Has COPY become a "COMMODITY"?

by 52 replies
70
First I read in -this article- about the Titans of Direct Response conference: "Titans Takeaway #10: Copywriting and direct marketing are becoming commodities..."

Now, I stumble across -this old article- from Bob Bly saying as much... Bly even doubles up on his point in responses to comments on the article... That was way back in 2009.

So what do you think? Has copywriting become a commodity service? Is it headed in that direction?

Why are these big names in copywriting thinking it's on its way to becoming a "commodity"?
#copywriting #commodity #copy
  • Only if you don't know about positioning...niching down...selling.

    Anyone with the least bit of experience with "copywriters" knows you get what you pay for.

    Also, being able to write well for one niche does not automatically translate to being effective in another.
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    • Good answer. Great argument for specialization. But again -- why are big names like the "titans" & bly saying copywriting is becoming a commodity?

      What are they thinking?
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  • Gotta be mutable,
    perpetually irrefutable.

    When L'oreal pusseueded me my rat tails were "worth it", I figured all my years of being a lowlife musta counted for something.

    *For moi?*

    *RU Serious?*

    Now, I wonder why I didn't just drink the stuff.

    Or mainline.

    Or mebbe cook up some fancy new squid scrotum casserole and garnish the accompanying side salad with a L'oreal jus.

    Turns out my teen hairdo is hot right now.

    Accident has become precedent.

    Point is, copywriting is insubstantialer than air, and what we inhale and exhale today because we GOTTA MUSTA GONNA (cos, yanno — life), is sure as hell gonna kill us tomorrow.

    Flux is the ultimate mindf*ck as our narratives seek permanence.

    So the deal is NEVER on the side of the people pushin' the L'oreal syringe at new transformed Moi 'cos they hooked me early and figure I owe the brand.

    Because what they gonna say?

    Who in hell could possibly throw some meaningful English around their desire to shift even more of this overpriced glitzsemen?*

    Same recipe now as it was when I emptied my first bottle over my head, neck, back, and frickin' bedroom?

    Sure as hell ain't THEM.

    Nah, they burned up all their expertise, their time, their lives, transformin' chemical slurry into young girls' dreams using Jennifer Aniston as a Trojan horse with hidden stirrups and a face like a lucky apology.

    For the miracle to take place, they needed a writer.

    (I clean forgot Aniston and had to Google, but the idea of ME ME ME being worth it is now burned on the inside of my skull.)

    If you're runnin' on word count, "Because you're worth it" buys you a few molecules of airborne CO2 from some recoverin' drunk's can of Coke, and you write it out in less time than it takes to read it, which leaves you a bigger slice of eternity to hang around worryin' how to pay the rent on 0.00001 cents per syllable.

    But that's not where the value lies.

    All the best lines for alla tomorrow's stuff ain't been written yet.

    That's true even if alla tomorrow's stuff bursts into existence NOW c/o some A.I. miracle of quantum alchemy.

    So I figure alla this unwritten stuff is as much of a touch-kiss-feel commodity as the kids yet to spill outta my fanjo: intangible, tucked away behind the glimmer of a dream.

    Pinnin' down dreams is when the numbers and the $$$ centre on a

    .

    It's typographical, it's decimal, it's mutable.






    *"Not you, Balestra, you unintelligible paint-baller of schwango!"
  • Copy is not becoming a commodity. Copywriters have positioned THEMSELVES as commodities.

    It's a subtle but significant difference. Hopefully, now that I've said it, the distinction will be apparent.
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  • Honestly, garbage threads like this should never even get posted. No, it's not a commodity, and no, it never will be...

    And before another one asks, no we aren't getting replaced by magical Copywriting software programs either.

    Hopefully that's a /thread
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    • Take your medication, kid.

      Nothing wrong with a little discussion, especially about something interesting a big name says...
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  • I read an article in WRITER'S DIGEST in 2006 which said that
    writing (in general) was becoming a commodity and blamed the
    internet for this. The article said that the internet had made entering the
    writer's market so easy that any and everybody was doing it.

    Back then the copywriting market was not as popular as it is
    today, but I have seen the changes over the years where many
    freelance sites have given that appearance.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • That's interesting...

      My personal opinion is that writing (& copywriting) will never become complete commodities, because the obvious differences in quality, research, creativity, drive etc. will differentiate providers.

      SEO writing flirts with commodification, but even that's changing as search engine algorithms get smarter about weighing for quality and social sharing.

      Still -- though writing will never become a strict commodity, its drift in that direction (thanks to the internet) will impact fees, competition, etc. and thus the prospects for making a living as a freelancer.

