Last week my friend Jake (who runs Upwellness and AltDaily) sent me an email asking if I could recommend a few copywriters to him.
He was looking to bring in a couple guys to write sales pages, emails, ads and leads…
So I told him, I’d help him out…
So here’s what I did…
I sent out his job openings to the copywriters who had purchased my “Printed Emails” training.
And I told them if they wanted to be recommended for one of the gigs…
Here’s what they had to do…
1. Give me 2 samples of copy you’ve written (an email and a lead for a sales page would be good) Put both samples into a PDF and keep the entire PDF to 3 pages max
2. Put your email address at the top of the first page of the PDF
3. Submit the PDF before Sunday, February 5th at 5 PM CT
That was the instructions…
Pretty simple, right?
I thought so too…
However…
Once I started going through the samples on Sunday night…
I quickly realized that more than half of the copywriters who submitted samples did NOT follow the instructions I gave them.
Seriously.
Out of the 29 copywriters who submitted samples…
15 of them messed it up.
Some of them didn’t put their email address on the first page…
Some of them submitted way more than 3 pages of copy…
One guy even submitted a formal resume without any copy samples…
So a lot of people didn’t pay attention to my directions.
And that eliminated them from being considered for the copy gigs.
Now, some people might think that’s a bit harsh…
And that I’m making a big deal out of nothing…
But here’s the thing…
If you want to work with clients…
You need to pay attention to the details.
Why?
Cause good copy is all about the details.
If you spend an hour with a copywriter like David Deutsch…
Or Marcella Allison…
You’ll see what I mean.
They spend a lot of time thinking about the details of how the copy should be written…
And even more time thinking about the details of what the client wants…
They’re all about the details…
However…
The 15 copywriters that didn’t follow my directions weren’t about the details.
I’m guessing they probably just rushed through the process…
And submitted their copy without giving it a second look.
So they made a mistake.
And that’s fine.
I’m not trying to dunk on them…
Or embarrass them.
But moreso I want this to be a lesson to them (and to every other copywriter) that the details matter.
I can’t emphasize that enough…
So write it down…
Or put it in your affirmations…
Details matter.
If you want to be a top-level copywriter, you gotta care about the details.
So keep that in mind…
And enjoy your Wednesday…
– Justin
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