"SIX-Figure" Copywriting That makes you RICH - #Copywriting

Every business, regardless of size or stage has to excel in generating new leads as it directly relates to potential sales and profits. This becomes very important every month and is the main struggle most freelance copywriter face.

With Million Dollar Copy, we address this struggle by showing you how to find and manage your leads and clients, how to pitch and close deals, and you will even learn strategies and tactics in leveling up your business to a potential 7-figure business.

Million Dollar Copy has 7 modules.

The first and second module guides you on generating new leads and managing them so you can deploy your resources effectively and efficiently.

The third and fourth module helps you to find your competitive edge by creating your unique selling proposition and your unique offer.

In the fifth and sixth module, you will learn how to pitch and close deals, and scale your business onwards and upwards.

The final module is for starters and seasoned copywriters to learn the fundamentals and secrets of copywriting through the killer copy blueprint.

Unlike other products out there teaching people how to be a copywriter, Million Dollar Copy focus on finding clients and building the copywriting business.

In Million Dollar Copy, the strategy is to create Raving Fans for your business. To do this, it starts with the ability to generate leads and this is represented by the Lead Generation Funnel.

Leads turn into prospects, which then turn into clients, and into raving fans. Leads are defined as suspects for your business and turn into prospects after meeting a certain criteria or qualification. Yes, they need to be qualified to be your customer because not everyone is your target audience.

Prospects are your potential clients whereas actual clients have agreed to engage with your services and money has been transferred to your account.

Raving fans promote your services positively, fervently and free of charge because of the results they have gotten from you. Raving fans help to lower your cost of advertising because their free positive review helps generate new leads for you. This is also referred to as positive opinion leadership.

Not every client will turn into a raving fan but every client has the potential to be your raving fan. It comes down to how well you serve and impact your clients and the experience they have with you.

The game of freelancing is a fast paced game especially if you are working on your own and if you do not have a dedicated team assisting you with marketing or servicing clients, you have got to be smart with your time and resources.

The last thing you want to do is to be slow in responding to new leads and be far too occupied with existing clients. It is important to have a system on managing your leads otherwise you end up confused and cluttered. This clouds your focus and you won’t be able to prioritize your clients. Where your focus goes, your wealth flows.

Here are 3 lead management tactics which you can deploy.

Tactic 1, categorize, organize and prioritize.

You have gained momentum and results and you are now getting an influx of leads and prospects who are interested in your services. To manage them properly you need to categorize, organize and prioritize base on a system which works for you.

The reason for this is so you can identify and manage your time and resources better. This would also enable you to manage your cash flow well because cash flow is king.

So how do you do this?

First, you want to organize all incoming leads and existing clients into small, medium and large clients. The reason why we are doing this is because we want to have a healthy mix of small, medium and large clients to ensure we have uninterrupted cash flow to the business.

Next, put a definition to what small, medium and large is. This is usually defined by profit. If there are no details on profit then go with annual revenue.

Profit is a good measurement because it indicates a healthy marketing and advertising fund.

Small clients may not have the budget to invest in advertising and marketing. They have little to no red tape and bureaucracies to deal with therefore this allows for quick approvals and feedback on the work as you are dealing directly with the business owner.

Small clients may not place high importance on copywriting and may have mindset and mental blockages which does not make them open to invest in copywriting. They are small for a reason however they are great to start with to get initial results.

The strategy to win with small clients is to work for minimal charges or for free in exchange for a video testimonial.

Medium clients are somewhat more flexible than big clients. They also have a bigger budget for advertising and marketing compared with smaller clients and have a better mindset. They are competitive and desire to grow bigger.

The strategy here is to focus on retainers and grow with medium clients. Retainers are long term contracts across an agreed duration and because it is long term, there is a tendency for it to be lower than a one off service. Think of it as bulk sale.

Big clients have bigger budget for advertising and promotions hence they are able to pay more for high quality copywriting services. Internally they have a lot of processes to go through before the copy can be approved. This means some projects can take longer than expected to complete or there is a lot of waiting time in between submissions and feedback. This could result in multiple changes and tight due dates which creates stress.

Which is why your competition are creative and advertising agencies which provides full service and have account management executives to deal with clients while their creative team works in the backend to meet the creative brief.

Some big clients also practice a 60 day credit term with service providers like copywriters. This highly influences your cash flow.

Lead management tactic number 2, pre-qualify your leads.

There are many different leads. Some genuinely want to engage with you, other are just “exploring”, trying to find the best yet cheapest copywriter to engage with. Which type of clients would you want to work with?

This is a very important question to ask because you only have 24 hours in a day. 8 of which is spent sleeping, 3 hours on breakfast, lunch and dinner and balance 13 hours to work. But let’s be honest, copywriting is a creative process and creativity can’t be forced and there are so many distractions like other people, coffee, Facebook and the like.

