I opened my LinkedIn feed and what I saw made me sad....

This morning I made my coffee, emptied the dishwasher, made breakfast for the twins, and while my husband took them to school, I fired up my laptop.

(I didn’t fire it up, I never turn off my laptop but I wanted to say that!)

Well, I opened LinkedIn and saw this:

Deeksha goes on to say,

“I have never seen designers, editors and photographers getting rejected for not knowing how to write. Its so frustrating because even if I am ready to upskill myself, no firm is ready to invest their time in training a candidate. They need someone perfect!”

Many of the commenters told her that if she doesn’t know SEO then she isn’t a good enough writer.

Ouch….that was harsh.

And, that made me sad because this implies as a freelance writer or content writer, I have HAVE to be cut-throat.

We HAVE to be constantly upleveling our:

• Work

• Marketing efforts

• LinkedIn strategy

• Pitching strategy

• Writing skills

• and more

I’ve always said in the decade of writing online, that as a freelancer we are NEVER in competition.

Yes, I know, it may look or feel that way when you read this post and wonder why you didn’t land the gig.

But here me out –

Companies that value writers actually want to hire writers that align with their vision.

If they don’t hire you, well they aren’t the CLIENT for YOU.

That’s okay because there are clients for you out there!

Change Your Mindset

When I pitch my copywriting services and they tell me I have to write social media posts and create ad copy, I’m going to jump at this opportunity even though I’m not THAT familiar with creating a Facebook or LinkedIn ad.

Deeksha looked at this experience negatively. She feels she is lacking, and that’s what’s sad.

When I’m approached by businesses that ask me to do things outside of my wheelhouse I JUMP at the opportunity.

I want to LEARN and GROW in my career.

My recent client asked me if I used Asana, and I told them I haven’t but I’ll be sure to familiarize myself with it (i.e. watch a YouTube video).

I still got the gig.

Why? Because I was WILLING to learn.

Know Your Boundaries

I’ll be the first to say that I’m not just going to bend over backwards and say yes to having clients constantly emailing me or messaging me or demand a ton of work for little pay.

I know my boundaries and I hope you do to.

But if you don’t create those boundaries you WILL burn out and you don’t want that.

Check out my post on how to manage your stress as a freelancer.

Even if you don’t have ALL THE THINGS like SEO, knowing Asana, knowing Google Analytics, WordPress, ClickUp etc.. You can still stand out and land that gig.

So now the question begs – how the heck do you stand out on LinkedIn or when you pitch?

Since this is a LinkedIn marketing newsletter, let’s put all our eggs into standing out on this platform.

My Methods to Stand Out on LinkedIn

1. Speak to your clients – it’ll do you no good if you don’t comment on other people’s posts. Share helpful advice and watch content leads and editors flock to your post.

Ashley Cummings usually has founders, content leads and editors reply to her posts.

And the more help you provide in your posts and comments, the more likelihood those founders will connect with you.

2. Share your expertise – To wow potential clients you need to show off your writing and marketing skills. Remember why clients hired you….it wasn’t because you can write; it’s because you ease their content bottleneck or you add credibility with your expertise or you just make it easy for them to do what they LOVE to do within their business.

So share what you do for clients in a LinkedIn post and use hashtags and a call-to-action.

Here’s an example of a LinkedIn post I wrote to share my expertise for clients.

I do variations of these types of posts and will get DM’s in my inbox.

3. Make your profile look more professional – What I mean is:

• Do you have a customized image banner showing relevant marketing tactics like your title and who you serve?

• Does your LinkedIn title have ALL the things you do for clients?

• Did you create a company page for your writer website?

When you go to my LinkedIn profile and click on the image next to my writer website, you go to a company page like this.

All of these will help you stand out!

Heads up: On Wednesday May 8th I’m going to share how my latest pitching challenge is doing over on my Freelance Creator Files newsletter (paid). Hint: it isn’t what I expected…

Come join this cozy private community!

For my next newsletter, I’m talking about a “hot” new service: ghostwriting on LinkedIn.

Until next time ~

Elna