Sales Letter pricing

An acquaintance of mine, that I've been helping set up his site/product/service for the past month or so, just paid for a killer sales page. Just for the copy alone, he paid $1400. That does not include graphics or coding the site and putting it all together. It's a good long form sales letter, and he was smart to not cheap out on it.

There are arenas out there where $1400 is cheap. All depends on the market and what your copy can make the buyer in terms of profit.

Well, I'm in a dilemma of purchasing one Sales Letter copy...

Some "testimonials" says cheaper but more engaging for conversion..
Another say Expensive is better..

How do you judge it them then?
In WF, there are many "CopyWriters" whom wrote all this can prolly sell at Low rate..
but what makes them "special"?
Thier rate? beside reputation...

As @Path Theory says $1400 is "normal"... how to judge?
sorry for broken english..

Perceived value.......

People will view you as a worthy writer when you have an effectively expensive copy price.

However, I will say this........

If you don't have a good amount of current salesletters that have converted for you and others, then it may be tough to get custoemrs when you charge a high price. Stay low if you're just getting started. You want to test out the waters for your copy. It's easy to sell something in your niche, but what about others niches? You don't want to have people pay for non converting copy.

Be careful in charging too much that doesn't convert. You NEED to know how to create copy to sell it.

I've seen people sell their copy for $1,197 with almost zero previous testimonials. How did they do it? They used their own copy to sell to their clients. Their salesletter was so convincing they could have charged $10,000 for their salescopy writing and people would put in the money in a split second.

Just like most other things inside the business - Look to the industry leaders in your niche and replicate what they're doing.

You don't need to plagiarize, but take inspiration from, and if need be, send that page to a cheaper copywriter to use as a reference. Doing it this way, you should be able to get the benefits of both - Cheaper price tag, and a quality copy you know converts.

You can charge $997 for a sales letter, but make sure you prove it to yourself first.

Go out and find a product to sell (ebook or whatever), and sell the heck out of it. I mean crazy sales - thousands of sales. Then take those results, show it to your potential clients, show them of the other sales letter examples you have, and close the deal.

But don't ask for $1,500 if you know your copy is just a Fiverr $5 value.

I have paid $5k for a sales letter, over a 10 day launch period it converted into $80k in sales. So I figured it was worth it

Hello SolutionSecrets


Everything depends on the reputation of the copywriter who writes and what converts, can find sales from $ 10 to $ 10K and over!

I generally charge $8,000 for a sales letter or VSL. (And ask for backend to keep me in the game - so we can tweak the copy and approach - until it converts.)

It's all positioning.

Here's something to think about...

A person who charges $997 to write a sales letter is likely needing a ton work to stay afloat.

Which means...

Your project is destined to get a fraction of the attention it needs to succeed.

Likewise...

A copywriter who charges so little probably hasn't generated millions of dollars in results. That's a big deal, because if they can't think that big, how will they help you pull in that kind of money? They won't.

Lastly, when you charge too little, you're always needing to prospect for new clients.

Again, which means...

You aren't getting results for your current clients.

How do I know?

Because you don't need to constantly prospect - when you get people results. For some reason, they keep coming back for more;-)

Mark

It all boils down to CONVERSION.

Most INTELLIGENT business people will gladly pay top dollar for something that will bring in TONS of dollars.

If you play the game cheap, you'll get cheap (assuming you get any) results.

Like any other service, the client is trying to get the copy at the cheapest
price possible and the copywriter its trying to get the highest fee possible.
Within that dance there is a whole spectrum of fees.

If a copywriter is on the cheap end and writing great copy, then he is robbing
himself and would soon suffer from burn out. If he is on the expensive end
and writing copy that doesn't convert then he would soon go broke.

Right upfront I know that 99.99% of Warriors cannot afford my fees.
It's a simple matter of not having the marketing power to justify laying out
5-figures for a sales letter. Like Robert mentioned above, he payed $5K
for a letter and made $80K in 10 days--but most likely he had the
traffic to send to the letter in order to do that. A lot of marketers just
starting out don't.

-Ray Edwards

Thank you all for your knowledge and sharing..

Everybody has thier own point which is true..
Some will disagree and some will agree..
it's does boils down to Each person's perceptive of values.. (although it definitely can be debate on it)

Quite hard to kickstart in investing into one due to lack of quality assurance..
As @BigFrank said.. Spending Big doesn't make it Best conversion nor guarantee it..

@icoachu True.. getting cheap traffic for $5 is waste of money.. Not 99% of Fiverr vendors write good copywriting..

I suggest looking locally for copywriters. Usually they have less ego, fame and lower prices! I study and love writing copy but its REALLY hard work to be done well. I enjoy hiring it out for 90% of the hard lifting - then I re-read and edit and tweak to my liking.

Most of the time, it depends on the quality of work, is firstly you have to make ensure about the work quality. Thanks.

There are so many different variables that go into pricing sales copy that it's impossible to really say that's the right price to pay. There are many different clients with many different needs, and they will pay different prices depending on what they're looking for.

