Copywriters Podcast

We’re back with Bill Schley, the New York Times Bestselling Author and award-winning Brand Specialist. I’ve gotten to know Bill well over the past few months, working with him on the launch of his new online program, The Brand Titans MasterCourse. I invited Bill to come back because I’ve gotten really intrigued by his approach to branding. Anyone else in direct marketing will find it intriguing, too, because there’s a seamless connection between what we do and what he does. I have to say he’s the first branding expert I’ve run across who not only states the purpose of branding is to set a company apart to maximize sales… … but also who has a proven system to show anyone in any business the exact steps to take to do just that. Bill’s been at it for more than 30 years, after getting his foundation at the legendary New York agency Ted Bates and Company, headed earlier by the great Rosser Reeves. And companies are counting on Bill even today to help them stake their claim in the competitive marketplace. This year, he’s helping a high-eight-figures conglomerate in a very hot tech sector get their branding in tip-top shape. And a tiny startup he recently branded has been scooped up by a division of a large publicly traded company, which is looking at pouring millions of dollars into the recently acquired startup, thanks to the branding Bill initially provided for it before the acquisition. After going through his course and the bonuses in great detail, I can say with confidence that any copywriter or business owner can get a lot out of what Bill had to say today. He started by explaining the conditions that make the correct branding of a business increase its sales — something I believe every copywriter and business owner needs to know. I’ve actually ended up rebranding products on the last two copy critiques I’ve done, as only part of the work with my clients, just based on what I’ve learned working with Bill. Bill went on to clear up the widespread confusion — even among many so-called marketing “experts” — about what is a brand, and what is not. Following from that, he explained the mistakes people are typically making in branding, especially today, where there are some dangerous trends that woo people into going for euphoric feelings about their brands, instead of thinking about the customer first, and what message is going to make them curious and increase their desire for specific products and services. Then Bill shared some instructive stories about brands he has built (one was worth over one billion dollars, not just according to Bill, but also according the the company’s chairman). He also gave a few important tips and guidelines for building your own brand. And, naturally, he told us all about his course, which provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step roadmap for building a brand for any business. You can find out more about his program, the Brand Titans MasterCourse, at https://garfinkelcoaching.com/brandingDownload.

If today’s guest looks familiar to you, that might be because you’ve previously seen Rabbi Evan Moffic on Fox News or CNN, where he is frequently called in for commentary and analysis on events in the news. But here’s something you probably didn’t know: Rabbi Moffic is also a copywriter! He’s a former mentoring client of mine. I’m proud of the work we did together and where he’s taken it, and I’ve gotta tell you: He has found uses for what he learned in copywriting in places I’ve never heard of copywriting being useful, or even thought of before! Evan is the senior rabbi at Makom Solel Lakeside, a 600-family synagogue in the Chicago suburbs. A Stanford graduate, he’s also an popular speaker at churches, where his goal is to bring the value of Jewish learnings to as many people as possible. Evan has written several books, including ‘What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus’ and ‘What Every Christian Needs to Know About Passover.’ His latest book is about anti-semitism. But today, Evan has agreed to talk about the role of copywriting inside and outside of business and religion. I really enjoy the way he looks at copywriting, and I know you will, too. Evan started by telling us how new things he learned about copywriting helped him write the most effective fundraising letter ever for his congregation! But for him, copywriting has had a much more wide-ranging impact. It has, in fact, changed his overall approach to persuasion, and even modified his perspective on human nature as a whole. Part of his work as a rabbi is to counsel members of his congregation, when they request it. And, as mentioned before, Evan speaks all over the country to Christians about The Old Testament and other Jewish topics. He’s a welcome speaker at these events — he only goes where he’s invited! — but there are opportunities to use to tools of copywriting to help make his concepts easier to understand and accept. As a writer, Evan has used copywriting not only in emails — as you would expect — but also in his books. And, as the father of two very bright daughters, he’s found copywriting comes in handy in family conversations. This is an unusual podcast today in that I can’t remember anyone on the show who has taken such a universal approach to copywriting — or, at least, talked with us about it. You can find out more about Evan on his substack: rabbi.substack.com Download.

