Copywriters Podcast

A friend requested I give a talk to his group of copywriters and business owners. One of the copywriters in the group asked me: what does it take for a copywriter to go from “good” to great? And what I do work on with people when I coach them. Six things I’ve found… We’ll talk about the first three in today’s show. Warning Copy is powerful. You’re responsible for how you use what you hear on this...

Imagine you like to ride a bike. Maybe you already do. So you ride every day, on mostly flat roads and paths and occasionally a mild hill. Then one day you decide to get in a race. You don’t learn much about it ahead of time. On the day of the race, it’s raining. There are oil slicks on the road. The competitors are going much faster than you are used to. Then gusts of wind kick up. And to top it...

We have a special Report from the Field today that reaches deep into one man’s family. Our guest is Joshua Killingsworth, and while people’s last names usually have nothing to do with anything else, in this case, it holds a clue. Because Joshua Killingsworth’s copy is killing it. He’s got a webinar and sales page promo, for example, that converted 65% on a one-thousand-dollar product. He’s created...

A few weeks ago, we had Joe Schriefer on the podcast in a special “Reports from the Field” episode. Joe said something that changed my life, and I’ve been thinking about ever since. As you may remember, Joe heads up Agora Financial, and he was one of the key players in growing it from $25 million a year to $250 million a year. The show as about how to scale up a business dramatically the way Joe h...

I was looking at a new online MasterClass by Judd Apatow, a film director who specializes in comedies. His bio said he got started in the business at age 15 as a dishwasher at a comedy club… and, you know how the story goes… the rest is history. You’ll hear lots of stories like that – but few in copywriting. Why is that? And what can you do instead? That’s what we talk about today. Copy is powerfu...

Detectives today have a powerful tool in their toolkit – DNA analysis. Except for identical twins and maybe in the future human clones, every person’s DNA is unique, as far as we know. So if there’s a drop of blood, a hair, a small piece of skin, or any number of other tiny little pieces of a person’s body at the scene of a crime, the detective who finds DNA has struck gold. That’s because DNA lea...

Direct marketers usually hate TV commercials, because they give a bad name to advertising as we see it. That is, they don’t truly sell. But sometimes I like them – not as advertising, really, but as works of art. There’s a very intriguing commercial running right now for Alfa Romeo, the luxury Italian sports car. What intrigues me the most is their tagline. In Italian, it’s La Meccanica Delle Emoz...

Donald Burns once helped the world's most hated man find a job. How'd he do it? By using copywriting methods while writing his resume. After all, what is a resume, if not a sales pitch for yourself? Donald gets into what works and what doesn't when it comes to resumes. He's written them for some of the most successful people out there. He even has some tips for copywriters on how they can better p...

Despite what the rock group the Buggles told us, video did NOT kill the radio star. Our guest in today's special Report from the Field, Daisy Luther, appears regularly on 830 stations through the Genesis Radio Network. But to many people, Daisy is even better known as The Organic Prepper. She runs a very popular and profitable website. I met Daisy personally in late April, at a private dinner in B...

Surprise is the “magic excitement dust” of entertainment - Music “High Time,” Grateful Dead. Circa 1970. Very touching country-rock kind of song about a misunderstanding that ended a relationship, and all the self-doubt that followed. Melancholy. Goes where you wouldn’t expect: surprise. Vs. my rewrite (Corny AF) “You said goodbye and held me tight You know I found it heartwarming Yeah, sure, I’ll...

My girlfriend has a dog named Sheila, and Sheila’s an Australian Shepherd. Now, Australian Shepherds are working dogs and they always seem to need to have a job to do. Last Tuesday, Deb was sitting down to write some copy on her computer and she told me that Sheila was guarding the door for her. I thought that was interesting. Sheila didn’t know what to do, but she figured out Deb didn’t want to b...

Today we’ve got another Report from the Field, and our special guest, our returning champion, is Joe Schriefer from Agora Financial. Joe, thanks for coming back! So here’s what we’re going to talk about today: Few people will ever get the chance to grow an eight-figure company into a nine-figure company. And far fewer still will ever do this with a company that’s 100% driven by direct response cop...