      A prospect who's seen $100 fees on Elance will be hesitant to pay a stranger $5000 for the same service. He doesn't know good copy from bad... Neither writer can offer a guarantee... And the $100 writer might just be pretty good!
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  • About 3 to 4 years ago, when I started seeing colleagues whom I respected starting to specialize more, instead of being "generalist copywriters".... that kinda planted the bug in my mind.

    And it was the single most important thing I did, because these days, I get all of my clients from word of mouth and referrals, simply because of my change in positioning.

    I think copywriters, and marketers in general, would find the book The One Thing by Gary Keller useful, but it kinda reinforces what I've personally seen in my own business over the last few years.

    1. Find a very specific niche to write for

    2. Find a specific thing to write in that niche (email, marketing content, VSLs, etc)

    3. Build your platform and get your info out in front of as many people as possible,
    using amazing content to drive people to your specialty.

    I started in 2001 in fitness.

    When I started writing for others, I wrote for every market imaginable.

    But the last few years, when I made the singular focus on writing ONE kind
    of marketing piece for ONE specific niche, I was no longer a commodity.. but
    a specialist, and the change in income was dramatic.

    For me, the 2 most profitable changes I've seen are:

    1. Becoming a specialist in one niche, but only writing one thing and
    doing it so well, you soon become known as THE person for that.

    Maybe it's writing emails for fat loss, or whatever.

    2. Build a platform where you get your name and specialty out in
    front of as many people as possible, using blogs, social media, etc...

    But I've also seen copywriters become more successful by being
    business growers and cash flow makers, helping businesses increase their
    over all sales, and not just write copy.

    If you can show proof that you can help a business increase revenue by 10 times,
    you're no longer a commodity.

    so, like Rick said, sure, copy could be a commodity, if you let it.

    But think about anything else in life. If you blend in with everyone else,
    you get lumped in with everyone else.

    If all you do is copy and all you talk about with your client is copy...
    you've lumped yourself in as a commodity.

    But, if you can show your client how you started with a squeeze page
    for another client, then wrote their VSL, and upsells, etc.... and grew
    their entire business by 40%... you're no longer just a copywriter, but
    a business grower, sales consultant, marketing consultant, etc....

    It's odd... because the 2 things I've had the most luck with, and most
    profitability, at times have been polar opposites.

    Like I said, specializing deep in one niche, writing one thing (like emails)
    and becoming known as THE person for that specific thing.

    Or, you can take a step back and show the client how you can help in the
    bigger picture.

    A sales letter you charge $5,000 for may help the client make $100,000.

    Or, redoing their entire funnel and being more of a business grower may
    be a $10,000 investment for your client... but returns them $500,000.

    So, like most of the folks mentioned, it really comes down to positioning yourself
    to be unique and different, in a way where you become known as THE person for
    that.... and soon people find you.
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  • Lots of good stuff in this thread. Aspiring copywriters should take it to heart.

    Good point. -- the field is not as "cushy" as it once was for the old-school... Requires more hustle.

    I have a feeling that copy (and writing in general) is taking the same trajectory that coding (programming) did a few years back.

    At one point, programmers were scared -- predicting that salaries would plummet because programming is so easily "offshored" and there's a pretty low bar to entry in the field. Much like copywriting, there was even a proliferation of "bidding" sites, driving fees down.

    However, clients with real stakes in their software soon realized that "offshoring" programming wasn't worth the hassle for the most part... in fact, it's more convenient to import the talent or hire locally. ...So the "race to the bottom" came to a halt or at least stabilized a bit (for now).

    Programmers lost the low-hanging fruit at the low end of fees, and find they have to hustle (& have real chops) to get the jobs that pay well...

    As professional pursuits, copywriting and programming have a lot in common in fact... But that's another thread...
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    • Having been both (a programmer and a copywriter), I can tell you with certainty that copywriting WILL NOT follow the same path as programming.

      Programming requires knowledge of a computer language that mimics predictable human behavior.

      Copywriting requires a basic ability to write, knowledge of persuasion, and innate creativity.

      The skills sets are far different. The former are in plentiful supply. The latter, not so much.

      Alex
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  • Banned
    In an economy and scenario where there is no real direction, copy will probably start becoming a commodity, much like hamburgers or simple straight paid services, like airline tickets or even

    In an unsure economy like we have now, copywriters want cash up front and there is less JV'ing and teaming up on broader strategical objectives with the bigger picture in mind...which is where the real opportunity is for smaller companies to take on companies 100 or 1000 times the size.

    That is my opinion anyways.
  • Banned
    I think that the most valuable part of any marketing campaign is the ad/sales copy and that can be said for both online and offline campaigns.

    You can have the greatest product in the world but if you dont have the right people pushing for sales then in isn't going anywhere. In the online world we have copywriters and in the offline said of things its usually field sales agents.

