If you’re haunted by low open rates, dismal click-through rates, miserable engagement and pathetic conversions, there’s almost certainly something you’re not doing enough of—or maybe not doing at all—that could increase your numbers dramatically at every turn. And that’s writing in a much more visual way. Picture copywriting, we call it. Which is not as hard to do as you might think it is. The best visual storytellers in the world are comic book artists and filmmakers, and today we’re going to take a few of their most powerful techniques and show you how to easily include them in everything you write to get better results all-around. RESOURCES: Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Comics-Untold-Sean-Howe/dp/0061992119 Download.

The confused mind buys nothing. So if you are confusing the reader, they’re not going to buy. How does this play out? When you are selling a course, a technology, or a health supplement, you often run into a familiar brick wall: This thing is so complicated. I know it works, but how do I explain it so the average consumer can quickly grasp it? Today we kick around some little-known (yet completely common-sense) techniques to go from “incompressible” to “I want it!” Resource: My new book, The Persuasion Story Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ Download.

Whenever you’re about to roll out a huge campaign on Facebook or Youtube, you’re facing a huge risk. How do you know your ad is optimized in the four most important ways to get you the biggest bang for your buck? For most people, it’s a roll of the dice. Or time to call in an expert in statistics. Because optimizing is so complicated that most people don’t know how to do it—or get it right without taking weeks and weeks and spending hundreds of dollars in ad spend, just to test and get it right. The four things you need to optimize are 1) your hook, 2) your headline, 3) your pain point, and 4) your call to action. Lucky for you, Nathan has gone through weeks of testing and tweaking to come up with a method to do it fast, do it cheap, and do it right. What do I mean by that? What Nathan figured out allows him to figure out what’s going to work in his main copy before he writes a word, for about $8-$15 a day. In three or four days. He calls it Sprint Testing, and he’s going to lay it all out for you today. Reach out to Nathan: https://advertisingalchemist.com Download.

We’ve talked about the path of mastery in copywriting before, and a key part of moving ahead in your skills as a copywriter is regular practice. But how do you practice your skills if you don’t already have lots of work to keep you busy? Today’s guest, Wendy Ann Jones, confronted that important question herself when she first started writing copy. She couldn’t find a good answer in anything available, so, created the solution herself. It’s a terrific book called The Copywriter’s Workout and Wendy really thought through what copywriters need to work on. Using this book you can even create a portfolio to show off your practice work to prospects, so they can at least get an idea of what your writing’s like. But most important to me is that this book can serve as a lifetime desktop companion for a copywriter who wants to stay in shape. Wendy has agreed to join us today and tell us all about it. On the show, Wendy explains what went into creating the book, and how other copywriters have used it to their advantage. Wendy’s website: https://www.wendyannjones.com/ The Copywriter’s Workout (book): https://www.amazon.com/Copywriters-Workout-Copywriting-Kick-Ass-Portfolio/dp/195955591X Download.

What does testing your online ads at a nine-figure level look like, and how do you think about it? Our special guest today, Walter Burch, is CEO of Envoy Media Group, a performance-based marketing company. Envoy has spent many, many millions of dollars of its own money on Facebook, Google and YouTube ads over the last 18 years. His company has generated more than $1 billion in sales for national clients, using their own money and developing their own methods through imagination, testing, refining. Walter has some unusual ideas about copy and how to partner with the company you’re promoting, that he’ll share with us today. Needless to say, these are gargantuanly SUCCESSFUL ideas, so you may want to take notes! Download.

It’s a common mistake copywriters make, but it’s one you MUST not make, because it can be fatal. And that’s: writing copy that’s boring. Sometimes copywriters make the mistake of trying to put something funny in the copy that draws attention away from what you’re trying to sell. You definitely want to keep the tension going while you focus on the problem you’re promising to solve. But there are ways to do it that don’t detract from the sales appeal of the offer itself, and that’s what we talk about today.Download.

Online education is growing faster than you can keep up with. That’s great news if you’re riding the boom wave yourself. The problem, though, is that as the space gets more saturated, course creators need ways to stand out. How do you become known as the go-to expert in your niche? Our returning champion today, Doug Pew, has some answers for you. Besides writing blockbuster copy for course creators, Doug also coaches people to put together powerful courses and ramp up their sales growth. Doug believes that a course business should be built more like a religion instead of a school or academy, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Because that is how he has helped his clients develop six and seven-figure businesses from their courses. Contact Doug: https://dougpewcopy.comDownload.

How do you keep your prospect’s attention and even create unexpected moments of fascination throughout your copy? One of the greatest sure-fire solutions, that is, paradoxically, one of the least-well-known, is microstories. These little gems have all the power of stories with none of the heavy-lifting requirements of a hero’s journey story. You can easily sprinkle microstories throughout your copy, replacing interesting parts of your pitch with little gems that are truly intriguing. Not only that, but these microstories can make up complete posts on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. And there’s a real good chance that they’ll be more interesting than if you presented the same information without putting it into a story. Today we find out what microstories are, how easy they are to create, and how to use them to maximum advantage. Action Steps: 1. You can use stories anywhere in your copy. Most of them don’t need to be hero’s journey stories, but you can always fit in a microstory to get more traction with your prospect’s attention. 2. On TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms, try microstories to get greater attention and engagement from your viewers. 3. Use microstories to make your proof elements more interesting, and increase their convincing power. 4. Get The Persuasion Story Code to learn how to do microstories. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ Then, start using microstories a lot more than you’re already doing! Download.

Sometimes when you’re doing a funnel or you only have a limited space or number of characters to start your sales process, you have no choice but to use short copy. We all run into that situation, even if we prefer long-form copy. But then we run into a brick wall–the time and difficulty of actually writing short copy that works. Why does it take longer to write a good Google ad for a powerful 280-character Twitter/X post than it takes to write a couple pages of copy? It’s maddening when it takes LONGER to write only a few words than it takes to write an entire short sales page—and it hardly makes any sense either! Today we look at why shorter takes longer and some ways you can come to peace with this infuriating contradiction—and save some time in the process.Download.

When you sit down to write your copy, do you shake in fear because of the terror of the blank page? Or, maybe you’re not terrified, but you’re frustrated because you don’t know where to start? Today we talk about a game-changing method developed by one of our industry’s great Old Masters, Eugene Schwartz. He delivered a powerful secret in an obscure talk he gave in the early 1990s to Rodale Press. You won’t find this secret in either of his landmark books, Breakthrough Advertising or the Brilliance Breakthrough. The secret is explained in these words from his talk: “You do not write copy. You assemble it. You ware working with a series of building blocks and putting the building blocks together, putting them in certain structures. You’re building a little city of desire for your person to come and live in. You are assembling claims that are simply images that people will pay for.” The key idea here is assembling, not writing. And that’s a very important insight. Which we’ll really get into today. Resources: Copywriters Podcast notification list: https://www.garfinkelcoaching.com/podcast/ My new book, The Persuasion Story Code: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ Download.

If you’d like to know what goes on behind the scenes in the world of financial copywriting, our guest today has the inside story. Aaron Gentzler is the CMO of Mauldin Economics, a major financial publisher based in Northern Florida. He’s been in the business since 2006 and tells us about his own journey, as well as some of the experiences he’s had training and advocating for younger copywriters. Just as important, he’ll let you know what he has seen that spells bad news for people trying to get their foot in the door in the first place. Plus, he shares in-the-trenches insights about what works and what doesn’t work with stories in copywriting. Contact Aaron at [email protected] Download.

Too many copywriters shoot themselves in the foot by not giving enough attention and energy to bullet points. Why? Because they don’t realize how valuable bullets are to increasing sales. In fact, many prospects would have stayed on the fence if not for a single bullet point that really zero’s in on what they were looking for in the first place. We’re going to give you a quick but thorough walk-through on how to get the most out of bullet points in your copy. Download.

The one part of your copy that kills more sales than anything else is your call to action. But this same part of your copy can boost your sales immeasurably if you do it right. The problem is, most copywriters are so obsessed with their headline and opening story that they don’t put enough juice into the call to action. They simply ignore it, when it is the most powerful and important last step before you make the sale. It’s understandable that people focus so much on the headline, when you hear things like “80% of your persuasion power is in your headline.” The thing is, there’s still that other 20%. And a big part of that 20% is a strong, compelling call to action. We give you some steps today to get you to 100% on your call to action. Download.

