To Increase Your Income,
Be the Architect …
By Nick Usborne

Whichever stage of my own career I look at, this has held true.

I’ve always put in the work to become the architect, and not just the guy who pours the concrete or paints the walls.

Let me explain …

Building a house is a complicated thing, involving numerous skills and trades.

The foundation needs to be poured, the walls need to be framed, the roof has to go on, the plumbing and wiring need to be installed … and on and on and on.

A number of different skill sets are required, and everything needs to be done in the correct order.

And while each tradesperson is a trained expert in their own area, only one person really understands how it all goes together.

That person is the architect.

You can talk to the architect about concrete, wiring, roof tiles, drywall, or anything else that goes into building the house. She’s an expert in every area.

This is why the architect earns 10 times what the roofer or painter earns.

This is also why the architect, with a few family homes under her belt, gets commissioned to draw up the plans for an entire mall, or office tower.

Architects get to advance their careers far beyond all the other tradespeople on the job.

So how does this architect analogy work, exactly?

Good question.

Let’s look at what it might take for a company to launch a new product or service.

They won’t do just one thing, like sending out a couple of emails.

They’ll build a coordinated campaign.

The emails will be part of a marketing funnel that will include one or more landing pages, and a new sales page.

They’ll be using social media too, organic and paid.

Plus some content marketing, with new posts and articles. Maybe a YouTube video or two as well. And a press release.

In other words, the launch campaign will comprise many different elements, all of which have to come together and work in unison.

A bit like building a house.

But hang on, you say …

Are you suggesting I become a marketing manager, the person who designs the overall campaign?

No. And this is where my analogy may be less than perfect.

Instead of it being a literal analogy, consider it a mindset analogy.

Be the digital writer who understands how everything fits together.

In the world of digital copywriting, our hero — you — has deep knowledge of ALL the writing skills required to create that launch campaign.

You have skills as a copywriter, email writer, content writer, social media writer, and more.

You may focus on one or two areas more than the others. But you are trained in every area.

In that sense, you’re like the architect. You have value that extends way beyond being able to just frame a wall or tile a roof. You know it all. The entire structure. The whole package.

Here’s the first way the architect mindset leads to a higher income …

Knowledge of digital copywriting that is both broad and deep makes you a star of every conversation with your client or prospective client.

It makes you super-valuable.

Imagine a Zoom meeting with you at one end and a client team of three people on the other end.

First, they ask you to write an email for one of their sales funnels. For context, they begin to explain how a sales funnel works.

To which you reply, “That’s okay, I know how sales funnels work.”

Then they explain how their Facebook ads will play a supporting role.

To which you reply, “No worries. I know all about Facebook ads.”

And so on.

I have been in that seat so many times over the years. And I have seen the relief on the client team’s faces.

They love that they don’t have to explain everything to you. It makes their lives so much simpler. It saves so much time. And it hugely increases their confidence in you, as the latest member of their team.

And yes, as they begin to understand that you’re a lot more valuable to them than they first thought, that increases their perception of your value.

And when their perception of your value goes up, so does the size of the fee you can charge.

That’s why I always try to have a conversation or two BEFORE I submit my estimate.

I want my prospective client to understand I’m a high-value “architect” and not a lower-paid “tradesperson.”

I want them to understand that I have broad and deep knowledge of all the elements in their launch campaign, not just one or two.

The second way to increase your income is to expand the scope of the work you do for the client.

Again, this works only if you have broad and deep knowledge of several digital copywriting skills.

For example, if your starting point with the client is writing content in the form of a few articles, there are ways you can build on that … if you have the additional skills.

You can say, “Hey, I’m guessing you’ll be using social media posts to send traffic to these articles I’m writing. Would you like me to write the posts as well?”

Or, “I imagine you’ll be announcing these new articles with a series of emails. Would you like me to take care of the emails as well?”

Most of the time, your client will say yes. Why? Because it makes their life a lot easier to have one person taking care of all these different tasks.

And, of course, the more tasks you add to the scope of your engagement with the client, the more you can charge.

This is why I ALWAYS start out my conversations with prospective clients with an “architect’s mindset.”

I always want to present myself as a partner with a high perceived value.

And I always want to maximize the scope of my work with each client.

Keep this in mind when you choose which training program to go with.

I know, this is totally self-serving.

But … when AWAI invited me to create their Digital Copywriting Apprentice opportunity, it was always my intention to create a program that was both broad and deep in the scope of what it taught.

This is not a program for tradespeople looking to learn a single skill.

It’s a professional-grade program for architects, who want to maximize their value and increase their revenue from every project they take on.

If that sounds like you, I encourage you to check it out.