, with the usual SEO focus. That said I've never actually got as far as discussing rates.

Anyone with experience of agencies that can shed light?

Thanks!

Video production here. Yes, some agencies use freelance copywriters. And even big agencies with established in-house video production teams use my little business to film for them.

The last agency project I worked on was about 80% freelancers (there were about 10 of us) because there was a pocket of pressure. And that ranged from copywriting to video.

 

[graze12]

Without a doubt. We use freelance copywriters for our agency continuously - detrimental to the performance of our clients paid advertising.

 

[ethical PR]

£10 for a 1000 article is ridiculously cheap. Why would you charge those sort of rates?

And yes marketing and advertising agencies do use copywriters on a freelance basis. Ad copy is a specific skills set so they would expect you to have relevant experience in this area.

For marketing and PR agencies they would expect copywriters to have relevant experience in everything from annual report writing to promotional literature and copy for blogs etc.

 

[breanna.evans]

Many shops stick to in-house teams to protect their margins, but your real "in" is that manufacturing background. Most agency editors spend half their lives fixing technical errors from generalist writers; if you pitch yourself as the expert, you’re solving their biggest problem.

At £110 per article, you’re actually a bit of a bargain for them. Most UK agencies will be billing the client £300–£500 per post, so your rate leaves them with a large margin. Try targeting Content Leads on LinkedIn instead of generic info@ boxes. Sell the fact that you won't need your hand held through a technical brief.