TCC Podcast #158: From Content to Email with Samar Owais

Samar Owais, content expert and email copywriter is our guest for the 158th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. This one has been a long time coming... this is our fourth attempt to make this interview happen and it is worth the wait. Kira and Rob ask Samar about a lot of stuff from email to being the only person at TCCIRL with a hijab. Here's the list of what we asked: •  how Samar built her content business and charged $1000 per blog post •  what content writers should be doing to build their business •  why she “transitioned” from content to conversion-oriented email copy •  what she does to find clients for her business right now •  what email sequences should use in their business •  the 4 phases of her process and what she accomplishes in each phase •  the things she struggles within her business •  how she storyboards emails to make sure the sequence does what it should •  how she tracks her success—and gets access to all of her client’s numbers •  why she offers to help implement the emails she writes •  how she packages her services and what she charges for an engagement •  her writing process and how she applies her strategy to each project •  the impact of the pivot—from content to email—on her business •  her experience attending TCCIRL last year (and why you should go this year) •  what she experienced as the only hijab-wearing Muslim woman at the event and why we need more people from all backgrounds at all copywriting events •  how she deals with self-sabotage and how we can stop doing that to ourselves •  who she relies on to help her get things done •  her advice for anyone who wants to specialize in email copy •  what’s next for Samar in her business Like we wrote above, this one is worth the wait. To hear all the advice Samar had to share, Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. Or download the episode to your favorite podcast app (and don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss future episodes).   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Paul Jarvis Copyblogger Copyhackers Val Geisler Prerna Malik Eman Zabi TCCIRL The Copywriter Underground Chanti Zak Samar's website Samar’s Twitter Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal and idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Rob and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Rob:   You're invited to join the Club for episode 158 as we chat with copywriter, Samar Owais about going from $5 blog posts to assignments that pay more than 50 times that much today. How she finds good clients, willing to pay her rates. What she did to write for clients like Copyblogger, Men with Pens, and Mercy, and how she stays productive while raising a young family. Hey, Samar. Kira:   Samar, welcome. Samar:           Hi, guys, how are you? Kira:   So good, so good to talk to you. This has been a long time in the making. I think this is our fourth attempt to make this interview happen, but I'm feeling, I think we're all feeling good. This is going to happen and we're really excited to talk to you today. So, let's just kick off with your story. How did you end up as an email copywriter? Samar:           Mostly through trial and error. So, before I was an email copywriter, I was a content writer. I spent about eight years building my business and authority. Wrote for clients like Paul Jarvis, and big brands like Marriott and Intercontinental. Got published in places like Copyblogger and Founder. My business as a content writer was at a pretty sweet spot, to be honest. But then, three things happened. One, I got more interested in pursuing the ROI of the content that I was writing, but my clients weren't. Two, I hit the ceiling at $1,000 a blog post, and couldn't seem to find clients willing to pay me more than that. And the ones that were paying me a thousand dollars expected the sun and the moon, without measuring the ROI again, so this was really frustrating. And three, I'd begun to hate waking up in the morning and writing content. There was just no joy in my workday anymore, and I thought I was just burned out. So, as I was grappling with all this when Joanna Wiebe, Copyhackers launched her 10X Freelance Copywriter Course. I figured if there was one person who could help me break the $1000 ceiling and teach me how to convince clients to measure the ROI of the content that they were publishing online, it was Joanna. So, as I worked through the course, I realized that it wasn't that I was burned out, it was that I was just no longer interested in writing content anymore. And that's when I started experimenting with writing other kinds of copy. I tried my hand at landing pages, hated that. I tried writing a sales page. I sucked at that. And I didn't even want to touch writing website copy, because I had no idea how to measure the ROI of that, and it feels too much of a hassle. Around this time, I started talking to Val Geisler. She was in the 10X course with me, and Val is incredibly focused. She took everything Jo taught us in the course and applied it. And as a result, she was seeing this incredible growth in her business, to the point where she had more work than she could handle and was looking to subcontract some of it. So, I reached out to her. I told her I wanted to try my hand at email copywriting, and that even though I had no experience, I was a fast learner, never missed a deadline, and I didn't make the same mistake twice. So, Val being the amazing person and entrepreneur that she is, took a chance on me, and she gave me two weeks to write an email sequence. I think it was a re-engagement email sequence. I spent the first week just learning about email copywriting. I think it spent four to six hours a day, just consuming as much as information as I could. And I loved every minute of it. But the time I wrote the sequence, I'd found my copywriting specialty. And that was almost two years ago. I haven't looked back since. Rob:   Wow, okay. So, a lot to unpack here, but before we jump into email, I'd love to go talk a little bit about content, and the content that you're writing, because I imagine there are a lot of people who heard you say, ‘$1,000 per blog post,’ that just about swallowed their lunch, in one bite maybe. We see people who are struggling sometimes, to make a hundred dollars per blog post, and so can you talk a little bit about how, when you started out, you were able to up-level your business to the point where you could get $1,000? What did you do? How did you find the right clients? What was the kind of content you were writing? Samar:           So, I guess posted a lot. And I wasn't as prolific as Prerna (Malik) was in her guest posting, but I was extremely strategic. So, I would only hit a guest post on the blogs that were read by my prospective clients. So, mostly marketing and small business blogs. So, I guest posted on Copyblogger, and it was this humongous, 5,000 plus word blog post, which went onto stay in their popular blog post roster that was at the site of their main homepage for 12 months. And it kept bringing me clients. Every month, I would get queries from prospective clients, who would ask me, who would defer to that blog post. And every few clients, I would just keep raising my rates. And it would scare me so much, like $450, $500, $700 and every jump I would be sweating. It's like, ‘They're not going to accept it. They're not going to accept it. They're going to see right through me.’ But they kept accepting it. But also, their expectations also just began to balloon. So, that $1,000 blog post may sound like a lot of money, but it required me interviewing 30 people, and putting together listical of quotes, of experts, and if you've ever ... You guys do interviews with the podcast, and you know how hard it is to get somebody to give you a quote on email. And I mean, just this podcast took two years in the making, so you can imagine how hard it was. So, it was gratifying when it was done, but that entire process was just too much of a hassle for me, and I was at a point where I wasn't willing to work at those rates anymore, and I wanted to charge three times that for the amount of work and hours that I was putting in. And obviously, I couldn't find anybody. Kira:   Okay, so I know you've pivoted and again, we're going to talk about email. But, before we wrap this up, what would you do differently, if you were still interested and excited by the content side okay of your business and building that out, what changes would you make, to make that work for your business today? Samar:           I would be making myself more visible. I would be hosting webinars, talking on podcasts about getting ROI from the stuff that you publish online, and just tying the concept of money to my work. Because when clients see that your work can get them more business, more money, it's a lot easier for them to justify the expense to themselves, to their bosses, to whoever is calling the shots. Rob:   Very cool, so switching a little bit now towards what you're doing today, aside from subcontracting, how are you finding clients? How have you made the switch from finding content-based clients to email based clients? Samar:           Okay, so two ways. Referrals and pitches. I let my clients and connections know that I was working as an email copywriter now, and that I have an opening, and ask for introductions. And one of the things that I do is that I'm always looking for gaps in my prospective clients' email funnels, and then I pitch them. So, that's how I landed Copyhackers as a client.