Do you dread when this happens? You’re putting out an exciting new business offering, and then . . .
. . . you have to embrace the painstaking ordeal of telling people about it.
Maybe you’re one of these:
- The contractor who needs to keep their company top-of-mind with their existing clients but finds writing their own newsletter a real slog.
- The B2B firm with an extensive catalog or range of service offerings, now looking for a competent sales writer to learn about clients’ under-served use cases and let them know what the firm can provide.
- The new entrepreneur who’s just set up their website, realized it doesn’t come with any actual content, and is now struggling to produce copy that connects with customers effectively.
- The experienced business owner who’s getting ready to launch a new offering, but who doesn’t have anyone on staff with both the time and skill to write the sales pages and marketing emails necessary to build traction, especially if they’re reaching into a new market.
- The manager who’s expanding their team and has discovered a need for onboarding materials and workplace documentation to help everyone get up to speed and working together efficiently.
Those situations are problems. Problems hide profits. Although frustrating, these are all opportunities in disguise.
Specifically, they’re copy problems: they revolve around written communication with clients and coworkers. Copy does an impressive amount of heavy lifting: it persuades, it informs, it grabs and keeps attention—when it’s well-written.
I’m a writer,
but that’s an incomplete explanation of what I can do for you. If all you needed was to fill space on a page with some vaguely acceptable text, you could ask one of those shiny words calculators everyone keeps banging on about lately.
We can do better than a computer pouring all your competitors’ copy into one big pool of algebra and spitting out the average. You’re not them. Your clients are different, your offering is different, and nobody goes out looking to buy the most average option.
Nah. You want a human on this, one who’ll talk to your similarly human clients and learn why they choose you, then help you persuade other humans to make the same choice.
So how does it work?
The TL;DR
New clients start with a consultation meeting, which comes with a multi-purpose report I think you’ll find useful even if you don’t wind up hiring me. I do charge for this service.
The report includes proposals for any writing projects we discussed during the meeting, with per-project pricing quotes (not estimates). This process provides the foundation for strong writing work while effectively letting you vet me as a professional.
I wrote the rest of this page for people who like lots of detail up front. You’re welcome to skip it. Contact form button’s here.
Roadmap Meetings
With every new client, I take the time to sit down and learn about your business first: your biggest problems, your offering, your ideal market, your brand tone, the audience and goals for the project you’re working on, and more. I clear a good two hours for this, though you’re free to tap out early if you feel we’ve covered everything.
These meetings come with a deliverable: a summarized report from our discussion. A roadmap, if you will.
Anatomy of a Roadmap
- Insight summary. A written outline of the project discussion and analysis of any problems you’ve been working on. This ensures clear communication between us and can even serve as an onboarding document for another writer if needed.
- Project proposals. If the best next step is for us to work together, the roadmap outlines what that project will look like. I price by the individual project, with quotes rather than estimates. You’ll know up front how much things cost.
- Other suggestions. Suppose we meet about a marketing problem you’re facing—but, whoops, after discussion it sounds like you might need a graphic designer instead! This section might then include the contact information for someone in my network who could be a good fit. If I mentioned a software tool or information resource as worth your consideration, that’ll be listed here too; no need to hunt for any Post-It notes later.
Pricing
I charge a flat rate of $245 for roadmap meetings, the roadmap itself included.
I’m able to say that up front since this is essentially a productized service with a very consistent process, but every other project, I price individually according to its needs.
I don’t have an hourly rate for copywriting projects. I think pricing by the hour for project work is a bad deal for everyone involved. Jonathan Stark best explains why.
Project Process
Once a writing project begins, I’ll do my best to front-load asking you for things, because no one wants to babysit their copywriter.
The number one thing I’m likely to ask for is contact information. If you have existing happy customers willing to share their experiences, their testimonials can make sales pieces much stronger. Allowing me to contact members of your team where applicable, particularly those who directly work on your product or provide services, also supports good copy. I promise not to pester either group too much.
If you’re selling a product and you have numbers or documentation about it, I’ll also want that. For example, if you’re selling a video course, it’s important to know how many hours of content that includes; if you’re making kitchen equipment, I’ll need its product specs; if you’ve already served thousands of happy customers, that’s going in your copy too; you get the idea.
For longer projects, I’ll probably ask you to check over an outline or a draft partway through my work, to ensure we’re well aligned on what the final product should look like.
You’ll also have a chance to specify changes and editing once it’s in the final phases. Naturally, I want you to be happy with the end result, so although my contract specifies a certain number of “rounds” of editing, in practice I’m not interested in being too miserly about it (within reason).
Let’s get this rolling
Shoot me the basics on my short Contact form and I’ll get back to you quickly—often the same day.