Copywriters Podcast

If you would like your lead magnets to perform better and get you more qualified prospects and customers, wouldn’t it make sense to look at the most popular form of engagement in the world for some clues? I’m talking about video games. According to the sports and gaming platform Sportskeeda, last year gaming was a $396 billion industry. Movies, $284 billion and music, only $28 billion. Marketing l...

Four months ago, I was completely skeptical about AI and how it would ever fit into copywriting. I saw a post on LinkedIn by Brian Halpin, a copywriter working in Jason Parker’s agency. Brian talked about some unbelievable results, nearly one million in sales, that they had gotten with a VSL that was 80% written by AI. I’ve known Jason for more than 10 years, and Brian’s post piqued my interest. J...

The term “cult” has become such a loaded word lately. People who aren’t members of certain groups call the groups a cult, and the members of those groups resent and deny it. Yet, are all cults bad? Maybe some are, maybe some aren’t. But on today’s show, Nathan Fraser is going to talk about a special kind of cult that, in his view, is not only GOOD — but actually necessary to the survival of some o...

Ever wonder how to set yourself, your product, or your business apart? It’s a big puzzle these days. The best general advice I’ve heard is from recent podcast guest Scott Zetlan: “Different is better than better.” It almost sounds silly, but in the super-competitive marketplace, where products live in the real world, it’s not silly at all. It’s actually profound. Because here’s what it means: When...

Job one for a copywriter is getting and keeping attention. We always give that our best shot. But there are some situations where you need to do this more intensely, and you don’t want to come across like a screaming insane person yelling loudly just to get attention. So we need to come up with some unusual techniques, to increase the intensity without pushing our prospects away. That’s what today...

Today we’re going to talk about two words that can change your writing forever. Not just your copywriting, but especially your copywriting. One word is a first-grade word and the second word is a fourth-grade word, according to people who seem to know about those things. The words are “but” – with one ‘t’ – and “therefore.” Why are these words so important and who, besides us, says so? It’s becaus...

You know FAQs – that list of frequently asked questions, and answers? Are they a copywriting chore you would just as soon avoid? Well, today I’d like to offer a different way to look at them. As a huge, and mainly underutilized, marketing opportunity. I want you to consider this possibility: An FAQ section doesn't just inform. It also persuades. But not in a cheesy, ham-fisted kind of way. See, it...

OK, finally. You’ve got your copy written. At least your first draft. Now what? That’s what a subscriber to the podcast asked me on youtube a few weeks ago. The best I can do to answer that question is tell you how I look at copy, whether it’s my own, or a client’s. Today’s show is about a series of steps I go through to review copy with a mentoring client or in a one-off copy critique. Some of th...

These days, things in copywriting are changing so fast it can make your head spin. Junior copywriters aren’t sure there’s a career path, because of AI. Experienced copywriters are finding clients have different and sometimes confusing demands that you never would have heard five years ago. Our special guest today, Scott Zetlan, has some answers for junior copywriters, experienced copywriters, and...

One of the hardest things for copywriters and business owners to get right is running ads to cold traffic on Facebook and Instagram, and making those ads profitable. If you’ve tried this for yourself, I think you know what I mean. So does today’s guest, who has discovered some important techniques that work and has also discovered the mistakes to avoid, and is going to share valuable info about bo...

I would say our guest today Will Siebler takes a Zen approach to copywriting. On the home page of his website, he has a picture of a lonely but sturdy coffee cup on a table. On the coffee cup is the word “Begin.” But the shimmering peace is shattered by a few words overlayed on the picture: “I’m Will. I write words that make your clients say, ‘Shut up and take my money!’” It’s a quiet confidence y...

Listen to this: “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” That’s from author and sportswriter Jim Dent, and it perfectly captures how a lot of us feel in the summertime. Lazy and happy to be so. And that’s fine. But don’t mistake your state of mind for the state of business. While more retail sales happen in Novem...