The point is you can’t spend time on leads and clients who waste your time, so you have got to pre-qualify them.

How?

If they came from your website, you can setup an automatic form which captures the main details of the company.

Next, you want to pre-interview them on the form by asking relevant business questions. Keep it to 3 to 5 questions. This helps you to identify their main problem and spot opportunities for the client. You may sometimes find the solution to their problem may not be solved with copywriting.

And if the solution is in other areas, you may want to band up with another freelancer or consultant to address the business problem. This helps you to add more value to your client.

The main aim is to pre-qualify your leads to determine if they are serious about hiring a copywriter and are they in good financial standing to do so. Avoid leads and clients who are cheapskates and time wasters.

Lead management tactic 3, nurturing your leads.

In the beginning, you actively search for new leads and qualify them if they are in need of copywriting services. As your business grows and your perceived value increases, you would become more and more in demand.

Leads that turn into clients are managed like any other clients. However, leads that don’t turn into clients, a tactical move is to filter out those who are interested but did not engage with you due to budget constraints. For these leads, it pays to not disqualify them immediately because they may not have the budget now but in the future we may not know.

Therefore, the strategy is to serve them with a down sell in the form of an e-book or information which they can use at their capacity. Follow up with them as a low priority to check if they have implemented it. When they start getting the results they want, guess who they will go back to? Well, you of course.

Do not lower your fees to match your lead’s budget because it cheapens your value. It is harder to raise your fees because the mindset of the lead would be, “if you could do it before, can’t you do it again?”. However if you must lower your fees in special situations where the client shows potential growth, do make it clear and up front to the lead that it is a one off situation.

You could also negotiate for a percentage of profit of the additional sales generated as compensation. Also, avoid leads who promises future work if you lower your fees for this one project. Based on experience, those promises are rarely kept.

Lead management is important because your resources are finite. If you want to build a million dollar business through copywriting, you would need to manage your most important resource of all, which is your time and energy. Spend your working time on sales generating activities. Where your focus goes, your wealth floes.

In every market, there are many businesses out there competing for customer’s attention and sales. If they have a bigger advertising budget, they will “shout” and promote louder than you so much so it drowns your voice.

Therefore, as a copywriter, it is important to know and develop a differentiation in your service and what you offer compared to your competitors. This is so you can stand out from them.

To do this, you need to define and focus on building your Unique Selling Proposition or USP for short. A USP communicates the difference in your service between you and your competitors. This helps to influence, persuade and convince leads and potential clients to choose your service.

Without a USP, your services would look the same like every other freelance copywriter out there and clients who do not know any better would have the tendency to select the lowest fees for the highest quality in order to save costs.

S2: A USP is important because it helps to cut through clutter. It forces you to focus on your specialty relevant to the market. You see, your resources are finite and your time and energy needs to be managed well, especially if you are operating as a solo entrepreneur.

This means you need to focus on what you do best and not be everything to your clients. If you do try to be everything, you will eventually burn out and it dilutes your perceived value of your services. Also note the ones who charge highly in the market are usually experts who specialize in one area.

So, what is your specialty?

S3: To develop your USP, first you would need to identify who your competitors are in the market. You need to know the environment you are playing in, where you stand and the rules of the game.

S4: Generally there are 3 types of copywriters which are the entry level, mid level and high level.

S5: Entry level competitors are like yourself if you are just starting out as a newbie in the copywriting scene. Most likely they would be fresh graduates or would have accumulated a year or more of copywriting experience working in an agency and have started to branch out on their own. They would have little to no client base.

S6: For mid level, they are competitors who have had 3 to 5 years experience in the field and have a list of recurring clients. They could be operating with a mix of new clients and/or existing clients with retainers.

Retainers are where clients retain and engage a copywriter on a long term basis. The payout is more consistent however it may be at a slightly lower rate than a one off engagement.

S7: High level competitors are experts who typically charge higher because of experience and results. It also covers full service advertising agencies and boutique agencies.

Full service agencies typically manage the full component of advertising and marketing, covering above and below the line advertising. They would have a client servicing team or an account management team, creative team and production team.

Boutique agencies on the other hand handle only a specific component like research, creative work or digital advertising.

At this level, clients are normally larger corporations with bigger advertising budgets. Expectations are also higher with more complex engagements and longer time to push a project forward because there are many levels for work to be approved.

S8: Once you have mapped out your competitors, next is to do an analysis. Questions to ask and find answers to will be based on how to they operate, what are the pricing structure look like are they affordable or is it too expensive, who are their clients, what are their success story, and what are their strengths and weakness.

S9: And questions you as a copywriter, should ask yourself would be, what you’re your opportunities, What are the threats to my business as a copywriter, Is there a gap in the market, What problem am I solving in the market, after finding out all the answers you will be able to have a clearer understanding on your business.

The main aim is to understand the rules of the game and know which rules you can bend or break. You can’t play the game if you don’t know how it works.

