Peeling Onions for Dollars

September 5, 2008

Dear Copywriter,

I’m waiting to hear about 2 proposals I have out totaling somewhere between $60K and $80K depending on which packages are selected.

The first proposal is for a repeat client. The second is for a potential new client.

The reason I’m telling you this is because NEITHER of these clients came to me for big projects.

In fact, when we first spoke, they BOTH wanted to hire a “copywriter.” One of them just needed some emails.

Peeling an Onion for Dollars

So how do you go from getting a call to write a salesletter or some emails all the way to projects worth tens of thousands of dollars?

The answer is you get there slowly. And carefully.

It’s kind of like peeling an onion.

But in this case, the onion is your client’s business. And the CORE of the onion is where all the money is.

When you get to the core of the onion, you know the REAL needs of your client and you know the REAL results that can be created by meeting those needs.

And THAT’S what your focus becomes: helping the client get from where she is to where she wants to go.

That has NOTHING to do with copywriting.

Of course, the client doesn’t always know what she needs. And chances are, she has no idea what her needs are truly costing her business.

That’s where you come in.

You point out the problems. You attach a number to those problems. You SOLVE those problems. You get rewarded.

Email Copywriting Worth $50,000?

So as your B.S. detector might tell you, there’s probably no client out there who will pay $50,000 for you to write some emails.

Maybe it happens. But it’s never happened to me. And I’m not holding my breath.

What clients WILL pay for are SALES. They WILL pay for improvements made in their business.

Copywriting can be used to do that… but it’s really just one piece of the puzzle.

And that’s why I’d recommend (from one copywriter to another), that you seriously consider getting out of the copywriting business altogether.

It’s Time to Change Your Mindset

If you’re JUST a copywriter, then you appear in the EXPENSE side of your client’s profit and loss statement.

I know that’s not what you hear. “Copywriters” MAKE businesses money. They pay for themselves… yada, yada, yada.

You usually hear that from the people that are selling copywriting courses.

And it’s true. IF the promotion works.

And if it doesn’t, then you’re just another liability.

Took me a while to realize that. But it’s KEY.

Start selling stuff your clients really want. They want more leads, more sales, more profits and a better business.

To create results like that, you need to learn how to do more than just write copy. You need to learn how to run and grow a business. You need to learn how to market products and services. How to setup a marketing/sales funnel that can be measured and improved over time.

All of those things can be learned quickly.

You walk into a potential client situation knowing how to generate leads, increase sales, and increase profits and you’ll make every other “copywriter” look like a pretty risky investment.

Try it. It works.


Posted by Jason | Filed Under Blog 

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