How an agency can sell Website Copy Service to clients with Kathy Krueger – SWC 58
December 5, 2019 December 5, 2019 /
In website building, the design and development take the most effort, time and money. Website copy rarely features prominently in the majority of website builds done by freelancers or small agencies.
In reality, website copy is what does the magic converting website visitors into customers. How can agency owners convince website clients about these magical powers? Kathy is here it help agency owners in selling website copy services.
01. Investment in website copy
- Let’s talk about the current situation first. The majority of websites done by small agencies and freelancers, website copy gets the least preference and in most cases, it is stitched together by the client himself. What is the reason behind this situation: are there not enough good copywriters or website builders don’t want to use copywriting services?
- Ideally, if a client has set a 10K budget for a website, close to 50% (around 5K) should be invested in getting website copy that visitor will love and result in conversions. However, in reality, 80-90% budget is spent on website design and dev stuff, leaving little or none for copy investment. What type of convincing is needed to change this right from the start phase of a website project?
02. An agency selling Website Copy Service
- An agency building client websites and sending clients away to get their copy (which generally is written by themselves or by a non-professional person), how can an agency switch to offer professional copy services in-house or subcontracted to a trusted partner?
- How does one convince clients to hire a professional copywriter? The thing is, a client can see website design and hence excited to pour money to get the best-looking website design. The copy isn’t that exciting from a visual point of view, but it is what does the magic in the background. How to convince clients about the magical powers of the website copy?
- Any other creative examples for such convincing from your real-life work experiences? Like sharing case studies, do such things help?
03. Pricing Website Copy Services
- Traditionally a client would know website design and development are two big expense components in the whole website building routine. Copy part is not considered and hence never budgeted liberally from the client’s end. Should an agency owner highlight copy as an important expense/investment component right from the start for the correct perception of website copy component?
- Is making copy service a component of the overall website estimate a more natural way to move forward?
- Website copy requires actual copywriters, not your average Facebook user who can type posts in English. Should a website creator hire an in-house copywriter or partner with a copywriter or subcontract a copywriter? Which is the most common setup you have observed so far?
- For packaging website copy service, which is recommended or most common: per page copy pricing or fixed price say for five pages of a brochure website?
04. Switching to Copy First website design
- I see a lot of agencies now do copy first website building. Once they have substantial page copy, they build website design around the provided copy. I love copy first and website design second approach as the final design is more unique following the copy in question. Have you noticed this trend, and do you recommend this approach?
- Have you noticed any other creative ways that agency owners are using to sell copy services to their clients?
Kathy Krueger’s ToolBox
- Use Wrike(.com) for all copy projects management needs.
- Prefer using Grammarly for written text consistency & grammar.
- For organizing bookmarks and important items use Evernote.
About Kathy Krueger
I started my career as a writer in 2010. It was a big change in direction. I had worked as a bookkeeper and office manager in the construction industry up to that point. My primary motivation for the change was the flexibility provided by freelance writing. I could set my own schedule and work from just about anywhere.
I had a lot to learn, but my best teachers were my clients. I understood the business well and was an “okay” writer. Marketing agencies hired me and guided me in discovering the key points to writing content online. As I improved, my workflow grew. Within a few months, I had more work than I could handle on my own. I subcontracted some blogs to another writer. Within a year, I had several blog writers working with me to meet the needs of my clients. I was writing magazine articles and website copy, in addition to managing my team.
In 2016, I hired a project manager to oversee my team and free me up to do more writing. It was then that I chose website copy as my specialty. Many of the website designers I contacted had never sold copy as part of their package for customers. With a little encouragement from me, they gave it a try. They were amazed at how positive the response was from their clients.
In addition to writing website copy, I have started offering some other smaller offerings for both website owners and website designers.
More: Crafter of Words
