Hey,
2 weeks back… I mentioned how important it is to be a CopyThinker than a Copywriter.
Now, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out.
When it comes to being a copywriter… if you’re only working on the research, writing… there’s a limit to how much you can charge.
Unless you write for big dogs like Agora Financial, Money Map or V-Shred.
I know this so well because I felt like I couldn’t charge beyond a certain point.
In 2017 and 2018, I was charging $1,500 for a sales page or a couple of emails.
And it’s not like I didn’t know what I was doing.
I knew.
Back then I was working for a rather prominent Financial Education company and my emails were pretty decent.
They were able to generate sign-ups from my email copy and I have to say I was doing a pretty good job overall.
In this email, I wanna share the worst mistake I made back in 2019 when I was like 3 years into Copywriting.
Heck, that was a time when BlockBuster Formula or Holy Grail wasn’t even invented yet.
How I learned Copy was very old school…
I read these books.
And there’s one more not on the list – The Ad Copywriting Handbook by Joe Sugarman.
Next, I thought I needed practice… which was why I bought Derek Johanson Copyhour course and then I proceeded to handcopy sales letters all day lol.
The closest thing I had to a good course was I learned from a mentor John Pagulayan (who in my opinion is one of the best Copywriters in Asia neck to neck with Kenneth). He mentored me and showed me the ropes in copy.
John gave me a good foundation in copy because under his tutelage, I knew how to write copy which didn’t suck.
What I didn’t know back then was this…
My biggest mistake was that I was so fixated on the copy that I overlooked everything else in the funnel.
In reality… copy isn’t that important after all. (This is especially the case in SG and MY… less so in the US).
Don’t believe me?
I’ll prove it to you….
Try selling a sales letter for $4,000 or $5,000.
Or an 6-step email sequence for $4,000.
Chances are you probably won’t sell anything… unless your track record is damn good or you’ve proven yourself in the game for long enough.
The sales letter is useless if they don’t know how to use it to promote their stuff.
Today, I’m able to charge at a much higher rate because I can better advise my clients on Big Ideas and Promo Direction.
I’ve accumulated enough experience in the game to know what works and what doesn’t work… and so my clients value the insights I have whenever it comes to helping them out with the entire campaign.
That’s kinda like consulting I guess?
So rather than just being a cog in the machine where I’d just be in my desk all day churning copy… today, I’m more like a bridge between my client and their customer.
Where I’d be gathering User Feedback or Research…
Giving inputs to my clients on what their target market wants and needs…
Refining their funnel and offer so it converts better.
Tedious?
I guess so… but it’s damn fun.
Because I am paid more than a Copywriter and I get to create a bigger impact as well.
More importantly, it helps me more because it gives my copy more leeway to f*** up.
Why?
Because if the funnel, offer or big idea… it makes your entire marketing campaign much more accommodating…
To the point if you write bad copy… you can actually get away with it.
The whole point of being an A-Copywriter isn’t to write winning copy all the time… but it’s to ensure your client gets to make money even though your copy is crap.
That’s the epiphany I had after 5 years of writing copy… which is around 1,800 days.
And let’s face it… even the best athletes have bad days.
There are moments where Lebron or Ronaldo doesn’t score. And that’s the same with copy, there are gonna be times where you lose.
Btw… I’m not saying it’s okay to write bad copy.
I’m saying it’s a bad strategy to rely on Copywriting all the time when it’s only a cog in the machine and there are other cogs where you have to think about.
You might already be wondering…
What are the other cogs?
- Strategy (Copy is just a tool in the grand scheme of things. With a good plan… it can be very powerful. Kenneth has an audacious vision to make 9 figures in 5 years and he has a rock-solid strategy for it.)
- Value Proposition (Where Kenneth teaches Major-on-the-Minor Technique to ensure you have a completely different product from your competitors ).
- Your List (How do you know what your target market wants? In Knights of The Holy Grail, we’ll hack it with Terrain Telepathy).
- Offer: (Applying the Unique Fantasy Object to your Offer so it becomes 100X more enticing to your target market).
Cheers,
Zach