S10: After your competitors, next is to analyze and understand your potential clients and cover their demographics and psychographics. In this case, psychographics would reveal more insights.

Demographics are quantifiable qualities covering age, gender, income, education and economic status. It helps you to develop quick insights as to how your leads and clients operate and where to target them.

S11: Psychographics on the other hand are insights based on attitudes and lifestyles and other psychological criteria. Psychographics helps you to understand the needs, wants and expectations of clients towards the services of a copywriter.

Combining demographics and psychographics would generate a key insight on your potential leads.

For example, you find a majority of your leads who enquire about your services originate from a certain city and based on an interview with past clients, you find input and opinions are valued and copywriters are expected to have some strategic marketing and sales experience.

So with the information at hand, you want to focus your adverts to target that city and potentially position yourself as a strategic marketing copywriter. Possibly even brand yourself as such, because it’s what clients are looking for.

This approach can also be used when analyzing the target market of your client’s business to help you create relevant and persuasive sales converting copy.

S12: At this point, you would be able to identify a gap in the market. A gap is defined as an unfulfilled need or want in the market where you can leverage off it and dominate it.

Next is to develop your USP to fit the market gap and turn it into a positioning statement. An effective one when communicated either offers a solution to your client’s problem or communicates your differentiation point. This is developed based on your earlier research.

Examples of great USPs are,

“Avis. We're number two” “M&Ms. The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand” “DeBeers. A diamond is forever”

Your positioning statement is to be specific and simple as possible. Once you’re done, next is to communicate your USP.

S13: You can express your USP through a tagline. It is a short phrase or sentence which serves to give a clearer message about your service as a copywriter.

With the USP and tagline, you can further communicate it by having it consistently appear across all of your marketing materials like your name card and website. This move on to branding yourself and having it appear consistently right up to the way you talk and carry yourself with your audience. Branding helps to elevate the perceived value of your services, the more valuable your brand is, the more you can charge clients for your services. For example, the cost to engage with marketing guru Jay Abraham is starting from USD 50,000 just for a keynote speech.

S14: In short, as a copywriter, being great is not enough if nobody knows you. You need to know how to market yourself. In a crowded marketplace, a unique USP will cut through clutter and noise. It also helps to build up your branding and in the long run lessens the cost of advertising to capture leads.

S1: In the previous modules, you’ve learned about generating and managing leads, finding your unique selling proposition and communicating it. Here in this module, we will cover crafting your secret offer, also known as the proposal to present to your leads and potential clients. It’s a secret because they will only know your offer after they have been pre-qualified. You wouldn’t want your rates to be publicly known to your competitors.

S2: There are 3 sections in creating your secret offer. The first section is “where is the business at?”, the second section is “what I can do for you?” and the final section is “how much is the investment?”.

S3: Section 1: Where Is The Business At?

Before you start, do ensure that you have the necessary formatting and standard information. These are your company logo, address, contact number, email, website and date of proposal.

After that, start off by highlighting the situation of the business. Write this section using a Point A-B formula. Point A is where the business is at currently. Point B is where the business wants to go. Ideally, keep it to 2 paragraphs with the first paragraph as point A and the second paragraph as point B. This helps with clarity in your communication.

These points are obtained from the research done on your leads in Module 1: Lead Generation Strategies where you observe your lead’s business, do online research, or interview them.

Point A-B can also be expressed as problem and solution. Point A is the business problem or challenge and Point B is your proposed solution.

S4: Section 2: What I Can Do For You.

This section is about what you as the copywriter can do for your lead or client and is divided into 3 parts; objectives, measurements and strategic options.

Objectives are aligned and agreed upon in previous meetings. It is then listed according to priority to demonstrate your clarity, understanding and focus of the proposal. Ideally there should be at least 3 objectives with a maximum of 5 because too many objectives becomes unrealistic and loses focus.

Objectives are to be written in an actionable statement with a clear end result. For example,

 Increase website conversion rates by 12% within 60 days of campaign launch.

Here, you know exactly what your role is, which is to produce copy that converts an additional 12% and you have up to 60 days after campaign launch to achieve it.

S5: After setting the objectives, you must have a way to measure success otherwise you won’t know whether your copy is under performing, performing or over performing. This is important because if your copy is over performing, you would be in a better position to negotiate for a bonus or higher fees the next round. It also looks good as your portfolio.

Some clients do not track their marketing results therefore be prepared to allocate additional manpower to track the results of the project. The measurements proposed is a picture of what success looks like.

S6: Next, do up a projected estimate of what the end results would look like in value and numbers. Meaning, should they hire you, what is the minimum result that can be achieved? Sure, nothing is guaranteed and you need to reiterate that but leads and clients need to know this because it answers their doubts and also it makes it easier for them to have the proposal approved internally.

