*** Over 30 days, I’m giving you “big ideas” to solve real-life marketing challenges.  To submit your problem for consideration, follow the format today’s subscriber used, and then hit “reply” with your own specific details and challenges.  My assistant will filter through these replies and forward me the best ones to review.  MOST important – if you like what you are reading, show me some love, and forward this information around to a few of your friends and associates ***

Don’t be fooled into thinking the response to today’s e-mail applies only to the industry I am specifically discussing.  This information is extremely critical and should be applied to anyone, in any industry.

Today’s e-mail comes from one of my customers, Bryan Aucremanne.  “Craig, I live in Anchorage, Alaska.  Enrolled in a copywriting course & want to become a copywriter (55 years old).  I am already one of your customers (LOVE the book!) & would greatly appreciate any advice you would care to share.  Thanks in advance… Bryan P. Aucremanne”

Hey Bryan, thanks for your question.  I’ve spoken about some of this already throughout this “30 Day” series, and no doubt, you’ve seen much more of my thoughts on this inside my book.

So today let’s address this question simply from the standpoint of a new copywriter trying to get clients.

I’ll give you a typical scenario you might be considering, since I don’t know exactly what stage of your career you are in.  Oh, and by the way Bryan, I noticed you mentioned your age.  The best thing about writing copy is that there’s absolutely no age prejudice, bias, or anything else like that.

In fact, the truth is, the most important characteristic that’ll make you successful as a copywriter… is understanding human nature and knowing how to anticipate and provoke certain behaviors and emotional reactions.  Knowing how to push your prospects emotional buy-buttons.

And frankly, you’re able to do this a lot more convincingly when you’re 55 than when you’re 25, and that’s good news for you.

Let’s talk about something you should never do, first.  Unfortunately, this strategy is very tempting and it’s the one thing most people immediately gravitate to.

What typically happens is, you find someone who needs help with their marketing.  You convince them you know a little more about this they they do (which isn’t hard)… and you tell them something like this: “Look, I’m trying to get my feet wet here and establish myself in this industry.  I’ll do your marketing for free, but only if you promise me you’ll give me an incredible testimonial after we’re done.”

Most people do this thinking it’s a fair deal.  After all, the client gets a piece of copy and sound marketing strategy, and you get a testimonial.

But nothing could be further from the truth.  And here’s why: first, keep in mind people value things in direct proportion to the amount of skin they have in the game.  Since these folks paid nothing for your services, they will place absolutely zero value on your work.

They will not implement what you’ve done, because they don’t like it or feel confident about it… and since they paid nothing for it, you will have zero control over their decisions or actions.

They will be frustrated and feel this has been a complete waste of time for them, even though they’ve done literally nothing.  They will be disappointed in you and regret their decision to “work” with you.  After all, you got their hopes up and instead of delivering them some big fancy logo with a cute saying, you give them this ugly piece of copy to use!

And, your relationship with them, which was probably good, before this… will be over.

Plus, go and try and pay your mortgage with “testimonials.”  Let me know how that works, because if you find a way to make it work, I’ve got like at least several years worth of mortgage payments sitting here in testimonials right now.

See where I’m going with this, and how this is absolutely NOT a fair deal for you, at all?

Remember, fair means fair to both people in the deal, not just to one person.  And if you believe in yourself, then having this mindset shouldn’t be a problem.

Instead, what you want to do is find people in an industry you understand and you know you’ll be able to write well in.  And find clients who are already advertising and spending money to generate leads — this way you don’t have to convince them they need to advertise and spend money on marketing.

Then you offer them the proverbial two-step free report on “The 5 Biggest Mistakes ___ (industry) Make, That Are Costing You THOUSANDS Of Dollars In Sales Every Day: Which one of them are you making right now?”  Or, some other similar title that makes ___ owners extremely concerned about what they’re doing, and what they’re not doing that they should be.

In this report, you educate them about these five (or seven, or whatever… but not too many — keep it under 7 to begin with) strategies and you explain their impact, using real-life examples if you can.  These examples don’t even have to be from your clients, just make them tangible so your buyer will understand what they are from a practical standpoint.

You want them to conclude on their own, that these strategies are, in fact, very important.

Then in the letter, you tell them they can get a free 5-step Marketing Blueprint, or Marketing Audit from you, where you identify these specific weaknesses in their business and you then tell them how you’d overcome them.

In your consultation, you explain how they can hire you to do all this work for them, for “X” dollars.  You probably want to get half upfront, and half once your work is done.

I don’t do that – at this stage I usually get around 65-70% up front, but there again, I don’t work with very many clients any more.  But in the beginning, half and half is fair for everyone.

And then you need to do one more thing that’s going to allow you to covert much more prospects into clients, much faster: you guarantee your results.  You guarantee if they don’t recover their investment in your services by two or three times, that you will keep working with them until the promotion works, or… you’ll refund their money.

Does this mean all the risk is on you?

You bet.  But it also means you’re not just going to take on anyone as a client.  It means you’re going to be realistic about who you can help.  And that’s something everyone should be doing, anyway.

Got it?  Good, now I have one final piece of advice that will help you.

Don’t think about yourself as a copywriter.  Imagine, for a moment, you were a painter… or a medical doctor.  Would you ever, even for five minutes, consider giving your services away for a testimonial?

Hell no, right?

But you probably would consider taking on smaller jobs and charging fair market value for them, and then working your way up the totem pole.  And as you’re doing this, both your confidence, and your competence… as well as your successes and results… will grow.

And if you’re a real go-getter, you’ll be smart, and leverage your successes within certain industries, and you’ll apply critical scarcity principles (like I discuss on pages 135-139, and on pages 315-321) that position you extremely favorably and allow you to consistently charge (and collect) top dollar for your services.

Hope this helps and let me know how things work out.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S.  True story: Former NYC cab driver rakes in over $48,305 per month?

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