Three things that can make a massive difference in the response you get to your copy are your headline, your hook, and your mechanism—if you have one. (Not every promotion has a mechanism.) When you get down to brass tacks, the big question for any one of these three things is: How do I come up with a new one? Because you know, as a copywriter, that a killer headline or a breakthrough mechanism can turn your promo from average or good to awesome and even spectacular. If there were a magic pill you could take that would allow you to generate great headlines, hooks and mechanisms on demand, and there were no toxic side-effects, you’d take it, right? Well, our expert author today has identified that magic pill. Not only that, but he can tell you how to get it for yourself. Now this could have been an Old Masters Series, but the author is 89 years old and it looks like he’s still alive. Usually Old Masters Series shows feature authors that are no longer with us. Today’s author is named John Adair. He’s written more than 50 books, and he has a particularly good one on real-world, practical creativity for business. Inside this book is the magic pill I was telling you about. The book is called “The Art of Creative Thinking” and it’s one of six different books on Amazon with the same title. Fortunately it’s still in print and we’ll put a link to the correct one in the show notes. I’ve read a lot of books on creativity, and this one stands out to me. It has both philosophy for being more creative, which we’ll call mindset today, and actions you can take, which we’ll call tips. The one thing about the magic pill Adair offers is it’s not fast-acting. Creativity occurs on its own schedule. Actually, you can create an idea, a name, a headline, a hook really fast. But usually it takes longer to create a good one. And to create a breakthrough one that can lead to huge sums of money… sometimes that can take even longer. Now we did a show a few weeks ago involving creativity, and Nathan asked a very important question: What do we, as copywriters, need it for? One reason that’s such an important question is, our distant cousins in the image and name-recognition sector of advertising and marketing often use creativity for reasons we direct response reasonable people would consider a huge waste of time and money. So let’s answer Nathan’s question a little more fully. Broadly speaking, a great copywriter in the 1960s, I think it might have been Ogilvy or Leo Burnett, said, “If it doesn’t sell, it’s not creative.” So here are the kind of uses of creativity I have a hard time seeing as selling. Unfortunately, what I’m about to describe is the kind of thing most people think of when you say creativity in advertising. But these are exactly the kind of things I’m not suggesting you use what we’re going to cover today for: 1. Goofy entertaining districting gimmicks that don’t enhance the sale. Emus that ride around in fake police cars, fantasy locations people get teleported to in order to make an ad interesting, pro football stars playing golf. Sometimes I wonder if ad agencies create this kind of foolishness because they, or their clients, are embarrassed about actually selling. 2. The second thing we’re not talking about are ridiculous claims that obviously are not true, but are entertaining in their hyperbole. Because no “reasonable person” could ever possibly believe them, advertisers are betting, they won’t get dinged under truth in advertising laws. But again, they don’t enhance the sale. These stupid claims are so ridiculous, that when you use them, they do make you look like you’re embarrassed to actually try to sell what you’re offering. So, yes, you can use creativity to develop both of those really bad example categories of stuff, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Because you can ALSO use creativity to develop things that enhance the sale, which in turn improves the response you get from prospects, and increases your profits. Everything we’re going to talk about today in the realm of tips and mindset fundamentals is helpful in developing better versions of things on this list: Headlines Hooks Big Ideas Mechanisms Product names Branding You can apply the creativity material we talk about today to any of those. And just coming up with a better Big Idea can revolutionize a product’s sales. The same thing is true for many of the other things on the list. So that’s where I’m suggesting you apply new levels of creativity. The Art of Creative Thinking, by John Adair https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZW4CCK Download.

Today’s show is important for everyone involved in copy. It’s especially important for the big thinkers, the visionaries, the big-picture people. We’re going to talk about a subject that makes some people quake in their boots. And that subject is details. They are not as easy to deal with for some people as they are for others. Details do not seem as important as The Big Idea to a lot of marketers and copywriters. And listen to what people say about details. The famous architect, Mies van Der Rohe, said “God is in the details.” He also said, “Each material has its specific characteristics which we must understand if we want to use it. This is no less true of steel and concrete.” So you can see he was really into details himself. Then there’s the famous saying people say a lot on TV and in movies, and also every day in real life. That saying is: “The devil is in the details.” So right there, we have details spanning the moral spectrum from God to the devil. Clearly, they are important. But the question remains: Are they good or are they bad? And how about this saying: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff.” Hmmm. Sounds like they’re talking about details there, too. This applies to copy because we have a natural bias against details. In this way: We are about things that are dramatic and exciting. We like to make big promises. We are seeking to guide emotions in a powerful way. And think about it. A headline like “The important difference between black and tortoise-shell plastic barrettes from Dollar Tree” just wouldn’t cut it. Or… would it? We explored this today. I wanted to put this together because of a conversation I had with a client who had nothing but glowing testimonials and over-the-top claims on a sales page. The person I was talking with was very successful personally, and had a very successful business. But I quickly realized he was leaving a lot of money on the table because there might be a couple of problems for some prospects: • Credibility • Identification Now there’s always tension between awesome excellence (which may be the God’s honest truth about your product, your personal story, and the results people eventually get working with you or using your product) and the everyday life your prospects are now living. The emotional part of your prospect, the part that dreams, wants to think big. Loves to imagine wild, wonderful, luxurious scenarios in the future. But, the rational part of your prospect needs to confirm that what they are reading, or have recently read, isn’t a just scam and a waste of their money. This is where credibility and identification come in. At least some part of your copy, to perform at its best, needs to be credible to your prospect. That mean, from a practical point of view, talking about things they are familiar with in their real world. Right now. Not in the future. Identification comes in when the prospect can see themself right now in some way in your copy. Maybe in the before part of a before-and-after testimonial. Maybe in a description of an ordinary person struggling with the same problem your prospect struggles with. Maybe in a bullet point that talks about improving something specific in their current life. Resolving the tension between over-the-top and the mundane stuff of the real world requires delving into the nitty-gritty. That is, details. A related tension that causes us problems in our copy is the tension between the grandeur of the big picture—walking on the beach at sunset in some exotic tropical location—and the unglamorous detailed experience of the prospect’s daily life—the embarrassment and discomfort of toenail fungus. Both are about feet, right? Walking, and toenails. Now you might or might not mention both things in the same promo, much less in the same sentence like I just did. But being able to shift lenses, so to speak—to go from the wide shot on the beach to the close up of the toenail—is more important and useful a lot more often than you might think. We talked about how the nitty-gritty fits into testimonials and case studies, bullet points, and other parts of copy, and why you can’t ignore it, even if it doesn’t seem that important to you. Because it is important to your prospects. Links: Copy review sessions with me https://www.garfinkelcoaching.com/copy-critiques/ Stealing Fire From The Gods, by Jim Bonnett https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Fire-Gods-Complete-Filmmakers-ebook/dp/B003FQM2SE Rocket Fuel, by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Fuel-Essential-Combination-Business-ebook/dp/B00U27BMSK Download.

Let’s talk story. Experienced copywriters know that a story is the best way to introduce a product, bring a benefit to life, answer objections, and do a whole lot more. Why? Because stories galvanize the attention of your prospect. A story reaches deeper into the mind of someone, deeper than any other form of communication. But somewhere along the way, Hollywood got in the way, as it has a habit of doing. Because the hero’s journey is the go-to template for movies and other forms of fiction, a number of people started solemnly proclaiming that all stories in copy should be hero’s journeys, only hero’s journeys, and nothing but hero’s journeys, so help you Hollywood. Well… there’s only one problem with that idea. It’s simply not true. I’ve just written a book, just about to be released, called “The Persuasion Story Code,” where I identify and explain 25 different types of stories that work not only in copy but in all forms of persuasion, including face-to-face selling. On today’s show, I went into a lot of depth about the kind of stories we cover in the book. Here what I said about one, to give you some context: Persuasion stories are not entertainment. They’re stories that get results. Here’s an example of a persuasion story that got a result: A man walks up to the counter at the gate, 10 minutes before takeoff. The flight is full and everyone before him has been screaming a blue streak at the flight attendant staffing the desk. “No,” she says to the man before he can say a word. “I think I know what you’re going through,” the man says to her with a grimace. “I manage a store downtown, and the last three days before Christmas, our customers are just like the people here. Rude, impatient, and they won’t listen to reason. Sometimes you wonder why you took a job like this in the first place.” The flight attendant looks at him for a few seconds. The hint of a smile dances at the ends of her mouth. “May I see your ID?” she says. He hands it to her. She types into the computer, prints out a boarding pass, and gives it to him along with his ID. Then she says to him, almost in a whisper,
“We had a cancellation in first class. I’m upgrading you. Get on the plane NOW.” OK, so what did the man do? Either very deliberately or more likely, simply out of compassion, the man told the woman a story—about what goes on in his store before Christmas, and how he understood what she must be going through—and, after she heard it, she changed her mind. What he told her, whether or not he realized it, was a persuasion story. And, probably to his great surprise, he got a seat on what he thought was a fully-booked plane. Now, people tell stories like the man did all the time. Most of the time, people telling the story don’t even realize it’s a story. And neither do the people hearing the story. This is what I call a persuasion story. They make up the engine of persuasion in sales letters, and also in everyday life. I’ve identified 25 kinds of these stories, and I’ve written a book about them called “The Persuasion Story Code,” organized into six chapters. Here’s a short summary of what we cover: • Origin Stories, which build confidence by showing how a person’s or company’s background makes them solid and worth doing business with • Stories About Your Prospect’s Pain, which build trust by showing you understand the dilemma your prospect is in, thus creating valuable empathy • Stories That Predict The Future, painting a compelling word-picture of how much better your prospect’s future can be • Reassurance Stories are probably THE most effective way to deal with early doubts and worries that come up—especially when a prospect is really interested • Stories That Explain walk the fine line between interesting but neutral explanations and persuasion that puts up prospect defenses. These stories persuade while explaining! • Stories That Build Trust organize credentials, reviews, expert endorsements and case histories into powerful persuasion tools that eliminate last-minute doubts This will change your copy and really all your sales efforts for the better. Here’s a link to get your copy of the book. You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFD2KXNQ Download.

When you are a copywriter, do you look at the world differently? Old Master Clyde Bedell emphatically says yes. Clyde Bedell is not all that well known these days. We featured his work last year in an episode where we talked about his seven keys to believability. Though he’s not all that well known today, decades ago Bedell was one of the top guys you would turn to if you want to learn how to write copy that works. Besides being a highly successful advertiser, he was also a prominent teacher. For example, he built a national sales training program for Ford Motor Company in the 1930s. When he was teaching copywriting at Northwestern University, he couldn’t find a suitable textbook, so he wrote one. That textbook eventually turned into “How To Write Advertising That Sells.” It was first published in 1940—13 years before I was born. This book is 8-1/2 by 11 and a massive 539 pages. It’s pretty hard to find a copy these days, but I found one copy for sale on Amazon for $956.62. Lucky for me, I got my copy years ago when it was easier to get and not quite as expensive. Today we looked at a chapter from this massive book called “Copy’s Point Of View.” It covers key points on how copywriters need to look at the world if they want their copy to convert. We started with the understanding that what we’re going to talk about today is not how a copywriter necessarily sees the world 24/7. It’s not that you have a completely different way of eating breakfast… of buying shoes… or of dealing with annoying relatives. This is about how you look at things when you’re writing copy. I saw an interesting meme on Twitter, quoting Gary Bencivenga. It said: “Copywriting is not a secret formula, it’s a way of thinking.” That way of thinking is what today’s show is about. We covered four big parts of the copywriter’s mindset. This will be useful to new and advanced copywriters alike, as guard rails on what to focus on when you’re writing copy. In the show, we looked at some ads to illustrate some of the key points in what Bedell had to say. Bedell’s book is all but unavailable. However, here are two other books mentioned during the show: Twenty Ads That Shook The World, by James Twitchell https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-That-Shook-World-Groundbreaking/dp/0609807234 How To Write A Good Advertisement, by Victor Schwab https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Good-Advertisement-Copywriting/dp/1648373143 Download.

