The Elegant Anatomy of a Copywriting Offer
When your offer sells itself, you don’t have to.
There are now over 4 billion people with the internet.
Half of them have bought goods or services online. If you’re building a copywriting business from scratch, you need an offer that appeals to about three of them.
First, what is NOT an offer?
$40 an hour for your services is not an offer.
“Can I help you with anything?” is not an offer.
Yesterday, someone who is at the beginning of their journey messaged me and asked, very politely, if they could help me with my copywriting business.
But there’s a problem here.
It puts the burden on me to think about what needs to be done. The answer, by the way, is nothing right now. I am a happy company of one.
But when you’re selling your services out there in wild, the easier it is for the prospect to say yes, the better.
And the easiest way for them to say yes….
Is if they don’t even have to think about it!
That’s a proper copywriting offer.
An offer they can’t refuse, as Don Corleone would say.
Previously, I’ve written about positioning yourself around a problem.
Again, the question to ask yourself:
Which small group of people with deep pockets urgently needs me to sort this out for them?
Unfortunately, you can’t just “ask yourself” the answer to this question. You can’t just pluck it out of your noggin.
You need RESEARCH.
To answer this, we use “inside information”…
1) Small group of people
This has less to do with the literal number of people you can help and more — much more — to do with whether they are easily and precisely targetable. You need to know where they hang out online.
2) Deep pockets
Are they already spending money on marketing? This should be the easiest part. You should instinctively be able to tell from their social media, website and general online “vibe” if they are equipped to wire you at least $1,000 without stammering or “running it past” someone else. If you have any doubts about this whatsoever, revisit 1).
3. Urgently needs me
This is where we thread the needle through the precise group of people who have deep pockets and loop it around the common problem that transcends industries.
An example that “transcends industries”:
I have written copy for startups in the healthcare, travel, online learning, and crypto industries.
The problem all startups have is they’re in a hurry not to die. The feature they all share is a pot of cash they are prepared to spend quickly on someone who can guarantee to communicate quickly, clearly, and with effortless artistic grace what makes them so great.
This is how you get paid.