Morning 🙂

We’re going to take a break from my series on optimizing a winning offer…

We might jump back to it later,

But I already covered a lot of the big parts in the last few blog posts…

And to be honest, I just don’t feel like writing about that topic this morning.

So, instead…

Let’s talking about the career of a freelance copywriter.

You may have heard me point this out before…

But indulge me for a second:

In 2012 I charged $149 for a sales letter.

By 2019 I was charging between $50k and $100k.

That’s a pretty remarkable rise, right?

And the question becomes…

What happened?

What made the difference?

And how was I able to increase my rates by so much, in such a limited amount of time?

Well, one of the answers…

Is that I obsessively focused on being the best at my craft.

In other words…

I operated with the belief set that if I got truly great at writing copy…

The money, the notoriety, and the opportunities would follow.

That might sound like an obvious strategy…

But I often see young copywriters who are more focused on money than they are their craft…

So, it’s worth repeating:

Put your craft first, and the money will follow.

Of course, it also helps if, once you’ve gotten good…

You find a way to make your own luck…

And there are several ways you can do that.

In fact, I actually just listed four of those ways out on Quora.

Here’s why I did that:

I’ve been messing around with Quora and trying to answer questions when I have time.

Well, this morning I found myself with a little bit of extra time…

So I hopped on and saw a question about how much you can get paid to write VSLs.

I figured that was a good one for me to answer…

And, sure enough…

Thirty minutes later I’d done a pretty in-depth breakdown of how to level up in your copywriting career.

Some of the major areas or topics I discussed included client selection, royalties, how much to charge, how to position yourself, etc…

And I think the advice is pretty damn good.

So, if you’re a freelancer (whether it’s for copy or something else)…

I’d recommend you head over to Quora and check out the full reply.

Here’s the link to it…

And, if you happen to like my answer…

Please feel free to give me a little upvote too 🙂

—

That’s it for today.

Keeping this a little bit shorter than usual…

The reason why is probably because I already wrote a 1,500 word Quora response before I even got to this blog post…

And now, I want to go drink a greens juice and read for a while before my daughter gets up.

I hope you have a great day!

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post How much do copywriters charge for VSLs? first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

Here’s an obvious but profound application of the 80-20 Rule as it applies to sales:

For anyone who sells anything – no matter if you’re a copywriter, a sales rep, a real estate agent, a retailer, an agency owner, or something else…

If you put in 20% more effort than the average person in your field…

You will automatically be more successful than at least 80% of those people.

Because here’s a boring secret…

The key to success really is just showing up and actually giving a f**k.

Truly it is.

But, ever since I first went out on my own as a freelancer back in early 2012…

I’ve been continuously shocked by how many people don’t seem to actually care about making the sale.

Here’s the story that triggered this thought:

Yesterday, I emailed a real estate agent about a beach house I saw that’s for rent. It’s in a great location, but when I walked by it I noticed the “For Rent” sign also said “no pets.”

So, I emailed the agent and asked how firm the owner was on the no pets thing.

I also mentioned that if there was some flexibility and we liked the house, we’d be open to paying an extra $500 per month to have our two small cats there with us.

Then I finished the email by saying that if the owner of that house was adamant about no pets, then no big deal…

But to let me know if he (the agent) has any other properties in the surrounding area that would be worth looking at.

Here’s the agent’s reply:

“Owner will consider small dogs. That’s it. Sorry.”

Sweet.

It’s nice the guy responded back…

But it also seems like he just missed a big ol’ opportunity.

The rental I emailed about isn’t cheap…

And yet, I’m saying I would pay above market value if we could bring our cats…

So even if the answer is no, which is fine…

It seems like I might be the kind of client this guy would want to build a relationship with…

Because in our first interaction ever, I’m indicating that I don’t mind paying extra for things I want.

And then there’s the fact that he completely ignored my question about other listings…

Which is kind of nuts…

Because I just found the guy's profile on Realtor.com a few minutes ago…

And the dude does have other listings…

Including a house that's listed for $2.3MM, and that’s in the same area as where we want to eventually buy.

It honestly looks like a pretty nice home, and I’d be interested in seeing it…

But I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to email that guy about it now…

Especially when he was so unhelpful in his first reply.

Maybe I’d still email the guy if that house looked like my absolute dream home…

But it doesn’t.

It just looks like a house I’d be interested in seeing.

Still though…

If the agent had mentioned that house in his reply…

There would at least be a CHANCE that I’d go view it…

And there'd be a chance that I ended up really liking it and putting in an offer.

Probably not, but it would have been a possibility at least…

And like I said yesterday, sales is all a numbers game, right?

A 3% commission on a $2,300,000 listing is $69,000…

So it just seems like with that being the case…

The agent would want to show the house to as many qualified buyers as possible…

Until he gets a bite.

Apparently not, though…

And this agent’s behavior isn’t some one-off…

This kind of stuff is happening all of the time.

Here are just a few other things I’ve noticed when it comes to real estate:

1. For the beach houses listed on Zillow, about 25% of the time the agent doesn’t use a picture of the ocean as the listing’s main image.

That’s a huge mistake. People who are looking for oceanfront homes want to know that they’ll be able to see… the ocean! But by just including a random picture of the kitchen, they’re killing their “open rates.”

2. I’d say that for about 10% of the listings, the agent doesn’t write a description. And these are for expensive properties that have been on the market for a while.

3. Then there’s the super amateur photos that are used for some of the listings. We’re talking about rentals that are $10k per month or more… and houses that are $2MM+… Yet the photos look like my grandpa took them on his 1997 flip phone.

4. About 50% of the time when Laura and I call or text someone to inquire about a house, we don’t get a call back until a few days later. Sometimes we never hear back. In the realm of sales, and especially real estate, you’ve got to be fast, but a lot of these agents aren’t.

And conversely – if I was thinking about hiring a real estate agent to list my home, I’d first find one of their current listings and call them to inquire about it. This way, I could see how quickly the agent answers or respond to me and what their demeanor is. Then I’d probably go so far as to schedule a walkthrough of one of their listings where I pretend to be a potential buyer. That way I can see how the house is staged, how hard the agent works to sell the house, etc.

Most of us don’t do that though – we just get referred somebody by a friend and go with that agent, without knowing if they’re actually any good.

And that’s just real estate…

But let me give you a few more mind-blowing examples…

5. I fly private sometimes. About 25% of the time when I reach out to an agent or a broker for a quote, they don’t respond back. This includes brokers I’ve used in the past. This is pretty common too – a person does a great job the first time you work with them, but then aren’t as solid in subsequent interactions. That’s no good. Consistency is key.

6. I recently inquired about season tickets for the Las Vegas Raiders. Instead of calling me, the sales rep sent an email with some generic info + a link to view available seats. The package I was interested in would have cost $70,000. I asked the agent a question about this package and he did respond. But then that was it. If he’d followed up with me a few more times, there’s a decent chance I would have bought the package. I just needed some convincing.

7. A little while back, I had a freelancer friend who said he was struggling to get clients and having money problems. I introduced him to a dream client. The freelancer took two days to reply, and then asked if they could get on a call the following week. The dream client didn’t respond and I don’t blame them. They had an urgent pain point and the freelancer seemed like the kind of guy who moves slow. Not worth it to them.

8. One more. Back in early September I went to the dealership and looked at luxury cars. One of the cars I liked a lot was the Rolls Royce Dawn. It was a little over $403,000. After I left the dealership, I emailed the sales rep and asked him to do the math for me on a lease. If I put 10% down (so $40k), what would my monthly cost be over a 36 month lease, and with how many miles? The guy never responded back. I even double-checked a week later to make sure I had his address right, and I did.

Honestly, I could write another ten thousand words about this…

But I think you get the point:

A lot of the secret to success is just showing up.

You don’t have to be the best at what you do…

You just have to be better than most of your competition…

And the bar is pretty low.

K that’s it for today…

Hope everyone has an awesome Monday.

– SPG

P.S.

For the copywriters on my blog…

Showing up means proactive communication with clients, meeting deadlines when you say you will, and being responsive. That’s it. Simply do those things and you’ll have differentiated yourself from 90% of the other copywriters out there.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Why Most Salespeople Suck (And How You Can Be Better) first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

A/B Test Win #1

For that new offer I have, the one that that paid for the PJ…

We had a large mailer who asked us to alter the headline and lead, so it better matched their list demo. ✅

Specifically:

Their list loves quizzes…

The sales letter for our offer includes a “5 Second At-Home Test”… 🕙

So, the mailer suggested that we move the at-home-test up higher in the lead…

And feature it more prominently in the headline.

Well, that’s what we did…

I revised the headline to make the At Home Test the first bullet following the headline… 👨‍💻

Then, I moved the test up to around the third page of the sales letter (prior it was on the 12^th page or so).

The result: A 57% increase in conversions.

Not too shabby for about 5 minutes of work.

A/B Test Win #2

A while back I wrote a sales letter for a very large brand in the health/fitness space (9 figures). I also delivered it to them with two variants of the lead (I’ve written about giving your clients multiple variants and going above and beyond before btw, and as you can see I practice what I preach).

Their target metric was a 1% conversion rate on cold traffic on Facebook – that was the magic number where they could scale to the moon.

Might not sound that hard, but it’s a difficult and saturated category…

And, despite having tested countless internal variants of their “control” for a year plus, and hiring other writers to also try and hit that metric…

Nobody had been able to do it.

Well, guess what?

At first it looked like maybe I wouldn’t be able to do it either.

The first variant that I gave them sucked. It didn’t even beat their underwhelming control.

So, thank goodness I gave them a second variant too.

Here’s what was different in the second variant I provided them with…

It had an alternative headline + a modified lead.

Total, 700 words were changed in V2 when compared to V1.

The VSL is about 8,800 words long in total…

So, this means in V2 I changed 7.9% of the sales copy…

But left 92.1% of it the same.

Not a huge amount of work there honestly, but guess what…

Over 4,000+ sales now…

V2 not only converts ~97% better than V1 did…

This second variant has also hit and stayed at the 1% threshold my client needed to scale.

Which is the first time it’s happened for this product – previously this metric was like his “white whale”…

And obviously my client and his team are thrilled.

In fact, they’re now asking to hire me to do another sales letter for them…

And it’s been really fun for me to see this offer popping up all Facebook (cause yep, it can run on FB) and other traffic sources.

Split Test Specifics:

I went over the first split-test win in some detail during our weekly training call with our Copy Accelerator Mastermind Members…

And I shared with you guys in this post what we did in general (altered the headline and moved the at-home test up).

I’ll be going over the details of this second split-test win with our Copy Accelerator Members next week…

But, it’s not fair to my client if I share too many of the details of this second A/B win here.

With that being said though, I’m also not going to leave you guys hanging…

So I’ll let you know that apart from testing a different headline…

Two of the biggest changes I made between V1 and V2 are as follows:

1. I added credibility and proof elements to the very beginning, the first line of the lead (along with the headline) and then kept hammering them multiple times (Harvard, John’s Hopkins, etc).

2. I renamed the mechanism. I didn’t give away the whole mechanism in the lead (I never do that), but I did tease it in the lead. And in V2 I gave this mechanism an ultra-sexy name that it was lacking in V1.

Final Thoughts + The Main Takeaway From This Post:

Split-test headlines and leads. Again, and again, and again. It sounds obvious, but so often I see people put out an offer, it does okay, and they just leave it at that.

If you wrote something that’s not where it needs to be, stay calm. You don’t need to rewrite everything. It doesn’t mean you suck and your copywriting career is over. It can be fixed. The first step is always testing new headlines and new leads. These tests will almost ALWAYS move the needle way more than any other tests you can do.

