Copywriting is like magic… except when it isn’t

One aspect of copywriting that sometimes irks me is what I would consider “unreasonable” expectations by potential clients.

I say “potential” clients because I do a pretty good job of weeding these folks out. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are a lot of people out there who think copywriting is the be-all / end-all answer to their business problems.

I guess we copywriters have to take the blame for this to a degree. This is because right here on my website, I make claims that my writing will increase your sales (and they will). I even say on one page that “good writing is like magic” (and it is.)

But that comes with a small disclaimer. And that disclaimer is that when I say I can raise your sales, I am assuming a few things:

• I am assuming that you have a worthy (and viable) product or service. In plain terms, I can’t sell your cat bathing device.
• I am assuming you can advertise your product or service, and will get interested eyeballs to read my writing. Thus, I am assuming your e-mail list is good, and/or that you are willing to spend money on adwords (or other marketing) to drive people to your website.
• In terms of a website, I am assuming that you will have a really nice, very readable design. Not some DIY site that “looks great” to your spouse.
• I am also assuming you have the budget for a full writing project. To give an example of this, I once had a potential client who expected a 300 word advertorial to sell a $299 product. SELL it. Not sign up for more info, call us, visit our site, or similar. With no other marketing at all, he wanted one short page (which was all he had the money for), on one cold visit, to close the sale. Err… yea… that’s not happening. It’s fairly rare that anyone will buy a $299 product by visiting one 300 word page.

There are a lot of examples I could give, but the above are the big ones. Terrible product, no advertising, bad site, and no budget for a complete project. The one thing these potential clients have in common is they are all either out of business now, or never even got their product going. Because successful companies do not do the above.

So the lesson to be gleaned here is before you engage a copywriter, make sure the above are in place.