    The way you actually close a deal is very different when it comes to the whole online/offline thing but the principles are the same.
  • I think copy is less of a commodity than ever. As competition on the internet increases, marginal changes in conversion rates become more important. As the volume of sales on the internet increases, the need for higher profit per sale decreases and net revenue per sale drops.

    This means that we do more volume but make less per sale, so good copywriters are more essential than ever. A difference of 1% can add an extra million dollars per month on high volume websites. Marginal improvements have a bigger impact than ever.

    Just look at copywriting coaching, they used to go for a thousand bucks a month and everyone was doing it. Now you need to schedule an appointment, pay a year in advance and prices have shot up. Good copywriting is worth more than ever as economics of scale ripples throughout the internets economic cost/profit equilibrium.

    Copywriters who now produce marginal increases have a larger impact on the bottom line of large volume businesses. Change Amazon.com's conversion rate for Kindle by 1 percentage point, the impact on immediate ROI and ancillary sales through Kindle books is in the millions. Improve Adobe.com's subscription rate by 1 percentage point and you probably added an additional $60 million to their bottom line, per year.

    Increase the opt-in rate for double your dating and each additional percentage point probably correlates to $10,000's-$100,000's more per month.

    Essentially the small and weak will die, the large and powerful will grow more powerful and the value of top copywriters will increase as the impact of changing a conversion rate will enter into the millions. Decrease the cost of customer acquisition by 25% for a client spending a million dollars a month on advertising and you made him an additional $250,000 a month in free money. This is why Jay Abraham stopped charging fee's and works on percentage instead, he simply isnt stupid enough to make someone an extra $3,000,000 for a $100,000 consulting fee.
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  • Not to bring up an old post... but I really think a lot of copywriters here would get a lot of
    use/value from this book... as it relates to making sure you don't end up in the commodity
    bin.

    For me, it was really eye opening how much it went hand in hand with positioning.

    Highly, highly recommend it, even for a copy forum. Because if you follow what it says, you don't
    have to worry about becoming a commodity.

    If you've read and liked Mastery, this will seem like a breezy, easy read... but it's WELL worth it.

    The1Thing.com
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  • On a closer look that article seems to be saying that MOST copywriting has become a commodity, NOT that "commodity copy" is GOOD.
  • A bit late to the party, but I didn't want to miss this goody...

    Copywriting isn't becoming a commodity. It's just the hype balloon has been popped.

    For a long time copywriters have walked around with their chests puffed out acting as if they had a monopoly on sales. That may have been true in the direct mail days...

    But in digital marketing, you really need to bring more to the table than a few well strung words. Truth is - copy is becoming a smaller and smaller aspect of your average online sales funnel.

    Ex.) How much copy do you see on most ecommerce stores? Very little. And it's more descriptive than an elaborate pitch.

    You can put your head in the sand and ignore this, but that's the reality. They're not going to bother reading sales letters when they can get a dozen reviews on google in mere seconds.

    Getting websites to convert nowadays boils down to getting quality traffic, and having an aesthetic, user-friendly design.

    It's kind of hard to command 5-figure fees as a copywriter with that being the case. This is why you're seeing so many copywriter bigwigs...peddling copywriting products. They're selling the "dream" of the golden age.
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    • Which part of an "average online sales funnel" doesn't use persuasive copy? Online sales funnels have gotten more sophisticated... and use more copy than ever.

      The presence of e-commerce stores doesn't prove your point. There's always been a significant percentage of products sold that do not use direct marketing copy.

      Please tell me you're joking. That's absurd.

      Alex
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    • Yep, just like the #1 car leasing website in the uk...

      CAR LEASING CHEAP LEASE CARS SALES CAR LEASING CHEAP BUSINESS HIRE DEALS

      $35 million pounds worth of cars leased, as seen here...

      https://youtu.be/fOv7w5xEhP4

      Best,
      Doctor E. Vile
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    • Interesting perspective. In my opinion, what we've got here is a classic case of a false-positive.

      If you tend to operate in the world as a spectator, superficially looking at what's happening, it looks like direct response sales letters are going away, doesn't it? It looks like "everybody" hates them, right?

      I mean, let's focus on one major macrocosm:

      Facebook.

      Direct response marketers have been eviscerated on Facebook, haven't they? Dislikes, negative comments, high CPCs, outright banning, strict ToS, it doesn't get any more obvious, that people hate direct response on Facebook. They've become very adversarial.

      You could easily come to the conclusion that direct response doesn't work anymore on Facebook.

      But you'd be incorrect.

      The reason Facebook hates the direct response model is the exact opposite of what you'd expect: It's because IT DOES WORK. In fact, it does its job TOO WELL.

      Granted some, maybe a lot of users, complain. And they're vocal. Very vocal. Facebook listens to its users and reigns in the marketers. But that does not mean the direct response model doesn't work.

