Copywriters Podcast

From Kenny Werner’s book: Effortless Mastery It’s for jazz musicians, but one thing he wrote applies very much to brainstorming ideas for copy and marketing campaigns: In a chapter called “Fear-Based Composing,” he writes, “The most anxious moment for a composer is starting at a blank piece of paper.” Before I go on, I’d say, that’s true for copywriters too, isn’t it? He continues, “It is much eas...

This is especially for business owners. About half of my mentoring clients are business owners. Now when I meet business owners who don’t already have some copywriting skills and experiences, they end up falling into one of three camps: 1. Those who know they want to learn copy 2. Those who are thinking about learning copy but aren’t sure that it’s a good idea, and 3. Those who have felt some pres...

A client of mine made an interesting discovery. When he wrote short emails, he got mediocre click-through. When he wrote longer emails, he got a higher click-through. But when he condensed the longer emails down to the length of the original short emails, he got the highest click-through rate of all. Why is that? We discussed this and the answer we came up with is what this podcast is about. In sh...

OK. Everything you’ve heard about not using humor in copy, be prepared to reconsider all of it. Because of our guest today, Jon Buchan. A few years ago, Jon freely admits, “I was desperate for sales after my word of mouth work dried up.” He continues: “I got hellishly drunk one night and wrote a completely absurd cold email. “I was still tipsy the next morning and decided it was still a good idea...

Our guest today, Ken McCarthy, has been at the forefront of Internet marketing and copywriting from the start. To give you just one in example, way back in 1994, he sponsored a conference about making the Internet a place where you could do business. Before then, it was a business-free zone. His featured speaker was a pioneer of the time, Mark Andreessen, who went on to co-found one of Silicon Val...

Our guest today, Ken McCarthy, has been at the forefront of Internet marketing and copywriting from the start. To give you just one in example, way back in 1994, he sponsored a conference about making the Internet a place where you could do business. Before then, it was a business-free zone. His featured speaker was a pioneer of the time, Mark Andreessen, who went on to co-found one of Silicon Val...

The TV series “Perry Mason” was an important part of my youth. It also turns out the writer who originally created the characters for the show was, for a time, the world’s best-selling author. With more than 300 million book sales to his name, Earl Stanley Gardner was a real-world expert on how to communicate with large numbers of people in an emotionally compelling way. In today’s show, we extrac...

Our guest today is notorious and endlessly fascinating: Ben Settle. He’s an email specialist, author, anti-professional, and novelist. People go nuts over Ben. Including me. I once wrote to him, “You’re the f’in’ hottest email copywriter on the Web now.” But I wasn’t alone. Our recent guest Richard Armstrong says, “I start my day with reading from the Holy Bible and Ben Settle’s email, not necessa...

Our returning champion is copywriter Doug Pew. He was kind enough to be a guest a couple of months ago, when he talked about The Music of Copywriting. Doug is currently working on a couple of books about copywriting, but that’s not why he’s here today. The reason Doug agreed to come on and speak is The Copywriters Podcast itself. That is, Doug found himself in a bind a few weeks ago. The kind of b...

With Brandon Frederickson Brandon is a stock market guru, turned marketer - turned copywriter. He’s managed product launches for the likes of Jeff Walker and he’s currently a copywriter for Stansberry Research, the 2nd largest division of Agora. Brandon specializes in product launches and maximizing long term value and retention. He does this by understanding how to build long term relationships w...

Three books I’ve been picking through for other projects, from entertainment fields, reminded me of the way we’re writing copy today: Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy, by Robert Jourdain The Writer’s Journey, 2nd Edition, by Christopher Vogler Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting, by Robin Frederick The rules used to be that copy was NOT to be entertaining. And that seems to have changed. But here’s one thin...

Richard Armstrong is a top A-List copywriter and I’m proud to say he’s my friend. He’s written for all the big mailers: Agora, Boardroom, Rodale, Kiplinger’s, Reader’s Digest, and many others. The late and extremely picky William F. Buckley, Jr. once allowed that Richard’s writing is “terrific.” The legendary Gary Bencivenga called Richard “one of the best copywriters on the planet.” And the great...

