There is a fellow in my neck of the woods who intermittently drives me up the wall. He calls to pick my brain, asks me to review his seriously substandard copy and give him a price to fix it, and then says he can get another copywriter he knows to do it for less. So I say, “Go for it, then.” Then he halfway apologizes, “But I really value your opinion and I know you’re at the top of the copy writing game and I will keep you in mind for higher-paying work.”
gee..thanks…
The big issue is that this guy is underway to create an “affordable” marketing agency. That’s why he first contacted me several months ago. The problem is that he wanted me and his other freelance associates to work with him in ways that keep his agency “affordable”. By “affordable”, he means he wants freelancers to work for far less than they’re worth so he can reap the lion’s share of the income we make for him, or he wants to use newbie/wannabe freelancers who will most likely shoot him, his business, and his clients in the foot!
I know many (if not most) of the other copywriters in this area. They are lackluster. All of the ones I know personally hung shingles prematurely and proclaimed themselves copywriters. They have no more right calling themselves copywriters at this stage in their development than they have calling themselves brain surgeons. They simply don’t have the writing chops.
So this fellow is going to call one of them to write the video script for his website. But you know what? I think that’s probably a good idea since he’ll be using substandard freelancers to serve his clients anyway. At least the video he posts won’t be any better than his own services will be. Visitors to his site will get a good look at the quality they can expect to receive if they elect to go with him as their marketing services provider. So that’s good, actually… I feel better now.
Had I done the work, I suppose I could have been accused of shilling for the guy–making claims that I have little expectation that he’ll be able to live up to since he’s going cheap when it comes to hiring his providers.
The moral of this story is this: You get what you’re willing to pay for when you hire a creative agency.
If you go cheap, you’ll get cheap.
If you want results, you’ll pay premium prices–but the money should come back to you many times over in ROI because you’ve hired people who know what they’re doing and charge sufficiently for their brilliance.
