How much do copywriters charge?

How much would you charge to write a website/ brochure/ press release/ blog post/ advert/ article (delete as required)? It’s the question every copywriter dreads and the answer every client wants to know.

So you’d think by now copywriters would stop answering “well, it depends…”

Yes, it does depend on a whole load of stuff - like what’s the subject, who’s the target audience, how many words are needed, how much the writer knows already, is there an R in the month and would you eat bacon when it goes a bit green and shiny?

The point is while there’s not a Recommend Retail Price one can look up, any writer worth his stripes should be able to give a ballpark figure based on previous experience.

For example, it is extremely unlikely that a copywriter would charge £10,000 to write the About Us section of a website. It is equally unlikely he/she would charge £10. So while there are a lot of numbers between 10,000 and 10, you can immediately see that the writer HAS an idea of how much the job will cost.

That idea is generally based on his/her hourly or daily rate AND how long he/she expects the job to take.  Note the use of capital letters on the word AND because the daily rate alone tells you absolutely nothing.

One writer can quote you £350 a day, another £500 and a third £1,000. If you opt for the cheapest and it takes the writer a week because he/she needed to read your entire website plus all of your technical data sheets and product brochures, and then interview your product manager, marketing manager and receptionist in order to write the damned thing, it makes a complete mockery of the ‘reasonable’ daily rate.

If copywriters can’t give a rough estimate for the whole job, then they haven’t been in the business as long as they say they have. Yes, the job might be more complicated than originally thought (I’ve NEVER done a job that’s been LESS complicated) and yes the information won’t be available when needed, or in the right format, but none of these things should come as a surprise. Good copywriters know to allow for delays/problems/additional work in their estimate.

 

So… here’s my advice:

• Ask for their daily/hourly rate but insist they give you an estimate for the whole job based on how long they think it will take
• Ask for examples of previous work they’ve done and how much those jobs cost – e.g. the cost of producing three 500 word newsletter articles (from eight telephone interviews with six people) was £1,800  
• Get the quote in writing and make sure it covers how and when payment is to be made - you don't want to pay upfront only to receive something that sounds like it's been written by an 11 year old or a language student (or an 11 year old language student)
• Do expect to pay more for fewer words – yes it sounds bizarre but it’s a lot easier to bash out 500 words on a subject you’re passionate about than it is to come up with one decent headline that stops people in their tracks and makes them do exactly what you wanted them to do

If you would like me to quote you for a job (and give you a realistic ballpark figure based on experience) Get In Touch or email me on lorraine@forrest-turner.co.uk.

Happy 450th birthday, Will!

If you've ever wondered why we still teach Shakespeare in schools...

"If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare."

Bernard Levin

Why 'to do' lists don't work... as well as 'done' lists

I’m a very sad person. I love ticking things off my ‘to do’ list. I love it so much that I actually add things to my list after I’ve done them just so I can tick them off.

It turns out that I’m not alone in this self reward behaviour. There’s something in the satisfaction of ticking things off (or, in my case, putting a wavy line through) that makes us feel in control of our workloads and good about our achievements.

Whether we use pen and paper, Microsoft Outlook, our iPhone or something like Todoist, everyone loves a good ‘to do’ list.

However, what happens on those days/weeks when we’re so busy we not only DON’T tick things off our lists, we keep adding to them? What do we when we feel completely overwhelmed by the ever-growing lists of tasks, chores and responsibilities?

Answer – write a ‘done’ list! 

Seriously.

It might sound like a waste of time, but ‘done’ lists give us an enormous sense of achievement. And that sense of achievement is what drives us on to (eventually) work through our responsibilities.

I discovered the benefits of the ‘done’ list when I was going through a particularly busy period in my life. I found the sheer amount of work overwhelming and the dissatisfaction of never completing my ‘to do’ lists utterly frustrating. Worse still, I was losing sleep, getting depressed and becoming more and more inefficient.

So one night I decided to write down all the things I had done that day – rather than focus on all the things that I hadn’t. It was enlightening. Yes, I hadn’t written my blog post but I had written damned good sales letters for BMW, MINI and Mazda. I hadn’t called everyone I was supposed to have called, but the people I did call were the ones who would have the greatest impact on the projects I was working on. 

The result was a feeling of great satisfaction, a more positive attitude to the next day’s jobs – and a decent night’s sleep, to boot.

If, like me, you judge your productivity by how many items you’ve ticked off your ‘to do’ list, it goes without saying that you feel a bit of a failure when it just keeps growing. So don’t abandon them altogether, just take a few moments (and it does only take a few moments) to scribble down everything you’ve achieved that day, or better still, that week. You’ll be amazed at just how productive you are.