Don't Murder Your Marketing.

I field quite a few inquiries every week.

This week I’ve had 5 people contact me saying “this is my website, it’s not converting well. How much would you charge to fix it?”

If that’s the first question you ask me or any copywriter, then we’re probably not meant to be.

It’s bad business for both parties involved, this is why…

I’ve Been Shot… How Much Do You Charge?

A man calls up the hospital, says “I’ve been shot, how much do you charge?”… What do you think the answer is going to be?

It’s definitely NOT going to be a number. It’s going to be “We’ll rush an ambulance over” or “where were you shot?”

Now, if I’m the doctor operating on you… It’s going to depend on a lot of factors. But a small flesh wound on the arm that just needs patched up is going to cost a lot less than a chest wound…

Dozens of factors will come into play… How do I stop the pain? Will surgery be required? How much blood did you lose? Will you be in the hospital for an hour or a few months?

And in some cases, the damage will be too much for the doctor to do anything at all.

It’s The Exact Same Thing With Marketing…

Every single client a copywriter takes on has different needs.

Some clients are launching a brand new product and they need help with positioning, branding, marketing funnels, traffic and plenty of other things.

Other clients have positioned their products all wrong and need a complete overhaul.

Sometimes the problem lies more in the traffic sources than the copy…

My past clients are much more likely to get a smaller upfront fee with the majority paid in the back, or even a 100% royalty deal (more of a partnership) than some guy I’ve never talked to… In fact, if I don’t know you extremely well the latter is very unlikely.

And to be blunt again, If that’s the first question out of your mouth when you contact me I’ll probably either point you to this blog post or send you a short email saying I’ll have to pass (my old solution)…

Why? Because…

Price Shopping When It Comes To Your Marketing Is A Terrible Business Model.

If you take a bullet the first question out of your mouth isn’t going to have anything to do with price.

Now, I’m not saying that your marketing is as critical as taking a bullet, but it’s still very serious. If you take your business seriously, you need to take your marketing seriously.

Because it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you’re not in ANY business until you’re in the marketing business.

Let’s talk copywriting and marketing…

Do you think the guy who knows what he’s doing, who delivers results… Who really understands direct response marketing and copywriting… Is he going to give you the lowest quote? Hell no.

The guy out there taking any and every job he can get… Advertising $200 sales letters before he even knows your product or market, do you think he’s a better choice? Could be, but you’ve got to be lucky.

Because if that guy has any clue about marketing and positioning, he’s not going to quote you ANYTHING, much less $200, before he knows exactly what your needs are and IF he thinks your product is even marketable.

So if you’re “price shopping” when it comes to marketing and copywriting…

You’re Shooting Your Marketing In The Chest.

So you hire a guy for $200 and save quite a bit of money on your upfront marketing… NICE.

Except that your new marketing campaign is bleeding money. And depending on how much traffic you’re getting every single lost buyer due to poor copy is bleeding cash right out of your bank account.

Could you spend 5 figures on a copywriter and have a flopped product? It’s possible. There’s nothing certain in this business.

But it does pay to put the law of statistics in your corner… And chances are that if you hire someone with a track record of results, someone who won’t beg to let you write for any product, even if there’s no market for it, someone who has experience and can predict what will work and what won’t work with reasonable certainty… You can stack the odds in your favor.

I’m not saying I’m the go to guy for any and every product. I’m not.

With very few exceptions, I’ll generally choose to avoid working with anyone who asks “how much” before they ask “what can you do for me?”

Because if that’s the first question out of your mouth it sets off a big red flag.

One, you think of what I do as a commodity rather than a potentially valuable business partner and that tells me immediately that you’re either inexperienced or just not the kind of person I want to do business with.

My favorite clients in the past have also been my most successful clients… And they’re the guys that want to know “why should I work with you” before price is an issue. They have products that they want to be extremely successful…

They have gung ho can’t fail attitudes… And they realize that “cheap” and “results” rarely cross paths.

Cheap traffic rarely converts, cheap hosting generally sucks, and cheap service providers usually  (not always) have crappy work or customer service…  And cheap copywriting and marketing rarely produces any results.

You generally get what you pay for…

So Here’s My New Answer.

It’s impossible for me to quote you a price without taking a long hard look at exactly what I can do to help you…

And I’ve been out of the “chasing down” clients game for quite a while,  I’m at a point now where I get to pick and choose my jobs and spend more time working on my own stuff.

The index page of ResultsCopywriting.com is about to be completely revamped (it’s passed due anyways) and sometime this week it’ll be completely different.

Since I need to spend about an hour with potential clients anyway, I’ll be charging a flat fee for a 1 hour consultation.