The quote you are about to read is from a letter not written by today’s special guest and returning champion A-List copywriter, Mike Pavlish. This from a very controversial Old Master, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. In a letter to author Marie Bonaparte, grand-niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, Freud wrote, “Despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul I have never been able to answer the great question, ‘What does a woman want?’” A lot of people think Freud didn’t understand much about women in any way. Now our guest today does have an answer to that. Not a universal answer, but a proven answer to the more practical question, “What do women prefer in how you write to them in sales copy?” Mike Pavlish has this answer because he has written more than 400 long-form sales letters and video sales letters to women, for products include health, diet, fitness and beauty. For 32 years. Overall, Mike’s copy to male and female audiences has racked up more than $725 million in sales. Today, he shared 12 tips with us, based on what he’s learned over many years, up to and including this year. Mike told us that women and men respond VERY DIFFERENTLY to words, phrases, benefits, tone, personality and claims. The default of a lot of copywriting, “dude copy” or “macho copy,” doesn’t work. What does work? Most important of all, you need to understand that men are much easier to sell to than women, Mike said. Men make more impulsive purchases, take more unproven risks, and buy for simpler reasons. But women are far more complex in their buying behavior, Mike said. Women have a key primary need than most men don’t understand and appeal to when they write. Mike explained what this need is and gave good and bad examples to make it clear how to phrase winning copy in this regard. Mike also shared specific, ready-to-use secrets about tone… wording… connecting with women’s conversational style… the importance of relationship… and many other key tips. You can contact Mike at [email protected]. Download.

In an earlier part of this century, I produced an audiobook with my late friend and mentor Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the bestselling Guerrilla Marketing series. It was called “Guerrilla Copywriting.” I’m sad to say Jay’s no longer with us, and neither is the audiobook. It’s out of print. So I’m free to share my half of the material. This is the fourth and final installment of the tips. I’ve expanded them and added some examples to make them easier to grasp. Before, with the audiobook, you had a whirlwind tour of copywriting rules and techniques. Today, we slowed down the train down a little bit so you can take a look around and think about how you can use these in your own sales copy, landing pages and TikTok videos. But here’s something you’ll never find on a TikTok video: Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims... and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity... you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. Of course, that may change if someone sees this as a TikTok Copywriters Podcast “Copy is Powerful” challenge. But that’s not what I was hoping for. Now today we had some interesting techniques you can use, as well as super-important reminders, because even subscribers to Copywriters Podcast can get so caught up in their offers that occasionally they don’t give fundamentals the attention they deserve. We talked about a way to use stories that most people never do: to anticipate and eliminate objections, before they ever come up. We also covered: • The two jobs really great copy has • Why you should never just “sell a product” • Every prospect’s secret last name • Why you should always build up the value of your offer to the max Besides that, we talked about two writing techniques most people don’t know about: First, starting sentences with Seducer Words, and second, the enormous power of Hypnotic Stems. Download.

If you’d like to find out about one of the largest and most lucrative niches in copywriting, today’s show is just for you. Supplement copy is that niche, and our guest today is an expert on writing copy and building offers for health supplements. Steve Erl has written copy for some of the best-known names in the business. His clients include Newmarket Health, Dr. Al Sears, Pure Health Research, BioTrust, and many others. Supplement companies can grow very quickly. Steve has been writing copy and developing offers for a skincare and pet brand that has grown from $5 million to $100 million in the last four years. With his help, of course. Steve’s been writing copy full-time for nine years, and recently started a couple businesses himself he told us about on the show—mentoring, and a newsletter on supplement copy—which may be of interest to you if you decide to get deeper into this part of copywriting yourself. First, though, Steve’s walked us through three of his most important experiences and lessons, to give you an idea of what the world of writing supplement copy is like. Steve told us about a seemingly terrifying experience which was a blessing in disguise—copy that got sent back from his client after four weeks which had, in his words, “the heart ripped out of it.” But what happened next was jaw-dropping and eye-opening. The next lesson came from a much bigger win. His copy was so good, the copy chief said, that it was outpulling the control. But oddly enough, it didn’t become the control. Steve shared the interesting information he picked up from that one. Writing copy in the supplement field can make a writer gun-shy, because of all the compliance requirements and the knowledge that sooner or later, there will be a lawyer looking over your copy. But what Steve learned was, don’t write for that lawyer—write to sell the product, and let the lawyer do their job later. Third important lesson. Steve just started an email newsletter called Supps Copy Chief. He told us about it, and you can find out more here: https://suppscopychief.com Reach out to Steve here: [email protected] Download.

Our returning champion is Joshua Lee Henry, the high-powered copywriter and copy chief. He should be a familiar name and face to you by now, with his four great previous appearances on the show. He’s talked about writing leads and offers. And he even did the first and only guest Old Masters Series on this show, about John Caples. Joshua has a very impressive copywriting background and is currently copy chief for Money and Markets, an imprint of Agora’s Banyan Hill company. Today’s show with Joshua is a little different. Instead of tips on writing copy, to be blunt, we’re talking about jobs. As you may have noticed, the copywriting world is in a very uncertain state. A perplexing economy that is roaring along as more and more people are just hanging on by their fingernails is one reason for the uncertainty. Another is the rapid growth of AI, especially ChatGPT. Will it replace human copywriters, many people wonder? Well, not in the financial copywriting space, at least not this year. All you have to do is listen to what Joshua has to say. If you know what to look for and where to look, you’ll find there are opportunities galore right now. Joshua begins by telling us about SEVEN financial publishers who are hiring copywriters right now. Some of these companies are huge. He also tells us about a public financial newsletter company whose stock is up 60% since January. So things are definitely popping in financial copywriting. Again, as I said, if you know what to look for and where to look. The readers (or potential new readers) of these newsletters are numerous. In the tens of millions. Joshua shares some hands-on, real-world tips for getting your foot in the door at the financial publishers. And, for listeners and viewers of Copywriters Podcast only, he’s making a special offer for a training program called The World Of Financial Copywriting. As of today enrollment is closed, but they are opening up registration again for the next five days from the day we release this podcast. And you can get a big discount, using this link: https://copychief.thrivecart.com/wofc/?coupon=DAVID Download.

Long before there was even TikTok, there was a company called Sherwin-Williams. Their famous logo showed a planet-sized can of paint pouring onto a globe, with the tagline “Cover The Earth.” They still use that logo today. But I think in spirt, if not in reality, they need to share their slogan with AI. Because AI is drenching its way into everything. We have a guest today, and he’s our returning champion, attorney Rob Freund. Rob knows advertising and IP law for marketers as well as anyone I’ve ever met. And we’re going to have a wide-ranging discussion with Rob about AI and the law as it applies to copy and other topics of interest to you and me. I am constantly impressed by Rob’s savvy posts on Twitter, and sometimes astounded by the stories and examples he comes up with. We’ll talk about some of them today. And I stand in the company of giants who are also impressed: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg Law, Vox and Forbes. They’ve all quoted him. Plus, he’s lectured about social media law at the University of Southern California and other major institutions, in the U.S. and in Europe. We started by talking about an unusual and slightly disturbing thing that AI said regarding Ben Settle, which Ben posted on Twitter… and a really disturbing story about a lawyer who counted on AI in a way that may get him in trouble with the court. Rob found this story in The New York Times and posted it on Twitter as well. We also tackled important issues like: • Does using AI open a copywriter up to legal liability for plagiarism/copyright infringement? What can we do to make sure we’re on the right side of the law? • From an intellectual property rights perspective -- if you use AI to help you write your copy, who owns the work? • What are the legal implications of people using deep fake technology to create testimonials and phony images of celebrities? Or AI fake voices? And, looking into the future, we asked Rob this question: In the same vein as any developing technology that starts out with no regulation, like the wild west, but eventually starts to get regulated… How do you see AI regulation, especially in the advertising and IP spaces, developing? To connect with Rob: Instagram @robertfreundlaw Twitter @robertfreundlaw https://robertfreundlaw.com Download.

On December 1, 1975, a giant in direct mail died. That was Ed Mayer, who had written a definitive book on the subject 25 years earlier, called “How To Make More Money With Your Direct Mail.” Mayer was a man of many hats—a practitioner, an industry executive, and a teacher. In his obituary, the New York Times reported that Mayer had taught more than 20,000 college students and business executives the hands-on secrets of direct mail. Now you might reasonably assume the following: That was then and this is now. So much has changed. Today, we found out. To prepare for the show, I combed through the book and found 10 great tips that apply whether you were doing direct mail in the 1950s or online marketing today. In some cases, I updated the tips. But more often than not, what worked then works almost exactly the same today. I selected these 10 tips based on this simple idea: Just leaving out ONE of these could crater your sales—or vastly reduce them, at the very least. So even if you tell yourself you know these… ask yourself, are you doing the updated version of every one of these? Because if you’re not, you’re probably leaving money on the table. Let’s take that money off the table and put it back in your pocket. The tips we covered spanned the whole of direct marketing. Mayer knew it all: copywriting, offer creation, fulfillment, list selection and list management. He was truly an industry expert. Our topics included: the one thing that stops sales from happening, more than anything else… the one thing every piece of copy needs to do… why research makes the difference between success and failure in direct marketing… the kinds of words you should never use in your copy… when it’s a good idea to use the same copy over and over again… and much more. The book is called How To Make More Money With Your Direct Mail, by Ed Mayer. It’s out of print and extremely hard to find. Not on Amazon. A couple on eBay. Download.

