Copywriters Podcast

My all-time biggest hit was a direct mail sales letter for Abacus Travel Management that generated $40 million in new business. I wrote this pretty early in my career as a copywriter… over 20 years ago. One of the biggest challenges I had was getting into the way of thinking that ran through my prospect’s minds. My prospect was an entrepreneur who had a successful company and bought a lot of travel. I had never met anyone like that before, so it took a lot of research and a lot of mental effort before I could zero-in on who this person was. What I found out was, because they were so successful, nobody would cut them any slack. Everyone assumed the successful entrepreneur had no problems, since it seemed like they had endless amounts of money and other people did all the work. The reality, of course, was quite different – these people worked harder than anyone else at their company. And what good was money if you didn’t have any time to enjoy it? So eventually I came up with the perfect headline. The idea wa

A friend of mine had an old Fender Stratocaster guitar he wanted to sell. He put up an ad on Craigslist. The price was good and he got five people to come by and look at it. Most of the people liked the way the guitar played, but they all kind of hesitated and nobody bought. He asked me what was wrong. I looked at the guitar. It was clean enough and it had new strings. It sounded good, but it looked kind of dull. “Get something to polish it up with,” I said. “Then raise the price $100, and you’ll sell it.” My friend said he wasn’t that much “into appearances.” But he was so frustrated that he followed my advice anyway. And, guess what? It worked. The first person who came by from the new listing looked at the guitar… played it for five minutes… pulled the exact amount of cash out of his pocket… and walked out the door with my friend’s old guitar. My friend smiled. After the buyer left with the guitar, he admitted he was dumfounded. How could one coat of polish make such a difference? As it turns out, the sa

Looking for some tips on how to get over the blank page blues? We've got you covered. This week's episode is all about how to get started when you're in a slump. I used to take a lot of road trips, especially when I was in college. 500 miles from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Rockville MD. Back in the day, the length of this trip home was never a problem for me. But getting ready to go was. I was a worry-wart. Did I have everything packed? Was my tank full? Did I have enough food and coffee for the trip? Then one day I made three important discoveries: - Gas stations - Restaurants on the turnpikes - And stores near home in case I forgot something. With those discoveries, hey – getting ready was a LOT easier, and I knew in 8 to 10 hours of drive time, I’d be back home. Writing copy is a lot like that. You need to prepare, but the need to over-prepare can get in the way of you getting started. And if you find you’re missing something while you’re writing, you can always take a break and get what you need. Today we’

When you watch a show on TV like “Law and Order” or “NCIS,” the detectives are mighty impressive. They efficiently rule out innocent subjects and nail the killers – all inside of 60 minutes! And how do they do it? First, by doing hands-on, smart research. And then, using what they learn to develop convincing proof … … to solve the case and nail the perpetrator. Now… copywriters are usually not called upon to solve murder cases. But we still need to be just as thorough and convincing, in proving the claims that we make in our copy. First I’d like to say something about what you’ll hear today: 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. Good thin

Special Episode with copywriting legend John Carlton, on the topic of "Copywriting Is a Team Sport" Key takeaways: - Beginning and intermediate copywriters need mentors and critiques on their work. But, surprisingly, so do A-Listers and super-successful entrepreneurs. A different kind of support -- but, what's similar, is, they need to hear the truth about their work and their businesses from supportive, experienced people who aren't afraid to point out flaws and missing pieces. - Dan Kennedy on how to decide what creativity fits and what should be cut from your copy: "Does it advance the sale?" - Golden advice from Gary Halbert: "When all else fails, give people what they want." - To this day, other top marketers and copywriters count on Carlton to round out their advice and presentations: Two current examples -- Dan Kennedy at Cleveland event, Clayton Makepeace at online Mastermind. - The Mastermind process, first described by Napoleon Hill in "Think and Grow Rich," is uniquely valuable for writers and b

Stephen Covey famously said "seek first to understand, then to be understood." Too bad most copywriters skim over this important part of selling. For many copywriters, market research is just too difficult. For others, they just don't know where to start. In this episode, David covers those bases, and more. Many years ago, a golf ball company was running a successful mail-order ad in a golfing magazine. The company owner decided to update the ad, and brought in a top designer from New York to redesign it. To everyone’s horror, response to the ad dropped to zero. No one could figure out why. The copy had not been changed. The market was still hot and growing. There was no bad news about the golf ball company that anyone was aware of. Turned out, the top designer had redone the coupon in the ad to be solid black, with white lettering and white blanks to fill in. This caused a problem for customers, because to fill out the coupon, they would have needed a pen that wrote in white ink! The business owner ordere

