Have you ever wanted to purchase a product or service, but the price made you pause?

Sure, you think you’d love the purchase. But it’s expensive. And you’re not sure. And you don’t want to make a mistake and be out all that money.

It’s time to profile yet another company doing it right. 

Last week, my hot-sleeping husband sent over a link to Buffy. Buffy specializes in comforters and sheets for toasty sleepers. Since my husband is like a human furnace at night (and sleeps horribly because of it,) it’s no wonder he was checking out the sheets. 

I mean, check out this benefit statement. Wow.

I was totally on board until I saw the price. A queen sheet set is $199. The comforter is $219. That’s over $400 just for bedding. Owie.

(Obviously, I am the tightwad in the family. I admit it.)

Granted, sleep is important. I will throw money at a problem if it improves my quality of life (or, in this case, my husband’s.) I am not so cheap that I’d ignore something that could be helpful.

But, the purchase price gave me pause. A lot of pause.

Then I read this:

The company understands that they’re asking you to take a leap of faith. People who purchase “cooling sheets” may have previously spent hundreds of dollars trying to find the right ones. (I’m looking significantly at my husband as I type this.)

And it’s not like most stores are going to take back a set of sweaty sheets because “they didn’t work as advertised.”

But Buffy will.

You have seven nights to make up your mind before they charge your card. That’s impressive.

Have I purchased the sheets yet? No. (I always look for a discount first.) Will I? Most likely. Buffy overcame the “what if these don’t work” objection perfectly.

Well played, Buffy. Well played.

What can you learn from Buffy?

So. Much.

Seeing trial offers is extremely common, especially with SaaS products. You can typically get free access for a limited time and take the software for a test drive. For instance, keyphrase research tools market seven-day free trials all the time.

You can do this too.

If you’re selling a book, you could give away away the first chapter. Or, allow people to access the first video of a training series. Or, watch a free webinar.

Plus, there’s always the famous “money back guarantee.” Sure, you have to pay for the product or service. But, you have an “out” if you don’t like it and can get your money back.

All of these are helpful to overcome the “what if this isn’t for me” objection.

What if you can’t give away a free trial — and offering a money back guarantee is scary?

Some prospects ask for a “free sample page.” They give you a topic and you write it.

For free.

As you can probably tell, I’m not down with this technique. Some people have seen success, especially if they are brand-new writers with no samples. But, if someone asked me for free work, I’d lovingly tell them my favorite word from last week.

No.

Plus, in the SEO world, you can’t guarantee positions (ever!), so offering a money-back guarantee wouldn’t work. Google controls the top-10 spots. Not you.

But here’s what you can do…

Start small.

Instead of going for ALL the work in your proposal, offer to work on a small part of the site first. Something manageable and with a tinier price tag. 

You may not be able to see immediate SEO success, especially if you are working on just a few pages.  However, your client gets to see what it’s like working with you — and you can decide if you love the client enough to keep them.

Another option is to do some work now, and then credit the work towards future services. For instance, if a client wants a content audit for $1,500, you could credit back $400 if your client asks you to do the work.

It’s all about overcoming the objections and making it easy for your client to say “yes.”

Because, let’s face it…we all need a little more easy in our lives right now. Anyone who can make my life easier gets two thumbs up from me.

Your clients probably feel the same way.

What do you think?

How can you make it even easier for clients to buy from you? Leave a comment and let me know.

Did you grow up hearing, “If it’s easy, there must be something wrong with it”?

Yeah. Me too.

Instead of looking for the easy way out, we often look for the most challenging, brutal way to do things. We work harder. We work longer hours. If we’re not suffering, we aren’t trying.

It’s all about the hustle.

Granted, this mentality helps us to a certain extent. Busting out of our comfort zones is important. Sometimes, we have to go through some pain to see some gain (for instance, starting a new workout routine.)

But, what does this mean to our content marketing strategy? Should we always push the content marketing envelope? Are we doomed to live a hamster wheel life, grinding out new content all the time while we suffer in silence?

Many content marketers are grinding it out

If you fall into the “hamster wheel” camp, you’re not alone. In a 2016 study from the Content Marketing Institute, 60 percent said their top challenge was “producing engaging content.”

It’s not just B2B companies that are suffering. In-house B2C teams and publishing companies are facing the same levels of content burnout. Often, these teams are required to produce more writing with fewer resources, so creating quality content in an efficient manner is even more important.

Now, instead of telling my in-house SEO copywriting training clients they should write longer blog posts, jump on the latest content marketing bandwagon, or develop yet another brand new content asset, my advice boils down to three words…

Look for easy.

Here’s why…

Easy has a huge benefit.

A parallel I like to make is around exercise.

I love high-intensity exercise. It’s the only thing that makes my brain turn off.

But, it’s hard.

The only way I can do it is to build in rest days. I go to yoga. Or I take a walk. I’ve even thought about Zumba (don’t laugh.) If I push myself too much, I burn out, get sick and have zero energy.

Now, think of this in terms of your content marketing campaign.

Constantly writing (and researching, and promoting) detailed long-form posts is hard.

Publishing daily (or even weekly) for some companies may be the equivalent of engaging in high-intensity exercise without a break.

Balancing search and social without a sustainable plan can cause burnout — fast.

The result? The post quality goes down. The writers (you!) burn out. Sales go down.

You’re pushing so hard towards your goal, you don’t realize you don’t have to push so darn hard all the time.

That’s where finding easy ideas come in. You don’t have to reinvent the content wheel all the time. Nor, do you have to publish 100 percent, brand-new content.

Repurposing is OK. Finding the workarounds is OK. Developing an easy content marketing schedule (as opposed to doing a bunch of things you feel you “should” do for SEO) is OK.

