One of the most nonsensical — and fairly common —
\nconversations in marketing goes something like this….<\/p>\n
The ad agency or copywriter submits a promotion.<\/p>\n
The client says, “I don’t like it.”<\/p>\n
The copywriter gets his dander up, bristles, and says
\nbelligerently:<\/p>\n
“It’s very strong. Test it.”<\/p>\n
The client refuses.<\/p>\n
The copywriter goes on Facebook and says:<\/p>\n
“I have a stupid client who refuses to A\/B split test.”<\/p>\n
Other copywriters chime in and say the client is stupid.<\/p>\n
But … in fact, he is not stupid.<\/p>\n
A lot of the time, the client is well aware that the A\/B split
\ntest is the only legitimate way to test a promotion.<\/p>\n
The reason this is true about A\/B splits is because only a
\nmarketing test definitively determines whether the copy is strong
\nbased on results, and not on subjective judgment.<\/p>\n
But despite this fact, subjective judgment will always be part of
\nthe process of developing marketing campaigns. Reason:<\/p>\n
Before your copy can be tested in an A\/B split, the team has to
\nagree on pricing … offer … theme … bonuses … lists … the “big
\nidea” for the promotion … the headline … the lead … and more.<\/p>\n
“Pre-test” and screening of what to ultimately prepare and test
\nfor real with money has to come down to subjective judgment.<\/p>\n
Now, you’ve heard the old expression, “Opinions are like
\nA-holes; everybody has one.”<\/p>\n
But of those opinions, the one that counts the most in addition
\nto the copywriter’s is the client’s, because he is paying the bills
\nand putting his money on the line.<\/p>\n
And having the final say does not make him an A-hole. Far from
\nit.<\/p>\n
Fact of the matter is, you may know more about copywriting than
\nyour client (although in some cases, not).<\/p>\n
But the client almost certainly knows more about his business
\nthan you.<\/p>\n
Therefore, his instincts and opinions should be considered
\ncarefully, and never ignored or dismissed by you out of hand.<\/p>\n
Now, if you feel strongly that nothing beats your copy, and
\nclient criticism annoys you, start your own online information or
\nmerchandise marketing business.<\/p>\n
When it’s your business, you can run all your copy exactly as you
\nwrote it.<\/p>\n
But if having the final say is paramount, you should only be an
\nentrepreneur who writes his own copy.<\/p>\n
And not a freelancer writing for copy for clients.<\/p>\n
A number of copywriters have made the transition from doing
\nclient work to 100% writing copy for their own products.<\/p>\n
Nothing wrong with that. More power to them. I know several, and
\na few are almost militant about why theirs is the smarter
\ncopywriting path.<\/p>\n
As an ancillary income stream, I also write copy to sell info
\nproducts I publish online.<\/p>\n
And it by itself generates a six-figure annual income we could
\ncomfortably live on.<\/p>\n
But that’s not the way I roll.<\/p>\n
Writing copy for clients has pleasures and intellectual
\nchallenges I maintain you simply cannot get from writing only
\nabout your own products.<\/p>\n
And as a contract copywriting freelance, I absolutely love the
\nwide variety of products, services, offers, industries, and
\nmarkets I get to write about and for.<\/p>\n
It’s more fun than I can shake a stick at.<\/p>\n
So overall, no complaints — though on rare occasion I may grumble
\na bit.<\/p>\n
But for nearly 4 decades, I have been primarily a traditional
\ncopywriter working for clients.<\/p>\n
And secondarily an info marketer, book author, consultant, and
\nspeaker.<\/p>\n
That’s where I want to be in my copywriting business.<\/p>\n
And as I have done what I wanted to, likewise, you should do what
\nworks for you.<\/p>\n
As the late, great David Ogilvy said, quoting an old Scottish
\nproverb:<\/p>\n
“Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most nonsensical — and fairly common — conversations in marketing goes something like this…. The ad agency or copywriter submits a promotion. The client says, “I don’t like it.” The copywriter gets his dander up, bristles, and says belligerently: “It’s very strong. Test it.” The client refuses. The copywriter goes on Facebook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}