Lowball Puts You Behind The Eight Ball

Ryan Healy, a tal­ented copy­writer whose blog I love read­ing, recently said that copy­writ­ers shouldn’t be cheap, espe­cially when they start out.

It’s a pow­er­ful notion, because many begin­ning copy­writ­ers believe that being cheap will get them more busi­ness. (There are other ways around this, of course. Know­ing how to mar­ket your­self is one thing. Focus­ing on a spe­cialty, a niche, is another. But more on that at another time.)

The bot­tom line is, if you low­ball your rates, you will not get as much busi­ness as you think you’ll get. Sure, you will prob­a­bly get some. But it’s the kind of busi­ness you don’t want.

Remem­ber this impor­tant rule:

Cheap copy­writ­ers attract cheap clients.

If you low­ball for clients, you are also “low­balling” your­self. Why? Because you are send­ing sig­nals out in the mar­ket­place that you’re not in demand, or that you’re per­fect for the penny-​​pinching, attention-​​sucking vam­pire who can’t afford your even low fee.

I would even go as far as to say that those clients who do want cheap copy have money issues or money prob­lems. I don’t mean the “I need to pay the bills” vari­ety. We all have that prob­lem at one point, par­tic­u­larly if we run a business.

But what I mean are those with scarcity mind­sets, or with poor prod­ucts that don’t — and won’t — sell, no mat­ter how good (or expen­sive) the copy is.

If they’re look­ing for “cheap copy,” that’s a red flag right there. I’m not say­ing it’s true in all cases. There are some gen­uinely great clients out there who can’t afford the aver­age fees some copy­writ­ers charge, let alone the out­ra­geous ones copy­writ­ers like me charge.

But it’s a red flag nonetheless.

If they do have a prod­uct that’s well-​​researched and in demand, and the prod­uct is still not sell­ing for what­ever rea­son, then likely it’s because either they have a poorly defined mar­ket, or a poorly tar­geted one.

(If that’s the case, then you’ve just placed your­self at the mercy of a poor mar­keter who will require extra hand-​​holding, and their copy will demand crit­i­cal mar­ket­ing direc­tion from you — beyond the work for which you were com­mis­sioned, and for the same low rate.)

More often than not, the rea­son is that they have a scarcity men­tal­ity, and there­fore will be prob­lem clients, demand­ing clients or abu­sive clients.

Just the per­fect kind of client you DON’T want.

And here’s why:

Beyond the extra work (for no extra pay) you will have on your plate, their own scarcity mind­set might even self-​​sabotage their attempts at mak­ing money, and cut their own selves at the knees — such as, among many exam­ples, mod­i­fy­ing your copy before even test­ing it.

(And guess who they’ll blame if the copy is not pulling?)

Sec­ond, these vam­pires will be suck­ing pre­cious time away from you — time you could have invested in mar­ket­ing your­self more to attract and work with bet­ter clients who are both able and will­ing to pay your fee.

The greater ques­tion is, do cheap copy­writ­ers attract cheap clients? Or do cheap clients attract cheap copy­writ­ers? Either way, it doesn’t mat­ter. What mat­ters is that if a copy­writer wants to be cheap (for fear of not get­ting any busi­ness), three prob­lems occur:

1) They attract cheap clients.

And by poor clients I mean both clients who are poor and can’t afford a copy­writer in the first place, as well as poor qual­ity clients who are going to be more demand­ing and trou­ble­some than the norm.

2) They lessen per­ceived value.

They cheapen the per­ceived value in their ser­vices — even if the copy is indeed of great value. That means, they will lose clients who don’t want cheap copywriters.

Why? Because if they’re “that” cheap, then their work must be just as cheap. (In their minds, any­way.) Worse still, they must not be in demand and there­fore have trou­ble get­ting work.

In this case, it’s a red flag for the other party. As a men­tor once told me, “Per­ceived truth is more pow­er­ful than truth itself.”

3) They are wast­ing resources.

Cheap copy­writ­ers will waste time, energy and money work­ing on these prob­lem clients, when their time could have been bet­ter spent on mar­ket­ing for, and projects by, other, bet­ter, more value-​​interested clients.

So they lose more in the end by charg­ing less.

Now, after my com­ment on Ryan’s blog, some­one riposted with the fol­low­ing neg­a­tive albeit insight­ful comment:

Michael’s con­cern about the effect on your rep­u­ta­tion for accept­ing a low rate is silly. How are your clients going to know what you are being paid and who your other clients are unless you tell them?

Granted, this per­son is 100% right in prin­ci­ple. But other than a high-​​priced copy­writer who dis­counts after the fact, tell me how many “cheap” copy­writ­ers keep their fees — and their port­fo­lio of past clients — a secret? Their low fee IS the main sell­ing point in their marketing.

But I digress. Let me clar­ify the point I made about rep­u­ta­tion (more specif­i­cally, per­ceived value).

If I told you I have a brand-​​new BMW for sale, and it’s only $500, would you think something’s wrong with it? Of course, you would. In fact, you might even think it’s stolen.

Free­lance net­works like eLance​.com who under­bid con­stantly have their pros and cons.

I know there are some good copy­writ­ers there. But all too often, the prob­lem is that they’re NOT the ones doing the under­bid­ding. What I’ve found is that eLance is the home of many “sweat­shops” with copy­writ­ers of less tal­ent or expe­ri­ence — as well as some unknown copy­writ­ers who can­not get work otherwise.

For many begin­ning copy­writ­ers, such net­works do offer a poten­tial kick­start. That’s fine. If they lack a track record, have no rep­u­ta­tion and want to estab­lish them­selves, it’s not a bad option. (But it’s not the only one, though.)

Oth­er­wise, cheap copy­writ­ers are like that BMW for $500: either something’s wrong with the copy, or its stolen.

(You wouldn’t believe how many free­lance copy­writ­ers from such net­works I have caught copy­ing my saleslet­ters ver­ba­tim for their clients. It’s a fre­quent occurence, sadly.)

Again, let me be clear:

Does that mean cheap copy­writ­ers are all thieves and shoddy? Not at all. Like the $500 BMW, you just might stum­ble onto a heck of a deal. But that, I’m afraid, is rare.

For begin­ning and aspir­ing copy­writ­ers, they can start low — if they really have to. But I always teach them to retain or heighten the per­ceived value in their ser­vices anyway.

By ask­ing for some­thing in exchange for the con­ces­sion, their fee is expressed in forms other than just money, whether it’s a refer­ral, a tes­ti­mo­nial let­ter, a bar­ter­ing arrange­ment, a chance to gain feed­back they can tout in their pro­mo­tions, etc.

Doing so does three things:

1) It retains or height­ens the per­ceived value in the copy­writer, even if they charge a low fee. Because the client is still pay­ing for it, whether it’s in extras or referrals.

2) It stops the grind­ing away process in ask­ing for more. When peo­ple get con­ces­sions for noth­ing, they tend to expect more because of the very mind­set that caused them to look for cheap copy­writ­ers in the first place.

3) It increases the per­ceived value in the ser­vice, too — and NOT in the con­ces­sion the copy­writer is mak­ing. This works for many rea­sons, such as retain­ing the value of a ser­vice ren­dered, which tends to decrease after delivery.

In other words, if the copy­writer wants a tes­ti­mo­nial or refer­ral after deliv­er­ing the copy and did not require it as part of the fee arrange­ment, it will be harder to obtain because, in the mind of the client, the copy­writer is ask­ing for a con­ces­sion with­out mak­ing one.

(And if they agree, the like­li­hood they will make you work for it in other ways is just as high.)

Ulti­mately, look at it this way: do you want 100 cheap clients who will demand all of your time? Or do you want 10 good clients, pay­ing you the same income, and demand­ing only a frac­tion of your time?

As Ryan said, “Don’t be cheap.”

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

• How to Capture and Captivate Attention
• The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
• Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness
• Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers
• Superior Value Equals Superior Sales

Other Related Posts

• How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects
• When And How To Use An Alias In Business
• Three Tips For Finding Top-Shelf Clients
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy
• The Key To Getting The Fees You Deserve