Kevin Rogers, an A-List copywriter and successful stand-up comedian, shares a 10-step process for quickly drafting a sales page. He combines his experiences from both fields to provide valuable insights. The episode covers topics such as starting the first draft, benefits of printed books in copywriting, breaking down big problems, and the six amplifiers for a successful pitch.

I’m going to tell you three words that can help you charge higher prices than you’re charging now — even higher prices than your competitors. Those words are “emotional risk displacement.” To be honest, I have NO idea of what they mean… but… our guest today does. He’s back! I’m talking about our returning champion, John Williamson. Today, he’s going to talk about Unique Selling Propositions and charging higher prices. And, if we’re lucky, he’ll tell us what “emotional risk displacement” means — since those three words CAN put more money in our respective pockets. John is coming to us from an undisclosed location on the side of a mountain in Scotland. Over the last 30 years, he has generated millions of dollars in sales for himself and his clients with his own special brand of unique selling propositions. He says, “A great Unique Selling Proposition will enable you to steal the attention and win the sales. “Including ‘financial risk reversal’ in your USP will win you even more sales. “But, you can take the process of USP development even further by embedding ‘emotional risk displacement’ in your USP … AND win all of those extra sales at HIGHER PRICES.” On today’s show, we talk about how it’s possible to charge higher prices than your competitors … and STILL get the business. John discusses: • Why increasing prices is paradoxically the first thing you should figure out how to do if you want to increase sales. • Why most people could care less about a money-back guarantee … and what they would prefer you gave them instead. • How to determine the optimum price you should charge to maximize both revenue and profit. • Why even rich people like a bargain and how you can give them what they really want without lowering prices by even a dime. • How to completely eliminate discount requests and have people pay full price with a big fat smile on their faces. • Why you should tell people what your ‘pricing philosophy’ is upfront, before you tell them anything about your product or service. • Why you should NEVER rely on your accountant or CPA to tell you what you should be charging. John’s Facebook Group is “Attention Bandits.”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/attentionbanditsDownload.

By popular demand, we’re back with the always surprising John Williamson today. He’s going to talk about a serious problem every business faces, and some ready-made solutions to this problem. John is coming to us from an undisclosed location on the side of a mountain in Scotland. Over the last 30 years he has generated millions of dollars in sales for himself and his clients with his own special brand of unique selling propositions. The problem, of course, is getting and keeping the attention of customers. In a way that leads to sales, and repeat sales after that. John says, “Right at the heart of your attention getting should be your brand.” A lot of us direct marketers don’t pay a whole lot of attention to branding these days, but John argues that we should. All the time. But not just any kind of brand. One that pulls its weight in getting attention and adding new customers. How do you do that, and how to you make it pay off if you don’t have a huge budget to establish this brand in the way a big corporation will try to do? John discusses: • Why ‘branding bravery’ is the only way to win the war for attention. • How any business – no matter how boring the industry is - can be decommoditized through branding. • Why trying to come up with a brand name you love is almost impossible (and if you do love your brand name it’s … probably … not … very … (gulp!) … good. • How to make your brand stick in someone’s mind like it’s been tattooed on their brain from their very first exposure to your business. • How to use a linguistic shortcuts to get you people to resonate with your brand by relating it to a story they already have in their head. • How to give your brand ‘conversational currency’ (… so that - incredibly - other businesses prefer to promote your business over their own business!). • The specific 5 words people will say to you over and over again, that will let you know your branding is working. John’s Facebook Group is “Attention Bandits.” : https://www.facebook.com/groups/attentionbanditsDownload.

