Marketing OG, Nigel Stevens, is our guest for the 155th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. Nigel is in the middle of a move from Asia to Spain and we caught him as he was packing his bags to talk about the business he's built, his experience in content marketing and SEO, and maybe most interesting... how to raise your prices and up level the clients you work with. Here's what we covered...

•  how he turned an English degree into a position as the marketing OG

•  why he left a cushy job in San Francisco to create his best job

•  what it takes to build an agency from the ground up

•  the early days… how he started finding clients and growing his leverage

•  how he grew his confidence charging more money

•  value based pricing and getting better referrals

•  his discovery and proposal process and what he wants to learn

•  how to build your portfolio of clients (most copywriters won’t do this)

•  what’s working (and not working) right now in content marketing

•  how he figures out what kind of content to create for clients

•  what copywriters need to know about SEO (Nigel’s answer surprised us)

•  how he helps clients understand the right approach to SEO content

•  how he’s built his authority to engender trust with his clients

•  the future of content marketing

It's a good discussion that will get you thinking about the kind of business you're building and the next steps. To hear it, click the play button below, or download the episode to your favorite podcast player. Readers can scroll down for a full transcript.

 

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

Nigel’s website

Kira’s website

Rob’s website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

The Copywriter Underground

 

Full Transcript:

Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, the work processes, and their habits, then steal and idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast.

Kira:   You're invited to join the club for episode 155 as we chat with marketing specialist, Nigel Stevens, about what it takes to build a marketing agency, what copywriters need to know about SEO, building authority, attracting, and working with really big clients, and what it's like to live and work in Barcelona.

Kira:   Welcome, Nigel.

Nigel: Thanks, great to be here.

Kira:   Yeah, great to have you here, and we're going to see you in just a couple weeks in Barcelona because you will be presenting at our Think Tank retreat, so excited to meet you in person. Until then, we can get to hear all about your story today. So why don't you share your story and how you ended up as the marketing OG?

Nigel: Yeah, so it's a little bit of a winding story as it tends to go. So, I got an English degree, got out of school, realized I had no idea what I wanted to do, somehow found my way into a job doing copywriting for this weird mattress startup that no longer exists anymore. And then, I got a job offer to be a SEO analyst, which I was exactly zero percent qualified to do. But I somehow got the job, and I went from being more of a kind of writer and qualitative marketer to then having to also pick up some quantitative skills, and then I had a couple more jobs, worked at BigCommerce for a while, e-commerce platform doing kind of a combination of SEO and content marketing.

And then, after a little while there, I decided I kind of wanted to blow up my life. So, I left my job, moved to Thailand and then started taking on work. And it escalated quickly, one thing led to another. And now, I have a team, and we work with various SaaS clients and other companies. So that's the summary.

Rob:   Yes, quick summary, but can we talk a little bit about at least this last section of your career, building an agency and what has taken to do that? I'm sure we can ask other questions about some of the stuff you've done earli...