Why Should People Hire You to Fill Their Freelance Writing Jobs?

Many beginning writers figure that as long as they can string a few sentences together, people are going to hire them for freelance writing jobs. That seems to be especially true on the Web, where content writers are becoming a dime a dozen. If you want to move beyond that and earn a more serious income from your writing, you have to be able to convince potential clients that you’re the best writer for the writing job they have available.

If you’re familiar with marketing, you may have heard the terms “unique selling proposition” or “unique selling point.” As a freelancer in any discipline, including freelance writing, you also should have a USP. Here are a few examples of unique selling propositions that a freelance writer might have going for them when being considered for a freelance writing job:

1. The writer has a deeper knowledge of, or background in, the topic of the writing job than others being considered. For example, if the writing gig is for a corporate white paper, someone with 10 years of experience writing white papers for major corporations in the same industry as the hiring client, would have an obvious selling point that more general business writers wouldn’t have. In cases like this, clients usually don’t factor in things like price as much, because they’ll happily pay for that experience.

2. The writer is able to offer comparable experience in the niche or industry, and in writing, as competitors while offering a lower price. Some clients will always look at price as their deciding factor. Keep in mind however, that in some markets, prices that are too low make a writer look inexperienced. Know your market when you choose your USP.

3. Perhaps you have industry connections that would make you ideal for a writing job, which other competing writers don’t have. Then that might be your USP for the particular gig. For example, if someone’s looking to hire a music writer, and you have close contacts in several major record labels, you have an edge.

As a writer, you should have a basic USP that you use in all of your marketing efforts… it’s essentially how you want yourself to come across to potential clients with available freelance writing jobs. Do you want to be known as the inexpensive writer who can offer a decent value? Do you prefer to be the writer who offers “premium” work, and your higher prices reflect that extra value? Do you prefer to be the writer with a proven expertise in your niche specialty, as opposed to more general writers?

Choose your USP early on. If you don’t, you can’t properly identify your target market of potential clients, and you can’t effectively market your services. You can always tweak your message to individual writing gigs as they come up if you need to. Just don’t forget to set your base USP, and then live up to it.