People start out writing copy all kinds of different ways. But how many times have you heard, “It all started with beer?” I’m not talking about drinking a beer. I’m talking about brewing your own beer! That’s how our guest today, Billy Broas, got started in online marketing: He launched a website for his fellow home beer brewers. That was in 2010. His online course sales from the site got to the point where Billy was able to leave his job and become an entrepreneur. He hired me as a copywriting mentor in 2015, and his since gone on to do great things helping people launch online courses. Especially the new wave of instruction called cohort-based courses. Now, course creators are very often not copywriters, which makes sense. But Billy is, and, as a teacher, he needed to find ways to get some important copywriting concepts across to them quickly and meaningfully. On today’s show, we talked about what I consider a brilliant construct to do just that, called The 5 Lightbulbs, today. Billy told us how he came up with The 5 Lightbulbs construct, and what it is. As it turns out, it worked just as well back in the day — like 100 years ago — as it does today. In other words, it’s kind of universal. Bill walked us through Old Master Max Sackheim’s famous ad, written in 1919, with the well-known headline “Do You Make These Mistakes In English?”, to show how it follows the 5 Lightbulbs formula to a tee. But in 2022, it’s a very flexible formula, for copywriters and non-copywriters alike. Billy told us about: - How non-copywriters use it to organize a sales letter - How marketers use it to sequence emails in a sales campaign - How teams use it as a common language, or a shorthand Bill also offered Copywriters Podcast listeners a free 5 Lightbulbs worksheet, to audit any marketing message, available at https://5lightbulbs.com Download.

Just like Tom Hanks knows how to make movies, Kevin Rogers knows how to navigate comedy. Really. He spent years as a professional stand-up comedian, sharing the stage with other great comics like Chris Rock, Billy Gardell, and many others. You may be more familiar with Kevin as a superstar copywriter and copywriting educator, which is how he spends most of his working time now. He has created Copy Chief, a community-based forum and training center for copywriters. This was after he had reached the top echelon of pro copywriters himself. Kevin’s also the Amazon best-selling author of The 60-Second Sales Hook, where he shows how to use a proven joke formula to create a powerful marketing hook. Kevin has many, many more credits to his name. But as you can see by now, Kevin is the perfect person to come on the show to talk about an increasingly high-wire act for copywriters, and really anyone in business who has a sense of humor: What you can get away with, and what should you avoid at all costs, when it comes to using jokes in the era of ‘woke.’ Kevin has gotten back to doing standup on a limited basis, and as for the copy he writes, he says he doesn’t use a lot of humor there to begin with. Comedy, therefore, is still very much a part of his life — just not part of his copy. When Kevin coaches or does presentations, though, his funny side continues to shine through. However, he’s aware of what’s going on throughout the copywriting world, and in today’s show he talks about specific examples of, as he puts it, “people who I think are using humor wisely” in their own copy. If there’s anyone who can guide you and your jokes through the land-mine-strewn fields of cultural correctness that we all have to navigate these days, it’s Kevin. You’ll really appreciate his perspective and spot-on suggestion on how to keep your sense of humor without losing out to the woke crowd. A couple resources to get more from Kevin: - https://copychief.com - his podcast: http://copychief.com/ccr Download.

These days, more and more people from more and more backgrounds are thinking about writing sales copy, or actually doing it. The main reason is the number of online business has exploded. This is due in part to all the people who spent so much time at home during the pandemic. But there are other reasons as well. One important one is, a lot of people who didn’t like to buy online in the past will only buy online now, if they possibly can. So, a much bigger market. Anyone who didn’t start out their career as a copywriter knows that it takes some adjustments. Writing copy is hardly like writing term papers at school or even writing weak-kneed prose at advertising agencies. Copy is muscular, and it has a job to do — it has to sell something. Today I thought we could take a look at what people from six specific backgrounds need to know and, just as important, need to change about their thinking in order to write copy that works. I asked myself the question, what are the most common categories of people I’ve either mentored, or critiqued copy for, or done copywriting and marketing consulting for? And what showed up as the most important change they needed to make to become more successful with their copy? The categories are: Entrepreneurs… Sales Pros… Licensed Professionals, like doctors and lawyers… Experts in their respective fields… Software developers… and journalists and content creators. People from each category bring a lot to the table… but they all have similar things, within the category, that are holding them back. So I thought deeply about what those things are. Don’t worry if you’re not in one of these categories and never were. There’s some fun and some insights for you anyway. Because at least until maybe recently, very few people grew up wanting to become a copywriter. In most families, kids didn’t even know what copywriters were… and neither did their parents. So, it’s never too late to find out what changes you need to make, from where you stand now, to become really good at writing copy. You’ll find some good first steps in today’s show. Download.

