Spent the day at Mal Emery’s “Sydney Platinum Intensive”. The Platinum program is Mal’s high end coaching group and they have regular get-togethers throughout the year.
A number of my clients are in the platinum group and I was grateful for an invite to drop in.
Interestingly, the main focus of this event was…
…copywriting!
Mal has always been strongly of the view that copywriting is one of the most valuable business skills to possess.
Now, the bulk of the Platinum members are business owners rather than pure copywriters.
And Mal’s message is that even if a business owner doesn’t intend to write copy themselves, as a minimum they need to understand what’s good (effective) copy and what isn’t.
Totally agree with that and in fact that’s a good thing for copywriters, in my opinion.
That’s because projects can then become a collaborative effort between the client and the copywriter.
Now, there are a number of benefits for copywriters to attending marketing conferences…
1. Firstly, as a copywriter you need to understand direct response marketing. I’d suggest it’s virtually impossible to be a good copywriter (let alone a great copywriter) without being a good marketer.
2. Secondly, it’s a great opportunity to network, renew connections with existing clients and meet potential new clients.
After all, the people who attend marketing events should understand direct response marketing and understand and have a need for copywriters.
Couple of caveats, however.
It used to be that few copywriters would attend marketing conferences. Now, some conferences seem saturated with copywriters looking for leads and their usefulness for finding business has diminished.
Secondly, you need to keep in mind the quality of the people attending the conference.
At many of the more basic marketing conferences, many of the people attending are not good prospects for copywriting services.
On the other hand, people who are part of something like Mal’s Platinum group are much better prospects.
They’ve demonstrated that they’re serious about their business, they understand the value of good copy and they have the money to spend.
So, if you’re a copywriter looking for potential clients, conferences can be a great source of leads. But you should select which events to attend carefully.