When you’re being bold and aggressive with your copy, there’s a three-word question you really need to ask: “Is it legal?” That’s because, very simply, you’re putting your business at risk if it’s not. Today we have an expert who lives with this question all the time, and helps his clients get the best answers. Robert Freund is an experienced advertising attorney who focuses his practice on social media marketing and e-commerce issues. His clients include direct-to-consumer brands, marketing agencies, and individual creators. I am constantly impressed by Rob’s savvy posts on Twitter, and sometimes astounded by the stories and examples he comes up with. And I stand in the company of giants who are also impressed: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg Law, Vox and Forbes. They’ve all quoted him. Plus, he’s lectured about social media law at the University of Southern California and other major institutions, in the U.S. and in Europe. So as you can see, Rob really knows his way around the most important issues involving advertising and the law. I was grateful he agreed to share some of his wisdom. Here are the questions we asked him: 1. Let’s start, as they say, at the beginning. A lawyer has so many specialties to choose. How was it that you came to specialize in advertising law? 2. Could you run us through a few basics - things people should know, but either don’t know, or do know but ignore? - Especially, where do people push the line with claims and promises, when it turns out they’re also tempting fate? 3. You had a very interesting tweet a couple weeks ago. Let me quote from it. “The lesson for brands: your policies are not just boilerplate—they can save you from potentially devastating liability exposure. “And it’s not enough to write a good policy; you must also carefully consider how the terms are presented to your users to ensure you can enforce them.” What this says to me is every promise you make online has weight and consequences, or at least might. Could you talk about that? 4. Let’s take this one step further: Do you have a horror story for someone who went over the line? What were the consequences? 5. And, on maybe a happier note, can you tell us about someone you’ve taken out of the fire and away from the host stove, thus avoiding them a trip into the frying pan? What did they do and how did you help them back to safety. 6. Tell us more about your practice, who should get in touch with you with what kind of problems, and what’s the best way to reach out? To connect with Rob: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/robertfreundlaw/ Twitter https://twitter.com/robertfreundlaw https://robertfreundlaw.com Download.

One of the most powerful forms of stories for copywriters is the case study, and I think it’s fair to say most of us don’t use as many of them as we should. Today we’re going to talk to an expert who has vast and successful experience in this kind of marketing. Our guest today, Joel Klettke, is the founder of Case Study Buddy, a business that helps companies like HubSpot and Loom to scale up their case study production and include it in every segment of their marketing—from lead generation and upsells to outreach and nurturing. Overall his company has done more than 2,000 case studies for more than 300 clients. Joel’s also a copywriter and a proud dad of two. I believe his one regret in life is being a fan of the Calgary Flames hockey team. I don’t blame him one bit. The last time the Flames won the Stanley cup was in 1989, and I suppose we should just leave that there. But lucky for us, Joel knows a lot about case studies and he’s generously agreed to share some great tips and insights with us today. Here’s what we asked Joel: 1. What are case studies, the way you look at them? 2. What are the different types of case studies? 3. Why do case studies work, and how do they work? 4. How did you get into specializing in case studies? 5. What does Case Study Buddy do for your clients? 6 . Could you give us an example of a good case study? 7. What would be an example of a bad case study? 8. What are your top tips for writing great case studies? Joel’s company has a newsletter you can get for free: https://casestudybuddy.com/newsletter-sign-up/ Download.

We’ve been talking about AI on this show for a while, and today we’re going to roll up our sleeves. Well, Nathan is, anyway. I may ask a few questions or make some comments, but Nathan is center-stage today. That’s because he has figured out how to use ChatGPT to assist him with writing his emails. They key word is “assist.” It does require work and thought on the human’s part. But, the good news is, AI is helping him save time and become more productive. There are some caveats, which Nathan will cover. Meaning that you can’t just push a button and get fully-finished copy, ready to mail. Here are some notes Nathan prepared for the show, which includes an amazingly generous full set of working prompts to get an AI started writing emails for you. Nathan’s notes for today’s show: This is made for use with the FREE version of ChatGPT. There are paid tools out there that can get close to duplicating this process. I wanted to make this accessible to everyone. What you'll get at the end is a way to crank out emails to send your list and increase your sales. All you need is to be able to copy and paste nine prompts. If you're not great at writing emails, this will make you decent. If you're great at writing emails, this will make you a lot faster and a lot more valuable to your clients. To get the full list of prompts and marketing data sheet template, Go to https://advertisingcheatcodes.com/ai-emails/ Or Contact Nathan at AdvertisingAlchemist.com Download.

The question is: How do you bring your prospect right there when they are reading words you have written, maybe thousands of miles away? The answer was revealed 99 years ago, but it’s not widely talked about in copywriting. Until today. In this special episode of our Old Masters Series, we look at a book by George Hotchkiss published in 1924. He has some ideas about using techniques novelists and hypnotists use. But using them in your copy, to bring your offer to life. To get your prospect to see and experience the best of what you have to offer. All through the words you choose. The book is simply called Advertising Copy. To the best of my recollection, superstar copywriter David Deutsch told me about this book many years ago. So thanks, DD! Now the author, George Hotchkiss, was both a successful copywriter and a major educator in copywriting. He started out as a newspaperman, and then went on to become a copywriter for the George Batten Company, which later became the giant ad agency BBDO. Also, he joined the faculty at New York University in 1908 and went on to start NYU’s Department of Advertising and Marketing. And stayed with them for decades. Guy knows how to write copy and how to teach. On this podcast, we talked about something else from the book Advertising Copy in a show three years ago. The topic at that time was Reason-Why Copy. But what we’re going to talk about today appeals to a different part of the prospect’s brain, and in many ways may be more important. On the show, we talk about six great techniques to amp up your copy. For now, though, let’s look at the power of what we’re about to explore. Let’s say you accidentally cut your finger with a knife, and you’re looking for some sympathy. You could say, “I injured a part of my hand in an accident.” Not very powerful. Or, you could say, “I cut my finger with a knife by mistake.” OK, that might work better. But let’s take it to the next level. How about: “I was cutting up some onions for soup I was making. The knife slipped and wouldn’t you know it, I cut my index finger. It hurt like hell. Felt like an electric shock that came out of nowhere. I howled, and then, suddenly, blood was spurting all over the place. I had to wash it and put some ointment on it, and wrap it up tight with a gauze bandage until the bleeding stopped.” There you go. Now you’ve got a much better shot at getting some sympathy. Why? Because you brought your senses and emotions into the description. And, along the way, your listener’s senses and emotions, too. That was a gory example, so let’s turn to something a little more pleasant. Your sweetheart buys you some fine Swiss chocolates for Valentine’s Day. What do you say to your friends, to make them jealous? You could say, “Dylan bought me some chocolates for Valentines.” OK. That’s nice, but it’s a little vague, right? To make your statement more evocative, you might say, “Dylan got me some Lindt dark chocolate truffles for Valentines.” Better. But how about, “I was so happy with what Dylan got me for Valentines. Lindt dark chocolate truffles. They are so smooth and creamy, and I get a jolt of pleasure each time I eat one.” Again, the description of emotion -- happy -- and sensory experience -- smooth, creamy -- makes it all seem so much more real. And sometimes you want to take your prospect right into the experience of your offer. That’s what we’ll talk about today. Everything we’ve just looked at and cover today is based on an important rule: Demonstration is the most powerful form of selling. We’re going to talk about how to demonstrate, in your copy, the specific things that make people more likely to buy. For this kind of verbal demonstration, Hotchkiss uses three different terms at different points in the chapter we’re taking this from. Those terms are mostly interchangeable, and they are: “Descriptive Copy, Human-Interest Copy, and Direct Sense Description. The best copywriters all use these techniques at key points in their copy. Some of them do it on purpose, knowing how and why they’re doing it. But I suspect most of them just do this by instinct, because they know intuitively that these techniques work. One top copywriter, my good friend John Carlton, is very deliberate and explicit about this. His copy is filled with examples worth studying. And in his teaching, he talks about power words. A lot of them, especially the strong verbs he suggests, are very evocative of specific images, feelings and emotions. So today, we look at what descriptive copy is, why it matters, when it works and when it doesn’t, and how to use it. Download.

In the great financial meltdown of 2009, Colin Chung lost his job with eBay. Despite having no experience in copywriting, he decided that was the next part of his career path. In 18 months, he doubled his eBay income and was earning six figures for the first time in his life. As a freelance copywriter. In one year, he doubled it. Before long after that, Colin was making really big bucks. Not only that. He ended up writing for major clients, including Jay Abraham, Clayton Makepeace, Mike Dillard, Agora, and even a Shark Tank investor! Also, from 2014 to 2020, Colin was the primary coach for John Carlton’s Simple Writing System, where he coached many freelancers, business owners, and other aspiring copywriters. After all this, Colin has decided to reveal his secrets. And I say “secrets” because his approach, as he describes it, is different from the approach any other successful copywriter I’ve ever talked to or heard of. Colin has coached individual copywriters and managed teams of copywriters for clients. His experience goes far and wide. But only recently has he decided to go public with this. Colin also has a very modestly-priced course to help you ramp up your own freelance business. Check it out here: https://garfinkel.thefederation.io/ Download.

About a month ago we did a selection from my half of the no-longer-available Guerrilla Copywriting audiobook. It was so popular, we thought we’d do it again. Here’s some background: Sixteen years ago, in 2007, I produced an audiobook with my friend and mentor Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the bestselling Guerrilla Marketing series. Jay and I originally thought about doing a book together, but that never happened. However, we did do an audiobook. It was called Guerrilla Copywriting. Unlike a lot of things he did and I lot of things I’ve done, this one didn’t sell that well. I don’t think either of us had the bandwidth to promote it, but there may have been another problem -- we tried to jam too much good information into too little time. We had sixty really powerful tips for writing copy. Jay would do one, then I would do one. It ended up being 60 tips in 60 minutes. Plenty of value, but maybe we would have been better off slowing down and taking some time to talk about each tip. Well… the audiobook is out of print now, so I’m free to share my half of the material. I took a look at it the other day and, I gotta admit, it’s pretty good. A couple things needed to be updated -- a lot has happened in 16 years. But for the most part, we’ve got eternal principles that are completely workable today. OK. Today we cover a third quarter of my part, and we’re going to take 25 minutes to half an hour to discuss. You’ll see why it makes more sense to do it that way. I’m starting to think the original was four times as fast as it should have been! Some of this you’re familiar with but you’ll probably see in a new light. And you may hear a few things that are new to you. Everything’s useful, and it stays true to one of the main goals Jay and I had when we did this originally: It’s designed to make you more profitable, and it’s information you can put to use right away. A lightning tour of what we talk about: What to sell people more of… The one kind of humor that always works in sales copy… The Guerrilla Copywriting Four-Point Fail-Safe Copy Formula… How to extract some winning techniques from journalists and use them in a copy context… A golden rule for graphics… The important difference between prevention and cure… and, how to create urgency. Download.