We are back with the unconventional and immensely creative marketer, John Williamson. Last week he went in-depth on his powerful technique called Emotional Lockpicking™, and we asked him to join us again, which he agreed to do. John lives in an undisclosed location on the side of a mountain in Scotland. Over the last 30 years he has generated millions of dollars in sales for himself and his clients with his own special brand of unique selling propositions. He’s also come up with some very interesting ideas about elevator pitches, unique selling propositions, and even how to close a deal with a stuffed tortoise. I find his ideas fascinating and he’ll share some more of them with us today. One of John’s favorite quotes is: “All things being equal, people buy on price. Which is why your number-one job as an entrepreneur is to ensure that ‘things’ aren’t equal.” Probably related to that idea is a speech he has given over 250 times called “How to Charge Higher Prices Than Your Competitors… and STILL Win the Business.” On the show, John reminds us again that for a marketer today, the most truly scarce commodity is… attention. Not only is less and less of it available, but it’s becoming more and more expensive for a business to get the attention of their prospects, if they can get it at all. Lucky for us, John has spent years developing unusual and unusually profitable techniques to do that. Sometimes at a surprisingly low cost. Among the things he talks about are: • How to rope in the attention of the very best customers in the market… weeks, months, and even years before your competitors even know who these customers are. • The elevator pitch that turns into an earworm they can’t get out of your head. John explains how to put one of these together, and how it’s been used to get business in the course of a seven-floor elevator ride! • How he has created out-of-the box USPs that seem to break all the rules, but also punch right through the ceiling on sales records!Download.

Here at Copywriters Podcast, we pride ourselves on having unconventional guests with unique marketing ideas, but our guest today, John Williamson, really takes “unconventional” to a whole new level. John lives in an undisclosed location on the side of a mountain in Scotland. Over the last 30 years he has generated millions of dollars in sales for himself and his clients with his own special brand of unique selling propositions. He’s also come up with an innovative copywriting concept he calls “Emotional Lockpicking.” I find it fascinating and he’ll share it with us today. Plus, he has loads of other money-making ideas I promise you haven’t heard anywhere else before. One of John’s favorite quotes is: “All things being equal, people buy on price. Which is why your number-one job as an entrepreneur is to ensure that ‘things’ aren’t equal.” Probably related to that idea is a speech he has given over 250 times called “How to Charge Higher Prices Than Your Competitors… and STILL Win the Business.” On the show, John reminds us that for a marketer today, the most truly scarce commodity is… attention. Not only is less and less of it available, but it’s becoming more and more expensive for a business to get the attention of their prospects, if they can get it at all. Lucky for us, John has spent years developing unusual and unusually profitable techniques to do that. Sometimes at a surprisingly low cost. Among the things he talks about are: • How to rope in the attention of the very best customers in the market… weeks, months, and even years before your competitors even know who these customers are. This is possible with one of John’s most prized inventions, Emotional Lockpicking. • The elevator pitch that turns into an earworm they can’t get out of your head. John explains how to put one of these together, and how it’s been used to get business in the course of a seven-floor elevator ride! • An amazing one- or two-word addition to your copy using a method John has refined and perfected. The method is called “egoic labels” and just these one or two words have seriously boosted response rates for copy in many industries.Download.