Copywriters Podcast
375 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★★ - 89 ratingsCopywriting lessons from David Garfinkel
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Episodes
Pro Wrestling Storytelling Secrets, With Copywriter Todd Jones
June 24, 2024 06:00 - 44.9 MBIf 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 an hour of high points in the sport, dating back all the way to 1981. Most of the clips are...
How Jason Parker Made AI Write Really Good Copy
June 17, 2024 06:00 - 41.3 MBI 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 he showed me how he was doing it. And, with no background material other than the book title...
Beware The Curse Of Knowledge
June 10, 2024 06:00 - 45.1 MBWhen 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 step of simplifying it and putting it into appealing marketing language so your prospect can i...
The Incredible, Versatile Origin Story
June 03, 2024 06:00 - 38.4 MBFirst 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 spoiler to tell you the name they settled on that led to the big bucks: Pop-Tarts. How the...
New Ways To Open Your Copy With A Story
May 27, 2024 06:00 - 38.5 MBEvery 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 is scientifically proven to get and hold attention better than anything else. And that’s a...
Nightmare Clients And What To Do About Them, with Copywriter Kim Krause Schwalm
May 20, 2024 06:00 - 49 MBTime 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 Kim Krause Schwalm, author of the great new book Client Badassery Secrets: How Copywriters...
Jack Turk’s Killer Copy Checklist
May 13, 2024 06:00 - 41 MBAfter 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 make it available to you free… free… free of charge. To understand why this is such a go...
When You Should Set Up An Agency, With Andy Strote
May 06, 2024 06:00 - 40.3 MBIf you’re a copywriter and you’re itching to build a business, what should you do? You probably have many options. But if you’d like to know whether building your own agency is the right way to go, we have some valuable information for you. Today’s guest, Andy Strote, has built two agencies. The first one, Fireworks Creative, grew from 2 to 30 people in five years. Andy and his partner sold the agency to a large company called Cognicase. Six months later, he started another agency with ...
5 Ways To Make Any Story Stronger
April 29, 2024 06:00 - 40.3 MBOnce you can start using stories effectively in your copy, you have for all practical purposes developed a marketing superpower. But don’t stop there. Because the difference between a story and a STRONG story can be the difference between high-test gasoline and rocket fuel. One will get you there faster… but one will get you there a lot faster, and go a lot further! Strong stories are the rocket fuel in your sales copy. And we’re going to talk about 5 ways to make any story stronger t...
Building A Fortune From Scratch, With Aaron Gentzler
April 22, 2024 06:00 - 37.7 MBIf you wanted to build your own home from scratch, it would be a good idea to talk to someone who’s done that, right? Same thing with a sales funnel that generates a level of income you can barely imagine. How do you build one? My advice is: Listen to our returning champion, Aaron Gentzler. Because he’s been there and done that. Multiple times. For example, Aaron led a team in growing a newsletter business by a factor of 12, from $4 million to nearly $50 million a year. Another exa...
Video Ads - Old Masters Board Meeting
April 15, 2024 06:00 - 32.3 MBToday we have a special edition of the Old Masters Series. I’ve convened a “board meeting” of six of our favorite Old Masters: David Ogilvy, Vic Schwab, Joe Sugarman, Gene Schwartz, Claude Hopkins and John Caples. If you’ve read Think and Grow Rich, you know how Napoleon Hill used to have imaginary meetings with dead presidents? Well, this one’s like that, but a little different. I’ve taken actual quotes from these six featured Old Masters and organized the quotes into three categories,...
5 Entertaining Ways To Increase Sales
April 08, 2024 06:00 - 38.8 MBLast week we had A-List Copywriter Donnie Bryant on to tell us that the era of salesmanship in print is over for copywriting, to be replaced by showmanship in print. He added that knowing how to sell is still a top priority, but today it’s almost imperative that you do it in an entertaining context. Donnie’s right. We’re in an entertainment era, that’s for sure. A couple days ago I was watching a Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter from the Washington Post describe some major breaking news ...