      It's because IT DOES. So much so, users resent having their wall become a billboard for someone else's financial gain.

      So what does the savvy Facebook marketer do? He puts up pretty websites and lots of quality content. He BURIES the money site behind articles and surveys and quizzes and videos--and even then...

      The marketer's money site STILL MAKES ENOUGH MONEY THAT IT MORE THAN PAYS FOR THE EXPENSIVE TRAFFIC.

      That's why your comment "Getting websites to convert nowadays boils down to getting quality traffic, and having an aesthetic, user-friendly design." is a false-positive. It's what the marketers want you to think.

      And because you're not clicking all the way through like a real user, a real prospect would, you're falling for it.

      You wouldn't know this unless you were knee deep working on Facebook funnels, like I am. On the surface, you'd have the opposite opinion that it doesn't work anymore and that direct response is going away on Facebook.

      But in fact, the opposite is true.

      It's one reason why funnels have become so popular to talk about. Because you can't just slap up a ClickBank pitch page. You gotta bury it behind something.

      There are multiple direct response models that are working on Facebook when you scratch the surface and actually study what's under the hood. But admittedly, that takes time, money and effort.

      But I'll tell you what, you'd be amazed at direct response marketers’ ingenuity.

      The direct response marketers you see promoting and getting those negative comments and dislikes today? They don't know what they're doing. They're rookies. They're gonna get banned. And when they do, they gonna conclude mean old Facebook doesn't work.

      In closing, let me remind you of something.

      Facebook aside, there are many places on the Internet where direct response is appreciated. eBay's one. Warrior Forum comes to mind. Places like these, marketers are given wide latitude to sell their stuff.

      So what's the difference between them and Facebook?

      THE TRAFFIC. Who visits, why are they there and what are they looking for. Each platform is a universe unto itself.

      Every week, marketers come to me and ask "I'm getting good conversions on JV traffic but my offer doesn't convert on cold traffic. What's it going to take?"

      What it's going to take is a true strategy that optimizes that specific cold traffic channel.

      - Rick Duris

      PS: Can't speak for others, but copywriters who know how to convert on cold traffic have no problem landing 5-figure deals.
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  • I think you're only highlighting your own ignorance of marketing.

    It has always been the case that copywriting is 3rd or 4th on the list for impact on bottom line profit. This is true in direct response and all other forms of marketing. Yet, direct response marketers still pay top dollar for copywriters, why?

    Because in a world where anyone can build a sales funnel, anyone can increase CLV, anyone can build a list and provide content - copywriting becomes a competitive advantage. While it is true that the net effect on ROI is substantially less than other forms of conversion optimization such as improving repeat sales, etc. Copywriting is both a means to this end, and does one other important thing, it gives you a quantitative edge in a world where small numbers make a huge difference.

    If you look at a simple scenario, it becomes obvious why copywriters have always been paid a lot of money.

    Company A builds a list, improves CLV, and all the other marketing optimization strategies in the book

    Company B see's that company A is making more money, and then copy's company A's strategy

    Now both company A and B can afford to pay a price premium for advertising, the net sum of this interaction is that all companies end up having optimized marketing. This results in moving down the list from big optimization principles like customer relationships down to smaller ones like copywriting.

    If company A and B both have a CLV of $120 after optimization, then whichever company gains a higher sales rate through copywriting gains a higher return on capital - allowing them to price out the competition from the market and then become the largest company in the market.

    So in other words, by making stupid statements like the ones you are making, you are only showing the rest of us how ignorant you are about marketing.
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    • I've noticed more and more people are coming into copywriting through CRO rather than traditional direct response. So they tend to not realise that what they think is new and trendy has actually been established for decades.
    • That's just not true.

      Very...very...few people have the brains and resources to put together a successful ecommerce operation.

      Be it market research, product sourcing, website design graphics, paid traffic,etc...there's a lot that has to fall into place before a word of copy is written.

      Thanks for admitting that copy is way down on the list. It's a bold move on this forum.

      Sure, it should be common knowledge. But that was my point...it's not.
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    • And you're bald.

      Probably best if we refrain from stating the obvious, don't ya think?
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  • I don't know why people are so surprised about the fact! Haven't you noticed that all the information in internet is the same? So many articles on the same topic! and I know most of them are copies! I only trust news. Texts nowadays are just tools to increase traffic.
    • [1] reply
    • Careful, dear. Your ignorance is showing.
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  • 70

    Has COPY become a "COMMODITY"?

    First I read in -this article- about the Titans of Direct Response conference: "Titans Takeaway #10: Copywriting and direct marketing are becoming commodities..." Now, I stumble across -this old article- from Bob Bly saying as much... Bly even doubles up on his point in responses to comments on the article... That was way back in 2009.