Here’s a hard truth: the average conversion rate for purchases is right around 2%. Of course, it can skew up or down depending on the industry or the product, but 2% is a pretty solid estimate. That means that for every 100 people who see an offer…2 people will buy. Ouch, right? Obviously, one of the best ways to affect that number for the positive is to craft compelling … [Read more...]

Here’s a copywriter’s nightmare scenario: You land a client. You agree on a price and deadline. You work your rear end off, writing, revising, and perfecting the copy. And, when you send it to your client, they reply with: “This really isn’t what I wanted.” Or, maybe even worse, pages and pages of changes they want made. Huh? What went wrong? How did this project … [Read more...]

I hear this a lot: “I’m interested in copywriting, but I don’t want to trick people or force people into buying anything.” And I definitely get that: I know that a lot of people are put off by the idea of capital-S selling and pushing things on people. No one wants to feel disingenuous or pushy. Well, good news: First, that's really not what copywriting is. Copywriting is about … [Read more...]

If you provide Facebook ad writing services to clients (which you should really consider, because it’s a highly sought-after service), you know that Facebook likes to keep you on your toes. First of all, as you may or may not know, Facebook already has some pretty strict rules about what can and can’t go into its ads. You can’t write an ad that makes it clear that you’re … [Read more...]

Over the course of my 15+ years as a copywriter, I’ve racked a pretty varied roster of clients—everything from one-person companies to multi-billion-dollar global companies, and everything in between.  When people ask about my background, I’ll often start off by mentioning the bigger, more well-known clients first, companies including T.J.Maxx, TripAdvisor, adidas, … [Read more...]

Facebook Ads are a great service to offer to clients: they can directly earn your client money (which makes them an easier sell), your client should always be testing (which means they always need new ones) and you can get exact metrics to share (brag about) to other potential clients. But Facebook Ads are also changing and what worked before won’t work now. Or, at least, … [Read more...]

If you’re interested in copywriting because you want to live the life of an international jet-setter, it sounds kind of crazy to say it, but it’s absolutely possible. (Case in point, I’m writing this from Portugal. Life is good.) The truth is that getting remote work while you’re working overseas is no different than getting remote work when you’re at home. You still follow … [Read more...]

As we’ve established, sales pages are great projects for copywriters: They’ve got plenty of copy to be written, and, since they directly help your clients make money, they’re very valuable to those clients. A great sales page includes everything that a potential customer needs to know to make a purchase decision. Which means there are a lot of possible elements in them: … [Read more...]

Let me ask you something: If you went on a first date and, as soon as you sat down, your date asked you to marry them…would you do it? Of course not! You don’t know them! Okay, another question. This time, it’s still your first date, but your date makes you sit and talk with them for four hours—then they ask you to marry them. Still no? In the first scenario, it’s just … [Read more...]