Showmanship Not Salesmanship, With Donnie Bryant
April 01, 2024 06:00 - 42.2 MBFor years, copywriters have been bowing down to a pivotal moment in copywriting history when John E. Kennedy revealed to Albert Lasker that advertising is, in fact, nothing more than “salesmanship in print.” That happened in Chicago in the early 1900s. Today, a modern-day copywriting visionary from Chicago, Donnie Bryant, says it’s time to update the definition. Donnie is our returning champion. He was on a couple months ago to talk about his great new book, Subject Line Science. But t...
AI In The Trenches, With Aaron Gentzler
March 25, 2024 06:00 - 50.5 MBIf you’d like to know what goes on behind the scenes in the world of financial copywriting, our guest today has the inside story. Aaron Gentzler is CMO of Mauldin Economics, a major financial publisher based in Northern Florida. He’s been in the business since 2006 and tells us about his own journey, as well as some of the experiences he’s had training and advocating for younger copywriters. Just as important, he’ll let you know what he has seen that spells bad news for people trying to g...
My 10 Rules Of Copywriting Mentoring
March 18, 2024 06:00 - 52.3 MBThis is a Manifesto and an Exposé. People ask me all the time what I do in my mentoring of copywriters and business owners. I mean, what did I do to earn the tagline, “The World’s Greatest Copywriting Coach?” I’ve decided to come clean. It’s never been a secret, but now that I think about it, I just don’t talk about it all that much. In dribs and drabs, sure. But never the full monty. Until today. Today’s show is for two types of people: First, anyone who’s interested in the kind of me...
Joe Sugarman Seminar Highlight Reel - Old Masters Series
March 04, 2024 07:00 - 48.7 MBOne of the first two books I devoured and then recommended to people who bought my course was by Old Master Joe Sugarman, who passed away two years ago. The book was called “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word.” Just about everything in that book is valid today, and Sugarman writes like a friendly human being, not an imposing overlord of advertising. It’s a very easy book to read, but it is chock-full of detailed, high-powered value. Today, as we continue our streak of Old Masters Se...
The Unspeakable Power Of Envy
February 26, 2024 07:00 - 45.1 MBToday we’re going to talk about an emotion that gets short shrift in copywriting, but I believe is the most powerful of all when it comes to motivating people. That emotion is: Envy. It’s controversial, because there are so many prohibitions against it. We’ll talk about those today. But it’s also widespread, from solopreneurs to marketing from the largest corporations in the world. Some observers have suggested, for example, that Apple is expert in making its products objects of aspira...
The Seven Stories In Blockbuster Promotions, with Henry Bingaman
February 19, 2024 07:00 - 37.5 MBHow do you put together a seven, eight or even nine-figure promotion? (Just in case you weren’t sure, “nine figures” means north of 100 million dollars. And yes, you’re about to meet someone who has written a promotion that took in more than $100 million.) But in fact, there are precious few copywriters who have done all this and will tell you how. However, our special guest today is one of the few who can, and will—and he’s Henry Bingaman. All told, Henry’s copy has generated well over...
John Caples Believability Secrets Part 2 - Old Masters Series
February 12, 2024 07:00 - 40.1 MBYou can have the greatest product, the greatest headline, the greatest targeting, the greatest offer, and the greatest price. But you know what’s going to torpedo your entire promotion in a New York minute? It’s: if your prospect doesn’t believe you. We covered one aspect of believability last week, but we have some fresh tips today. Because believability is the pass/fail test every ad must pass in order to work. Period. But that’s not the end of the story. In today’s Old Mas...
Believability Secrets From John Caples - Old Masters Series
February 05, 2024 07:00 - 43.9 MBYou can have the greatest product, the greatest headline, the greatest targeting, the greatest offer, and the greatest price. But you know what’s going to torpedo your entire promotion in a New York minute? It’s: if your prospect doesn’t believe you. Believability is the pass/fail test every ad must pass in order to work. Period. But that’s not the end of the story. In today’s Old Masters Series episode, we draw on the considerable wisdom of the great John Caples, and a new book rec...
