SEO Copywriting > Freelance SEO copywriting > Working with clients

Do you give it away for free?

October 28, 2010 • written by

So, what do you do when someone wants free advice?

I talked to someone the other day who had just hung out her freelance Web writing shingle. That means, she’s hustling for clients. All. The. Time.

She had a great sales-call conversation with a local business owner. They talked. They laughed. They bonded. He asked her, “What changes would you make to my site,” and she spent 45 minutes outlining how she’d change the Titles, how she’d start a blog, how she’d add keyphrases to his copy. She even showed him WordStream‘s keyword research tool and how to use it.

She was convinced she got the gig. The prospect told her that “He’d let her know” – and she left in a sales-happy daze.

Fast forward two weeks. The prospect won’t return her calls. He won’t return her emails. And when she looks at his site – surprise, surprise – some of the Web copy was changed per her suggestions.

Where did she go wrong?

She gave it away for free.

This is a problem for any professional. If you work with computers, everyone calls you for tech support. If you’re an attorney, people ask you to answer “Quick legal questions.” And if you’re a freelance SEO copywriter (or SEO professional) the question on everyone’s minds is, “How can I do better in Google?”

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for educating prospects. That’s important. But there’s a fine line between educating clients on best practices and telling them how you’d “fix” their site (or whatever you get paid to do.)

This can be especially tricky during the sales process. You may really, really need this sale. Or, the person asks you face-to-face. Suddenly, not giving out free information seems like a sales (and social) faux pas. You start wondering if other people have given out freebie information and you’ll look bad if you don’t.  Heck, it doesn’t feel comfortable to say, “Uh, you have to pay me for that.”

No, it doesn’t feel comfortable. You don’t need to say those words, exactly…but you do need to say something like them. That is, if you want to make money.

Yes, you want to show off your expertise during the sales process. Yes, you want to wow the prospect. At the same time, you need to set a boundary. You need to know – clearly, deep in your heart-of-hearts know – that you are willing to talk about X for free. Maybe you provide one tip. Maybe you provide very general (but highly educational information.)

Or maybe, you don’t want to give anything away for free – even the most basic information. That’s OK, too.

When the prospect says something like, “What would you do to fix my site,” that’s when your boundary should kick in. Say what you’re comfortable saying and then steer back to the sales process. Tell them, “It looks like you have many Web writing opportunities here. I can outline them out in a report that contains (X) and costs (Y).

Or you could say, “That’s a great question. I’d have to dig deeper into your issues to really help you – let me tell you a bit more about how I consult with clients like you.”

You’re not ignoring their question or being rude. You’re simply – and nicely – informing them of your limits. At that point, they can choose to work with you (get the information they obviously want to have) or try to find someone who will give them freebie help. Either way, you win.

Consider if it’s time that you reviewed your own sales process. Have you felt “trapped” into providing “too much” information? Do you give it away for free? Are you gaining new clients – or inexplicably losing gigs? It could be that a slight change in your sales process can actually drive new business.

What about you? What kinds of information do you give away for free – or do you?

Filed under Tips and techniques,Working with clients

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Profiling is Good, When it Comes to Your Perfect Customer

August 2, 2010 • written by

Greetings fellow SEO copywriters and content marketers! As foretold, here is the fourth of the five crucial steps you need to walk through before putting fingers to keyboard, pen to paper, voice to recorder — whatever your chosen method — and yes, it involves RESEARCH! But as you know by now, research is not a dirty word.  On the contrary,  it is your friend, confidante, and informant.

I know your fingers are itching and your mind is twitching, BUT if you take the time to do the groundwork laid out here first, you will save yourself untold fruitless hours, wasted energy, client frustration, and botched work!

So let’s do it right the first time:  Measure twice, cut once!

If you’ve been following this SEO copywriting and content marketing how-to blog series, featured each Monday, then you’ve already checked out your competition, noted the latest social buzz about your product/service, and have completed a productive and insightful “SWOT” (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis of your content.

Now, we have two more essential research steps to go.

First, in this post, we are going to profile your perfect customer.

All of the brilliant SEO copywriting you’ve created will not accomplish The Goal – Conversions –if you fail to capture the attention, imagination, and buying impulse of your target market.  Can you define your perfect customer?

