You get an email from a potential client asking for a web page.
You’re smart.
You don’t instantly email back with a price and a delivery date. That would be stupid.
Instead, you do some digging.
You ask:
…what action do you want visitors to take?
…what’s the traffic source?
…what’s your current conversion rate?
…what does your sales funnel look like?
Yadda, yadda.
They email you back – “What’s a sales funnel?”
Your eyes light up.
You have the chance to turn a one off project into a monster gig (and pocket a tidy sum in the process).
But…
First you have to convince them WHY they need a sales funnel and HOW it will generate profits many times over the fee you’re about to charge them (which has a couple more zeros than they’d budgeted for).
You can do it by submitting a copywriting proposal featuring these 3 key elements:
1. Strategy – Business owners aren’t always savvy marketers. They need some hand holding. Rather than talk about word counts, explain how the web page forms part of a larger strategy for taking visitors from curious to convinced and ready to buy.
2. List ALL the deliverables – Sales funnels have a LOT of components. This can include lead magnets, registration pages, webinar scripts, VSL production, ‘sideways sales letter’ email sequences, upsell pages and Facebook ads. There’s also background research, competitor analysis and an audit of their current progress and assets. List every single deliverable in your proposal.
3. Talk about revenue goals, rather than conversions – Clients could care less about CTR, time on site and ‘engagement’. All that matters is revenue. Present an estimate of how your strategy can increase their existing sales and profits using conservative numbers (e.g. 1-2% conversions). Always under promise and over deliver.
Building a proposal around these three elements will positions you as a valued consultant and a profit generator, rather than just a vendor of words.
This naturally entitles you to charge more for your services as you can justify your fee in terms of solid ROI.
The next time someone emails you to write a press release, web page or an email, consider how you can expand it into a bigger gig by setting a more ambitious target for what your client can achieve.
If you do implement these elements in a copywriting proposal, let me know how you get on.