Be your highest-paying clients’ go-to copywriter using AI
Great clients are hard to find, but once you have them, don’t let them go. Here’s how I use LLMs to deliver consistent, high-quality work across multiple clients without adding hours to my week.
Back in July, Jerome Powell noted how massive AI investments have been propping up the stock market.
You know what else AI can boost? Retention and ACV for your copywriting or consulting business.
Companies are leaning on one trusted freelancer who uses LLMs to scale their best work.
The copywriters who are domain-specific, up-to-speed, LLM-savvy, and well-connected are absorbing all the ongoing, high-paying work.
It’s entirely unrealistic to think clients will handle all their own copywriting workload with AI. Not everyone in marketing is a writer (nor do they want to be). When the bar is high (and it always is) AI can’t magically turn non-writers into great writers.
You’ve got an ops person, a CMO, a performance marketer, an SEO expert, a social media strategist, a video producer...all feeding the ever-hungry marketing machine.
AI will empower them in their roles, but copywriting still takes a trained copywriter. So don’t worry about “AI taking your job”. It’s a red herring.
Before using AI, my capacity was always capped. Now, bandwidth isn’t as big of an issue, which means more work gets done for clients (and more payments come in for me).
I used to hate the churn of freelancing.
You put in all the effort to understand a client’s business, nail their positioning, and then it’s one project and done. The cycle of onboarding, executing, and moving on gets old fast. I’d rather do the hard work once and then keep delivering consistently to the same point of contact.
The best part about being plugged in as a freelancer is you get all the perks of being full-time without being tied down. You’re in the loop, your workflow is scalable, and you can ship quality work quickly.
Some people are using custom GPTs and AI workspaces to mimic client styles, but I keep it simple. I go by feel and keep it all in my head. Maybe I’m just old school.
The degree to which you are “in-the-loop” is going to be a 6-figure differentiator for you as a well-paid copywriter.
Repeat business is where the real money is, and it doesn’t have to be a retainer. When you find a high-paying client you enjoy working with, becoming their go-to copywriter is the golden ticket to growing your business. The key is leveraging all the context you’ve accumulated…understanding their brand, voice, goals, and audience.
That’s what’s hard to get and impossible to fake. Once you have it, AI helps you scale your output without bottlenecks.
AI-enabled execution means more high-quality case studies, landing pages, email campaigns, ad sets, and copy variations – delivered at the same high standard, but in a fraction of the time. Clients don’t have to wait weeks / months for results. You’ve got the context, and now you have the speed to match it.
Experiment, work hard, and master LLMs, and your clients will LOVE you for it.
They’ll become dependent on you, which can be both a blessing and a curse. But if you’re looking to grow, you need that ongoing work. It’s consistent, reliable, and far less of a headache overall.
Tools like Claude and ChatGPT have pushed me closer to becoming the go-to guy for a select number of clients – and that’s exactly where you want to be.
What clients really want is great work delivered fast by someone they trust.
Here’s my ideal setup for a freelancer-client relationship:
Minimal calls (most work happens over email or Slack)
They know your style, and you know theirs
Per client you’re charging roughly between $6k-$9k a month – doesn’t have to be retainer, just regular and frequent
You’ve got 2-3 of these client relationships running at once
Within each client, you’ve got 2-3 strong relationships with key POCs you respect (CEO, Founder, CMO, VP Marketing, etc.)
All the business context is saved in your head
This approach isn’t for everyone, but it’s how I run an efficient one-person business with diversified and resilient income streams.
Here’s the catch: You’ve got to be great with LLMs to make this work. The good news? I’ve got a ton of content in the archive to help with that.
If you’re just starting out or haven’t built long-term industry relationships yet, this might not be for you. It takes time to get there. But if you’re further along and want to structure your client work like this, I’m all in on it.
If this ongoing style doesn’t suit you, feel free to skip it. But if you’re focused on maximizing lifetime value and cutting down on client acquisition, consider sending this email to the next client you like working with:
Hey, been really great working together on [project] – I’d love to work on more together as I feel very plugged in and can take some excess workload off your plate if it makes sense to do so. I love working with clients this way once we’ve done all the heavy lifting of the customer research upfront (which we have). Let me know if this is of interest and I’m happy to keep the conversation going.
Nothing fancy, and feel free to customize. But this will help you find the openings with clients who need more “muscle” from copywriters they trust.
Don’t be shy about telling your clients you use LLMs.
It’s no longer a secret, and the narrative has completely shifted. A year and a half ago, people were calling it “plagiarism” and “cheating.” blah blah blah.
And now there’s evidence everywhere that great VPs and CMOs and CEOs are hungry for the best uses of AI because they’re smart.
I talked to a former client, Jesse Boland, who actively encourages his team to use AI and is always on the lookout for new ways to apply it. Another client even asked me to run an informal workshop on using LLMs for content, and I’m excited to share what I know.
If you’re in an AI-forward niche, you’ll probably find your clients are eager to explore these tools.
But, as always, gauge the situation first. I can’t prescribe the solution to you so feel it out first and let them know if it makes sense for you.
See you next week,
BL