It’s the Copy…Stupid

It’s the Copy… Stupid

I’ve recently been approached by two different companies. Both companies needed help with their marketing. In particular their copy isn’t strong enough to convert prospects into customers.

Company A (a multi million pound company) is suffering from very low email open rates, very low CTR’s (Click Through Rates) and very low conversion rates.

Company B is desperately trying to sell tickets for their £300/ticket seminar. And its approach is seriously flawed.

Anyway, I had interesting phone conversations and exchanged emails with both companies. Both companies were very keen for me to write copy for them. But I haven’t ended up working with either company. Why is this?

Company A wanted me to knock 50% off my fee. And dangled the old carrot, “…. We’ve got loads of other projects if you do the first one at a reduced rate.” Give me a break I’ve heard that one so many times its water off a duck’s back.

Company B had no budget left for copy. They hoped they could sell out their seminar via a slideshow. And I don’t mean a video sales letter. Yes, that’s right people would watch their slideshow and that would do the selling for them. Silly.

The approach to copy by both companies is crazy. Seriously flawed.

Your copy is your link between you and your market. It’s the magic glue that brings you both together and can quite possibly make you rich. It’s what stops a £2 million company from becoming a £10 million company or a £50+ million …

The copy is what gets your reader’s attention. It’s the copy that persuades more of your customers to read your ad and buy from you (that’s if you have a great offer). It’s the copy that is your salesman. It’s the copy that enables those prospects who have never heard of you before to do business with you.

So for a company to rank copy so lowly in their marketing is just seriously daft.

Now contrast both Company A’s and Company B’s approach to copy with an internet entrepreneur. Let’s call him Steve.

Now Steve knows the importance of copy. So he decided to see if he could get more sales from his web page. So what did Steve do?

He offered $10,000 to the copywriter who wrote the highest converting page for his product. Steve knows he’ll make more sales with higher converting copy, its guaranteed money in his pocket. I imagine Steve has had quite a few copywriters write on spec for him. After all, $10,000 isn’t to be sniffed at. All Steve has to do is test each copywriter’s sales letter to find his winner.

I’ll leave you with these thoughts.

How highly does copy rate in your marketing? Are you Company A or B or are you a Steve?