Take the example of a relatively simple product, like a digital camera.  Now, let’s take a closer look at your prospective buyers:

  • The senior citizen may want an easy-to-use digital camera with minimal features, simply to take pictures of the grandchildren
  • The college student may want an inexpensive digital camera with which  s/he can readily upload videos to YouTube

Another example, cosmetic dentistry:

  • The high-powered female executive may want cosmetic dentistry to enhance her image
  • The  “weekend warrior” hockey player may want cosmetic dentistry to repair a chipped tooth

It should be clear by these examples that, while we would like to appeal to every customer, the most effective marketing message will target one perfect one.

Why?  Because at the end of the day, your prospect wants to know:  What’s in it for me?

Ask yourself theses questions, when constructing the profile of your perfect customer:

  • Are they men?  Women?  Both?
  • How old are they?  Does your product or service appeal to different ages?
  • How much money do they make?
  • What kind of work do they do?  Are they retired?
  • What are their main concerns and pain points?
  • What books and magazines do they read?
  • What websites do they frequent?
  • How do they spend their discretionary income?
  • Is “OK and cheap” what they crave?  Or do your clients require only the best — and are willing to pay for that exclusivity?

The deeper you dig, the more defined your perfect customer, the more refined your market niche, the more targeted your copy, and the more effective your SEO and content marketing efforts!

Next Monday, we will pull it all together to address the crux of the matter: defining your unique selling proposition, See you then!

Filed under Tips and techniques,Working with clients

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Should your SEO company create your content?

July 29, 2010 • written by

I had the most interesting email exchange the other day with a SEO firm.

This particular firm (one that is well known in the industry…and no, I will not name them) contacted me because they wanted to outsource their SEO copywriting. This isn’t uncommon  – in fact, many SEO firms offer SEO copywriting services but don’t keep that particular skill set in house.

The exchange was pleasant, nice and positive. I sent over my prices. My contact wrote back and said that the price was too high. I responded that I work with a number of Certified SEO Copywriters – perhaps I could refer them? I then asked how much they were willing to pay per page.

The answer: $20 per page. And their old writer spent about 30 minutes per page.

I was floored. Literally floored. It takes a lot to shock me (as my friends know.) This was…shocking.  Let me explain the reasons why:

Quality SEO copywriting (or any type of quality writing) takes time. I’ve been a full-time writer for most of my adult life, and I would never – ever – spend 30 minutes on a sales page and call it good. That’s barely enough time to write a rough draft (and that’s on a short-copy page.) In order to write a good sales page (and not crap) you have to:

  • Research the competition and know how to differentiate your client
  • Create the best tone and feel for the page (or know how to replicate your client’s preferred tone and feel)
  • Understand the micro and macro sales focus on the page
  • Highlight the main benefits (both company and product/service)
  • Write a headline (by itself, this could take 30 minutes or more)
  • Create a rough draft
  • Edit the draft mercilessly until it’s “right” (and this can also be highly time consuming)
  • And then…finally…you’re ready to submit your draft.

You see what I mean? No matter how many efficiencies that you’ve built into your writing (and I’ve built in a number of them over the years,) writing quality content takes more time than 30 minutes. Much, much more time.

And then I started wondering, “I wonder if their clients – many of them big-brand clients – know that this SEO is paying their writer $20/page, marking it up to who-knows-what and selling it as quality content.”

(Mind you, I have no problems with a company marking up the cost – that’s just good business. But if you’re working with large brand companies and promising “quality SEO copywriting services,” shouldn’t you WANT the best for your clients?)

This situation puts the client (you) in a buyer beware position. It’s easy to trust a SEO firm when they say, “Don’t worry about the SEO copywriting. We have people who can help you.” It sounds all warm and fuzzy and nice and comforting – and you’d figure that of course the company would have good, experienced, whip-smart writers on staff.

But don’t count on it.

So here’s what to do if you’re thinking about having your SEO firm write your content.

  1. Ask about their writers. Are they Certified in SEO copywriting? How many years experience do they have? How does the SEO company vet their writers before they hire them/ outsource to them? The last thing you want is to find out that their “experienced SEO copywriter” is someone fresh out of college who (as my father used to eloquently say) “doesn’t know their ass from third base.”
  2. Ask about the company’s writing process. Can you have direct contact with the copywriter (highly recommended – otherwise, your information is being filtered through multiple people.) What’s the average time the writer spends on every page? Will the same writer be working on all of your pages, or will your pages be written by multiple writers?
  3. Ask what kind of continuing education the SEO firm provides their writers. The SEO/social media world is constantly changing – and if the writer hasn’t updated their knowledge for a couple years, that can negatively impact your results.
  4. Ask for writing samples from the writer assigned to your account. Always. If you don’t like the samples, request another writer.
  5. Consider chatting with a SEO copywriting agency at the same time. It doesn’t mean that you have to use a copywriting agency over your SEO. But you may find that the prices are similar (often less) than what the SEO firm is charging – and you’ll benefit from more experienced writers (who get paid a living wage.)

