VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4 – APRIL 2016
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: ARE YOU JUGGLING GRAPHIC DESIGNERS?
Dealing with Several Designers Isn’t Tough, Especially If You’re Good!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: WHAT WOULD A CLIENT SAY TO $300/Hour?
Atlanta FLCW Advocates (Yet Again) for the Value of Project Pricing Vs. Hourly
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: ARE YOU CREATIVELY GROWING YOUR BIZ?
IA FLCW Uses Smarts, Courage, Common Sense to Build His Business
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
FLCW Does Small Chunk of BIG Project; Impressed Client Boosts Budget for Rest!
TIP: How Do Your Commercial Writing Chops Compare to the Best?
I. APPETIZER: ARE YOU JUGGLING GRAPHIC DESIGNERS?
Dealing with Several Designers Isn’t Tough, Especially If You’re Good!
Got an email sometime back from a FLCW (I’ll call him John) trying to avoid a sticky wicket with potential graphic design partners. Our exchange allowed me both answer his question and paint a picture of the ideal outcome. He wrote:
I’m working through your ebook* on working with designers, which has been a real asset. After 3 days at it, I’ve lined up prospective work with 2 designers and am talking with a third (and his web guy) about partnering. So it’s working nicely.
Every designer I’ve approached has asked me to farm them work. No surprise there, but I’m wondering how you manage this? I’m in a small city so we’re all chasing the same fish, and I don’t want to irritate one designer by farming a job to another.
My response: Because I’m in a much larger town, that’s never been a big deal. But, nothing obligates you to only give work to ONE firm because they steer work to you (and most adults get this). While most of the designers I work with use me more than any other writer, they do have other writers in their “stable,” and I’d expect them to.
If you steer work to a different designer, you can always tell them that, as far as anyone’s concerned, the project originated with them, not you.
More importantly, the key is getting to a point where your writing brings so much value to their design (and by extension, to their clients), that they’ll look for reasons to hire you, whether or not you EVER steer any work their way. And that’s when it gets really fun.
If they perceive you as no better than any other writer (and haven’t experienced the difference a top-flight writer can make), that’s when they’ll start thinking in terms of exclusivity and reciprocity.
Most importantly, only 20% or fewer deals I run across require a designer, so it’s not a big issue for me. I suppose that number would jump if I focused on finding clients that have no creative resources, and were looking to me to do a turnkey situation, but that’s not the case. Most of the gigs I get either come to me from designers or from clients who already have the design end of things handled.
II. “FIELD” GREENS: WHAT WOULD A CLIENT SAY TO $300/Hour?
Atlanta FLCW Advocates (Yet Again) for the Value of Project Pricing Vs. Hourly
I’ve run other pieces from Atlanta FLCW Don Sadler (an exceptionally successful copywriter specializing in writing for the financial services industry) on his chosen crusade (and it’s a good one): The value of project pricing over hourly-rate pricing. What I like most about Don’s rap is how it’s all geared to helping you get what you’re worth, while giving the client price certainty as well: A true win-win. Thanks, Don!
A recent conversation with an aspiring freelancer once again put the “hourly-vs.-project pricing” discussion top of mind.
In talking about how to price work, she asked me about the two pricing strategies. I told her I firmly believed project pricing can considerably boost a freelancer writer’s income when compared to hourly pricing.
Project-based pricing gives your client cost certainty, while allowing you to project your time and revenue more accurately. But most importantly, if you’re a fast and efficient writer, hourly pricing penalizes you for working fast and efficiently! Add in an ability to accurately gauge the scope of potential projects, and you can earn MUCH more money with project-based pricing.
I explained to the new freelancer that the key to adopting a project-based pricing model is changing your mindset from the value of your TIME to the value of the PROJECT to the client. Hourly-based pricing assumes your time is worth X amount per hour, and it ensures that you earn this—and no more.
Instead, try to determine how much the project is worth to your client. If this value meets or exceeds the minimum amount you want to earn per hour (vs. your “hourly rate,” which might be lower), you’ve found the “sweet spot” for your price. And in my experience, this value usually far exceeds any hourly rate a client would accept from a freelancer.
For example, I have written an industry-specific niche newsletter for more than 20 years. I know the industry and the topics well so I can research and write it super fast—usually in 6-7 hours. I earn $2,000 per issue; that’s the value the client places on having a professional freelancer accurately research and write the content.
But what do you think the client would say if I quoted them $300+ an hour? See how much money I’d be leaving on the table if I quoted them an hourly rate of even $100?
Project pricing takes experience and know-how. But the payoff can be enormous in terms of higher freelance income and revenue. If you’re still pricing your work by the hour, you owe it to yourself to give project pricing a try.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: ARE YOU CREATIVELY GROWING YOUR BIZ?
