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Persuasion over text (website copy). How to find the right copywriter vs writing the copy yourself
I know @lucio and @ali have been through this before. How do you find someone to help with copywriting?
In my limited experience (I've hired a copywriter twice), there are some major things that affect this decision:
- They need to understand the audience and the domain just enough to not making obvious mistakes that would rub the reader the wrong way. For example, from what I read here, the first version of the TPM book 'blurb' sounded a bit 'guru like' (which is not at all how this content feels like.
- They need to understand competitors to underst and the value proposition (not easy to communicate!) and positioning in the market. It's rare to find a copywriter that will take this much time to write something
- They may need to understand UX on a website. "Ok, the user lands on this page, 70% of the time they visit page X, 50% of the time page Y before they make a decision to purchase"
- ... which means they may need to work together with website designers. Who traditionally don't give a shit about copy and think in terms of pictures and text blocks of 'Loren ipsum'
Which, in retrospect, means we are looking for an unicorn... and the only person who knows this is the founder himself. Problem is, for the founder to write good copy unaided he would have to master this skill, and that is not a small task. It might take years; even doing courses, you cannot expect immediate improvements (in months).
This is a catch 22!
Anyone has any experience they want to comment on? If you have gone the 'founder writes copy' route, can you talk about what you used to teach yourself copywriting?
All my experience with copywriters has been poor.
Including one that introduced himself as the world savior of copywriting and promised millions (but bombed).
I don't have much experience though because I never invested much time and effort in optimizing marketing/copywriting (and analytics, since you can't have the former without data analysis).
Those are big projects on their own.
Even in the most time-effective approach, which is to hire some top business with experience in your filed, it's still time-consuming as you need to explain and direct their work.
So I went for a shortcut.
TPM's Approach to Copy Is To Copy The Copy
My approach has been:
- Take what a (supposedly) successful competitor is doing
- Â Use that as your starting base
- Adapt it / mold it
- Use that time you saved on copy on your own self-development, discipline development, and the actual product, to make it as good as it can be
OFF-TOPIC: ETHICS
It might be an ethical grey area to some, and to some others even an obvious "not cool".
I accept those views, but disagree.
It's as value-adding as possible to me because the focus is less on the money persuading as many prospects as possible, and more on delivering a great product to those who go ahead.
Plus, while the copy is based on a competitor, the products here are groundbreaking -and that's what matters most-.
OFF-TOPIC: ETHICS
Still this is not the most effective approach.
To begin with, you can't be sure your competitors are optimizing.
Second, your audience and offering is also probably slightly different.
As of now, most of the feedback I got or read on PU's sales page is that it's poor and reeks of snake-oil, and that it's not in line with all the rest -and with the articles-.
On the other hand, it's an approach that worked "well enough" for TPM's goals, mission, and vision.
One day I'll invest more time on copy and marketing, but until then, I may not be the best guy to instruct anyone on the subject (beside sharing this message).
Hello LOF,
If you want to, shoot me a message about what exactly you're looking for, and then maybe we can brainstorm that copy together.
Personally, I think that starting off with a hierarchy of benefits is oftentimes a good step one and then you can make a rough draft based on that (it doesn't have to be good/perfect, only a general map). Then, make adjustments based on Kolenda's Copywriting Psychology eBook (that's where I'd go from there).
But, another option (and what I personally did) would also be to check out the copy of some of your competitors and copywriting teachers that you admire/respect. Then, mirror their style and change the wording to suit your needs accordingly.
P.S.:
Tow things I forgot to say:
The best copywriter for TPM has been Ali actually, and the community here (and even more so when it comes to infographics / design / general marketing).
And the second one is, I'm super busy these days with housework + the usual TPM work and so are you. But let's keep in touch LOF and maybe we can schedule something in the next days.