It’ll be 100% risk free, it will be a consultation, not a sales pitch, and if you do decide to hire me after the fact I’ll apply the total to the final fee.

My time is valuable, I don’t have time to field every inquiry I get now, so this way I can filter out who’s serious from who’s not, and help you with some of the “big idea” stuff without you needing to pay my full copywriting fees.

This will save me time, allow me to work on my own stuff, and only work with people who’ve shown that they’re serious about making their product and marketing campaign a success.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. I didn’t write this post to offend anyone… “How much do you charge” IS a valid question. It’s just not the best question to ask upfront, for either party involved.

Here’s a video for the copywriters out there… Pretty simple, yet if you pull it off it’s highly effective. I’ll write down some additional tips after the video.

I kind of mumbled a little bit in the beginning, anyway I said “This isn’t something I invented”… Not vice versa…

Here’s a few more quick tips on selling your services…

• Stand out. They’ll be getting a lot of inquiries from bad writers and good writers… If you can appeal to what they REALLY want (a money making campaign) and show them previous success on similar projects, it goes a long way.

• If they ask “how much” don’t answer… Say “I need a better understanding of your project first. How much traffic do you get/how many pieces are you mailing/etc… Show that you care about the project and you know how this business works.

• Pre-qualify them.  There are a lot of bargain hunters on Craigslist… It’s a waste of time trying to educate them. Seek out the companies that are looking for results and understand the value, you’ll save yourself a lot of time.

• Get them on the phone. It’s a lot easier to build rapport on the telephone than it is through email. Talk to them about the project, offer ideas, tell them exactly what you think you can bring to the table.

• Don’t sell words, sell the value that you provide through higher conversion rates, more money, etc.

I rarely use Craigslist anymore, but it serves as an excellent way to get directly in touch with potential clients from all over the world.

If you ever find yourself in a hurting for work, get on there and start marketing yourself… You’d be surprised how much work is available out there.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

When friends and family ask me what I do I usually give a pretty vague answer… Sometimes I say “I write for websites”… Sometimes I say I “help companies sell products online”… And those answers are true in  a sense…

So this is about what I REALLY do for a living, the good, the bad and the ugly…

I Don’t Get Paid To Write.

If you want people to assume you’re broke tell them you’re a writer.

There isn’t a business owner on this planet that goes to work and thinks “Hey, I’m going to throw a few grand down on a writer today…”

Business owners want to make more money. Period.

They don’t care if I’ve got a Pulitzer Prize (for the record, I don’t)…

They pay me to do one thing and one thing only. Make money.

I Get Paid To Sell.

That means I help with branding products, positioning products, identifying markets, consulting with clients on driving traffic and increasing conversions…

Ultimately I do write the sales copy… But that’s only one of many hats that a copywriter has to wear if they want to be successful.

I personally don’t even like the term “copywriter”… Technically a “copywriter” is a writer who writes sales material…

But a lot of people group that in with writers who do blog posts (This is the only blog I write for), articles, reports, things like that…

And those are two completely different worlds.

A REALLY good “content” writer can make about $50 for a 500 word article…

A REALLY good “copywriter” can pull $3k-$30k+ for one sales letter.

A quote I like…

“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes . . . .”

Philip Dusenberry, quoted in Eric Clark, The Want Makers: Inside the World of Advertising, 1988, New York: Penguin Books, p. 56.

99% Of People Don’t Need My Services.

I doubt I would have ever fallen into doing what I do without the internet… And my specialty, writing advertisements for online businesses, didn’t even exist until about 12 years ago.

Most small businesses simply don’t have the cash to cover my fee… A lot of businesses have no idea how powerful a winning advertisement can be…

Most people reading this have no reason to ever hire me… I understand that.

But for the RIGHT type of client, my service is one of the best investments that they can make…

I’ve seen, on numerous occasions, my clients go live with my sales copy and cover my (admittedly relatively high) fee with a single email blast… And go on to make hundreds of thousands of dollars using the copy I wrote.

Is Being A Copywriter Right For You?

Only you can answer that, but I’ll give you some things to think about…

Being a copywriter is 95% understanding SALES and 5% writing. I’m lucky, both of my parents are amazing sales people and I was thrown into the world of sales at a young age…

The definition of copywriting is “salesmanship in print”.

That means understanding psychology, knowing how to press emotional “buy” buttons, market research, driving traffic…

Having a way with words helps too. If you’re paying attention there are grammar mistakes all over this post. I use short sentences. Short paragraphs.  I use a lot of …. (which means “keep reading”)

That’s all by design… It makes things flow and easier to read.

