The most important asset for your freelance writing career
The psychological weapon behind good persuasion.
Welcome to the 10th edition of The Essence!
You can have a slick website, years of writing experience, and the best strategy. But without social proof, you’re still a nobody.
Companies and editors of reputable publications don’t like to work with nobodies. They want writers who, besides having the skills, they have proof to show that they do.
Why should a stranger trust your skills and expertise? Of course, you’d say you’re so good. But why should readers, prospects, and editors believe that?
That’s where social proof comes in. Aaron Orendorff wrote in his guest posting guide:
“As I began devouring the likes of Copyblogger, Neil Patel, MarketingProfs… I noticed a unifying ingredient on their sites: logos. Logos depicting where they’d published and clients they’d worked for. Logos that screamed social proof: “These companies and people trust me. They gave me money. You should too.”
After realizing the immense influence of social proof, Orendorff went on a hunt for logos. He ended up with bylines in Forbes, Inc., and many other top sites.
“Guest blogging was the primary sales funnel that grew my freelance writing business from nothing to six figures in a year and a half.
It gave me authority and social proof (when — to put it bluntly — I didn’t deserve either).”
Writers in Charge’s CEO also realized the power of social proof after he was featured in a major media site:
“Clients who insisted that they won’t pay half the rate I asked for suddenly started offering to pay more once they found out that I’ve been featured in a major media site.”
He went on to write that social poof or credibility is the most important asset you can have as a freelance writer.
But how to get social proof?
First, what is social proof? According to marketer Shanelle Mullin, in a business setting, it’s essentially borrowing third-party influence to sway potential customers.
When you name-drop the big companies you’ve worked with, you borrow their influence. If you have worked with Google, and you mention this on your website, you’re borrowing Google’s influence.
Steal these ideas to get social proof
Publish a book. (Preferably traditionally. But since it can be difficult, self-publishing with a solid marketing strategy could also be a wise choice.)
Certifications, awards, or degrees. (It took me like two weeks to get HubSpot’s Inbound, Email, and Content Marketing certifications.)
Use your accomplishments to establish some social proof. (e.g., if you have written a landing page with a high conversion rate, get a testimonial from that client, and display it on your website.)
Build a loyal audience online. (If 500 joined your email list, it means 500 have found your work valuable enough to give you their email addresses.)
As I mentioned in my social proof article, there are three keys to building an audience. The first is quality, then consistency, and lastly, patience. Or as Ali Abdaal—7-figure online entrepreneur—detailed:
Produce useful content for your audience.
Post on YouTube—it also applies to other platforms—at least weekly.
Repeat this process for at least two years
This was like a summary of my social proof article. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, read it here.
Until next time,
Mohammed