Featuring Joe Schriefer We’ve talked about the Big Idea on the show before, but we have a report from the field today with the best expert I know or know of on this topic, Joe Schriefer. Just on the slight chance you’ve never heard of him, Joe heads up Agora Financial in Baltimore, which consists of five publishing companies, or “imprints,” as they prefer to call them. When you put them all togeth...

There’s an old concept in direct response called “dry testing.” Basically, it means you sell the product before you have it. I’ve heard questions about whether it’s legal to do this with physical products, but it seems to me it’s perfectly OK to do that with a course you’re planning to do. People pay now and take the course later. After all, that’s what every single university does, and some of ou...

Meeting with editor from large subscription newsletter publisher in 2006, at conference. Editor didn’t understand copy all that well – joked that “In our copywriting department, we have two divisions: The division of fear, and the division of greed.” This is a commonly accepted assumption among many copywriters AND among many copywriting gurus… fear and greed are IT. True? We’ll look at that today...

A friend with a dog problem – biting. Found a training way to completely eliminate the problem. Product. Lead-genAd was very powerful: Biting dog? First thing they do is try to put your pooch down. Get a much happier solution! He was getting a lot of clicks on the ad. But very few conversions. Turned out the reason was his copy struck a very different tone. While the ad was scary and energetic (To...

So, I recently bought a new piece of music equipment. It came with a lot of bells and whistles, including: Opening – Eqs and Compressors Supercharger GT 99 Passive EQ 149 Vari Comp 99 Enhanced EQ 149 Solid Bus Comp 99 Solid Dynamic 99 Solid EQ 99 VC 2A 99 VC 76 99 VC 160 99 Total: $991 Doesn’t include other special effects, like reverb and overdrive. Second one, passive EQ – a Manley Massive Passi...

Show’s today about what I’m calling “Copywriter-Plus.” As things have become very competitive in the world of copy, this is a new strategy I’ve discovered that could help every copywriter who takes advantage of it. Also - new technology, originally developed in radio -- including recorded brief comments from people mentioned during the show. “Copywriter-Plus” is something you and I, Nathan, have b...

Today we’re starting a new special feature of the Copywriters Podcast. It’s called Reports from the Field. These are interviews with people who are not merely EXPERTS – they are also practitioners. Right now they are implementing what they are talking about. We can all learn so much from people who are in the field and taking action successfully. Our first guest on the Copywriters Podcast Reports...

This week's episode is a little bit different. David and Nathan do a bit of a freestyle rant on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as it pertains to writing your sales copy. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the topic, here's what we'll be covering. Physiological needs * consumer goods * food * clothing * shelter Safety needs * personal security * financial security * health and well being S...

As a journalist, I was trained to do “news stories” and “feature stories.” A news story started with a quick, curiosity-provoking sentence hinting or outright telling what the story was about. A feature story would start with an anecdote, or a startling fact, or something other than the direct subject of the story. Same as direct / indirect leads. What we’ll talk about today. Because which one you...

Story about recent critique client: a couple good ideas; 20. Mandy’s question about my creativity, from her podcast interview: Question 2: One other thing I noticed about reading your testimonials… your clients are impressed with how fast you come up with great ideas. He also has this ridiculous talent for coming up with copy, like, effortlessly. It would take me at least 30 minutes to come up wit...

Native Instruments purchase - $1200 for a hard drive filled with music software and virtual instruments. This cost me more than a lot of my guitars! I called my sales engineer at Sweetwater, Brian. What he explained to me. What I’d be able to do… what I would not have to spend… or take time learning. Suddenly, it didn’t seem that expensive. Think about what it would have cost to do that in real li...

I got this small rubber ball to squeeze to strengthen the muscles in my left hand, when I started playing guitar again a couple years ago after a 40-year “break.” You want your copy to be as strong as possible, too. Remember that good copy has a job to do… to move qualified prospects to take action. That takes muscle! Today’s episode tells you how to make your copy more muscular. Copy is powerful....

On June 23, 1965, a group out of Detroit called The Contours released a record which became a big hit. The tune was written by written by Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers, and it was called “First, I Look At The Purse.” Many other groups covered this song afterwards, including the Jay Geils Band. It’s a very interesting song… but, when it comes to critiquing copy, I have my own version. Actually,...