You can’t go a day in copywriting without someone bringing up AI. It may not have taken over copywriting yet, but it has definitely taken over the conversation. In case you haven’t gotten your feet wet yet with GPT 4, Jasper, Copy AI or any other one of the handful of AIs people are currently using, I can tell you, people ARE using it, in predictable and unpredictable ways. Today Nathan and I discussed what we’re hearing and what we’re doing. We started with a really interesting discovery Nathan made that not only saves massive amounts of time on a project, but also slashes the learning curve on how to get AI to do exactly what you want it to do. I shared what I’ve heard from two clients who have an unusual amount of expert knowledge about AI… as well as being top-notch copywriters on their own. You’ll be surprised about one expert’s prediction on who will thrive and who will suffer in copywriting, thanks to AI. Different probably than what you’ve heard before. And another expert solved a tough business problem of his own… in about 10 minutes! Beyond that, a little bit of AI news that may surprise, scare or delight you! Download.

Today we look at bullet points in an exciting new way. Now, in copy, bullet points in copy are specialized and different from bullet points everywhere else. Because in most forms of writing, bullet points condense facts and offer a summary. Not in copy, though. See, in copy, bullet points are condensed, emotionally driven, focused statements or promises that are sometimes powerful enough, by themselves, to make the sale. A few episodes ago, Nathan mentioned that when he’s looking at sales copy, he looks at the bullet points first. I’d never heard anyone say that before, and I thought it was interesting. I gave it some thought. I realized that bullet points do a lot more for Nathan—and for nearly everyone else reading copy—than most people realized. Then I went through three classic ads—one by Ted Nicholas, one by Gene Schwartz, and one by Mel Martin, all hall of fame copywriters. I hand-copied more than 60 of their bullet points onto a giant sheet of paper. That was quite an emotional roller-coaster ride, all by itself. In the process, I realized these master copywriters were doing a lot more with their bullet points than what we usually think of when we write our own bullet points. I’ll tell you about my findings and share the exact bullet points the greater copywriters wrote. To get us started, so we can all remember the enormous sales power of bullets, let me share with you a story I told six years and two months ago, on one of the earliest episodes of this podcast: An Afghanistan vet and his wife went to the housewares department of a “big box” store. They were looking for an electric can opener. The vet was an amputee. He only had his right arm. The salesman showed the man and his wife the best model, and started rattling off all the features: U.L. Approved, cordless operation, easy to clean, 5 star reviews online. The couple listened politely but didn’t say a thing. This made the salesman nervous. “Are there any questions I can answer for you?” he said. “Just one,” the vet said with a smile. “If I get this model, can I open a can with just one hand?” The salesman was embarrassed that he had failed to mention this, but he recovered quickly enough. He said yes—and the couple happily bought the new can opener. Every customer is like the vet. I don’t mean that every customer is an amputee. What I mean is that there’s usually one performance, or benefit, that towers in importance over all others. Maybe they don’t realize they’re looking for it, but when they find out, that alone may be enough to get them to buy. Bullet points are where you highlight individual benefits. Usually not features, but benefits. It’s worth getting good at them, because better bullets mean more sales. We covered some major highlights of all bullet points, and then dug into the copy of the three great copywriters: Ted Nicholas, Gene Schwartz, and Mel Martin. We looked at how each of them used the following types of bullets: 1. Bullets that answer objections 2. Bullets that assert benefits 3. Bullets that create curiosity 4. Bullets that stun and fascinate 5. Bullets that deliver a warning Download.

Today we return to Old Masters Series with a guy I’m going to call The Godfather of Creativity, Alex Osborn. He’s best known for inventing brainstorming, which was first used at his advertising agency BBDO (the O was for Osborn). But he has done a lot more than that. For example, in 1954 he co-founded the Creative Education Foundation. And he’s written a number of books. The best-known one was the bestseller Your Creative Power. However, a lesser-known book, Wake Up Your Mind: 101 Ways To Develop Your Creativeness, is what we’re going to use today to get into some really interesting, practical ideas about creativity and writing copy. First, we went over over a few things about creativity as we define it. First of all, creativity is not coming up with harebrained ideas like lizards that play golf to sell life insurance. Not in the way we’re talking about today. Creativity is finding better ways to get a prospect excited about and committed to buying what you are selling. No lizards required or desired. Second, in his book, Osborn says something dear to my heart: Schools teach the wrong things for creativity. This was back in the day; this book was published in 1952. I don’t know what schools teach these days, but, if the main purpose of school is to teach kids to score high on standardized tests so they can get into a platinum-level college, that works against developing creative abilities. Someone named Burdette Ross Buckingham wrote a book in 1926 called “Research for Teachers,” and Osborn says ever since that book came out “educators have increasingly leaned on statistics. This has led to accumulation of facts, and deprecation of the generation of ideas.” He goes on, “Creativity necessarily lacks exactness.” One of the guiding questions of schools is, “Can it be tested?”, and Osborn says this question gets in the way of schools developing creativity skills. That is, since creativity is not exact, so you can’t test or measure it. Now science, technology, engineering and math are survival skills in the jobs economy these days, but remember that the people who built the companies that hire all those people, had far greater imaginations than most of their employees. That is, they have much better practical creativity skills, among other things, than your average bear. Something to think about. The third thing that’s really important before we got into these seven steps of creativity: In real life creativity may not work this way exactly, and Osborn says so in his book. Sometimes you take these steps out of order. Sometimes you don’t take all of them. He writes: “The more I study and practice creativity, the surer I feel that its process is necessarily a stop-and-go, a catch-as-catch can, a ring-around-the-rosie; and the more I doubt whether it can ever be ‘exact’ enough to rate as scientific.” Osborn says, “The most we can honestly say is that it usually includes some or all of these phases.” I would have to agree. There’s no set formula for creativity, but knowing these seven steps will put you in a better place to come up with profitable creative ideas than not knowing them will. Osborn had an unusual comment about the importances of mental and emotional effort in creativity. He says “Writers recognize as ‘rhythms of creativity,’ the ups and downs of their power to produce. Since each person’s talent is the same from day to day, those cycles must be solely cycles of energy—a fact which helps prove how dependent upon our drive creativity can be.” We then proceeded to go through Osborn’s Seven Steps, and added a tip about reading books a special way to increase your creativity. A good show, well worth taking in. Link to the out-of-print 1952 book this podcast is based on: Wake Up Your Mind-100 Ways To Develop Creativeness, by Alex Osborn https://www.amazon.com/Wake-Your-Mind-Develop-Creativeness/dp/B0000CI7JO Download.

Three weeks ago we did a selection from my half of the no-longer-available Guerrilla Copywriting audiobook. It was so popular, we thought we’d do it again. Here’s some background: Sixteen years ago, in 2007, I produced an audiobook with my friend and mentor Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the bestselling Guerrilla Marketing series. Jay and I originally thought about doing a book together, but that never happened. However, we did do an audiobook. It was called Guerrilla Copywriting. Unlike a lot of things he did and I lot of things I’ve done, this one didn’t sell that well. I don’t think either of us had the bandwidth to promote it, but there may have been another problem -- we tried to jam too much good information into too little time. We had sixty really powerful tips for writing copy. Jay would do one, then I would do one. It ended up being 60 tips in 60 minutes. Plenty of value, but maybe we would have been better off slowing down and taking some time to talk about each tip. Well… the audiobook is out of print now, so I’m free to share my half of the material. I took a look at it the other day and, I gotta admit, it’s pretty good. A couple things needed to be updated -- a lot has happened in 16 years. But for the most part, we’ve got eternal principles that are completely workable today. OK. Today we cover about quarter of my part, and we’re going to take 25 minutes to half an hour to discuss. You’ll see why it makes more sense to do it that way. I’m starting to think the original was four times as fast as it should have been! Some of this you’re familiar with but you’ll probably see in a new light. And you may hear a few things that are new to you. Everything’s useful, and it stays to true to one of the main goals Jay and I had when we did this originally: It’s designed to make you more profitable, and it’s information you can put to use right away. Download.

People outside of marketing and copywriting might think “swiping” is something you do on your phone with a dating app, or maybe that it’s slang for shoplifting. Not wrong, but today we’re talking about what copywriters and marketing strategists mean when they say “swiping.” And that is, taking a proven form (whether that’s actual words or something a little more conceptual) and finding a way to use it yourself. It could be word-substitution in a headline. For example, we’ve seen countless examples of headlines that have swiped the originals: Who Else Wants A Whiter Wash? and Who Else Wants A Beach Body? Swipes would be Who Else Wants A Six-Pack That Gets Admiring Stares? Who Else Wants More Free Time Than You Ever Dreamed Of? Our guest today has a much broader and, I would say, more profitable vision of what swiping is and what it can be. His name is Corey Haines and he has a lot of experience in SaaS marketing. In case you’re not familiar with the term, SaaS stands for “Software-as-a-Service.” He also writes a weekly newsletter on SaaS marketing with more than 18,000 subscribers. Corey’s also cofounder of SwipeWell and has a whole lot of knowledge and wisdom on swiping than I’ve ever heard from anyone else. Here are the questions we covered on the show: - How do you definite “swipe file”? - Where did the concept of a swipe file come from? - Why is a swipe file valuable to a marketer and copywriter? - Where do you find good marketing inspiration to swipe from? - What are some examples of using a swipe file day to day? - What are some examples of taking inspiration from other industries to come up with creative marketing campaigns? To get a free trial of the software, go to: https://swipewell.app To find out more about Corey, go to: https://corey.co Download.