The estimates are conservative because you want to set this up to over deliver. The areas which you need to estimate are areas like sales (monthly or annualized), conversions, clicks and open rate.

S7: This part is the most important part of section 2 and it is here that you demonstrate your value and expertise as a copywriter. In this part, propose at least 2 with a maximum of 3 options for your client to choose to achieve the business goal.

Option 1 starts with the bare minimum and the next option after that is a build up of the previous option. The reason you are doing this is 3 pronged. First, you are showing your thought process and that you are able to think about strategy and execution. Second, you are giving your client flexibility to choose based on their marketing and advertising budget. Third, you want to be able to do more for your client because doing more equals adding more value, equals more business, equals future repeat business.

Next, state when you can start and how long it would take for the project to complete. This helps you and your client to manage your own respective timelines as you or your client may be in the middle of another big project that is demanding.

Finally end this section by outlining the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of yourself and your client. This part needs to be clear and concise to avoid miscommunication and ensure that all gaps are covered.

S8: Section 3: How Much Is The Investment?

In this final section, it would be about the pricing of your services. You should always refer your professional fees as investment because the word “fee” implies “money paid” where as the word “investment” implies “money paid now, returns in the future”.

There are 3 ways to price your services which are time, deliverables and value of the project. The best way to set the investment is according to the value of the project. This allows your professional rate to match the project regardless if it is a low or very high value. It also gives you the flexibility to approach clients of different levels.

Do state your payment timing as well whether it is a 15-day or 30-day payment schedule, or a half payment upfront and balance half payment after project has been completed. To entice your client to pay full upfront, you can consider including in a 10% rebate as a reward.

Finally, end this section with your signature and space for your client to sign and seal the deal. The necessary details are name, signature and date.

Hello there! Welcome back to another video course of the Million Dollar Copy. In this video, I'm going to show you on how to close a deal in 8 Steps.

S2: This formula will help you close virtually any sales and remember this 8 Step formula; “D.C.L.O.S.I.N.G”. There are 3 sections to this formula. The first section is “The Deal”, the second section is “The Client” and the last section is “The Close”.

S3: The first step is “D” which stands for Deal. You first need a deal which we have covered in Module 1: Lead Generation Strategies. The next challenge is to get the prospect to take action and engage with you. The next part is with the assumption you have secured a meeting with your lead.

S4: The second section also referred to as “C-L-O” is where you engage with a lead or a prospect. This is the part where you interact with the client and listen to what are their wants and needs.

Do not immediately propose your cost of service because you would not want to be seen as a money minded person. Remember through listening to your clients, would you get the necessary bullets to help you in closing the deal. Do bring a pen and paper to the meeting to take down notes. This would help you spot opportunities to sell your copywriting services at the right time.

S5: The third section is known as the “S-I-N-G”. This is the time you “sing” your worth to your leads and clients. Before you sell your company or services, you first need to sell to yourself. Know your value well with conviction of the ability of your services to solve your client’s problem. Here are 3 ways to secure and convert your potential prospects into clients.

S6: The first method is called the ‘Decoy Effect’. When humans are faced with a third choice of a strategically priced decoy, customers will be more likely to choose the less or mid expensive of the other options.

Here’s how it works. When you have two options, clients are coaxed to make a decision. They can choose the one option for less money or the other option for more money. It can be perceived as a tough decision.

They want more quality but don’t want to spend more money. So what do they do? Enter the decoy effect.

The decoy effect pricing involves adding a third option — the decoy. It is priced closer to the more expensive option, suggesting that the more expensive option is actually better.

S7: This means you can use this in your business by setting up different packages for your copywriting service. After listening to your potential client’s needs and wants, you then customize a package for them. For example, a basic package costs $5000.

Then, come up with two more packages with other services you can offer. Now it’s not to say to make up random packages or fluff for that matter. Your next two packages proposed are to add value and help to achieve the client’s goal at 2 or 3 times more than what they asked for. How do you come up with what to include in those packages? Well you listen to the client’s needs and wants!

Both packages are at a different price and more expensive than the basic package, but the services should be an extension and add higher value compared to the basic package.

Before you present all 3 packages, you first set the context. Tell your prospect you have listened and analyzed their needs and wants and would like to present 3 solutions to help achieve their business goal with 2 options of potentially doubling up or tripling their results.

And then you move on to the pitch and here’s what happens when you present all 3 packages. By its own, a $5,000 package looks pretty expensive however when you put two more packages with one at $10,000 and the other at $15,000, the first package at $5,000 now seems more acceptable and reasonably priced.

Why? Because a comparison happened! Use this method to your advantage.

S8: The second method is the rule of reciprocity. By virtue of the rule reciprocity, people feel obligated to repay favors and gifts in the future.

How this can help you get more business is to provide free service to selected leads and ask for a video testimonial in return which can be placed on your website and serve as social proof for the results of your service.