Bullet points can be tricky to get right, but they pay off big when you do. This week's episode will teach you how. 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, but it worked fine. The salesman showed the couple the best model, and started rattling off 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?” “Just one,” said the vet with a smile. “If I get this, 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 a 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 feature or benefit the prospect is lo

Ask any experienced, successful salesperson what the single best form of selling is, and you’ll nearly always get back the same answer: “Demonstration.” That’s why savvy car dealers let customers take a new car home for the weekend before they actually buy the car. It’s the same reason Internet marketers offer a $1 trial for the first month, on products or services that are billed for far more than that every month. They know that when people get to try what they’re selling, a lot more of those people will buy it. That’s why pet stores let people take a puppy they’re interested in, home for the weekend. In sales, there’s even a term for this kind of hands-on (paw’s on?) demonstration – “the puppy dog close.” Oddly enough, you can get your prospect to demonstrate your products for themselves without ever letting the touch the product! How? By telling them what I call “demonstration” stories. Prospects get to try out your product in their imaginations. How to create and use stories is known by some of the be

Birds and airplanes don’t always get along so well. Just ask Sully Sullenberger, the Air Force Academy graduate. On January 15, 2009, Captain Sullenberger was piloting a commercial flight on an Airbus A320 as it took off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport—and the plane ran smack-dab into a flock of birds. Both engines went out immediately. One caught fire. Sullenberger quickly decided there was only one way he could save the lives of the people on the the plane, and that was to do the impossible: land it on the Hudson River. It was a risky move, but he correctly concluded it was his only option. What happened next has been called “The Miracle on the Hudson.” Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles made a safe landing on the icy river. All 150 passengers, 5 crew members, and both pilots of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 were rescued safely. That’s a truly heroic story. And, it’s a perfect example of what mythologist Joseph Campbell calls “The Hero’s Journey.” This kind of story can work very well sometime

I was recently watching a video sales letter from an investment advice publisher. The narrator told the story of Steve Jobs, in 2008, walking in the hills of San Jose, California, with one of Apple’s best engineers. Jobs had the vision of an Apple car. The one problem he couldn’t see his way past at the time was the enormous amount of data back and forth needed to make this kind of car work. The technology was not available in 2008 to transmit, manage, store, and access all that data – fast enough to operate the kind of car Steve Jobs had in mind. Fast forward to today, nearly a decade later. The narrator of the VSL said, one company now has the technology needed to bring into physical reality Steve Jobs’s unrealized vision. That one mystery company, the narrator said, has solved the one problem standing in the way of building the Apple car. (Of course, the narrator wouldn’t reveal which company it was. You had to buy the investment newsletter for that, which I didn’t do.) Now here’s the point: Solving one

In the late 1970s, famous copywriter Joe Karbo rocked the direct marketing world with his full-page newspaper ads. The headline was: “The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches.” Many people thought this was revolutionary. But actually, he wasn’t onto a new concept. You see, people had already been appealing to prospects’ laziness for decades. For example, in 1923, the legendary dancer and dance instructor Arthur Murray ran an ad in Popular Science magazine with this headline: “See How Easily You Can Learn To Dance This New Way.” So, it’s a time-tested technique. But can you use laziness headlines yourself? Absolutely! Even If your prospects are the hardest-working people on planet Earth, they’ll be more inclined to order your product when you use a laziness headline in the right way. We’ve got a lot to cover so you’ll really understand this and know how to do it. And we’ll have some fun along the way. First, though, fair warning: Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this podcast. Most of

There’s nothing quite like watching little kids staring at wrapped-up presents under the Christmas tree. They’re so excited. They know they’re supposed to wait until Christmas to open the presents, but their curiosity about what’s inside the packages is driving them crazy! Same thing, actually, with a good curiosity headline. This kind of headline gives your prospect just enough information to keep them reading. The curiosity is like the itch that can’t be scratched any other way… than by reading your copy all the way through . Your prospect is propelled by curiosity. A quick note: 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. Now… curiosity head

David Garfinkel, the World's Greatest Copywriting Coach, has started a new podcast. What's it all about? Listen to find outDownload.