We’ve got a very special episode today in our Old Masters series—featuring some wisdom from David Ogilvy. He was legendary in advertising during the Mad Men days. Kenneth Roman wrote a book about Ogilvy called “The King of Madison Avenue.” I believe his book “Ogilvy on Advertising” was the only book on the subject to reach widespread bestseller status, far outside the reaches of the industry. Over 100,000 copies sold. For a business book, that’s like over 1 million sold for a novel or general-interest book. Ogilvy was more of a team leader and team builder than a solo operator. More like a Joe Schriefer or a James Patterson—Patterson was an executive for J. Walter Thompson before he became a best-selling novelist—Ogilvy was more like those guys than like a Gene Schwartz or a Gary Halbert. But don’t get me wrong. Ogilvy was also a terrific copywriter. He started out in direct response and understood the principles of that kind of copywriting inside out. I found something the other day, paging through Ogilvy’s autobiography, that’s a perfect fit for this podcast. Ogilvy had 11 rules for copywriting. Four of them are more focused on big ad agencies, but seven of them are great for us, and that’s what we’ll cover today. So what talked about today comes from is “David Ogilvy: An Autobiography.” This guy had quite an adventurous life, and after he retired he moved to live in a chateau in France. Here on the cover of the book you can see him staring menacingly at you, smoking a cigar. There are swans in the background. Ogilvy had this thing about trumpeter swans, which have the largest wingspan of any swan known to man. I don’t know if those are trumpeter swans on the cover, but there’s a really good chance they are. Ogilvy was an eccentric man with wide-ranging interests and an adventurous spirit. But when it came to copy, he was straightforward, and serious. And he was focused on getting results, even when he was writing consumer advertising with no response mechanisms. The rules we covered today come from his years of hard work, both writing copy himself and leading other copywriters. We talked about Ogilvy’s stance on studying advertising throughout your career, how much difference in response you can get when you improve the copy in an ad, whether a Big Idea matters or not, and a lot more. A link to get the book “David Ogilvy, An Autobiography”: https://www.amazon.com/David-Ogilvy-Autobiography-Trailblazers/dp/0471180025 Download.

Today we took a new look at an old question: What does it take to become a really, really good copywriter? I wanted to answer this question by zeroing-in on the path of mastery. I’ve been learning about the path of mastery for a long time. What I found out goes against what I learned in school and what I see on TV and in the movies. Our culture celebrates achievers but it does NOT respect the path of mastery very much. I’m lucky in that I know a number of copywriters who are well along this path, including a few who are personal friends and a few more who are my mentoring clients. To prepare for this show, I went back to the books I’ve been reading since 2009 to flesh out my ideas and observations. A few surprises, some new information. But nothing that goes against anything I’ve noticed and concluded up until now. So what I did was pick some key points from great books about mastery, and weave all that together with some practical, down-to-earth tactics and approaches for getting really, really good at copywriting. The way I see it, in copywriting, the word “mastery” is a term to describe having so many skills and so much knowledge at your fingertips that what you do looks effortless to someone watching you. It’s not really effortless, but it’s certainly different, when you do something after having prepared yourself to get really good and having done it in a certain way. And there is a known and documented way to get to this place. A better way to say it is: to get on this path. Because mastery, it turns out, is much more a path than a place. It’s more a journey than a destination. It’s more a way of continuously working on your skills, rather than a badge that you put up on your website. When you’re well along the path of mastery, you may be able to solve problems and come up with ideas in a fraction of the time it takes someone with less experience to do the same thing. When you do it, often seems effortless to the person watching. If they knew what was going on under the hood, they would know better. It’s not excruciating, but it’s not always that easy, either. In copywriting at the highest levels, being able to perform at a high level is important. Why? Because somehow, as copywriters we find ourselves, in situations where we have to fix things or change directions under great time pressure. If you have the ability to go with the flow in situations like that, it can make all the difference in the world. On today’s show, we didn’t talk that much about the amazing feats of master copywriters. But we took a really good look at how they got there and how you can get there, too. Because when the heat is on, you’ll want to be there yourself. When everyone’s counting on you, you want them to feel good about how you perform. The advantages are: you have more choices and more opportunities. You end up working with more interesting people on more interesting projects. And, last but not least, you end up getting paid a lot more money. Here are the four parts of today’s show: Part 1: Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect — But Practice for Mastery Keeps Making You Better and Better What famed cello player Pablo Casals said about practicing. The definition of the kind of practice that makes mastery possible from the leading expert in the field, Anders Ericcson. Plus more from author Daniel Coyle and Robert Greene. Part 2: The Two False Flags On The Path Of Mastery My favorite expert on mastery is the late writer George Leonard. Some important insights from him on what the path is like, along with two misleading signs to watch out for, and why they occur from time to time. Part 3: So What Do You Practice, Anyway? Killer wisdom from martial art great Bruce Lee, as well as a couple other great insights from master teacher of hypnosis Igor Ledochowski and author Robert Greene. Also, a key finding from neuroscience about mastery, from author Daniel Coyle. This part of the show gives you a clearer picture of how practice fits into your journey as a copywriter. Part 4: What Gets You On The Path And Keeps You Going The surprising personal quality that gets and keeps you on a path to mastery. Spoiler alert: It’s not innate intelligence or talent. But, according to Robert Greene, it IS genetic. Books mentioned: Mastery, by George Leonard https://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Keys-Success-Long-Term-Fulfillment-ebook/dp/B01ND0X91Y Mastery, by Robert Greene https://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Robert-Greene-ebook/dp/B007V65PBK The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle https://www.amazon.com/Talent-Code-Greatness-Born-Grown-ebook/dp/B0026OR1UK Peak, by Anders Ericcson and Robert Pool https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise-ebook/dp/B011H56MKS Download.

Today we returned to the Old Masters Series, but with a twist. We used some secrets from one Old Master to look at the famous work of another. This all came about last week, when I was going over the chapter on Intensification in Breakthrough Advertising with a client. Breakthrough Advertising, of course, is Gene Schwartz’s masterwork on copywriting. Part 2 of the book is seven chapters on “the basic techniques of breakthrough advertising.” And the first of those seven sets of techniques is what Gene Schwartz calls “Intensification.” Basically, how to get your hands on your prospect’s feeling of desire, and push it through the roof. I was struggling with how to put this on a podcast. And then I had an idea: Why not take John Caples’s famous ad, “They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano… ” and see how Caples used the intensification techniques. You might not be surprised that, even though the ad was written nearly 40 years before the book was, Caples knew what he was doing and used a bunch of the techniques. So, as we get started, you should know there are actually 10 Intensification steps in this chapter. Plus three other tricks. Again, this is all in one of 14 chapters of the book. We only covered five of the 10 Intensification steps today. First, because we did not have time for all 10. Second, I wanted to leave out five so you’ll be encouraged to get your own copy of Breakthrough Advertising from Brian Kurtz. We’ll give you a link in the show notes. Really, it’s one of the best copywriting books ever written. As you have already gotten a glimpse of there is so much in each chapter that you can spend years, and make a fortune, learning what’s in the whole book. Now, as to Caples. Gene Schwartz actually mentions this ad as a great example of one of the intensification steps, and we’ll cover that step. But it turns out Caples included more of than one Instensification step. It’s interesting to look at this ad, one of the most famous in history, because of the unusual way Caples uses the steps. He skips around from the normal order you would put them in. You’ll see what I mean in the full podcast. Here are the five Intensification steps we covered: 1. Present the product. 2. Put the claims in action. 3. Bring in the reader. 4. Bring in an audience. 5. Make a damaging admission. And a link to get Breakthrough Advertising: https://breakthroughadvertisingbook.com/ Download.

Today’s podcast is about a topic that is so important, we quote from three Old Masters, even though this is not an Old Masters Series show. The topic is: making your copy believable. Two of the Old Masters, right now. In his book “Ogilvy on Advertising,” David Ogilvy writes these words: “Says James Webb Young, one of the best copywriters in history: ‘every type of advertiser has the same problem: to be believed.’” And that only makes sense, when you think about it. Because no matter how good your copy is, if people don’t believe it, what good is it at all? We’re going a long way to solve that problem on today’s show. First, something from the third Old Master. We did a show on this topic a year and a half ago as part of our Old Masters Series. I’ll do a speed recap of the best of what we covered about believability then from a chapter A.O. Owen wrote in an old copy book about 100 years ago. His tips were: 1. Use exact numbers. Instead of “around 150,” use the actual amount, like, for example, 154—if that’s what it is. 2. Use the actual names of streets, cities, states or provinces, countries, and people’s name. Owen’s example was It is more believable to say “styles now reigning from Rue de la Paix, Paris, to Fifth Avenue, New York,” than to say, “styles now reigning from the fashion centers of Europe to those of America.” 3. His third tip was what we call today “the damaging admission.” Basically, admit you’re not perfect. In an sales letter by Million Dollar Mike Morgan that brought in over $10 million, one line that’s a great example, in the voice of the finance guru he was writing for, went like this: “No one has a crystal ball to predict the future—not even me.” 4. And the fourth one from this podcast was to mention motivation—your reason-why for doing something or the self-interested reason why your prospect should respond. This from a successful promotion I wrote years ago for Mendelson Auto Body Inc. in San Ramon, California: Here's A Special Offer To Keep Your Car Looking New! Plus, You Get A FREE Gift To Protect Your Car All Summer Long Two very self-interested reasons for people to take him up on his offer. So those four tips from A.O. Owen, with some modern examples, are as valid in 2023 as they were 100 years ago. But let’s move on to what we’ve got for today. It’s brand new, yet the advice is eternal. I pulled most of what we’re gonna talk about from a new book I’m writing which I’ll tell you more about in a month or two, when I should be ready to publish. For today, I took some copy for a bonus in an imaginary info-products course. It was pretty good to start with. Then I screwed it up four times, each with a different believability destroyer. All in the service of hopefully helping you avoid making the same mistake! Download.

