Unlimited revisions
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Warning: another business-focussed newsletter. Not much copywriting material in here, more just some thoughts on how I run my business. Tune back in next week if you're only interested in copywriting.
For the last couple of years, I've been following the same typical approach with my project pricing. Projects cost a fixed fee. That fee comes with a first draft, then two or three rounds of revisions.
Very straightforward and common stuff. But I'm getting rid of it.
Instead, I'm moving to a new system: you get as many revisions as you want.
BUT, you've got to use them all up in 30 days. Until then, fill your boots. Could be one round of feedback. Could be two. Could be a hundred.
Here's why this system is a better choice for everyone:
This stuff is inherently collaborative
One of the best ways to get information out of people is to get a draft in front of them. Most people give their best direction when they're responding to something that already exists, rather than giving direction from scratch.
But in a limited-revisions world, this is really hard to do. People don't want to "burn" a revision going through a quick bit of feedback. Rather, they end up saving it up.
Reality is, you're going to get a better end product from lots of short conversations than you will from one mega google doc full of comments. It's more iterative and collaborative that way.
Deadlines are your friend
The other thing that can happen in a two-revision world is that they don't really impose any sense of urgency. I've had circumstances where I've worked through one round of revisions, then not heard back for weeks - sometimes months!
This is, obviously, irritating for me. More importantly, it's also not great for my clients. If something is important to your business, you naturally want to . . . actually finish it. But the reality for lots of businesses is that it's really easy to lose momentum on projects.
This is especially true for fast-growing organisations. There's lots of stuff happening at any given moment that can occupy your team's attention. And if you know you have two or three revision rounds to use up whenever you want, it becomes really easy to deprioritise the copywriting project you scheduled (and paid for!)
A deadline provides focus. Get your head down, get the right people in the room, and get it across the line. You'll thank me later.
Conversations>documents
In big projects with limited numbers of revisions, you end up with the almighty "feedback doc." This is a monster of a document that is chock full of every single change the client wants to make.
They're deflating, and also not really that in line with producing good work.
It's actually quite a lot of effort to fire up some "feedback document" and type in your feedback - especially if that feedback is high-level and tricky to articulate.
So what happens is that the real, needle-moving things get sidelined in favour of little wording changes that, while important, don't really move the piece of work from good to great.
In an unlimited feedback world. you can just call, send a Slack message, and email, whatever with a half-formed thought, and we can work out what you're trying to articulate.
Faster, easier - and creates a better outcome in the end.
Wrap it up
That's all for today. I'll be back with some actual copywriting content next week. Until then, have a good week.
Sam
PS: I put together a checklist to help you review your own home page . Good way to make sure you don't stray into "too bland" territory. Get the checklist here. (You're already on my list, so no email required. Link goes straight to a Google Doc you can copy).
PPS: Or, of course, just have me review your page. $799, 7 day turnaround.
PPPS: OR, have me write the whole thing from scratch, in 8 hours. This isn't going to be a full blown customer-research-and-lots-of-iteration-job, but you can get it turned around fast. $1,999, 7 day turnaround.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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