My Solo Copywriting Business Grew 32% with 65% Profit Margins [Update]
This is a follow up story for Conversion Alchemy. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
My name is Chris Silvestri and I’m the founder and chief conversion copywriter at Conversion Alchemy. I help B2B SaaS companies get to message-market fit and increase conversions, by matching their copy with the conversation already happening in their customers’ heads.
When I work with clients, (typically post series A B2B SaaS with product-market fit), I help them gauge whether or not their current messaging strategy and copy are resonating with their customers, we dive deep into understanding their psychology and decision making, so we can craft new copy that speaks directly to their pains, needs, and motivations. The process includes:
- Diagnosing their current strategy and copy
- Researching their market and competition
- Understanding their internal team dynamics
- Analyzing the data and coming up with hypotheses and angles for copy
- Testing and validating to find the most effective messaging and language
- Writing/wireframing the actual website and email copy
- Testing it again to make sure we’re hitting the mark
These projects can range between 1 and 3 months, but I also sell a couple of productized services and offer consulting/coaching packages. In 2023 my solo business made $132,425 with 65%+ profit margins.
When I’m not nerding out on copywriting and SaaS, I love to take my Dodge Challenger out for a ride in the UK’s countryside.😉
Overall I realized that being immersed in the business is often what prevents you from gaining perspective on the business. The extra space in between projects in the past months, helped me think clearly about what I want out of this thing I’ve built.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since I published my story, the business has grown from making around $100,000 in a year to $132,000. Big milestones have been around the type of clients I’ve worked with mostly. A couple of enterprise SaaS, series B, and interesting partnerships with design agencies led to bigger client projects.
Again, most of my leads came through referrals from peers or service providers in the SaaS industry. The main contributor to the growth I’ve had was probably being featured and becoming a regular contributor to important SaaS/copywriting publications like Copyhackers, who helped spread the word.
Overall, I just hunkered down and kept doing great work for clients. I have to say I’ve been an avid early ChatGPT adopter (mostly for research and analysis) and I have to thank the tool for a lot of the increase in productivity. It might have been the main reason why I was able to work with 5-6 clients at the same time as a solo copywriter.
You can see a couple of examples of how I’ve been using it in my copywriting and messaging work here:
- Analyzing survey data with ChatGPT
- Using AI to optimize email
- Creating brand voice guidelines in seconds
- Come up with great user research questions
- Edit copy with ChatGPT
- Analyze research data with ChatGPT
- Finding vivid pain points for messaging
- Analyze Jobs to be done and write copy
- Check your copy and messaging hierarchy
I haven’t taken on any new contractors. I’ve worked most of 2022 with a virtual assistant and started collaborating with a video editor as I launched my YouTube channel. Another cool channel I started building, especially to grow the consulting and coaching side of the business, was GrowthMentor.
It’s such a cool way to 1) give back to the SaaS community, 2) learn more about what my audience struggles with and 3) eventually spread the word about my services. I plan on doing a lot more of this in 2024.
Another channel that’s been growing albeit quite slowly is my newsletter. In 2023, we’ve got 318 subscribers, for a total of 438 (from the 120 at the end of 2022).
I’ve tried lots of things, cross promotions (with Lettergrowth - recommended), giveaways, sponsorships on bigger newsletters, and even Facebook ads. I haven’t been able to crack the code there, and at some point, I transitioned from a daily to a weekly posting schedule, as the workload was getting pretty heavy. I’ll be working more on this soon and truly polish my value proposition and differentiation.
Another big theme this year for me has been feedback. Seeking it, embracing it, and using it to change your behavior and improve your work. No matter how much it sucks or how ruthless it is, all feedback is useful.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Talk to anyone running a digital marketing agency and you’ll find out that we’ve had it tough in 2023. So my 32% growth has been a nice surprise. That said, I’ve started seeing client work and referrals slowing down around September. The past 4 months of the year have been pretty quiet.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t put in the work. I've been personally growing, learning, and researching in preparation for the next big leap (more on this below).
