Copywriters: How much for an A/R campaign?

So if I understand you, you're looking to hire a copywriter on behalf of your client. Correct?

Anyway, Kyle is right. I'd say $2,500 is acceptable. The series can be used over and over. People will always be joining his list. Print, TV, & Radio ads have to be paid for each time they run. And there's no guarantee that your target prospects will hear/see the message.

Even if you redo the series every year at $2,500, it's a bargain.

Yes, I'd say paying the pro $2,500 would be reasonable.

Are you not comfortable writing the series yourself? If you wanted to be more cost effective, you could try to learn a little about copywriting (if you don't know already) and write them yourself.

I bet if you sat down for half a day with the owner and just "interviewed" him about his business and his life story, you could pull out enough nuggets to shape the series around. And you would even have some insight about how to best write the messages in the owner's voice.

If nothing else, you could write them and have a pro critique and/or edit them. That should lower the costs.

Thanks Shaun, personally I see the value here - the trick is getting the owner to see it too. Though I guess partially this is my own bias of what I think the owner is thinking. Argh.

Long term I'd like to become proficient in copywriting. I definitely see the value in keeping that in-house. However, I recognize my lack of experience to date with this and wanted to make sure I can still deliver a good result for him.

Great tip, Shaun!

Johnathan

A weekly or monthly discount code for regular customers should help signups and retention.

As a sweetener for the deal you could offer him 10 bonus articles for his website or make them into an ebook. For example

How To Make An Impact With Your Business Cards
Paper Quality - Does It Really Matter?
How To Make A Great Brochure
10 Recycling Tips That Save Your Company Money

A while back one of the copywriting Warriors gave away copies of her client research questionnaire. A great resource. By the time your client has filled in one of those you know exactly what to write about. On top of that, the detailed questions the client has to answer make them think more strategically about their business and helps establish you as the expert.

Martin

My mistake, I misread that the guy had a list already. More below.

You've got your work cut out for you. It needs to be a REALLY GOOD reason for anyone to want to subscribe to an email list from a printer. And don't get me wrong, I'm not pissing on your opportunity. Quite the opposite.

There's a significant difference between talking to a prospect and a customer. However, in both cases, you're communicating the ONE THING about Acme Printing that makes them extraordinary and exactly how that benefits the reader.

Both readers care about how well Acme understands their frustrations and their wishes for their ideal printing vendor.

Both readers care about how they can cut their printing costs, improve delivery, repurpose their marketing collateral for maximum impact at minimal cost, etc.

Here's a question to consider: Who at the company is going to receive incoming replies and messages? Who's going to follow up? If it's one person, consider having that person be the "sender". If not, make it an executive at the company and make the message personal, not corporate.

Some thoughts: Consider incorporating a timed, pressure building offer that the sequence leads up to -- everyone who joins the list works their way to that special one-time "email only offer" or leverage an "email only discount" that they call to get at the end of each email in the call to action.

Suggestion: Weave each service/topic into a brief story, testimonial, case-study, or tip (How Your Business Card Can Grow Your Entire Business, Three Creative Ways To Squeeze Every Last Penny Out Of Your Printing, etc.).

That's not a "who" it's a "what". They are not customers, they are individual people with a definable set of characteristics, pains, frustrations, motivations, wants, needs and requirements.

Customers must be thought of and approached as individuals, not cattle or a faceless crowd. Remember, email is INDIVIDUAL permission based marketing, not interrupt oriented push marketing (which does treat customers like cattle).

To be highly effective, you must consider the individual on the other side of the monitor and how he is receiving your message - in his email... right alongside the messages from his employees or boss, his co-workers and his friends, his family and his favorite diversions.

Most importantly, it's arriving amidst not only spam, but a barrage of mindless noise generated by companies emailing "newsletters" and emails filled with sleep-inducing corporate-speak.

"Acme Printing is the quality leader for all your printing needs!

At Acme Printing, our 24 year commitment to quality is surpassed
only by our comprehensive range of printing solutions at your service.

Call us now and save 15% on your next Business Card order"

Just doesn't work over email it's almost invisible if it ever gets looked at.

Just like the old saying that "America sorts and opens it's mail over the waste basket", people open and read their email with a very itchy delete finger and it's even EASIER for them to ignore you via email.

Hopefully this makes up for botching my read of your question first time around.

Best,

Brian