How to be a copywriter

Friday, May 25, 2012

Round-table discussion or charity work

Dear freelancers, we have narrowed our anniversary celebration ideas down to two... we could do one or both depending on you. What are your thoughts? Would you participate in either?

OPTION A: Round-table discussion 
Fraser suggested a round-table event at De Kring in Amsterdam to discuss. 'What do agencies look for from freelancers and freelance agencies, and what are the industry trends in using freelancers?' The initial idea was for it to be one of those discussions that appears in print, in Adformatie and other magazines, but this might be difficult as the magazine is a lot smaller now. We could even expand it to a day with more than one round-table, a freelancing seminar day. If we had enough interest and participants. Are you interested in being on the panels or attending? What would you like to discuss or learn more about?

OPTION B: Charity work 
We wrote this article about free freelancing for charities. A 10 year anniversary special idea would be 10 freelancers volunteering 10 hours (or more) free for charity. Could you volunteer your time? We would promote you online and in press releases with your skills and portfolio, so you get publicity as well as good karma.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

10 years with the best English copywriters

The Collective is proud to announce that we have now reached our 10th anniversary. We started out exclusively representing English creatives, but as we grew internationally, so did our nationalities. Now we boast 110 of the best creative freelancers from across Europe… copywriters, art directors, designers, online specialists and transcreators... you can find them all with The Collective.

We’ll be celebrating our anniversary year by focusing each newsletter on one of the 10 different specialties in our portfolio of creatives. This month it’s the turn of English copywriting, the discipline that has been our core business since the beginning.

Native-English copywriters
Here are 10 benefits of using a native-English copywriter through The Collective:
1. Quality is what counts… you can’t afford any mistakes when hiring a freelancer. We have agency-experienced copywriters who you can trust to get your brief right the first time.
2. Specialist writers… from healthcare to financial. Whatever your client’s discipline, we have a specialist with experience of writing for it.
3. Copy or concepts… whether you need a conceptual copywriter for an ad campaign or a long copy writer for a brochure or a website, we have experienced experts in all areas.
4. English copywriters that speak your language… our copywriters are based across Europe and many speak the local language so can do transcreation from that language into English.
5. Go native... copywriters should only do copywriting in their native language. Don’t be tempted to get English copy written by a non-native speaker… the results speak for themselves.
6. Tried and tested… we have been using the same core of copywriters for the last 10 years and they provide a service that can be trusted for quality, creativity and timing.
7. Portfolio vs personality… we only represent nice people. This might sound strange, but you can’t judge how a freelancer is to work with from the portfolio alone. How they are to work with is just as important.
8. Onsite without the flight… We have copywriters in most of the major cities and they can work onsite in your office at short notice, often without the costs of a flight or a hotel
9. Service at speed… we know the deadline for copy is usually yesterday, so we offer a fast service, searching our network to find the copywriter who can deliver the quickest. 10. We do the leg work… for you to call around and find the right copywriter, who’s available now, takes up a lot of your valuable time. Let us take the strain and leave you free to do your job.

When you need an English copywriter, think of The Collective.