Not hiring, but I was taken aback by your statement of being able to "reliably outperforms standard copywriting."
Do you have any copywriting portfolio available? Preferably with conversion metrics for digital products landing pages, opt-ins, subscriptions or anything similar.
I absolutely see your point.
Currently there is a small portion of my portfolio available on my website. Metrics for landing pages, e-mail clickthroughs, and others will be added soon (on goldwriter.net). I haven't had the time set up a layout yet, as I have been FLOODED with work recently). Please guys, give me some time to breathe.
For Shoprocket, we've had a 550% increase in profits over the year. And I'd like to think that I contributed at least partially to this result. (Currently it is in the 2.0 closed BETA).
More specifically: The initial e-mail campaign to restaurants had an open rate of ~14%, and a clickthrough rate of around 3% (of the total). I performed some copywriting alchemy, and boosted the open rate to 39-40% and the clickthrough rate to 8-10%. Funniest of all, they disregarded my advice and went with short copy instead of long form. Probably cost them a few percent again!
But before I get the time to throw together the metrics in a readable format (awesome HTML5 graphs hopefully), here is what I mean when I say "standard copywriting":
Once you've been in the business for a few years, you begin to notice a few things. I realized that my mind's eye was completely BLIND for the first five years! I've also been on the other side of the equation, as a hiring manager. The biggest surprise was how many people are simply copywriting as an 'easy way for a housewife to make an extra $500'. But with all due respect and no offense intended, they don't know what they are doing!
A friend of mine recently approached me with his dream of becoming a copywriter. He is neither a native speaker, nor trained in marketing. Off the bat, he wants to get $10-20 per hour. And he could! The problem here is that he spends 35 hours of his week fixing cars. He is a MECHANIC! He might spend 5 to 10 hours a week writing. So do I. The only problem here is that he spends the other 35 fixing cars! I spend the other 35 on understanding the product, the audience, and their innate motivations.
Much like writing fiction is 90% practice and 10% imagination, writing copy is 90% crafting calls to action and 10% writing.I started copywriting (writing to SELL) back in middle school. I wrote charity brochures, ads, etc. Around 14 years ago, I started doing room service in a hotel that didn't have any. All I had was a box of sodas and a black and white printer... by the end of the month I bought my own Gameboy and some games. I wasn't writing stories, I was doing business from the start!
Now consider... I fixed my bicycle once, and my friend spent a few hours teaching me how to maintain a car... would you trust me to fix your car OR write your copy?
In a few cases, they may even be fantastic writers who consistently churn out gramatically perfect text... But they don't get
"it". They write to impress people, and to get the following reaction: "This is really well written! And so creative!"
Not a bad reaction... IF you are writing a book! (And even then, an author like E.L. James is neither a Hemingway nor full of brand new ideas.)
Standard copywriting, I would argue, is just that. It might impress you, sure... But 10 minutes later you're back to watching kittens do backflips, and a week later you wouldn't be able to name the product even if your life depended on it.
Goldwriting, as I call it, is in short supply. Goldwriting creates a brand, and has you spinning in your chair trying to figure out why you just bought 20 packages of something you didn't even know you needed 5 minutes ago.
TLDR: You can hire me or not, it all depends on whether you want the next Lord of the Rings, OR if you want your product to sell.