There’s a rhythm you have to use to grab people’s attention, convince them to read your offer in the first place, and then ultimately buy whatever you’re selling.

I’ve been obsessed with this stuff for two years now, and I’m still constantly learning.

You Have To Be Able To Sell Yourself.

Before I freelanced for other people, I was selling my own stuff online.

I had proof that I could write a winning advertisement and sell a product. When I first started out, I thought $500 for a sales letter was good money. The thing is, it takes about 40 hours to research and write an effective sales letter.

When I started figuring out what works and getting some experience, I raised my fees considerably. When you watch a guy make $100k in 24 hours off of the sales pitch you wrote, it puts the value you’re providing into perspective.

Most of my clients now either come to me or are repeat clients. But that wasn’t always the case.

There’s a lot of competition. There are guys out there who will do my job for $200 (usually inexperienced copywriters, they’ll generally quit because they can’t sell or raise their fees when they figure out that they can.)

There are guys with years of experience who charge $10k to $100k+ for a single project… They can command fees like that because of their track record.

I fall into the middle. I’ve got a great track record, but I’m not as experienced as a lot of guys.

And you can’t just walk up to someone and say “Hey, I’ll write you a sales letter for $x,xxx…. Deal?” The sales process for copywriting is a very long and involved process.

It usually involves dozens of emails and hours on the phone… And it’s not uncommon to have a client waste hours of your time if you don’t prequalify them first.

You Write Your Own Paycheck.

That’s a double edged sword.

On the one hand, the people who do this job well, the best of the best, can become wealthy doing it.

On the other hand, it’s completely up to you to get clients… And if you can’t sell yourself you won’t make any money. Not having money is no fun.

On top of that you HAVE to put 110% into every single project you take on.  When you get to the level where people are paying you 4 figures or more, they expect sales… And if you don’t deliver word will get out fast.

But if you DO produce results, all you need is a small hand full of clients to keep you busy. Once you make them money once, if they’re putting out another product, they’ll be calling you…

Sometimes It’s Not Much Fun.

I work by myself, 40 hours a week, in my apartment.

I do get to interact with quite a few interesting people… I’ve got marketers who are household names on speed dial.

As I’m writing this I’m chatting with a world famous real estate investor on Skype…

I’ve built relationships that will help me out for years to come, and I never would have had those without being a copywriter.

Sometimes you’ll get a project that seems like you’ll NEVER be able to finish it… A couple of my least favorites in recent memory include ads for a hair care product for women and organic dog food.

Sometimes writing just sucks.

I’m flying through this post because I love the subject matter… But there are plenty of days where the last thing I want to do is sit and stare at a computer screen all day.

There are days where I’ll sit and stare at a blank page for hours and only come up with a couple hundred words of copy.

I’m not complaining though…

I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world. I plan on doing a lot of traveling over the next couple of years, and although it’s been a long process to get to where I am now, I’m starting to make a name for myself, gain a little bit of recognition, and make some decent money.

The Grass Is Always Greener…

If someone told me a few years ago that I’d be working for myself from home, I would have been ecstatic…

Now that I am, I still think about getting a part time job or maybe a job at an ad agency because I miss the social interaction.

I think I’d go back to freelancing eventually though. Working my own hours is pretty nice, and ultimately I got into this more for the freedom than making money.

So even though I spend my working hours by myself, I get plenty of free time to spend with friends and family.

This Is A Temp Job.

It’s kind of funny.

I quit my job to market online… I never intended to be a freelance copywriter.

Once I started talking to guys who do it, I realized that this is my favorite part of the business… Coming up with the offer, creating the “big idea” that motivates people to buy…

And when I realized I could leave the product creation and all of the other “boring” parts to the client, and I could make a nice living doing the part I enjoy, that’s when I went freelance.

There’s a great deal of satisfaction when you see a client succeed with something you wrote. There’s also a little bit of jealousy… “Wow, he’s getting rich, why didn’t I just hire myself?”

And that’s exactly what I plan on doing this year.

I’m going to cut back on client work and focus on my own publishing company.

If you’ve got the ability to make money for your clients, it only makes sense to hire yourself…

Also, unless you’re charging royalties for your work (which I rarely do), you’re still effectively trading your time for money as a freelancer… You could be setting up automated income streams during that time so you do the work once and get paid over and over again.

Do You Have Any Specific Questions?

Do you want to become a copywriter, or even a freelance writer? Need help getting started? Finding clients? Learning the craft?

Ask anything you want to know in the comments, I’ll do my best to help out.

And if you want to make your next product launch a home run, check out what my clients are saying over at ResultsCopywriting.com.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh