74: A Special Ask Me Anything Episode
In this episode of ill communication, I’m doing something a little different.
I’m turning the microphone over to you!
I put up a social media poll and asked my email subscribers for questions about copy, copywriting, sales, and messaging. So I'm answering a few of those questions in a special end-of-the-year Ask Me Anything episode.
What was interesting is most of the questions are actually kind of related to each other, and they flow pretty nicely together.
So I want you to listen along because I'm pretty sure you might have wondered about these questions too!
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
What even is copywriting?
My thoughts on how you can become a great copywriter
How to know if it’s time to hire a pro copywriter
One of the biggest flaws I see in copywriting and my tips for fixing it
The secret to finding your unique message
That's it for this special Ask Me Anything episode of ill communication! Did you like this style of episode? I would love to know.
Got a question you'd like to ask in person? Email me at hello@kimkiel.com or book a call here.
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[00:00:03] Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and change makers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hey there! Welcome to episode 74 of the Ill Communication podcast. You've been with me this whole calendar year, so today I'm doing something a little different. I'm turning the microphone on you, and what I mean is, over the last week or so, I put up a social media poll and asked my email subscribers for questions about copy copywriting, sales, and messaging. So today I'm answering a few of those questions in a special end of the year Ask Me Anything episode. What was interesting is most of the questions are actually kind of related to each other, and they flow pretty nicely together. So I want you to listen along, because I'm pretty sure you might have wondered about these questions too. So without further ado, let's get into the first question. Question one what is copywriting? I mean, I know what copywriting means, but why is it called copywriting and not word writing? Oh my gosh, this is a great question because isn't it funny how we use terms and phrases without really digging into the history and etymology of the words? Like I call myself a copywriter, but I actually had to research the answer for this question.
[00:02:08] I didn't know why it was specifically called copy. Now, back in episode 25, I answered the question what is copywriting and why is it important? And as a refresher, copywriting is writing for advertising or marketing purposes. It's the act of writing. Copy and copy is a terms used to describe the text of an ad, promotion or commercial. The modern use of the word copy dates back to those early newspaper days, when copy was used to describe the written material and to distinguish it from the other elements like the design, images and graphics. But why is it called copy? Well, I had to turn to Google and the Online Etymology Dictionary to define the answer. Copy dates back to the 13th century. French firm. Copy. Copy, which means account or record. It's also related to the medieval Latin word copia, meaning reproduction or transcript, and it's related to the meaning of copia, meaning abundance. Ample supply plenty. So the firm copywriting is rooted in an abundance of writing or transcription. And I think we can all agree there is indeed a copious amount of copy we must write for our businesses.
[00:03:33] Great question. And it leads me to the next question I received. How do I become a great copywriter? I'm a great writer. Is it really so hard? And to that I say it isn't really hard. I mean, it's not like rocket science or surgery. What it really takes is practice. Practice writing clearly, succinctly, and with compelling emotion and stories and include a call to action or next step for your reader. I also believe you have to want to become a great copywriter first and then you practice. Of course, you can take courses, read books, or take trainings on copywriting. You can certainly keep listening to this podcast, but at the end of the day, it comes down to practicing, and I believe it's why people see such great results inside the Joy of Copy Club, which is my group copy coaching community for business owners because you get a lot of practice. We work on quality, yes, but also quantity, increasing the number of emails you send, increasing the times you post on social media, increasing the articles and blogs and content you create. The more you do it, the better you get and the easier it becomes. But again, you have to want to get better. If you hate writing and you're stuck in that mindset of hating writing, you'll never really commit to improving. And the thing is, once you start doing it more regularly, it really does get easier.
[00:05:07] You'll become more effective at writing, and you'll probably hate it way less. I'm going to drop a link in the show notes to episode eight, which covers the five C's of copywriting. That's a really beautiful episode, a really great framework to help you become a more effective copywriter. On to question three, how do you know when it's time to hire a professional copywriter? I don't think I can afford a pro, but how do I know? Ooh, this is a good question. The quick answer, of course, is if you have money, you can hire a copywriter or a copywriting service anytime. The truth is, you can find copywriters at all levels of investment from a few cents a word to $25,000 for a sales page. Most of the best pro copywriters I know are a solid investment. Definitely 4 to 5 figures, because they take the time to really dig into your voice and offers, research your audience and craft very strategic, compelling copy. So if you're thinking of investing at that pro level, you probably want to make sure you have a few things in place. Number one, you've been around the block a bit. And by that I mean you've been in business a while. You know who your audience is. You have sold your offers before because when you have a proven offer, people want to buy at a price point that they'll buy at, then the investment in copy makes a lot of sense.
[00:06:34] And the second thing is you're willing to make the investment because you want to save time, or you want to sell more to make more money. Now, for me, I typically take on projects where people are selling higher ticket, so they sell services or programs that are in the 2000 to 20,000 or up range. So if I charge 10 to $15,000 for a sales page, an email copy, and they sell ten seats at $2,000, they've covered their costs and then they can rinse and refresh and repeat using the copy again and again for future promos or evergreen offers. So it's a consistent return on investment. And I've also turned down people whom I don't think are ready to invest in working with me yet, because they don't quite have their businesses and offers dialed in, they haven't built a good audience. A lot of copywriters offer different levels of packages or ways to work with them. So, for example, on the lower end, I provide sales copy audits for 950 bucks that give you basically a roadmap for how you can improve your copy. I also sell 90 minute strategy sessions and VIP day rates, which can be very effective for a bit of a smaller investment. For example, on a recent VIP day with a client, I wrote a Google Doc sales page for her new offer. The offer was priced at $15,000.
