Copywriters Are Not Mind Readers
This is something copywriters see all too frequently…
You, Mr. Client, want a quote: Ms. Copywriter sends you one of her standard quote sheet/questionnaires to fill out about your project, to see if she can fit it in her schedule, plus determine what she will need to charge.
It comes back to her with several sections ignored, and the answers you do provide looking rather like this:
Who is your ideal paying customer? – “Man”
Please provide project specs and details: “Ebook on PPC Marketing”
What you are looking at here is the perfect way to either get your project turned down on the spot – or pay more than you need to. “Man” is not an Ideal Paying Customer – it is a highly generic demographic. “Ebook on PPC Marketing” does not constitute project specifications and details: It’s a Vague Suggestion.
Yes, of course most copywriters can whip you up an eBook out of thin air – but you have to at least say: “Whip me up an ebook on PPC marketing – you have free rein and I’ll be happy with whatever angle you come up with.”
Mind, you’ll pay top dollar, and the quote will be higher than it might otherwise be: Your copywriter knows already she is going to be doing twice the work (and a lot of hand-holding and “tweaking”).
“You’re Going to Have To Rewrite the Whole Thing”
Besides, the moment a copywriter sees “man” instead of “30-something stay-at-home-dad with no skills, desperate for some paying work, who knows thoroughly how to navigate the internet because he spends most of the day gaming online”, the copywriter knows she is going to encounter the following scenario:
“Oops, Ms. Copywriter, you’re going to have to rewrite this whole thing! When I said “PPC”, I really meant just Google AdWords. Besides, you’ve geared this towards professional internet marketers, and I really wanted it to teach unemployed stay-at-home dads with no skills other than being able to game on the net and hang out on Facebook how to make some money.”
This sort of client inevitably follows this with about 2 pages of solid detail as to what they did – and didn’t – want in the ebook. You end up with the equivalent of a complete new project to write… and they want it for free, since it’s a “tweak”.
(Ms. Copywriter howls in frustration: “WHY couldn’t he tell me all this in his INITIAL QUOTE?”)
Don’t get me wrong: Like I said, many copywriters haven’t the slightest problem with creating an eBook out of thin air, based on a subject title alone… but the less specific communication you provide, the higher your initial quote will be.
And you won’t get free rewrites.
If you do have a vision in mind, but can’t be bothered to write more than “man” and “PPC ebook”, don’t expect your copywriter to happily rewrite the entire project – especially as a “tweak”.
Copywriters are not mind readers. Neither are clients. Let’s get better communication happening all round. Clients, what do you wish your copywriter knew? Copywriters, what’s your pet client-related frustration?
(Thanks www.pdclipart.org for the gypsy graphic.)
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Filed under: Sales Copywriting
I’d say that a contract or agreement where we clearly state what each part gets/does it required. This way both parties should be protected.
What do you think?
Oh, that’s a given! But one thing I learned very early on, Codrut, is that even when you have such a contract or agreement, there are still clients who apparently don’t even bother to read the agreement.
I think this is a very common problem on the internet and I ran into it all the time with clients. The problem, as I see it, is people come to the internet looking for a quick-fix, internet riches, their cash cow and don’t see it as a ‘real’ business or think they need to do ‘real’ work to become wealthy online.
And for years it’s been propagated by many outrageous claims by internet marketers selling ‘make money on the internet’ products and hype-filled seminars.
What many of these clients don’t realize that is in order to build a real business with a real possibility of success they need to do research, lots and lots of it. Sure, some people just ‘fall’ into the right business but you can’t make yourself do that – it happens with the right situation, drive, desire and attitude.
A real business takes research, a connection with your target market and a mental attitude of awareness that you are running A BUSINESS – not operating a little cash machine that spits out $100 bills.
Ok – this turned into quite the rant and maybe even a blog post! lol… can you tell the attitude of unprepared-ness and lack of business understanding has gotten me a little annoyed?
Angela, you’re so right about the “business” part being missing, with some people – and they seem to hope to make up for that by dumping the responsibility on whoever they hire. Not just for their project, I hastily add – but for all the general business knowledge they can’t seem to be proactive enough to go out and learn.
What continually boggles me – and now I’m talking about my former web design business here – is people who forget the contract says ‘2 MINOR revisions, max’ – and keep coming back with change after change after change after change… It’s the whole mind-reading thing and the expectation of endless revisions that pushed me out of web design in the end. I found myself thinking things like: “Sheesh. If you don’t know what you want at all… how am I supposed to come up with this perfect magic theme?”
But LOL – I soon learned that if I just went ahead and designed something out of thin air, based on every clue they’d given me, it was amazing how fast they’d haul out an incredibly… well… specific list of specifics – *after* the fact! ;-D
And I’m like, “Why couldn’t you have given me this list before I started designing?”
Copywriting is a bit like that occasionally… but nowhere near as bad as web design!
And now I’d better get back to that HTML coding I’m doing…
This post is so true. I can count on one hand (no, make that four fingers) how many times a client has carefully taken the time to complete the questionnaire I provide at the onset of a project. In fact, this is usually the most frustrating part of the whole job – it ranks right up there with being asked to “revise” whole thing from another angle. How can we help clients get the results theywant without understanding important details like who your target customer is and your objective?
I have to agree, Kimberly… It’s not providing the questionnaire that’s the monkeywrench: It’s the number of clients who (a) complete them fully, and put more thought in them than an annoyed ten minutes or less (b) remember the terms of the contract.
I hate being put in the position of saying “that will cost X-$ extra”. But I’ve learned to do it, when it’s warranted.