IA FLCW Uses Smarts, Courage, Common Sense to Build His Business
Got this sunny, promising note from IA-based FLCW, Benjamin Hartin, who’s been making some mighty smart moves in building his business. The piece covers several subjects vs. just one, and even if you don’t follow his specific path, I thought it offered a lot of value and wisdom. Yes, he’s in the early stages, but I was struck by his can-do mindset. Thanks, Benjamin!
My business is built on two strategies I don’t hear about much:
1. I only pursue clients I don’t need to meet with, face to face. Once I have enough, I plan to travel and work, with no worries about where they’re located. I live in Iowa and currently, have clients in Florida and Texas.
2. I do mostly educational blog writing for a couple well-defined industries. At $100+ per hour, it’s viable. I’m doing two+-month contracts (4-5 posts/month) with all my clients. They have me do a test post first for a slightly higher fee to review my work. I have them pay 50% upfront and 50% at the end. Most pay 100% upfront to save themselves the hassle.
Given my lack of an English degree, I regularly read English textbooks and style guides. I also have a professional editor (best money I’ve ever spent); she gives me the confidence I otherwise lacked from not having a formal English education in college.
I’ve been successfully cold-calling (I have a history doing it, and am quite comfortable with it). I love solar energy so I’ll type, say, “solar Austin, TX,” into my Google Maps app on my iPhone, then tap the call button for EVERY company that comes up, using a modified version of your script:
When someone picks up:
“Good morning, my name is Benjamin from thewriterbenjamin.com. I’m calling because I’ve recently been helping _______ companies reach their audience in ways that have led to more work and higher profits. I’m calling to see if utilizing a good freelance writer could increase your companies reach…”
If talking to a live person:
“Who would be the best person to speak to?”
Questions:
1. How do you reach your audience at present?
2. What ways have you used in the past?
3. Are there ways you’ve been considering for the future?
If talking to an answering machine: “If that conversation would be helpful, give me a ring at (507) 581-4981”
There are SO many companies out there! And quite routinely, their reply is: “I didn’t know there were any writers who focused on solar! I’d love to take down your info cause we will be redoing our website in the spring and it would be great to get a quote from you on that! Also, do you have any samples of your work that you could email over?”
Also, a lot of clients say they’re impressed that I cold called them, that they had confidence in me early on because of it.
Not one company has asked me where I’m based—NOT ONE. They all just pay me after I email them an invoice using Freshbooks (my online accounting software). Reading your book gave me the confidence to take many of the steps required to discover all this. As you know, it’s all about action!
I’ve bought a paper copy of TWFW at a bookstore, then bought the ebook form of the book from you some months ago and I JUST tonight also bought the toolbox and timeline separate and am excited to see what that can really add to my business.
And, of course, from p. 25 of TWFW: “$100,000 per year, $8,000 a month, $2,000 a week, $400 a day.” I say it over and over, and it’s starting to work!
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
FLCW Does Small Chunk of BIG Project; Impressed Client Boosts Budget for Rest!
TIP: How Do Your Commercial Writing Chops Compare to the Best?
Got a cool “amazing-expanding-budget” (for a change!) success story from a West coast FLCW who’d prefer to remain anonymous. After that, see how your best work compares with THE best work.
I’d been approached by a company to rewrite a bunch of web copy, and add more of a marketing spin to it. Since it was a big project, I suggested I do just two pages to see how it went, and if my estimate was on target. If it was, I knew, it’d be far easier to estimate the rest of the project. I got a good rate for each of the “sample” pages: $225 a page (again just to rewrite, not create from scratch).
While working on the sample pages, the client inadvertently revealed their budget for all the remaining pages, and it was a number far too low for the scope of work. Oh, well, I thought, at least I made decent money on this first part.
But a funny thing happened when the client saw the two sample pages: He was so impressed with my work that, lo and behold, the budget for all the remaining pages increased by 250%, a number far more in line with the parameters of the project.
I finished the project at a healthy hourly rate, and the client was so pleased he hired me for another (smaller) website overhaul.
A few lessons here: 1) Just because the client gives you a quote doesn’t mean it’s the final number; 2) On large projects, do a small chunk of it first, not only to see if your estimating is in line, but also to get a sense of what it’s like to work with that client, AND give the client a chance to see the quality of your work. And if they love what they see, you’re in a far better bargaining position regarding the fee for the balance of the project.
I recently had a budding commercial writer ask where he might go to beef up his “swipe file” of good examples of well-crafted marketing communications materials. In addition to suggesting he check out the portfolio on my (old and dowdy) copywriting site or those of other FLCW’s I list at the end of Ch. Four in TWFW, I steered him to some of the big contests for practitioners in our field: http://marcomawards.com, http://avaawards.com, or http://www.hermesawards.com.
If your client is a creative agency (and you’re both working on behalf of the end client), your creative client will likely have experience in entering their better work in contests like these and others, but never hurts to remind them.
Getting listed as “copywriter” on an award-winning piece makes you an award-winning copywriter, and that can’t hurt!