Freelancing for an Ad Agency: Save Their Hide, and They’ll Reward You Handsomely

With copywriting income supporting you, the sky’s the limit on your adventures!

So far, this month you’ve learned that a career in copywriting can be incredibly flexible. You can work in-house at a publisher … freelance for your own clients … or work under a copy chief at a copywriting agency.

Here’s yet another interesting path you might find suits you and your skills well: working as a freelancer handling overflow from an advertising agency.

How it works: There are ad agencies of every stripe in nearly every city these days. Most, if not all, have an in-house team of copywriters they rely on to write most of their copy. However, every now and then, they run into a supply/demand issue. Too much work and not enough copywriters! Or they might find themselves contracted with a niche client who needs a quick turnaround, but they have no in-house copywriters with expertise in that particular niche.

That’s where you come in! You can be the go-to “overflow writer” for an ad agency. In these arrangements, you might work with the agency using project management software like Wrike or Slack to manage your projects. Or you could simply email back and forth.

What a typical day might look like: You’ll be setting your own schedule, and where and when you work is entirely up to you. Just make sure to budget enough time every day to successfully meet your agency-imposed deadlines. Miss one or two of them, and you can kiss your relationship with that agency good-bye. Hint: When scheduling your project milestones, don’t forget to account for the research and prep time you’ll need to do before writing even a single word

The amount of flexibility you can expect: A lot. Your contact at the agency is likely very busy. This often will be an account manager — someone who would prefer to spend their time managing the client instead of the overflow copywriter. So, at the outset, they’ll want to ensure that you have a solid understanding of the creative brief and what’s expected of you. Then, they’ll encourage you to contact them if you have any questions as you’re going along. Other than that, you could find yourself operating independently until your deadline. However, you should always feel free to contact the account manager if there is any confusion or to make sure you’re headed in the right direction, especially on a longer, more complex project.

Which industries/niches this is most common in: Agencies work with a wide spectrum of businesses — from small startups to multinational corporations. As an overflow writer, you will get the chance to add a huge variety of projects to your portfolio. That said, the agency might request you do not display this work in your publicly available online portfolio. That’s because clients might get upset if they somehow discovered the agency was farming out work to freelancers the client wasn’t familiar with. So, sometimes it’s best to keep this work in your “additional samples upon request” collection.

What you can expect to get paid: Sometime agencies will have set fees, and it can be a “take it or leave it” type of situation. Other times, they will ask to see your fee schedule up front before they decide to work with you. Often, they will ask you to give them a quote on each project before they greenlight it. Agencies aren’t the highest-paying entities out there, but they’re far from the lowest. Have a rate sheet that lists your fee ranges at the ready in case they request one.

Where you can look to find this type of work: Ad agency work isn’t something that generally will fall into your lap. If this is something that interests you, I suggest doing a multi-tiered marketing campaign. First, locate any and all marketing, advertising, and digital agencies in your local area. Second, send them an email or hard-copy letter introducing yourself. Let them know who you are, what your experience is, and why you would be a tremendous asset to their agency. Direct them to your samples online. Last, follow up with a phone call to their director of marketing. Even if they don’t have any overflow work at the moment, you can bet they’ll remember your name when they’re in a bind.

How you can best prepare yourself:

1. As you build your copy portfolio, find ways you can segment it on your website. Divide it into categories like Web Copy, Financial Copy, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Facebook Ads, etc.
2. Research the specialties at the different agencies you are targeting.
3. When you reach out to them via email, you can link directly to the most relevant work you have done instead of requiring them to pore over samples that don’t align with what they are interested in having you do.

Now, as we wrap up our month-long discussion on the myriad ways you can create a fun, flexible, and lucrative career as a copywriter, the question is … . Which path will you choose?

Of course, you’re not limited to just one. Plus, the more contacts you make in the copywriting and direct marketing industry, opportunities across the spectrum will start presenting themselves to you.

Whichever path you choose, the valuable skills and lessons you learn along the way will help propel you into the life and career you dreamed of when you first learned about copywriting. I can’t guarantee where you’ll end up, but I can promise you that a very exciting, very lucrative journey awaits.