603 Copywriting is Changing

2019 was a huge year behind the scenes at 603 Copywriting. Lots happened. I started a new partnership with two of Manchester’s other leading freelance copywriters. We took on the challenge of bringing a new marketing conference to the North of England (and succeeded). And I kept most of it quiet from you, 603 Copywriting’s customers.

I made some good decisions, and some bad ones. You can learn from both. And your businesses can hopefully benefit from both too.

My biggest mistake: I forgot who you were

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you run your own business, or you’re running a department in someone else’s.

So you’ll know that sometimes, you’ll get a client that’s different to the norm. One that pays more, that has different demands, and that requires you to work a different way.

603 Copywriting has a handful of these clients. My partnership Hampson Nattan Williams was built to help these kinds of clients.

The mistake I made was that instead of letting HNW handle larger companies while I concentrated on the people who got me to where I am, I ignored 603 Copywriting’s core base.

Smaller businesses. Sole traders. Owner operators. You.

Hard-working people who needed a trustworthy service at a decent price. Now 603’s prices didn’t change. But the company’s tone did. Instead of talking about helping you grow your business, I started talking using weird marketing terms. “New customers” became “qualified leads.” “More sales” was replaced by “increased revenue.”

And you quite rightly shrugged and said “what a pretentious twat.”

Can’t blame you. Before I changed the 603 Copywriting website, I went back, read it, and said the exact same thing.

My biggest success – fixing it with focus

Easy. By putting you first. By going back to talking to you the right way. Focusing on your problems. Giving you what your business needs, not what I think you should aspire to wanting.

Here’s how:

1. By Focusing.

603 Copywriting will now focus on helping smaller businesses, sole traders and owner-operators. If you’re just getting going, you’re a one-man band, or you’re too busy running a small team to worry about marketing jargon and all that bollocks, 603 Copywriting is for you.

If you’re a multinational, or a large enterprise, you need a service that’s more in-depth than a single freelance copywriter can provide. So if one of you were to drop me a line, I’d politely point you towards HNW so I can keep 603 focused on making a difference for smaller, growing businesses.

By ensuring that 603 Copywriting supports a different audience to HNW, I’m able to keep your needs front and centre, instead of drifting off and worrying about someone else entirely.

2. By Simplifying.

When I first set up 603 Copywriting way back in 2015, I was constantly rushed off my feet. I was one guy, trying to handle doing the accounts, finding customers, paying the bills, building my reputation and doing the actual work.

It’s the last one of those that’s most important. Doing the work. When you’re focused on that, you’ve not always got time to sit there answering loads of questions to outline a copy project. So I’ve made it simple.

The average person who contacts 603 and needs website copy decides on five pages of sales copy and a contact page. If they want emails, they want a sequence of four and a landing page for the website. Blogs? One a week. And a bit of content for a newsletter to tell people all about them.

So instead of putting you through all that rigmarole of going back and forth for a quote, I’ve created four packages that cover the vast majority of projects you’ll ask me for:

Quick Start Six Page Website Package: £899.00

Quick Start Six Page SEO Website Package: £1,199.00

Quick Start Email Marketing Package: £499.00

Quick Start Monthly Blogging Package: £649.00

If you’re interested in any of these, contact 603 Copywriting today.

3. By giving you the attention you deserve

In 2019, I wrote somewhere in the region of 80 emails for my own projects. Three of those were sent to you, 603 Copywriting customers.

Of the 32 blogs posts and articles I wrote for my own businesses, one appeared here.

So it’s no wonder that people landed on the 603 Copywriting website and thought “is this thing still going?”

It’s my pledge that through 2020, you’ll get at least one post a month dedicated to helping your business solve the problems you face.

You’ll still receive prompt replies to emails and phone calls – fortunately none of my clients have brought that up – but 603 Copywriting will be more helpful and more visible.

You deserve that attention.

The Takeaways – what should your business learn from my 2019?

This post’s takeaways are simple, and they can easily be applied to your business.

1. Don’t forget who your customers are. Use a voice that connects with them, and doesn’t patronise them or waffle at them.
2. Notice if something’s going wrong, and act. If your enquiries drop, or your favourite repeat customers stop getting in touch, find out why.
3. Keep things simple. Find out what the majority of your customers want, come up with a simple way of giving it to them, and price it fairly.
4. Communicate. Whether that’s by calling repeat customers, sending a regular newsletter, or keeping your website’s blog active. And if you need help with that last one, there’s a blogging package you might be interested in.
   

Take these lessons to heart, and your business will go from strength to strength. Just remember who helped get you here.