I’m excited that we’re finally doing a show on Artificial Intelligence and Copywriting. This has been a long time coming. Nathan has had quite a bit of experience finding out on real assignments what AI can do and can’t do. I have less experience, but I do have some. One thing is for certain: AI is here to stay, and it is slithering its way into copywriting. It’s not going to replace all of us tomorrow, but if your skills are limited as a copywriter, you may want to upgrade your skills, or become a real AI jockey, or both. Today we’re going to talk about what AI does well and how it can save you tons of time, once you learn to use it. Also, what it doesn’t do well yet… and may never really be able to do at all. We started with my unabashed opinion of what AI is when it comes to copywriting, and things could only get better from there. In fact, Nathan had a number of positive things to say, including the best uses for AI when you’re a copywriter—things I had not considered or heard before. However, good copywriter that he is, Nathan doesn’t even think of having the AI engine actually do his writing. He’s saved that for himself. We also talked about where AI falls short, in ways you may or may not have already realized. Writing copy, after all, is a skill that most people don’t have or even understand. But it is and will remain necessary and vital for an increasing proportion of the world’s business for years to come. We also took a little peek into the future, to plot where we may be headed. Find Nathan's website at https://advertisingcheatcodes.com/ Download.

Today we’ve got an urgent topic that everyone in copywriting has questions about—and we’ve got an expert to give us some much-needed guidance. The topic is content. What do you do with it. When does it replace copy… when is it inappropriate… and when does content blend with copy and actually enhance the selling power? And our expert is Scott Aughtmon, founder of Direct Response Content Marketing. Full disclosure: Scott and I have been friends for a while, and he invite me to speak at a marketing class he was teaching at UC Berkeley six years ago. These days, Scott does a lot of marketing work in the tech space. He’s also the author of the book “51 Content Marketing Hacks” and created an infographic called “21 Types Of Content We Crave.” That infographic has gone viral, and we’re going to talk about a few of those types today, and give you a link at the end to get the full list. Scott told us how and why he got into content marketing, and a little bit about the surprising history of the infographic. If you overlook the importance of content every step of the way in your sales funnels, you’ll want to hear what Scott had to say, because he understands the value of content in a direct response context, and explains it better than anyone else I’ve ever heard. Scott reviewed five of the 21 items in the infographic, and we discussed why people crave them: • Content that reminds us there’s more • Content that inspires us to action • Content that reminds us we matter • Content that educates while entertaining us • Content that creates a fresh point of views, even about common things You can get a free copy of Scott’s infographic here: https://www.directresponsecontentmarketing.com/2019/09/12/the-21-types-of-content-we-crave-infographic/ And you can get his training on the 31 Types of Content We All Crave for $79 (instead of $99) and free PDF copy of his book, 51 Content Marketing Hacks. Offer good until midnight on 3/31. Here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/4k3hp45xhttps://tinyurl.com/4k3hp45x Download.

Our returning champion is Joshua Lee Henry, with a first: He came by to do a GUEST Old Master’s Series show. Joshua asked me if he take a new look at the work of John Caples, the great copywriter and author. I said OK, as long he talked about something different than we have talked about on the many shows we’ve already done on Caples. Joshua put together a collection of unique items that filled the bill. So I was really happy to bring him back for this special show! As you may remember, Joshua is a high-powered copywriter and copy chief for Agora. He started his career 13 years ago writing fundraising letters for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Joshua has been pastor of a megachurch and as a freelancer, has written for such famous clients as Jay Abraham, Brian Tracy and the Zig Ziglar corporation. Today, we found out what he discovered, digging into the archives of John Caples. Joshua broke it down into six lessons: 1. 4 Ways to Profit by Removing The Guesswork 2. How to Secure Testimonials 3. Appealing to the “Lazy Instinct” 4. The Value of Illusion 5. Write Long and Boil It Down 6. The Most Important Quality for a Writer is Sincerity Joshua rose to the challenge and we appreciate him for it! Here are a couple links: A training program Joshua’s part of: World of Financial Copywriting, https://bit.ly/3CaB9S8 And if you want to reach Joshua personally, his email is: joshualeehenry @ activatemyadvertising.com Download.

Our guest today is Meg Casebolt, founder of Love at First Search and host of the Social Slowdown podcast. I think the key words are “love” and “slow,” and let’s see if I’m right. Meg’s been very successful with a long-term search-engine optimization strategy she uses for her clients. One example that you should find interesting: Meg’s client Sara Frandina showed up third for the keywords “conversion copywriter” -- and this was organic, not an ad -- yesterday when I searched for that term on Google. Third on the first page of organic search for “conversion copywriter.” Not too shabby! You may remember legendary copywriter Gary Bencivenga had a huge success with the headline “Get Rich Slowly.” Well, Meg’s approach is similar. She doesn’t go for the black-hat tricks and other gimmicks popular among some marketers. “We don’t believe in quick-fix formulas that promise the world—but break your heart when you see they don’t work,” she says. One key element of Meg’s long-term, long-lasting approach: The strategic use of empathy in keyword research. Empathy, which could be seen as an appropriate expression of love. It’s an approach I’ve never heard of before, in the specific way Meg talks about it. So I was very excited to talk with Meg about it. She began with a great example -- a stark contrast between a bad example of empathy (that is, hardly any empathy at all) and the good use of empathy. This was for keywords in weight loss. From there, Meg shared her four strategies for coming up with a comprehensive empathy-based keyword strategy: 1. Empathize with your customers’ journey to find an answer 2. Understanding the WHY / Setting yourself apart 3. Providing a solution 4. Be empathetic when developing content This was a very valuable look at how to thrive in today’s content-based search engine environment. Meg’s website is: https://loveatfirstsearch.com/ Download.

Now that it’s late January, you should be well into your New Years Resolutions or goals for the year, or maybe decided, “Ah… I’ll wait till next year.” What I’d like to do is niche down to just copywriting. Do you have copywriting goals? I’ve got five skills or skill sets that are worth improving this year, and I want to give you a peek under the hood. Every one of these can put more power in your copy and more profit in your pocket. They’re not flashy but they are high-octane. And I’ve found the most successful people never stop improving, so it’s worth at least considering these and see if they feel like a fit. So there are the five skills. You probably have most or all of them already. The idea is that by getting better at any one of them, you copy improves in multiples. Skill #1: Research We talked about three kinds of research: fact research, emotional research, and situational research. Most people know what fact research is, and even getting better at this could really help anyone’s copywriting. But emotional research and situational research take copy to a whole new level. Skill #2: Rewriting Building off this quote from Ernest Hemingway: Don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can’t get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. You’ve got to work it over. The first draft of anything is shit. When you first start to write you get all the kick and the reader gets none, but after you learn to work it’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself. We talked about what real rewriting is like… why it’s so important… and the best way to do it. Skill #3: Metaphors We were so fortunate to have the Queen of Metaphors, Anne Miller, on the show a few weeks ago. We talked about her book, The Tall Lady With The Iceberg. Tucked away in the back of the book are a series of very practical, valuable routines on how you can get better and better at using metaphors in your copy—and everywhere else! We cover those in this part of the podcast. Skill #4: Go Beyond Swiping There’s a level of copywriting that Gene Schartz talks about in “Breakthrough Advertising” that goes way beyond swiping, or simply following formulas to come up with a headline or body copy. Gene says, “The idea for an ad or a headline demands its own shape. It cannot be fitted into someone else’s solution. The problem defies a formula. And the third, analytical approach -- with no answers, only guideposts and questions -- offers the only way.” We talked about these three levels of copy creativity here. Skill #5: Get Better At Identifying and Writing To Your Prospect’s Level of Market Awareness This another one of the many gems from Gene Schwartz’ book Breakthrough Advertising. Here are the five stages in a nutshell: Stage 1- Ready to buy your product Stage 2- Has heard about your product, but doesn’t want it (yet) Stage 3- Wants a product that does what yours does -- but doesn’t want yours (yet) Stage 4 - Has a need, but doesn’t see connection between his need and your product Stage 5 - Complete unawareness We talked about getting more familiar with these five stages, and how to use them. One more thing: If more than one of these appeals to you and you’ve already decided to improve the skill or skills, don’t dive into all of them all at once. Better to do one at a time. Maybe one a week, or one every two weeks, or one a month. But, if you can, do something every day to improve one of these skills, and stick with one for at least a week, you will find you have some impressive breakthroughs in 2023. Book links: The Tall Lady With The Iceberg, by Anne Miller https://www.amazon.com/Tall-Lady-Iceberg-Metaphor-Metaphorically/dp/0976279444 Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene Schwartz https://breakthroughadvertisingbook.com/ Download.