Is all of this due diligence necessary? You bet. The writing on your site represents your brand. It’s your “silent salesperson” online. And yes, you deserve to be highly picky. You (probably) wouldn’t work with a SEO firm if you knew they outsourced your account to India. Why would you buy writing services from a firm who devalues the writing so much  – and cares about your branding so little – that they’re outsourcing to the lowest bidder (and yes, Demand Media and Associated Content, I’m talking about you too.)

Think about it.

Filed under Freelance SEO copywriting,Working with clients,Working with freelance copywriters

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Why SEO is a sure and profitable copywriting niche

June 24, 2010 • written by

SEO and content marketing are here to stay, and more and more businesses than ever are recognizing, investing in, and outsourcing SEO copywriting talent!

For us, a most excellent news flash!! (Or more like an affirmation/confirmation)

Just the other day, Marketing Sherpa published its Chart of the Week, which clearly indicates that companies are planning to spend the biggest chunk of their outsourced marketing dollars on SEO, even more so than on Public Relations.

MarketingSherpa.com Chart of the Week
Click here to return to main article.
New Chart: Outsourcing Plans for Key Marketing Functions

MarketingSherpa.com Chart of the Week



So as a copywriter, you have to ask yourself: in which niche do I specialize?  Duh!  No-brainer!  Go for SEO and reap the low-hanging fruit!

If you haven’t already, enter your 75 words describing why you’d like to be an SEO Copywriter for a free pass to my SEO Certification Training Program!  A $599 value for the only recognized SEO Certification Program around!

Filed under Freelance SEO copywriting,Working with clients

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RFIs gone wild!

March 19, 2010 • written by

Ah, the RFI. If you’ve been in business for awhile, you’ve seen the multi-page “request for information” documents prospects use during the vendor-vetting process. Some companies love filling them out, figuring it’s a great chance to showcase their successes and land the client. Other companies dread the time and manpower RFIs take to complete, preferring to opt-out of the process. With questions like, “Share your philosophy about working with clients, ” and “Explain a recent problem you had with a client, and how your firm handled it,” RFIs often feel like job interviews – except everything is done on-paper rather than face-to-face.

Mind you, I’m a big fan of prospect due-diligence. Companies need to make sure that the vendor they hire will meet their needs – and sometimes, you can learn everything you need to know by reading written responses (especially if you’re hiring a SEO copywriting agency – if they can’t write compelling RFI responses, I doubt they could create good Web copy.)

But then, the other day, I received a very unique RFI – and I’m curious to see what you think…

The “typical” questions were there regarding how my firm worked with clients, and and asking about my firm’s writing process. But then, the questions started getting very…personal.  They asked me to name my top clients and their annual spend. Then wanted to know if I’ve worked with clients in certain verticals – and they wanted me to name the clients and engagement scope. And in addition, they asked for two year’s of financial statements.

Mind you, my husband didn’t see my financials until about two weeks before we were married.

Yes, there would have been a MNDA in place – so the information would have been protected. However, I didn’t know anything about the gig. Nothing. Not the scope of work. Not the budget. Nothing. This could be a $100,000 SEO copywriting makeover – or a $1,000 project. And unfortunately, the prospect was prohibited from providing any information until after they received the RFI – assuming, of course, that my firm made the cut.

How did I handle it? I took my firm out of the running. Even with a MNDA in place, I didn’t feel comfortable discussing my current clients with a prospect – not without my clients’ express signoff. And certainly, I did not feel at all comfortable sending over two years of financial documents before I could even speak to the prospect (and truth be told, I would never send over financials to a prospect.) It’s a shame, because I’m sure that I could have helped them. But the RFI process soured me on the gig.

But you tell me.  What types of RFI questions are appropriate – and what feels like “RFIs gone wild?” Am I being stubborn? Would you have provided that information in the hopes of getting the gig (keeping in mind, of course, that you wouldn’t know what the gig was before submitting your information.)

What do YOU think?

Filed under Working with clients,Working with freelance copywriters

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