First time its ever happened to me, and I wont sleep tonight

[Hugh Thyer]

OK, its happened before, but never like this.

I just took a really good look at the sales letter my client just sent to 1000 of his list.

But it wasnt MY sales letter. It looked like the one I sent him, but the one I sent him had...

A headline written to appeal to the prospect...Gone.

A great story that describes the daily frustation of their prospect...Gone

A summary of what sets his product apart, and one of the all time proven headlines as a subheading...Bye bye.

I ask the reader to tick which problems they have. Really gutsy emotional stuff...Cut.

I also wrote a really descriptive story of one of his clients, the results they got and what it meant for them, followed by their testimonial...Also cut (except for the testimonial).

The graphics which show what their life will be like...Missing

The guarantee? Gotta be around here somewhere

There's stuff all the way through which he's butchered. How am I going to sleep tonight?

[ghyphena]

Take the money and buy yourself something nice

...it's a shame, definitely. Not only from a craftsman's point of view, but also from a repeat-business point of view - it's the copywriter who gets blamed, not the client... irrespective of who butchered what.

It sucks. I feel your pain.

Gil-Ad

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

I feel for ya.

I have never understood why clients will hire a copywriter and pay him/her lots of money then completely ignore the writer's advice. It boggles the mind.

[Matt James]

How am I going to sleep tonight?

Why lose sleep over this?

The guy butchers your work, that's his problem.

I recently had a guy suddenly decide to use video instead of the letter I'd spent a month slaving over.

The launch bombed.

But he paid me upfront (as I hope this guy did for you) so it's his loss, right?

[bigchezmktg]

Paul,

I definitely feel your pain...on all levels.

I do a lot of offline marketing too, so I have PDFs of direct mail pieces I can send them too. That way, there's not a lot to change.

Best of luck to you. Know that we've all had this happen at some point!

[MikeHumphreys]

Hugh,

Sorry to hear you had your copy butchered. It's happened to almost every copywriter I know at one time or another. Then the client blames them for a sales letter that converted badly.

I have a 30 day clause on my website that they agree to not make any changes for 30 days without my permission or without sufficient testing data to justify making the change. I don't want a client killing a great headline because they think it's too edgy or something.

Even with that, you can still have someone butcher your work.

Case in point, earlier this year, I wrote a salesletter for an offline marketing seminar being run by an non-IM niche guru. His partner had sought me out and they hired me to write all of the copy they needed for 3 months. Step one was writing the 4 page DM seminar sales letter with a separate order form page that was being mailed to their house list.

At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, I wrote a seriously kick-ass salesletter. The guru's partner called me because he was so excited and couldn't wait for them to use it. Based on the seminar price point, limited seats remaining, and the size of their house list, the partner was predicting they'd sell out within 24-48 hours with my salesletter.

Sounds great, right?

Except the guru decided not to use my sales letter as I wrote it.

Nope.

He fancies himself to be a copywriter and his copy skills are... well, let me just say they are really bad IMHO.

I had a feeling it was bad news when the guru's partner called AND emailed me warning me that he had been over-ruled and the guru had rewritten my sales letter himself. That I might want to have a stiff drink or three before I looked at the revised version.

Well, the partner was right.

The guru had taken my sales letter and Frankensteined it. He took my 4 page DM piece and added 3 pages worth of rambling thoughts and talking in circles... even different font styles and sizes in the same sentence.

It was so bad that when I showed my wife (not a copywriter) what I wrote and then the guru's "revised" version, she did a double-take and shouted "Oh my God! What did he do to the salesletter!?!"

So I fired the guru client. I basically walked away from the rest of the project which was about $7K of future billings because I wasn't going to give myself a heart attack writing copy for someone who was a complete jerk.

The good news is, his partner immediately hired me for his own separate project.

Ironically, I saw in another forum the same guru bragging about the Frankenstein sales letter because it sold out his seminar in 3 weeks and was "swipe file worthy". 3 weeks... and his partner had predicted 24-48 hours if they had used my version. <sigh>

Sometimes it's better to walk away from a bad client than to make yourself crazy over their random slashes and hacks to your copy... especially if they don't have any copywriting skills.

Take care,

Mike

[MikeHumphreys]

Originally Posted by Paul McQuillan

The part that really sucks about this is now I can't use the url
in my portfolio. I will need to use something I saved. Then if a
new prospect wants to dig and check out the live version
it's way different.

Paul,

I'd put the salesletter you wrote on your site anyways. Most people want to see your writing style and technique first before they ask about specific conversion rates.

I've seen some copywriters put a disclaimer that it's a sample letter at the top of it but I wouldn't bother. If someone contacts you and asks why the client is running a different version, then tell them the polite professional version.

Take care,

Mike

[Raydal]

I find this happens for 2 basic reasons:

1. The client doesn't respect your work and is using it as a starter point.
2. The client is reading the letter as an owner and not a customer

Sometimes changes are made because there is a problem with conversion
that has nothing to do with the sales letter such as heavy graphics.

For whatever reasons, clients fingers are just itchy to "improve" on a
copywriter's work. You have to be patient and hope that they finally
convince themselves that they can trust your judgment.

The worse I've had was I refunded a $10K gig because the client didn't
respect my work. At least you still kept the money--which is maybe what I
should have done too!

-Ray Edwards

[eddane]

The client is never wrong*

Ed

*mostly!

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by Raydal

I find this happens for 2 basic reasons:

2. The client is reading the letter as an owner and not a customer

Bang on the Money Ray. Its the hardest thing for owners and product creators to do and the reason why most need a copywriter that think they don't. Really have enjoyed your posts. Really on target. Mulling over your WSO. Thanks

[MissTerraK]

don't feel badly, it also happens in non-IM, especially physicians!!

I have worked for many as a medical secretary through the years and I did not see one physician keep what he paid for exactly the same!

Some were major , some were minor, but changed just the same!
MissTerraK