Ready to make your SEO copywriting life a little easier?

Here are some ideas:

• Repurpose old blog posts and turn them into an email series.
• Re-optimize old blog posts that have so-so positions.
• Send social traffic to old posts (hey, those old posts need love too.)
• Build links to your existing content assets.
• If a task has been challenging in the past (say, getting subject matter experts to blog,) work around it (for example, interview the experts instead and post the transcripts.)
• Slice your publication schedule (it’s OK. Really!) Steve Rayson just wrote a great post about why this works.
• Update an old blog post.
• Instead of focusing on writing long-form posts every week, consider publishing shorter posts more often.

(Speaking of updating an old blog post…I updated my post on how to conduct a content audit – please check it out and share it with your friends.)

Short on time?

It happens to the best of us. There are some days (or weeks, or months) when making major changes is impossible. Instead, focus on what you can do in the short amount of time you have. Need inspiration? Here’s a list of 23 SEO copywriting tips you can accomplish in five minutes or less.

If you’ve been hitting roadblocks, find the easy workarounds rather than beating your head against the wall.

You’ll be happier. Your content will be better for it.

And yes, you still want to stretch yourself and try new things. Challenging yourself to try something new is a good thing  (I’m challenging myself to hold more webinars this year.)

(If you need more content growth-hacking ideas, check out this great interview with Ann Smarty.)

But, you still need those “rest days.” You still need the easy to balance out the hard.

What did you think?

How are you going to integrate “easy” into your content strategy? Let me know by posting a comment below!

Has this ever happened to you? 

You sweat and you slave and you stress over a writing job. Triumphantly, you turn in your content and wait to see the “I love it” feedback flood your email.

And you wait…

And you wait…

And you hear…crickets. 

You send a “Hey, checking in” email and hear…nothing.

You send your client a text that you know they read…but you still don’t hear a peep.

You’re being ghosted.

It’s hard to not search for subtext when you get no response. If you’re like me, your brain takes you into 100 different directions, none of them happy ones.

You wonder if your client hates your copy and just doesn’t want to tell you.

You wonder if ghosting is your client’s way of saying, “You’re fired.”

You wonder if you should send your client a, “Did I make you mad?” email.

You wonder if you’re going to get paid.

Should you be concerned if a client ghosts you? Yes. Should you panic? Not yet. Are there ways to protect yourself? You bet.

Here are some things to consider…

Most of the time, it’s not you — it’s them. Your client may be putting out fires, juggling 100 things, and reprioritizing as they go. Your content may have been a top priority last week, but now it’s #11 on the list.

This is normal — especially if your client is a small business owner or works in an agency.

If a week (or two) goes by without a response, it’s still probably nothing to worry about. You can certainly check in and see what’s up — but know that you may not hear back until your client’s life slows down.

But…

Although a client’s ghosting behavior may be nothing to worry about, it may have a huge impact on your business.

You may not be able to send an invoice before your client officially approves the copy — so you’re sitting around, not getting paid.

You may have lined up other jobs, so not getting approval means your entire schedule gets thrown out of wack. After all, you don’t know when your client will come back and say, “I’m back — and I need all these edits by tomorrow.”

I know of one coaching client who was afraid to take on other jobs because his client’s response time was so wacky. The client would drop out of sight, pop back weeks later, then want all their changes RIGHT NOW, no matter what.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Here’s what you can do instead…

There are things you can do from a contract and client management perspective to protect yourself — and to set clear boundaries for your client.

Here’s what I do:

• My contract states that clients have five business days to approve the content. If I don’t hear back from them within five days, the copy is considered “approved” and edits will cost additional money. It’s amazing how quickly clients will turn around content if they feel they’ll have to pay more if they don’t.
• My payment schedule is based on dates — not deliverables. That way, I’m not waiting for final approval before I’m paid — or hear, “Bob hasn’t checked this out yet. Can you wait just a little bit longer before you invoice?”
• I also warn my clients that they’re welcome to push their deliverable schedule — but, I may not be able to immediately fit them back into my work schedule when they’re ready. In most cases, this is just a 1-2 week wait — so it’s not a big deal. But, it saves me from having to scramble and switch gears after a client finally resurfaces.
• I’ve learned how to let go of my preferred timeline and be more flexible. This one is hard — especially when I’m feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Just because my awesome copy is a big priority in my world doesn’t mean my client feels the same. 
• Finally, my contract states that the initial retainer is non-refundable. Why? Have you ever had a client pay you, ghost you, and then say, “Hey, we don’t have time for this after all. I want my money back”? I have. It wasn’t fun — especially after I turned down other gigs so I could take on the work. 

(And, of COURSE you get a retainer before you start writing…right?)

Here’s what not to do…

• Email the client and ask, “Are you mad at me?” You’ll sound needy — and, chances are, the client is just busy.
• Complain how their ghosting you is holding you back from other gigs or costing you money.
• Email the client every. single. day. asking for a status report. It won’t help, and it will make you look way too high-maintenance, needy and annoying. 

What if you never hear back?

Oddly, it happens. Maybe your client was fired. Maybe there was a big internal crisis and everything that wasn’t mission-critical got put on hold. Maybe your client is just a flake, and this is the normal way she operates.

If your time is paid up, you’re good. You can send one, last, “Hey, checking in — I’m here when you need me” note. But know you may continue to hear crickets.

If you are still owed money, send an invoice for the work you’ve done along with a “I’m here when you’re ready to finish the project” note. In most cases I’ve seen, the writer eventually got paid even if the project was cancelled. She may have had to make a couple calls — or send a couple emails — but she was compensated for her time.

Eventually.

What do you think?

How do you handle it when a client ghosts you? Have you ever lost money because of it? Leave a comment and let me know!