Copywriters Podcast

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

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 ques

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 l

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

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

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 i

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

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

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 m

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

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 t

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. H

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 ou

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

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 clie

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 i

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 busines

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 ri

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.