It’s a double-edged word that doesn’t get talked about enough. And that word is: confidence. It definitely has a bad connotation, as in “con artist” or “confidence man.” But on the flip side, and with a different meaning, it’s a very important, positive word. I would say in some very straight-laced business circles, it’s the only emotion you can talk about freely without raising eyebrows or causin...

As a copywriter, sometimes your biggest problem is that your prospect doesn’t have a problem. Well, that’s not exactly it. Actually, sometimes your biggest problem is when you don’t KNOW what your prospect’s problem is… and how to communicate to them in a compelling way that your product can solve that problem. And if you can show convincingly that you can solve that problem better than anyone els...

Does the world turn upside down when you are writing copy for prospects with money? The first time you do it, it sure seems that way. And there’s a good reason for that. The rules are different for writing that kind of copy. Does that mean that the core basic aspects of psychology are different for rich people than they are for everyone else? Absolutely not. The core basic aspects are virtually id...

In this episode, we dive into the concept of transformation in marketing, revealing why it's the secret ingredient behind successful campaigns. We'll uncover the types of transformations—physical, emotional, and social—that resonate most with audiences. Learn how to identify the most compelling transformation your product offers and how to overcome the natural resistance people have to change by h...

In theory, AI should be able to do anything you tell it, including write good copy for you. In practice, AI does what you give it instructions to do. And finding the instructions to give it that will make it write in compelling, simple conversational English… looking for those instructions has been like the search for the Holy Grail. At least for me. Until now. Three weeks ago we had our returning...

It is rare that we quote baseball players on Copywriters Podcast, but today we are going to quote a great one, Yogi Berra. He said, “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” But as intrepid copywriters, we do the difficult. Actually, stories about the future are very useful and effective in copy. They’re probably not exactly what you think, though. You may be using some o...

If your tank is empty and you’re looking for inspiration, you could do worse than to watch a little WWE wrestling. ¬ Our special guest today, Todd Jones, is quite a fan and an expert. He’s written a terrific article called “5 Lessons I Learned About Storytelling From Pro Wrestling.” Yesterday I read it. Because it’s online, it has videos to illustrate his excellent points, and I watched about half...

I really didn’t believe it was possible—that AI could crank out compelling copy in a conversational, persuasive voice. But I reconnected with my old mentoring client Jason Parker last week. By “old,” I mean it’s been over a decade since we worked together. He’s not all that old himself. Me, that’s another story. When he showed me what he’s come up with, I didn’t believe my eyes at first. But then...

When you talk about your product and you get that deer-in-the-headlights look, what gives? In the best of all worlds, it’s simply that the prospect doesn’t understand what you’re saying. And that very much could be because you’re the man or woman who knows too much. I’m talking about the curse of knowledge—when you’ve gotten all this expertise, which you needed, but you forgot to take the next ste...

First weekend in May, the #1 show on Netflix was an origin story. Not a real origin story, but a total fabrication for comedy purposes. It was a movie called Unfrosted. It’s important for copywriters for a couple of reasons. The first is the power of a product name. The movie was a totally fictional story about how Kellogg's popular toaster pastries became a hit in grocery stores. It's hardly a sp...

Every day it gets worse–the struggle to get people’s attention. It’s always been hard, but never like this before. Too many things and people are competing for our attention at any given moment. This may seem like a particular problem for copywriters, since we’ve been trained to start every message with a headline or a subject line. Nothing wrong with that, but there is a way of using words that i...

Time to talk about a taboo subject that needs to be discussed: The truly awful clients copywriters inevitably get, and how to set things right with them (or make a Quick Draw McGraw exit)! We’ve all had them. That can’t be changed or avoided. But what to DO about them? That can be learned, from an expert who’s been there, done that, and figured it out! Our special guest today is A-List Copywriter...

After you’ve finished your copy, how do you know that you got everything right and haven’t left anything out? There are several good ways to double-check, but I don’t think there’s one more fun than Jack Turk’s Killer Copy Checklist. It’s an 8-page PDF, written and presented like a comic book. But it’s serious stuff, in an easy-to-take form. Today Jack’s going to tell us about the checklist and ma...