We all have been tricked into drinking a few of those large Coca-Cola drinks at McDonald’s.

You might think that McDonald’s is merely selling Coke’s drinks to fulfil its customers’ needs and provide them with a product they like.

But if you go back to history, you’ll find out that Coke has been McDonald’s largest partner since 1955.

Since then, both companies have helped each other grow and reach the level they are at today.

The moral of the story is…

You’ll want to build similar relationships with your clients; Long-term partnership for mutual growth.

You drive them more sales; they pay you more money.

You help them expand their market; they recommend you to new clients.

In fact, there’s no better way to attract well-paying clients than to learn how to position yourself as an expert in your field.

When you market yourself to prospects professionally, there’s less negotiation, and landing clients is less complicated.

Clients see you just as Coke for McDonald’s: a business partner.

In this post, I take you through the exact steps I followed to position myself as an expert in the eyes of my prospective clients.

Let’s have a look.

Create Your Own Process 

Obviously, every experienced freelance writer should have a thorough process they follow and show clients.

Having a process set up proves to prospects that you’re not just playing around and that you have a proven system that you follow to get results.

Many writers create a “My Working Process” page or PDF file to list the exact steps they take before and after kicking off their client’s project.

WriteWorldwide Co-Founder Ciaran Gilligan has created a working process page on his website. Although the steps mentioned are pretty concise, they’re enough to convince prospective clients that you have the necessary expertise for their project.

My process for clients who seek content for their blog consists of suggesting ideas, discussing their needs, creating a proposal, agreeing on a package, signing a contract, receiving the payment, sending a questionnaire, conducting keyword research, then writing.

Stop Using the ‘F’ Word

Back in August 2017, content writer and copywriter Sandra Carter has shared the following thread in Steve Roller’s Facebook group, Copywriter Café.

Now you might be thinking, “What does Sandra mean with the ‘f’ word?”

Here is the answer from Steve:

Changing your title from a “Freelance Writer” to a “Content Strategist for the [insert niche] industry”, “Content Writer”, “Copywriter”, etc. will significantly impact your prospect’s first impression.

Why? Because only on LinkedIn, over 200k people are calling themselves “freelance writers” — and you want to set yourself apart from the crowds.

At the beginning of my career, my title was “Freelance Writer”. At the time, I found out that most prospective clients have overlooked my abilities. But, once I switched it to “Content Strategist for [Niche Name]”, magic started happening.

People started thanking me for reaching out — which wasn’t usually the case with the previous title.

Do Your Homework 

Imagine jumping on a short call with a prospect and getting spontaneously asked about your industry’s market worth or a popular SEO strategy.

For example, if you’re in the pet industry, you’ll need to follow leading pet magazines and blogs to stay up-to-date to the new trends in your niche. Plus, you’ll need to keep learning more about SEO, copywriting, content marketing, and any other skill you might need to provide to your clients.

Watching your industry’s news will also help you write unique content in your niche and

Watching your industry’s news will also help you to painstakingly write unique content for your clients and produce content that readers will find useful and au courant.

In fact, your expertise and your content marketing skills are what will determine whether you are an expert in your niche or not.

Guest Post at High-Authority Publications in Your Niche 

Many well-established freelance writers such as Jacob McMillen, Bamidele Onibalusi, and Aaron Orendorff attribute their success to guest posting for high-profile publications and websites.

You’ll need these guest posts for social proof, website traffic, client attraction, etc.

In fact, Bamidele has hit a record of 270 guest post in only eight months. After publishing all of these articles, he now has a pool of clients that secure consistent work for him.

Yet, Bamidele has regretted taking the time to write all of these articles:

It is true I have written over 270 guest posts this year but 99.9% of those guest posts were submitted to small blogs that sent me little to no traffic, if I had focused the time I focused on writing those posts on writing 30 great posts for big blogs I will be more successful than I am now.

Therefore, taking Bamidele’s experience into account, you’ll need to only pitch your posts to high-authority websites vs small blogs.

Conclusion 

You don’t have to follow everything mentioned above.

Many successful writers have gotten started without any guest post, unique title, process, or significant knowledge in a certain niche.

The whole point of learning how to position yourself as an expert is to land more high-paying clients.

If your current strategy works, keep it. If not, I highly recommend you follow the steps listed above. And to help you along we’ve created a Pitching Template Cheat Sheet: