Should a copywriter be ever  asking for help seeling his services?

Isn’t this a contradiction of sort?  How can you be hlping people to sell theri wares but cannot sell your own?

Even though I agree with the general logic of this argument, in practice
this doesn’t hold true.

Doctors don’t live any longer than the rest of the population.

A copywriter should know how to sell but he doesn’t write
to sell other copywriting services. I doubt Tiger Woods’
coach can beat Tiger at golf.

I’m often asked by my coaching students how to get clients.
This is a fair question. I could say, “Physician heal thyself”,
but selling your services as a copywriter is different to helping
other people sell their wares.

How? For the very same reason you ask the business owner
to employ you–you have a perspective that they don’t have.
You (they) are sometimes too close to the trees to see the forest.

Also a copywriter can get so caught up in writing copy that he
forgets to market his own services. A balance has to be
struck between helping other people market their wares
and marketing your own wares.

Selling personal services can be tricky because YOU, your
personality (real or assumed), ethnicity, beliefs … all
come into the mix and it’s difficult to be separated from your
work. Clients don’t only want to know that your copy
works but that YOU BELIEVE SO!

Dan Kennedy like to say that there are a ton of people
walking around with a cord tied to their belly looking
for a place to plug it in. Confident business people want
to know that they are dealing with confident copywriters.
You must believe in your value to the client before they
pay you your value.

I don’t need anyone to tell me that I write powerful copy
because my copy has already told me so–it has raked
in millions on dollars. It’s with that mindset that you
sell your services, not with clever words and selling
strategies.

Early in my copywriting career a prospect phoned to
inquire about my services. I thought I would be funny
(big mistake) and so replied that I thought he was a
bill collector! The conversation went on to tell me what
he wanted done etc., but I never heard from him again.

Why?  He must have though, “If this guy is getting bill collector calls then _____” .

Especially when you are new to copywriting (and even old)
there would be dry spells. (Some copywriters fake busi-ness
because it sells, but that’s for another post.) The point
is that if you devalue your work during those dry spells then
you are sowing inferior seeds that would yield a poor harvest
when the rain starts to fall. Clients have a way of remembering
what you charged before.

The bottom line is that simply because you are a good copywriter
doesn’t mean that you can sell YOUR copywriting services. You
may need outside help (a mentor) to get you
accustomed to calling the high fees without flinching your face
or your voice.

Perhaps copywriters need their own copywriters.

Mistakes. Nobody likes to make them. But when we do we try to
learn from them, survive them and then value the experience
that we now have because of them.

As a internet marketing consultant having worked with many
different businesses Ive seen a lot of foul-ups in my career.
In this article Ill just like to address 7 of these mistakes
that have crippled or handicapped many companies that otherwise
could have been very successful.

1. Failure to differentiate your business by showing the unique
benefits you provide the customer.

Some may call this the Unique Selling Position (USP) or a host of
other titles meaning the very same thing, but you want to show
how you are different from your competition. Even if you are
selling a very common product you can still differentiate
yourself from your competition by picking one unique quality.

If you own a pizza place then maybe you are the only business in
the area that delivers after midnight or offer star-shaped
pizzas. Whatever will help you to stand out from the other pizza
places will help you to stand out in the customers mind. Think
about how many credit card companies, gas stations, bakeries
?and a host of other businesses that offer similar services
to other companies.

Differentiate and you’ll win.

2. Failure to test your advertising strategies.

There are many companies that run various ads. This includes
Yellow Pages, radio spots, newspapers and direct mail. Yet they
cannot determine which ads are doing well and which are just a
waste of money. This is because they do not test to see where
their results are coming from.

Any business should have some parameter by which they measure
where they are getting results and where their advertising is
losing money. Very large corporation are particularly guilty of
this because they have large adverting budgets. They can afford
to do branding advertising that is not intended to bring a
direct measurable response. A small business owner cannot afford
such luxury however.

So test, measure and use only what works.

3. Marketing to everybody.

Any business should have a niche or target audience that they
market to. Except you are selling water your target audience
cannot be the universal population. And even if you were selling
water you may not be able to reach all languages and some people
already have an abundance.

If you focus on your target market then you are more likely to
get a greater response because your message will be more focused
and direct. When you have a target in mind then you are more
likely to strike it than to just throw mud up against the wall
and hoping that something will stick.

The sharper your arrow point is the more likely it will strike
the bulls eye. Know who your target audience is and design your
advertising to reach them.

4. Not asking your customers what they think of your product or
service.

If you dont survey your customers to find out what they love or
hate about your product or service then you may be losing them
without even realizing it. Customers appreciate when you value
their opinions enough to ask for it. In this way you can find
out how to improve your products to better suit your market.
The more satisfied your customers are the more youll get with
less effort.

5. Ignoring your present customer base.

You know the saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the
bushes”. This could be said about customers as well, but this
time try five in the bushes. Yes, it can take 5 times as much
money and effort to win a new customer as it takes to keep an old
one.

Rather than just concentrating on building your customer base you
should spend a greater amount of your marketing resources to
keep those that you have already happy. If you dont do this
then youll just be trying to fill up a leaking barrel. Youll
continue to lose customers as fast as you gain them-a great way
to waste your marketing resources.

6. Not having a back end product to sell to your existing
customers.

After your customer has made an initial sale, you should have
another complimentary product to sell to that customer. You have
already won their confidence to do business with you so the
second sale should be easier to make.

Even if you dont sell such a product or service then you should
form a joint venture with another business owner and split the
profit. Ignoring the wealth that is in your present customer
base is a grave mistake. Yet many businesses do this year after
year.

7. Not spying out the competition.

Even if you are #1 in your niche you should be still keeping an
eye on what your competition is doing. You may learn some
valuable lessons and it may help you to see the weaknesses that
you have in your own company.

No general will want to go to war without knowing what type of
armor the enemy has and how well they use them. The same for a
business as well; you must know what your competition uses and
how you can translate the successful strategies to your own
business.

This subject may appear strange at first. Why would anyone want to know how to fail at doing anything? Many times failure comes because we failed to heed the warning signs not because we were not success oriented.

This can be compared to traffic signs. They don’t all tell you what to do but what NOT to do. If it were not for those signs that said “No right turn”, “No parking” you can imagine the confusion it will cause.

Here are some sure ways to fail in your quest online to build a healthy income.

1. Thinking that making money online is ‘easy’.

There are many that come to the Internet with a ‘lotto’ mentality. They think that by some stroke of luck they would sign up for this incredible business and ‘bam!’ their bank account is overflowing with money. In fact, there are many ‘pluggin businesses’ that try to sell you on that idea. They use words such as ‘automated income’ and ’spill-over’. I can assure you that any business that try to sell you the idea that you don’t have to do anything to make money and that they will do all the work for you is robbing you of your dream.

I have signed up for many MLM programs that use the ‘forced matrix’ model. This means that you can only have a limited amount in any level before the recruits are passed on to another level. This model sells on the fact that you will receive ’spill-over’ from those above you. The only problem here is that if everyone waits for the spillover then opportunity flops. The idea that someone else will do all the work and make you rich is a fallacy.

2. Making sure you have everything in place before you start.

You can be stalled in the planning stage thinking that everything has to fit in place before you can launch. Some refers to this as ‘the paralysis of analysis’. There are many projects that never get off of the ground because the creator was never satisfied that it was ‘just right’. It’s best to go ahead with what you have and improve as time goes by. The inspiration often comes while you are on the road and seldom while you are planning the trip.

3. Try one thing and if it doesn’t work give up.

You can read any story of a successful online marketer and it will be filled with failure. What makes the difference between a ‘guru’ and a failure is that the ‘guru’ was willing to fail more times. History is littered with stories of people who failed a thousand times before they hit the bull’s eye. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Edison come immediately to mind but there are many others. We often feel defeated because we are presented with the success rather than the path to that success. Anyone who courts the trophy must pay the price of hard work.