And for those of you who do client work – this advice is even more valuable. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: give your clients some options. Give them a few variants to play with/test/etc.

The hands-down easiest way to get repeat, high-paying clients is to provide them with winners. And the fastest way to get them winners is by giving them variants they can test.

Hope this post is valuable to you guys ☺

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Two A/B Test Wins + The Easiest Way To Get Repeat Clients first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

One mistake I see a lot of young copywriters make is being more in love with closing clients than they are with actually writing copy.

I personally struggled with this when I was a young copywriter.

Closing a client is exhilarating and exciting – almost like a game, and when they say “yes” and hire you, then send you money, it’s a great feeling.

Then reality sits in, and you have to actually “do the work.” That’s less exciting.

It probably ties back to dopamine.

You get a release of dopamine when you’re “rewarded” with a client and money.

That probably doesn’t happen when it comes to spending the next 20-40 hours (or however long) actually working hard to make the offer good.

So what a lot of copywriters do (and again, I made this mistake as well in the past), is keep searching for new clients instead of focusing on knocking it out of the park for the clients they’ve already got.

It’s not that these writers are being assholes, they’re just conditioned to crave that dopamine.

But the ironic thing is that if they just focused on killing it for the clients who already hired them, they’ll end up getting those hits of dopamine way more often. The clients will hire them again. When their promos are everywhere, new prospective clients will come out of the woodwork and want to hire the writer all-day long.

They’ll get more money from clients with less resistance.

I’m keeping this post short (for me).

But if you’ve got a project to complete and you’ve been putting it off, while simultaneously wishing you had more money, use what I’m saying as motivation. Get after it this week and CRUSH IT for your clients. Make whatever you write bad ass, make it irresistible, pour your heart and soul into it.

Not only will your bank account be happy that you did, but that dopamine-hungry brain of yours will thank you too ☺

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post On Dopamine, Client Work, and Focus first appeared on Stefan Georgi.

One of the factors behind my success as a direct response copywriter is that I turn down projects pretty regularly. I do this for a lot of reasons, including:

-We can’t agree on a dollar amount

– I’m not passionate about the product/offer/niche

– I don’t think I can kill it for the product/offer/niche

– The client doesn’t seem to have their shit together and I don’t think what I write will ever see the light of day

– Their copy is already good and I think their money could be better spent somewhere else.

In this post I want to talk about that last point, because it may surprise a lot of people.

Here’s a super fresh example…

I was recently referred to someone who wants to launch a new health offer on Clickbank. This person emailed me with some background info and asked what my price would be. I replied that my standard rate is $50k for a sales letter. The individual then replied back saying that’s what they expected, that they really wanted to work with me, and they’d need a few months to get the money together. They also shared the current sales copy that they’d “thrown together.”

This morning I looked at that “thrown together” sales copy. And it was pretty good. In fact, there was a lot of stuff I liked in it.

So, I let the prospective client know. Specifically, I replied and told them that they should launch the offer with their own copy and see how it does. Then, if the numbers aren’t strong enough, they could look at engaging me for a “beat your control” type situation. I LOVE beat your controls, my version almost always wins, and frankly it’s less work for me too which is nice. Plus, for a beat your control type project, my rate is often 50% of what I charge for something brand-new. So, it’s more economically viable to the prospective client as well.

Now of course, if this person’s copy had been terrible, I wouldn’t have said any of this. But their copy really was pretty good. So it didn’t make sense for them to hire me. Being really blunt and honest: it would have been a waste of their money.

And that’s my point…

I would rather say “no” to a $50,000 project if it’s not the right fit. It’s the ethical thing to do, but

it’s also smart business on both sides. By being honest with this prospective client from the start, I set things up for us to have a much better long-term relationship. Let’s say he does launch with his current copy and the offer is going well and making him a bunch of money. He’s still going to be inclined to pay me $25k to beat his control down the road, because it’s a no-lose situation for him. And on Beat Your Controls there are normally performance bonuses built in for me, so the actual amount of money I’d stand to make from beating his control will likely be closer to $100,000 – $200,000.

