williamscopywriting

Here’s a superb article written by my good friend and copywriter John Beavis…

Ever made a decision that you really wish you hadn’t? Relax. You’re not alone - at some time or another, we all have. So, you’re in good company, but when it comes to copywriters, what company do you want to keep?

There are a lot of writers out there. The strange thing is that there are an awful lot of inexperienced writers out there who have:

- An over inflated sense of their own value
- A severely impaired sense of their own ability
- A wholly inadequate business knowledge
- A plain daft charging structure!

I can see you’re smiling! That tells me that you’ve either met them, come across them, or worse - you’ve actually hired them!

One that I’ve heard of used to be a hairdresser until he ‘saw the copywriting light’ just a handful of years ago and having read a book and touting a series of minor successes now tries to charge a $5000 fee … for doing anything. Another, a young girl with less than three years experience in an industry that is a white-hot proving ground, tries to bill herself out at $1000 a day. What’s worse and daft as it is - there are people, enterprises, companies and organisations that are prepared to hire these people to write their copy.

After 25 years as a copywriter covering the whole spectrum literally from A-Z, I think I have earned the right to ask … why?

Bill Bernbach, legendary boss of an agency that I once worked for, penned this mighty truism: “A principle isn’t a principle - until it costs you money!”

How right he was and you should make it a principle from here onward not to hire or work with hot-aired charlatans who claim to be masters of the art of copywriting.

But how can you spot them and avoid them? How do you judge what’s good, bad and simply awful?

1. Read their website… carefully

Is it littered with spelling mistakes, or does it make daft claims about having to support their wives’ expensive habits? Does it ring with hyperbole - ultimate, fantastic, superb, unbelievable - and other such claims that are simply hard to swallow? If their claims are empty and hollow, what sort of copy do you think they’re going to write for you?

2. Are they promising results?

Does the writer promise results? If they do, run away, as fast as your fingers can get you elsewhere. Nobody, but nobody, can guarantee you any sort of result, with any sort of conviction. You just don’t know what will happen, or why. All that you can ever do is make intelligent decisions based on the best evidence. If everything has been justified, for all of the right reasons, you have every right to expect success, but no one can quantify what that success is likely to be. Not in terms of figures and profit.

3. Look closely at the structure of their website

What they are presenting and how they sell themselves is exactly what you are hiring them to do for you. Does their website work? Is it easy to navigate, easy to read, clear, concise and precise? Does it ask the right questions from you and tell you what you have to do? If it’s confusing, there’s every chance their thinking will be just as muddled and every bit as confused too.

4. Is it easy to communicate with the writer?

The art of communication is exactly about what copywriting is all about. Through well-chosen words that present a well-reasoned rationale you want somebody to do something. If the writer can’t get you to respond and doesn’t make it easy for you to respond, what chance does your product, service or solution stand in this writer’s hands?

5. Take a long look at the writer’s headline

This is where the initial promise is made and it has to hit home hard. In a few words - and not more than 8-10 - you have to know what this writer is offering. And in that offering you have to make an almost instant decision about whether this writer can help you to reach your goals. If writers can’t write great headlines to sell themselves they are not likely to be able to write one for you, either!

6. What sort of experience is the writer offering?

Does the writer have a broad span of experience that covers pretty much everything? If they are freelance and offering to sell you a service then they should be offering the wealth of experience that justifies the price they are looking to charge.

What sort of experience? Big company, blue chip is, I believe, essential. That tells you that the writer has learned his or her craft writing to the demands and restrictions of corporate expectation. They’ve learnt voice, tone, structure, succinctness and clarity in writing for very demanding audiences who don’t have a minute to waste on waffle!

Outstanding writers, even with minimal experience, can often hit the ground running and get right up to speed with the intricacies and nuances of your unique requirements. Most junior writers and beginners cannot and their copy is little more than soft waffle! All the words are there - they just don’t say anything!

Solid experience on the other hand means that the writer can usually offer a good working grasp of the principles and dynamics that govern the market(s) that you are working in. Their experience means that they can add a whole host of extra dimensions and different angles to what you are trying to do and intend to achieve. Working with such writers is fun, challenging, interesting and different! Their minds work fast and their words are often just as quick.

7. Take a look at their testimonials

Do they have famous big name companies endorsing them, or is it merely Charlie Farley and No One in Particular. It might not tell you much, since most testimonials are merely ‘irrelevant niceties’, but if the quality of their experience isn’t there, their work is unlikely to be up to the mark either.

8. What is their commitment to you?

If it’s take-it or leave-it attitude, might I suggest you leave it! Copy is (at times) a (cruelly) subjective discipline and what I think is truly wonderful copy may totally miss the mark with you. No one looking out of the same window ever sees precisely the same view. So it is with copy. You and the writer need to work as a team to refine the copy until you are certain it covers all the bases and says exactly what you think it should.

