Here's a really simple but valuable tip for freelancers…🧑‍💻

When sending your client the deliverable, your email should usually be three sentences long (or less).

“Hey Client, As promised, here's the new ____________. I'm super happy with how it turned out, and I'm confident you will be as well. Just let me know if you've got any questions or comments, and thanks!”

– SIG”

What I often see, instead, is freelancers sending over the deliverable with a novel to explain it.📜

That's a mistake, and here's why:

1. It immediately makes your client sigh. Think about it: I hired you to do a job. I don't want a bunch of options. I don't want a story about things you could have done differently. I don't want a story about your thought process and decision-making. I want a polished piece of copy that I can immediately deploy.

So if you send me a novel explaining why you made the decisions you did etc, that's just way more work for me (I have to read what you're saying, try to process it, figure out how to formulate a response, etc.).

2. It makes your client less confident in your abilities. Related to #1 – If I get a novel's worth of explanations and questions and a bunch of variant versions that I'm asked to choose from, I question your confidence and skill set.

It seems to me like you couldn't pick because you were uncertain, and so you're putting the burden on me.

But why the hell should I know? I'm not the expert copywriter, YOU are.

​​Hopefully this makes sense.

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The exceptions would be a few headline options and maybe providing an alternative lead. But even here, this is how you would position that to a client:

“Hey Client,

As promised, here's the new ____________. I'm super happy with how it turned out, and I'm confident you will be as well. Inside the document you'll find that there are three different headline options. I like __________ the best, but wanted you to be able to test. I've also included two lead variants that you can split test in the future if you want. Those can be found here:___________. Just let me know if you've got any questions or comments, and thanks!”

– SIG”

—

That's still a lot different than…

“Hey Client! Here is an epic tale of every decision I made, omission I struggled with, and moment of self-doubt I had, how I thought I'd have more time but actually put less time into your project than I expected to, how I could have done better and this isn't my best work, etc.”

So, in summary, the simpler you can make your client's life, the better.

 

– SPG

P.S. From that last part.

This is another amazing thing I see freelancers do.

“Honestly, it's not my best work. I was rushed for time because _____ happened. So I know this could have been better.”

I'd say I see freelancers pull that maybe 10% of the time I hire them for stuff.

It's f—ing bonkers.

What on earth are you doing!?!?!

Why the hell would you admit that to your client?

I mean, I know why:

It's because you're not confident in your abilities, and you're anxious, and you're trying to preempt the client telling you that your copy sucks, and you're a fraud and that you're not good enough, and whatever other mindset bullshit you have that's not true.
​
But it's insanely stupid to do it.

There's almost a zero percent chance the client will ever hire you again if you go that route.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link