TCC Podcast #223: The Ins and Outs of Cold Pitching with Chris Collins

Copywriter and philosophy graduate, Chris Collins is our guest for the 223rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. He's a member of the Underground and the Copywriter Think Tank so we've seen first hand how cold pitching has transformed his copywriting career and helped him get the clients he wants.  We knew this is something we wanted to hear more about directly from Chris, so we asked him about... •   how being a mommy blogger launched his career •   how he saved himself hours of time streamlining his pitching process and scaling it •   how he got past his fear of cold pitching •   exactly how many emails should you send to your email list? •   the importance of building relationships versus up leveling yourself •   why just learning “stuff” isn’t enough •   what to do if you don’t have money to invest in yourself or your business •   why research is critical for a stand-out cold pitch •   Chris's highest converting subject line – averaging over a 90% open rate •   how he combines automating with personalization •   his not-so-secret shortcut for how he built his copywriting business from 0-10K per month in the same year •   his advice on pitching if you’ve never had a client •   what his graduate studies in philosophy taught him about strengthening his copy •   what he did right in the beginning of his business that you should too •   Rob and Kira’s advice on getting started and dealing with rejection To hear more of what Chris has to say, scroll down and hit the play button. Keep scrolling for a full transcript and, of course, you can subscribe with your favorite podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: reply.io The Copywriter Think Tank The Copywriter Accelerator Chris's LinkedIn christophercollins.co Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:   There's an old cartoon that was published in the New Yorker Magazine of a dog in front of a computer, and the caption says, "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." That might ring true for a lot of copywriters who write for clients in voices that don't quite match their own, like our guest for the 223rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Chris Collins, whose first assignment was writing content for a mommy blogger. In real life, Chris is an academic, doesn't have kids and gravitates to philosophy, not family planning. We asked Chris how he transitioned from mommy blogger to SAS, and in the process, he revealed a ton of tips about the ins and outs of cold pitching. Rob:   But before we dive into Chris's story, this episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Accelerator. That's our program for copywriters who want to build a solid business foundation for everything that they do. Members of The Accelerator work through eight different modules together, and those modules cover topics like branding, pricing, client management, getting yourself in front of the right clients, and a lot more. If you've struggled to get transaction in your business, or you're making a change in the kinds of clients that you want to work with, the kind of work that you want to do, or any other thing in your business, you simply want to get better at your processes and the services that you sell, you owe it to yourself to learn more at thecopywriteraccelerator.com. Kira:   Let's jump in with a question about how Chris got started as a copywriter/ mommy blogger. Chris Collins:   My first gig was being a mommy blogger, and that wasn't necessarily where I wanted to be as a writer or where I wanted to start out, but it was just honestly the first gig that I got. I had just been thinking, "Well, maybe I can try my hand at writing online. I'm a pretty good writer. Let's see how that'll go." And the first client I found, she ran a sleep consultancy to help new moms. And she was looking for a blog writer and I sent he...