Let's take, for example, a copywriter who has other copywriters working for him. He can polish their copy, edit it, change things that need to be changed. Someone like this can probably get away with only paying a few hundred bucks for copy because even if it is flawed, he can fix it.

Now take another example... A company that does $5 million+ launches and is a household name that everybody knows about. It wouldn't make sense for a company like this to spend less than $10,000 for their VSL because even a big fee like that is only a drop in their bucket, and it makes sense for them to go for the highest quality possible.

In general I'd say these pricing guidelines are reliable but keep in mind there are many exceptions to every rule.

$197-$297

Amateur... These are the kinds of rates you see when some kid in college says "hey I can be a copywriter" and heads on to Warrior forum or elance.

$397-$497

Copy in this range can be serviceable but you will likely end up having to correct things... Don't buy anything in this price range unless you know a lot about marketing yourself and can fix it up.

$497-$997

I'd say this is the sweet spot for 'budget copy' if you're looking for it... You CAN find very qualified copywriters in this range if you shop around.

$997-$1497

This is about what I would say the typical "good" sales copy costs... Not world class but basically usable stuff.

$1997-$4497

This is pretty much the upper limit of what "non famous" copywriters charge. Above this range you're usually looking people who are well known "celebrity" copywriters.

$4997-$20,000

Upper limit in the direct response world. Usually reserved for companies that do millions in profit every year. Writers that charge these kinds of rates are writers you would know by name due to their reputation.

Jesus Christ, the dick swinging around here has become downright amusing.

Hint, fellas: your Schwartzes are all big and you all know how to use them

Now if you could stop fighting and actually answer the question, that'd be great.

I tend to agree with Ray that a copywriter is trying to get paid as much as possible and a client is trying to pay as little as possible.

Here's why: it makes business sense.

In that, I'm not trying to interpret this as the copywriter is charging overblown prices and failing to deliver. That guy's gonna get one or two major paydays before the word spreads and he has to eat some humble pie and beg for forgiveness, otherwise he's going out of business.

The client, in trying to pay as little as possible, is not trying to rip off the service provider. They're trying to ensure that they're getting sufficient value for their investment.

Frank is indeed correct that a PORTION of the value cannot be determined until it is tested. I'd add in that a significant amount of value can be determined when you look at WHO is doing the writing.

How do I know this? Halbert. Bencivenga. Kern. Carlton.

What do they have in common? A unique style. Years of experience. Mountains of data whirling in the background as their brains process a new idea.

You gonna tell me that their fees are unjustified because it hasn't been tested yet?

Value and price are BOTH complicated. That's why there's an entire field dedicated to pricing.

The dance Ray mentions about the intersection between client bills and vendor fees is what sets market rates - supply and demand.

I don't charge bargain basement prices - I don't suffer from demand issues either.

But I also know the value I provide up front.

If you don't get the value, I either didn't sell my services well enough or I'm not the provider for you.

That's pretty much my take.

That brings me back to the OP's original question -

The official answer is...it's impossible to judge something based on price alone. Lots of other factors must go into consideration, including value, experience/expertise, quality, how it fits into the funnel, what your market expects/their sophistication, etc.

A $9,997 letter can be cheap if it generates 100 times that amount in sales.

A $997 letter can be expensive if it sells $100 dollars worth of product.

What's a good car? $100? 1,000? 10,000? 100,000? You tell me, based on price alone whether that car is worth the money.

There ya go.

I suggest you to ask what benefit you will obtain with your letter,
discuss with your copywriter what do you need.
after that calculate your budget!

Exceptional sales letters are worth more than $1000 if they come from reputable agencies or copywriters who have proven their value. Also, clients who understand the market and really want to offer professional services and attract valuable customers will pay this amount of money and more for a killer sales letter.

Still, if you are a beginner and have never written a sales letter in your life or have written only a few of them and with no palpable results, then the price should go down a bit..., well, a bit more. If you have a good portfolio and are confident in your skills and know you can do a good job, you can start asking $100 - $150 for a sales letter. But make sure that it's the best copy you've ever written to that point and that you step up your game with every letter you write. In time, you'll get to that $1000 gig.

Best,
TypingPandas

WOW!
First of all, I want to thank you all for all the input you guys gave here.
I learnt alot from all on different perspective of each writers..

I think it's always best to find talent through connections or recommendations. That could mean paying $200 or $2000 for a sales letter.

Price doesn't always equal value. The $200 letter could get the same or better results. I know for a fact some of the 'big IM guys' order sales letters from lower priced sales letter services and still convert at 10%.

But because the writers sign NDAs readers will never know.

__________________________________________________ _____

Sales letters of high ticket products can be priced as high as $5000 or even more! Pricing depends upon many factors. Sales copy length, ROI (You would not like to pay $997 for the sales page of a $5 product), professional video(s) and other on-page media also add to the price. Sometimes, the video(s) on the sales page alone could cost you $1000 or more. However, if the sales letter converts, then no question asked. It is worth it