A row of dominoes can shed some light on the secrets of the close in copywriting. So can • Picking an apple • Checking out at the grocery store • Asking someone to marry you What do all these things have in common? We explore this in today’s show. What’s important to remember is nothing happens all by itself, and that’s excruciatingly true when it comes to closing the sale. Study all the power clo...

Our show today features superstar public speaker and Internet marketing trainer Tom Antion, who shares some expert info about the red-hot topic of public speaking for copywriters and business owners. Why is this important? Because “the copywriter’s journey,” as we’ll call it, goes something like this: - You start out learning to write copy. Big mystery - Suddenly, it becomes clear as something you...

A little-known book called “The Act of Creation” by Arthur Koestler says that there are three states of mind all creative people use in the process of coming up with new ideas. Broadly stated, these three states are: 1. Humor 2. Scientific Thinking 3. Art While knowing about these is somewhat useful for the process of writing copy, being able to write copy that inspires these different states of m...

Driving around Orange County in Western New York. What a police officer told me that, years later, really helped my copywriting. How you lose readers… and sales crater Very few people talk about this, and when people do, they tend to give it the short shrift. But not us. We’re going to give it the long shrift in today’s episode. Why everyone struggles so much with this problem The best “greased ch...

Before they start writing copy, people always ask me about a version of the same question: How can I make my copy succeed? But, strangely enough, after they’ve written their copy, their questions turn in a different direction. They are almost always the same question: Why did my copy fail? Today we’re going to talk about three things that really answer both questions. But before we do, let me answ...

We have a Special Report from the field today. In fact we might want to call it a fast-track masterclass in music and copywriting. Our special guest today is copywriter Doug Pew. He also happens to have a doctorate in classical music composition from the University of Cincinnati. He’s won awards for his music and he wrote an operate which was performed at the Kennedy Center. Plus, he was a Fulbrig...

How a TV interview with legendary singer/songwriter Robbie Robertson put the icing on the cake for me about a crucial problem in copywriter — on towering copywriter Gene Schwartz revealed on an obscure video, and certainly is Gene’s biggest secret for all copywriter. Something not even found in “Breakthrough Advertising.” The big problem with how people go about writing copy: We’ve got to shake ol...

Chances are very good you’ve seen and heard our guest before. Maybe on ABC News, or CNBC, or Howard Stern. Or somewhere else on the radio. And, if you’ve ever called Citibank, hers is the familiar voice you hear before you get to a live person. Chances are just as good you’ve heard at least one of her students and clients, too. In fact I know you’ve heard at least one of them on this very podcast,...

Without a good roadmap, most copywriters are just flying blind when they sit down to craft a sales letter. Sure, having a template can help, but even that doesn't get at the underlying problem. In order to write persuasive copy, you need to understand what each section of the copy is supposed to do. This week, David and Nathan break down the job of many essential parts of your sales letter. From h...

Einstein said: “Imagination is More Important than Knowledge.” It’s a quote that has led a lot of people to think they don’t need to know anything… all they need to do is “be creative” by using their imagination, and all their dreams will come true. That’s just not true. Because that quote, while accurate, is taken way out of context. Einstein needed to add just one word to it so the quote would s...

Million Dollar Mike Morgan is a top copywriter currently working for a major division of the world’s largest financial publisher, Agora Inc. As a copywriter for Agora’s Money Map Press division, Mike’s in charge of promoting newsletters and other financial advisory services. His promotions that have made as much as $17 million apiece. Mike doesn’t like to do many interviews, but he’s one of my clo...

We’re back with Meron Bareket, who’s known as the “Sherlock Holmes” of funnels and conversions. He has the unique background and ability to find the “murderous leaks” in your online sales process — and fix them. When he combines that with his copywriting, you get outsized conversions and record profits. I know this because Meron is a mentoring client of mine. I’ve seen the kind of detective work h...

Meron Bareket, who’s known as the “Sherlock Holmes” of funnels and conversions. He has the unique background and ability to find the “murderous leaks” in your online sales process — and fix them. When he combines that with his copywriting, you get outsized conversions and record profits. I know this because Meron is a mentoring client of mine. I’ve seen the kind of detective work he does and the m...