One of the biggest challenges since starting the business has been lead generation. I’ve been blessed with ongoing referrals from other pros in the business and happy clients, but referrals alone are not a sustainable source of work. So as it happens for a lot of service businesses, I’ve found myself in a slump.
This forced me to take a look at my systems and processes, at the collaborators I was working with, and to reevaluate everything from the ground up. I canceled a ton of software subscriptions (my tool stack was admittedly bloated), and I let go of my virtual assistant because I realized I hadn’t been a good enough leader. Her work wasn’t as efficient and productive as it could have been, but it was mostly my fault. My lack of clarity on goals, tasks, and vision, meant we didn’t make much progress and my assistant wasn’t freeing up a lot of my time.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Overall I realized that being immersed in the business is often what prevents you from gaining perspective on the business. The extra space in between projects in the past months, helped me think clearly about what I want out of this thing I’ve built.
I just finished 3 great books that stirred hundreds of ideas in my head when it comes to leadership and planning.
From Dan Martell and his book “Buy back your time”, I learned how I should think about hiring:
“Don’t hire to grow your business. Hire to buy back your time.”
From Dr. Benjamin Hardy in “10x is easier than 2x”, I learned that thinking bigger doesn’t mean more work:
“2x is exhausting and soul-defeating. It’s extremely difficult to put the pedal to the metal and grind away for inches of progress. By contrast, 10x is so big and seemingly impossible that it immediately forces you out of your current mindset and approach. You can’t work 10x harder or longer. Brute force and linear methods won’t get you to 10x.”
And again from Ben Hardy in “Be Your Future Self Now” I learned how to project myself into the person I want to become:
“Your actions come from your identity. When your identity is rooted in current commitments, rather than your Future Self, your actions are weak and unaligned with your goal. The only way to realize your Future Self is to be your Future Self now.”
After finishing my annual review, I have a couple more notes to self, in no particular order, that might come in handy for you too:
- Do the work even when you don’t feel like it or it's inconvenient - suck it up, that’s when you learn the most and grow.
- When uncertainty reigns, you can only control what you do, actively and regularly. Forget other people and how they can help you. Focus on how you can help them and you’ll get what you want in the end.
- To navigate uncertainty you often have to rely on intuition and that’s great. Learn to trust it.
- When you’re taking on too much a great skill to have is the ability to get rid of what’s either not aligned with your goals/values, or of what’s not gonna give you the best ROI. One project I experimented with was a podcast called “Writers of influence”. It was me commenting on insights from copywriting books and biographies I read. I decided to pull the plug and refocus.
- There isn't a better feeling than to do something because you WANT to, vs because you NEED to. But you can only know what you want when you don’t need that anymore. So focus on fixing your needs first, then go get what you want.
- A lot of times the only way to change people’s minds and lead them is by example. Be so polarizing and so obsessed with doing great in all areas of life that others have no option but to follow you.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
Over the past 3 months, as I mentioned even though client work has been quiet, I’ve worked on completely repositioning my business. I’ve worked with mentors like Louis Grenier and Joanna Wiebe to rethink what I want and how I can help my clients.
I went from offering “conversion copywriting for Saas and ecommerce” to “message-market fit for B2B SaaS”. By specializing even more, leaving e-commerce aside and truly honing in on what I’m good at (strategy, processes, and turning those into a copy that resonates and converts) I’ve found my sweet spot.
As part of this repositioning, I’m launching a podcast, which I’m pretty excited about!
On “The Message-Market Fit Podcast” (duh), through interviews with B2B SaaS founders and operators in marketing, growth, and product, we’ll explore the nitty-gritty of messaging strategy, research methodologies, copywriting, and copy testing. It’ll be a tool for B2B professionals, to get the insights they need to understand their customers better than they know themselves.