You would expect the writer to offer you a first draft and allow for a substantial revision, post review, in the price quoted. To me, that’s a minimum. After the second draft, the writer should be prepared to do 1-2 further edits within the cost quoted. If it takes more than 5 iterations I think you’ve got problems. Either you’re not communicating what you want clearly, or the writer is simply missing the beat and you will need to talk it through together.

9. Ask for samples

Do not make the mistake of believing that just because writer hasn’t written on jewellery he or she can’t do it! Good writers are extremely versatile specialists who can pick up the reins and run with practically anything. I’ve never been an IT expert, but I’ve written IT for the world’s biggest companies for over 10 years! Names such as Cisco, Computer Associates, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Fuji, Microsoft and Sun still hire me for their words. Believe me, a good mind has no limits and a great writer can write anything, on just about anything at all.

So, if you ask for samples, don’t be too disappointed if they don’t send you exactly what you wanted to see. The samples reflect their versatility to write and each sample masks the restrictions that were placed on the writer by the product, service or solution, by the company and by the audience they were writing for. Samples serve to affirm a writer’s ability to write and that’s all you should expect of them. They won’t tell you if the writer can write for you. How can they? They were written for someone else!

10. Sort out a sensible price!

I have heard some barely believable figures bandied about by people who simply bought rubbish! £4000 GBP for a webflow. $5000 for a letter. Are these clients mad? You’d have to think so, but if the results pulled in from the writer’s work made millions of dollars, yen, euros or pounds, then you’d have to conclude that it was money well spent.

Trouble is, many didn’t pull very well at all! And I have spent many hours talking to and working with people that have been ripped off, trying to put right what they have been scorched by. I can tell you, it isn’t easy. When they’ve overpaid, clients lose trust in and belief in what can be done and lose sight of what is actually achievable. Then it becomes a really hard road. They’ve lost money so they’re down to begin with, but they’ve also lost faith because they’ve been burned so badly.

If you’ve got the time, get a price from 2-3 copywriters and ask each one to specify in their quotation exactly what they will do for you. Better still give the writer an exact brief of precisely what it is that you want, with examples where possible. Then you can compare prices and get a meaningful reality check.

If you don’t have the time, ask a business associate, colleague, acquaintance or supplier if they can point you in the direction of a good copywriter. A personal recommendation can save a huge amount of heartache!

If neither option is practicable, ask the writer for a referee (or two) that you can email for a testimonial. You can usually tell from the reply whether what is being said is genuinely sincere or false puffery!

Then it’s down to price. You know what you can afford to invest in your business, but can you afford to get your sales messaging wrong? Pictures are one thing, but in DR it’s the words that propel action. It’s how you say what you have to say that makes a reader respond and that truly is a craft.

Copy is both a skill and a saleable service, just like any other. Just like you, a copywriter is in business to make money - to cover costs and make a profit. There is nothing wrong with profit. That’s what business is all about. But there is a lot wrong with obscene profiteering. You should be able to hire the services of a really good writer for £250-350 GBP ($450-650 US) a day.

However, most would be reluctant to take a chance on your business decisions and would reject the idea of payment by results. Different matter if you are selling high quality diamonds or executive cars, but I think you know what I’m saying. Few will ever do speculative work, either.

Words that work

Clever copy is wonderfully crafted! It bounces along in a style that is pacey, imaginative, expansive and interesting. It tells news, invites opinion, prompts corroboration and sometimes even courts controversy. It isolates readers and makes them feel special and unique by making them believe that you are only talking to them. It explains clearly and succinctly what’s in it for the reader and it delivers on every promise that it ever makes.

Good copy makes an impression. Out of the 500+ sales messages that a person sees every day it’s clever copy that delivers the big idea and that hits home hardest and earns response. Take the AOL campaign about children’s safety online that was poignant, purposeful, simple and brilliant. All it said was: ”Your children are upstairs, but do you know where they are?” Sure, they’re safely online - but are they safe, even though they are in your own home? I’ll bet that ad pulled a huge response for AOL’s online safety program. It certainly should have hit home hard in the mind of every caring parent.

And, in the end…

You want a writer with great experience, an inquisitive mind and huge talent with words. You want someone who understands the human psyche and knows just what triggers to pull and in what sequence. You want someone with whom you can build a longterm relationship. Someone that understands your business and, to a degree, understands you too! You want someone that can bring something different to the table - innovation, imagination, creativity, flair, style, experience and knowledge. Preferably, it’s someone with solid DR experience under their belt that can help you to drive things through.

Treat them with a proper professional respect and ask no more of them than you would ask of yourself and your business will have uncovered a real gem and one of the very best allies it could ever hope to find.

It’s really not such a tall order - if you know exactly what to look for!

John Beavis is an international copywriter, whose word skills and marketing experience could help your business to find more customers.