As a brand owner with money going out in several different directions, it’s easy to forget how crucial having a bonafide direct response copywriter on your team is.
Then, of course, there’s the classic 40/40/20 principle, which may dupe you into believing you don’t even need a copywriter to add jet fuel to your offers.
What’s the 40/40/20 principle?
Well, it states that 40% of a campaign’s success comes from the offer. The next 40% of its success comes from the list. And the last 20% is where the copy comes into play. In other words, copy isn’t as important as your offer or list. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important.
But neglecting the 20% that is copywriting, while I don’t blame you for it, can come back to bite ya in the arse if’n you let it.
Case in point:
Couple weeks ago, I told you about one of my client’s in-person events going haywire.
She had booked a mindset coach from London and an RBTI expert from Australia to host an in-person event. I needed to write the sales letter and emails promoting this event.
Well, I pulled up my sleeves and got my arms dirty with writing a slick sales letter that would’ve converted like gangbusters.
Problem is, I never got to “unleash” this sales letter to the world… The Australian expert she booked had to bail last minute because his mother fell gravely ill.
Talk about a obstacle:
Here we were, only a few short weeks out from the event (the London expert had already booked her flight, and was coming the second week of August no matter what).
And we had…
* No sales letter (losing the Australian expert meant I had to completely rewrite the sales letter)
* No emails promoting the sales letter (and, like with the sales letter, any emails I wrote before learning that the Aussie had to cancel couldn’t be used here)
* No plan for the event: The Aussie, besides being the main selling point I used in the sales letter itself (because what he teaches is an unconventional and wildly effective way to achieve “perfect health” no matter what size or shape someone is now), was also the main selling point for the entire event. My client studies under him, but is far from an expert on the material he teaches, and so she had to completely nix entire days of this event that were supposed to be him teaching his RBTI stuff.
And if all this wasn’t enough obstacles, we were on a serious—and I mean we had a couple of weeks tops, serious—deadline.
My client still had to call venues to book a time and space. We had to stop selling this event a week before it started so that she could make these necessary calls. And this meant, once I rewrote the sales letter in about a day, I also had to write a whole slew of emails to promote this event, so people would still show up.
It was an incredibly hectic and chaotic time.
And you also have to think about the general experience:
Our clients and subscribers had no idea these events were happening until a couple of weeks before they happened. They had to go out of their way to call off work, hire a babysitter, or make other necessary plans to even be available for the event.
And to add one more pinch of paprika to this story:
I’m working with a list of barely over 1,000 contacts.
Short story long:
At almost every chance, the forces that be wanted us to stop.
But you know what?
Not only did we pull it off, but we even sold a high-ticket, well, ticket.
Y’see, there were two different versions of this event:
A weekday one which only cost $97. And a weekend retreat which cost $1,497.
My client told me that, especially with the Aussie gone, she didn’t expect to sell any of the high-ticket tickets. But thanks to my sales letter and emails, we actually landed one high-ticket client.
And this story, mayhap better than any of the others I’ve told you, shows you just how valuable having a copywriter on your team is.
Without my help, I doubt she would’ve sold any tickets—not a $97 one and surely not a $1,497 one.
And best of all, it defied the 40/40/20 principle. This experience was the exception that proves the rule. Because I truly believe—especially after the Aussie bailed on us—that the copy pulled a larger percentage in this unique story than both the offer and the list.
Moral of the story?
Hit reply, and let’s set up a call.
The time to stop slacking on hiring a copywriter has come.
John