Hey guys,
I want to show you a project I’ve just launched. It’s a productized service that offers unlimited email, ecommerce, and website copywriting help for a flat monthly fee.
Would love to have your feedback:
We’re reasonable and we found that our clients are reasonable as well. We’ll do a reasonable number of copywriting tasks per month for each client and we’ll let you know if you’re stretching the friendship.
So it’s not unlimited.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s unlimited within the boundaries of being reasonable. And in our experience, most of our customers are. If someone’s looking for 1,000 email newsletters, it’s obvious not a good fit for us. That’s why we set expectations right from the beginning.
I understand that we can split hairs all day long. And you’re right, in the mathematical sense, I guess it’s not really unlimited. But it’s good enough to start a relationship and deliver results for the kind of reasonable customers we’d like to have.
I was initially interested in the service and I am reasonable.
You are wrong here. The word is not ambiguous nor is it understated.
It is a horrible way to start a relationship. You’re starting a relationship on a lie from the start!
At the moment, I see three options:
- Implement a logical throttle like WP Curve. For example: number of requests at a time, turnaround etc.
- You know the number of small 30 minute jobs that you’re willing to do for a customer per month. Create several tiers based on these numbers to meet the demands of different customers.
- Mean what you say. Don’t play games. If you want the rewards that come with marketing a service as unlimited, you have to be willing to accept the risks.
I agree. It creates a perception of insincerity.
It is also not clear to me why I’m expected to pay a retainer (i.e. per month) when I’m also expected to ask for a few small, self-contained jobs within that month. Retainer is to reserve some capacity in case it is urgently needed. I do not believe creating headlines is so urgent a task. It can wait for a month. It waits for years sometimes. Being somewhat cynical, I’m thinking that the owners hope for me to pay recurring fees once and forget about the fact they are recurring, ideally for years.
P.S. The “it’s just $9.9 per day!” thing is so overused, it barely has any positive effect anymore. In fact, I see it as an attempt to make prices look smaller, i.e. an indirect admission that the prices may be a tad too high for the target audience?
@Lewis Thanks for your feedback. I stand by my previous comment though.
@rfctr Thanks for your feedback. It’s definitely something I need to think about.
The $9.9 per day still works everyday in the copy I write for my other businesses and for my clients. Frankly I do think it’s boring, but it works.
Good luck with that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you really wish me good luck?
Let’s be reasonable here, obviously I can’t wish everyone good luck otherwise I would run out of my own luck. So for those people that I don’t mean it, and you know who you are, I wish you luck but without the good.
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Calm down, kids!
Scotty, you are charging $499/month for copywriting. Is there such a big demand for this service? I agree with @rfctr that writing is one of the those things that gets pushed into the background.
And you are charging recurring fees- again, do people tweak their copy that often? As in, month after month after month?
You would be better off offering this as a productised consulting. So, for $499, get one of: Landing page / email campaign etc done. That way, people know the price is fixed, so they will be more willing to take a chance. Sure, many freelancers say the price is fixed, but then you have to email them, spend time talking, emails to and fro, before you get a price.
While if you say, “I will charge X, and no hard sell / forced extras”, you might get more customers.
PS: You have a “Let’s me be vulnerable” section at the bottom. While it’s impressive you overcame stuttering, is this really the place to put that? Your last para should be used to reinforce your message. Just my thoughts 
Sounds like a good idea, but at £499/month it would be too expensive for me, but can imagine this would be reasonable for many businesses, I prefer to just hire copywriters as and when I need them.
@shantnu We got some clients who joined at that price. So there’s definitely demand.
Thanks for the idea. That’s definitely viable. But I don’t do one-off projects at the moment, particularly at that price point.
That bit about being vulnerable is important. From the tests we’ve done in our niche businesses, showing that you’re real and have flaws increases conversion. But you’re right. It might not work in this case. I’ll need to run more tests.
Off topic, I don’t overcome stuttering. To be honest I hate it when people use the word “overcome”. You can’t overcome a neurological condition. You can only choose to live with it.
@Kevin Hi Kevin, thanks for the feedback. I completely understand that some businesses only hire copywriters when they need them.