4. Try every opportunity that comes along. One may work.

There is no way of telling which business will be successful and which will fail. However, at the same time you need to focus on a particular niche and keep working at it. Jumping all around causes you to lose focus and not to mention money as well. I’ve heard the complain often ‘I tried everything and nothing worked.’ This may be because you tried everything!

We are only blessed with a limited amount of time. This means that we have to give any project the best that we have and do not lose focus. If you have the tendency not to finish what you started then you need to discipline yourself to change this. This does not mean that if you find something that is not working that you keep at it just to be persistent. If you find that the project is failing because of something over which you have no control then it’s time to leave and move on. On the other hand if you find one that works then keep at it and build your empire.

5. You can make it without investing in your education and advertising.

There is one place you don’t want to be stingy and it’s in your education. The most successful online business owners will tell you that they invest thousands of dollars each year in their education. You have to keep reading and don’t begrudge this time. Saving that dollar for the seminar materials may cost you thousands of dollars later.

There are two areas that you can never be a miser in - your education and advertising. A common mistake that people who are new to Internet business make is that they don’t budget for advertising and their continued education. They start a business and think that people will just find them and buy. You have to read to keep abreast of the latest research findings and advertising methods that work. I’ve read of affiliates who emailed the program owner and complained that hey had not received their commission checks. When asked if they were advertising the program they said ‘No’!

6. Thinking that your online business will give you a lot of free time.

Look at all those pictures on websites that sell business opportunities and they show you entrepreneurs on the beach with their laptop and cell phones. The idea is that you can work where you want and when you want. This may be partially true, except that when you want may be from 6 AM to 2 AM and where you want may be everywhere.

Most people who are self-employed will tell you that they work harder and worry more than when they worked for someone else. There is just no easy way out. The very freedom that your home business promises you is also the same slavery that binds you. As always, freedom comes at a price. Remember all those worries that your boss carried and you didn’t have to spend all night thinking about? - Well, you now have them all and more!

Just look out for those warning signs and you will be safe on the road to online success. The road is steep and littered with wrecks of those who didn’t look out for the signs. Don’t let this happen to you.

(c)2003 Ray L. Edwards

There is a concept in marketing that I like to refer to as the “advertising funnel”. What do I mean by this?

If you look at how a funnel is designed, at the top entrance is wide and then it narrows towards the bottom like a sharpened pencil point. At the top it is wide and open but as you move towards the bottom area then it becomes narrower.

The same must be applied to your marketing. You must make it easy for your potential customer to enter your field of influence and ‘tighten up’ on them as they get closer to the sale decision.

Now let us make this as practical as possible.

If I asked you to just go to my website and make a $500 purchase you will likely turn down my offer. I am asking for too much to early. But instead I offer you a subscription to my fr-e newsletter along with a bonus and it becomes a much easier decision to make. This is where the funnel is wide and easy to enter.

I then may offer you to purchase an ebook for $37. Now because I should have developed some credibility with you then this step is much easier to take. My next offer will be a $97 product and then the $500 product.

This works the same way in normal human relationships. It’s a “hi, hello” and then as we talk more and get to know each other we can talk about more things than just the weather.

Some people attempt the $500 sale before taking the other baby steps and blame their lack of sales on other factors than ignoring the marketing funnel.

It is plain to see that the wider the mouth of the funnel is the greater will be your ‘catch’. Like the Bible says, sow besides all waters because you do not know which seed will bring forth the abundant harvest. The waters you sow beside includes search engines, classified ads, safelist, article writing, joint ventures, posting to forum boards … and the list goes on.

As you try to build your mailing list just ask for a ‘first name’ and ‘email address’. If you ask for much more information than this then you will likely be making your funnel too narrow. Now they have opted to be on your list then you can ask for more. If you under-promise and over-deliver each time then you’re likely to have a customer for life.

So if you were to ask me what was the primary reason for your website? The answer will be to have a wide funnel mouth collecting email addresses. The primary purpose of your website is NOT to make sales but to collect that ever-important email address!

Once they are in the funnel then it becomes easier for them to slide down into your sales bottle. Check your marketing strategy to see if you may have your funnel upside down - few enter but many leaving.