TCC Podcast #191: Standing Out on Social Media with Kaitlyn Parker

Copywriter Kaitlyn Parker is our guest for the 191st episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. We got to know Kaitlyn a bit better at this years IRL event where she took more than 35 pages of notes, recording the most important ideas and tactics that the speakers shared. We asked her why she did that as well as a lot of questions about how she's grown her business. Here's most of what we covered: •  how she turned a social media gig with LuluLemon into her current role as a copywriter •  what she does to make social media effective for her business •  how often she posts on instagram (and the size of her audience) •  how to make “copy” posts work on visual media like Instagram or Pinterest •  whether hiring a photographer for social images is worth it or not… ROI? •  how Kaitlyn comes up with the images for her brand •  her process for helping clients develop and dial in their brands •  the packages and deliverables she offers to her clients •  how her prices have evolved as her business has grown •  what her client relationships look like—retainers versus one-time projects •  how clients find her… it’s not all from social media •  the #1 thing she’s gotten from attending live events •  her biggest take away from TCCIRL and the speaker who made the most difference in her biz •  how she manages her time and projects (and the tools she uses) •  what she thinks the future of copywriting looks like If you've ever struggled to effectively capture your brand on social media, you won't want to miss this episode. To hear it, click the button below, or download it to your favorite podcast app. Readers scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: TCCIRL Sage Polaris Mike Kim Kaitlyn's website Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:   This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Underground. The place to find more than 20 templates, dozens of presentations on topics like copywriting, and marketing your business. A community of successful writers, who share ideas and leads, and The Copywriter Club newsletter, mailed directly to your home every month. Learn more at thecopywriterunderground.com. Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts? Ask them about their success and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work, that's what Kira and I do every week, at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Kira:   You're invited to join the club for episode 191, as we chat with copywriter, Kaitlyn Parker about her career path, the importance of branding and social media in growing her business. Why she took 37 pages of notes at TCC in real life, and the process she uses to get crystal clear messaging for her clients. Kira:   Welcome Kaitlyn. Rob:   Hey Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn:   Hey, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you. Kira:   Yeah, we're excited that you're here. We met you at TCC in real life in San Diego. Kaitlyn:   The timing of that was just wild. I don't think any of us knew that it was going to turn into all of this. And here we are, barely have left our houses since then. Kira:   Yeah. Who knew? Craziness. Okay, so Kaitlyn, let's kick this off with your story. How did you end up as a copywriter? Kaitlyn:   Yeah, I feel like most copywriters, it was kind of accidental. I always loved writing and had a personal blog for years. And then after college I was an English major and then post-college, I had an outside sales job. Did that for a bit, but it was in recruiting and I just didn't love it. So I ended up actually working for Lululemon, and I was managing the social media, and marketing, and the community, divisions of the store as we were opening quite a few different stores in the area, and I really loved it. And people would be like, "Oh, that caption was so clever," or "That was so good". And I didn't even really realize at the time that what I was doing was copywriting. And I later went through a master's program in strategic communications and some of our textbooks and stuff like that were actually like Gary Vaynerchuk's Jab, Jab, Right Hook, and books like that, that all of a sudden, it was this light bulb went off where I was like, "I could get paid to write and I could merge all of these multi-passionate interest of mine and work with brands." So I really just kind of started pouring myself into the discipline of copywriting. And the first course that I found on it was actually one by digital marketer. And then I later enrolled in copy school and went through a rebrand and just kind of steamrolled since then. Rob:   Can we, by talking about your social media experience. Because you have social media dialed in and it's something that I struggle with. And I think it's something that a lot of copywriters struggle with. What are some of the secrets that make social media work and what do you have to be doing so that it's effective? Kaitlyn:   Yeah, I guess the biggest secret to social media is actually taking the time to develop and create content and then kind of plan it out. It can be so hard when you're just sitting there, on a random Thursday and you're like, "I need something to post and I have nothing". So I'm back at Lululemon, I would kind of organize and schedule photo shoots for our store when we would get in new product. I just had a spy, like a Canon Rebel and kind of taught ourselves how to shoot and edit. I mean, very, very amateur, and this is nothing like hobbyist photographer or anything like that. And that was so helpful because we were able to immediately show the new product that we were getting in the store and allow ourselves to generate traffic coming in because people were able to see it outside of just the stock photos on the website. And then when I spent some time at a marketing agency, I managed our client's social media department where we were mainly doing Facebook ads and stuff. I always made sure that we had folders full of content and images. We were constantly sourcing for that. And allowing ourselves to just have the material to work with and then kind of put a strategy in place. So I've tried to approach my own business that same way by investing in photo shoots a couple of times a year. So even, I mean this year alone, I think I've worked with maybe three photographers just depending on what I was looking for at the time or what I needed. And I try to make the photos that I receive from them just really stretch. Like I don't receive those and then post a photo from that photo shoot every single day. I try to intermix it with graphics, with sharing about client work, with taking some of my own photos, even using the occasional stock photo. And that allows a photo shoot, which can otherwise get really expensive to last a really long time, and makes me feel like I can spend a little bit more time having fun with the copy, instead of stressing about what the heck I'm going to put up on my feed. Rob:   I'd love to dive into this a little bit more, because I can see, and I think myself, it would be really easy if I'm selling products because I can take photos of products or if I'm doing say personality brands or I'm connecting with designers. There's some obvious things there for social media, but if I write, say in the health and wellness space and I'm writing about vitamin supplements or, I'm writing in the tech space and it's software. And it doesn't necessarily translate so well to the visual strengths at least of Instagram and Pinterest, things like that. What would you suggest for copywriters that are in those spaces, how they can create a really engaging feed in social media? Kaitlyn:   Yeah, that is definitely the tricky part, I feel like for copywriters, which is why so many copywriters tend to avoid it, because we're so word heavy. And then when you're just only posting graphics, sometimes it can feel hard to show the personality behind the brand a little bit. So what I'll do even with my brand messaging clients, is I'll spend a little section of that document on their content strategy and on their content marketing, and we'll kind of break out what their content pillars are. So what are we even talking about and how are we taking this voice that we've just developed and making sure that it's consistent for our audience, like they know what to expect from us? So mine, for example, I will share client launches and I'll show a screenshot of the website that I've put into a graphic using Canva. And I rely pretty heavily on templates. So for example, if a copywriter is going through a branding process right now, either ask your designer to help create a few social media templates for you that you can use, or there's tons on Creative Market and all over the place. That way you don't have to spend a ton of time on the design side. I have probably, I don't know, five or six different graphics that I kind of rotate between depending on the content. So I'll share copywriting tips because those have always been really popular with my audience, and I try to make them something that they couldn't just find from a quick Google search. Those are ones that I'll spend a little bit more time on. So I think knowing not just what the picture itself is going to be, but what is the actual subject matter of it. So I have those graphics and then I have wine posts to bring in the wine theme of my brand. I'll share snapshots from my office, because I work with a lot of designers and have things like interior designers for clients, so that stuff appeals to them. So I think it's different for every copywriter, but if you have a particular niche, bring in some of those lifestyle elements that are important to your potential clients, so they see that you value that.