So Prospective Client Wins by:

– Saving $50,000 now

– Launching faster and likely making good money out of the gate

– Then using his profits to cash-flow hiring me at a future date, and at a smaller up front rate

– And when we do work together, I’ll move the needle for him even more, because I can take what’s already working, and make it even stronger and MORE profitable for him.

And I Win By:

– Saving my time, energy, and effort right now

– Immediately differentiating myself from other writers in the eyes of the prospective client (thus setting up the foundation for a long-term relationship)

– Potentially making $100k to $200k off the same project in the future (with the upfront + performance bonuses)

From a selfish perspective, I’m sacrificing a significant short-term gain for the possibility of an even more significant long-term gain. It’s a bit of a gamble, but it’s also the RIGHT thing to do, because right now this prospective client simply does not need to spend money on me, when his copy is already pretty good.

You might be reading this and thinking “wow, must be nice to be Stefan and have the luxury of saying no to $50,000.” And it is 🙂 But don’t dismiss what I’m saying.

There is a principle at play here, and it would still apply if I was an unknown writer charging $500, or $5,000.

That principle, and it’s one of my guiding ones, is “Seeking To Give First and Receive Second.” That may sound counterintuitive, but it’s how you get ahead both in business and in life.

Another way of stating this principle is as such:

“Focus on delivering massive value to the people you come into contact with, and the rest will follow.”

This might seem obvious, but I see so many folks (especially copywriters) who have the opposite approach. These folks begin interactions with a “what’s in it for me” attitude. It leads to uninspired copy, poor results for clients, and a lack of repeat clients. This “me-first” attitude leaves them always scrambling to find new clients, pay their bills, and feeling like they don’t have enough money in the bank. It leaves them always “wanting” and never feeling satisfied or at ease in their lives.

As I’m typing this, I’m realizing I have a TON to say and could write an entire book on this topic. But for now, let me just finish with one more practical example.

Let’s say that “8 Figure Client” hires two copywriters to create a new offer for him.

We’ll call them “Copywriter A” and “Copywriter B.”

They both charge $5,000 and quote an eight-week turnaround time.

Copywriter A – Spends the first seven weeks watching Netflix, reading Reddit, and going out to bars. Finally at around the “due date”, he realizes he needs to get this project done. So he rushes through the copy as fast as possible. He still tries to make it good of course, but he also feels constrained because of the lack of time. He tells himself the story of “if I’d started this earlier, I could have made this killer. Next time I won’t be so slow.” It’s a story he’s told himself countless times before though.

He finally sends the sales letter to “8 Figure Client” at the ten-week mark. It’s exactly what the client asked for, nothing less and nothing more. One finished sales letter.

Copywriter B – Spends a solid three weeks doing nothing but working on “8 Figure Client’s” offer. He does a ton of research, thinks through the arguments he’ll be making, develops nasty hooks, and is filled with confidence as he starts writing the actual copy. Copywriter B gets the offer to “8 Figure Client” EARLY. He includes 3 variations of the lead for the Client to test + 6 different headlines. He throws in two email creatives too, because he wants to make sure “8 Figure Client” can test the offer as fast as possible. Copywriter B also tells Client to keep him posted on the data, and that if the offer doesn’t perform as strongly as the Client needs, he’ll keep working on modifying the offer until it does.

Who is 8 Figure Client going to hire for his next offer?

Copywriter B.

It sounds super obvious…

But if it’s that obvious, why are there so many copywriters out there acting like Copywriter A and so few acting like Copywriter B?

If you’re a writer and you want to make more money, get a great reputation, and have clients coming to YOU instead of constantly stalking the Cult of Copy Job Board…

Be more like Copywriter B.

It will change your life pretty much overnight.

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post On Turning Down Projects + “A Tale Of Two Copywriters” first appeared on Stefan Georgi.