S9: You want to get a video testimonial because it is more convincing and engaging compared to a written testimonial. In the video testimonial, you get to see the expression, emotions and authenticity of the person giving the testimonial therefore, convincing power is higher.

Do be careful though on giving too much and know when to draw the line to avoid situations of being taken advantage of by clients who ask too much.

S10: The third way is to utilize scarcity and ask your prospect to act now and close the deal immediately. Scarcity is the state of being scarce or in short supply.

Psychologically speaking, we place a higher perceived value on an object that is scarce or limited in nature and a lower perceived value on those which are abundant because it’s always there and taken for granted. The thought of wanting something we cannot have drives us to desire the object even more.

So how you can apply this in your business? One way is to set up seasonal promotions for your services and publicize it by sending emails to your prospects.

When you are more established, you would be in a better position to state you only have a couple of slots left in your work schedule therefore your leads or clients would need to make a decision soon before those slots are taken up.

The reason for this is so leads and clients do not take up too much time in deciding as it interrupts with your productivity and your cash flow.

S11: You could also consider rewarding those who are fast action takers who engage with your services on the spot or within a period of time. You can reward them by offering a lower price or add in bonuses.

If you offer them a lower price, do not label it as a discount as the term discount lowers the perceived value of your service. Instead, label it as a reward for taking action.

What you would notice is your leads and clients are being educated to act fast and if they pass the due date to take action, you need to stick to your guns and raise the price. If you don’t, they will know the next time you deploy a scarcity tactic, it’s just for show.

S12: When attending meetings with the client, remember first impressions counts. I’m not saying you should dress in a suit of some sort.

A good rule of thumb is to dress decently and appropriately. Include body language to show you are confident and are open to suggestions and ideas. Small talk like asking questions to find mutual interest is a good way to keep the overall conversation going.

Next, influence your lead to put their trust into your services. Instead of fees or price, rephrase them as “the cost of investment” and it is true. Your service is an investment which generates sales and covers back the investment cost in the long run. Fees and price gives the perception it is costing them something they can’t get back.

Be authoritative and offer opinions and suggestions. People are more likely to follow a suggestion or recommendation from someone they consider as an authority. Not many people would question authority especially in a face-to-face confrontation.

Therefore in order to influence your prospect, you must appear as an authority figure or a guru to them. Suggest methods, frameworks, tips which would grow their business and do it without expecting anything in return. You want to use this opportunity to demonstrate your worth and value to your leads and clients.

And of course, as you are suggesting, you can cleverly slot in examples of how your services adds value and solves their business problem.

Ask questions about their business and develop a genuine sense that you care and are interested in their business. People buy from people they know, like and trust.

S13: Once the prospect agrees with the deal, formulate a plan to negotiate for payment.

Here you negotiate the terms of payment. You want to have at least 50% upfront payment or other benefits such as profit sharing at a certain percentage from the sales generated as a result of your sales copy.

It is important to request for an upfront payment because you might be working with someone you know for the first time and there is little to no trust between you and the new client. This can prevent you from getting burned and clients who pay for an upfront payment is less likely to pull out from doing business with you.

Upfront payment also keeps the cash flow coming and cash flow is king. If you are a freelancer, your income may not be stable all the time. Sometimes, leads or clients may cringe at the word of “upfront payment” therefore rephrase it to the word “commitment” before the work starts.

Here are 7 Steps to close the deal effectively.

Step 1: Help the lead or client to unlearn previous bad experiences. Everyone would have had at least one bad experience with a copywriter and your job is to convince them you’re different.

Step 2: Respect your client by accepting opinions and having an open discussion with your client.

Step 3: Sell benefits. Sell yourself then sell your company and you must first convince yourself that your service can solve their problem

Step 4: Read buying signals by analyzing the client’s company financial status and observing the client during your pitch. Interest is demonstrated when they lead forward to listen closely and ask questions.

Step 5: Create a sense of urgency. Get prospects to act and this can be done by having limited, seasonal offers or buying before the price increases.

Step 6: Handling client’s remorse. Clients who have made an expensive purchase is more likely to experience buyer’s remorse if the results delivered are not up to their expectation and they will feel as if they have been cheated. To mitigate this, consistently deliver on the quality you promised. This strengthens the feeling that they made the right choice and increases the likelihood of a repeat purchase.

Step 7: Follow up. Send emails and calls to keep track of your client’s business performance and suggest ways for improvements.

If you want to close as many sales as possible, one size does not fit all. Here are 5 different closing techniques you can use for your future sales.

Technique #1: Assumptive close. This technique is used as if the prospect has already made their decision. Turn the focus of the conversation towards the next series of questions such as how many do they want, when they want it, or even like “Sir, would you like to make payment in cash, card or cheque?”

Technique #2: Sell your services with love. Use this technique to show your prospect that you’re passionate in the work you do. Sales people with the highest energy wins. Energy comes in the form of enthusiasm and actions.

