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.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
What are some of the best questions you’ve been asked upfront?
Hey Mark, great question.
1. Do you think there’s a market for this?
2. This is a highly competitive niche, can I compete?
3. Why should I hire you for this specific project?
4. How can we position this to compete against product x and y?
5. Would you recommend an autoresponder series or just sending traffic straight to the sales copy?
6. Can I have some references?
7. What kind of similar projects have you worked on in the past? What were the results?
8. I don’t have that kind of budget, what do you recommend?
9. What kind of traffic/conversions can I realistically expect on this product?
10. What’s the best platform to market this? (RAP, Clickbank, other payment platforms)
There’s no such thing as a “bad” question, not even “how much do you charge”… The point of this post was there’s a lot more to the equation than “I need a sales letter, how much?”
Thanks for the question.
Take care,
-Scott
Scott,
you’re one smart guy. You have a unique perspective on things. I must admit you’re blog is the only one that I actually have bookmarked.
I very rarely follow anyone’s blog. Your blog and Hunter Nutall’s blog are the only 2 I follow. I like original thinkers.
Keep the posts coming!
Hey Scott,
Great post. You really put things into perspective.
If the customer has a market, that is hungry and wants what they have, and it’s possible for the customer to make… 30k, 40k even 70k… then it makes sense to pay the copywriter a good fraction of that to get where they want to be.
Love the blog.
Bill
Super post.
I love what you said about cheap and results rarely crossing paths. Spending money for quality marketing, design and product creation means you can deliver quality. Delivering quality means you can charge for quality and that means more money to reinvest and deliver quality. I made a commitment long ago not to work for people who are looking for the lowest bidder. I’ve learned that they’re doing this because they’re not delivering quality and therefore have little money to reinvest in their company. It’s a dead end spiral to nowhere. Again, great post….something every business owner needs to see.
I Scott,
Nice post there. I found out your blog through WF. I have to admit that people these days look for cheap service rather than quality service. The reasons, I believe, is people willing to work for pennies and the marketers seeing these CHEAP offers a lot of times. Even though the quality will be pretty low (almost terrible), people still hire them.
If you want to learn more about what I mean go over to the digital point forum buy/sell/trade section. You can find content writers willing to write for 1$ per 400 words or 10$ SEO services. These kind of service offering pose a serious threat to the genuine and quality offerings by real marketers and service providers with talent and experience.
That said, I wouldn’t always go with the pricey services. Some people just price themselves so high that they think that their services are worth equal to a professional one while they are really sub standard. I liked your copy/consultation page where you give those tips for excellent copy.
Most people are worried about hiring professional copywriters because they are not sure about their success. They way I see it, what most marketers launch is just another MAKE MONEY ONLINE product. Proper research is not put into creating a product before trying to market them.
My advice would be to
1. Research your market
2. Find credible and unique information. Don’t just rehash existing systems and provide them under a new hood.
3. Understand quality comes at a price. If you cannot create killer copies then hire someone like Scott who can do it for you.
4. Provide valuable after sales support
-Adarsh
You talk as if you know yet it’s obvious you don’t.
Okay Paul… I don’t censor comments unless they’re blatant spam. So please enlighten me…
You’re welcome to your opinion. However you didn’t give any reason as to why you think this.