Tag Archives: copywriting services

Freelance writing in Carlisle

As any entrepreneur will tell you, businesses don’t always evolve in predictable ways. The founders of Morrisons probably didn’t envisage their egg and butter stall becoming one of the country’s biggest supermarkets – not least since supermarkets didn’t exist in 1899. YouTube started life as a dating website, Peugeot originally manufactured hand tools forged in their own steel foundry, and early LEGO toys were made out of wood. How times change.

From Lanarkshire to the Lake District

When G75 Media was founded in 2007, I expected my fledgling copywriting agency would be a local company for local people. I named it after the suburb of East Kilbride I lived in, to entice Lanarkshire-based businesses away from national agencies with little understanding of our local community. Yet things didn’t turn out that way. Today, G75 Media is a multidisciplinary content production agency, still handling copywriting but also producing journalism and digital content on a daily basis. A third of our clients are American, and only two companies on our books are based in Scotland – on the east and west coast respectively. We have no clients in Lanarkshire.

It was partly for this reason that the decision was made in 2021 to relocate G75 Media to England, where most of our clients are based. We’ve retained a physical office in Glasgow’s IFSD, but our day-to-day activities now revolve around the Great Border City. Our timing was perfect – Carlisle is midway through a multi-faceted investment masterplan which will see transformation in almost every sector. The 14th century Citadels will underpin a new university campus, while the neighbouring train station is being rebuilt from the inside out to cope with rising passenger numbers along the West Coast Mainline. The largest of England’s 14 approved Garden Villages will be built along the £220 million Carlisle Southern Link Road which is scheduled to complete next year, while recent investment-led takeovers are transforming the fortunes of Carlisle Airport and Carlisle United football club.

All clients great and small

In a buoyant local economy, G75 Media can offer our award-winning copywriting and journalism services to a growing number of local businesses. As well as established Carlisle employers like McVities, Pirelli, Story and Esken, there are numerous startups and small enterprises requiring freelance writing in Carlisle. From microbreweries to jewellers, the city’s Historic Quarter is packed with artisan businesses and boutique stores, while one of England’s largest industrial estates is home to innumerable logistics and manufacturing companies. While we don’t offer local discounts for freelance writing in Carlisle, our services have already been engaged by IT companies and publishers based in the city.

Whatever your industry, and irrespective of your content needs, G75 Media is here – in every sense – to provide freelance writing in Carlisle and across the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. Local knowledge underpins much of the work we do, and we always welcome new opportunities to showcase our expertise. Get in touch with us for more information on how we can assist with content production, journalism and freelance writing in Carlisle.

How many clients should I have?

For freelancers, there’s a perennial balancing act between finding enough work and becoming overwhelmed. If you haven’t got enough clients on your books, the days can become frustrating and drawn-out in equal measure.  Attract too much work, and the only way to meet the constant barrage of approaching deadlines is to start working in the evenings and weekends – or let your quality control drop in the interests of getting work out of the door. Since these options will respectively lead to burnout and lost clients, it’s far better to seek the Goldilocks solution – just the right amount of work to keep you busy without precluding holidays or a good night’s sleep.

The problem many freelancers face is knowing how many clients to have on their books at any given time. It’s a tightrope act every self-employed creative or company director will wrestle with on a regular basis. To help people who want to be a freelance writer set realistic targets, and to benefit people already struggling with this thorny problem, we’ve shared our thoughts based on our own experiences. These are the key factors to bear in mind…

Frequency of work

Firstly, review your existing client portfolio (assuming you have one). How many of your accounts are regular, as opposed to sporadic or seasonal? G75 Media produces weekly blogs for a leading Ofcom-approved price comparison site, and a biannual newsletter for a national chain of opticians. The latter is more time-consuming, but the former requires several hours dedicating to it every week. Get a year-to-view planner and map out the level of work you can expect in the rest of 2024, which will highlight gaps in your schedule and indicate how many clients to have.

Existing commitments

Next, think about your own lifestyle. Do you need to finish at 3pm every day to do the school run, or take a few weeks off every summer for childcare? Do you go abroad every December to escape Christmas, or struggle to work regular hours due to unpredictable caring responsibilities? Many companies don’t care when or where freelance writers produce content providing it’s supplied by a certain deadline, but some firms might expect you to be available at set times. And that’s before we get into the thorny issue of whether you’re allowed to work from a home office or expected to attend client premises…

Complexity of assignments

Every client has varying expectations. We have clients who are happy to receive Word documents, and others who want articles uploaded into a CMS like Wix or WordPress. Some clients want copyright-free images supplying, while others expect pull-quotes and meta descriptions. This affects the amount of time each piece of work requires – in turn affecting how much free time you have. Spend a week compiling a timesheet at 15-minute intervals to get an idea of how busy you really are. This will reveal the proportion of your week being wasted on procrastination/social media/coffee breaks/chatting.

The risk of losing clients

In G75 Media’s first full year of trading, we had two clients who provided 75 per cent of our annual turnover. Today, we have a dozen clients, none of whom individually contribute more than 15 per cent of our income. Consequently, the loss of any one client wouldn’t be catastrophic. It’s easy to put all your eggs on one basket, especially early in your freelancing career, but always think about how you’d fill the working week (and pay the bills) if you suddenly lost your biggest source of income.

Your personality

This is far too diverse a factor to sum up in one paragraph, but essentially, it relates to how you cope under pressure. If you’re a single workaholic, burning the midnight oil enables you to increase turnover, whereas a fifty-something parent may be less keen on weekend working. Everyone copes differently with pressure, impending deadlines and project management. Being organised also makes it easier to juggle multiple projects; Trello boards are a great way of highlighting key deadlines and ensuring you don’t forget anything.

Although G75 Media has a healthy roster of freelance copywriting clients, we’re always happy to discuss new assignments and projects, from one-off commissions to regular work. Contact us to discuss how our award-winning copywriting services could benefit your brand or business.

What is white label copywriting?

You might not have heard of white label copywriting, but you’ve certainly encountered it. A staple of marketing and PR agencies around the world, it involves one person or company writing an article which another person or company then publishes as if they’d produced it themselves. White label copywriting is often required by firms who want to be credited for work they can’t create themselves, due to a lack of resources or difficulties getting their point across succinctly.

White label copywriting is something G75 Media has excelled in since the Noughties

At G75 Media, we’ve long recognised the importance of white label copywriting. One of our first freelance contracts, secured back in 2009, involved producing a four-page newsletter for a national chain of opticians. We had to write each story as if it had been penned by the optometrists in local branches, and we clearly did a good job, because we’ve currently working on our 28th edition of the newsletter!

Whiter than white

Delivering successful white label copywriting requires a specific blend of attributes:

  1. A flair for immersing yourself in a client’s ethos, enabling you to write with confidence about their products and services as if they were your own
  2.  An ability to adjust your natural writing style to dovetail with existing written materials, so audiences can’t tell your work from content written in-house by the client
  3. A willingness to accept someone else might be credited with your work – even if it subsequently wins awards!

G75 Media’s founder Neil Cumins started his career as a marketing executive in the motor trade, and two of his white label copywriting projects for regional newspapers subsequently won awards which other people collected. G75 Media’s white label copywriting has itself won awards over the years, which we’re not allowed to publicise because the work was credited to our clients. White label copywriting isn’t suitable for people who want constant affirmation of their abilities, but it gives freelance writers willing to live in the shadows the opportunity to work on prestigious and high-profile projects.

If your business or brand could benefit from high-quality freelance copywriting, and you’d like your name to appear above articles and white papers (rather than the experts who wrote them), get in touch with G75 Media. Our acclaimed white label copywriting services are provided to clients around the world, and we’ve worked on behalf of companies as far afield as France, Israel and Australia. Today, G75 Media regularly handles content production and copywriting for companies in America and across the UK. We have the resources and experience to bring even a modest white label copywriting project to life.

Fifteen years and counting…

It’s been exactly 15 years since G75 Media was founded – and it’s been quite a ride.

It’s easy to forget that even the largest businesses usually have humble beginnings. Today, we think of Morrisons as a vast supermarket empire, but it started out back in 1899 as an egg and butter stall in Bradford – a town arguably more famous as the birthplace of G75 Media’s founder, Neil Cumins. It’s tempting to assume Microsoft has always been a software leviathan, but Bill Gates and Paul Allen initially worked out of an Albuquerque garage. Coincidentally, G75 Media was also founded in a garage – a garage conversion, to be specific, in a suburb of East Kilbride whose postcode gave the business its name. We’ve since moved to a fine Georgian building in the heart of Glasgow, but our original home is in the photo above.


Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest our modest copywriting agency has much in common with Morrisons or Microsoft. Even so, with 60 per cent of British businesses failing within three years of startup, we’re delighted that we are celebrating our 15th anniversary today. Launching a new company just a few weeks after the Northern Rock debacle wasn’t ideal timing, and neither was attempting to specialise in property journalism just as the housing market went into a steep decline.


Green shoots swiftly trampled


When we made it to 2010, and the much-discussed green shoots of economic recovery were spotted alongside a new coalition Government, we thought the turbulent times were finally behind us. Then came the Scottish independence referendum, from which the country has yet to recover. Then came the unnecessary chaos of Brexit. Then there was a global pandemic that led to incalculably damaging restrictions on our freedom, the horrifying return of war in Europe, endless political upheaval…


Through it all, G75 Media has calmly ploughed a furrow of linguistic excellence. Today, we’ve become a well-established media brand, serving a dozen clients on both sides of the Atlantic. We switch from UK to US English without even thinking, adopting American terminology and cultural references before switching back to the King’s English for our housebuilder, optometry and magazine clients. At a conservative estimate, Neil has written over ten thousand articles in his career to date. You can view a few examples on G75 Media’s Portfolio page.


Discretion where it matters


While a few copywriters regard themselves as fledgling celebrities, and a few media agencies take themselves far too seriously, G75 Media has never been obsessed with statistics or social media likes. Much of our work is printed in magazines rather than published online. We’re routinely tasked with white label copywriting, where someone else’s byline appears beside our lovingly crafted copy. We take far more pride in submitting high-quality copywriting than we do in being recognised for it, though two national awards reflect the consistently high calibre of our content production and copywriting services. And if you ever decide to Google G75 Media, you’ll see a brand with solidly five-star reviews.


Unlike many of our contemporaries, we’ve survived and thrived over the last 15 years. It’d be foolish to predict what the next decade-and-a-half will bring after so much economic, political and social turbulence. Come what may, we’ll continue to deliver premium copywriting to discerning clients, ahead of schedule and above expectations. If your brand or business could benefit from our award-winning copywriting services, you know what to do…

The merits of promoting your business during the lockdown

We are living in historic times. The Coronavirus pandemic has led to the suspension of public life in ways unseen in British history, including restrictions which prevent businesses up and down the land from trading. However, even companies unable to trade are still able to advertise and market themselves online. And promoting your business during the lockdown is particularly important given the unprecedented number of people trapped at home with unlimited internet access, and plenty of free time to surf and browse.

3 – 3 – 0 – 6 – 3 – 3

At some point in the near future, the current state of lockdown will be partially lifted. And very quickly, people will start trying to catch up on everything they’ve missed. As a result, there is likely to be a dramatic upsurge in demand for products and services, as all the things we’ve postponed start happening alongside all the things which would have been occurring at that time anyway. Temporary restrictions on movement and trading haven’t stopped people needing to replace faulty appliances, or negotiate a new mortgage, or choose a new car. A massive backlog is growing across numerous industries, and the months after lockdown are going to be much busier than the months before it in many industries.

This simple fact gives forward-thinking companies an opportunity. By promoting your business during the lockdown, you can position your products, services or brands in consumer minds. You can become a go-to firm when the nation starts tackling everything that’s been neglected and put off. Forward-thinking companies can also extol the virtues of services which are desirable rather than essential – the holidays, the clothing, the spa trips. Because what else is there to do today other than plan how we’ll spend tomorrow? And if finances are tight – as they will be for millions of UK households – brands with compelling sales pitches will be optimally placed to attract available cash.

Search and destroy the competition

The benefits of promoting your business during the lockdown are particularly compelling when you consider search engines. We’re all spending more time online than ever, with Google and Bing acting as gatekeepers to the internet. Positioning your brand towards the top of search results is more important at a time of unprecedented internet traffic than it’s ever been. And the benefits of search engine optimisation tend to last for years. Informative original content won’t just benefit your brand today – it’ll remain a valuable resource which attracts enquiries and custom for years to come.

As a freelance copywriting agency, G75 Media is used to working remotely on behalf of clients. For the last 13 years, we’ve exchanged contracts via email and uploaded content to WordPress. We hold Zoom meetings with opticians in Hampshire, write new car reviews for American consumer websites, and use Trello to manage blog schedules for Ofcom-approved comparison platforms. We can handle content production and copywriting for business of all sizes, from start-ups seeking to establish an online presence through to household-name brands wanting to bolster their market share. And by promoting your business during the lockdown, we’ll ensure it emerges from this frightening and unprecedented period with an optimal online presence.

Don’t put off til tomorrow what you should be doing today. This is the perfect time to boost your SEO, refresh your online presence and assemble a stockpile of content in readiness for normality returning. The latter is especially pertinent, as marketing and PR might be a low priority while trying to rebuild your customer base and dealing with a backlog of orders. Get in touch with G75 Media to discuss how we can help with promoting your business during the lockdown.