Technique #3: The Ben Franklin Close, also called the balance sheet close. Use this technique to list the pros and cons of doing business with you and ensure the list of pros is longer than the cons.

Technique #4: The Hard To Get Close. Use this technique to convince your prospect there is a limited time to your discount or promotion and it is on a first come first serve basis, reward prospects to act fast to do business with you.

Technique #5: The Little Mistake Versus Big Mistake Close. Use this technique to emphasize not doing business with you is a big mistake. The prospect is given a choice where the downside risk is so high that the only logical decision is to do business with you otherwise their business will be at high risk.

After you have sealed the deal, the final part of the formula is Gain. This happens once full payment is received.

Following the purchasing process, the sale doesn’t end after the payment. There are 3 steps you need to do after closing the sale.

Step #1: Establish the timeline of the purchase: when to receive payment (if it is a payment scheme) and when your services will start.

Step #2: Follow up with the timeline closely and make sure everything is going as planned. Reminders for payment need to be done to ensure client follows the purchasing process and then you close the deal within the agreed timeline.

Step #3: Keep in mind the sale doesn’t end after payment received. It is exactly when it starts.

You will reach a stage where your schedule has filled up to its maximum capacity and you would be balancing between looking for new business versus writing copy. At this stage, you would have gained expertise in generating and managing new leads, managing existing clients and writing great copy.

Can you alone make a million dollars? Yes, possible. If you charge high enough at $50,000 a month consistently, you will be a millionaire in 2 years, more or less. However in exchange, you may reach burn out stage sooner than you think which at the end of the day isn’t worth it at all.

Instead of a one man show, a better way is to set up a team to do the delivery for you while you focus on sales generating activities like marketing, generating new leads, pitching and networking. To do that you need to be working on your business instead of in your business.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you need a team”, an African Proverb. Most copywriters get stuck in freelancing when they do everything themselves. For some, they end up hating the entire process because they do things that do not fit their creative selves like the financials of the business. Some even get stuck working extra long hours and here is the irony, they build a business to get more time and financial freedom yet get swallowed up in the business. You need to be working on your business, meaning strategy, direction and high level of thinking.

The strategy to do this is to Simplify, Automate and Systemize the business. Streamline tasks by keeping things simple, organized and straight to the point, automate tasks that can be automated, and build systems, processes and standards where managers are hired to keep the system running.

There are 5 main steps in simplifying the business.

First, list down in detail, all the task which you have to do on a daily basis and this means everything from processing payments to writing copy and even meeting clients.

Second, categorize it into two categories; transactional and transformational actions.

Transactional tasks are rudimentary in nature and are predictable. For example, processing salary, paying bills, rent, and etcetera.

Transformational tasks on the other hand bring positive impact to the business. For example, business development, staff training, personal development, sales and marketing activities.

The reason we are doing this is to have clarity and prioritize what to focus on, what positions to hire, the required job scope, and the matching salary.

Third, analyze the list and eliminate tasks which are redundant, double entry tasks and simplify complex ones. To do this, you need to be disciplined and ruthless. The aim is to be lean and fast.

Fourth, lump transactional tasks together and outsource it or hire an administrative staff to take care of it. This is so that you can focus on transformational tasks.

Lastly, hire and retain staff that can do transformational tasks. People are not assets but the right people are assets so do not be afraid to cut those who are not a good fit with the company. The ones that fit and work well together in the team are to be retained long term.

So what is an ideal team size for the business?

It is recommended to start with between 5 to 7 people. This is to maintain team dynamics at a higher level. Unless a solid context is set at the beginning, a team that is too small would operate on taking orders only and it becomes very transactional and operational. You would have to be physically there most of the time to manage them and opinions that matter will not get voiced out.

You don’t want that to happen because you want your team to speak their thoughts, debate and challenge you healthily. It is only through that process would you be able to spot and cover gaps in the business and do better. A “yes” to everything person is definitely a no-no.

In the team that you hire, keep a healthy balance between operational staff, creative staff and managers or supervisors to keep the system running and standards in check.

This will free up more time for you to start thinking on a high level and work on your business. Do get clear on who you want and what positions do you want filled. You may do this from the list of tasks which you did earlier on.

It depends on your preference if you want a full time or contractual staff, or you could even outsource certain rudimentary tasks to keep costs low. In terms of hiring, recommendation is to go with long term contracts.

You may also want to consider having a profit sharing scheme where the team can leverage off the business and name that you have built. This promotes empowerment, staff loyalty and you would have lesser staff turnover. This also means lesser training time and time loss during the period of hiring and interviews.

There are 3 key areas in managing and building an “A” team. The first area is culture creation.

Culture is important as it sets the context and tonality of the company. It governs mindset, attitude and behaviors which ultimately influences your sales and profits. If a company culture operates on a low energy and nobody talks to each other, what do you think are the results? Definitely it would be mediocre.

