Custom Copy Teardown
Section-By-Section Teardown Of The Words Of Your Written, Audio And Video Materials
Are you facing some of the following problems in your IT business...
- You've got a great story to tell, but the way you tell it, it sounds drier than witch's tits.
- You know you offer excellent services, but don't know how to communicate that excellence without sounding like a spurious used car huckster, a phoney megachurch preacher or an overzealous MLM distributor.
- Your prospects read your materials, yawn, chuck them into the rubbish bin and hire your competitors.
- Key pieces of information are either missing or presented inconsistently.
How many times have prospects contacted you and said...
"I've read your materials, but I can't find this or that!"
The reality is that when buyers get confused about your messages, the drop you like a hot potato and move to the competition.
Good copy gives you a competitive edge, especially in the B2B world where buying decisions are made in the absence of salespeople. Buying decisions almost 100% depend on your written materials.
At the same time, bad copy has been burying good companies, products and services at an alarming rate.
Why?
Because after your prospect list and offer, your copy is the third most important component of your client acquisition.
World-class copywriter, John Carlton, has put it this way...
"Copy is the MAIN ELEMENT in your ability to attract prospects and close them as customers. Yes, the quality of what you offer matters... but never forget that the marketing graveyard is crammed with superior products that died horrible and fast deaths because no one figured out how to sell them."
Even if you have a target market with a specific problem and you have the solution to their problems, b>you still need the right words to communicate to them that you can solve their problems.
And there is a helluva difference between...
"Let's eat, grandpa!"
...and...
"Let's eat grandpa!"
Or the difference between...
"Women get their first hand job experience."
...and...
"Women get their first-hand job experience."
Or the difference between...
"Psychotherapist."
...and...
"Psycho the rapist"
Or - The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy...
"The Vogons make excellent meals for visiting tourists."
...and...
"The Vogons make excellent meals of visiting tourists."
It's only a tiny difference in writing, but the meaning is drastically different.
And how many of these little mistakes may be lurking in your written materials?
Even if just a few, at the wrong places, they can wreak havoc on your business development.
As the saying goes, you can't read the label if you're inside the bottle.
And being the business owner, you're definitely inside the "bottle" of your business with a very limited view of what's outside the bottle as your market reads and interprets it.
This is why I have created...
The Custom Copy Teardown
It offers a fresh perspective on your off- and online collaterals (Any collateral that uses the written word as a starting point. Yes, that includes audio, video and webinar scripts too).
Do you know that if you send out a collateral piece with "hodgepodge" in the copy, that will get you low-end, "budget" clients?
But if you send out the same piece with "gallimaufry" in the copy, that will get you high-end "premium" clients?
Why?
Because Hodgepodge is a "community centre" grade word; gallimaufry is a "country club" grade word.
And people get their recreation either at community centres or country clubs.
This is not a judgement call on community centres or country clubs; I'm just stating the obvious.
So, the question is whether or not this Custom Copy Teardown service is right for you.
Well, you may consider a copy teardown if...
- You run a premium-grade[1] boutique-style[2] IT[3] service firm.
- You run an IT firm that sells complex, expensive and hard-to-explain services to savvy clients.
- You have a positive cash flow.
- You make good gross revenue, but the net profit is a tad thin.
- Your written materials fail to perform as per your expectation.
- You need to dedicate costly human talent to address issues that your written materials could easily handle.
About Deliverables
Basic Copy Teardown (Impromptu)
- A 45-60-minute Skype interview. We can share screens and go through your selected collateral in real time.
- Impromptu diagnosis and analysis of your chosen collateral.
- MP3 recording: I record our conversation and my critiquoe, which you receive after the session.
- Suggestions for alternative words and phrases.
- Investment: US$495 - Payable in full in advance.
Advanced Copy Teardown (Prepared)
- You send me (min. one week before our call)...
- A detailed description of your target market, including your ideal client profile or buyer persona.
- Your chosen collateral in advance, so I can prepare for our call
- A 90-120-minute Skype interview. We can share screens and go through your selected collateral in real time.
- Prepared diagnosis and analysis of your chosen collateral.
- MP3 recording: I record our conversation and my critiquoe, which you receive after the session.
- 10-20-page Teardown Report with problems and suggested remedies (Time frame: Two weeks)
- I share my professional opinions, gut feelings and creative hunches.
- Other relevant thoughts and incidental brain farts to make your IT business stand out.
- Investment: US$1,795 - Payable in full in advance.
Is This Copy Teardown Worth At All?
Well, it depends. You pay your attorney thousands of dollars to keep you out of prison.
You pay your accountant thousands of dollars to keep you on the right side of the tax authorities.
But unless you make money (the main purpose of good copy), how do you want to pay them? A good headline can improve your response rate as much as 22-times.
Starting your copy with a drop cap can increase your readership by 13%.
They may not seem much, but they can add up bit by bit.
And if you don't have good copy, you need a good sales force to sell your services. But running a sales force is far too expensive.
Besides, the kind of "dream" salespeople you'd like to hire are already working at big companies with six-figure base pay and $250,000 plus annual compensation, company car, expense account, etc.
Things that you can't provide.
Additionally, the typical salesperson attrition in the high-tech world is some 43%. Add to this that 49% of salespeople almost never make quota and 27% fail to sell enough to cover the cost of their employment.
So, building a field sales force is a pretty expensive proposition.
That's why it's a good and profitable idea to rely on your copy.
But is it worth?
Well, only you know that. And by now, you know it and you can decide whether or not to admit it to yourself.
If interested, drop me a line at tom[at]itbusinesswriter[dot]com with...
- A description of what your firm does.
- A description of your target market.
- A description of the problem you want to address.
- A description of the improved condition after tweaking your copy.
So, now the ball is in your court.
Raise your sights! Blaze new trails! Compete with the immortals!
Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
[1] Premium grade vs. Low budget
[2] Boutique style: Few high-priced engagements vs. Factory style: Lots of low-priced jobs. No, one founder working out of his spare bedroom with the aid of subcontractors located in some impoverished third-world countries is NOT a boutique IT consultancy.
[3] High-touch IT consulting, custom software development, high-ticket SaaS