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02/10/2006: "When Copywriters Give a Guarantee."

I've often wondered why some (though not many) copywriters give a guarantee. Oh, I know why. To get business. But there's no way --- short of doing something unethical or illegal --- that any copywriter can guarantee a specific result.

Yesterday a prospective client told me he hired someone who gave him the following offer:

For $9,700 the copywriter will do the writing of the website, produce video for the site, provide a shopping cart and adversting copy. Also, her work is guaranteed to bring in 100 or more leads a mouth after 6 mouths. She's also charging $600 a mouth for hosting and rewriting as needed.

Now I have no problem with a copywriter guaranteeing to get a job done in a specific amount of time or guaranteeing satisfaction within reason. There are things you can guarantee over which you as a copywriter DO have control.

But no copywriter has any control at all over the specific results a client gets. If, for example, a client has a bad product or service, good copy won't sell it.

And in my opinion any copywriter who offers a guarantee such as the one above is a con artist. You have to do blackhat SEO or something less than honest to get a client that sort of a specific result.

No respectible copywriter that I'm aware of gives a guarantee to provide a specific result. As I say, there are certain types of guarantees you can give. But a result is not one of them.

I'm sorry for this man. In the long run he's going to be the loser in this relationship. And the women who sold him on this is a black mark on us all.

Having said that, however, the man who fell for this scheme is really to blame. People who believe things that are simply too good to be true get what they opt for in the end. Grown people should know better and we're each responsible for our own dealings. But it's still just too bad.