We’re back from last week with Joshua Lee Henry, who shared the first five of his 10 Commandments of Compelling Offers. As you may remember, they were great. To refresh your memory, Joshua is a high-powered copywriter and copy chief. His first appearance on Copywriters Podcast was a few months ago, when he gave us a great interview on putting together compelling leads. And, like I said earlier, today, he’s back with part two of The 10 Commandments of Compelling Offers. It’s not surprising that Joshua would be sharing his own copywriting version of the 10 Commandments, since 12 years ago, Joshua was a pastor for a megachurch with more than 5,000 members. It was at that time he began is copywriting career, writing fundraising letters for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Fast forward to 2018, when Joshua started freelancing and wrote for big names including Jay Abraham, Brian Tracy and the Zig Ziglar corporation. Like a lot of high-performing copywriters, Joshua moved under the umbrella of Agora, where he has written promotions that have made millions. These days, he is copy chief for Money & Markets, an imprint of Agora’s Banyan Hill company. Now before we get to part 2 of the 10 Commandments, allow me to share with you this Prime Directive: Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of the time, common sense is all you need. But if you make extreme claims... and/or if you’re writing copy for offers in highly regulated industries like health, finance, and business opportunity... you may want to get a legal review after you write and before you start using your copy. My larger clients do this all the time. 1. 6. Take Away a. Makes prospects qualify themselves. Which is a stronger sale and better customer. b. Reenforces prospects buying decision. c. Reduces refunds and cancels. d. Play hard to get. Don’t be desperate/needy. e. People want what they can’t have. f. Example from entrepreneur coaching program: “If it’s going to be tough to scrounge together $5k…OR you can’t imagine investing that much in anything, no matter how much more precious time and additional income it gives you…Then chances are this program is not for you. Likewise, if you have any doubts that we can deliver the goods…No hard feelings, just don’t apply.” g. Example: “10X Fortunes is exclusive and aggressive by design. This service is ONLY for people interested in making an extreme fortune, fast. And have the guts to go after a new 1,000% winner, every month this year.” 2. 7. Risk Reversal a. Shows skin in the game. b. Carries the burden of proof. c. Different than a satisfaction guarantee. d. Try before you buy offers. e. Bill my later offers. f. Example from options service: “Test Drive Wednesday Windfalls Options Service for the next 30 days for only $1. Then, at the end of the month, if you’re happy with the gains you’ve made and want to continue...Do nothing and we’ll automatically upgrade you to official membership at the normal annual price.” g. Example from investing service: “When we make our first 1,000% winner, I’ll PAY for your second year’s membership” h. Example from online marketer: “If it doesn’t work, I’ll pay you $200.” 3. 8. Guarantee/Warranty a. Satisfaction, quality or performance based. b. Questions asked and no questions asked. c. 100% Money-back? There are other options (i.e., different service/product, offering a second year, discount on another item, gift card, etc.) But money-back is perceived as the safest offer. d. Longer guarantee is better. e. Make it conditional, upon a customer behavior. f. People know they’re going to cancel when they order. Most everyone else will forget to cancel unless there’s a big problem. g. Example: Real estate marketing biz that required agents to submit their marketing materials printed on their stationary before eligible for the refund. h. Example: Have to have completed a certain amount of modules in an online course. i. Example: Must attend all online course sessions over a period of time to be eligible for a refund. j. Example from investing service: “If we don’t make at least 12 triple-digit winners this year, I’ll pay for your second’ years’ membership” k. Example from Patriot Health Alliance: “Give Patriot Power Greens a fair and honest try for at least 30 days. If, after trying a full canister, you don’t feel like you have more energy, clearer thinking, better digestion, a healthier heart and less pain when you move around then I want you to simply send back any unused canisters along with a simple 1-page note giving me your honest feedback of the product. Just a simple handwritten note will do. Just write your honest feedback on a sheet of paper and put it in the box along with your order when you return it. We’re putting all of the risk on our shoulders and backing your order with a never-before-seen 200% money back guarantee.” l. 4. 9. Deadline a. People need to be pushed to act sometimes. b. Make it a real deadline with real consequences. c. Give them a waiting list if they missed out. d. Build up the FOMO for next time. e. After a few days reopen and send them an email about an available opening. f. Example from real estate investing biz: “But FAIR WARNING — after these 100 spots are filled this special edition of the Investor’s Toolkit will be removed from the market.” 5. 10. CTA a. Tell people exactly what you want them to do. b. Make the buy button or CTA absolutely clear. c. Repeat the CTA several times. d. Have only 1 CTA per marketing piece. e. Make it a two-step ad. I.e. download this report, then a CTA for booking a consultation or “strategy session” f. If needed, switch up the CTA at later stages in the funnel. g. Example: Ability to call in to tele-sales at the lifetime upsell. h. Example: Giving a phone number to call Joshua is one of the instructors in the World of Financial Copywriting program. You can get more info about it here: https://bit.ly/3CaB9S8 And if you want to reach Joshua personally, his email is: joshualeehenry @ activatemyadvertising . com Download.

Our returning champion is Joshua Lee Henry, the high-powered copywriter and copy chief. You might remember him from a few months ago when he gave a tremendous interview on putting together compelling leads. Today, he’s back with The 10 Commandments of Compelling Offers. Not surprising, since 12 years ago, Joshua was a pastor for a megachurch with more than 5,000 members. It was at that time he began is copywriting career, writing fundraising letters for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Fast forward to 2018, when Joshua started freelancing and wrote for big names including Jay Abraham, Brian Tracy and the Zig Ziglar corporation. Like a lot of high-performing copywriters, Joshua moved under the umbrella of Agora, where he has written promotions that have made millions. These days, he is copy chief for Money & Markets, an imprint of Agora’s Banyan Hill company. The last time he was here, after he gave us great information about leads, I asked Joshua if he had more that he’d like to share. He has a very busy schedule, but he managed to squeeze in some time for us, to talk about compelling offers. He started by giving us some important pinpointing information about how detailed and elaborate your offer can be. But he emphasized that the more of these commandments you combine, the stronger your offer is. The first commandment covers what you get, but it’s way beyond a laundry list of the components that make up the package of what you’re selling. Joshua shared some techniques to strengthen the “WYG” (what you get). Second, third and fourth commandments go into great (and valuable!) detail about explaining the price. Putting $(number) in your copy just ain’t gonna cut it, as you undoubtedly know if you’ve been writing long-form direct response copy for specialized offers. Joshua gave some powerful tips about presenting price justification, payment terms and special discounts. He also gave strong examples of price-related copy from successful offers across the web. And the fifth command is a detailed breakdown of bonuses and premiums—what they are and how they work. Some new ideas as well as some important established truths it always helps to be reminded of. Joshua went into so much detail that we only had time for five of the 10 commandments on today’s show. He promised to come back next week to give us the remaining five. Joshua is one of the instructors in the World of Financial Copywriting program. You can get more info about it here: https://bit.ly/3CaB9S8 And if you want to reach Joshua personally, his email is: joshualeehenry(at)activatemyadvertising(dot)com Download.

If you’ve ever wondered what a metaphor is and how to use metaphors in your copy, today you will get your questions answered. Because we have a guest who I consider to be the reigning expert on the question, Anne Miller. She’s author of “The Tall Lady With The Iceberg.” For my money, it is the best book ever written on how to use metaphors to sell, to explain, and to win people over. Anne understands and teaches this information better than anyone else I’ve ever seen. She’s also a coach, speaker and seminar leader. Her huge client list ranges from Columbia University and The Wall Street Journal to Revlon, Citibank and Yahoo. As well as clients in Australia, South America, Europe and Asia. Dozens and dozens of household names and major niche organizations. For us in the copywriting world, Anne’s expertise in creating and using metaphors is what excites me the most. Many copywriters and business owners use metaphors, but not too many people do it all that well. And that’s about to change today. Anne covers a lot of ground on today’s show. Here’s what I ask her: 1. What is a metaphor, anyway? 2. Why are metaphors so important? 3. You have a very handy four-step metaphor workout. Could you share it with us? 4. What are the main ways we can use metaphors in communication? 5. Could we talk about a few different kinds of metaphors, with examples 6. How about which mistakes you should avoid when using metaphors? You can get in touch with Anne on her website: https://www.annemiller.com Here’s the link to her book, The Tall Lady With The Iceberg: https://www.amazon.com/Tall-Lady-Iceberg-Metaphor-Metaphorically/dp/0976279444 Download.

Today we’re back with Peter Visser, who has developed an impressive business with partners. It’s an online education business that teaches people how to trade in the stock and Forex markets. What I found so interesting, and I think you will find it interesting too, is his marketing approach. While it seems typical at first glance, as you start to look into it a little further, it’s not typical at all. In last week’s show, we talked about how he sells to a webinar with ads he says are “‘zero-claim,’ so they always pass compliance.” The ads go to a webinar that has no sales pitch, as Peter describes it. The webinars have generated six figures a month for the last year. From there, he has a copy strategy using one-to-one emails, and a particular way of writing copy that doesn’t risk the wrath of the regulators. Today we’ll talk about the second part of his funnel -- the pitch his company uses to qualify leads, and his overall approach for writing highly persuasive copy without making any claims. Peter tells us about a one-on-one email pitch. “It allows us to qualify hundreds of inquiries per day for our $5,000 program.” It’s a three-step process that “primes the prospect for a high-ticket sale before they reach the closer.” As a result, he says, this keeps his close rate above 40%. Also, we take an in-depth look at copy without claims! Whether you end up using this approach yourself or not, it’s certainly something you would like to find out more about. Peter and his partners also offer a program for traders to start their own online education businesses, not reselling his courses but based on their own experience and expertise. To find out more, go to: https://cashwithcourses.com/yes To contact Peter, use this email address: peter at cashwithcourses dot com Download.

Today our guest is Peter Visser, who has developed an impressive business with partners. It’s an online education business that teaches people how to trade in the stock and Forex markets. What I found so interesting, and I think you will find it interesting too, is his marketing approach. While it seems typical at first glance, as you start to look into it a little further, it’s not typical at all. He sells to a webinar with ads he says are “‘zero-claim,’ so they always pass compliance.” The ads go to a webinar that has no sales pitch, as Peter describes it. The webinars have generated six figures a month for the last year. From there, he has a copy strategy using one-to-one emails, and a particular way of writing copy that doesn’t risk the wrath of the regulators. Today we’ll talk about the lead generation process, and the pitch-free webinars themselves. Peter has generously agreed to come back next week to tell us in detail about how he gets customers, once they’ve watched the webinar. Here is what he talked about today: - The ad strategy that got his company 50,000 registrants and 7,500 attendees from Google ads over 12 months. As I mentioned, Peter says, “These are ‘zero-claim’ ads, so they always pass compliance.” Peter got a return on ad spend of 3 to 4 times—even when show-up rate was very low (which is a typical problem with webinars). - The “Pitchless Event”: How his company put on 20 webinars in 12 months that generated six figures apiece, without a sales pitch during the webinar. An important point for follow-up sales that were initiated after the webinars: Peter got more than 100 five-star reviews on Trustpilot. I’ve never heard of anyone doing an online education business quite this way, so I was very eager to have Peter come on and break this down for us. Peter and his partners also offer a program for traders to start their own online education businesses, not reselling his courses but based on their own experience and expertise. To find out more, go to: https://cashwithcourses.com/yes To contact Peter, use this email address: peter at cashwithcourses dot com Download.