The Power of 3 Shadow Audit: What Successful B2B Writers Do

You probably know how to do Site Audits for your clients to help them better leverage their websites to attract leads and retain visitors.

But did you know you can also use “shadow audits” for your own business success?

I coined the expression “shadow audits” because running stealth investigations into what other successful B2B writers are doing can really help you improve your own results. Here’s more about why doing these behind-the-scenes or “shadow audits” of our peer B2B writers is a good idea.

The process in a nutshell: You review what three top writers are doing for their own websites — and then reverse-engineer what’s working right now. And note, the other writers don’t have to be in your niche for this tactic to help you!

This article breaks down my “shadow audit” of what successful copywriters are doing now that writers can act on immediately. My results fall into three main areas:

• Landing Pages
• Testimonials
• Pricing Signals

I hope to answer a few major questions I had about how they were marketing themselves — questions you probably have too. Here’s where I started:

1. How do these in-demand copywriters create landing pages that drive prospects to immediately want to hire them?
2. What do their testimonials do that ours may not? Good testimonials almost always convert prospects to customers, so this is a key area to audit.
3. Without advertising specific rates, what do successful copywriters do that you and I don’t to screen out clients who can’t — or don’t want to — pay our rates?

Landing Pages

Before: Most of us were taught landing pages should have a headline, hero image, benefits, social proof, and the important call-to-action at the end.

After: Now you need an outcome-driven headline identifying your unique value proposition and ideal customer profile. You also need numeric data showing your quantifiable outcomes that prove your claims. Together, these show how you get transformations which drive conversions.

Let’s look at Ben Watkins (ThisIsCopy) who writes in the B2B healthcare niche to see what he’s doing differently than we are.

His lead line: “Turn buyer language into the messaging that fills your pipeline.” He’s very specific about what he can do and how it relates to bulking up your business.

Then a little further down in a mustard-colored eye-catching box, he gives the data. He persuades by giving statistical proof of what he can accomplish for his clients:

• +33% landing page lift
• +23% month-over-month revenue
• +18% demo requests

This is what stronger sites look like nowadays. They are not listing services first. They are defining how they can help clients and giving outcomes and proof immediately. HubSpot backs this up and says high-performing landing pages focus on clarity and outcomes, not general descriptions.

With AI determining whether our sites will be found or not, we have to put results up immediately and prove authority for the sake of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Therefore, be concise, provide immediate answers, use clear formatting, and show authority right away. (You can read more about AEO and GEO in other articles I’ve authored for this site.)

Shadow Audit Action:

Find one top B2B copywriter site and check out their landing page.

1. Write down each headline
2. Does it identify:

• who they serve?
• what problem they solve?
• prove their claims with statistics, numbers, data?

Go back to your own site.

1. Rewrite your own headline.
2. Add the statistical information and concrete numbers about your successes.

Testimonials

Before: It used to be great to document happy clients who said they enjoyed working with you and they highly recommend you.

Positive, generic types of testimonials like this one for a copywriter named Susan don’t really cut it anymore in a competitive market: “We love everything about this website copy! Looks amazing. Thank you again for all your help in launching (name) Bookkeeping Services” — Anna

After: At the Conversion Copy Co, they are heavily focused on lifting conversion rates. So they don’t just have happy customers, they emphasize $20M in startup funding from an optimized pitch deck and 91.8% increase in ROAS (return on ad spend) on a premium hair product landing page over the control page.

Shadow Audit Action:

So what can you do to strengthen your testimonials and social proof?

1. Find one top B2B copywriter site and review if testimonials are detailed, have numbers and results.
2. See if your satisfied clients can ballpark if you helped them increase sales calls by a certain number… For example, did their accounting firm get 25% more inquiries than last year after running your campaign or did they make X dollars more after you stepped up their social media?
3. Neil Patel, the marketing guru, suggests this format works great for testimonials. Maybe in the future you can ask for testimonials this way? “Before working with [your copywriting business name], I struggled with [problem]. After only [timeframe], I achieved [specific result], increasing my ROI by [amount]. I highly recommend working with [your name] if you are looking for [specific outcome]!”

 

Pricing Signals

Before: We might use lines like this: “Call us to find out how we can help you.”

Or “Contact us to learn about our packages.”

After: Many of us choose not to advertise our pricing on our websites. But Neil Patel says now with AI, “you should be transparent about costs, but your value proposition must be clear to warrant those prices.”

HubSpot agrees and says potential clients now want immediate answers. Therefore, having a “price plus” model with a start plus price or a range builds trust.

Business Casual Copywriting owned by Joel Klettke is up front about rates. Here’s what you’ll find under his Hire Me tab: “You should expect to invest at least $30,000. Other than audits (which range from $2,500-$15,000+ depending on the scope), there’s virtually no project I’d take on that would come in below this rate.”

That immediately tells you:

• the level of client he works with
• the level of work he gets
• whether you’re a fit

Ilise Benun, who has advised freelancers for decades on how to build stable, profitable businesses, recommends you start the money talk early to make sure your prospective client has the budget you are looking for and that you’re in the same ballpark.

She also advises shifting from hourly-based billing to project-based billing and encourages freelance professionals to use tiered pricing ranges. (By the way, she says most clients pick the middle package!) Benun also says you could also have a conversation that goes something like, “Website projects typically start at $1,500, but that depends on scope.”

Across your audit on pricing, you’ll probably see successful B2B content and copywriters who may say nothing regarding price or they may have:

1. a starting point
2. a range
3. a “best fit” signal (like Business Casual Copywriting which makes it clear they are expensive!)

Shadow Audit Action:

While no full pricing page list is necessary, you might:

Add one pricing signal:

• a starting price that does not box you in
• a typical range for the project
• or choose no pricing on your website

 

The Benefit of the Power of 3 Shadow Audit

As a B2B writer, if you do this shadow audit on three successful writers, you’ll probably find clear, direct headlines (not general descriptions) and outcomes on landing pages; testimonials with numbers and context; and at least some pricing signals.

Once you review what other successful B2B writers are doing, you can make impactful changes to your own site and improve the impressions you make on prospective clients. You’ll increase your odds of landing the clients that are the best fit for your B2B writing business.