Interview with copywriter Arthur Grant

Today I have an unusual post. For the first time on the blog, I publish an interview. And not easy. My guest is Arthur Grant, a copywriter who very quickly made a successful career in this profession.

You can also read the interview I took with him via Skype, as well as listen to the audio recording.

Vlada: Hello, Artur! Tell us about yourself, what do you do and how did you get into copywriting?

Artur: You can read a short personal story on my blog. I will say that for many reasons I was not satisfied with my previous work in the police and I decided to make money on the Internet by typing the appropriate query in the search box. That’s how I met Advego and it was there that I got my first money on rewriting articles.

Vlada: Artur, what is the secret of such rapid growth?

Arthur: I looked at what everyone is doing, analyzed it, and did it differently. Most copywriters work on freelance exchanges, stand behind orders as they stood behind bread in the Soviet Union. Yes, there are many clients there, but in order to work effectively on the same freelance.ru, you need to fill out a portfolio for a long time, earn a rating, feed on small cheap orders for the sake of points and reviews …

I began to look for customers in a completely different way, and very quickly began to reach money and promising clients. Later, I realized that I was operating on the technology that Dan Kennedy talked about, namely, finding clients not as a contractor, but as a partner.

First, I switched to selling texts, then I chose the right positioning and niche – the info business. This is a huge and money market, and many infobusinessmen, to put it mildly, are not friends with selling texts and they need the services of a good copywriter.

Soon I began to work on promising projects, my texts were already bringing in large profits, and accordingly I raised the prices for services.

Vlada: Tell us about your first successful project that you remember.

I remember my first relatively large success of cooperation with the Internet entrepreneur Alexei Nemov. He launched a completely banal product – an e-book by a Western specialist in making money on Google Adsense. I wrote a sales text for his product, which gave a very good conversion rate of 4.2%. In 3 days we made sales of 120,000 rubles, which at that time was a shocking amount for me. After that, I perked up and began to grow rapidly up.

There was another memorable success that I want to talk about. I wrote a sales text for the Zdorov company. He significantly increased sales and I was invited to work as a sales director. I worked there for 4 months, and for some reason we stopped working together, now I’m going my own way again. But that’s another story. While holding this position, I saw a lot of interesting things, gained experience of big business “on the ground”, and grew as a specialist.

This proves once again that a good copywriter who knows how to sell his services can not only work for himself, but also get a good position in a large company.

The bottom line is that I didn’t like working “for my uncle”, it’s still not for me. But if someone wants to make money this way, then why not? Properly PR and you can get a cool job.

Vlada: How did you look for money clients? Maybe there is some secret?

Arthur: As I said, I was looking for clients differently than others. Instead of going to freelance exchanges, I went directly to the audience I needed and skillfully sold my services.

The whole secret is that when you sell your services to those who are willing to pay that kind of money. Many copywriters make the mistake of jumping on any customer who just opened their online store and looking at you like a messiah, thinking that your text will magically start selling. As a rule, such customers do not understand marketing, they have little money, and they do not set up sales properly. And when you write text for them, he most often does not sell at all, which is what the copywriter is accused of, although in fact he could not sell, no matter how brilliant he is.

Therefore, it is very important that you write for those clients who have sales and money. So you will most likely INCREASE their profits with your texts, and you will be happy to pay decent money.

Where are money clients found? I prefer to search for businessmen directly, through forums, through partner bases and other sources. But not through freelance exchanges. Remember, where the CROWD is, there will always be mediocre results. And if you act like everyone else, then you will receive a little, respectively.

Of course, this is only superficial. When I started offering my services, I was often refused. Then I began to study a lot of materials from the best Western copywriters: Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert, John Carlton, Gary Bensivenga and others. So I gradually realized that I was offering my services completely wrong, I found out WHAT should be in the commercial offer so that they would willingly agree to cooperate with me. Now I write offers that are very hard to refuse. In 70% of cases, I get consent. Thus, it is very important not only to offer services to the right people, but also to be able to make strong compreds.

Vlada: How else can you look for solid clients who are willing to pay high fees?

Arthur: There are a lot of ways, and all these ways, as the rule, not used by the masses.

For example, one of them is writing articles for thematic media. You describe your practical experience in articles, publish them in newspapers and magazines on business and marketing. Businessmen read them there, ie. your potential clients. So I once published an article in the New Marketing magazine, and a couple of days after the publication, a manager of a company that deals with logistics in Kyiv wrote to me. The most interesting thing is that I did not write this article for the sake of attracting customers, but nevertheless it worked.

There are many non-standard ways to find expensive customers. You can read about them in my book High Pay Copywriting.

Vlada: Indeed, the book is very interesting and I will soon write a review of it on the blog! I have almost no comments on it, only a few additions. I recommend that you download this book and take it into service.

Arthur, who will benefit from this book the most?

Arthur: The book will be useful to those copywriters who feel that they want and can earn more. There you will find many non-standard ways to find customers, how to position yourself in order to sell services at a high price, the secrets of high fees, and much more. I highly recommend this book to all copywriters, novices and experienced alike. There is a lot of new and interesting information there, which I have almost never seen in Runet …

Vlada: Well, Artur, our time is coming to an end and I would like to ask you one last question. What are 3 important tips for copywriters to succeed in this profession?

Arthur: Yes, of course.

First, you need to constantly learn new things. And you need to do this regularly.

Secondly, do not be afraid to use new approaches to work, to experiment.

Third, fight to the end! Be persistent in reaching your goal. This is how you reach the top!

Vlada: Thank you, Artur, it was a pleasure to talk to you. Once again, I remind readers that they can download the book “Copywriting for High Fees” for free. And this is where we will end. See you soon!

Arthur: Thank you very much, Vlad! I wish you all success! Bye!