Copywriting Summit With The World’s Fastest Copywriter, Jack Turk
January 29, 2024 07:00 - 42.7 MBWhat do the world’s most experienced, successful copywriters really think? What if I could get them all together in one room and ask them to share their best ideas and techniques on specific copywriting topics they know most about? If you’ve ever wondered those things, you’re not alone. Our special guest today, Jack Turk, wondered the same thing. And next week, he’s going to give you an answer, at no cost to you, to hear what some of the world’s top copywriters have to say. Including Da...
The Shortest Killer Pitch You’ve Ever Seen
January 22, 2024 07:00 - 41.8 MBWhen you’ve got to make a pitch to a prospect, whether in person or in writing, you face a weird paradox: The more successful the prospect, the less time they have for you. Cramming a ton of benefits into a short pitch tends to work against you. Who can process all that data in such a short period of time. Lucky for you, there’s another way. It’s called “stacking microstories.” Today I’ll show you how to put together a complete pitch that takes less than five minutes to deliver. You can...
What Connects, And What Separates, Copywriting From Coaching, With Sean McCool
January 15, 2024 07:00 - 45.7 MBIf you’re thinking hiring a copywriter OR you’re considering getting a coach, you might be wondering: What can a copywriter do for me that a coach can’t? And vice-versa: What can a coach do for me that a copywriter can’t? Coaching and copywriting are two professions that have grown impressively over the last 20 years. The Internet and a fast-changing world have a lot to do with it. But a lot of people are unclear on what they do and what kind of results they provide. Because while both...
Response-Boosting Pre-Launches, With Brenna McGowan
January 08, 2024 07:00 - 47.8 MBWhen you start a launch, do ripples of fear tie your stomach up in knots, because you feel like you’re starting from zero and you feel you’ve got way too far to go, and not enough time to get there? It’s a common problem, and one today’s guest set out to solve. Brenna McGowan is a launch strategist, copywriter and the creator of what she calls “Anticipation Marketing.” She’s developed a system so the water is warm even before you jump in to start your launch. She has a complete pre-laun...
Response-Boosting Pre-Launches, With Brenna McGowan
January 08, 2024 07:00 - 47.8 MBWhen you start a launch, do ripples of fear tie your stomach up in knots, because you feel like you’re starting from zero and you feel you’ve got way too far to go, and not enough time to get there? It’s a common problem, and one today’s guest set out to solve. Brenna McGowan is a launch strategist, copywriter and the creator of what she calls “Anticipation Marketing.” She’s developed a system so the water is warm even before you jump in to start your launch. She has a complete pre-laun...
The Little-Known Power Of Email Subject Lines, With Donnie Bryant
January 01, 2024 07:00 - 52.5 MBWhen you sit down to write an email, you are presented with a barrage of questions and problems. Not only how to get it opened, but how to get click-throughs. An even bigger problem which most people don’t deal with is, how does your subject line affect the number of sales you ultimately make? Our guest today, returning champion Donnie Bryant, has spent a lot of time thinking about these questions—and a lot of time rigorously testing different approaches to come up with some definitive an...
How To Effortlessly Get Into Flow, With Composer And Copywriter Doug Pew
December 25, 2023 07:00 - 50 MBWhat do you do when copy is coming in fits and starts… or, worse than that, you are staring at a blank page, which is staring back at you? Our returning champion today, Dr. Doug Pew, has some answers for you. What he has to say is information and specific steps you’ve probably heard nowhere else before. And Doug should know. He’s written music performed at Carnegie Hall and an opera that was featured at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He’s also written a lot of other sophisticated ...
Home-Run Promo Story Secrets, With Joshua Lee Henry
December 18, 2023 07:00 - 56 MBWhen you’re writing a long-form sales letter, you’ve got to cover a lot of info, and some of it is quite detailed. The problem is, how do you keep your reader engaged and keep the excitement building all the way through? And suppose you know you need to use stories but you are so tired of worn-out hero’s journey stories? Our returning champion today, Joshua Lee Henry, recently solved those problems and wrote a home-run promo featuring a very exciting expert, a veteran of high-level mil...