To set an effective high performance work culture, you need to set of rules, often referred to as Code of Honor. To do this, gather the team together and list down the desired attitudes, behaviors and results that the team needs to practice in order to achieve the company goals.

Filter out the unnecessary, combine and then boil it down to a list of 8 to 10 rules that when practice and upheld to the highest level would set the team into high performance gear. An example of a rule is, “Rule #1: Commit to learning and personal development”

The second key area is learning and development. If the team is not learning and growing they are dying. Therefore your team needs to sharpen the saw.

Out there in the marketplace, there are other copywriters and businesses who are working harder, smarter and quicker than your team. If there is no growth in learning new things or developing current talent, then one day, the gap will close and your competitors will surpass you.

Stay ahead and competitive by structuring learning and development activities for your team. For example, a session where the team presents a 15-min on a topic that adds value to the team. If there are 7 people in your team, there would be a total of 105 minutes presented in a month. Annually, it would be 84 topics or 21 hours of learning time. This is very good compared to other teams out there who are too busy to even read.

The third key area is to debrief.

After the completion of a project, debriefing is the most powerful learning tool to use as a business owner. Debriefing is the activity of evaluating a recent project and the goal is to identify gaps and insights to better prepare for the next project.

You would need to schedule in another meeting session with your team and this is critical. Imagine not doing a debriefing and starting the next project. The same mistakes could be made over and over again without even realizing it and that, is just insane.

Your role during the debrief session is as the facilitator and it is to be done without bias and rank. The following questions are designed to facilitate insights out from your team.

i. What happened?

ii. What should have happened?

iii. What did we learn?

iv. How can we improve?

v. What are the action points from this session?

At the end of the session, you would have actionable steps which the team can take to be better. These steps can be to stop, start, do less or do more of something.

The final part in leveling up is managing your financials. If you do not know how to manage it, then it is recommended to hire or outsource it to someone. As a business owner and in charge of the team, you need to know your financial numbers to evaluate if the business is healthy.

The strategy is to minimize your expenses through operating lean while you maximize your profits through sales and marketing. To do this, you must have someone to monitor the cash flow of the company.

Unnecessary expenses are identified from the task list created at the beginning of this module. When you cut those out, you cut down your expenses.

All businesses generally have 3 main divisions; marketing, production and operations. In the case of a copywriting business, creative work is considered as both production and operations. Upon receiving revenue, pay your staff first and yourself last.

This is to take care of your engine (staff) and keep it running. In the long run, it will pay off. After that, pay for the necessary to keep operations running like office rent, utility bills and the like.

With the balance as net profit, allocate 10% as a fund to grow and develop the team. This will cover sending qualified team members to seminars, workshops, investing in books or training videos and do this strategically with a specific outcome.

Allocate another 5% to invest in the team for R&R. The team cannot be running 24/7 especially when it comes to creative work. The mind needs to rest and unwind and funds are needed for that to happen. There are business owners and team leaders who do not allocate any play time for the team to recharge and that encourages burn out and makes people bored.

When fund allocation is done in percentage versus value and the team is empowered and has ownership of their work and actively contributes to the company, all that needs to be done now is to increase the productivity and marketing of the company. More revenue brings in more profits, brings in more funds for learning, profit sharing and R&R.

Welcome back to another video course of the Million Dollar Copy. This module is for beginners who are starting out as copywriters and it's also for those who are seasoned copywriters. We will be covering on how to write an effective and excellent copy. Let’s get started.

In order to write an effective copy, it has to capture attention and be able to amplify the interest of your target audience. It also has to create desire by empathizing with them on the problem that they are facing and propose or produce a solution to solve their problem.

Your copy must include a call to action for your audience to take which can vary from signing up to an email list right up to purchasing something immediately.

Here are the important elements of an effective sales copy.

First you must have a headline, sub headline and introduction.

Headline is the most important element as it is the first element your audience would read. It is the hook for them to read and explore further into your sales copy. The headline is recommended to be big and bold to grab attention. For web copy, the font size is recommended to be around 50 to 54 points.

Next, is the sub headline where it is used as a follow up to further explain the headline. Remember that sub headlines are to complement the headline and is read as one. Keep it consistent to the context set in the headline. Think of the sub headline as reinforcing the headline.

Next is the introduction. This is where you introduce yourself and your company because others might not know who you are and what business are you running especially for new leads. Here, you tell a story that must be relatable and relevant to the problem faced by your target audience. The story that you share helps to establish your credibility and earn the rights to provide the solution.

People buy from people that they know, like and trust and this part is exactly just that which is getting to know you better.

There are many story plots that you can consider using to craft your story. The top 3 recommended are:

 Rags To Riches

 The Quest

 Voyage And Return

In Rags To Riches, it is a plot about how a person was poor before this and then managed to get rich after discovering or doing something in particular. For example, you can tell the story about how you were poor in the beginning and pushing a 9 to 5 job just like everyone and then you decided that enough is enough and you went on to take massive action. The result is that you are a millionaire today and have retired rich.