In addition to the podcast, my content creation calendar looks pretty packed. I’ll focus on:
- My newsletter (working on new value proposition and repackaging)
- A free email course for all subscribers
- A revamped core offer
- Clearer and simplified productized services
To spread the word I plan on promoting through Instagram, YouTube (video podcast), LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and guesting on other podcasts, newsletters, and blogs.
Longer term, the plan for the next 5 years or so is to build an audience of like-minded folks around copywriting, understanding people, and studying decision making. It’s what I’m truly passionate about and always excited to dig deeper into. I’ve always been a solopreneur at heart, but I’m starting to consider the option of building an agency. What if I could build the Ogilvy & Mather of B2B SaaS conversion copywriting? Ambitious goal I know, but as I mentioned, 10x is easier than 2x!
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
In 2023 with a mix of audio, paperback, and digital, I read 50 books which amounts to one per week.
Some of my favorites and what they helped me with are:
- Alchemy (Rory Sutherland) - solidified my nuanced philosophy on marketing/advertising.
- A life in parts (Bryan Cranston) - made me pay more attention to my craft
- A new earth (Eckhart Tolle, second read) - clarified my understanding of awareness and the present moment.
- 10x is easier than 2x + Be your future self now (Benjamin Hardy) - made the idea of visualization more practical and rooted in psychology and helped me think bigger without feeling overwhelmed.
- Discipline is destiny (David Goggins) - added nuance to my idea of discipline, as temperance and moderation.
- Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson) - gave me a great look into the life of a top performer and helped me understand that balance is a myth, and obsession is a good thing.
- Principles (Ray Dalio) - augmented my thinking in terms of understanding the parts from a whole, systems, fundamentals, and first principles - made me a better thinker.
- How to fail at almost everything and still win big + Loserthink (Scott Adams, second read of both) - Helped me see life more like a game or a simulation that we can actively control.
I’ve also listened to a ton of podcasts, my favorite and how I’d describe them were:
- Diary of a CEO/Modern Wisdom/Rich Roll/Lex Freedman/Tim Ferriss - great insider views on top performers' thinking and lives.
- How I write - a deep look into a craft and how top performers approach it.
- Infinite Loops - great to keep up to date on tech and think more deeply/in a nuanced way about the creator economy.
- Positioning podcast/Forget the funnel/Lenny’s podcast/Everybody Hates marketers - great looks into how SaaS insiders work and think, taught me how you can be passionate about your industry even if to outsiders might not be “exciting”.
- Founders podcast - deep dive into an obsessive craft and willingness to learn + great storytelling and insights from masters.
- Danny Miranda - helped me see podcasting and interviewing as an art and as learning from other people while helping them see themselves differently.
Every year I like to set “themes” that will guide my decisions. For 2024, my themes are around growth and acting/thinking bigger and bolder:
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
I wrote in my original post how important good habits are to me, and I’m still going strong with those. They’ve helped me maintain the discipline and consistency I needed through the year to grow as a person and entrepreneur.
One of the biggest mistakes in my opinion that I see a lot of even successful agency owners or solopreneurs make is that they sacrifice their health for the business. It shouldn’t be that way. Reason why I always plan (and block on the calendar) my business tasks around my physical and mental health activities, not the other way around. You might think they are just the cherry on top when you’re running a business, but in reality, they are the cake. Without a strong body and mind, you won’t go anywhere.
Another big theme this year for me has been feedback. Seeking it, embracing it, and using it to change your behavior and improve your work. No matter how much it sucks or how ruthless it is, all feedback is useful. I highly recommend surrounding yourself with peers and mentors who can give it to you regularly.
I’ll leave you with an important idea that’s been guiding me since I started out on this solo adventure. It’s the principle of “affordable loss”:
“If losses are affordable, failure is impossible… To calibrate affordable loss, begin by asking a crucial question: What’s my downside?” - Matt Watkinson, Mastering Uncertainty
When you have the answer, you have a plan of action.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can find me everywhere and get in touch here.
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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