Tips To Improve Conversions - Old Masters Series
December 11, 2023 07:00 - 38.1 MBHave you ever written a really good sales page or video sales letter script, and you’re sure you’ve done everything right, but it’s still not converting the way you know it should? Sometimes it all boils down to that final push. More than a call to action, the final push is a collection of simple but crucial elements to help your prospect get across the finish line. These tips were discovered from rigorous testing and study by an old Master, Clyde Bedell. We’re going to share some of hi...
Two Key Deep Dives For Copywriters
December 04, 2023 07:00 - 39.8 MBHave you ever been working for a client on a project where you know exactly what hook and offer will convert in the market, but your client has a different opinion and is strongly opposed to what you want to do? By the same token, have you ever had a client urging you to promote their product a certain way, when you have strong evidence or knowledge that it’s not what the market wants? Every experienced copywriter has faced one of these problems, or both of them at the same time. It’...
The Comic Book Copywriting Secret
November 27, 2023 07:00 - 41 MBIf you’re haunted by low open rates, dismal click-through rates, miserable engagement and pathetic conversions, there’s almost certainly something you’re not doing enough of—or maybe not doing at all—that could increase your numbers dramatically at every turn. And that’s writing in a much more visual way. Picture copywriting, we call it. Which is not as hard to do as you might think it is. The best visual storytellers in the world are comic book artists and filmmakers, and today we’re goi...
Transforming Complex Concepts Into Cash - The Tangibilization Process
November 20, 2023 07:00 - 34.2 MBThe confused mind buys nothing. So if you are confusing the reader, they’re not going to buy. How does this play out? When you are selling a course, a technology, or a health supplement, you often run into a familiar brick wall: This thing is so complicated. I know it works, but how do I explain it so the average consumer can quickly grasp it? Today we kick around some little-known (yet completely common-sense) techniques to go from “incompressible” to “I want it!” Resource: My new bo...
“Sprint Testing” For Faster ROI, With Nathan Fraser
November 13, 2023 07:00 - 45.8 MBWhenever you’re about to roll out a huge campaign on Facebook or Youtube, you’re facing a huge risk. How do you know your ad is optimized in the four most important ways to get you the biggest bang for your buck? For most people, it’s a roll of the dice. Or time to call in an expert in statistics. Because optimizing is so complicated that most people don’t know how to do it—or get it right without taking weeks and weeks and spending hundreds of dollars in ad spend, just to test and get it...
The Copywriter’s Workout, With Wendy Ann Jones
November 06, 2023 07:00 - 41 MBWe’ve talked about the path of mastery in copywriting before, and a key part of moving ahead in your skills as a copywriter is regular practice. But how do you practice your skills if you don’t already have lots of work to keep you busy? Today’s guest, Wendy Ann Jones, confronted that important question herself when she first started writing copy. She couldn’t find a good answer in anything available, so, created the solution herself. It’s a terrific book called The Copywriter’s Workout ...
Many Millions And Still Testing, With Walter Burch
October 30, 2023 06:00 - 47.3 MBWhat does testing your online ads at a nine-figure level look like, and how do you think about it? Our special guest today, Walter Burch, is CEO of Envoy Media Group, a performance-based marketing company. Envoy has spent many, many millions of dollars of its own money on Facebook, Google and YouTube ads over the last 18 years. His company has generated more than $1 billion in sales for national clients, using their own money and developing their own methods through imagination, testing,...
Why You MUST Be Interesting
October 23, 2023 06:00 - 42.5 MBIt’s a common mistake copywriters make, but it’s one you MUST not make, because it can be fatal. And that’s: writing copy that’s boring. Sometimes copywriters make the mistake of trying to put something funny in the copy that draws attention away from what you’re trying to sell. You definitely want to keep the tension going while you focus on the problem you’re promising to solve. But there are ways to do it that don’t detract from the sales appeal of the offer itself, and that’s what ...
