Why Clients Don’t Hire You

A few weeks back, I was talking with my friend Conor about freelance copywriters.🧑‍💻

Conor owns an offer in the dating space and is now working on a functional beverage company…

And I was surprised to hear about how much he’s struggled to find good copywriters.🤔

Conor shared with me that for his dating business…

“I’ll show the prospective copywriter exactly which offers to study, tell them which letters to swipe, and show them exactly what I want the copy to look like…and then the writers will turn in something entirely different.”

Conor went on to say that he felt like the writers he hired didn’t really understand his business. They assume that because he’s in the dating space, writing the copy will be easy with no research required. And this couldn’t be further from the truth (it’s actually a very hard niche to get something to work in – guys have seen and heard it all and are pretty jaded at this point).

So to sum it up: one of the reasons Conor doesn’t keep working with these copywriters or even hire them beyond a test assignment is because they don’t pay attention.🧐

You might think, “oh yeah, but that’s not me!”…

And hopefully, that’s true…

But in my experience, I see this happen with a LOT of copywriters.

For example, a while back, I reviewed 12 submissions from Copy Accelerator LITE Freelancers…

​​Who were writing for one of our Business Owners.

Of the 12, I then picked the top 3…

And of those 3, Justin and I will then copy chiefed their letters before turning them in to the client.

Now the client for this project = two business partners, one of whom is a pastor…

And their products and brand are explicitly Christian.

Well, of the 12 submissions…

I was surprised to discover that one of our writers had decided to lead off with this whole elaborate story about a cheating wife, divorce, and sexual promiscuity.

And as I read the copy, I kept asking, “what the heck was this guy thinking?”

That’s not really the kind of stuff a Christian demographic is going to get super inspired by…

Yet in this particular writer’s submission, he didn’t reference God, or the Bible, or Christianity, or anything else a single time.

In other words, he didn't really speak to the target market AT ALL…​​

And it's like he didn't even read the project brief I gave all the writers or watch the call recording I did with the client where we talked about all of that stuff or anything else.

And what’s funny is that from a technical perspective…

​​This person may have been the best writer of all 12 people who submitted letters…

Yet because he didn’t pay attention or follow directions…

His wasn’t one of the top 3 letters selected…

And so he also missed out on a $1,000 bonus, which each of those top three writers got.

—

Now the purpose of this post isn’t to rip on this writer. I’ve reached out to him and explained his mistake to help him correct it in the future.

But the point is – this isn’t an isolated incident.

I see copywriters shoot themselves in the foot all the time…

And whenever I’m speaking to other business owners, they tell me they often experience the same thing…

Copywriters who talk a big game…

But who, when they get a chance, seem to not take the opportunity all that seriously.

Instead, they sort of half-ass their research, procrastinate, and then write something off the top of their head close to the deadline, turn it in, and hope that it’s “okay.”

If that’s you, it’s time to have a long, hard look in the mirror.

It’s time for you to shut up about not getting clients, not getting repeat clients, not getting retainers, and not earning what you should.

If that’s you, then either get your shit together or stop writing copy…

Because it’s hell to live in a constant state of mediocrity…

So rise the f*#k up to the challenge or get out of the way.

– SPG

P.S. Oh, one more mistake freelancers often make that annoys the shit out of clients: being overconfident and arrogant.

Confidence is good.

But if you’re a new copywriter or even a veteran one who has been living in a world of mediocrity…

And you reach out to a prospective client, who you know hardly anything about…

Then go right into how you’re going to “CRUSH” their control, smash their conversions, blah blah…

Generally, the client is not going to view that as favorable.

Personally, I’m considered one of the best active copywriters alive…

And when I talk to a client, I’ll first take a lot of time to understand their funnel, the metrics that are important, etc….

Then, sometimes I’ll say, “nah, I don’t think I can really help you”…

While other times I’ll say: “I’m fairly confident I can beat this. And if my first crack doesn’t beat the control, I’ll keep working with you to try and make it happen.”

So if someone at the top of the game isn’t overloading his prospective clients with bravado and arrogance…

Then probably you shouldn’t be doing that either.

Be real.

​​“I think I can beat your control, and here’s why. Here’s what I’d do.”

That’s fine…

“I’m going to smash your control. I’ll demolish it, bro! Even though I don't even know what your stats or metrics are…”

Not so much.

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