[00:08:01] Within 24 hours of submitting the copy to my client, she added a few tweaks and corrections and sent it out to a few people. Within a week, she sold close to half of the seats in her mastermind, generating around $90,000, and that was off of a $2,500 VIP day with me. That's a pretty good ROI. If you're contemplating working with a pro copywriter, the best thing to do is ask for referrals from your network for good copywriters, and then hop on a call with them. If they're pro. If they have integrity, they'll tell you if they can help you or not. And if it's a good investment. And of course, if you're curious about working with me, I'll drop a link to book a call in the show notes and we can have a chat too. On to question four. How do I remove jargon? Uh, I love this question because it is one of the biggest flaws I see in a lot of copywriting, especially among coaches and consultants, because we get caught up in our own little industry, our own little world, our own bubble, and we forget that we're speaking in jargon. So here are a few tips for cutting out the jargon in your copywriting. Tip number one is go ahead, write out your blog post or email. Then put yourself into your reader's shoes and reread aloud what you wrote and approach it with a beginner's mind and see if the jargon pops out for you.
[00:09:34] You can go back and edit out those sections. Tip number two is to use a service like Hemingway app or Grammarly. You copy and paste your writing into that service and see how it assesses your copy. Hemingway and Grammarly will flag advanced words for you so you can go back and rewrite those sections. You can even paste your writing into ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite it by removing the jargon. Then you'll probably want to review it and rewrite it again before it's ready to go. Tip three is to have a friend read it for you and flag any jargon or bits they don't understand. And tip four is a bit of a cheeky one. It's to join the Joy of Copy Club, because when you bring your copy to the laser copy coaching sessions, I can spot the jargon and advanced language in your writing and we can work on it together before you press send. And the last question I'll answer for today is how do I find my unique message? To be honest, the answer is very much the same as question two. How do you become a good copywriter? You find your unique message by practicing different ways of sharing your message. The more you practice, the better you get at it. It's like trying on different hats. As you try on one hat, you'll think this one doesn't quite fit, and then you'll try on a new hat and then you'll realize, oh, this one is my hat.
[00:11:00] This is my unique message. You also get there by spending time interviewing your best clients and students, asking them to share their insights about working with you and in their language. You'll find out what's unique about you. You can also scan your competitors to see what they're saying in the industry. And I think it's a really good tip to ask yourself what pisses you off about what your competitors do or say. For example, there are a lot of marketers that say get up earlier in the day, do more than the next guy, hustle it out. We all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce. You won't find me talking about that. My unique message is about finding ease, simplicity, and joy in writing to create more space in your life. I'll also refer you back to the Brandvoice miniseries I just wrapped up in episodes 71 to 73, because there is a lot of great information about how to discover your unique voice and your unique message in their. So, my sweet friend. That's it for this special Ask Me Anything episode of Ill Communication. Did you like this style of episode? I would love to know. And if you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast, please reach out to me on social media or shoot me an email at Hello at Khimki NHL.com.
[00:12:23] I welcome all your questions, even the ones that aren't related to copywriting. So if you've got a burning question, just let it rip. Thank you so much for hanging with me on this very last podcast episode of the year, and I hope, dear listener, this podcast helped bring you a little ease, a little entertainment, and a lot more confidence to help you get your brilliant voice and message out there. Cheers to more of this in 2024. Hey, thanks for tuning in to today's episode. But before you go, tell me if this sounds familiar. You've just written or had someone else write your website or course or mastermind sales page. Or maybe you've had the copy up and running for a while, but it's just not performing as well as you'd hoped. Wouldn't you love to have an expert sales and brand voice copywriter review your copy to flag any concerns that might be creating friction for your ideal client. Wouldn't you love to get a custom list of changes and recommended copy upgrades to immediately increase your signups and sales, without having to pay thousands of dollars or wait weeks to get your copy optimized? If that sounds like you, you might be interested in my no BS copy audit. When you book a no BS copy audit, you'll get a deep dive review of your copy, a video review, a detailed checklist report, and some copy punch ups you can use immediately, all delivered within ten business days.
[00:13:50] Jennifer and Linda recently booked a no BS audit for their conference sales page. They'd hired different people to write and design the page, but it never matched what they envisioned, and the conference sales were practically non-existent. Within a few days of booking their no BS audit, they had a detailed report of what was working, what needed to be optimized, and suggested copy. They went from barely selling any tickets to selling out 300 seats at their event. They said, we are so grateful for how you went above and beyond in your work for us. You somehow crawled into our brains and were able to put into words exactly what we were thinking and imagining. We've been looking for you for a long time. You over delivered and we can't thank you enough. No BS audits are delivered within ten business days and are a fraction of what it normally costs to work with a professional copywriter. If you want to book this quick and very effective service, visit Kim Kilcommons audit to download a PDF info sheet that gives you all the deets and a link to book your audit. Within ten days, you can have some refreshed conversion focused copy and a roadmap to make other improvements and changes to get more leads, more clicks, and more sales with your copy. To book yours, visit Kim Kilcommons audit.
Resources Mentioned
Listen to Episode 25: What is copywriting and why is it important?
Listen to Episode 8: The NEW 5Cs of copywriting
Listen to Episode 71 of the Brand Voice Mini-Series
Additional Resources
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