The Quest covers going out to attain or achieve something and you faced many obstacles and challenges along the way. For example, you survived a near death experience and it was through that experience that you realized that life is important and that you are meant to do something bigger, and that is to set people free and live on their terms. It has become your obsession, your quest to learn they keys to success and share it with everyone.

Voyage And Return is where you go to uncharted territories, faced many challenges and return with experience. This can be venturing into a new business where you faced many challenges and now that the business generates 6-figures a month, you now return with experience and would like to share the secrets with your audience.

Stories are powerful. We grow up as children being captivated by stories and it’s not much different as an adult. A power tip is to use your story to seed for the offer or solution that you are selling to your audience.

For example, in your story you can seed about finally cracking the formula in generating 6-figures a month. Then, in your offer or solution, you can either offer that formula as the product which requires your audience to purchase to get the information or you could offer it as a bonus to induce purchase from your audience. Either way, because you have seeded it in the beginning, that story now has gained power and credibility. This is how you want to seed using your story.

Then, after the story, present a solution to the problem mentioned in the introduction. By solution, I mean your products or services. You do this by listing out the features and benefits of your products or services.

Sell benefits instead of features to your target audience by educating your audience on how the product or service can solve the problem they are facing. Remember that features tell and benefits sell. People are not interested at what your product or service is about but how it can help solve their problem.

Also, do include testimonials in your copy.

Social proof is the key to hypnotic selling. An excellent example of social proof is a video testimony by your former clients that you have helped achieved results for. This increases the level of trust and confidence in you.

Now in video testimonials, there is format which you can follow. Do not leave it up to your clients to give you a testimonial because most likely they would not know what to say especially when faced with a camera. You need to guide them so that the quality is consistent.

The format to follow is that you want them to:

i. Share their name and what they do

ii. Tell what problems they faced before they engaged with your product or service

iii. Then share what was achieved as a result of engaging with your product or service

iv. Finally, share what was the result even after 3 months of using your product or service.

This format is designed to produce top notch quality testimonials which are relevant and convert well for you.

The understanding behind testimonials as social proof is the “just like you” factor. If a past client, who is just like your audience, can achieve these results then that would be the most likely outcome for your new audience. This is the thinking that goes in the mind of your new leads. It also helps to lessen the risk in trying out something new.

Next, incorporate handling objections into your sales copy. This element aims to answer the doubts of your target audience.

For example, time taken or the cost to achieve the desired result. Here, explain why your product or service is worth the amount of investment. Reassure your audience that they have made the right choice and minimize the risk by offering a 30 day money back guarantee.

At any point within 30 days of the product purchased, if your consumers decide that it is not for them, they can always send back the product for a refund. Now this doesn’t work for every product or service out there in the market as it varies so what you want to do is with this knowledge, adapt it to the business.

A money back guarantee is good because consumers would feel that their interests are protected and secured and is less risky. This helps to remove their doubts and fear.

After that, put in a call to action button. It is an instruction to the audience designed to provoke an immediate response. For instance, an imperative verb such as “Find Out More” or even something like “Claim Your Free Trial”.

Last but not least is the postscript. This is the second most important element in a copy after the headline. Recap what’s the entire offer all about and emphasize on the benefits, how your product or service can solve the audience’s problem, and also the guarantee. Notice that the important elements are the first and last to appear in a copy. This is due to the primacy and recency effect which are under a big umbrella called the serial position effect.

Studies suggest that humans are more likely to recall the items at the beginning and at the end than the items in the middle. Therefore, it is crucial to recap your offer at the very end of your copy.

In order to sell your services to your customers, you need to have some basic knowledge on customer behaviour.

There are two types of desired customer reactions, which is the required outcome and appropriate experience.

When the needs of the client are met, it is known as the required outcome. Customer’s experience that is congruent with the customer’s expectations is known as the appropriate experience. Customer success is achieved through the customer’s interactions with your company.

Next, provoke the audiences’ emotions by telling a story that relates to the pain that they are facing now and agitate the problem. This is so that the prospects know that they are not alone and your service can help them solve the problem.

Explain your offer with clarity as this gives your client confidence to do business with you because you know your value and business well. Recap your offer at the end of the meeting due to the serial position effect.

So why do you need to know this as a copywriter?

...Because if you ignore your customer’s behaviour, you ignore the opportunity for them to relate to you. People buy from people that they know, like and trust. The feeling of trust is formed from knowing and liking first.

To tie it all up. Start with generating leads and clients and managing them to your highest degree. At the same time, you need to know how to cut through competition and noise by developing and communicating your unique selling proposition. Finally, pitch and close your clients and build a team around systems and processes. Rinse and repeat the same strategic and tactics to scale your business. Good luck.