As I’ve said in other posts, a good copywriter is like a robot salesperson that you can use again and again.
But as powerfully awesome as that sounds, copywriters have limitations, and it’s important to realize that before hiring a copywriter (or you might be disappointed).
Here are some of the limitations of–and common misconceptions about–copywriters.
1: “SEO Copywriting” basically doesn’t exist.
It’s true that you can add meta tags and keywords to any page, including your new sales page. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this alone is going to have much of an impact.
One or two sales pages with SEO are not going to boost your rankings in search engines. Effective SEO requires constant content creation, link building, and updating.
Driving traffic simply isn’t in the realm of most copywriters. They may offer SEO blogging as an additional service, but their sales pages are going to be a drop in the ocean of your SEO efforts.
2: They can’t make a difficult offer easier.
If you’re trying to sell a $5,000 product, don’t expect to find a copywriter who can convert cold traffic for your offer.
When a client of mine has a large product or service that requires a lot of selling, I always bring things down to a more manageable level.
For example, we might begin by offering a smaller, more affordable item (often called a tripwire) or simply collecting emails to help turn the sale into a long-term strategy.
But writing a sales page for a $5,000 product is a losing battle. With such a large purchase, you need alternative strategies for real success.
3: They can’t change your bad email list into a good one.
Email marketing is incredibly powerful, but you have to start with a good list.
A list of 1,000 people who don’t care about your product can never be turned into something profitable. Good marketing begins long before you hire a copywriter–at the moment when you decide what kind of customer you’re going to target.
Hopefully, this is a decision you reach with your copywriter, but if you come to a writer after the bad email list has already been made, don’t expect any miracles.
Here’s how to fix a bad email list:
Purge at least 50% of the names, starting with those that haven’t been reading your emails or buying your products. Holding onto those names will only drag down your sender rating and increase your likelihood of being marked as spam.
Then, start adding emails by creating a good opt-in offer, something that effectively targets people who are likely to become customers.
Over time, your email list will improve–and so will your profits.