5 Growth Strategies for Course Creators, with Doug Pew
October 16, 2023 06:00 - 40.1 MBOnline education is growing faster than you can keep up with. That’s great news if you’re riding the boom wave yourself. The problem, though, is that as the space gets more saturated, course creators need ways to stand out. How do you become known as the go-to expert in your niche? Our returning champion today, Doug Pew, has some answers for you. Besides writing blockbuster copy for course creators, Doug also coaches people to put together powerful courses and ramp up their sales grow...
The Little-Known Power of Microstories
October 09, 2023 06:00 - 37 MBHow do you keep your prospect’s attention and even create unexpected moments of fascination throughout your copy? One of the greatest sure-fire solutions, that is, paradoxically, one of the least-well-known, is microstories. These little gems have all the power of stories with none of the heavy-lifting requirements of a hero’s journey story. You can easily sprinkle microstories throughout your copy, replacing interesting parts of your pitch with little gems that are truly intriguing. Not ...
Fast Path To Short Copy
October 02, 2023 06:00 - 42.4 MBSometimes when you’re doing a funnel or you only have a limited space or number of characters to start your sales process, you have no choice but to use short copy. We all run into that situation, even if we prefer long-form copy. But then we run into a brick wall–the time and difficulty of actually writing short copy that works. Why does it take longer to write a good Google ad for a powerful 280-character Twitter/X post than it takes to write a couple pages of copy? It’s maddening when...
Eugene Schwartz’s Best-Kept Copywriting Secret
September 25, 2023 06:00 - 30.2 MBWhen you sit down to write your copy, do you shake in fear because of the terror of the blank page? Or, maybe you’re not terrified, but you’re frustrated because you don’t know where to start? Today we talk about a game-changing method developed by one of our industry’s great Old Masters, Eugene Schwartz. He delivered a powerful secret in an obscure talk he gave in the early 1990s to Rodale Press. You won’t find this secret in either of his landmark books, Breakthrough Advertising or the B...
Financial Copywriting - What It Really Takes, with Aaron Gentzler
September 18, 2023 06:00 - 49.2 MBIf you’d like to know what goes on behind the scenes in the world of financial copywriting, our guest today has the inside story. Aaron Gentzler is the CMO of Mauldin Economics, a major financial publisher based in Northern Florida. He’s been in the business since 2006 and tells us about his own journey, as well as some of the experiences he’s had training and advocating for younger copywriters. Just as important, he’ll let you know what he has seen that spells bad news for people trying ...
Bullet Points That Increase Sales
September 11, 2023 06:00 - 24.2 MBToo many copywriters shoot themselves in the foot by not giving enough attention and energy to bullet points. Why? Because they don’t realize how valuable bullets are to increasing sales. In fact, many prospects would have stayed on the fence if not for a single bullet point that really zero’s in on what they were looking for in the first place. We’re going to give you a quick but thorough walk-through on how to get the most out of bullet points in your copy. Download.
How To Build A Stronger Call To Action
September 04, 2023 06:00 - 24.4 MBThe 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 y...
Headlines, Hooks and Mechanisms—Tips, Tricks and Techniques
August 28, 2023 06:00 - 30.4 MBThree 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 ...
Drilling Down To The Nitty Gritty
August 21, 2023 06:00 - 28.4 MBToday’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 ...
The Power of Persuasion Stories
August 14, 2023 06:00 - 23.6 MBLet’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 fic...
How Copywriters Look At The World
August 07, 2023 06:00 - 26.4 MBWhen 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 te...
Copywriting to Women, With Mike Pavlish
July 31, 2023 06:00 - 28.8 MBThe 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 und...
Guerrilla Copywriting Selections, Part 4
July 24, 2023 06:00 - 28.3 MBIn 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 audioboo...
Writing Supplement Copy, with Steve Earl
July 17, 2023 06:00 - 28.2 MBIf 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 ...