Why I'm consolidating my service offering
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Warning: this newsletter is less about copywriting, and more about how I run my business. If that's not what you signed up to this newsletter for, don't worry, we'll be back on track next week.
The other night, I finally sat down to do something I'd been meaning to do for months: figure out how much each type of project contributed to my revenue. I'd been tracking all this information in a spreadsheet since August 2020, so it was just a matter of collating it.
The results are not pretty:
What's wrong with this picture?
This is 16 different things. The highestcontributor is "blogs," with 17%. Still less than a fifth.
Put another way, the type of project that takes up the most of my time is still less than a day a week, on average. Everything else is rats and mice.
I had been feeling pulled in a lot of different directions over the past 12 months or so, but this really highlights how bad it's gotten. I'm working on a zillion different types of things. And this is really not good. Here's why:
Switching costs
I have a hard time switching from one task to the other - even when they're the same type of task. If I'm writing two blogs, it's a real pain for me to go from finishing the first one to starting the second one. For some reason, it would be easier for me to write one long blog rather than two short ones - even though the word count is the same.
(According to Wikipedia I am not alone in this).
Anyway, that gets compounded when the tasks are in different categories. Blog. Then some emails. Then a couple social media ads. Then a case study interview for a case study I'm going to write next week. So on, so forth, things of that nature.
It's exhausting! But there's an even bigger problem:
Slow learning rate
The best way to get better at something is to do it over and over again. That's how I learn, at least.
So let's take the example of home pages. My first project when I came back from paternity leave in August 2020 was a home page. It went alright. Then, my next one was ayearlater. It went a bit better because I'd learned from the August 2020 one. Next one after that was a month or so ago. Again, bit better. And now I'm working on another one. Better again.
That's four home pages in 18 months. Each one is a bit better than the one before, but with gaps like this, it takes a hell of a long time to build a skill.
Same goes for things like copy reviews. I've done a fair few of these over the past 12 months, but they tend to be a few weeks apart. I've got the process and product really dialled in now - but if I had been doing one every week, I would have had that sorted months ago.
And so on, so forth. When you're lurching from one type of project to the next, it takes that much longer to really develop specific expertise. That's bad for my business because it means things take me longer, and
I can't raise my prices in good faith.
Time to consolidate
With all this in mind, it's clearly time to start consolidating my services. From now on, I'm going to focus on just a few things:
Home page copy reviews - quick reviews with specific feedback to make your home page convert more traffic into prospects
Home pages - writing your entire home page from scratch. Includes customer research.
Landing pages - Copywriting for more specific pages. Could be a specific offer, but can include things like feature pages, "alternative-to" pages, things of that nature.
Prospect-to-lead content strategy - One of the big things that organisations muck up is how they engage their very "soft," early stage leads. The people who have downloaded your lead magnet, maybe visited your home page, but haven't shown much buying intent. I'll do customer research and help you figure out the best way to engage these people.
(You can learn more about each of these services - like pricing -on my rates page.I'll put together a landing page for each service, eventually.)
Next steps
This has three big implications for my business:
I need to reposition myself (which I've basically already done - take a look at my new home page).
I need to say no to a lot of the work that comes through on its own (IE, the main channel for my work)
I need to start filling the gap that will leave by actively chasing projects in the four categories I mentioned above.
It's a big change! I've been lucky enough to not have to spend that much time chasing work in the past, because I got enough coming through organically to keep me busy. But this consolidation process is going to change that. Little bit scary, but it'll be fun.
Anyway, that's my plan for 2022. In the next few months, I'd like the graph I started with to look more like this:
(I left blogs in there because I have some very nice clients who I've been writing blogs for for years. I don't really want to fire people who I've worked with for years. But books are closed on new blog clients).
I'll let you know how I get on. Hit the reply button if you want to book one of the four services I mentioned above.
Have a good week
Sam
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