How Much Should It Cost To Hire A Copywriter?

Please understand…

I’m not talking about someone who writes articles

If you have spent anytime reading this blog, you would know by now that there is a huge difference between a WRITER and a COPYWRITER

Recently a client I had worked with in the past wanted to know if I could take on a new project.

He was keen to work with me again because according to him, I had increased sales on the last project by 75%

Just to put that in perspective…

That means for every 100 people who showed up at his site. 75 people were buying.

That is a pretty damn good LEAP in sales, just by having me handle the sales copy ( It was a standard long form sales letter )

Now I could jump up and down, do a dance and blow my horn!

But the truth is, that just because a copywriter gets 75% for one guy, it doesn’t mean he will get the same for the next client.

There are many things that come into play:

• Social proof
• Trust
• Pricing
• Decent product
• Marketing

Unfortunately not everyone has all that in place and yet they still expect to get the same results.

People rant and rave about conversion rates as if that is the ONLY determining factor of whether or not a copywriter is any good.

That should never be the reason you hire a copywriter.

Please understand there is a difference between getting results and conversions.

I’ve covered the topic of conversions at great lengths, so I won’t rehash it. I will just direct you to 2 posts. One on my site called The Ugly Truth and one on Ben Settle’s Website

But back to the reason I wrote this…

How much should it cost you to hire a copywriter?

Well before I provide that answer, here are four questions you should ask BEFORE you ask them how much.

1. How long have you been a copywriter? Look, you don’t want someone who fancies him or herself as a copywriter. i.e The guy or gal who knows how to write an article but it’s not paying enough so they think they can write sales copy. Remember this is your money we are talking about here. I wouldn’t consider anyone under 5 years.

2. Have you made any money selling your OWN products & services with your OWN sales copy? Not all clients reveal what their product or service is making to a copywriter, so how can you tell if the copywriter your hiring has had real world experience in selling? Find out if they have products themselves. A decent copywriter will! Why? because they can get results and who better to get results for than themselves?

3. What do clients say about your work AFTER it was tested? Not before as that means nothing. This is just a no-brainer. Clients of course are going to jump for joy when you deliver copy that makes their copy look like a kid wrote it. But their feedback is NOT what determines if the copy is good. The results are and you only get that AFTER testing.

4. Do you write the copy yourself or do you farm it out to cheaper copywriters? Trust me I know a number of “WON’T MENTION NAME” copywriters who farm out their copy to other copywriters for a 1/3 of the cost and then pocket the rest. Quite frankly it’s a joke! But how can you tell it’s them writing it? Well do they say they are an AD agency? if so they are probably farming it out.

What this all boils down to is this…

…You are not getting a few words slapped on a page.

…You are not hiring someone to fill out some blank space on a postcard

…You are not hoping someone could do what you THINK you or anyone could have done

You are hiring someone who has the ability to write persuasive words that SELL!

It’s a skill that has been honed and developed over years of experience.

It’s not a cost. It’s an investment in your own business that will pay for itself many times over.

Also bear in mind that first and foremost, copywriting is a SERVICE and time away writing for you is time that a copywriter could be getting paid.

So regardless of results. There is a cost for using up someone’s time. Every copywriter sets a rate based on their time.

Then there is research involved, conception and writing time that must be covered.

• How long will the copywriter have to spend on the phone with you?
• How much research will they need to do in order to understand the product or service? ( Do you have hours of text, audio and video they have to wade through? Will they need to gather material? )
• How many pages of text are they required to write?

As you can see… it’s rare that you are going to find copywriters who list a ONE PRICE fits all type of deal.

The price will vary according to the amount of work and time involved.

And please understand…

Just because you want a one page ad that doesn’t mean it’s not going to take them a few hours to write that AD.

Research and conception makes up about 90% of the grunt work involved in copywriting.

Having said that, don’t be surprised if a copywriter turns around and tells you that it’s going to cost you anywhere from $500 to $10,000 as a flat fee per project. Never mind a royalty percentage if it performs on top.

Copy that sells isn’t cheap!