One of the most challenging – and rewarding – aspects of being an entrepreneur is creating copy that will engage customers and convince them to buy your product or service. In the beginning, you’ll probably have a light bulb moment when you realize the importance of a well-written sales page. But while you may have gotten the idea to write sales pages, putting them into practice will be very different. There are so many barriers that stand in the way of you producing a winning sales page – and the biggest one is probably YOU! Here are some of the main reasons why copywriting is so hard and why you shouldn’t give up, even though it may seem impossible at times:
Lack Of Focus
One of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs face is that, at any given time, there are a million things that need to be done. It can be hard to decide what is the most important task, so you end up doing nothing special while hoping that eventually it will all come together. Writing a sales page is a great example of this. You’ll want to create something that is engaging and will convince the reader to purchase your product. But the truth is that, if you’re short on time, you’re probably going to put off writing the sales page until later. When that happens, you’ll either have to go with the first draft that you wrote or find a new one. But by that time, even if you did write something good, you’ll most likely have lost a lot of market share to your competitors. And that, my friend, is the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve!
The problem is that, in the beginning, when you’re just starting out, there will be so many different tasks that you’ll have to do. You’ll be scrambling to put food on the table, provide for your family, and build a business that can eventually support you. Trying to find the time to focus on writing a sales page when you’re already exhausted from trying to build a business is very difficult. So the first step to conquering copywriting is to identify the crucial tasks that you need to concentrate on, and then assign a certain number of hours to each of them. Anything less, and you’ll never finish.
Fear Of Failure
There is also the fear of failure. When you’re starting out as a copywriter, the idea of having one of your sales pages rejected for being poorly written can be quite frustrating. Rejection hurts, and when you’re not used to it, it can feel like a slap in the face. But the truth is that rejection is a part of the process, and you’ll eventually get used to it. You’ll also learn to see it as a challenge, as opposed to a personal attack. Still, even today, when I get an email from a potential client telling me that my copy is awful and that they’re not interested in purchasing my product, I get upset because there is always the fear that I’m going to say the wrong thing and ruin our business relationship. I mean, in all honesty, who wants to work with someone they don’t respect? But the fear of failure is a common problem among entrepreneurs, especially in the beginning. When things aren’t going well and you’re starting to doubt yourself, it can be hard to focus on the positive, which is what you should be doing if you want to succeed.
Lack Of Confidence
Even if you’re not afraid of failure, you may still have confidence issues. When you’re first starting out as a copywriter, it’s not easy to put your mind in a position where you can be extremely confident in your abilities. You may have done a decent amount of writing in your past, but for the most part, it was for class assignments, science fair projects, or whatever other unimportant task your high school teachers asked you to do. Now that you’re in the business world, and have the responsibility of convincing people to buy your product or service, it can be a real confidence boost to know that what you wrote really does work. Still, even if you have some writing experience, it’s different when you’re actually putting it to use for a sales page. When you write something that ends up getting rejected, it can feel like a total kick in the guts. Not only did you have an opportunity to prove yourself, but you also failed. While it’s great that you have confidence in your product, it can be a real downer to realize that a part of the process failed.
Fear Of The Unknown
Finally, there is the fear of the unknown. When you’re first starting out as a copywriter, it can be hard to know what works and what doesn’t. You have a specific idea of what you want to happen and what you think will happen, but there is no way of knowing for certain whether or not your product will satisfy your audience. If a lot of your previous work was in academic settings, where you knew you had an accepted audience and could rely on previous results, it’s easier to know what will and won’t work. But as a copywriter for an entrepreneur, it can be hard to guess at what will make your product stand out. Some of your strategies may seem like a success, but until you have more data to back up your claims, you can’t be sure. In that way, the fear of the unknown is one of the main reasons why copywriting can be so hard. You don’t know what will work and what will fail until you try something new, and that can be terrifying.
Plus, There Is Timing Is Everything
Even now, as I look back upon my career as a copywriter, I realize that there is always timing involved. Sometimes, it works out perfectly and you get a sales page that generates a lot of revenue. But sometimes, it doesn’t work out at all, and you have to start all over again. Still, as long as you keep trying and don’t give up, you can eventually get it right. Just make sure that you identify the crucial tasks that you need to concentrate on, and then make sure that you do them as best as you can. Everything else is just detail – it’s never enough to just “get it written,” you have to find the right time to put it to use. If you follow these guidelines, you’re sure to go far.